{"id":33367,"date":"2018-01-30T11:26:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T16:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=33367"},"modified":"2018-01-30T11:26:31","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T16:26:31","slug":"fisher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2018\/01\/30\/fisher\/","title":{"rendered":"Field trip to Fisher"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Picture\r\n\r\nThomas Fisher Rare Book Library. It\u2019s a mouthful. Let\u2019s refer to it as the Fisher from now on. I truly can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve been at U of T since 2014 and haven\u2019t once visited this literary heaven until now. Other than the fact that it\u2019s absolutely beautiful, it\u2019s full of unbelievable artifacts. You may be thinking, ok so rare book just means there are a bunch of large, worn-out leather covered books full of text we can\u2019t fully read. I\u2019m not saying those aren\u2019t there, but there are so many more gems, one of the richest and best sources in all of Canada. Definitely one of the best rare book libraries in the world. Something that distinguishes it from other libraries is the fact that you don\u2019t need to be a student, faculty member, or a U of T associate of any sort. You don\u2019t even need to be a Canadian citizen or resident. All you need is an address to enter. And oh my God, when you enter. Especially the first time. Just doing that is an experience on its own.\r\n\r\n
\"Picture
The \"public\"- ness of this library exemplified by this large street level window.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\"looking\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWhat made my trip more worthwhile was the fact that it was guided by one of my professors from a course called Digital Material Culture. It\u2019s the first time it\u2019s being offered so it was kind of a risk enrolling myself, but so far, it\u2019s been pretty cool.\r\n\r\nTheir collection ranges from old clay tablets, miniature books, manuscripts, to one of the first versions of a printed book. A lot of the items are actually not even on display. They\u2019re stored somewhere at the back and underground.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s a few things we looked at during my visit:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA really old receipt of sorts, like really old:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis Mesopotamian clay slab is what would now be a paper contract. It is written using the Kenai letters and is essentially a record of agreement to sell property in the city-state of Ur.\r\n\r\n
\"A
Mesopotamian tablet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nPapyrus scripts from the Egyptian world:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nContrary to popular belief, papyrus, where we get the world paper<\/em> from, is not made from trees, but reeds. The script used here is hieratic (I think \u2013 I may be completely wrong).\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s quite a few of these in the library with translations inside glass casings.\r\n\r\n
\"picture
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus, Ancient Egypt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nA really small, handwritten, religious book:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nBelieve it or not, there was a time before print existed. There were scribes. People used to master a certain type of writing and copy down everything. This was also made on vellum, a material that\u2019s much more strong and durable than ordinary pulp paper because it was made out of animal skin. The modern version of this material is made up of synthetic plant material, don\u2019t worry.\r\n\r\n
\"a
Handwritten religious texts with some gold work on vellum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nOne of the first printed books ever:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis printing thing was so new that you still needed to do certain things by hand in order to complete the whole book \u2013 like the red you might see in the picture below. This book in particular was one of the firsts to be in English as well.\r\n\r\n
\"picture
One of the first printed books - still in the process of being acquired by Fisher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nDiaries of Canadian soldiers from World War I:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nOther than the fact that this is technically an invasion of privacy, one page in particular from this diary that was especially interesting was dated November 11, 1918. Armistice day. Remembrance Day. The author couldn\u2019t put what was going on into words so he simply wrote: \u201cPeople went crazy.\u201d What I find amazing about things like these is the ability to see history through a completely different social context and perspective.\r\n\r\n
\"Diaries
Diaries of a soldier from World War I open on November 11, 1918 -\"People went crazy\"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nMargaret Atwood\u2019s manuscripts. <\/strong>\r\n\r\nAt Fisher, you can even check out the original writing drafts, editing, notes, and so much more from one of the most renown authors who happens to also be a U of T alumnus.\r\n\r\n
\"picture
Margaret Atwood's first draft of The Handmaid's Tale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nShakespeare\u2019s First Folio:<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis copy in particular that is found at Fisher is known as the \u201crose-bud\u201d copy because at some point in history, as it travelled in time from person to person, somebody pressed a rose bud on one of the pages. That mark is still there. We don\u2019t know who or why, but it is what it is. This collection also has the iconic cover page inside. Some say the original cover was ripped out at some point and sold. The history of this book itself is really interesting. The process of production, even more.\r\n\r\n
\"Shakespeare's
Shakespeare's First Folio with the famous cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nOh, and they also have new exhibitions every now and then, make sure to check them out on your visit!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nThomas Fisher Rare Book Library. It\u2019s a mouthful. Let\u2019s refer to it as the Fisher from now on. I truly can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve been at U of T since 2014 and haven\u2019t once visited this literary heaven until now. Other…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Field trip to Fisher”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Field trip to Fisher”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":33369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,1,82],"tags":[105,405,12637,83,103,13556,2066,280,1315],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33367"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33411,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33367\/revisions\/33411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}