Seminary Rare Book Collection
Deposited at
Raynor Memorial Libraries

November 4th presentation will describe highlights

A significant collection of rare books owned by the St. Francis de Sales Seminary's Salzmann Library is now available within the Raynor Memorial Libraries.  A partnership between Marquette and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee led to the transfer of 900 volumes.  The arrangement offers advanced scholars more convenient access, and an environmentally-controlled vault in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives provides improved security for these cultural and intellectual treasures.

A complete checklist of titles available within the St. Francis rare book collection is accessible here.  Some of the special strengths of the collection include Bibles, Canon Law, and Jesuitica.

Four select items from the collection are described here.

The Bible.  Anton Koberger, 1483
Marquette University Libraries preserves a small but impressive collection of incunabula— books published within fifty years of the invention of moveable metal type, or between 1455-1501.  The vast majority of books “from the cradle period” were religious texts. The St. Francis Seminary rare book collection includes six incunabula, including an illuminated Bible by Anton Koberger.

A goldsmith when the printing revolution began in Germany, Koberger (1440-1513) established a printing house in Nuremberg that rapidly surpassed Gutenberg’s successors in Mainz.  Anton Koberger directed the design and cutting of an elegant Gothic type.  Although his printing operation eventually employed over one hundred workmen operating two dozen presses, Koberger took great pains in book design, rubrication and illustration. His 1483 Bible featured 109 woodcuts, including one with extensive goldleaf.  Koberger’s illustrated Bible resulted in a seismic shift in book design throughout Europe.  Enthralled by Koberger’s use of wood cuts, most of those who copied the Nuremberg operation failed to achieve the same quality of book layout and design.

St. Francis de Sales Seminary acquired its edition of the Koberger Bible in 1932 as a gift from the Hanes Foundation. It is one of only ten complete volumes preserved in research libraries in North America.

Complutensian Polyglot, or Vetus Testamentum, 1517

Initiated and financed by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros of Spain, the Complutensian Polyglot Bible is of seminal importance in the history Christianity.  Of the 600 six-volume sets printed only 123 are known to have survived.

At the close of the 15th century Cardinal Cisneros amassed rare manuscripts, subsequently inviting leading religious scholars from throughout Europe to the University of Alcala.  Work on the massive project commenced in 1502 and continued for fifteen years.  In the meantime, news about the Complutensian project reached Desiderius Erasmus in Rotterdam.  Erasmus had produced his own edition of the Greek New Testament and managed to obtain an exclusive four-year publishing privilege from Emperor Maximilian and Pope Leo X in 1516. The Erasmus' text became known as the Textus Receptus, and later editions were the basis for the King James Version of the New Testament.  Cardinal Cisneros’ scholars completed the Complutensian Old Testament in early 1517.  Cisneros died that July, yet because of Erasmus' exclusive privilege, publication of the Polyglot was delayed until Pope Leo X could sanction it in 1520.

The first four volumes of the Complutensian, on loan to Marquette, contain the Old Testament. Each page consists of three parallel columns of text: Hebrew on the outside, the Latin Vulgate in the middle, and the Greek Septuagint on the inside. On each page of the Pentateuch, the Aramaic text (the Targum Onkelos) and its own Latin translation are added at the bottom. The fifth volume, the New Testament, consists of parallel columns of Greek and the Latin Vulgate. The sixth volume contains various Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek dictionaries and study aids.

Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress, 1775

The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia between September 5-October 26, 1774.  Charles Thomson, leader of Philadelphia Sons of Liberty, served as secretary and prepared these proceedings, published in London in early 1775.  The title page for the proceedings conveys an incendiary tone. In fact, the pamphlet does not include a bill of rights, and Patrick Henry’s documented comments had clearly been reined in within the publication.  Reviewing the list of grievances, the modern reader understands how colonial leaders gradually began to develop a spirited empathy toward other American colonists.  The publication does include a sharply-worded appeal to George III—a sign of more to come.

The Milwaukee City Directory for 1851-1852

The Google of the 19^th century, city directories offer researchers a unique vantage point for studying communities. Although newspapers offer detailed reports on the events of a specific day, city directories offer a more sweeping view that can help researchers identify major commercial and social changes in a single community over time. A valuable source for family historians, city directories provide a more frequent reports on residents of a community than the federal census, which the government compiles once per decade. City directories like this 1851 edition listed residents (male "heads of households"), occupations, street names, businesses, government offices and officials, schools, street names, churches and cultural institutions.

In 1851 the City of Milwaukee had been incorporated for just five years, following the merger of three villages, Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker’s Point; east, west, and south of the Milwaukee River, respectively.  The city boasted a population of 20,061, of whom 6,035 were enrolled in public schools and private academies.  The fledging city also supported no less than seven newspapers and 21 churches.  The county jailer estimated that at least two-thirds of incarcerations stemmed from the consumption of alcohol.

For more information about the collection or the November 4 program please contact, Matt Blessing, Department of Special Collections and Archives, at (414) 288-5901.