These are the clamshell boxes that BYU's conservator made for the Vulgate Bible "Bibila Sacra" and the Breviary - which is a book of religious devotions, prayers, things a religoius person should do and repeat.
This was page from the Breviary - this is all written and decorated by hand. It's absolutely stunning. This letter is called an Historiated Letter.
This past week I made an appointment with a curator of the BYU special collections to go see a few manuscripts that were created in the 14th and 15th centuries. I was a little bit nervous too ask if I, a mere mortal, could view such precious items stowed away in the BYU vaults, but I realized "Wait, I am a Masters student in library science - I have some book cred!".
Anyway, I had an assignment for my "History of Books and Libraries" class (which is blowing my mind) to look at a manuscript prior to 1500 and discuss some things regarding it's physical description, history and context, etc.
Max can verify that I almost cried several times. I'm out of control, I know. It was really an amazing thing. I'll post more about it later (because I'm slacking on my homework right now) but here is a link to the wiki I made for my assignment.
The Mr. let me take pictures, which was also amazing. I looked at "Breviary, Toledo 1400", "Polychronicon (1342)", and a Vulgate Bible from the 1300's.
I told Max afterward that I was pretty sure I wanted to go to book conservatory school. We'll see how that goes.
This is the breviary with it's original binding of Moroccan leather. Amazing.
