While this beautiful manuscript from the Boston Public Library manuscripts archive collection isn’t technically calligraphy, it is an example of how drawing beautiful letters can turn any document into a work of art. Written in pen and ink, unlike many older manuscripts, you can actually review this one and many others like it with nothing more than a special library membership available to the public.
One of the many attractions to the East Coast is that the older cities and establishments offer gems like this all over the city simply because these institutions were there when these were contemporary documents. Compare this to the collections at the Denver Public Library which essentially start with the Colorado gold rush in the 1850s.
Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts
At the Boston Public Library, they have a Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts Collection. Many of the documents are copies of certain bible passages, or very psalms, hymns, or other religious manuscripts. When paper was that expensive, ink that hard to work with, and a professional scribe not cheap, it was these types of documents and artwork that were cherished enough to be kept in homes long enough to become something truly treasured. Among these are Greek and Latin texts, as well as philosophy and law. To a lesser extent there are also interesting works on science and geography. This particular collection is one of the finest held by any public institution in the United States.
The practice of adding artwork to religious texts is known as illumination, and this collection has plenty of these as well. The true treat is getting to see and work with many of these manuscripts and rare books in person, but technology and a dedication to high quality documentation for online access means that the BPL Rare Book and Manuscript collection are accessible anywhere with internet access.
Finally, there are gems to be found in this manuscript collection because the library took a wide view of what was considered a manuscript collecting letters, postcards, scrapbooks, maps, and government documents including forms. If you put some effort into it, you might be able to find out how much a New England house paid for sugar in 1894, or something like that.
The Prince Collection
The Thomas Prince Collection and Library of the Old South Church (brother to Old North Church of, “The British are coming!” fame is one of the few American colonial libraries to survive the birth of a nation. This collection is loaded with Colonial and New England books and manuscripts. While many of these manuscripts and documents are also available in person, they are even better documented electronically.
Rare Book Collections
You can thank the non-controversial part of the Internet Archive for digitized copies of most of the actual “books” from BPL collections. While these images are a poor way to examine such arts as book binding or the art of book pages (scalloping, images along the spine) they are a great way to not only examine these typography letters examples of art, but they come with a great search feature as well so that you can find what you are looking for without have to risk distraction and procrastination while handling such wonderful books.
The Card Catalog!
For an old book lover with an appreciation of the beauty of drawn letters, there is no greater way to geek out than with a real, live, accurate, complete card catalog, and the Boston Public Library’s manuscript library card catalog is not only fully functional, but the best and most complete account of all the various works in the manuscript and documents library. Beware, or you could end up spending hours here before you even touched a book or manuscript.
The card catalog is the best place to search for manuscripts. It contains over 130,000 cards, filed in alphabetical order by author name. Where no author is known, cards are filed alphabetically by title. Manuscripts related to certain special subjects, like “abolitionism,” or “music” are filed under author’s name, as well as subject.
The card catalog is fully cross-referenced, meaning that multiple cards, each describing the same manuscript, can be filed in several different places. For instance, cards describing a single letter from Jane Doe to John Smith, about an event during the American Civil War, might be filed under Doe, Jane, under Smith, John, and under United States–History–Civil War.
Find Manuscripts – Rare Books and Manuscripts Department – Research Guides at Boston Public Library (bpl.org)
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Online Access to BPL Rare Books and Manuscripts
Although libraries and museums cherish the past, even those clinging most to the old ways are moving to the digital age.