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Priceless Waxman Collection radiates history of ideas
By David J. Craig
When Bastiano de Rossi and 37 other scholars from the Accademia della
Crusca began work on what now is considered the first modern critical
edition of the Divine Comedy in 1590, they weren't inspired purely by
a passion for Dante Alighieri's poetry. The Accademia, or Crusca Academy
as it is known today, consisted of Florentine intellectuals who were determined
to make their city's dialect the national language of Italy. They believed
publishing a definitive edition of the Divine Comedy was a prerequisite.
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| Samuel M. Waxman, a professor of romance languages at BU from 1910 to 1955 and chairman of the department from 1937 to 1955, established a fund in 1980 for the purchase of rare books. | |
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The academy's version was printed in Florence in 1595 by Domenico Manzani
and featured Pietro Bembo's complete 1502 translation and 495 critical
annotations drawn from nearly 100 other manuscripts. Critics at the time
generally agreed it was sloppily edited, but the academy accomplished
its goal. Its version of Dante's masterpiece quickly became the new standard
and would remain the predominant text for more than two centuries. It
set the stage for the publication in 1612 of the first Italian dictionary,
Vocabolario, which was based on the Florentine dialect.
A first edition copy of the Accademia's Divine Comedy was purchased by
BU's Department of Special Collections at an auction several years ago
and currently is on display on the first floor of Mugar Memorial Library.
The book is part of the department's Waxman Collection, which consists
of about 300 titles acquired with a fund established in 1980 by Samuel
M. Waxman (1885-1980), a professor of romance languages at BU from 1910
until 1955. Thirty-seven books from the Waxman collection are being displayed
in Mugar through the end of December.
Pocket-sized treasure
According to Peter Hawkins, a CAS professor of religion and the director
of the Luce Program in Scripture and Literary Arts, the popular success
of the Accademia's Divine Comedy is attributable partly to its physical
size, not simply to its critical offerings.
"There are many books from this period that are éditions de
luxe, or very expensive luxury items made for an elite," says Hawkins,
who often brings students to Mugar to view the text. "This particular
edition, however, was not made for aristocrats, nor is it a scholarly
version of the poem, such as the 1481 Cristofor Landino edition, with
its learned, almost line-by-line commentary. This is a relatively inexpensive
volume that could easily be transported and read. Its format shows how
at the time there was a wide range of markets for popular books such as
the Commedia, just as there was for the Bible."
The Waxman Collection focuses on books pertaining to the history of ideas
and includes literature, history, science, social science, art, and architecture,
as well as philosophy and religion titles. The literature books, including
the Divine Comedy and a 1611 second edition copy of Cervantes' Don Quixote,
are among the Special Collection items most frequently examined by BU
professors and students, according to Howard Gotlieb, director of Special
Collections.
"The objective of the collection is to obtain books that other institutions don't have, in order to attract scholars to BU and to support the University's curriculum" says Gotlieb. "Every title in the Waxman Collection was purchased for a very specific need in a specific field. Many are absolutely invaluable because there are so few in existence, and simply could not be replaced."
Waxie, bibliophile
Other titles from the collection now on display include the first Italian
edition of Plato's Phaedrus, published in 1544; the second edition of
Machiavelli's Discourses on the First Decade, published by Bernardo di
Giunta in 1531, just three weeks after the first edition, which many scholars
consider illegitimate; and the earliest edition of the complete Bible
in Spanish, translated by Cassiodoro de Reina (1520-1594), who finished
the work in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1569 after escaping the Spanish Inquisition
in 1557 and fleeing London in 1563 under accusation of heresy. De Reina's
translation became the favorite of the Spanish Reformation movement.
Waxman, or Waxie as he was known to his many friends and colleagues, also
gave Special Collections about 400 books of 20th-century Spanish literature,
which was his passion. He was chairman of the department of romance languages
from 1937 until his retirement in 1955 and continued to lecture until
1970.
"The library uses the Waxman gift to purchase books of great rarity,
but also to add to its general stacks, particularly in the area of Spanish
literature," says Gotlieb, who was a close friend of Waxman's and
describes him as "a tiny man with a booming voice" and a "gentleman
of the old school," who always had a flower in his buttonhole. "We've
created one of the best collections of rare Spanish literature in this
country and have every major dealer looking for things for us. Waxman
would have been delighted; he was especially keen on the Spanish writers.
He always differentiated between the Spanish writers and those from Latin
America who wrote in Spanish. He had a great affinity for the Iberian
peninsula."
For more information about the exhibitions organized by the Department of Special Collections, visit http://www.bu.edu/speccol/. Much of the information in this story came from a Web site run by ItalNet, an international consortium of Italian studies scholars. To learn more about editions of Dante's Divine Comedy published during the Renaissance, visit http://www.italnet.nd.edu/Dante/.
9
November 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations