Among the many innovations that transformed Europe in the Middle Ages, perhaps none was more central than the metamorphosis of the written word. The evolution of writing in this period reached a dramatic climax in the 1450s, when Johann Gutenberg invented moveable metal type—and revolutionized human communication. This exhibition traces the history of the medieval book—its appearance, content, audiences, and forms—from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Drawn from the holdings of Cornell Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, the exhibition presents a rich variety of medieval manuscripts and printed books, from early religious manuscripts and illuminated prayerbooks to the secular works of classical antiquity and the first books printed from metal type.

When the Roman Empire disintegrated, it was the centrality of the sacred word, fostered by the Christian Church, that preserved the culture of writing in the West. Most of the books produced during the Middle Ages were copies of religious texts, laboriously written out by scribes in monasteries and often embellished with gold and intricate artwork. But the Christian concern with writing also served to preserve the profane texts of classical antiquity.

The rise of Western universities from the 11th century onwards stimulated the market for a growing number of secular texts, a development that led to greater diversity in writing styles and a proliferation of books. When printing came on the scene in the 1450s, early printers closely imitated the look of medieval manuscripts, modeling their letterforms and page layouts after those of professional scribes. It took the rise of Italian humanism, with its revival of roman letterforms and its emphasis on scholarly presentation of classical knowledge, to transform the book into the modern format we know today.

Medieval books were among the Cornell Library’s earliest acquisitions. The University’s first president, Andrew Dickson White, and his librarian, George Lincoln Burr, personally selected these books on buying expeditions to Europe. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view some of Cornell Library’s oldest treasures, and to chart the diverse forms of the written word in medieval Europe.