In 1968, Ambassador Chester Bowles finally expressed what he had been thinking for years: the Vietnam War would not end well for the United States. In an April 2, 1968, letter to former aide and future U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Celeste, Bowles asserted that the war had cost the U.S.
Christ Pantocrator seated in a capital 'U' in an illuminated manuscript from the Badische Landesbibliothek, Germany.
10th-century minuscule manuscript of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document that is written by hand — or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten — as opposed to being mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way.[1] More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from its rendition as a printed version of the same.[2] Before the arrival of printing, all documents and books were manuscripts. Manuscripts are not defined by their contents, which may combine writing with mathematical calculations, maps, explanatory figures or illustrations. Manuscripts may be in book form, scrolls or in codex format. Illuminated manuscripts are enriched with pictures, border decorations, elaborately embossed initial letters or full-page illustrations.
- 4A sample of common genres of manuscripts
Cultural background[edit]
The traditional abbreviations are MS for manuscript and MSS for manuscripts,[3][4] while the forms MS., ms or ms. for singular, and MSS., mss or mss. for plural (with or without the full stop, all uppercase or all lowercase) are also accepted.[5][6][7][8] The second s is not simply the plural; by an old convention, it doubles the last letter of the abbreviation to express the plural, just as pp. means 'pages'.
Before the invention of woodblock printing in China or by movable type in a printing press in Europe, all written documents had to be both produced and reproduced by hand. Historically, manuscripts were produced in form of scrolls (volumen in Latin) or books (codex, plural codices). Manuscripts were produced on vellum and other parchment, on papyrus, and on paper. In Russia birch bark documents as old as from the 11th century have survived. In India, the palm leaf manuscript, with a distinctive long rectangular shape, was used from ancient times until the 19th century. Paper spread from China via the Islamic world to Europe by the 14th century, and by the late 15th century had largely replaced parchment for many purposes.
The Isha Upanishad manuscript from the 7th to 6th centuries BCE.
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When Greek or Latin works were published, numerous professional copies were made simultaneously by scribes in a scriptorium, each making a single copy from an original that was declaimed aloud.
The oldest written manuscripts have been preserved by the perfect dryness of their Middle Eastern resting places, whether placed within sarcophagi in Egyptian tombs, or reused as mummy-wrappings, discarded in the middens of Oxyrhynchus or secreted for safe-keeping in jars and buried (Nag Hammadi library) or stored in dry caves (Dead Sea scrolls). Manuscripts in Tocharian languages, written on palm leaves, survived in desert burials in the Tarim Basin of Central Asia. Volcanic ash preserved some of the Roman library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum.
Gharib al-Hadith, by Abu 'Ubaid al-Qasim ibn Sallam al-Harawi (d. 837 AD). The oldest known dated Arabic manuscript on paper in Leiden University Library, dated 319 AH (931 AD)
Inside the letter is a picture of a master in cathedra expounding on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. Initial 'V' rendered as 'U' of 'Vita brevis, ars vero longa', or 'Life is short, but the art is long'. 'Isagoge', fol. 15b. HMD Collection, MS E 78.
Image of two facing pages of the illuminated manuscript of 'Isagoge', fols. 42b and 43a. On the top of the left hand page is an illuminated letter 'D' - initial of 'De urinarum differencia negocium' (The matter of the differences of urines). Inside the letter is a picture of a master on bench pointing at a raised flask while lecturing on the 'Book on urines' of Theophilus. The right hand page is only shown in part. On its very bottom is an illuminated letter 'U' - initial of 'Urina ergo est colamentum sanguinis' (Urine is the filtrate of the blood). Inside the letter is a picture of a master holding up a flask while explaining the diagnostic significance of urine to a student or a patient. HMD Collection, MS E 78.
Ironically, the manuscripts that were being most carefully preserved in the libraries of antiquity are virtually all lost. Papyrus has a life of at most a century or two in relatively moist Italian or Greek conditions; only those works copied onto parchment, usually after the general conversion to Christianity, have survived, and by no means all of those.
