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Clockwise from left: Qur’an, illuminated manuscript in Arabic on paper, Persia, ca. 1600. Gift of Mrs. Frank A. Schultz in memory of her husband, 2002; Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400), The Works, 1896. Hammersmith, London: The Kelmscott Press. Edition: 425 paper copies; 13 vellum copies. Copy: vellum.; Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 12 illus. with original woodcuts and an original etching by Salvador Dali, 1969. New York: Maecenas Press. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot, manuscript on parchment, illuminated by Alberto Sangorski, c. 1910. London: For the Grolier Society. Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.
TREASURES IN OUR MIDST Bridwell Library brings out hidden gems as part of Fossils to Film: The Best of SMU’s Collections. BY NANCY COHEN ISRAEL
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id you know that the oldest fragment of scripture in Texas, written in the sixth century on papyrus and featuring text from Romans 1:1-16, is part of the Bridwell Library collection on the Southern Methodist University campus? Or that the same collection holds a 17th-century Chinese Torah scroll from the once-thriving Jewish community in Kaifeng? Or that a library at a Methodist university owns a richly illuminated Persian Quran from that same time period? Bridwell, in fact, is home to roughly 50,000 objects that span centuries and cultures. “People tend to think of us as the Bible library,” says R. Arvid Nelsen, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts and Librarian for Special Collections at Bridwell. In addition to being an institution for theological texts, the library’s original mission was, Nelsen states, “to be a premier rare-book library.” He credits Bridwell’s first director, Decherd Turner, for striving to fulfill this mandate. “My goal,” he says, “is to highlight what we have, because it is a rich resource in North Texas that people aren’t aware of.” These precious documents are among ten from Bridwell to be included in Fossils to Film: The Best of SMU’s Collections, a monumental exhibition at the Meadows Museum presenting highlights drawn from nine campus collections. It is the first time that many of these objects will be on view outside of their home departments. In addition to religious texts, Bridwell is loaning treasures such as Andreas Vesalius’ seminal 16th-century medical treatise, De humani
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corporis fabrica libri septem. Another unique volume that will go on display is William Morris’ The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, now newly imprinted. Published at the Kelmscott Press in 1896, the hand-printed book features 87 woodcut illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones. “The books that we have are not just studied for their verbal content. People study our books for the paper, typography, and binders,” stresses Nelsen. In another nod to medieval source material, The Lady of Shalott written in the 19th century by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and illuminated by Alberto Sangorski, will be as intriguing as the jeweled binding encasing it. An edition of Salvador Dalí’s illustrated Alice in Wonderland will perhaps be the most at home at the Meadows. Nelsen is delighted to show these works at the museum. “It is important to reach an audience that might not get to Bridwell otherwise,” he says. And while the library is currently undergoing renovation, he emphasizes that when it reopens in the fall, the Bridwell collection will be open to the public by appointment. This exhibition, as well as the concurrent Building on the Boulevard: Celebrating 20 Years in the Meadows Museum’s New Home, honors the museum’s anniversary in its current building. Since 2001, the Meadows has doubled the size of its collection and worked with distinguished international collections to mount groundbreaking exhibitions, most with accompanying scholarly publications. Here's to a historic anniversary collaboration. P