Conozca a un Investigador Visitante en Special Collections: Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli

[ An English translation is available below. ]

by Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Latin American & Iberian Studies Librarian and Curator

Para quienes trabajamos en Libros Raros y Colecciones Especiales (RBSC, por sus siglas en inglés), siempre es emocionante redescubrir los libros, manuscritos, materiales efímeros y otros objetos de nuestras colecciones, así como recuperar las importantes historias que cuentan. Sin embargo, a menudo es aún más emocionante ver a nuestros usuarios hacer lo mismo. Desde estudiantes curiosos de todas las edades hasta investigadores y académicos de cerca y de lejos, ellos son la razón por la que preservamos y cuidamos estos materiales. La creación de conocimiento es un esfuerzo colaborativo, y las Bibliotecas Hesburgh se esfuerzan por estar en el centro de ese proceso.

Un hermoso ejemplo de los frutos de nuestra misión tuvo lugar este pasado mes de julio, cuando RBSC tuvo el gran honor de recibir al Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli, un destacado especialista en las literaturas e historias intelectuales del período colonial de Bolivia y Perú. Nacido y criado en Buenos Aires, Argentina, el Dr. Eichmann asistió al Colegio San Miguel (Buenos Aires), obtuvo su licenciatura en Letras en la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) y luego su doctorado en Filología Hispánica en la Universidad de Navarra (España). Es un autor prolífico, con numerosas publicaciones que incluyen libros (tanto monografías como ediciones académicas), artículos en revistas científicas y capítulos de libros, y ha editado más de veinte libros y volúmenes de revistas. Actualmente, el Dr. Eichmann es Profesor Titular de Literatura en la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; Presidente de la Sociedad Boliviana de Estudios Clásicos; y Director de la revista Classica boliviana.

El Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli en la Sala de Lectura, comparando un facsímil del texto impreso de la crónica de Mendoza con la versión manuscrita resguardada en RBSC.

Durante sus días en RBSC, el Dr. Eichmann compartió con entusiasmo explicaciones sobre lo que estaba viendo, leyendo y aprendiendo. Planea continuar trabajando con materiales de nuestras colecciones—en particular, con manuscritos de la Colección de Historia Peruana José Durand—y espera inspirar a sus estudiantes en Bolivia a hacer lo mismo. Generosamente aceptó conceder esta breve entrevista en español (traducida al inglés con la ayuda de Chat GTP).

PPQ: Entiendo que Ud. llegó a Notre Dame para realizar una estancia de investigación en el de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. ¿Nos puede contar un poquito sobre ese programa y sus actividades ahí?

AEO: Vine al Nicola Center porque es un lugar privilegiado para conocer el estado actual de lo mejor que se ha investigado en torno a la ética y a las tradiciones intelectuales del universo cristiano. Formé parte de un grupo de personas venidas de Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador y México, unas 30 en total, entre estudiantes de máster y de doctorado y profesores de distintas universidades. Vinimos liderados por el Dr. Joaquín García Huidobro, de la Universidad de Los Andes (Chile).

Estuvimos dos semanas completas, trabajando de 8.00 a.m. hasta las 20.00. Nos propusimos turnarnos para que, cada día, uno de nosotros ofreciera una breve charla […] Después de la charla había opción de hacer preguntas o comentarios. […] El otro compromiso (fuera de avanzar cada quien en su propio trabajo de investigación) consistía en leer, cada día, el trabajo de otro […], para contribuir con nuestras observaciones y sugerencias. Esto le permitió a cada uno ampliar y, a menudo, precisar, el enfoque, la perspectiva, etc., de su propio trabajo. Se aprende muchísimo de esa manera, y se avanza mejor. Es una dinámica muy enriquecedora.

Yo llegué con la intención de avanzar en el estudio del neo estoicismo en autores de los siglos XVI y XVII, del virreinato del Perú (sobre todo, de lo que hoy es Bolivia). El neo estoicismo es una corriente de pensamiento que, al menos en España y en Hispanoamérica, estuvo muy ligada a la lectura de las epístolas morales de Séneca y las obras de Tácito. Sin duda avancé en lo que me había propuesto, pero los hallazgos en Rare Books me “obligaron” a ocuparme de ellos. Ya volveré al neo estoicismo. Esto no podía esperar.

PPQ: ¿Cuáles son algunos de los materiales más interesantes que examinó en Rare Books and Special Collections? ¿Cómo se relacionan con sus investigaciones previas y/o actuales?

AEO: Estuve interesado en textos producidos en el virreinato del Perú durante los siglos XVII y XVIII. Como siempre ocurre con una colección que no conoces, llegas con algunas expectativas, pero lo más importante es estar abierto a la sorpresa. Y esto es lo que puedo decir, sin duda alguna, que encontré.

Hay, por ejemplo, unas piezas teatrales breves del siglo XVIII, compuestas en Lima, que sirven para “abrir” un espectáculo teatral. En una de ellas se indican los nombres de los actores y actrices que la pusieron en escena. Entre otros nombres, aparece el de “Michaela Villegas”, que fue una conocida actriz de Lima, a quien llamaban “la Perricholi”. Esta y otras piezas de teatro me llamaron la atención. En 2002 tuve la fortuna de encontrar, en Potosí, junto con mi colega Ignacio Arellano, de la Universidad de Navarra, 25 piezas teatrales manuscritas. Hicimos la edición de todas ellas en 2005. Todo lo relacionado con la actividad teatral del periodo es algo que interesa, por este motivo, entre otros. […]

PPQ: ¿Cuál fue el descubrimiento que más le impactó? ¿Piensa seguir investigándolo?

