Historical Studies
Empathizing with the financial and travel problems of his students in European history, and anticipating the return of Europe to censorship and war, Prof. David travelled Europe in the mid-1930s determined to create rotogravure copies of manuscripts so that these works would remain available to American scholars (at least in copy). Consequently, certain of his rotogravures are the only remaining images of manuscripts destroyed or damaged by the war, or that have since become deteriorated or misplaced. This collection became part of the Modern Language Association photoimagery collection at the Library of Congress, where it remains today.
Prof David published his critical edition of a rare Third Crusade manuscript through the American Philosophical Association in 1939, using one of his rotogravures to complete his study. This manuscript was in fair condition before the war, but its pages are now blank – this manuscript contains very important information about medieval sailing and pilgrimage that would have been lost without Prof. David's work.
Medievalist Dana Cushing now studies and lectures on Prof David's rotogravure copy of the manuscript: she provides a free, public-access, digital copy of the manuscript and of Prof. David's critical edition of it (_Narratio de Itinere Navali Peregrinorum Hierosolymam Tendentium et Silvam Capientium A.D. 1189_) by kind permission of the Library of Congress which owns the rotogravure copies, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino which owns the original manuscript, and the American Philosophical Society which published Prof David's 1939 article.
Over 80 years later, Prof David's book about the Siege of Lisbon and the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi remains the authoritative study, entitled De expugnatione Lyxbonensi: The conquest of Lisbon. The book was recently revised by noted Crusades historian, Dr Jonathan Phillips, for a paperback re-issue. Most of Prof David's medieval and librarianship books remain available, if not in print.
Read more about this topic: Charles Wendell David
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