Rare Book Wing houses treasure

The Rare Book Wing in the Friedsam Memorial Library houses the largest old, rare books collection in the state outside of New York City.
Image courtesy of Ariam FrezghiInside the Friedsam Memorial Library, a treasure trove exists. Behind two sets of locked glass doors, one cracks open not a chest of gold, but stacks upon stacks of rare books and manuscripts. The treasure trove is the Rare Book Wing.

"It's just a jewel on campus," said Paul Spaeth, director of the library and rare books librarian.

The Rare Book Wing houses the largest rare old book collection in the state outside New York City. Its collection consists of approximately 10,000 items published between 1500 and 1700, about 100 late medieval manuscripts published between the year 1000 to the 1500s, about 100 manuscripts from the 1500s to recent times and about 300 "incunabula," or cradle books, that were published in the earliest years of printing in Europe, said Spaeth.

The story of how these rare books came to campus is almost as unique as the books themselves.

According to Spaeth, a friar started the first collection on campus in the late 1800s. In the late 1940s, The Franciscan Institute, in its beginning, established another part of the collection. All of the other collections came from various Franciscan colleges and provinces over the years, said Spaeth.

"Most everything came in groups," Spaeth said.

Jean-Francois Godet-Calogeras, a Franciscan Institute professor, said many of the books in the Rare Book Wing tie in with the Franciscan heritage. The books, he said, are related to three things: Franciscan history, Franciscan philosophy and Franciscan theology.

"They are interesting for their content . but also the history, the journey of the book or the manuscript. Where was it made? Where did it go? Who used it?" Godet-Calogeras said.

Spaeth agreed.

"(It) deals not only with Franciscan history, but it deals with whatever a Franciscan might have been interested in," he said.

The contents of the Rare Book Wing, while under security, can be accessed by anyone, Spaeth said. Access to the books can be granted by requesting permission from a reference librarian. The request will then be forwarded to Spaeth. However, any person considering picking up a rare book must keep one important fact in mind.

"It's not like a general circulation collection, either, and of course there's not too many books in English," Spaeth said.

Many of the books in the collection are written in Latin, Italian and Spanish.

In addition to needing high security, the books also require special care. The room in which the books are stacked is kept under special temperature and humidity levels.

"That is the reason there is a special wing where the temperature is constant, the humidity level is constant," Godet-Calogeras said.

Both Spaeth and Godet-Calogeras want students to take an interest in the Rare Book Wing.

"Here they can actually see this material," Spaeth said of the opportunity to see rare books. He said viewing books like these would not be as easy or allowed at all at other places.

Godet-Calogeras would eventually like to make use of the classroom in the Rare Book Wing and teach classes in cardicology, the study of books, and paleography, the teaching of how to read old writings.

Above all, the Rare Book Wing stands as a place where the campus and its Franciscan roots merge.

"It celebrates the academic Franciscan heritage that is the history of St. Bonaventure University," Spaeth said.

e-mail: lindahke@sbu.edu