Victor Young Collection (39 linear feet)

The Victor Young Collection at Brandeis includes more than one hundred musical scores and LP recordings as well as awards (including an Oscar and Golden Globe), clippings, photographs, and memorabilia. Donated to Brandeis by Young’s family, the collection is frequently used by musicologists and other researchers.

Victor Young (1900–1956) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and violinist who wrote and directed music for many Hollywood motion pictures in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Born in Chicago, Young lived for much of his childhood in Poland, where he studied violin; in 1917 he became a violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic before returning to the United States and embarking on his career as a music director and composer.

Having worked in the 1920s as a vaudeville violinist, a theatre concertmaster, and the assistant musical director for the Chicago-based Balaban and Katz theatres—where he arranged music for silent film accompaniment—Young was displaced temporarily by the coming of sound film into radio and recording work. In 1935 he was wooed to Hollywood by Paramount Pictures, most likely on the basis of his work at the Balaban and Katz chain, which the studio owned. For the rest of Young’s life he wrote and directed music at Paramount, including scores for Love Letters, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Shane, and many films by key Paramount directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Preston Sturges, and Mitchell Leisen. However, several of the best-remembered films in Young’s filmography were produced elsewhere, as the composer also worked at Columbia (Golden Boy), Republic (Johnny Guitar), and director-producer John Ford’s independent Argosy Pictures (The Quiet Man, Rio Grande), among others. Along the way he racked up twenty-two Academy Award nominations—four each in 1940 and 1941—before finally winning a posthumous Oscar for Paramount’s Around the World in 80 Days in 1956.

Critics and scholars have long noted that Young’s compositions are distinguished especially by a gift for melody, and indeed, his scores often produced hit songs, such as “Stella by Starlight,” a theme originally from The Uninvited. This skill proved to be a marketing bonanza for Paramount, as when Peggy Lee’s recording of the title song from Golden Earrings became a jukebox standard, advertising the film well in advance of its theatrical release. But in certain ways, Young’s reputation for straightforward tunefulness worked against him; had his scores been less easy on the ears, he might have more readily attracted serious attention in a critical climate that often holds sentimentality under suspicion. Even a fellow Hollywood composer, Miklós Rózsa, could refer to Young’s “Broadway-cum-Rachmaninoff idiom” with implicit scorn, contrasting this “accepted style” with the bolder experiments he saw himself pursuing.[1]

In the most extended critical discussion of Young to date, William Darby and Jack Du Bois identify the composer’s other distinguishing trait as “adaptability.”[2] Indeed, his genre-spanning filmography reveals a striking chameleonic skill, as do his impersonations of national and ethnic idioms: Irish in The Quiet Man, Spanish in For Whom the Bell Tolls, “Gypsy” in Golden Earrings, countless others in the Oscar-winning Around the World in Eighty Days, which must have been a dream project for Young for this very reason. While versatility of style (along with speed) was one of the basic job qualifications for a studio composer, Young seemed to submerge his personality more thoroughly than others. (The authorial fingerprints of a Korngold, Herrmann, or even a Steiner score are bold by comparison to Young’s.) Yet this is part of what made him an exemplary studio-system composer of the classical Hollywood era, and what makes him a crucial figure still for film-music studies: his mastery of the system’s demand for effective yet unobtrusive music to give a final polish to its products. A quotation in a 1955 Chicago Sun-Times article sums up Young’s musical aims in terms that also neatly convey something of the man’s uninhibited personality: “Writing a movie score is like a boy sitting in a balcony with a girl: He must be forceful enough to impress the girl—but not loud enough to attract the usher!”

Other literature on Victor Young:

Kathryn Kalinak, How the West was Sung: Music in the Westerns of John Ford (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).

Scott D. Paulin, “Piercing Wagner: The Ring in Golden Earrings,” in Wagner and Cinema, ed. Jeongwon Joe and Sander Gilman (Indiana University Press, forthcoming).

W. Anthony Sheppard, “An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 54 (2001): 303-357.

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[1] Miklós Rózsa quoted in Royal S. Brown, Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994), 96. Young “worked at a time and for a studio where nothing experimental or outlandish was wanted or even tolerated.” Tony Thomas, Music for the Movies, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1997), 50-55.

