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Dateline: 1/24/2008

GONZAGA UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
Dale Goodwin, Director
Peter Tormey, Associate Director

'Treasures from the Vault' Debut Feb. 4 at Foley

William Hutchinson Cowles, 3rd Rare Books Library

A 1484 Roman Missal and first editions of 20th century Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh, some illustrated by Waugh, are among the highlights to be displayed in Gonzaga University’s “Treasures from the Vault: Rare Books from the Jesuit Heritage.”

This debut exhibition, which opens Feb. 4 in the Cowles Rare Books Library on the third floor of Gonzaga’s Foley Center Library, runs through June 6. The collection includes more than 3,000 volumes of rare books and manuscripts in philosophy, theology, literature and art, including the original edition of the Douai-Rheims Bible (New Testament in 1582, Old Testament in 1609).

The exhibition showcases what had been known as “The Mount St. Michael’s Collection,” the rare books from the Jesuit seminary at Mount Saint Michael’s (near Spokane, Wash.), and from the Jesuit scholasticates at Sheridan, Ore., and Port Townsend, Wash. The books were transferred to Gonzaga when those institutions closed in the 1960s and in 1970, and were purchased by Gonzaga from the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus. To describe this body of books better, it has been renamed “The Gonzaga Collection: Rare Books from the Jesuit Oregon Province.”

An expanded online version of the exhibition will be included on Gonzaga’s rare books Web site. While the exhibition is limited to having each book displayed in one position, the online version will feature additional pages and details from various volumes. For instance, the whole of Psalm 21 from the Douai Rheims Bible will be viewable online, as will bookstamps from various Jesuit institutions in the United States and Europe.

A free public reception to mark the opening of the exhibition will be held from 7-8:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 29. The regular exhibition hours will be Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-noon, and 1-4:30 p.m.; noon-2 p.m. on Saturday, and closed Sundays. The Cowles Rare Book Library will remain open during the lunch hour on the first Tuesday of each month while the exhibition is up (Feb. 5, March 4, April 1, May 6, and June 3) to facilitate viewing by Gonzaga faculty, staff and students. The exhibition will be closed for holidays Feb. 18, March 8, 15, 21-24.

The collection is being cataloged into WorldCat to make it available to scholars everywhere.

For more information or to arrange a free Docent Tour, contact Catherine Brown Tkacz, Ph.D., an independent scholar and curator of the exhibition, at (509) 484-5562 or via e-mail.
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