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j carter brown library
Feb. 20th, 2003 12:03 pmMy Spanish class took a trip today down to Providence to the John Carter Brown Library to look at old books. We are reading a 17th century "Spiritual Autobiography" of a Mexican monk, Madre Maria de San José, and that library has the original. We got to see her manuscript, and a number of other really old books and maps. It was great! One of the other books we saw was a printed letter sent ahead by Columbus to the Spanish crown to describe what he had found so far in the 'Indies'.
When our professor first proposed this trip, I though it was odd. After all, Brown is about an hour and a half away from Brandeis. Why go? The main connection is that Madre Maria describes her notebooks sometimes as she is writing in them. We looked for the chocolate stain that she explains is on the first notebook (but not *her fault*). I think we found it, but there were other water-stains so it was hard to be sure. The special-collections librarian let us leaf thru some devotionals such as she describes her brother reading to the family. The linen paper is so smooth that they used back then. I was glad that the librarian let us touch it. One interesting thing that I noticed the devotionals doing was repeating the first syllable of the page to come in the lower margin of the previous page. I suppose this is to help with fluency in reading aloud. Most of the books we saw were printed, but Maria's was in her own neat handwriting. It was fairly legible, as long as you didn't worry overmuch about not understanding some words. She writes all the way up to the outer side margin, but perhaps the cuadernos had been cut down in width after she filled them.
The trip took up nearly all of my afternoon, and it was worthwhile. Plus, it was a beautiful day out (we picnicked on the steps of the library in the sun). The library is impressive, but most people don't get to use it. Since the collection is so rare, you need to arrange special permission from the institution. I will remember this trip well
When our professor first proposed this trip, I though it was odd. After all, Brown is about an hour and a half away from Brandeis. Why go? The main connection is that Madre Maria describes her notebooks sometimes as she is writing in them. We looked for the chocolate stain that she explains is on the first notebook (but not *her fault*). I think we found it, but there were other water-stains so it was hard to be sure. The special-collections librarian let us leaf thru some devotionals such as she describes her brother reading to the family. The linen paper is so smooth that they used back then. I was glad that the librarian let us touch it. One interesting thing that I noticed the devotionals doing was repeating the first syllable of the page to come in the lower margin of the previous page. I suppose this is to help with fluency in reading aloud. Most of the books we saw were printed, but Maria's was in her own neat handwriting. It was fairly legible, as long as you didn't worry overmuch about not understanding some words. She writes all the way up to the outer side margin, but perhaps the cuadernos had been cut down in width after she filled them.
The trip took up nearly all of my afternoon, and it was worthwhile. Plus, it was a beautiful day out (we picnicked on the steps of the library in the sun). The library is impressive, but most people don't get to use it. Since the collection is so rare, you need to arrange special permission from the institution. I will remember this trip well