MSH/LAT 0001, Caja 1, Carpeta 33 (se guarda por separado). Manuscrito, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, “La Vida de Santa Rosa de Lima […]”, siglo XVIII.

AEO: Lo que más me sorprendió fueron dos volúmenes manuscritos que fueron escritos por autores del siglo XVII en el virreinato del Perú. Uno de ellos lleva por título “Vida de Santa Rosa”, y se trata de “Vida de Santa Rosa de Santa María, natural de Lima y patrona del Perú. Poema heroico”. Efectivamente, es poesía épica, en octavas reales (como era normal), y es una pieza apasionante que se extiende a lo largo de 11.300 versos. El autor, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, fue corregidor de la Villa Imperial de Potosí, y estando allá organizó las fiestas de canonización de santa Rosa, en 1672. Se conocen dos ediciones del siglo XVIII de este poema, la de Madrid (1711) y la de México (1729). En la Fundación Lázaro Galdiano está el manuscrito que sirvió para la edición de 1712. En México no hacía falta hacer un manuscrito, porque bastaba con seguir al pie de la letra la edición madrileña, con la misma distribución de texto por cada página. Y es lo que hicieron, como era lógico. Pero aquí, en Rare Books, encontramos otro manuscrito, con una distribución textual distinta, que no dio lugar a ninguna edición que conozcamos. Es sorprendente, auténtica, una rareza, y estoy decidido a trabajarla.

MSH/LAT 0001, Caja 1, Carpeta 16 (se guarda por separado). Manuscrito, Diego de Mendoza, “Chronica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas […]”, siglo XVII.

El otro hallazgo es un manuscrito de más de 800 páginas. Es la “Chrónica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas del Orden de nuestro Seráfico Padre San Francisco …”, escrito por fray Diego de Mendoza. Se cree que el autor nació en el Cusco, y sabemos que escribió la crónica en el convento de esa ciudad. Es una obra imponente, con muchas referencias eruditas, que consta de tres libros. Está escrita principalmente para la edificación: después de exponer, en el libro primero, la historia general de la orden en América y particularmente en la provincia de Charcas (que coincide aproximadamente con lo que hoy es Bolivia), los libros II y III los dedica a exponer la “vida y virtudes” de una gran cantidad de personas, varones y mujeres, españoles, criollos e indios, que pertenecieron a la orden religiosa (tal vez sea más exacto decir “órdenes”, en plural) de los franciscanos.

Lo que me llama poderosamente la atención es que el texto impreso, que se publicó en Madrid en 1665 y que es (al menos hasta donde llegan mis noticias) el único testimonio conocido, se aparta en muchísimos casos de la versión manuscrita, que es la que tenemos aquí. Tengo bastantes motivos para pensar que esta versión es de puño y letra de Diego de Mendoza. Lleva su firma en una de las páginas preliminares, y se pueden reconocer los trazos de su firma en la forma de las letras, a lo largo del texto.

Epílogo

Como estudiante de posgrado en la UCLA, estudié los muchos mundos del Virreinato del Perú y quedé absolutamente fascinada con la Virgen de Copacabana. (Aún lo estoy.) Así fue como conocí por primera vez el trabajo del Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli. Además de los diversos estudios que ha publicado sobre esta Virgen, también produjo, junto con su colega Hans van den Berg, O.S.A., una excelente edición de la Historia del célebre santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, escrita por el fraile agustino Alonso Ramos Gavilán y publicada en Lima en 1621. Aunque RBSC no conserva un ejemplar de la crónica de Ramos Gavilán, le pude mostrar al Dr. Eichmann nuestros ejemplares de dos obras relacionadas: Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana. Poema sacro, de Fernando de Valverde (Lima, 1641) y De diva virgine Copacauana in Peruano Novi Mundi regno celeberrima…, de Ippolito Marracci (Roma, 1656). Fue una alegría conocer finalmente en persona al Dr. Eichmann, y quiero agradecerle por su entusiasmo y generosidad. —PPQ

Meet a Visiting Researcher in Special Collections: Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli

[ Return to the original Spanish above. ]

by Payton Phillips Quintanilla, Latin American & Iberian Studies Librarian and Curator

For those of us who work in Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), it is always a thrill to rediscover the books, manuscripts, ephemera, and other objects in our collections, and to recover the important stories they tell. Often, however, it is even more exciting to watch our patrons do the same. From inquisitive students of all ages, to researchers and scholars from near and far, they are the reason we preserve and steward these materials. Knowledge creation is a collaborative endeavor, and the Hesburgh Libraries strive to be at the center of it.