[2] William Darby and Jack Du Bois, American Film Music: Major Composers, Techniques, Trends, 1915–1990 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1990), 267-302.

description by Scott D. Paulin, Department of Music, Dartmouth College

Sermones Thesauri Novi de Tempore, 1496, bound in Hebrew manuscript

The adage “never judge a book by its cover” could have been coined to describe the work we are highlighting this month: Sermones Thesauri Novi de Tempore, by Peter Paludanus, Patriarch of Jerusalem (died 1342), published in Nuremberg by Anthonium Koberger in 1496.

Peter was a French theologian and archbishop. Among his works are commentaries on all the books of the Bible and on Thomas Aquinas. He devoted most of his life to scholarship, but he did go on several important missions for the pope, who in 1329 consecrated him Patriarch of Jerusalem. He negotiated with the sultan in Egypt over the status of the Holy Land, but did not succeed in winning it back for Christianity. Around 1332 King Philip of France made him head of a group of high-ranking clergy charged to investigate the religious views of the pope, who was cleared by them of all false charges.

Our book is a collection of Peter’s sermons. Works printed through 1500 are known as incunabula (singular incunabulum, also called incunable). The word means “swaddling clothes,” connoting the early stages of printing.

As interesting as this book is for its content, what is particularly fascinating is one of its physical features. Its outside binding is not what one might expect: it is a folio from a medieval Hebrew manuscript. The reuse of manuscripts was common in the Middle Ages; thousands of manuscripts in Latin and Greek were “recycled.” Sometimes the original ink was erased and a scribe wrote a different work on the parchment. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, folios from manuscripts were also used for binding books.

Hebrew manuscripts shared this fate. Undoubtedly, some Hebrew manuscripts were confiscated by the Church or by secular authorities, but in some cases they might have simply gone the way of all manuscripts, which lost their uniqueness in some people’s eyes after the invention of printing.

Over 8,000 fragments (almost all of them folio-sized rather than in small pieces) from Hebrew manuscripts have been discovered in book bindings in Italy alone, as well as about 2,000 in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Spain. They date from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries. Many of them, particularly those in Italy, have been preserved and studied in recent decades. It is ironic that what would seem to have been a very cavalier, and perhaps sometimes disdainful, attitude toward these manuscripts might actually have saved some of them from destruction.

One collection of such Hebrew manuscripts, found in Italy, can serve as an example of the subjects treated in these manuscript fragments: biblical text 33%; biblical commentaries 15%; Talmud and related works 8%; rabbinics 28%; philosophy and mysticism 7%; dictionaries and grammars 3%; medicine, geometry and astronomy 3%; liturgy 2%. The many Talmudic fragments are of particular importance for establishing the accurate text. Other unknown or missing works can be at least partially put together. This has already led to important scholarly discoveries.

The particular manuscript folio used to bind our work is taken from the liturgy of the morning Amidah for Yom Kippur. The major part is a liturgical poem by Meshullam ben Kalonymus entitled El be-Rov Etsot Tiken. Meshullam (tenth to eleventh centuries) was a member of one of the leading rabbinic families of Italy and a major scholar and poet. Many of his liturgical poems are still recited on Yom Kippur, including Amits Koah, which tells the story of the Yom Kippur service in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.

For additional information about the reuse of Hebrew manuscripts and the recent research on them, see Mauro Perani, “The ‘Italian Genizah,’” at http://www.morasha.it/zehut/mp06_italian_ghenizah.html.

description by Jim Rosenbloom, Judaica Librarian

14th-century Italian illuminated breviary leaf: Feast of Epiphany

The Brevarium or Breviary is a book containing the offices, hymns, and prayers for the canonical hours, which are appointed by the Catholic Church to be recited daily by priests and members of certain religious orders. The first of the seven canonical hours is matins, traditionally celebrated at daybreak, followed by lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline, the last of which is sung just before retiring. Nones, though traditionally sung at three in the afternoon, was gradually celebrated earlier and earlier, until it marked the middle of the day, giving us the English word “noon.” A simplified version of the breviary, known as the Book of Hours, was produced for laypeople, and many copies of both the Book of Hours and the Breviary contain numerous manuscript illuminations, providing some of the finest and most well-preserved examples of the art of the medieval period. This leaf, cut from a Medieval Latin breviary, contains the first part of the liturgy for matins on the Feast of the Epiphany.

