Seminar Site and Institutional Support
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (RBML) at The Ohio State University (OSU) will sponsor and host our program, with support from OSU’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS). RBML is one of the premier research libraries in North America for the study of the Reformation. Named collections include the Harold J. Grimm Reformation Collection (which includes, among other treasures, more than 120 Luther sermons and treatises in Latin or German printed during his lifetime), the John Foxe and John Day collections (both among the finest in North America), the James Stevens-Cox STC-sigla collection (mostly religious books so rare that the editors of the Short-title catalogue listed this as a named private collection), and the Stanley J. Kahrl Renaissance and Restoration Drama collection (which includes ample holdings in both dramatic and non-dramatic materials). RBML also preserves a large collection of medieval manuscripts and manuscript leaf fragments of relevance to this program. Links below lead to hand lists and finding aids for each of these named collections. A complete hand list of all pre-1650 books at RBML will be provided to seminar participants.
Descriptive hand lists
Stevens-Cox STC-sigla collection
John Day collection descriptive hand list
John Foxe 1999 exhibition catalogue
Stanley J. Kahrl Renaissance and Restoration Drama collection (includes non-dramatic materials)
Religious Orthodoxy and Dissent 2005 exhibition catalogue
OSU Rare Books and Manuscripts Library electronic finding aids
John Day collection: OSU library electronic finding aid
John Foxe collection: OSU library electronic finding aid
Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts digital collections
Harold J. Grimm Reformation collection finding aid
In addition to granting participants full access to its rare book and manuscripts collections, RBML will provide summer scholars with access to online library resources, a spacious, state-of-the-art meeting room equipped for the examination and display of rare printed and manuscript books via an ELMO document projector, and other computing aids. Not only have librarians agreed to organize rare book exhibition-workshops, but they have made the unusual concession of allowing us to bring rare books into our seminar room to illustrate important points of interest. RBML has also agreed to open for our seminar on Saturdays, a day on which it is usually closed. CMRS will contribute funding for receptions and lunches and arrange for privileges including faculty affiliate status and membership of the university faculty club. Participants will have easy access to coffee shops, on-campus restaurants, and cafés. Located close to the RBML, The Wexner Center for the Arts and the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens afford ideal spaces for thought and reflection.
JMU Libraries and Information Technology will provide participants access to its library resources (including Early English Books Online) for one year following the conclusion of the seminar, and supply a database for the posting of readings. It will also assist in the dissemination of seminar findings.
Next to Chicago, Columbus is the most populous urban area in the Midwest. It enjoys many of the advantages of a large multicultural urban area without some of the disadvantages of more heavily populated cities. It offers a wide variety of entertainment and cultural resources including music (classical, popular, and jazz) in the open air and in concert halls, poetry in the park, Shakespeare in the park, and a professional dramatic company. Its museums include the Columbus Museum of Art, Wexner Center for the Arts, Center of Science and Industry (COSI), and the National Veterans’ Memorial and Museum. Columbus’s vibrant theater district includes the Contemporary American Theatre Company (CATCO), BalletMet, Ohio Theatre, and the Columbus Symphony orchestra. The city offers a great variety of excellent restaurants, including many affordable ethnic establishments. Seminar participants may use the university’s extensive athletic facilities or take advantage of many bike and running trails. Additional recreation opportunities include the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and an outstanding array of twenty metro parks and over 200 miles of hiking trails. Cliffs, gorges, rock shelters, and waterfalls are located within just one hour’s drive, in the nearby Hocking Hills region.
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