May 2011 Luncheon Meeting

Speaker: Paul Saenger

“The Best of the Newberry Library's Exciting Recent Acquisitions by the George A. Poole Curator of Rare Books and Collection Development Librarian”

Caxtonian Paul Saenger's well-illustrated talk will include highlights of the hidden treasures donated by the McCormick Theological Seminary, the Catholic Theological Union, and six other collections of the Chicago area that are currently being catalogued as part of the Sister Ann Ida Gannon Initiative. He will also relate what happened when a very distinguished Caxtonian spotted a seventeenth-century book for sale on e-Bay that appeared to have been bound with an earlier manuscript. Finally, he will talk about the process by which an item is chosen for purchase and bring us up to date on the unique joint- acquisition program he developed with nine mid-America institutions. Through this program the Library recently acquired, in conjunction with the University of Notre Dame, a volume of heretical texts of which most other copies were burned by order of the Catholic Church.

Luncheon buffet (in the main dining room on
six) opens at 11:30 am.  Program (in a different room, to be announced)
12:30-1:30