Originally, all books were in manuscript form. In China, and later other parts of East Asia, woodblock printing was used for books from about the 7th century. The earliest dated example is the Diamond Sutra of 868. In the Islamic world and the West, all books were in manuscript until the introduction of movable type printing in about 1450.[clarification needed] Manuscript copying of books continued for a least a century, as printing remained expensive. Private or government documents remained hand-written until the invention of the typewriter in the late 19th century. Because of the likelihood of errors being introduced each time a manuscript was copied, the filiation of different versions of the same text is a fundamental part of the study and criticism of all texts that have been transmitted in manuscript.
In Southeast Asia, in the first millennium, documents of sufficiently great importance were inscribed on soft metallic sheets such as copperplate, softened by refiner's fire and inscribed with a metal stylus. In the Philippines, for example, as early as 900AD, specimen documents were not inscribed by stylus, but were punched much like the style of today's dot-matrix printers. This type of document was rare compared to the usual leaves and bamboo staves that were inscribed. However, neither the leaves nor paper were as durable as the metal document in the hot, humid climate. In Burma, the kammavaca, Buddhist manuscripts, were inscribed on brass, copper or ivory sheets, and even on discarded monk robes folded and lacquered. In Italy some important Etruscan texts were similarly inscribed on thin gold plates: similar sheets have been discovered in Bulgaria. Technically, these are all inscriptions rather than manuscripts.
The study of the writing, or 'hand' in surviving manuscripts is termed palaeography. In the Western world, from the classical period through the early centuries of the Christian era, manuscripts were written without spaces between the words (scriptio continua), which makes them especially hard for the untrained to read. Extant copies of these early manuscripts written in Greek or Latin and usually dating from the 4th century to the 8th century, are classified according to their use of either all upper case or all lower case letters. Hebrew manuscripts, such as the Dead Sea scrolls make no such differentiation. Manuscripts using all upper case letters are called majuscule, those using all lower case are called minuscule. Usually, the majuscule scripts such as uncial are written with much more care. The scribe lifted his pen between each stroke, producing an unmistakable effect of regularity and formality. On the other hand, while minuscule scripts can be written with pen-lift, they may also be cursive, that is, use little or no pen-lift.
Modern variations[edit]
In the context of library science, a manuscript is defined as any hand-written item in the collections of a library or an archive. For example, a library's collection of hand-written letters or diaries is considered a manuscript collection. Such manuscript collections are described in finding aids, similar to an index or table of contents to the collection, in accordance with national and international content standards such as DACS and ISAD(G).
In other contexts, however, the use of the term 'manuscript' no longer necessarily means something that is hand-written. By analogy a typescript has been produced on a typewriter.[9]
In book, magazine, and music publishing, a manuscript is an original copy of a work written by an author or composer, which generally follows standardized typographic and formatting rules. (The staff paper commonly used for handwritten music is, for this reason, often called 'manuscript paper'). In film and theatre, a manuscript, or script for short, is an author's or dramatist's text, used by a theatre company or film crew during the production of the work's performance or filming. More specifically, a motion picture manuscript is called a screenplay; a television manuscript, a teleplay; a manuscript for the theatre, a stage play; and a manuscript for audio-only performance is often called a radio play, even when the recorded performance is disseminated via non-radio means.
In insurance, a manuscript policy is one that is negotiated between the insurer and the policyholder, as opposed to an off-the-shelf form supplied by the insurer.
European manuscript history[edit]
After plummeting in the Early Middle Ages, the high and late medieval period witnessed a sharp increase of manuscript production.[10]
Most surviving pre-modern manuscripts use the codex format (as in a modern book), which had replaced the scroll by Late Antiquity. Parchment or vellum, as the best type of parchment is known, had also replaced papyrus, which was not nearly so long lived and has survived to the present only in the extremely dry conditions of Egypt, although it was widely used across the Roman world. Parchment is made of animal skin, normally calf, sheep, and/or goat, but also other animals. With all skins, the quality of the finished product is based on how much preparation and skill was put into turning the skin into parchment. Parchment made from calf or sheep was the most common in Northern Europe, while civilizations in Southern Europe preferred goatskin.[11] Often, if the parchment is white or cream in color and veins from the animal can still be seen, it is calfskin. If it is yellow, greasy or in some cases shiny, then it was made from sheepskin.[11]
For a step-by step process of how these books were prepared, including copying and illumination, watch this video provided by the Getty Museum.
