Latin Students Visit Rare Books Collection at Johns Hopkins University

Teacher Jeff Streed’s Advanced Topics in Latin students were fortunate to visit Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Library, where they were hosted by head curator Dr. Paul Espinosa.
For the last two months, the five students worked with books from Episcopal’s own rare books collection, and the Peabody Library visit gave them an opportunity to connect their work to the work of professional scholars.

“Dr. Espinosa had set up about 20 spectacular books from the Peabody Library’s collection that were connected to the students’ work at EHS. What he told them about these books and our books tied what they had learned on their own with what scholars in the field had determined,” says Jeff.  

“I was so impressed with the library. I learned about the tremendous intellectual achievements humans have made and the dedication it would have required to explore how humans built up their knowledge,” says Leo Zhang ’17. “I particularly liked the curator's presentation on the history of book production, from handwritten books to those made by the printing press. I already learned about bookbinding and the invention of the printing press in class, but Dr. Espinosa connected various dots in my head by connecting the church, the process of how the printing press became used, and the importance of the availability of books.” 

Duncan Agnew '17 also learned much from the experience. "Over the past several months, we have worked closely with Episcopal's rare book collection, translating 17th century works that cover topics like physics, mathematics, and music. At Johns Hopkins, we were able to extend our study of ancient documents, looking at early Roman poetry and more recent books on philosophy and science. Most interestingly, though, we were lucky enough to see a few "friendship albums," which scholars often kept as personal mementos of their close peers at higher learning institutions. Overall, the trip offered the perfect conclusion to our intensive study of rare books."

Jeff has been taking his students to see the rare books collections at Johns Hopkins and Princeton University for more than eight years. “From the alumni who have carried on from this experience in college and beyond, I can guarantee that they won’t have the chance to handle books like these again until graduate school — if they’re lucky!”
 
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