A Medieval "Book of Roots"

The Kimḥi family of Provence was a celebrated medieval Jewish family of biblical commentators and Hebrew grammarians. Rabbi Joseph Kimḥi and his two sons Moses and David were each renowned scholars in their own right, but Rabbi David Kimḥi (1160-1235 C.E., commonly known by his Hebrew acronym "Radak") was the most celebrated of all.

Rauner recently acquired a manuscript of Kimḥi's Hebrew lexicon, Sefer ha-Shorashim (literally translated as "book of roots.") First composed in the late 12th-early 13th century, the Radak's Sefer was one of the most influential Hebrew dictionaries in the medieval period. The entries are arranged alphabetically around the three-letter shorashim, or "roots," common to most Hebrew words, with quotes from religious texts and explorations of etymology.

Our handwritten copy of the Sefer was likely produced by a Sephardic Jewish scribe in Southern France or Northern Italy ca. 1370-1430 C.E., more than a century after Kimḥi’s death. Most of the pages are written in a consistent Sephardic semicursive script, on laid paper common in parts of France and Italy in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. It is possible that this scribe, like the Radak himself, was a descendant of Spanish Jews (Sephardim) who fled persecution and settled in the French region of Provence, which during the Kimḥis' time was a flourishing center of Torah scholarship known as Hachmei Provence.

By the 16th century, our copy had found its way from Provence to Yemen, where a Yemenite Jewish scribe painstakingly copied missing leaves and added some of his own marginal notes to the Radak’s text. Subsequent Yemenite owners of this Sefer also proudly scrawled their names and statements of ownership on the first and last leaves of the tome. After all, to own such an old copy of this famous work would have been quite the status symbol, testifying to the owner's material wealth, as well as his intellectual gravitas.

If you can read Hebrew but are still struggling to parse this 18th century inscription, there's a reason for that. It is partially written in Judeo-Arabic, a dialect of Arabic historically spoken by Jews in Arab countries, written using the Hebrew alphabet. Luckily, the dealer provided a translation of the message, which includes a fabulous book curse:

"I merited to purchase this Sefer ha-mikhlol through the labors of my hands. May the blessed Omnipresent give me the privilege to immerse myself in it—I, my descendants, and my descendants' descendants until the last generation. Amen, so may it be [His] will. He who takes it and does not return it—may his name and memory be obliterated from the world, and may he be bitten by a snake. But may the nation of God dwell in peace. [Signed] the humble Joseph, son of our teacher Shuker al-Sarem, may his Rock and Redeemer keep him and may his end be good."

 

To see our copy of the Sefer ha-Shorashim, come in and ask for Codex 003515.

Winter 23 Exhibit: The Whirligig of Time

Last year marked the 400th anniversary of the printing of William Shakespeare’s First Folio. To commemorate the occasion, students in Professor Matthew Ritger’s F23 ENGL 15 Shakespeare course curated seven mini-exhibitions that look through a variety of lenses at the connections between Shakespeare and Dartmouth College.

Their collaborative effort, titled “The Whirligig of Time: Shakespeare in the College Archive, 1623-2023,” is on display in the Class of 1965 Galleries here at Rauner through March 15, 2024. For more information, including a handlist of materials, exhibit case text, and a downloadable version of the exhibition poster designed by Sam Milnes, visit the website. If you'd like to see Shakespeare's First Folio, which isn't in the exhibit, come into the Reading Room and ask anyone at the reference desk.

Catching a Break

On January 1, 1953, J. D. Salinger left New York City, where he was born and raised, and relocated to the small town of Cornish, New Hampshire. Coincidentally, New Year's Day was also his birthday. Salinger was known to be a private person and the enormous success of his novel Catcher in the Rye (1951) had brought him too much attention in his hometown. So, he escaped the big city to live in a tiny cabin with no heat or running water. Cornish already had a positive reputation among creatives; it had been the residence of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Artists' Colony before the collective's gradual dissolution in the early 20th century. Several months later, in April of 1953, a collection of his short stories, Nine Stories, was published. Salinger lived in Cornish until his death in 2010.

Here at Rauner, we have first editions of Catcher in the Rye and Nine Stories, both signed by Salinger in Hanover on December 17, 1953, nearly a year after he had made the switch to rural life. The circumstances surrounding the autographs are unclear, but we love to imagine this reclusive writer availing himself of our resources during his first year here in the Upper Valley. To see our copy of Catcher in the Rye, ask for Rare PS3537 .A426. Our first edition of Nine Stories is Rare PZ4 .S165 Ni 1953.