A beautiful example of the fruits of our mission occurred this past July when RBSC had the great honor of welcoming Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli, a leading specialist in the literatures and intellectual histories of colonial Bolivia and Perú. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Eichmann attended Colegio San Miguel (Buenos Aires), earned his Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina), and then his doctorate in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad de Navarra (Spain). He is a prolific author, having published numerous books (both monographs and scholarly editions), journal articles, and book chapters, and has edited more than twenty books and journal volumes. Currently, Dr. Eichmann is Professor of Literature at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; President of the Sociedad Boliviana de Estudios Clásicos; and Director of the journal Classica boliviana.

Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli in the Reading Room, comparing a facsimile of Mendoza’s printed chronicle with RBSC’s manuscript version.

During his days in RBSC, Dr. Eichmann enthusiastically shared explanations of what he was seeing, reading, and learning. He plans to continue working with materials in our collections—in particular, manuscripts from the José Durand Peruvian History Collection—and hopes to inspire his students in Bolivia to do the same. He generously agreed to this brief interview in Spanish (translated into English with the help of Chat GTP).

PPQ: I understand that you came to Notre Dame for a research stay at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. Could you tell us a little about that program and your activities there?

AEO: I came to the de Nicola Center because it is a privileged place to learn about the current state of the best research being done on ethics and the intellectual traditions of the Christian world. I was part of a group of about 30 people from Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Mexico, including master’s and doctoral students as well as professors from various universities. We came under the leadership of Dr. Joaquín García Huidobro from the Universidad de los Andes (Chile).

We spent two full weeks working from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. We took turns so that each day one of us gave a brief talk […] After the talk, there was time for questions or comments. […] The other main task (aside from progressing in our own research) was to read someone else’s work each day […], offering our feedback and suggestions. This allowed each of us to broaden or, quite often, sharpen the focus or perspective of our own work. You learn a great deal this way, and it helps you make real progress. It’s a very enriching dynamic.

I came with the intention of advancing my study of neo-Stoicism in [the works of] 16th- and 17th-century authors from the Viceroyalty of Peru (especially what is now Bolivia). Neo-Stoicism is a school of thought that, at least in Spain and Spanish America, was closely linked to the reading of Seneca’s moral epistles and the works of Tacitus. I definitely made progress in what I had set out to do, but the discoveries in the Rare Books collection “forced” me to focus on them. I’ll return to neo-Stoicism later. These materials couldn’t wait.

PPQ: What were some of the most interesting materials you examined in Rare Books and Special Collections? How do they relate to your past and/or current research?

AEO: I was interested in texts produced in the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 17th and 18th centuries. As always happens with a collection you’re unfamiliar with, you arrive with certain expectations, but the most important thing is to be open to surprise. And that, without a doubt, is what I found.

For example, there are some short theatrical pieces from the 18th century, composed in Lima, which served to “open” a theatrical performance. In one of them, the names of the actors and actresses who performed it are listed. Among those names is “Michaela Villegas,” a well-known actress from Lima, nicknamed “La Perricholi.” These and other theatrical pieces caught my attention. In 2002, I was fortunate to find, in Potosí, together with my colleague Ignacio Arellano from the University of Navarra, 25 handwritten theatrical pieces. We published an edition of all of them in 2005. For this and other reasons, anything related to theatrical activity from that period is of particular interest to me. […]

PPQ: What was the most striking discovery you made? Do you plan to continue researching it?

MSH/LAT 0001, Box 1, Folder 33 (housed separately). Manuscript, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, “La Vida de Santa Rosa de Lima […],” 18th century.

AEO: What surprised me the most were two handwritten volumes written by authors from the 17th century in the Viceroyalty of Peru. One is titled “Life of Saint Rose,” and it is actually called Life of Saint Rose of Saint Mary, native of Lima and patroness of Peru. Heroic Poem. It’s indeed an epic poem, written in ottava rima (as was standard), and it’s a fascinating piece that runs to 11,300 verses. The author, Luis Antonio de Oviedo y Herrera, was the magistrate (corregidor) of the Imperial City of Potosí, and while there he organized the festivities for the canonization of Saint Rose in 1672. Two 18th-century editions of the poem are known: one from Madrid (1711) and one from Mexico (1729). The manuscript used for the 1712 edition is housed at the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. In Mexico, a separate manuscript wasn’t needed since they simply followed the Madrid edition exactly, with the same text layout per page. That’s what they logically did. But here, in Rare Books, we found another manuscript with a different textual layout, which, as far as we know, was never published. It’s surprising, authentic—a real rarity—and I’m determined to work on it.

MSH/LAT 0001, Box 1, Folder 16 (housed separately). Manuscript, Diego de Mendoza, “Chronica de la Provincia de San Antonio de los Charcas […],” 17th century.

The other find is a manuscript of over 800 pages. It’s the Chronicle of the Province of Saint Anthony of Charcas of the Order of Our Seraphic Father Saint Francis…, written by Fray Diego de Mendoza. The author is believed to have been born in Cusco, and we know he wrote the chronicle in a convent in that city. It’s an imposing work, full of scholarly references, consisting of three books. It was written primarily for edification: after presenting in the first book the general history of the Franciscan order in the Americas, and particularly in the province of Charcas (roughly what is now Bolivia), books II and III are devoted to presenting the “life and virtues” of a great many people—men and women, Spaniards, Creoles, and Indigenous people—who belonged to the Franciscan order (perhaps more accurately, “orders” in the plural).

