Upcoming Events: September and early October

Please join us for the following events being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:

Thursday, Sept. 15 at 5:00pm | The Italian Research Seminar: “From the Body to the Body Politic: Peter Leopold’s Creation of the Tuscan Enlightenment State” – Rebecca Messbarger (Washington University). Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

Thursday, Sept. 22 at 4:00pm | Questing for God: A Symposium Honoring Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ. Sponsored by The Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.

Thursday, Oct. 6 at 5:00pm | The Italian Research Seminar: “Where Do Ideas Come From? Of Critical Method and/or Historical Materialism” – Joseph Francese (Michigan State). Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

The current exhibits during September are:

Ingenious Exercises: Sports and the Printed Book in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800 | What was the nature of sports in the early modern era, before the widespread preoccupation with rules, records, and Reeboks? And what kinds of books did people write about them? “Ingenious Exercises: Sports and the Printed Book in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800,” addresses precisely these questions. This exhibit of volumes from the Joyce Sports Collection is open to visitors 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday.

Spotlight Exhibits: The Elisabeth Markstein Archive and Native American Literature before 1924

Upcoming Events: August and early September

Please join us for the following event being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:

Thursday, August 25 at 5:00pm | The Italian Research Seminar: “Sandro Botticelli on Facing in Dante’s Paradiso” – Heather Webb (Cambridge). Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

In other news, the July spotlight exhibit featuring a recently acquired Piranesi volume will soon be changed out for the August spotlight exhibit highlighting the Elisabeth Markstein Archive.

The spring and summer exhibit Vestigia Vaticana will remain on display through August 15. After that, the fall exhibit will be installed: Ingenious Exercises: Print and Physical Culture in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1800.

Watch for news about a new Fall semester spotlight exhibit soon!

Color Our Collections: Vatican and Piranesi exhibits

Today’s coloring sheets comes from items on display in two of our ongoing exhibits: Vestigia Vaticana and the July spotlight exhibit on a recent acquisition, three works of Piranesi. The Vatican exhibit is open through mid-August, while the Piranesi exhibit closes at the end of this week.

Enjoy, and if you have the time please come in and see the full exhibits!

ColorOurCollections-Vaticana

Download a PDF [1 MB]

ColorOurCollections-Piranesi

Download a PDF [1 MB]

Color Our Collections

Coloring books are everywhere these days it seems. Books stores. Craft stores. Museums and libraries. Libraries?

Yes, even libraries have been getting in on the current craze. Who are we to miss an opportunity to highlight some of the beautiful illustrations to be found in our collection?

Today’s coloring sheet comes from Jost Amman’s Kunnst- und Lehrbüchlein für die anfahenden Jungen (Book of Art and Instruction for Young People), published by Sigmund Feyerabend in German and Latin in 1578. If you’d like to see more of the illustrations from this book, it is featured in the “Society” showcase of the online exhibit After Gutenberg: Print, Books, and Knowledge in Germany through the Long Sixteenth Century. Or come visit us and ask to see the book in person — the call number is on the coloring page.

Download a PDF [1 MB]

Spotlight Exhibit: The Catholic Pamphlet Collection

June 2016

SM-rbsc-june-spotlight-2016The Catholic Pamphlets Collection in RBSC includes more than 5000 pamphlets, published from the 1840s to the present. This extensive collection includes pamphlets on saints and sacraments, daily Catholic life, moral issues, and Catholic social thought and action—as highlighted by the thirteen pamphlets featured in this exhibit.

On display for just one more week (through June 24), this month’s spotlight exhibit is curated by Jean McManus, Catholic Studies Librarian, and is open to the public 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday.

“Vestigia Vaticana” Exhibit Opens

Frag_I_39-1r-cropped-v2Manuscripts, incunabula, seals, maps, engravings, and printed books from the thirteenth century to the present highlight how the Holy Father has left his mark on society. These materials from RBSC, together with a great bull on loan from Saint Mary’s College, are featured in the new exhibit “Vestigia Vaticana.” The exhibit’s opening coincides with the conference The Promise of the Vatican Library, being held May 8–10, 2016, at the University of Notre Dame.

