Date: June 18, 2026
Ever since Bishop Payne Library began preserving, curating, and exhibiting the thousands of rare books that it moved from General Theological Seminary to VTS in 2024, the collection has attracted many visitors, such as representatives from the Grolier Club, the Library of Congress, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. The results of these visits are conversations with these Rare Book professionals who share their additional insights into our collection.
One such distinguished visitor is Dr. Barbara Shailor, the former Director of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Dr. Shailor first visited BPL’s Rare Book Room in June, 2025. Later that year, she and her husband relocated to Arlington, allowing her to make more frequent visits and peruse the rare book collection. As an international authority on medieval manuscripts and palaeography (the study of historical handwriting and writing systems), she zeroed in on some of our medieval manuscripts.
Dr. Shailor has become particularly interested in our large medieval antiphonal. Not only has she traced information about the monastery where it resided in the 14th century, but she has been able to read the medieval Latin handwriting that reveal fascinating information about the monastic community that produced the book. She will be presenting some of her findings to the regional Medieval Interest Group at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC in July. Although the event is limited to members, it is our hope that she will repeat a similar presentation for students and faculty at VTS sometime in the next year. Stay tuned!
David Buresh
Cataloger and Rare Book Curator