Books from yesterday and today: exhibition at the Custody's library | Custodia Terrae Sanctae

Books from yesterday and today: exhibition at the Custody's library

The library of the Custody of the Holy Land is presenting 40 works from November 3 through 5. The theme is on reading devices: books as a vehicle of preserving texts in the East and the West, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The exhibition will continue for three days in the lobby of the Curia at Saint Savior's Monastery in Jerusalem. The exhibition has the intention of providing a means of reflecting on the book as an object and providing the public with the opportunity to discover the treasures of the monastery's library.

“The book is an object that can record a text, preserve it and allow it to be read. From the volumen to the codex, up to today's e-book, all reading devices—which we are exhibiting here as examples—are 'machines' that have these same three objectives,” said Prof. Edoardo Barbieri, director of the CRELEB (European Research Center on Books, Publishing and Libraries) at the Catholic University of Milan.

The educational journey offered to visitors gives them an overview of the splendors of the Custody's library and of the evolution of “reading objects.” The exhibit includes writings that date back to the Middle Ages, as well as current-day works, but most of them date back to the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and they come from Europe and the Middle East. The exhibition includes everything from a seventeenth-century missal printed in Antwerp, to a seventeenth-century Sephardic Torah printed in Amsterdam, to Maronite, Armenian and Ethiopian works, to tablets, and finally to e-books. A wide array of books from different origins and languages are represented.

The exhibition is made possible by the support of the ATS Pro Terra Santa NGO and by the Catholic University of Milan.

Tuesday-Thursday, November 3-5, 2015 from 9:00 a.m. To 6:00 p.m.
Hall of the Curia, Saint Savior's Monastery
Custody of the Holy Land (New Gate)

Tuesday, November 3, at 10:00 a.m.: Inauguration by the Custos Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
Wednesday, November 4, at 5:00 p.m.: Conference “The book's past, present and future,” by Prof. Gino Roncaglia, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy

Online catalogue:http://bibliothecaterraesanctae.org/

Hélène Morlet