Special Collections

As a few people have already stated, I really enjoyed Monday’s class in the library with the Special Collections. I’m still impressed by the fact that we were able to touch the manuscripts! Every time I’ve seen similar specimens, it has been behind a sheet of glass in a museum or library. I always pictured well-dressed professionals carefully handling the manuscripts with white-gloved hands whenever the manuscripts came out of the glass cases, but we were able to touch every item brought to class in an informal setting with bare hands. Monday’s class was a very different experience from any experience I’ve had in a museum, and it made me begin to think about how important our sense of touch is to perception. Looking at very old items in museums admittedly always leaves me with a brief urge to touch the item—to grasp something tangible from the intangible past. These manuscripts may well have been the oldest pieces of historical material I’ve ever been able to touch. I think there’s something really meaningful about being able to feel the parchment and velum between your fingers. You can imagine what it was like to pick up the music book as a member of the choir. Our interaction with the Special Collections had a similar effect on me to that of the Scriptorium workshop. It made an old history feel much more relevant and tangible.