SC - Liber Cure Cocorum: I.L.L. Follies of 1999 (long)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hullo, the list!

I thought people doing research might be interested in the saga of my
attempt to get ahold of a copy of Liber Cure Cocorum, a.k.a. MS. Sloane
1986. There are probably better ways to go about all this, but what the hey.

After digging through the various online catalogs in the research
library at St. John's University, I determined that Richard Morris's
1862 edition of the Liber Cure Cocorum, a fifteenth-century English
recipe collection in verse, was available at Columbia University's
Butler Library, but was out. It would be returned, the database said, in
about a week. There was also a copy reasonably nearby at Cornell
University's library. I figured it would be easier to wait the week and
simply go to Columbia University, yellow metro-card in hand (enabling me
to get at the book although not strictly entitled to use the Butler
library: basically the equivalent of a doctor's note, but in fact from
another librarian). I checked the online catalog daily from home, to be
sure the book wasn't returned early, but about two days before the
actual due date, I learned that it had been renewed UNTIL FEBRUARY,
2000!!! This was back in September. In other words, I have fair reason
to believe this book is lining some medievalist's personal bookshelf,
and will continue to do so until Heck freezes over. Who'd miss it? It's
not in great demand, is it? Just renew it every five or six months; a
small price to pay to effectively own a transcription (redaction?) of a
priceless manuscript, which transcription is itself a valuable antique.

Wiping rabid foam from my lips, I proceeded to the New York Public
Library, the real one with the lions, to see about requesting the
Cornell copy through interlibrary loan. The librarian reminded me that
the Columbia copy couldn't be requested or reserved by outsiders as long
as somebody at Columbia was using it. Anyway, we requested the book from
Cornell (making sure to check the little box getting permission to
photocopy the entire book) and I settled down to wait. Some weeks later,
I received a note telling me it was in, and I should come to the library
and pick it up and do my copying.

They have this watchdog type lady sitting at a desk near the copiers,
whose purpose is to check and make sure we aren't copying stuff that
would be damaged by the bright lights or physical pressure that comes
with photocopying ("It's just an early 14th-century manuscript of
Diversa Servicia, ma'am, what's the trouble, will the ink stick to the
glass?"). In other words, her job was to prevent me from doing what I
planned to do. Fair enough, it's _not_ my book. I brought it over to the
lady, who hissed through her teeth when she saw the Liber, and concluded
that this book was just too old and crackly to sit on top of a
photocopier. Again, fair enough, but then what it was doing being mailed
through InterLibrary Loan, I have no idea.

Finally we (a huddle of librarians and I) all decided that the thing to
do was to scan the pages (no, droolers, they'd scan and _print_ the
pages, not put them on disk for me) since the scanning process puts a
little less wear and tear on the book. Okayfine. Three or four times the
price of photocopying, too, but I still felt it was worth it. So, I took
it over to the little booth where we negotiate such esoteric stuff as
scanning in 140-year old books of 550-year-old material, and the guy
behind the counter informs me that they won't scan in an entire book
(LCC is maybe 60 pages long in that edition). I'm arguing that they'd be
happy to scan in 60 pages of a 200-page book, and that my purpose is to
put all subsequent wear and tear on my copy, not theirs. They agreed
that was a good thing, and that in principle I was right, but decided
that Policy was Policy.

They offered to try to find a copy at a used book dealer, then hissed
again at the price they uncovered. Me too. 

One of the librarians, the one using the Communal Brain that day,
suggested I just have them copy half of it, then come back, say, Monday,
and have them do the rest (I'd been on the point of asking about this,
but there wasn't anybody I wanted to tip my hand to in advance, if you
follow me). Anyway, I did that, and should pick up my first installment
of LCC later today. Hubba hubba! 35 pages!

I was amazed at the treatment of the book by the probably-college kid
leafing through it to determine how much they had to charge me for the
copies. Not only did he crinkle the pages (dry paper doesn't support
compound curves and doesn't improve in that regard after more than a
century), but he also PUT HIS FINGER IN HIS MOUTH TO WET IT SO HE COULD
TURN THE PAGES!!!!! AAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!! So much for their desire to
preserve this precious book from thuggish vandals and enemies of
edumakashun like me.

Of course, at the end of all this some helpful soul is bound to inform
me that a facsimile edition is available for fourteen cents from the
Early English Text Society, via http://www.totallyobscurecookbooks.com.

But ya know what? I dun't care. It was kinda fun.

Now, a bonus question for those good sports who stayed to read the end
of this: my memory is blanking out, and I seem to have mislaid the
printed information I had on this. Liber Cure Cocorum is a copy, set in
verse, of another surviving medieval English ms. cookbook. The question
is, which one? I can probably figure this out once I actually have the
copy in front of me, but I thought there might be more dedicated
manuscript wonks on this list who might know.

Thanks to all!

Next item on the agenda will be Furnivall's edition of The Babee's
Booke, Russell's Boke of Nurture, several different courtesy manuals,
and Van Wyncken's Boke of Kerving, all in one volume. Ooh, baby, you
know what I like!

Adamantius    
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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