THE TWIG
NEWSPAPEf^ OF THE STUDENTS OF MEREDITH CO.LEQE
Vol. LXII NUMBER 2
MEREDITH COLLEGE
SEPTEMBER 19. 1983
Meredith Abroad seeks interested students
Now is ttie time to sign up
for Meredith in Great Britain
1984, according to Dr. Roger
Crook, director of the program.
Faculty memlsers in ad
dition to Dr. Crook who wiii
accompany the group this year
include Dr. Craig Greene of thie
art department and Dr. DonMhy
Preston of the math depart-
mwit.
The program wiil begin at
Meredith in May where students
wiii spend two weeks In
classes. Then the group will
nrtove to the University of
Stirling in Scotland wt>ere they
wiii spend 2^/^weeks. Finally,
the group will move to Lx>ndon
for six weeks, returning at tlie
end of July.
Courses offered this
summer include Art History,
Beginning Photography, Basic
Statistics, A History of Science,
History of Christianity in Great
Britain, and Contemporary
British Society.
“We change the course
offerings each summer to try to
givev«dety,"saidDr. Crook. He
said that 13 departments at
Meredith had l:)een involved iri
the program at least once.
The cost of the program Is
the cost of one semester at
Dr. Rosemary Hornak presented the Distinguished
Faculty Lecture on Sept. 12.
Dr. Hornak delivers
Distinguished Faculty
Lecture at Meredith
Rosemary T. Homak
delivered the Meredith College
1983 Distingished Faculty Lec-
tureentitled, "Breaking the Bar
riers to Wonrten's Achievement:
The Spiral of Success" on Sep*
tembw 12 at 8:00 p.m. in Jones
Auditorium.
in April Dr. Hornak received
the Pauline Davis Perry Award
for Exc^lence in Teaching and
was described by Meredith
President John Wfeems during
the award presentation as "an
excellwit teacher with high ex-.
pectations of herself and her-
students."
A member of the MetKlith
faculty since 1977, Dr. Hon^
is currently assistant professor
of psychology and has been an
adjunct professor of psycho
logy at North Carolina State
University since 1979., She
graduated from Wheeling Col
lege and Ohio State University,
and specializes in cognitive and
developmental psychology. Sex
roles and psychology of women
are among Dr. Homak’s in
terests, which she applies as a
certified childbirth educator.
The Faculty Distinguished
Lectures are given annually by
an outstanding faculty member
at Meredith. This tradition was
begun during the 1963-1964
academic year by the president
of the College at that time. Dr.
Carlyle Campbell.
Meredith during the next school
year. This cost includes
transportation from Boston
overseas and back and room,
board, and tuition.
The group that comprised
Meredith Abroad this past
summer Included 40 students
and three instructors. While in
Scotland, the group went on
excursions to the Trc^achs
Mountains, Glamis Castle, Sir
Walter Scott's home and fishing
villages on the Coast of Fife and
St. Andrews. Most students
also went to Edinborough.
In London, the group
stayed-at the Maria Assumpta
Centre which was a five-minute
walk from Kensington Palace
and 15 minutes by subway to
the theatre district. The group
took excursions to Canterbury,
Stonehenge. Bath, Stratford
and Oxford.
Dr. Crook and his wife had
a unique experience when they
met the Queen Mother with a
small gnsup at Clarence House.
Or. Crook said that stie spent a
few minutes talking to each
pereon in the group, nreking
them feel comfortable.
Students interested in
Meredith Abroad ‘84 should go
by and see Dr. Crook, 212
Joyner. All Meredith students
are eligible, and he will take the
first 40 who sign up.
Medieval manuscripts on display
in Meredith College library
Several medieval manu
scripts from Duke Unl>«rsity
will be on display until October
10 at the Carlyle Campbell
Library. Arranged in cooper
ation with Dr. John Sharpe, di
rector of the Perkins Library
Rare Book Room, the manu
script exhibit is one the high
lights of the Medieval Festival
at Meredith this fall.
All of the nwiuscripts dis
played date from the thirteenth
dentury, with the exception of
Petrus Comestor'sSermofles, a
late tvyeifth-century copy made
possibly during the author's
lifetime. The manuscripts' Latin
language texts restricted their
use to scholars and preachers,
although their message often
filtered down to laymen In the
form of vemacular sermons.
Manuscript (MS.) 12 is a
vellum codex or txx>k con
taining a Franciscai breviary, a
collection of prayers said by
metnbers of the order. Pr>
duced In France, this t>reviary
contains several historiated
initials; that Is, the letter
t)eglnning a paragraph or sec
tion of the text has been en
larged and elaborately
decorated. It is Interesting to
note that if in fact this MS.
dates from the mid-thirteenth
century, then It .was copied
within 25 years after the
founding of the order by St.
Francis.
During the Middle Ages a
txxtk might tie called a "Bibie”
0i«n if it contained only a few
chapters of.Scripture. In fact It
was common practice in
medievalscr/pforifei, or copying
centers, to produce “Bibles”
consisting of'a single book or
section, ' for example the
Gospels or the Apocalypse.
MS. 32 is a case in point: it
contains the books of Job, Pro
verbs. Lamentations, and
Ecclesiates. The text begins
with an illuminated Initial, an
enlarged letter circumscribing a
picture. Another remarkable
feature of this codex are the
gold-ietter entries for two feast
days of the Virgin.
MS. 101 is a collection of
sermons by Petrus Comestor.
"Comestor," a Latin word
meaning “the eater,” is a nick
name given to this medieval
churchman because he de
voured (and presum^iy also
digested) so many txx>ks. But
Petrus was a prolific and influ
ential writeraswell; his manual
of sacred history, the HIstoria
scholastlca. found its way into
almost every library in medieval
Europe, tike the manufacture of
books, the art of preaching is a
medieval legacy that has re
sisted chahgetJown through the
centuries. Still, because his
books circulated so widely in
religious milieux, ahd because
his authority inspired credence
well into the Renaissance,
Comestor’s impact on
preaching could be compared to
in that it was twice enlarged and
incessantly recopied; well over
100 copies of theAu/ora sur
vive today, and many others
nrtust have t>een lost, victims of
fire, war and time.
The Aurora is a “Bible,"
but^nce again-not in our
sense of the word. Rrst, it is in
poerti form. Petois no doubt
believed the transformation of
Bible stories into rhyn« would
enable his readers (as well as
those who only heard the text
read) to memorize Scripture
nxre easily; thus the pleasant
and the useful commingle in his
book. Second, theAunws con
tains vast sections of com
mentary explaining the different
meanlngs-from literal to alle-
gorlcal~of the scriptural text,
Co
that of John Wesley in modern
times.
MS. 110 contains a copy of
Petrus de Riga’s Aurora biblla
verslflcata, a rhymed Bible with
commentary written toward the
end of the twelfth century. Al
though literacy in general and
knowledge of Latin in particular
wrere usually limited to the
priesthood, we can call Petrus’
Auron a medieval "best seller'’
Modems tend to consider
the Middle Ages as a “culture of
the book;" in reality it was a
culture of the spoken word. The
manuscript display cleariy
shows the form and functions
of the medieval codex, but the
real wonder is that these texts
sen/ed to incubate reflection,
discussion and debate through
out medieval Europe. No less
man/eious, indeed, is that these
fragile texts havesunived at all.