These materials are like the Vatican’s footprints. They provide a trail for us to follow to get a glimpse of the official acts of the Holy Father, of books that belonged to popes, of events the general public wasn’t privy to. Take a stroll through the exhibit to see these papal bulls, apostolic briefs, a papal conclave print, a ground plan of Rome, and various other pieces.

Upcoming Events: May and through the summer

The new summer exhibit, Vestigia Vaticana: An exhibition of papal manuscripts, books and more in conjunction with the conference “The Promise of the Vatican Library” at the University of Notre Dame, opens on May 5 and will run through the summer.

The other exhibits for May are:

Ryosuke Cohen’s Brain Cell 261: Mail Art from the Vagrich and Irene Bakhchanyan Collections

Native American Literature Before 1924 (Spring Semester Spotlight Exhibit)

Rare Books and Special Collections will be open regular 9-5 hours during the summer — our Thursday evening extended hours ended after April 28th.

RBSC will be closed for Memorial Day, May 30th, and the Fourth of July.

Upcoming Events: April and early May

Please join us for the following events being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:

Wednesday, April 6th at 6:00pmOne Book, One Michiana: “Spirits of Another Sort: Imagining Faeries in A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – Jesse Lander (Notre Dame).

Thursday, April 7th at 5:00pm |”Lev Loseff: Poet, Son and Exile” – Barry P. Scherr (Dartmouth) — Sponsored by the Program in Russian and East European Studies and Hesburgh Libraries.

Thursday, April 14th at 4:30pmThe Italian Research Seminar: “Boccaccio and Petrarch on Poetry: Genealogy of the Pagan Gods and Invectives against the Physician” by David Lummus (Stanford) — Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

The monthly spotlight exhibit for April is:

Ryosuke Cohen’s Brain Cell 261: Mail Art from the Vagrich and Irene Bakhchanyan Collections

Two exhibits that opened during the month of February continue through April:

Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion

Native American Literature Before 1924 (Spring Semester Spotlight Exhibit)

“Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion” Exhibit Opens

This year marks the centenary of the Easter Rising, the rebellion that led to the eventual establishment of an Irish Free State. The University of Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute is at the forefront of the impetus to re-examine the events of 1916, with Professor Bríona Nic Dhiarmada’s three-part documentary, 1916 The Irish Rebellion which will be shown on public television in Ireland, the U.S. and at screenings throughout the world.

Notre Dame will also be the center of Irish studies for five days this spring as host to ACIS (the American Conference for Irish Studies). Over a thousand visitors are expected at this conference.

Case5-Women-of-1916

In Hesburgh Libraries Rare Books and Special Collections, a special exhibit to mark this centenary is on display from February 12th until April 28th.

The exhibit draws from the Hesburgh Special Collections and includes books written by people involved in the events as well as contemporary accounts of the rebellion. Letters on display include one from Roger Casement. An extremely rare first edition of W. B. Yeats’s poem Easter, 1916 is part of the exhibit.

From the University Archives, a book recording the subscriptions of South Bend residents to an Irish government bond will be on display.

The exhibit is open to the public from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday.

Upcoming Events: March and early April

Please join us for the following events being hosted in Rare Books and Special Collections:

Thursday, March 17th at 4:30pmThe Italian Research Seminar: “Toxic Tales: Narrating Dioxin in Contemporary Italy” by Monica Seger (William and Mary) — Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

Thursday, April 14th at 4:30pmThe Italian Research Seminar: “Boccaccio and Petrarch on Poetry: Genealogy of the Pagan Gods and Invectives against the Physician” by David Lummus (Stanford) — Sponsored by Italian Studies at Notre Dame.

The monthly spotlight exhibit for March is:

Hoops and Herstory: Early Women’s Basketball History in the Joyce Sports Research Collection

Two exhibits that opened during the month of February continue:

Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion

Native American Literature Before 1924 (Spring Semester Spotlight Exhibit)

Rare Books and Special Collections will be open regular 9-5 hours during Notre Dame’s Spring Break (March 7-11).