{"id":7726,"date":"2016-10-10T19:55:39","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T19:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=7726"},"modified":"2022-05-12T13:55:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T13:55:44","slug":"a-visit-to-the-library-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/a-visit-to-the-library-cafe\/","title":{"rendered":"A Visit to The Library Caf\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Library Caf\u00e9<\/em>
\nand Its Host, Thomas Hill
\nof the Vassar College Art Library<\/h3>\n

\"Close-Up<\/a>[This post announces, and accompanies, a radio interview with our Director, Mildred Budny<\/a>, describing aspects of our origins, development, purposes, and activities.\u00a0 You can hear the interview, beginning with its live broadcast on Wednesday 12 October 2016 from 12:00 noon ET, or 17:00 GMT, here<\/a>.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

We celebrate a visit to The Library Caf\u00e9<\/a> and its host, Thomas Hill<\/a>, Art Librarian at Vassar College<\/a>.\u00a0 That prime educational institution is the Alma Mater of the Director of the Research Groups.<\/p>\n

For a while now, I (this is the Director talking) have been a fan of Tom’s series of radio interviews, and a fan of Tom, with his wide interests, generous hospitality, and fascinating conversations.\u00a0 We first met, as I recall, at one of my talks at Vassar, and we have continued to talk, and I have continued to listen, over the years since then, at Vassar and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Here is how the Vassar College Art Library<\/a> describes The Library Cafe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Library Caf\u00e9<\/a> is a weekly program of table talk with scholars, artists, publishers and librarians about books, scholarship, and the formation and circulation of knowledge.<\/p>\n

As for my View? It is breathtakingly wonderful. That’s my opinion.\u00a0 Delighted to become part of it!<\/p>\n

More of the official description:<\/p>\n

The program is hosted by Thomas Hill<\/a>, Art Librarian of Vassar College.\u00a0 It is an exceptional weekly interview program with scholars and librarians about books, ideas, and the formation and circulation of knowledge.\u00a0 It can be heard on WVKR FM 91.3 on Wednesday afternoons between 12:00 Noon and 1:00 p.m. ET (17.00-18.00 GMT) during the academic year.<\/p>\n

The instructions are easy for accessing its weekly program (during the academic year) and its archive of programs:<\/p>\n

Tune in to WVKR at noon Wednesdays at 91.3 FM, or listen on the web through our website:\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/library-cafe.org<\/a>, where you will also find podcasts of past episodes and a listing of future interviews as they are scheduled.<\/p>\n

For the Record<\/h3>\n

Here is what the recording studio looks like, upstairs within Main Building<\/a>.\u00a0 With its Host, of course.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

In the Studio. Photograph by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Front<\/a>

Front Entrance to Main Building in May 1994. Photography \u00a9 Mildred Budny<\/p><\/div>\n

That building has changed in many ways (of course) since my undergraduate years. In Senior Year, after moving to Main, as the Seniors did then, my dorm rooms (2 rooms shared with a room-mate) were positioned on the second floor at a back corner, with windows overlooking 2 directions. I loved that place.\u00a0 That the room mate departed for weeks on end, or more, meant that I could enjoy alone expansively its space and views (with the obligations of feeding and giving daily medications to her large and lovely, aged cat, the remaining occupant).\u00a0 Worth saying that I also loved the rooms on the ground floor wing during my first undergraduate years in Jewett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Did you notice that I have a sense of Place? For example, some of the posts on this website increasingly come to include photographs of the places themselves.\u00a0 (This does not quite, perhaps, amount to declaring unilaterally that This Is A Woman Who Knows Her Place. Or maybe it does? Hmm, I’ll get back to you on that.)<\/p>\n

Because there have been occasions over the years to revisit the campus, firstly to present lectures or seminars (starting in May 1974, at the invitation of one of my teachers, Julia McGrew<\/a>), and more recently \u2014 since returning to live in the United States in 1994 \u2014 regularly to attend class reunions, or to present a talk or class (for example, in November 2003) \u2014 I have been able to observe the changes to the building itself.<\/p>\n

