\u201cFrom the first time I saw this beauty, I knew it was a genuine manuscript page because it\u2019s dual-sided,\u201d Long says. \u201cThere are irregularities on the surface that indicate it\u2019s lambskin vellum, and the precision of the lettering, the fine decorative marginalia, and the capital letters all tell us this was part of a high-status book.\u201d<\/p>\n
He could read enough Latin and had enough life experience to deduce it was part of a Catholic service book. But until just over a year ago, he had no idea he\u2019d been keeper of a page from the Beauvais Missal and inadvertently become part of its storied history that now also includes UConn\u2019s Archives & Special Collections<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Europe for centuries, brought to America in the 1920s<\/strong><\/p>\n The story of the Beauvais Missal<\/a> starts around 1290 when scribes began handwriting its three volumes, one for each of the liturgical seasons of the year, says Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America. Upon their completion and the death of the Frenchman who commissioned their writing, they were given to the Beauvais Cathedral in Beauvais, France, in 1356.<\/p>\n For the next 450 years, Catholic priests flipped their pages as they led services from the Octave of Epiphany in January to the Feast of Saint Anne in July and All Saints Day in November. Missals are still used today and essentially provide the order of service.<\/p>\n When the French Revolution upended France, Huguenots stole the Beauvais Missal from the cathedral, Fagin Davis says, and it disappeared from all historical records. A single volume, though, resurfaced in a personal collection in France many decades later.<\/p>\n It changed hands several times before winding up at auction in the United States in 1926.<\/p>\n American businessman William Randolph Hearst – credited with founding the largest newspaper chain in the country, which still operates today – bought the bound volume and kept it until October 1942 when he sold it for $1,000 to New Yorker Philip Duschnes, Fagin Davis says.<\/p>\n Together, Duschnes and friend Otto Ege of Cleveland, Ohio, separated the pages from the book, selling them individually for $25 to $40 and earning a 10-fold higher profit margin with 300 transactions than a single sale.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are hundreds of thousands of medieval manuscripts that exist in the world and many of them are much more elaborate and valuable than the leaves of the Beauvais Missal – but the Beauvais Missal is important because of its story,\u201d Fagin Davis says. \u201cIt has become one of the most well-known examples of a manuscript that was cut up and scattered to the winds.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last decade, Fagin Davis has tracked down 122 of 300 pages of the Beauvais Missal to digitally restore the book<\/a>. She says that while she\u2019s found just shy of half the full volume, that\u2019s still a fair number of pages.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time we find another, we get more information about liturgical practices, musical practices, book history, and art history of the time,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce we can start putting all of these leaves together and study them as a unit, we can draw some conclusions about the original object and its story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018There are manuscripts that are splendid\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The story of Long\u2019s part in all this starts about 50 years ago, when at the Catholic University of America he developed an interest in medieval studies that continued through his undergraduate years and into his graduate time at the University of Illinois.<\/p>\n Even after he returned to the Catholic University of America\u2019s seminary school and was ordained in 1980, he says, \u201cPart of my heart was still in medieval studies, which is not a romantic idea but the notion that in many ways our modern world is grounded in cultural and intellectual ideas that emerged or were formed between 500 and 1500 of the Common Era.\u201d<\/p>\n During his eight years in the priesthood, Long was involved in LGBTQ ministry and worked with people suffering and dying from AIDS, the disease that became a household word in the 1980s. He left church leadership in 1988 and returned to academia in pursuit of his Ph.D., which looked at AIDS and American apocalypticism.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years, I continued reading and studying the medieval period and every once in a while, when I had an opportunity to buy a manuscript folia relief, I would do so,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd one day, in the late 1990s, at an antiques show in Virginia Beach, I came across the stall of an antiques dealer where I saw this beauty, what we now know is a page from the Beauvais Missal.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are manuscripts that are just kind of serviceable, and then there are manuscripts that are splendid,\u201d Long continues, gesturing to the gold leaf, black scrollwork, and deep blue markings\u2013 likely from powdered lapis lazuli \u2013 decorating his Beauvais Missal page.<\/p>\n For about 20 years until his retirement, he used the page to help teach.<\/p>\n In late summer 2022, just after he retired, Long saw a news story that circulated around the country telling the tale of a Colby College student who discovered a page from the Beauvais Missal at an estate sale in Maine. He says he chuckled and thought that\u2019s every scholar\u2019s dream, how wonderful for a young person.<\/p>\n \u201cThen something nudged me to look at mine again, and I thought, wait a minute. The lettering. The decoration. The coloring. The fact that this was clearly a ritual service book. I wonder if this is another leaf of the Beauvais Missal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Before drawing the conclusion, Long first contacted the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, which has two<\/a> authenticated pages<\/a>, to make sure his was the right size. It was \u2013 290 by 240 mm, or roughly 11.42 by 9.45 inches.<\/p>\n Then he contacted Fagin Davis for confirmation. She gave it.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I had something that was not only unusual, but also extremely valuable. One leaf at auction can fetch $4,000 to $6,000,\u201d he says, adding that he\u2019d purchased his for less than $150. \u201cI knew I needed to put this somewhere safe. Beautiful and rare things should be in public collections, not in private hands.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn in rare company; 1 of 9 in New England<\/strong><\/p>\n The story of UConn\u2019s Archives & Special Collections’ involvement starts here, with Long\u2019s donation about a year ago of the now authenticated Beauvais Missal folio<\/a> along with numerous other historical artifacts he\u2019s collected along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an agricultural college, the University in its early years didn\u2019t collect rare objects like this for teaching, but students today need to be exposed to original works,\u201d Melissa Batt, an archivist at the library, explains. \u201cWe use specimens like this in our instruction, programming, and exhibitions. This donation allows us to expose students to original materials even if they come with this story of being disbound.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/120423-MedievalBeauvaisMissal-2-300x200.jpg\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/120423-MedievalBeauvaisMissal-3-300x200.jpg\")