Special Collections Stories

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Postscript — For Loving You Too Much
February 7, 2024

Postscript — For Loving You Too Much

“One of the most common uses of manuscripts over the centuries is to train children in reading and writing...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
A Christmas Hymn Sing-Along
December 21, 2023

A Christmas Hymn Sing-Along

“Singing is one of those amazing things...”

  • Dr. Catherine Walsh
I Know It When I See It (I Think…)
November 9, 2023

I Know It When I See It (I Think…)

“I’m not a musicologist, but I am an avid fan of music from all times...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Gone, but not Forgotten: the Office for the Dead in Books of Hours
July 20, 2023

Gone, but not Forgotten: the Office for the Dead in Books of Hours

“A choir of cowled monks around a shrouded casket, a body being laid into a coffin, a smiling skeletal figure, an old man sitting on a dung heap...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Learning to Write: Practical Aspects of Handwriting
March 30, 2023

Learning to Write: Practical Aspects of Handwriting

“In 1492, the abbot of a Benedictine monastery in Sponheim, Germany, wrote a small paean to scribes and the act of writing...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Poetry and Agriculture, a Fragmentary Scrapbook
January 19, 2023

Poetry and Agriculture, a Fragmentary Scrapbook

“Manuscripts are known for their idiosyncratic nature...”

  • Dr. Catherine Walsh
Hiding in the Binding — Fragments in Rare Book Collections at HMML
December 8, 2022

Hiding in the Binding — Fragments in Rare Book Collections at HMML

“Much of human history remains for us today only in the form of smaller remnants or fragments...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
A Book You Would Love to Read...
September 29, 2022

A Book You Would Love to Read...

“A book you would love to read is lost, altered, destroyed, buried, hidden, left unpublished, unwritten, banned.”

  • Dr. Catherine Walsh and Margaret Bresnahan
Sandwiching a Forbidden Text
September 15, 2022

Sandwiching a Forbidden Text

“The advent of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century led to...”

  • Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman
Feeling the Heavens
July 21, 2022

Feeling the Heavens

“In summer of 1917, the New York-based artist Rockwell Kent made a bold decision.”

  • Dr. Catherine Walsh
March 17, 2021

A Tale of Two Herbals, From Medicine to Food in the 16th Century

“Herbals—books describing the medicinal use of plants—have been important scientific sources for...”

Dr. Matthew Z. Heintzelman

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Seeing the Invisible — Multispectral Imaging of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts
July 1, 2019

Seeing the Invisible — Multispectral Imaging of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts

“This year marks twenty years since the first significant efforts were made to use multispectral imaging (MSI) to reveal hidden...”

  • Dr. Melissa Moreton

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