What grabs my attention is that the printed text, published in Madrid in 1665, and (at least to my knowledge) the only known version, differs in many instances from the handwritten version we have here. I have several reasons to believe that this version is in Diego de Mendoza’s own handwriting. His signature appears on one of the preliminary pages, and you can recognize the traces of his signature style throughout the text.

Epilogue

As a graduate student at UCLA, I studied the many worlds of the Viceroyalty of Peru and was absolutely enthralled by the Virgin of Copacana. (I still am.) This is how I was first introduced to the work of Dr. Andrés Eichmann Oehrli. In addition to the various studies he has published on this Virgin, he also produced, with his colleague Hans van den Berg O.S.A., an excellent edition of the History of the Celebrated Sanctuary of Our Lady of Copacabana, written by the Augustian friar Alonso Ramos Gavilán, and published in Lima in 1621. While RBSC does not steward a copy of Ramos Gavilán’s chronicle, I was able to show Dr. Eichmann our examples of two related works: Fernando de Valverde’s Sanctuary of Our Lady of Copacabana. Sacred poem (Lima, 1641) and On the Divine Virgin of Copacabana, most celebrated in the Peruvian kingdom of the New World…, by Ippolito Marracci (Rome, 1656). It was a joy to finally meet Dr. Eichmann in person, and I want to thank him for his enthusiasm and generosity. —PPQ

Bibliomaniac: The Library of Sir Thomas Phillipps — a spotlight exhibit in Special Collections

by Anne Elise Crafton, PhD, RBSC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Hesburgh Libraries

**Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Bt, by Alexander George Tod** (albumen carte-de-visite, late 1860s-early 1870s)

National Portrait Gallery, London; Photographs Collection, NPG x12731

Few 19th-century antiquarians matched the obsession of English baronet Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872). A self-described “vello-maniac” (lover of parchment), Phillipps spent his life and fortune amassing what became the largest manuscript collection of his time — over 60,000 manuscripts, plus 20,000 printed works.

Driven by a fear of biblioclasm, Phillipps’ believed he was preserving manuscripts from destruction. This, however, came at a great cost. Life at his estate, Middle Hill, was characterized both by the extreme debts and temper of its master. Phillipps feuded with nearly everyone, including neighbors, tradesmen, tax collectors, scholars, Catholics, curators, his father, wives, daughters, and especially his son-in-law, James Haliwell. Despite near-constant financial ruin, he continued to buy relentlessly, often enlisting his daughters to help catalog and transcribe his acquisitions.

The summer Spotlight Exhibit (running from May through August), Bibliomania: The Library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, features five items from this impressive collection.

Three of the items in this exhibit are medieval English documents known as “private charters” — that is, records of transactions between private citizens.

According to these documents, Ch_ang_01_12 (above) and Ch_ang_01_13 (below), on October 28, 1264, a man named Thomas conveyed vast tracts of land in Yorkshire to his daughters, Ramette and Berthe.

Despite his vast collection, Phillipps infamously rarely read the items in his library. Indeed, one of the great criticisms levied against the collector was that he simply hoarded manuscripts without the ability or interest to use them. An exception, however, were charters. Driven by a passion for genealogy, Phillipps was known to scour deeds for names and places for use in studies of pedigree, which he published with his own private press.

Yet, notwithstanding this personal interest, thousands of the deeds in his collection went uncatalogued during his lifetime. Only after his death did his grandson, Thomas FitzRoy Fenwick, receive legal permission to organize the collection for sale, at which point over 26,000 items were finally given their iconic Phillipps numbers. To streamline the process, Fenwick often gave the same number to related items, such as Ch_ang_01_12 and Ch_ang_01_13, both catalogued as Phillipps no. 27,951.

You can see the hand of Thomas FitzRoy Fenwick on the exterior of Ch_ang_01_09, the third charter in this exhibit. Ch_ang_01_09, which records a 14th century transaction between Robert of Cawthorne to Nicholas and Walter del Brom, is in its original “docketed” form — a pre-modern filing system in which documents were folded and labeled. Above the labels of “Scelmthorpe” (Skelmanthorpe, a nearby town) and “Lanc” (perhaps referencing the Lancaster family, lords of Skelmanthorpe), Fenwick wrote the number “29,202.” See the video below for how this charter unfolds!

Although Phillipps often described himself as a “vello-maniac,” he also owned many paper manuscripts. The other two items in this collection — both bound paper codices — tell us even more about the extensive Phillipps collection.

This French manuscript (MS Fr. c. 2) contains the poem “The Song of Bertrand of Guesclin,” one of the last examples of the Old French epic tradition. This Chanson, copied in 1464, tells the story of Breton noble Bertrand, who rose to fame during the Hundred Years War. Phillipps acquired this copy from the library of Richard Heber (d. 1833). Though unable to afford the 1,700 manuscripts in the collection, Phillipps persuaded the auction house to postpone sale until he could amass the appropriate funds, which he finally did in 1836. The shelfmark affixed to the spine, by Phillipps or his daughters, identifies this manuscript as the 8,194th item in his library.

Finally, although you might associate the early modern era with the advent of the printing press, people continued to write the majority of their works by hand for centuries. The final item in this collection is one such manuscript.

In 18th century Europe, vampirism was a hotly debated topic. The concern was so great that in 1739 Pope Clement XII asked Giuseppi Antonio Davanzati to examine the subject. Though skeptical of such creatures, Davanzati’s Dissertazione sopra I Vampiri (MSE/EM 1005-1B) is often credited with introducing the word vampire to the Italian language.

In his first catalogue of his library, Phillipps claimed to have acquired this copy of the Dissertazione (Phillipps no. 5,485) in 1830, when he purchased 1,560 items from the library of Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford (d. 1827). The manuscript does not appear in the original catalogue of the Guilford sale (Phillipps claims it was included informally), and so we must take him at his word.

Upon his death, Phillipps’ will mandated that his collection never be separated, nor that any Catholic ever be permitted to view the collection. These wishes proved untenable, and over the next century, his vast library was slowly dispersed. Today, as this exhibit attests, fragments of his hoard reside in institutions worldwide — including the Hesburgh Library.

After earning a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Anne Crafton undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the Hesburgh Libraries’ Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), where she spent a year cataloging a diverse collection of previously undocumented materials. The opportunity was made possible through the College of Arts & Letters’ 5+1 postdoctoral fellowship program, which offers a postdoctoral fellowship to any student who finishes and submits their dissertation in five years.

Congratulations to the 2025 Graduates!

Best wishes to the 2025 graduates of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College, from all of us in Rare Books and Special Collections.

We would particularly like to congratulate the following students who worked for Special Collections during their time on campus:

Lucas Bernardez (ND ’25), Bachelor of Business Administration in Business Analytics

Claire Bosch (ND ’25), Bachelor of Arts in History and Theology

Caterina Calderon Gonzalez (ND ’25), Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, with a Supplementary Major in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics

José Hurtado (ND ’25), Bachelor of Architecture

Kendall Manning (ND ’25), Bachelor of Arts in English and Political Science

Andres Mena Carroll (ND ’25), Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Maeva Morro (ND ’25), Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing

Jorge Ruiz Valdivia (ND ’25), Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, with a Supplementary Major in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics

Anna Sofia Sanson Zoufaly (ND ’25), Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

Both images: MSE/EM 110-1B, Diploma, University of Padua, 1690

RBSC will be closed next Monday, May 26, for Memorial Day.

An 18th Century Copper Collective and Britain’s Triangular Trade

by Anne Elise Crafton, PhD, RBSC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Hesburgh Libraries

Although I am trained primarily as a scholar of the medieval world, much of my time as the 2024-2025 Rare Books and Special Collections Postdoctoral Research Fellow has been preoccupied by the early modern documents within the Hesburgh Library’s collection. Among this material is the White Rock Copper Works Shares Collection, which consists of several “assignments of shares”—documents which recorded the transfer of shares or capital—for an eighteenth-century copper cooperative in Bristol and Swansea, UK. Under various names—including the Thomas Coster and Co. (1736/7-1739), the Joseph Percivall and Copper Co. (1739-1764), and the John Freeman and Copper Co. (1764-)—the merchant cooperative operated the White Rock Copper Works, a copper smelting firm in Pentrechwyth (near Swansea). On the surface, the items in this collection simply record the finances of a copper collective during the first 45 years of its existence. When appropriately contextualized, however, this collection testifies to the ubiquity of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in contemporary British markets.

The nineteen items in this collection document the notable growth of the copper cooperative from its creation under Thomas Coster in 1737 until 1781, at which point the controlling interest was held by John Freeman Sr. The financial success of the copper cooperative cannot be understated. In its first year of operation a single share in the cooperative was worth £297 (£56,563 today), but by 1781 a single share was worth £2000 (£266,208, or $345,055 today)!

Assignment of Shares, Thomas Power to Joseph Percivall and Copper Co., 1746-03-08 (MSE/EM 3700-2)

As physical objects, these items are both imposing and underwhelming. They are quite large—most of the parchment documents are approximately 680 x 825 mm (around 2 ¼ x 2 ⅔ ft)—but textually simple. Each document lists the parties involved individually and multiple times (including each member of the copper cooperative at the time of sale), the exact nature of the sale, and the binding nature of the sale in exhaustive and dull legal language.

MSE/EM 3700-2, beginning of document with list the parties involved in the collective

Nowhere in this exhaustive language, however, is there any mention of the primary force behind the collective’s financial success: the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

In the eighteenth century, Bristol was “the slave capital” of Britain’s triangular trade. The port, which in 1755 had 237 slave traders, sent thousands of ships full of manufactured goods to Africa, which brought enslaved Africans (purchased with said goods) to the Americas and returned to the city with the products of slave labor. Every Bristol industry profited from this trade, but the copper industry especially so. Copper products—many of which were produced by the copper collective and the White Rock Copper Works—were favored in nearly every theater of the global slave trade. Copper rods were used to purchase enslaved Africans in West Africa, copper products were used to refine sugar in West Indies plantations, slave and merchant ships had copper-plated bottoms to withstand tropical waves, and copper luxury goods were sold around the world to fund Britain’s colonial control. In other words, it is no coincidence that a copper cooperative in Bristol would see such financial success.

