A Manuscript is its Own Laboratory

A recently-acquired 15th century legal manuscript provides a unique glimpse of medieval Jewish life in what is now the Czech Republic. University faculty and students will use this resource as a portal into Jewish life and civic rituals. The University has few manuscripts like this, so the joint purchase with the Newberry Library of Chicago makes available study and research that had been limited on campus. The purchase combined the resources of the University Libraries; Center for Medieval Studies; the Center for Jewish Studies; Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch; and Center for Early Modern History with those of the Newberry, an independent research library and educational institution concentrating in the humanities. Since the 1990s, the Newberry has been making joint acquisitions with academic libraries around the country, helping build their own collection and those of other institutions while pooling resources for distinctive acquisitions. The volume will divide its time between the Newberry and University Libraries’ Special Collections and Rare Books unit.