In the early hours of a Wednesday morning in May, a small team of Library staff and a UBC professor gathered in a boardroom at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre to bid on a rare Middle English manuscript, armed with $100K and the adrenalin to acquire what would be a first for a Canadian university.
The manuscript, The Chastysing of Godde’s Children (c.1400), was being auctioned by Christie’s London and financial support had been secured from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation, UBC’s Faculty of Arts and the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections. The support offered by the B.H. Breslauer Foundation marked the first time that this organization agreed to fund a purchase by a Canadian institution.
The air was tense with anticipation as staff from the Library’s Development, Finance, Technical Services and Rare Books and Special Collections team gathered with History Professor Richard Pollard as the auction began in London at 10:30 am (2:30 am Pacific Standard Time). The Library’s bidder was a Christie’s New York agent, who kept the team up to date throughout the auction.
The auctioneer and the sharp crack of the hammer could be heard distinctly over the phone as the lots sold quickly for close to their original estimates. Bidding for The Chastysing of Godde’s Children started fast and furious and quickly rocketed to £105,000 – more than 2.5 times Christie’s high estimate of £40,000 – at which point it sold to an unknown bidder.
Medieval manuscripts are cross-disciplinary in their appeal, and can be used as resources for students and scholars of history, art, English, the classics, religious studies and paleography – the study of script. “It brings students into the period in a way that lecturing in a classroom doesn’t,” noted Pollard, “and it allows entry to somebody’s mind from the past.
The Library’s interest in building a teaching collection of medieval manuscripts comes on the heels of acquiring the Compendium Thelogicae Veritatis earlier this year, a 700 year old book that is currently the oldest in the Library’s collection.
Although the UBC team was unsuccessful, the Library learned tremendously through this auction experience. The team and others are looking forward to the next time a rare asset such as this becomes available.
This story originally appeared in the 2014 summer issue of the Friends newsletter.