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Shaping the Soul: Books in Medieval Life
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
Lewis & Clark College will host an exhibition of medieval manuscripts, the first in Portland in the past 30 years. Lewis & Clark College will present Shaping the Soul: Books in Medieval Life, the first public exhibition of medieval manuscripts in Portland in nearly three decades.
An opening reception in Watzek Library on January 24 (3:00-5:00) will feature musical performances by local early-music ensemble Musica Universalis as well as brief remarks by scholar of medieval studies, Prof. Karen Gross and Dr. Hannah Crummé, head of Special Collections. Lewis & Clark undergraduates will sing plainchant recorded in the fifteenth-century Italian choir gradual, included in the exhibition under the guidance of John Cox (Visiting Professor of Music).
Over thirty items from the 13th through 16th centuries will be on display in the Aubrey R. Watzek Library. Bringing together books normally unavailable to the public with recent acquisitions by Lewis & Clark’s Watzek Library, Shaping the Soul will give the community the opportunity to marvel at these painstaking creations and savor a visual feast.
Viewing a medieval manuscript is a profoundly intimate experience. Unlike today’s mass-produced publications, medieval manuscripts are unique, bespoke productions, revealing traces of both their makers and their readers. Medieval books also served several purposes: developing moral character through education, fostering interiority through meditation and prayer, fostering community through shared use in worship, shaping the public self through legal documentation, and more. Shaping the Soul demonstrates the various ways that people understood themselves and their world through books. Highlights include a nun’s private devotional handbook, a lawyer’s manual with amusing doodles for memory aids, a grand choir book, a thirteenth-century Bible, and sumptuous books of hours.
Curated by Professor Gross (Professor of English) and Alli Sanders (BA ‘26), this exhibition is made possible in part through the Manuscripts in the Curriculum initiative developed by the international art dealer Les Enluminures (Chicago, New York, and Paris). Lewis & Clark is the first liberal arts college to participate in this program. Shaping the Soul also benefits from generous loans made by Phillip J. Pirages’s Fine Books and Manuscripts (McMinnville, Oregon). These partnerships attest to the unique opportunities created by Lewis & Clark’s instruction in Special Collections and the strong reputation for research by faculty, staff, and students.