Touching incunabula

Members of the 1999 University of Virginia summer class at Oxford University were allowed to examine copies of texts including an early version of "The Canterbury Tales," at the Bodleian Library. (Don Dale photo, 1999)

I was shocked.

Others in the class didn't seem to be bothered in the least.

But we were all fascinated.

Our Medieval cathedrals class at Oxford had received a special invitation from the university's Bodleian Library to examine -- and handle -- books from the library's special collection of incunabula, early books generally printed before 1501.

The Bodleian is the primary research library at Oxford University and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. The first library at Oxford was founded in the 1300s. In 1598, the library was revitalized when Thomas Bodley, a former fellow of Merton College at Oxford, began to support its development.

The Bodleian's many treasures include four copies of the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible from about 1455, and an early version of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" printed in 1477 by William Caxton. It also houses a Shakespeare First Folio from 1623.

What shocked me was that my classmates and I were given permission to examine the books, touch them, pick them up, and turn their pages -- all with our bare hands. My experience at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for three decades was that only a select few staff members were allowed to touch such rare objects. Those who were allowed to do so had to wear white cotton gloves. At VMFA, no object from the collection was touched at all without a clearly defined purpose. Satisfying curiosity didn't qualify as a purpose.

But in a private room at the Bodleian, the 20 of us in the class crowded around a table and -- very carefully and reverently -- looked at, touched, picked up, and turned the pages of some of the most ancient, rare and valuable English-language books extant today.

For a group of people with immense respect for the English language and its origins, the written word, and the Medieval era, it was a thrilling experience.