VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) - In the shadow of Old Cathedral Church, there’s an unassuming brick building that blends into its surrounding so well one would never guess that items dating back several centuries are on display inside its walls.
“We have a little bit of everything here,” museum volunteer Nancy Carie said.
And what’s on display at the Old Cathedral Library and Museum is only a small taste of Old Cathedral’s collection, which amounts to somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 books and documents.
Less than 10 percent of its archive is on display at a time and those items range from arrowheads found in the area to a sea chest from the 1790s to William Henry Harrison’s peace pipe. There are maps from the 1740s, Bibles from the 17th and 18th centuries written in Latin, Spanish, Hebrew and even Gaelic, an Abraham Lincoln campaign banner from 1860 and a copy of the Quran.
The library’s oldest book is a copy of “The Book of Psalms” printed by hand on vellum (sheepskin) and illuminated by hand in the 11th or 12th century by a German Benedictine monk. The oldest book that was printed using movable type is Michael de Carcano’s “Sermonarium Triplicatrum,” printed in Venice in 1476.
The oldest document is an official letter from Pope John XXII, dated 1319.
Everything else in the library collection is stored in an air-conditioned vault beneath the museum floors.
About 8,000 items are from the personal collection of one of the men behind the library, Bishop Simon Brute de Remur, the first bishop of the former Diocese of Vincennes. President John Adams referred to him as “the most learned man of his day in America.”
But the library was actually started before Brute’s day.
Back in 1794, Father Benedict Joseph Flaget, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Vincennes from 1792 to 1795, established a community library. In the early days of this country, when new settlements were emerging frequently, members of the clergy were often the ones who helped teach the citizens.
“Back then, the priests were the educators,” Carie said.
Flaget was actually the one who convinced Brute to sail for the United States, a path that eventually led him to Vincennes.
Brute was born in France in 1779 and his mother’s first husband had been a printer to French royalty. After Brute’s father died suddenly in 1786, his mother supported the family by reviving her previous husband’s printing business.
During the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution, Brute’s mother had him work in the printing shop so he wouldn’t get recruited to fight.
“That’s probably where Brute got his love of books,” Carie said. “He really had a thirst for knowledge.”
The print shop also sheltered many priests who were facing persecution and they tutored Brute, which was beneficial since many of the schools at the time were forced to close.
Years later, Brute - who had been studying medicine - was appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte as a physician, but Brute resigned because he decided to pursue the priesthood. He was ordained a priest in 1808 and two years later, Flaget convinced Brute to come to the United States.
Brute taught at several colleges, serving as president of St. Mary’s College in Baltimore for a time, until he came to Vincennes in 1834 when Pope Gregory XVI created the Diocese of Vincennes and named Brute its bishop.
He died in 1839 and from then on, whoever was priest of the church took care of the library stocked by thousands of his books.
The original library building, which still stands between the Old Cathedral museum and the rectory, was erected in 1840 and served as the collection’s home for quite some time.
“Everything was kept in the old building with no air conditioning,” Carie said. “They just didn’t think anything of it back then.”
The current library and museum building was dedicated in 1969, made possible by a grant from the Eli Lilly Endowment.
The museum is only open 1-4 p.m. Monday-Friday from June through mid-August, though private tours can be arranged.
Carie volunteers at the facility once a week and said not many people even know it exists.
Visitors have the chance to get an up-close look at books dating as far back as the 1500s, an 1837 document printed by Vincennes Sun-Commercial founder Elihu Stout, a 1767 British census document detailing the existence of African-American and Indian slaves in Vincennes, and the oldest surviving record of Vincennes: a marriage document from April 21, 1749.
All the artifacts in the museum are kept in temperature-controlled glass cases and the exhibits aren’t changed around too much but when they are, and whenever anyone handles any items in the library collection, handlers wear gloves so as not to contaminate or damage the delicate items.
The vault beneath the museum is also temperature-controlled and off-limits to the public.
Father Dave Fleck, who has been in Vincennes for years but just took over the parish about a year ago, said he’s one of the few who knows the combination, and that’s probably for the best - the centuries-old documents are fragile and their condition would be jeopardized if they were exposed too often.
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Source: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, https://bit.ly/1DrqpxE
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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, https://www.vincennes.com
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