Epiphany, which means “appearance” or “revelation” in Greek, is celebrated on the sixth of January, the day after Christmastide concludes (the “twelve days of Christmas” end on January fifth). The festival marks, for Western Christians, the Journey of the Magi to visit the infant Christ, as described in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel:

9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:9-11 [KJV]).

In the Eastern Church, this festival has different associations; it celebrates the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, also called the Theophany, the manifestation of God to the world, since this story describes the descent of the holy spirit in the form of a dove upon Jesus at the time of his baptism, during which the voice of God was heard, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (cf. Matthew 3).

These two different traditions of celebrating Epiphany are important in relation to this leaf in that the imagery used in the illuminations partakes of both the Western and the Eastern traditions, despite the fact that this text was written in Latin in northern Italy and thus was clearly produced for the Western Church. These illuminations are particularly striking and well-preserved, and they include, on the recto, one historiated initial, two large scenes (7 x 6 cm. each) painted in the lower margin, and an elaborate three-quarter border, while the verso contains two fine initials in blue, red, and white with a partial border. The first of these illuminations follows the Western tradition of associating Epiphany with the Journey of the Magi, as the historiated initial “D” of Deus contains within it a miniature of the visit of the three magi to King Herod as they were journeying toward Bethlehem to see the infant Jesus, an event described in Matthew, chapter two:

1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 23 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him….7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also (Matthew 2:1-3,7-8 [KJV]). Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Herod is depicted bearded, seated on a green chair to the left, clothed in blue and brown, while before him, on the right, stand the three wise men, the first clothed in white and brown, the second in blue such that his body nearly fades entirely into the blue background, and the third shown standing behind the others, with only his head visible.

In addition to this historiated initial D, two small roundels appear in the upper margin, each depicting a woman’s face, hooded by a blue robe and surrounded by a halo. Because of the close links between Epiphany and the story of the birth of Jesus, with Epiphany following immediately after the conclusion of Christmas celebrations, and because of the blue color of the robe and the gold-leaf halo that surround this woman, these roundels may be provisionally identified as depicting the Virgin Mary, further emphasizing the practice of the Latin West in its celebrations of this festival.

By contrast, the two rather more elaborate scenes painted in the lower margin partake more of traditional Eastern associations. The first is a depiction of the Baptism of Jesus in the left portion of the lower margin. Jesus is portrayed in the waters of the Jordan River, while John the Baptist, clothed in a grey robe with a black fringe, stands on the shore, reaching out to perform the baptism. Above Jesus, a dove is shown descending, representing the descent of the Holy Spirit at the time of the baptism (cf. Mark 1:10, Matthew 3:16). On the opposite bank stand two disciples, one robed in blue and white, the other in blue and orange, most likely Andrew and Peter, who are described in the gospel of John (John 1:35-42) as having witnessed this event. All four figures are portrayed with haloes surrounding their heads, painted in gold leaf. While the most likely explanation for this illumination is an Eastern influence in the manuscript, in the West baptisms were often performed on Epiphany, which could possibly account for the presence of this image.

The portrayal of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness on the right side of the lower margin is even more unusual. Jesus, depicted robed in blue and brown, clutches a bible in his left hand while he extends his right hand in a liturgical gesture of blessing. He stands in the doorway of a shelter of decidedly medieval European architecture, and the darkness of the doorway is set off by a gold-leaf halo that surrounds his head. Approaching him from the left is Satan, painted in blue with wings, horns, and a tail, carrying with him three loaves of bread, illustrating a passage from the gospel of Luke:

1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:1-4 [KJV], cf. Matthew 4:1-4, Mark 1:13).

In all three synoptic gospels the story of the temptation of Jesus immediately follows the story of Jesus’ baptism, and thus the scribe may have taken inspiration from these passages as a continuation of the imagery of the Eastern Church. However, it is also possible to see this passage as having an oblique relation to the text from Isaiah 55, which is the first reading for Epiphany and which is the text present just above this illumination. Verses two and three of this passage read as follows:

2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. (Isaiah 55:2-3 [KJV])

The parallels here are obvious, yet the narrative of the Temptation in the Wilderness is not generally a story associated with Epiphany, thus raising interesting questions about medieval hermeneutics, especially as practiced in the relations between text and imagery in illuminated religious manuscripts. The artist has paired the verse written above his work, “hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness,” with an illustration of another text, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” It is thus possible to argue that the illuminator of this manuscript, by picking this particular topic for his art, was in effect performing a reading of the passage quoted in the text above the image, choosing his own New Testament parallel to the Hebrew Bible verses appointed for the day’s reading, a parallel fitting both in its relation to the Baptism of Jesus, which the church celebrates on Epiphany in the East, and in relation to the play on consuming food that is ultimately unsatisfying versus listening to the word of God, as seen in the passage from Isaiah.

