The Archive of Civilization: Yale’s Magnificent Beinecke Library
House to over 1 million books, millions of manuscript pages, thousands of maps, ephemera, papyri, photographs, posters, paintings, and art objects, as well as extensive audiovisual material and born-digital content, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library accommodates the rarest books and manuscripts in the world. To step into this Library is to step into and behind the curtains of the past; the curtains through which, the whole of human civilization is reflected. Entering this Library gives you the true insights into the blossom of Literature, and so was what I felt when I entered this Library.
I consider myself lucky, for this magnificent archive is open only to Yale Universities and Faculty as well as visiting researchers; as YYGS students, we were given a proxy card that gave us access to various of the campus’ facilities including this wondrous abode of chronicles. It was a dream come true when I first entered the library and caught sight of the rarest books in the world hovering above, enclosed in glass shelves. It was as if I had just entered the heaven of bookworms. I wonder how it feels to researchers who actually have access to these books.
The most enthralling artefact of this library is by all means the original “Gutenberg Bible”. The first printed Bible a.k.a the Gutenberg Bible holds a lot of significance in the development of literature and publications. Johannes Gutenberg, an European born civilian invented a movable type printing press in 1448 and it brought a revolutionary wave not just to Europe but to the whole world. Movable Type Printing Press meant that manuscripts and even books could be mass produced as it allowed to reproduce different pages and each page for a book was uniform with that same page in the next book. The first book printed by the Gutenberg Printing Press was the “Gutenberg Bible”.
The Bible was a novelty that the civilians couldn’t afford as before the invention of the printing press, Bibles were painstakingly handwritten and illuminated by monks. The expenses involved meant that only nobility or church masters could afford them. However, with the onset of the Gutenberg Printing Press, expenses were less and the Bible could now be accessed by any civilian. This is the very significance of the Gutenberg Bible i.e. the first ever printed Bible in the world. Adding into its aesthetic, the Gutenberg Bible is beautifully crafted and artistic, building into its value.
Out of the 180 copies of the Gutenberg Bible printed then, only 49 copies survive; less than half of these copies are complete, and some only consist of a single volume or even a few scattered pages. Yale’s copy of the Gutenberg Bible is one of only 21 complete copies known to exist today. In this age, one page of this bible could be auctioned for about $16,000, and if available, an entire Gutenberg Bible is estimated to be valued at $150,000,000.
“A 1,250-year-old print of Buddhist prayers from Japan — the earliest known printed text that can be reliably dated — is on display with the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type, is on view on the library mezzanine. John James Audubon’s Birds of America is also on public display on the mezzanine. On the ground floor, visitors can see the 1742 Library of Yale College, the first books in the original Yale library, as well as a collection of incunabula, the earliest printed books in the West, from 1455 to ca. 1500.”
While the Gutenberg Bible is one of the oldest books present at the library, perhaps the most baffling, bizarre and famous item is the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, also known by its call number, Beinecke MS 408. It is an illustrated codex written in an unknown script referred to as “the Voynichese”. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich who purchased it in 1912.
Since the manuscript was first discovered, there have been no researchers, scholars, scientists, or even code-breakers who have been able to decipher the language and anecdote of this manuscript. In 2009, radiocarbon dating revealed that the vellum on which the text and images were rendered dated to the 15th century – probably somewhere between 1404 and 1438. Since 1969, this mysterious text has been housed in Yale’s Beinecke Rare Manuscript Library where numerous have tried to decipher the meaning of this manuscript but all have failed miserably. The Beinecke Library has made high-resolution images of the entire manuscript available for research in its digital library.
A repository of rare artefacts- referring to books and manuscripts like the “Gutenberg Bible”, a first-edition copy of John Milton’s epic “Paradise Lost”, the “Voynich Manuscript” to include a few; it is of high importance to preserve this archive of civilization and the security system of Yale has left no stone unturned in this regard.
In 2018, a tweet went viral that falsely claimed Yale’s fire system to be not just complex but also deadly for humans. According to the tweet, in case of a fire, a system sucks all oxygen out of the building, protecting the centuries-old books but killing anyone unlucky enough to be in the stacks at the time. While this claim is incorrect, it is somehow what the Fire System does to some extent. From Beinecke’s opening in 1963, the library’s fire protection plan used a Cardox system that would flood the stacks with CO2 that prevents the reacting gas – oxygen in this case – from reaching a temperature high enough to incubate a fire. In the process, it dilutes the oxygen in the environment to a level that can pose health risks to humans, though not enough to kill them. Beinecke moved away from that system in the 1980s, in favour of a system that would flood the stacks with a combination of Halogen and Inert gases. These gases are extremely unreactive and prevent the fueling of fire via oxygen. This combination of gases is safe but it does slightly reduce oxygen from the atmosphere. Beinecke rewired the system again in its roughly $73 million renovation in 2016. In the case of a fire, the library now floods the stacks with a greener chemical, ECARO-25. Extensive toxicity testing has proved that the gas is safe to use for humans.
A treasure like this holds a colossal importance, not just for a specific library, college, or nation but for the whole of humanity. Our literary progress, our history of civilization are reflected throughout the pages scattered along this historical bibliotheca. Yale’s Magnificent Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library is truly an Archive of Human Civilization; etched within every nook and cranny of this wonderment are pages of human history and it truly is the pride of every person, and one of the most substantial wonders and treasures of the world.
Leave a Reply