MSE/EM 3700-2, detail of Isaac Hobhouse’s name

Through the data made available by the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery and the collaborative database Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery, I was able to identify several partners in the copper cooperative named in this collection as active participants in the triangular trade. For instance, the document, “Assignment of Shares, Thomas Power to Joseph Percivall and Copper Co., 1746-03-08 (MSE/EM 3700-2)” (seen above) lists an Isaac Hobhouse (d. 1763) as a member of the Bristol copper cooperative. Like many of his fellows, his occupation is listed innocently as “merchant.” More accurately, though, Hobhouse’s primary occupation was “slave trader”, with 68 recorded voyages on the Transatlantic Slave Trade between 1722 and 1747.

Assignment of Shares, Sibylla Dymock to John Freeman and Copper Co., 1772-01-24 (MSE/EM 3700-8); full document and detail of Samuel Munckley’s name

Another member of the cooperative, Samuel Munckley (1720-1801) (highlighted above in MSE/EM 3700-8), is listed on twelve documents. Like Hobhouse, the designation of “merchant” obscures Munckley’s role as a slave trader and profiteer in the West Indies. Munckley’s own ships were used to bring enslaved peoples from Africa to the West Indies, where many were sold as laborers on sugar plantations—an industry in which Munckley was also heavily invested. (See also “Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery”, which has compiled dozens of Munckley’s papers and correspondence as they relate to the slave trade.)

As I have said: nowhere in the White Rock Copper Works Shares is the slave trade explicitly mentioned. The collection is, at first glance, innocuous to the point of boredom. Yet this does not negate the fact that the wealth described in this collection was gained through an industry which itself relied on the trade of enslaved peoples. For this reason, when creating the finding aid for this collection, I deliberately included the names of each individual listed on the documents (parties involved, partners in the cooperative, and witnesses). No matter the degree to which these historical figures actively participated in the Bristol slave trade, each individual named in this collection profited from the enslavement of others and for this reason, their legacy—as a part of this archive—must be made explicit.

MSE/EM 3700-8, detail of Sibylla Dymock’s signature

Several of the documents in this collection name women as economic actors—whether as sellers of shares, buyers, or witnesses. Although most of these transactions concern widows selling shares formerly owned by their deceased husbands back to the copper cooperative (like the above Sibylla Dymock of MSE/EM 3700-8, who sold her husband’s share back to the cooperative in 1772), their presence in these documents necessarily complicates our reading. Simultaneously, these documents testify to the names and economic force of women whose lives, in many cases, have otherwise gone undocumented and, they also tangibly record the ways in which these women profited from the slave trade and colluded with prominent slave traders.

Works Cited:

“John Freeman and Copper Co.” Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.

“Isaac Hobhouse.” Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.

“Joseph Percivall and Copper Co.” Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.

“Samuel Munckley.” Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.

“Suppliers to the trade.” Discovering Bristol: Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery.

“White Rock Copper Works.” Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.

Unfolding and Understanding a Medieval English Charter

by Anne Elise Crafton, PhD, RBSC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Hesburgh Libraries

As the 2024-2025 Rare Books and Special Collections Postdoctoral Research Fellow, I learn something new about the Hesburgh Library’s diverse collections every day. This is especially true of my primary research project: the description and arrangement of the library’s hitherto uncatalogued collection of medieval and early modern charters. The collection includes both public and private documents – primarily concerned with land and land-based transactions – spanning eight centuries and three countries (England, France, and Italy), though the majority are of English origin.

Many of the medieval English charters were part of the vast documentary collection of famous antiquarian and bibliophile, Sir Thomas Philipps (d. 1872). In fact, the iconic “Philipps Numbers” which he used to identify the over 40,000 documents in his collection are still visible on the exterior of many of the charters in the Hesburgh Library’s collection.

*Image taken by Jen Hunt Johnson, Special Collections Conservator.*

This Lincolnshire charter was evidently the 30,607th document to join the extensive Philipps collection. After his death, the collection was eventually disbanded and sold. Now, libraries across the world hold small portions of the once massive collection. Of the Hesburgh Library’s collection of charters, at least thirty-five were once owned by Sir Thomas Philipps.

Philipps was not the first person to annotate these charters before they arrived at the Hesburgh Library. In the Middle Ages, after the transaction was complete, the parties involved would add their personal seals and tightly fold the charter recording the event using a method known as “docketing.” This collection of charters was received in their original docketed form and are currently being flattened for ease of access by Hesburgh Library’s Special Collections Conservator Jen Hunt Jonson. The photos in this post were taken during that ongoing process.

Once docketed, a scribe would label the document, naming the location of the land in question, names of the parties, or the date. If no medieval label existed, early modern archivists might inscribe a label according to their own filing systems.

*Images taken by Jen Hunt Johnson, Special Collections Conservator.*

This next charter from the collection, for example, still retains a medieval wax pendent seal bearing an “S” and the word “Ughill,” a small town in Sheffield, Yorkshire, in an early modern hand. This corresponds with the text on the interior, which tells us in Latin that a Richard Schagh granted a tenement in “Ugilwode” to a Thomas Curton in 1377.