With these close associations between text and illumination in mind, a discussion of the text found on this leaf is in order, followed by a full transcription and translation. The recto of the leaf begins with an antiphon for Epiphany (Magi videntes stellam…), the use of which on Epiphany is attested in numerous breviaries and antiphoners (Cursus antiphon c3654).[1] Next is a short prayer (Deus qui hodierna?), in which the initial D of Deus is illuminated (Cursus prayer o1631).[2] This series of prayers is followed by three scripture readings from the book of Isaiah: Is. 55:1ff., 60:1ff, and 61:10ff, the text of which follows closely, but not exactly, the Vulgata Clementina. These are followed by a series of antiphons and psalms which mirror almost exactly those sung on Epiphany in the St. Albans Breviary (f. 51 r.), thus suggesting that this set of short prayers was one in wide use in the West as part of the celebration of this feast. These readings were appointed for use on Epiphany by at least one medieval rubric, the Ordo Romanus XIIIa, in which is written:

In theophania similiter lectiones tres de Esaia propheta. Prima lectio sic continent in capite: Omnes scientes venite ad aquas. Secunda lectio: Surge, inluminare, Hierusalem. Tertia lectio: Gaudens gaudebo in domino.

[Likewise in Epiphany there are three readings from the prophet Isaiah. The first reading begins: Omnes scientes venite ad aquas (Is. 55:1ff); the second reading: Surge, inluminare, Hierusalem (Is. 60:1ff); and the third reading: Gaudens gaudebo in domino (Is. 61:10ff.)]

(Andrieu, Michel. Les Ordines Romani du Haut Moyen Age, v.2. (Louvain: Specilegium Sacrum Lovaniense Administration, 1971): 487)

These readings from Isaiah would have been followed by readings from the sermons of Augustine, Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose, or others, though this leaf contains only the three scripture readings.

On the recto of the leaf, the text is fairly well preserved, though it would appear that perhaps two lines of text are missing from the top of the page, the result of a foreshortening of the leaf, likely for display purposes, sometime in the past. In addition, in one place the leaf has suffered damage that has corrupted a portion of the text, though fortunately this is in one of the scriptural quotations and this the damaged words may be easily reconstructed from other sources (Mi[sericordi]as david fideles). The verso of the leaf has suffered much more damage, likely as a result of the recto of the leaf, with its several illuminations, having been placed on display, while the verso was allowed to be damaged in the process of framing, etc. However, since the text on the verso is drawn from the second and third scripture lessons appointed for the day, dramatically faded or otherwise damaged portions may be reconstructed with relative ease. The one other puzzling textual element is the presence of the letters “re” after Deus noster in one of the prayers on the recto of the leaf. This lettering is not present in the St. Albans breviary, and I have not been able to make sense of its meaning in the text; it contains no abbreviation marks. Otherwise the text is quite readable, written in a heavily abbreviated but clean gothic book hand in two sizes, with psalms, antiphons, etc. indicated in red, as is customary.

Below follows a transcription and translation of the text found on this leaf, with the translation of the scriptural passages taken from the King James translation of the Bible. In the Latin transcription, letters in brackets were elided in the original text.

[Antiphon:] The Magi, seeing the star, said to one another: “This is the great sign of a king. Let us go and seek him and offer to him gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Prayer. O God, you who on this day revealed your only-begotten son to the people by the guidance of a star, graciously grant, that we who know you now by faith may be led on to the contemplation of your splendor. Through the same Jesus Christ.

