Chandler named 2015 ACRL WESS-SEES De Gruyter Grant winner

CHICAGO — Katharine C. Chandler, reference librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia Rare Book Department, has been selected to receive the 2015 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Western European Studies Section (WESS) / Slavic and East European Section (SEES) De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant for her project “Whimsical Penwork: The Carthusian Graduals of the Chartreuse de Champmol.”

Sponsored by the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for Scholarship and Research, the grant provides €2,500 to support a trip to Europe. The primary criterion for awarding the grant is the significance and utility of the proposed project as a contribution to the study of the acquisition, organization or use of library resources from or relating to Europe.

Chandler will receive the award check during the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Chandler’s project will investigate fifteenth century manuscripts in Paris and Dijon, France, in order to contribute to knowledge of monastic scribal activity in the later Middle Ages in Europe, and to a better understanding of monastic choir functions in the later Middle Age. This research will result in a paper.

“Ms. Chandler’s research at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris and the Bibliothèque municipale in Dijon promises to reveal trends in monastic book production in the fifteenth century as reflected in graduals and other documents related to monastic choirs during that period,” said award chair Timothy Shipe of the University of Iowa. “Besides shedding light on the background of the Carthusian graduals of the Chartreuse de Champmol and their unique style, her study should help to bring about a greater balance in later medieval book historical research, which has focused on secular book production.”

Chandler received her A.B. in English and Medieval Studies from Smith College, her M.L.I.S. from the University of Illinois, her M.A. in European History from Villanova University, and a Certificate of Proficiency with a concentration in History of Manuscripts from the Rare Book School.

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