The Gleeson Library | Geschke Center is pleased to announce that it is a recipient of a Jesuit Foundation grant for the project Digitizing Early Editions of the Spiritual Exercises for Free Online Access. In the letter informing the Library of the decision by the Advisory Board Committee of the Jesuit Foundation to fund the project, Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Tyrone H. Cannon, wrote: “Congratulations….Projects of this nature are an important expression of USF’s Jesuit, Catholic character and I am truly appreciative of your contribution to this aspect of our mission.”
The proposal, submitted by John Hawk, Head Librarian for Special Collections & University Archives, and Gina Murrell, Digital Collections Librarian, is a collaborative, cross-unit effort within the Library to digitize sixteenth- and seventeenth-century editions of the foundational texts of Jesuit spirituality. Once digitized, the texts will be available online to students, faculty, and scholars through the Library’s Digital Collections and the Catholic Research Resources Alliance Portal.
Gleeson Library is deeply committed to creating digital access to its collections, especially materials that highlight the University’s Jesuit Catholic heritage. Particularly useful during this period of remote instruction, the project will enhance access to core materials, facilitating research and academic excellence at the University and beyond. More broadly, the project has a social justice dimension in its democratization of information resources to those who do not have physical or financial access to a USF education. Making these early editions of the Spiritual Exercises available online will effectively break down barriers of distance and inopportunity so that these books will reach the hands and minds of those who seek them.
The Library has already digitized and made available in Digital Collections the Rare Book Room copies of the 1548 first printing, as well as editions from 1606, 1615, and 1649. The Jesuit Foundation grant will support the Library adding its editions printed in 1574 (Burgos, Spain); 1619 (Paris); 1635 (Antwerp); 1689 (Antwerp), and 1691 (Rome). The latter two printings are particularly significant for their engravings. The project will have a one-year timetable, with an anticipated completion date of December 2021. The University community will be notified of this resource by means of the Library’s social media accounts and announcements on myUSF.
According to Acting Library Dean, Shawn P. Calhoun, “The Library is blessed to have truly exceptional examples of the Spiritual Exercises in our print collections. Making them available digitally will be a ‘game changer’ not only for our students and faculty, but for researchers and scholars around the globe as well.”