On Epiphany. At the matins of our Lord: O Lord open my lips. Not: O God, come to my assistance. But the weekly antiphon simply begins: Bring to the Lord, you sons of God, worship the Lord in his holy temple (cf. Ps. 28:1-2). Psalm: The same (i.e. Ps. 28). Antiphon: The fury of the river delights, alleluia, the city of God, alleluia (cf. Ps. 45:5). Psalm: Our God. Antiphon: Sing psalms to our God, sing psalms, sing psalms wisely to our king (cf. Ps. 46:7). Psalm: All the peoples. Call: Let all the earth worship you and sing psalms to you. Response: Let it sing a psalm to your name, O Lord (cf. Ps. 65:4). Reading I: (Isaiah 55:1-7a [King James Version])

1 [Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money;] come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. 4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. 6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy [upon him.]

The two readings on the verso have not been transcribed, but they are from Isaiah 60:1ff. and Isaiah 61:10ff, respectively.

Language: Latin.

Date: 14^th c.

Title: Breviarium [fragment] : Feast of Epiphany.

Creator: Unidentified.

Place of creation: Northern Italy.

Physical description: Vellum, 1 leaf (2 p.) ; 25 x 31 cm.

Summary: Roman Catholic Church liturgy and ritual. Matins of the Feast of Epiphany (6 Jan.). In the Western Church, Epiphany commemorates the Journey of the three Magi to visit the infant Jesus. The first scripture reading (recto, right column) is Isaiah 55:1ff., the second (verso, left column) Isaiah 60:1ff., and the third (verso, right column) Isaiah 61:10ff., as specified in the Ordo Romanus XIIIa (see Andrieu, Michel. Les Ordines Romani du Haut Moyen Age, v.2. (Louvain: Specilegium Sacrum Lovaniense Administration, 1971): 487). Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1940 ; exhibited at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, 1948.

Note: On recto, miniature of the visit of the Magi to Herod in the D of Deus ; two scenes depicted in lower margin : on left, the Baptism of Jesus, on right, the Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness ; three-quarter border in red, blue, orange, green, brown, and gold leaf, which includes two unidentified figures, two foxes(?), and two small roundels with depictions of a woman’s face (Mary’s?) ; verso contains two initials in red, blue and white with a partial border. Vellum damaged and crudely repaired, with some small loss of text to recto, verso badly damaged and faded, with some portions now nearly unreadable ; page appears to have been foreshortened from original height, though efforts were made to spare the illuminations. Gift of Eugene Gabarty (c. 1960?) ; formerly part of the collection of Adolf von Beckerath, Berlin.

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[1] A Printed Breviary of the Use of the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans, St Albans, Hertfordshire, Published in 1532. (London, British Library, C.110.a.27); The Peterborough Antiphoner. (Cambridge, Magdalene College Ms F.4.10) [An Antiphoner of the fourteenth century from the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, Peterborough, Northamptonshire]; The Monastic Breviary of Hyde Abbey, Winchester (MS Rawlinson Liturg. e. 1.).

[2] A Printed Breviary of the Use of the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans, St Albans, Hertfordshire, Published in 1532. (London, British Library, C.110.a.27): f. 51r.

description by Adam Rutledge

Michael Lally Civil War letters, 1861-1865

Michael Lally, an immigrant to Massachusetts from Ireland, fought for the Union in more than a dozen major battles of the Civil War, including the first and second Bull Run (Manassas), the Siege of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. A soldier in the 11^th Massachusetts Regiment, Lally wrote letters from Maryland and Virginia to his wife and children in Roxbury, Massachusetts, chronicling his experiences on the front.

The collection at Brandeis includes 57 of Lally’s letters, the first dated July 16, 1861 (just before the first battle of Bull Run) and the last dated June 6, 1865 (after Lee’s surrender). The letters describe particulars of battle (“we have a good many sick and its no wonder... thur is all of 10 000 men buried here and as much as 1000 horses kild on the field….”) as well as more mundane matters, such as the need for postage stamps, handkerchiefs, a flannel shirt, or whiskey (which, to his great dismay, was removed from one of the boxes sent by his wife: “there is the meanest officers in Army that could be picked out of any nation... I am thinging if we have to go in to another fight that ther will some of them pay for robbing soldiers boxes”). Lally writes often about sending money home and asks for news of the family as well as friends and neighbors; his letters are sprinkled with prayers for his and his family’s safety and words of reassurance: “Tell Mary to write to me when she gets time and tell her no to be afread” (10 August 1863); “Tell Johnny that I will try to go hom this winter and by him a sled” (4 December 1864).