A third charter in the collection also bears an early modern inscription which reads, among other notes, “Without Date.” This is true. The text inside does not include the date of signing, though this is not particularly unusual for medieval English charters. Using modern resources and research, however, it is possible to ascertain a general date of origin.

This particular charter is a “feoffment” – an exchange of land for a pledge of service – between Thomas Furnival, son of Thomas Furnival, and John Witely, son of John Witely concerning lands in “Wiggethuysel” (Wigtwizzle, near Sheffield, Yorkshire). All in all, this charter is extremely typical of medieval English charters; the names “Thomas” and “John” are common medieval names and the contract between them is nothing special. The handwriting – a popular medieval English script known as “Cursiva Anglicana” – only tells us that the charter is medieval and English. There are few clues in the physical material of the charter – like many medieval charters, this document is small, made of soft parchment, and stained with wax.

There is, however, a clue in the surname “Furnival” (highlighted in yellow below). In the mid-fourteenth century, the Furnivall family was granted the Barony of Sheffield, Yorkshire and raised to minor nobility. As nobility, the Furnivall family kept detailed genealogical records dating back to the twelfth century.¹ Based on these records, we find that there were two “Thomas, son of Thomas” Furnivalls, the first of whom died in 1279, and the second in 1348. This suggests that this document is either from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century.

We can specify further. Among the witnesses listed in the charter, there is a “Lord Elias Middehop” (in red) and “Robert Rus of Anesacre [Onesacre]” (in blue). According to a catalogue of Sheffield charters, the same Elias Middehop witnessed a separate charter for a Thomas, son of Thomas Furnivall, sometime between 1267-1279.² Additionally, according to a genealogy of important Yorkshire families, in the late thirteenth century, the daughter of a “Sir Elias Middehop” married the grandson of a “Sir Robert Rus of Onesacre.”³ Altogether, this evidence suggests that the Hesburgh Library charter is probably dated to the late thirteenth century, likely between 1250-1279.

Each charter in the Hesburgh Library collection has similarly rich historical puzzles to unwind. Once catalogued, the collection will be made available for use by students and researchers alike.

Footnotes

1. John Burke, A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, extinct, dormant, and in abeyance, (London, H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1831), 215-217. Special Coll. Reference • CS 422 .B84 1831

2. Walter Hall, Sheffield and Rotherham from the 12th to the 18th Century: A Descriptive Catalogue of Miscellaneous Charters and Other Documents Relating to the Districts of Sheffield and Rotherham with Abstracts of Sheffield Wills, proved at York from 1554 to 1560 And 315 Genealogies Deduced Therefrom, (Sheffield: J. W. Northend, 1916), 210.

3. Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, v. 2 (London: W. Wilfred Head, P L O U O H Court, Fetter Lane, E.G., 1875), 281-282.

A Closer Look at a Glossed Bible Leaf

by David T. Gura, Ph.D., Curator, Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts

This leaf (Frag. I. 21) comes from a glossed Bible produced in France during the twelfth century. Glossed bibles contained both scripture and explanatory comments (glosses) on the same page and were used in teaching and formation. The small format of this Bible (305 x 207 mm) allowed a master to bring it to the schoolroom easily for use. The layout of glossed bibles is intentional and functional: scripture occupies the central column and space is allotted for glosses to be written in the margins (marginal glosses) and between lines (interlinear glosses). The glosses can explicate the biblical text in literal, allegorical, moral, and even anagogical ways.

The particular text of this leaf comes from 2 Chronicles (II Paralipomenon). The function of interlinear and marginal glosses is distinct and can be observed in the following two examples. On the verso above the text misit Nabuchodonosor rex (“King Nebuchadnezzar sent”) an interlinear gloss is written: de hoc plenius in libro Regum scriptum est (“there is a fuller written account about him in the book of Kings”). The gloss is short and informative, directing the reader to find more information about a proper name.

Compare this to the gloss on Joachim copied in the left margin of the recto. This comment is more substantive and begins a literal/historical interpretation, then moves to allegorical and moral explications: “Joachim was taken prisoner and lead into Babylon; this signifies the fall of the righteous who were deceived by the Devil’s handiwork. They are lead astray into the ruin of heresy and vice. These people were supposed to teach others in word and deed and raise them from sin.” (Ioachim captiuus in Babilonem ductus, lapsum rectorum significat qui diaboli arte delusi, abducuntur in confusionem errorum ac uiciorum et qui alios uerbo et opere docere debuerant, et a peccato suscitare.)

The parent manuscript was formerly in the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Oyan de Joux (Saint-Claude), where it appeared in the abbey’s library catalogue dated 8 March 1492. The codex was later in the collection of William L. Clements of Bay City, Michigan (1860-1934) and then in possession of the Cleveland, Ohio, biblioclast Otto F. Ege by 1937. Leaves were also being offered for sale by Philip Duschnes (New York, NY) in 1943 and 1946.

Bibliography

Alexander Andrée, “Glossed Bibles,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Latin Bible, ed. H.A.G. Houghton, 208-224. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Auguste Castan “Le Bibliothèque de l’Abbaye de Saint-Claude du Jura: Esquisse de son histoire.” Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes 50 (1889): 301-354.

David T. Gura, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts of the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College. Notre Dame (IN): University of Notre Dame Press, 2016, p. 429-430.

