Brut Chronicle Online

We are happy to announce that Dartmouth's Brut Chronicle is now available online in two formats (one for easy browsing and one for closer inspection). The Brut Chronicle was composed in Anglo-Norman sometime after 1272, then extended to 1333, and, finally, in about 1400, translated into English. The Dartmouth copy includes second continuation, believed to have been written around 1430, that extends the account from 1377 to 1419.

The Brut is a fascinating history of Britain starting with the exile of Brutus and his subsequent conquering of Albion. It establishes the lineage of the kings and includes historical information now considered factual alongside the legendary tales of Merlin and King Arthur.

Dartmouth Night

Started in 1895 by President William Jewett Tucker, Dartmouth Night was originally a recognition of accomplishments by alumni of the college and a time to initiate freshman into the community.  Over the years, the celebration has come to include the traditional bonfire, homecoming events, and a football game.  Shown here is the bonfire from 1911 - one of the earliest images of the event.

Flayed Angel

Art, science, misogyny, or all three? Whatever the verdict, there is something undeniably shocking and ghoulish about the "Flayed Angel" -- one of many plates found in Jacques Fabian Gautier d'Agoty's lavishly illustrated Suite de l'Essai d'anatomie en tableaux imprimés (Paris: Gautier, 1745). The juxtaposition of the detailed anatomical dissection and the corpse's almost coquettish glance over the shoulder leaves the viewer with a sense of unease and disquiet. Knowing that the corpse was almost certainly that of a convicted felon whose body was sold after death adds to the macabre nature of the illustration.

Ask for Rare Book QM 535 .G377

Wild Things in Rauner

With Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are back in the news, it seemed like a good time to revisit The Morton E. Wise Collection of Maurice Sendak presented to the Library in 2007 in recognition of the tenth anniversary of the Roth Center for Jewish Life at Dartmouth College. The collection is filled with first editions of most of Sendak's works up to the the late 1970s and also includes some spectacular original art. But, some of the best treats to be found in the collection are the small illustrated inscriptions by Sendak that grace the flyleaves on many of the first editions. Pictured here is one of the "Wild Things" giving a Halloween "boo" sketched onto the front flyleaf of Sendak's 1963 classic.

Frankenstein Illustrated

One of the most familiar Halloween characters is that of Frankenstein's monster. The popular conception of the monster has changed over time from Boris Karloff's iconic portrayal to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, the first image of the monster dates to the third edition of Mary Shelley's classic (London: Colburn & Bentley, 1831) in which the monster is depicted by artist Theodor von Holst.

Come see Rauner's recent acquisition of the single volume "popular" edition, in which readers were first presented with a visual portrayal of an icon of modern horror.

Compendium Musices

Thanks to a generous donation three years ago, we have in Rauner Library a mammoth sixteenth-century antiphonal (a manuscript book containing the choir’s part of the mass). The manuscript, produced in Spain for export, has been affectionately dubbed "the fifty cow book" because it demanded so much parchment for production.

This week we acquired a very small companion piece: a contemporary instructional manual for learning choral chanting: Compendium musices (Venice: Lucantonio, 1513).  Besides giving us insights to how our antiphonal was sung, the book is also a fine example of early printing of musical notations.

Northwest Passage

A few weeks ago, two German ships sailed from Vladivostok to Rotterdam via the Northwest Passage -- a trip envisioned for centuries but only made practical in recent years. The quest for this path to riches connecting Europe and the East occupied the imaginations of European traders for centuries. Our expansive Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration now boasts a late-16th-century volume devoted to three voyages in search of the Northwest Passage by Willem Barentsz: Vraye Descriptions de Trois Voyages (Amsterdam: Cornille Nicholas, 1598). Barentsz, with Gerrit de Veer on board the third voyage, explored the north and made important observations on region’s climate and fauna with a special emphasis on Polar bears. He theorized that the sun's rays shining on the northern regions for six months each year would stifle any ice formation above a certain latitude and create an easily navigable open polar sea. The theory had currency for hundreds of years and fueled the search for a short, easily navigated trade route to the Orient.

The Northwest Passage was not successfully completed until Roald Amundsen traversed it over 300 years later in 1903.