Paging Through the Past

For English professor Karen Gross, it’s Watzek Library’s centuries-old artifacts that make her 200-level Medieval Manuscripts course come to life. Her students are able to hold the physical texts from L&C’s Special Collections, feeling their texture as they carefully examine the leaves. Students engage with a variety of works—from individual fragments to entire manuscripts—such as an Italian book of hours (the first Italian illuminated manuscript housed in Portland).

Gross, who has taught the course for several years, reflects affectionately on her students’ consistent excitement surrounding the texts. “Everybody swoons over the pretty painted pages, but I have a soft spot for the grubby fellas,” she jokes, pointing to the discolored marks in the parchment of one text that were once bug bites on the hide of a living animal. “We encounter so much text on our phones and other screens that seems temporary or disposable,” says Gross. “To see something that took so many hours and so much care to produce is humbling, especially when we think of words as having a body.”

An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Medieval Manuscripts does not have prerequisites, which allows students to bring a range of perspectives to the classroom that breathe new life into the featured texts. This semester, a range of majors, including studio art, Classics, English, psychology, and even economics, were represented. In the past, faculty from L&C’s chemistry department have collaborated with Watzek library staff to chemically analyze the pigments found in the texts.

One student who brings multiple academic perspectives to her study is Eliza Roberts BA ’25. “As a double major in history and studio art, this course represents a near perfect intersection of my academic interests,” she says. “Although classified as an English course, Medieval Manuscripts functions more as an exercise in art history, combining historical context with visual analysis. Both areas are bolstered by the amount of hands-on experience with primary sources that Professor Gross incorporates.”

In an effort to leverage this interdisciplinarity, Gross immerses her class in an 8-week “boot camp,” covering specialized vocabulary relevant to 4th- through 16th-century art history and literature. Students become versed in codicology (the study of manuscripts), art history, the cultural and historical context of artifacts, book design, the role of the author, and even applying Latin vocabulary and studying paleography (the art of reading old handwriting).

After learning the basics of studying manuscripts, students have the invaluable opportunity to “play detective” on a unique artifact, allowing them to assume the role of an art museum curator or auction worker. “This assignment encourages patience and humility to sit with a physical text and try to account for what it is before we start making judgments about it,” says Gross. “It makes students more intentional, and curiosity is a terrific driver to discovery.”

For English major and Pamplin Fellow Erin Connelly BA ’27, Medieval Manuscripts has proved to be both fun and fascinating. “I started the class with nothing but basic knowledge of English medieval history (mostly only what I’d picked up from Shakespeare) and a tiny bit of information on early book printing. After finishing my midterm, it really hit me how much I’ve learned in the last few months. I have so much more technical knowledge about manuscripts and even printed books than I did back in January, and I picked up so much of it ‘in the field,’ holding actual manuscripts made centuries ago in my hands—so incredibly neat!”

Students from all disciplines are able to take this class, bringing unique perspectives to their analysis.
Credit: Nina Johnson

Off-Campus Connections

In addition to working with manuscripts from Watzek’s Special Collections, students also visit the archives of Portland-based locations like the University of Portland, Portland State University, and the John Wilson Room in Multnomah County Library. Students’ ability to take an academic field trip off campus is not only engaging, but also provides career connections to those working in the archival field and access to differing archival protocols for handling artifacts. Over the years, these visits have led to students interning and volunteering at local libraries, such as the Multnomah County Library. In some cases, students end up pursuing careers in library resources and archival work.

The Future of Medieval Manuscripts

While Medieval Manuscripts is historically taught on a biennial basis, a special exception will be made for the 2025–26 academic year as Lewis & Clark prepares to host nine artifacts from the world’s leading manuscript dealer, Paris-based Les Enluminures. This honor is usually reserved for universities that have graduate programs associated with manuscripts, so a Pacific Northwest liberal arts institution hosting the work is exciting.

“It’s a true testimony to us as a college that we were chosen,” says Gross. As part of this unique opportunity, Lewis & Clark will host a public exhibition of the manuscripts in January and February of 2026.

Ultimately, Gross is appreciative of her ongoing ability to teach such a detailed, world-expanding class at the undergraduate level; such courses are often reserved for graduate students at other institutions. “I’m especially grateful for the wonderful partnership with Watzek Library Special Collections,” she says. “Hannah Crummé [head of special collections and college archivist] has been a terrific collaborator. The course would really not be able to run in its current form without my partnership with her.”

Hannah Crummé, head of special collections and college archivist, collaborates closely with Professor Gross to ensure the course's success.
Credit: Nina Johnson

Gross also acknowledges funding from the dean’s office, which has made her students’ off-campus travel possible and support from President Holmes-Sullivan for programming around next year’s manuscript exhibition.

Students appreciate the unique opportunities provided by the course. “This class has been a whole journey in the art of learning for me,” says Connelly. “It has helped me reexamine my idea of what it means to be a student through looking at the ways people interacted with learning in the past.”

Reflecting on the lasting impacts of manuscripts on modern-day students, Professor Gross explains, “There’s a precarity to transmission of these artifacts, and vast stories that left these works in the hands of L&C students and staff. The craftsmanship that allowed that longevity prevails.”

In 2020, Lewis & Clark College received a generous grant from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation to obtain The Italian book of hours.

English Special Collections and Archives