Class Notes- 10/11/12

Ellen started us off by pulling three selections from the archive for our perusal. The first, Shakespeare’s first folio, has a magic inherent it’s expensiveness. When it was first issued, it was worth the equivalent of three loaves of bread. Recently, one went up for auction at 6.6 million, and this one’s nicer! Some folios have been taken apart or are imperfect somehow, this copy is beautiful. What is the magic of seeing this book, at a moment when you can see twenty digitized copies online? Compare it to the other folio, a Jonson, who was a more popular contemporary, which is worth about 40 grand today. The difference between the two is part of what we’re trying to figure out- the romance of the archive. The third book- the dramatic portrait gallery- was a series of illustrations of actors in Shakespearean roles. This book was bought unbound, open to all kinds of uses- dramatic folios are an innovation of this time. Jonson decided to publish in folio, without which we would have lost a huge amount of work. 

We then presented our finds from the archive- my group started with the book of hours. Amy mentioned that the illumination of a funeral is relevant to our discussion of Richard III, because the Mass would have been said on All Soul's Day, the day Buckingham met his untimely fate. We talked about how the book inspired us to think about two different types of performances- first our own performance of nervously handling the book, then our understanding of the book as it would have been used.

We moved on to the miniature book on dandies. We talked about the use of satire and how it is shown using the pop-up mechanics. I asked if women could be called dandies, too- according to this book, they can! We talked about the appropriateness of making a satirical book with more adult concepts for children, and the message of simplicity and humility that the author was trying to portray.

Next was the death portrait and the floral design made of human hair. We talked about the origin of the objects, which we have very little information on, but which obviously meant very much to someone. Jennifer mentioned that these kinds of photographs were pretty common- people would save up to have their death portrait taken. We talked about how our ideas of what is and isn't appropriate about death have changed- that we find such images disturbing today, now that we have a huge amount of memorabilia to remember our loved ones with.

We ended with Odet's death mask- Ellen asked what the scholarly use of such an item would be. Abraham Lincoln's death mask is mentioned in virtually all of his biographies- usually in reference to the peaceful expression on his face. We talked about the difference between communal history and personal history and the things we consider appropriate in relation to each. Ellen mentioned that it was appropriate that three of our four archive findings were related to death, showing people's desire to memorialize.