Courtesy of Alexa Winik at Literary Arts
On March 4, the Lewis & Clark Society of Fellows and the LC English Department hosted Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lisa Fagin Davis’s lecture, “Scattered Leaves: Otto Ege in Oregon.” Lisa Fagin Davis is the executive director of the Medieval Academy of America. The lecture, which marked the end of the library’s exhibit on medieval books, focused on the identification and recovery of pages removed from original medieval manuscripts by notorious collector Otto Ege.
Davis began the lecture by defining fragmentology, her area of study and the focus of the lecture. Fragmentology focuses on pages that were separated from larger manuscripts, as opposed to examining complete texts.
Davis took the audience on a journey through history to explore how these manuscript pages — referred to as leaves — ended up in Oregon. She prefaced this by explaining that the medieval aesthetic is part of the American story; movements in history have used medieval life as an ideological and aesthetic aspiration, and the acquisition of manuscripts is representative of that history. She pointed to the Medieval Portland website that highlights both medieval and pseudo-medieval buildings and collections in Portland.
Moving into the bulk of the lecture, Davis explained the background of Otto Ege and his work. Ege was a collector of manuscripts as well as a bookseller who began breaking apart complete medieval manuscripts in his collection in the 1930s and ’40s. He sold these individual leaves to smaller collectors, museums, libraries and individuals across the country. He justified this practice, Davis said, by claiming that because of how expensive entire manuscripts were, breaking them apart and selling individual leaves helped him put medieval scripts in the smallest collectors’ hands.
Davis’ work lies in identifying these Ege leaves, which have been scattered throughout the country. She explained that Ege collected thematic portfolios — collections of leaves that fit specific themes. An identification system was developed to understand which codex each leaf in each collection belonged to. With this, Davis developed an open-source guide to help researchers identify leaves with Ege.
Davis went on to examine in detail some of the Ege leaves found in Oregon. Through this, she gave insight into the process of identifying leaves by the handwriting and types of embellishments, among other factors. By tracking purchases from the Lima Public Library in Ohio, which sold leaves on Ege’s behalf, Davis identified three private purchases in Oregon. She also identified several leaves at the Portland Art Museum. In total, Davis has identified 13 leaves across six different collections in Oregon that came from Ege.
An interesting highlight of the lecture was when Davis explained how these manuscripts were made. Parchment was made from the skin of an animal, cut into rectangular pieces and folded in half to create two attached leaves. They were then written on, decorated and stacked together to create a finished book. Davis elaborated that eventually people did not want to keep slaughtering animals, so they recycled old parchment by scraping off the ink and writing over it. Part of how Davis and other scholars identify certain leaves as parts of specific codexes is that they can see some of the old text underneath and match it to other leaves. Modern imaging technology, Davis said, can reveal the ink underneath the visible text, even if it is not visible to the naked eye.
Davis concluded the lecture by describing how these scattered leaves represent a uniquely American ideal of harvesting materials; an ideal that values individual ownership and capitalization. She advocated for the importance of being able to connect leaves with each other, even though the manuscripts cannot be physically reassembled. Identifying Ege leaves and understanding where they came from, what they belong to, and where they are now can teach us important lessons about both medieval and American history.
Davis hosted a short Q&A after the lecture, where attendees asked questions about medieval handwriting styles, Ege himself and more. Davis also encouraged attendees to check out the “Shaping the Soul” exhibit in Watzek, praising the manuscripts in the collection for their beauty.
“Parchment endures,” said Davis when she was asked about why she enjoys fragmentology. She explained that these pieces of paper are hundreds of years old, have made their way across the Atlantic, been separated from their original bindings, and eventually ended up in the Pacific Northwest, where they are still vibrant and appreciated. This endurance exemplifies the history Davis wants to highlight in her lecture and her work. Although the “Shaping the Soul” exhibit has closed, the Medieval Portland website is an excellent resource to learn more about and interact with medieval history in Oregon.
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