So the differences are in some sense already familiar, but the radio studio was new to me. Nice to be there with the Master at the Controls, on a clear, sunny, balmy day in May 2016.<\/p>\n

The Host<\/h3>\n

Here is how Tom describes his varied interests, abilities, and interests (‘About Me’ from his website User Profile: Thomas Hill<\/a>):<\/p>\n

I am a librarian and medievalist interested in technologies of mind and memory. I hold a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University with a specialization in medieval literature, and my scholarship concerns the reading of courtly romance in the context of scholastic philosophy and psychology. My book, “She, this in blak”: Vision, Truth, and Will in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde<\/a>, was published in 2006. At present I am working on a book of essays entitled The Automaton in the Archive: Post-human Memories<\/em>. I also host “The Library Caf\u00e9,” a weekly radio interview program aired on WVKR, about scholarship, libraries, and the formation and circulation of knowledge.<\/p>\n

With impeccable style, as always, bot tie included (we like bow ties, as already noted here<\/a>), the Art Librarian greets us at the entrance to his Office.\u00a0 There is the welcoming sense that every detail has been considered and chosen with care, good care.\u00a0 Superb.\u00a0 It is a pleasure to enter this Space.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>

At the Entrance to The Library Caf\u00e9<\/p><\/div>\n

Behind the door are set out the materials and equipment appropriate to a well-appointed Caf\u00e9.\u00a0 A bonus is that it resides among the offices on the second floor of the Art Library, with tall ceilings and clear natural light.<\/p>\n

In Tom’s Caf\u00e9 nook, choices await there for most tastes, Expresso and Amaretto included.\u00a0 Invited to the selections, I chose Expresso, always a favorite. Served with style and grace.\u00a0 The International Style reigns.\u00a0 Happily.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>

Host as Barista. Photography by Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n

As and When<\/h3>\n
\"Catalogue<\/a>

Volume II<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Front<\/a>

Volume I<\/p><\/div>\n

So happily strange, and wonderful, to find the offering in this special place, a Library building which I remember well from years as an undergraduate (as both devotedly a student and steadily a part-time student worker, which occupations can merge, not just overlap) and occasional years afterward.<\/p>\n

To visit the College, a special and favorite place, I have enjoyed occasional invitations to lecture.\u00a0 Since returning from England to live in the United States, I also respond to the standard reunion rhythm of every 5 years per class.<\/p>\n

The reunions at Vassar occur every 5 years for most alums, although those who donate enormously can come whenever they like.\u00a0 For me, that won’t be in this nonprofit lifetime, not unless I write that best-seller.\u00a0 Or secure a worthwhile Hush Fund to prevent the Memoirs from appearing.\u00a0 (You have been Put On Notice, heh, heh.)<\/p>\n

This year, a new sort of occasion arose, with the combination of a reunion and the invitations both to join a Meet & Greet<\/strong> event for alum authors (see below) and to visit Thomas Hill and his Library Caf\u00e9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Time is Now, Coffee Included<\/h3>\n

The Library Caf\u00e9<\/strong> did not exist when I studied at Vassar.\u00a0 The visit to it now reminded me of the chance, returning after some years of visiting the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana<\/a> for research, to discover that, at last, and unexpectedly, its rooms now had a caf\u00e9 to which it was possible, with little loss of time to search swift sustenance out-and-about elsewhere, to repair for a quick expresso<\/em> (which would be expressissimo<\/em>) in the midst of deep researches in the august reading room.<\/p>\n

\"Frontispiece<\/a>

Saint Dunstan’s Classbook, MS. Auct. F. 4. 32, folio 1r, tenth century. Photo: \u00a9 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (2015).<\/p><\/div>\n

Speaking of that library in the Vatican City, well do I remember its cool, light-colored walls and wooden banks of reading desks, at which lay, at my bidding, such bookish treasures as the 11th-century Psalter of Bury Saint Edmunds and the 8th-century Barbarini Gospels<\/a> (I remember it differently than that article describes), as well as other marvels, not forgetting a volume with annotations in handwriting attributable to Saint Dunstan<\/a> himself.\u00a0 A bookish kind of saint, with a penchant for writing in books<\/a> (I wrote about the traces of that penchant, forensic examination included). Hopefully they weren’t library books, but rather his own.<\/p>\n

That that Vatican Library caf\u00e9 moreover had an early mosaic as part of its apse decor was a bonus, of course.\u00a0 Traversing the centuries in a single span, that’s what we might do when we devote our attention to the close study of manuscripts and other written records across the centuries.\u00a0 Tangible reminders of those past centuries, they can enhance the experience.<\/p>\n

Shame when they are dislocated from their original settings, but that’s another story.\u00a0 Some of our blogposts (“Manuscript Studies”<\/a>) about dismembered and dispersed manuscript fragments tell about those matters, and about efforts to pick up the pieces.\u00a0 Always on the lookout for a suitable ” ‘Foundling Hospital’ for Manuscript Fragments”<\/a>.\u00a0 Foster Homes or Forever Homes wanted for those Waifs & Strays.<\/p>\n

Back to Now.<\/p>\n

Books Lay in Wait for Interview<\/h3>\n

A glimpse of the Host’s Desk in his Office shows the preparations with a view toward the Original Sources. One of my volumes is waiting at the back.\u00a0 (Note the red band, gilded title, and logo of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence.)<\/p>\n

Among the gathered volumes, front and center, top and bottom, is a set by Sally V. Keil<\/a>.\u00a0 Tom introduced us at lunch on the day of my interview.\u00a0 We had begun the recording, realized that there was more to say, but that lunch beckoned, by prior appointment, and decided to resume the recording after lunch.<\/p>\n

A treat to meet her and to begin to learn about her many interests.\u00a0 Her interview for the Library Caf\u00e9 is now online here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Books for Interview<\/p><\/div>\n

And a Guided Tour<\/h3>\n

As we returned from lunch for the second installment of my interview in the recording studio, Tom gave a guided tour of some highlights of the main Library, including the set of 17th-century Belgian tapestries<\/a> elevated grandly in position above the entrance hall.\u00a0 Wholly appropriate to have an erudite and entertaining account spoken by a dedicated Art Librarian.\u00a0 The bright light added to the sense of illumination across several planes.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>

Thomas Hill and Sally Keil at the Entrance to the Vassar College Library<\/p><\/div>\n

Explaining the Iconography<\/h3>\n
\"Thomas<\/a>

Considering the Iconography and Positioning of the Cycle of Tapestries over the Entryway<\/p><\/div>\n

Questions, Answers & Conversation<\/h3>\n

Tom sent a list of suggested questions ahead of time, to start the conversation and begin to think about subjects and approaches.\u00a0 Here is how his list started, out of some twenty-plus questions.<\/p>\n

1. First off, can you tell us about your background you\u2019re a Vassar graduate? Were there Vassar professors or fellow students who had a formative influence on you?
\n2. Can you tell us generally about your career as a researcher since you left Vassar?
\n3. Can you tell us about the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence about its mission, history, and structure?<\/p>\n

You can hear the Interview as it unfolds, with the living voices in conversation in the broadcast.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Glossary of Some “Household Names”
\nMentioned in the Interview
\nby both the Host and the Guest<\/h3>\n

As a companion Guide to the radio interview, here is a Brief “Glossary” or “Index” for some People, Places, Libraries, Books, and Manuscripts mentioned there.<\/p>\n

Not every household might be familiar with all Household Names.\u00a0 With this awareness \u2014 especially where multiple interests are engaged \u2014\u00a0 I offer a few cues, with links, to the identities.\u00a0 Some illustrations included.<\/p>\n

\"Front<\/a>Formative Schooling and Research Positions<\/strong><\/p>\n