ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries
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News from the Field ACQUISITIONS scholar in his own right, has made several sub stantial gifts of dictionaries to Indiana State • The papers of Virginia (Spencer) Carr University to promote the study of lexicogra have been acquired by Duke University and phy. The Cordell Collection, which includes added to the holdings of the Manuscript De more than five thousand rare dictionaries, is partment of the Perkins Library. Relating prin recognized throughout the scholarly world as cipally to Mrs. Carr’s recent biography of one of the finest and richest resources of its Carson McCullers, the papers include her cor kind. respondence with a number of prominent actors In accepting Mr. Nielsen’s generous gift on and playwrights who assisted her in her re behalf of the university, Dr. Richard G. Lan- search on McCullers. The letters, written pri dini, president of Indiana State University, marily by people associated with McCullers, commented that the Calliergis will strengthen contain personal insights into McCullers’ com the Cordell Collection and enhance the scholar plex life and literary career. The collection is ly reputation of the university. Sul H. Lee, available for use and comprises a rich source dean of library services, expressed similar senti for the study of literature and the theater in the ments and indicated that a special brochure United States as well as of an important figure will be printed to commemorate this gift. in recent American literature. According to Dr. Robert K. O’Neill, head of the Department of Rare Books and Special Col • Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., Northbrook, Illi lections, the Etymologicum will be on perma nois, has donated to the Cunningham Memorial nent display in the department. Library at Indiana State University an ex ceptionally fine, fresh copy of the very famous • The University of Virginia has acquired and very rare first edition of the Etymologicum the complete manuscript of Ernest Heming Magnum Graecum, edited by Zacharias Callier- way’s first important novel, The Sun Also Rises, gis. This Greek lexicon was published in Venice reuniting two segments that had been separated by N. Vlastos in 1499. Not only is it one of the for fifty years. most important dictionaries ever published, but The literary match came about recently when it is also a superb example of the art of early the university library purchased a fifteen-page printing. It contains twenty-two ornamental typescript fragment at a New York auction and, headpieces printed in white and red, in the in turn, was given the novel’s larger portion by Byzantine style, and many large woodcut ini Marguerite A. Cohn, proprietor of New York’s tials printed in red. It is printed in Greek in House of Books Ltd., considered by many book two columns on 224 leaves and measures 41- collectors to be the world’s foremost modern by-27.4-cm. This copy was once part of the rare book shop. Drury Collection. Mrs. Cohn presented the gift to the univer Zacharias Calliergis, c.l473-after 1524, a na sity in memory of her late husband, Capt. Louis tive of Crete, was the foremost Greek calligra Henry Cohn, a legendary bibliophile, rare book pher and printer of the time. This is his first dealer, and Hemingway’s first bibliographer. book, a kind of combination dictionary and en The complete manuscript, typewritten with cyclopedia compiled by a tenth-century Byzan corrections penciled in Hemingway’s hand, will tine, itself based on earlier works. Some have be available for scholars to use in mid-April at believed that Musurus was the editor, but prob Alderman Library, according to Joan St. C. ably his contribution lay mainly in the advice Crane, the American literature curator who he gave to Calliergis, who was the actual ed represented the university at Sotheby Parke itor. Musurus, however, is certainly the author Bernet gallery’s auction. of the preface, in which he praises the role of “This conjoining of The Sun Also Rises man the Cretan technicians, scholars, and patrons uscript with the Hemingway holdings of books in the establishment and early development of and manuscripts already in the University of the Greek press. Virginia Library makes this one of the most im The gift will be added to the Warren N. and portant Hemingway collections in the world,” Suzanne B. Cordell Collection of Dictionaries Miss Crane said. in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Indiana State University. The • The National Lihrary of Canada has Cordell Collection was established some seven received what is believed to be its largest single years ago through the generosity of Warren gift—the $2 million collection of Hebraica Cordell, an alumnus of Indiana State Universi books and manuscripts, many of them very ty and a resident of Highland Park, Illinois. Mr. rare, belonging to Jacob M. Lowy of