Preview of Tomorrow's Visit to the LC

Class will meet tomorrow at the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS in the Rosenwald Room, across from LJ239 in the Jefferson building. From 3:15 to 3:30 we'll discuss a few class business items, and at 3:30 the presentation will begin. After class we'll find a place to debrief from 5:00 to 6:00. I understand if some of you have to leave early to get back to Georgetwon for an evening class.

Dan DeSimone, Curator of the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress, will lead our class visit tomorrow afternoon. I've decided to include only works from the Rosenwald Collection that have been digitized and freely available. Please consult this page to find bibliographic information and a digital facsimile for each. The only exceptions are the Vesalius [1543] and the Hooke [1665], but these are easy to find at other sites.

If you have the time or inclination, take a preview. After our visit, you might well want to review a particular book or books in digital form. This will prove to be a great exercise in comparing the differences in reading and textual transmission.

Below is part of the letter that I wrote earlier to Dan with the list of items. You cannot imagine how difficult it was to keep it at 17 titles. My goal was 12-15. Some of the works might be changed, but the basic structure is set.

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The embarrassment of riches in the Rosenwald Collection is almost beyond imagination, doubly so when considering that the digitized material represents just a sliver of it.

Below is a list of the pairings and groupings that I have in mind. Please recommend substitutions if you think of them. I'm planning on six such groupings. I've decided to ditch the Eng lit stuff and stay with illustrated works that have been digitized. I like that the students can compare the digital experience with the corporeal experience.

1)  4 and 14
2)  23 or 19 and 29
3)  298 and 558 and 340b
4)  730 and Vesalius [1543] and Hooke [1665]
5)  1803 and 1803a and the Arion Press facsimile
6)  1892 and 1938 (vol 1) and 2317

Ideally, for each grouping I'd like to have both (sometimes 3) books open at the same time for purposes of comparison, and I'd like to leave a few minutes at the start of each grouping for the students to silently take notes and write questions. I imagine that groupings 1-4 will take a little longer than groupings 5-6.

Originally I wanted to include "common" or everyday books in these comparisons. Eric Frazier mentioned that there's an "imprint collection" that might have this kind of material. But I think that the proverbial plate is already too full, and introducing more items might make for an avalanche.


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