With some of its pages yellowed and cracking, the Vulgate — a Latin version of the Bible from the 13th century — sits in The Remnant Trust Book Exhibit.
“Holding a Bible that is thousands of years old gives me chills just thinking about it,” said Diane Watters, assistant director in the E. B. and Bertha C. Ball Center.
All 1,300 of the rare first-edition documents in the exhibit, are displayed on shelves and under glass tables for easy access.
“What I like about our exhibit is that we allow the public to touch and hold the books,” Watters said. “It gives them a different experience when they are allowed to actually feel the paper.”
In 1997, Brian Bex started The Remnant Trust, a public educational foundation, in Hagerstown, Indiana.
He had a personal interest in collecting rare books related to American history and wanted them to be available for students at colleges and universities through the foundation.
Now, Bex helps move the exhibit from university to university for set time periods because he believes “great ideas belong to everybody.”
The exhibit is currently on display at the Bertha C. Ball Center, and students are able to reserve time slots for tours, which are given by Watters. Both printed and handwritten works about politics, economics, mathematics, science, history, philosophy and religion are all on display.
Each guest gets one-on-one attention from Watters because she said it allows them to ask questions and get the information they’re looking for.
The exhibit is open to the public Monday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the E.B. and Bertha C. Ball Center.
Contact Jillianne Davis with comments at jhdavis3@bsu.edu.