Yule and Misrule

With the holidays incoming, we're taking a moment to share some festive illustrations from the papers of J.J. Lankes. Lankes was a 20th century American artist who worked primarily in woodcuts like the ones shown here, and illustrated the writing of authors such as Robert Frost.

Both of the prints selected here refer to older folk customs associated with the end of the year. The first shows a costumed procession, including a man on a hobby horse, playing music and holding up greenery, accompanied by the words "Yule! Yule"!" This might be a representation of a mummer's play or a wassailing group, both raucous theatrical performances conducted in England around Christmastime.

The other print we've pulled out today is "My Lord of Missrule." This little jester would have appointed, likely from the lower clergy, as a sort of officiant for the Feast of Fools, a medieval celebration conducted on the 1st of January.

To check out these illustrations (and others!), ask for MS-1115 Box 7 Folder 6.

Captured!

We have lots of various captivity narratives in our collection. They are usually sensationalized stories set in New England--stories of terror designed to frighten and titillate. There is almost always a racially charged dichotomy set up between the "savage" and the "civilized" reflecting the pervading fears of the white settlers. We just acquired a new one that is both very different and still frighteningly similar. In this second edition of Bartolomej Georgijević's De afflictione tam captivorum quam etiam sub Turcae tributo viuentium Christianorum (Worms: excudebat Gregorius Comiander, 1545), the captive is a Croatian captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. The same tropes appear: a good Christian is captured by a threatening non-Christian other and forced into servitude. 

Interestingly, Georgijević was also a talented linguist and the slender volume contains a basic Latin to Turkish lexicon and a short Croatian-Latin dictionary. The book took off, as so many captivity narratives did, and served as a highly biased account of Turkish culture at a time when Europe was both fascinated and terrified of that which lurked just to the East.

To take a look (it has seven wonderful woodcuts), ask for Rare DR481 .G46 1545.

Frankenstein on Stage

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein wasn't just a hit in the bookstores. Just a few years after its publication it was adapted in 1823 as Presumption! or the Fate of Frankenstein, and then again a few years later, in 1826, as The Man and the Monster! or, the Fate of Frankenstein. The two shows appear to have competed against each other for a period of time in London. We have a set of playbills for Presumption! from the Theatre Royal, English Opera House, on the Strand, starting in 1823 and running through 1827. Then we have the script for the 1826 production of The Man and the Monster! "as it is performed at the London Theatres."

Both the playbill and the script give us all kinds of information about the productions. The August 15, 1823, playbill for Presumption! states it is the 16th performance and they have added new scenes. By 1827 it has a whole new ending "comformably to the termination of the original Story" with a "schooner in a violent storm." Apparently you could keep them coming back if you just kept changing the play. The 1827 playbill has the dream double feature--the evening's entertainment opened with The Vampire!, the stage adaptation of another story conceived late one night on Lake Geneva, followed by Frankenstein.

The script gives us the original cast, instructions on costuming and the basic stage set, but most importantly it shows the actor who played the monster in costume, making this the earliest depiction of the monster.

When you come in to see them, be sure to ask for the 1831 edition Shelley's classic--it is the first time the Monster's image appears in the novel. You can see the script by asking for Rare PR5021 .M62 M3 1826. The Playbills are in MS-1414, Box 1, and the 1831 third edition is Rare PR5397 .F7 1831.

Springtime Dreams

In the winter of 1956, Robert Frost made inquiries about acquiring apple trees for his home in Ripton, Vermont. Ira Glackens, a farmer with an orchard in New Hampshire, was only too happy to provide:

It would be a signal honor for me to supply some scions to Robert Frost, -- I am almost tempted to write to Mr. Frost myself, so many years have I been devoted to his poetry. And he wrote, ‘Goodby and Keep Cold’, my favorite poem about Apple trees. 

I can offer, but not in large quantities in most cases, the following which you name; Red Astrachan; Porter; August Sweet (which is the same as Sweet Bough); and Sops of Wine (Sopsevine). A neighbor has the Old Peach, or Montreal Peach. I cannot supply the original Duchess, but only the later sub-variety, Red Van Buren. I do not have Gravenstein, as I lost both trees I set out.

Frost’s response is enthusiastic: “Your letter fills my hibernation with springtime dreams…” The two go on about his aspirations for apple trees, more thoughts on different varieties, and the best way to get new trees started and producing fruit early.

To read the whole of this correspondence, ask for MS-1178, Box 15 Folder 1. To read the first appearance of "Good-by and Keep Cold" in print, ask for MS-1178, Box 32 Folder 17.