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- Original Leaves from Famous Books
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Show moreCaption: "Thomas Aquinas, born 1227, entered a Dominican monastery but was soon released from his vows and sent to Cologne to attend the lectures of Albertus Magnus. Here this taciturnity, as well as his overweight, made him known among the students as the "great dumb ox of Sicily." His teachers, however, added, "This ox will one day fill the world with his bellowings". His first great book was this Book of Sentences, a commentary on the work of Peter Lombard, which closely followed the original but is ten times as extensive with ratiocinations and distinctions, thus producing a maze of new shades and thoughts. Aquinas great contribution was the reconciliation of reason with revelation, the natural with the supernatural, as the Greek philosophy, at it?s highest point, established the relation of continuity between the spiritual and the material. This Book of Sentences was universally used as a textbook until the end of the Middle Ages and was the inspiration for thousands of doctor?s dissertations. Vaughan, in a recent biography, states that Thomas Aquinas "was a man endowed with the characteristics notes of the three great Fathers of Greek Philosophy. He possessed the intellectual honesty and precision of Socrates, the analytical keenness of Aristotle and the yearning after wisdom which was the distinguishing mark of Plato". This fine book-hand was a revival of the characters used in the scriptoriums founded by Charlemagne around the year 800 and became the inspiration for the first roman type of the fifteenth century printers." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
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Show moreCaption: "Aristotle, who lived in the fourth century B.C., had a profound effect on medieval thought. He became "the philosopher" and his word became to be regarded as comparable in weight to the Bible. Papal prohibitions against "reading" the treatises in the universities were disregarded and later withdrawn. Soon an intimate knowledge of Aristotelian writings frequently became the only requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Of these works by one of the world?s greatest thinkers the Nicomachean Ethics has the greatest value to us today and is the most likely to survive. This masterpiece of Greek literature, named after the son of the philosopher to whom it was dedicated, offers logical explanation of all aspects of human behavior. In it Aristotle maintains that the chief human good and the end of life is happiness, (well being), and that this consists in virtuous activity, the highest form of which is contemplation. This manuscript page was written in Erfrut, Germany, in the year 1365 A.D., thirteen years before the great university was founded in that small city. This university of Erfrut was the first in Germany to introduce into its curriculum the study of classic literature and the humanities. The casual and natural cursive writing, done hastily, no doubt by a secular writer, is in sharp contrast to the handsome and leisurely executed book hands we usually find in the work of the monastic scribes." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
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Show moreCaption: "Livy's great work, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, covers the period from the foundation of Rome in 753 B.C. to the year 9 B.C. or up to twenty years before his death. In fine oratorical language, Livy expresses his burning desire to inculcate again, in his decadent era, the virtues and patriotism of the earlier great Romans. His "pictured page", with vividness of detail, graphic portrayal of events, "reporting" of fine speeches of his heroes, was the inspiration for the painters and writers of historical themes in the Renaissance. This work of Livy's is still the chief source of knowledge of the period with which it deals. However, it ignores the origin and development of the Roman constitution and shows little interest in military art. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the universities if Italy and the court schools introduced the study of the humanities. To meet the increased demand for more numerous and cheaper copies of the Greek and Roman writers, the secular scribes developed the semi-cursive character of the revived Carolingian handwriting, Shading of the strokes disappeared for the first time in centuries, and the writing developed a slope. Book hands of this type became the model for italic types." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
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Show moreCaption: "The Koran, the book of laws and religion of over 200 million Moslems, was dictacted by the prophet Mohammed after extensive travels to Syria and Palestine with a wealthy uncle. It was on these expeditions that Mohammed gained his concepts of monotheism and star worship. The 114 chapter of the Koran, arranged according to their length, have strange titles such as The Ant, The Spider, The Greeks and The Sun. The followers of Mohammed believed that the text contained revelations from the angel Gabriel, given to Mohammed in dreams after the year 600. The Koran gave all believers equality and eliminated the priestly class. It is held in great respect by Moslems, who, according to George Sale, the first translator of the Koran into English, do not dare to touch it without first being washed, nor to hold it below their girdles, nor knowingly suffer it to be in the possession of any person of a different persuasion. They swear by it and carry it into battle. This book was likely written in Cairo. With religious fervor rivaling that on the medieval monks, and with an alphabet surpassing the European one in artistic possibilities, the Moslem calligraphers of the Koran gained just honor and lasting renown. The art of writing is regarded by the Moslems as the finest of the arts, but few wrote before the time of Mohammed; in his own tribe, the Koreishites, only seventeen knew how to write. The prophet is not numbered among these. This leaf was written by the Egyptian calligrapher Mohammed ibn Kuzel Al Isawai with a reed, on egg-glazed paper that antedates any European-made paper by half a century." (Ege, Otto F.)
Original Leaves from Famous Books
Otto F. Ege Collection
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