According to the Casualty Sheet, Lally was “slightly wounded” on May 5, 1862, after which he wrote these lines from Williamsburg, Virginia:

“Dear wife and children thanks be to God I have the opportunity of writing to ye once more. Hoping that it will find ye in good health as this me in at present. Thanks be to God for bringing me safe through the battle on Munday the 5 ins which was a hard day between blood and rain from 7 in the morning till 7 in the eve which I have left a good many of my comrades lying in a desolate condition before night. But thank the Lord for my safety through it. Now I sertantly hope that I will have the pleasure of seeing my little ones once more for I think the back of Sesses is broke now for we have drove them some 30 miles a through the woods, What we did not kill or woond, and the most of our Army is in hot pursuit after them on the Richmond which I think they will make another stand. But our division will not be there for the don their part of the fighting now and as swoon as ye here that Richmond falls and Northfolk the next thing you will here of going hom playing Patrick’s day (—?) through Boston.

“…Now I man to let you now that Sunday we left Yorktown and marched on words till 12 o’clock at night which we layed under the rain till morning and after one hours march we come in sight of the Rebbles works which was very strong and (supported?) with one hundred thousand men which their prisners told us. After we had not anything to do but through of knapsacks and blaiz away and in a half our after our cannon came up to us by which time we had a good many men laying dead on the field but our men held their ground until we got reainforsement about 3 or 4 o’clock which general Hooker said after, that he never witeniss so hard a battle nor never met baraver me[n] than Mass. But one of our boys ans. him back and told him that the war Irish men, which he told the general staff to give three shairs for Ireland and thur glorious boys (which she has reard?). After all day fighting we layed all night, and next morning we found them all gone and our cavalry after them. Now I hope that you will rite to me and let me now how the children is and tell Mary and Marthur that I lost ther picture on the battlefield but thanks be to God for my seafty so far. I main to let you now about the number kild and woonded. On our side is about 2000 or over for the war counting them today and berring the dead; and for the Rebbls ther is 77 hundred kild and woonded and we have three thousand of them sent to fortress Mor--? today with a good many offercers among them. Now I have to rest for I am falling asleep writing these few loynes. I wish ye good look until I see you onc mor

“Your Respectly

“Michael Lally”

In a letter from Maryland, Lally writes, “We have (conversation?) with the Rebb’s avery day and the most of thim is Irish and the most of thim from New Orleans” (November 14, 1861). This particular letter is written in berry juice (“Let me now is this writing looks red for I made this ink out of Berrys”).

A 1961 certificate from Military Division of the Adjutant General’s Office, War Records Section, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts says that Lally was enlisted on June 13, 1861, and began active duty as a private in the army that day; “wounded May 5, 1862, at Williamsburg, Va.; reenlisted March 11, 1864.” “Active service terminated as Sergeant, Company C, 11^th Regt. Mass. Volunteer Infantry on July 14, 1865,” “Having been honorably mustered out of service.” On April 21, 1863, he wrote to his wife: “In regard of what John Garvey told ye that I was in the cook house it was a mistak of his. I never was doing any such work since I com out here. I would not leave my plase in the ranks for it is no trouble for me to do my duty as a soldier.” Lally’s letters provide a glimpse into the day-to-day wants, sufferings, triumphs, and small comforts of an ordinary soldier, trying to provide for his family and to live through the war so that he can join them at home again.

photos and scans by Maggie McNeely

description by S. Shoemaker

Geneva Bible. London: Deputies of Christopher Barker, Printer to the Queenes most excellent Majestie, 1589.

The English Geneva Bible, published in completed form in 1560, was issued at a time when the Roman Catholic Church had banned all vernacular translations of the Bible. Building on the work of William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale, whose early English translation appeared in 1535, the Geneva Bible was the first English Bible to draw its translation entirely from the original Greek and Hebrew texts, rather than from the Latin Vulgate. Its title derives from the fact that the translation was prepared by English reformers living in the Protestant stronghold of Geneva, Switzerland, who had fled England during the reign of the Roman Catholic queen, Mary the First. It is also often called the “Breeches Bible” on account of its unusual translation of Genesis 3:7, in which Adam and Eve are described as fashioning “breeches” to cover their nakedness. This is the edition of the Bible that Shakespeare read, and from which he quotes in his plays. Its influence continues to the present day through its incorporation in the King James translation, which remained the standard English Bible for several centuries.

While the 1560 edition was issued in modern, Roman type, a minority of editions were printed using the older Gothic-style type, including this edition from 1589. The pages of this volume are quite dark compared to other books of a similar age, largely as a result of the lower-quality paper used in the printing of this text. This was not a mistake, for the intention of the Protestant reformers in preparing this translation was to make the Bible both more accessible and more affordable for lay Christians, although the price would still have been out of reach for the majority of the population.

As part of the Protestant teaching that every Christian had the ability to read and interpret the Bible for himself or herself, another significant innovation in the Geneva Bible is the presence of printed marginal notes, offering aids to the reader for understanding the text. These range from translators’ explanations for their choice of words to theological exposition, and it is the latter that exhibit this edition’s strong anti-Catholic bias. Attacks on the Roman Catholic Church are especially prevalent in the marginal notes to the book of Revelation, one example of which may be seen in the explanation for Rev. 17:3-4, found in notes d and f in the margin.

Geneva Bible – Revelation 17:3-4

3 So he caried mee away into the wildernesse in the Spirite, and I sawe a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured (d) beast, full of names of blasphemie, which had seven heads and ten hornes.

4 And the (f) woman was arayed in purple and skarlet, and guilded with golde, and precious stones, and pearles, and had a cup of golde in her hand; full of abominations, and filthinesse of her fornication.

(d) The beast signifieth the ancient Rome; the woman that sitteth thereon, the newe Rome which is the Papistrie, whose crueltie and bloodshedding is declared by scarlet.

(f) This woman is the Antichrist, that is, the Pope with the whole body of his filthy creatures, as is expounded, Verse 18. whose beauty onely standeth in outward pompe and impudency, and craft like a strumpet.

Further Reading:

Geneva Bible, 1589. Main Library – Special Collections – Rare BS170 1589.

A copy of this edition in the British Library is also available online through LOUIS (search “Geneva Bible electronic resource”). Brandeis also owns another copy, from 1599 (Rare BS170 1599), and a modern facsimile of the 1^st edition of 1560 (Rare BS170 1560a).

Norton, David. A textual history of the King James Bible. (NY : Cambridge UP, 2005) [BS186 .N67 2005]

Hammond, Gerald. The making of the English Bible. (Manchester, England : Carcanet New Press, 1982)

description by Adam Rutledge

S.M.S., William Copley, Letter Edged in Black Press, Inc., 1968

At Brandeis we are lucky to have a complete set of the rare, serial-box surrealist publication conceived by New York artist William N. Copley (1919-1996) and known by the acronym S.M.S. (Shit Must Stop). The work is a series of folders, available by subscription, containing objects and artworks contributed by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Ray Johnson, and Man Ray. As a publication, its mission was to question the notion of art objects as belonging in museums and galleries by bringing the work to the fingertips of the subscribers. S.M.S. was produced in small runs, and the sets Copley, clearly an archivist at heart, donated to the New Museum of Contemporary Art were destroyed in a flood (Heller, 150). So why is this publication important to look at?

Besides the breathtaking images and objects reproduced, Copley has given the subscriber a chance to interact directly with important contemporary artists such as Yoko Ono, Christo, and Roy Lichtenstein (among others) and their works, including smashed tubes of paint, audio recordings, drawings, letters, and even pill casings. Every aspect of the “magazine” is well designed and faithfully reproduced. The artists included were given only $100 for their contributions (the same as the price of the magazine), but every measure was taken to painstakingly reproduce the work, making the experience of looking through the set an incredibly tactile one.

Copley himself only contributed an artwork once. The folio “The Barber's Shop” shows a series of documents and letters between Maestro Gerhard Nonmemacher, the City of Chicago, and Pablo Picasso regarding a copyright suit between Nonmemacher’s barber shop and the city for reproducing a drawing of Picasso’s public sculpture on his business cards. Nonmemacher writes (and Copley reproduces): “please tell me that you have no objection to my using your lady on the enclosed card, and please tell me that she truly belongs to all the people of Chicago for their use and enjoyment.” Copley’s interest in this case has everything to do with his beliefs about art and democracy, as he was interested in pushing the boundaries of art and the audience’s encounter with objects.

The serial lasted only six issues, and Brandeis has perfect-condition samples of each.

Heller, Steven. “Serial-Box Surrealism.” Print, no. 2, 2007: 148–153.

description by Katie Hargrave