Day 5 at Manuscript camp

Another busy day!

9-10 ‘Documents of Practice’ Lecture by Ruth Marzo Karras

1030-1150 ‘Textual transcription: The Customary of Agen’ Lecture by Ron Akehurst

1-3 Practicum ‘Identifying ‘mystery’ manuscripts

315-345 ‘Electronic Manuscripts’ Lecture by Matthew Heintzelman and Theresa Vann

345-430 Free Time!

7 Movie: ‘Indian Jones and the Last Crusade’

Today we got to play around with ‘mystery manuscripts’! They have oddball manuscripts stored in a box and no one is sure where they came from or what they are. I first picked one that looking interesting, but upon closer inspection realized that it looked like someone’s homework! So I grabbed a different manuscript. My second turned out to be from December 30, 1859 and had to do with some borrowing money or something from the Sliver guild in Rome. It had a bunch of signatures on it and was made out of parchment.

During Free time, I finally got a chance to visit St. John’s Pottery Studio and got to meet Richard Bresnahan. Richard was very nice and one of his interns took me on a tour of the studio and the kilns. It was amazing to watch Richard make pottery while talking on the phone! I was there to get a few cups for a friend, but Richard was not sure which piece of pottery I was describing. So that was a bummer. I did get a cup for myself.  He has been here at St. John’s for over 30 years and he told me that they dough up clay in the area to last 300 years. The kilns were amazing. They will next be fired in 2010. The is a front and back to the kilns and their stack of firewood would make anyone jealous!

After the Pottery Studio I ran into St. Cloud to get gas for the car and was looking for the Islamic Center of St. Cloud. I managed to find their old address, get lost, find the new place, took a few photos, got lost, detoured due to road construction and then made my way back to St. John’s. Long day. Now off to watch ‘Indian Jones and the Last Crusade’!