Case Western Reserve University`s Otto Ege and the

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WHEN: January 20, 12pm
WHERE: Kelvin Smith Library, Freedman Center
The Beauvais Missal Beauvais Missal is one of the best-known victims of mid-twentiethcentury American biblioclasm, dismembered and its leaves scattered. The manuscript was
written in or near Beauvais, France, in the last quarter of the thirteenth century and was used
early on at the cathedral there. The manuscript was purchased from Sotheby’s by American
industrialist William Randolph Hearst, who owned it until 1942 when he sold it through
Gimbel Brothers to New York dealer Philip Duschnes, who cut it up and began selling leaves
less than one month later. He passed the remnants on to his friend and associate, Case
Western professor Otto Ege, who scattered it through his usual means, by gift or sale. This
paper will introduce the incipient digital reconstruction of the ninety-six known leaves of the
Beauvais Missal and present initial findings based on an analysis of the extant portion of the
manuscript, focusing in particular on the leaf owned by CWRU.
LISA FAGIN DAVIS received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University in 1993. She has catalogued
medieval manuscript collections at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, the
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Boston Public Library, and several private collections.