Montreal. Cordell, a distinguished lexicographer and The collection includes 1,560 titles, consist 163 ing of Hebrew incunabula, Latin incunabula, The formal deed with the National Library Talmud editions and codes, a Flavius Josephus has made provisions for the donation of other collection, and very rare Bibles and liturgy and books by Lowy in the near future. Hebrew books from the sixteenth to the nine Microfilms and reproductions of the Lowy teenth centuries. These include rabbinic books, Collection will be made available to institutes books on philosophy and Cabala, and Bible of higher learning, research centers, and other commentaries. libraries at cost, the deed stipulates. Professor Chimen Abramsky, Goldsmid pro Saul Hayes, former national executive direc fessor of Jewish history and head of the depart tor of the Canadian Jewish Congress, acted in ment of Hebrew and Jewish studies at the an advisory capacity in the arrangements for University of London, described the collection the Lowy Collection. as one of the three most important private The Judaica section of the National Library Hebraica libraries in North America. Lowy was initiated by The Canadian Jewish Congress compiled his library over a period of forty in 1959 with the presentation of a collection of years. Judaica books in many languages as a gift of Czech-born Lowy was the first president of the Canadian Jewish community on its 200th the United Israel Appeal, a past president of anniversary in Canada.—Janice Arnold/Ca- Allied Jewish Community Services, the Miz- nadian Jewish News rachi Organization of Canada, and the Young Israel Synagogue. He was also a member of the • The Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Canadian Jewish Congress for many years. A Louis has presented the Max A. Goldstein Col prominent land-developer, Lowy came to Can lection of Rare Books in Otology and the Edu ada from England after World War II. cation of the Deaf to the Washington Univer The collection will be kept intact as a single sity School of Medicine Library. About 700 collection under the name of the “Jacob M. volumes are included, among them an incuna- Lowy Collection” and housed in the main bulum on language by Guarinus Veronensis building of the National Library. Its quarters printed in Venice in 1496; about a dozen six will allow space for scholars to do research, as teenth-century works; many early anatomical well as office space for a curator to be appoint volumes; and a fine collection on sign language. ed and a separate room for Lowy. The books are being processed now. Dr. Max A. Goldstein (1870-1942) was one of the first Americans to travel to Europe to study medical specialities under the masters of RTSD Seeks Assistance the Viennese and German schools. He was a student of Adam Politzer, the first “dozent” in The Resources and Technical Services otology at the University of Vienna in 1861, Division of the American Library Asso who in 1873 founded the first aural clinic. More ciation is seeking assistance in identify than 7,000 foreign doctors attended his clinic ing areas in need of improvement in for instruction—it is said that Politzer could African and Asian subject analysis. To teach with equal fluency in German, English, obtain a variety of opinions, a brief ques French, and Italian. Goldstein returned to St. tionnaire is available to be answered by Louis to become professor of otology at the area subject specialists and catalogers. Beaumont Medical College, later absorbed into The questionnaire was prepared by the the St. Louis Medical College, which in turn new Subcommittee on Subject Analysis became part of the Washington University of African and Asian Materials, Subject School of Medicine. Analysis Committee, Cataloging and In 1914 Dr. Goldstein founded the Central Classification Section, RTSD. The sub Institute for the Deaf, with two teachers and committee is charged with identifying four students; this has developed into an inter areas in greatest need of revision or ex nationally known center for the training of the pansion in major library subject systems, deaf and mute. It now has hundreds of pupils such as the Library of Congress Subject from all over the world, a training college for Headings; assigning priorities; and trans teachers of the deaf, research laboratories, and mitting the findings to the appropriate clinics and auditory hearing centers closely al organization. lied to the medical school and hospitals. Anyone interested in receiving a ques Among the works in the Goldstein collection tionnaire or otherwise participating are such special treatises as John Bulwer’s should contact the chairperson: Arline Chiromania, or the Art of Manual Rhetorique Zuckerman, Technical Services Depart (1644); the writings of l’Abbé de l’Eppée, ment, University Research Library, Uni founder of the first school for the deaf; Daniel versity of California, Los Angeles, Los Defoe’s Life and Adventures of Mr.