Scott J. Gwara, Otto Ege’s Manuscripts: A Study of Ege’s Manuscript Collections, Portfolios, and Retail Trade. Cayce, SC, 2013, 31-32, 39, 40, 71-72.

Congratulations to the 2024 Graduates!

Best wishes to the 2024 graduates of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College, from all of us in Rare Books and Special Collections.

We would particularly like to congratulate the following student who worked in Special Collections during their time on campus:

Anne Elise Crafton (ND ’24), Ph.D., Medieval Studies. Their dissertation is titled “You Sound Like a Wif: The Representation of Women’s Speech in Old English”.

Spotlight Exhibit: A Choir Book for Medieval Nuns

by Kristina Kummerer, Ph.D. student in the Medieval Institute

The February-March Spotlight, A Choir Book for Medieval Nuns, highlights one item from the Hesburgh Library’s Special Collections in order to showcase the activities of women religious in the Middle Ages. It features a small fifteenth-century manuscript from Poissy, France, which once belonged to a convent of Dominican nuns devoted to St. Louis (that is, King Louis IX of France, who ruled 1226-1270). This manuscript, called a Processional, would have been used by the nuns at Poissy as they moved through the ceremonial space in liturgical celebrations throughout the year.

Processional chants for Palm Sunday, cod. Lat. a 17, f. 7r

Each member of a procession likely held her own book as they processed. Nuns at Poissy, typically noblewomen, often personalized their Processionals with elaborate paintings of their personal patrons, family coats of arms, or convent community. Unlike most other surviving Processionals from this convent, of which there are many, this manuscript is surprisingly lacking in ornate decorations. Even on celebrations unique to their community, such as the Procession for the feast day of St. Louis, the decorations are standard for the genre. This, along with an ownership mark from the seventeenth century, may indicate that this Processional was a general community book under care of the chantress – the appointed musical leader of the liturgy – rather than personally owned.

Processional chants for St. Louis, cod. Lat. a 17, f. 44r

Even within a women’s community, the foremost leadership roles in the liturgy were primarily held by the male religious who oversaw the convent and its care. However, at the convent in Poissy, the nuns held an explicit liturgical role in certain ceremonies, including processions. This can be seen in this Processional’s rubrics (red-ink liturgical instructions).

Rubrics (red ink) and chant cues for Good Friday responses, cod. Lat. a 17, f. 23v-24r

For example, on Good Friday, after two priests (duo sacerdotes) sang Christ’s words in a ceremonial recapitulation of the Passion, this manuscript designates that two sisters (due sorores) sang a part assigned typically to male deacons. The choir (chorus) responded afterwards. Since it was unusual to include women as liturgical leaders, these rubrics indicate that women regularly used this manuscript and emphasize their agency and participation within the liturgy.

This exhibit was curated by Kristina Kummerer, a Ph.D. student in the Medieval Institute, as part of a curatorial assistantship in Rare Books and Special Collections. It can be viewed in 102 Hesburgh Library from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm on weekdays.

Keough-Naughton Library Research Award — Visiting Scholars of Irish Studies

We congratulate the following scholars who won this award in 2023, and we hope they will enjoy, as well as benefit from, their time in the Hesburgh Libraries.

The Keough-Naughton Library Research Award in Irish Studies, a grant designed to assist scholars who travel to use the Irish collections at the Hesburgh Libraries, was inaugurated in 2018. The annual competitive award is sponsored by the Keough-Naughton Institute of Irish Studies and ND International.

Dr. Seán Doherty, a lecturer at the School of Theology, Philosophy and Music, Dublin City University, is a composer and musicologist.

His project is ‘Patterns in 1001 Gems: The O’Neill Collection of Traditional Irish Music.’

Seán expects to visit in the fall and will work closely with the O’Neill Collection, the personal library of Francis O’Neill, the Chicago Chief of Police whose published collections of Irish traditional dance music have played a large role in the music of Ireland.

Dr. Anne Jamison, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University, Australia.

Anne is a feminist literary critic with a research focus on nineteenth-century Ireland and also on Australian women’s literature. She has published widely on Somerville and Ross as well as on other Irish women writers.

Her project is ‘Irish Women’s Fairy Tale and Fantasy Writing for Children, 1800-1935.’

She expects to visit this summer, and to make great use of the Irish literature collections throughout the Hesburgh Library, focusing on works by Winifred Letts, Rosa Mulholland and Frances Browne in our Rare Books and Special Collections.

Annabel Barry is at the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is a PhD candidate.

Her project is ‘The Romantic Ordinary’, and in her visit she studied materials from the nineteenth century and earlier, including the Holzapfel Collection of James Clarence Mangan.

Past recipients of the Award are listed on the Keough-Naughton Institute’s website, and this website also provides information on the award itself.

Congratulations to the 2023 Graduates!

Best wishes to the 2023 graduates of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Holy Cross College, from all of us in Rare Books and Special Collections.

We would particularly like to congratulate the following students who worked in Special Collections during their time on campus:

Sarah Berland (ND ’23), Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior, with an Irish Language and Literature Minor.

Kathryn Heyser (ND ’23), Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Bachelor of Arts in History.