Vellum comes from the Latin word vitulinum which means “of calf”/ “made from calf”. For modern parchment makers and calligraphers, and apparently often in the past, the terms parchment and vellum are used based on the different degrees of quality, preparation and thickness, and not according to which animal the skin came from, and because of this, the more neutral term 'membrane' is often used by modern academics, especially where the animal has not been established by testing.[11]
Because they are books, pre-modern manuscripts are best described using bibliographic rather than archival standards. The standard endorsed by the American Library Association is known as AMREMM.[12] A growing digital catalog of pre-modern manuscripts is Digital Scriptorium, hosted by the University of California at Berkeley.
A sample of common genres of manuscripts[edit]
From ancient texts to medieval maps, anything written down for study would have been done with manuscripts. Some of the most common genres were bibles, religious commentaries, philosophy, law and government texts.
Bibles[edit]
“The Bible was the most studied book of the Middle Ages.”[13]The Bible was the center of medieval religious life. Along with the Bible came scores of commentaries. Commentaries were written in volumes, with some focusing on just single pages of scripture. Across Europe, there were universities that prided themselves on their biblical knowledge. Along with universities, certain cities also had their own celebrities of biblical knowledge during the medieval period.
Book of hours[edit]
The Pentecost, from an illuminated Catholic liturgical manuscript, c.1310-1320
A book of hours is a type of devotional text which was widely popular during the Middle Ages. They are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscripts. Each book of hours contain a similar collection of texts, prayers, and psalms but decoration can vary between each and each example. Many have minimal illumination, often restricted to ornamented initials, but books of hours made for wealthier patrons can be extremely extravagant with full-page miniatures. These books were used for owners to recite prayers privately eight different times, or hours, of the day.[14]
Liturgical books and calendars[edit]
Along with Bibles, large numbers of manuscripts made in the Middle Ages were revieved in Church[clarification needed]. Due to the complex church system of rituals and worship these books were the most elegantly written and finely decorated of all medieval manuscripts. Liturgical books usually came in two varieties. Those used during mass and those for divine office.[11]
Most liturgical books came with a calendar in the front. This served as a quick reference point for important dates in Jesus' life and to tell church officials which saints were to be honored and on what day. The format of the liturgical calendar was as follows:
an example of a medieval liturgical calendar
January, August, December | March, May, July, October | April, June, September, November | February |
---|---|---|---|
Kal. (1) | Kal. (1) | Kal. (1) | Kal. (1) |
IV Non. (2) | VI Non. (2) | IV Non. (2) | IV Non. (2) |
III Non. (3) | V Non. (3) | III Non. (3) | III Non. (3) |
II Non. (4) | IV Non. (4) | II Non. (4) | II Non. (4) |
Non. (5) | III Non. (5) | Non. (5) | Non. (5) |
VIII Id. (6) | II Non. (6) | VIII Id. (6) | VIII Id. (6) |
VII Id. (7) | Non. (7) | VII Id. (7) | VII Id. (7) |
VI Id. (8) | VIII Id. (8) | VI Id. (8) | VI Id. (8) |
V Id. (9) | VII Id. (9) | V Id. (9) | V Id. (9) |
IV Id. (10) | VII Id. (10) | IV Id. (10) | IV Id. (10) |
III Id. (11) | V Id. (11) | III Id. (11) | III Id. (11) |
II Id. (12) | IV Id. (12) | II Id. (12) | II Id. (12) |
Id (13) | III Id. (13) | Id. (13) | Id. (13) |
XIX Kal. (14) | II Id. (14) | XVIII Kal. (14) | XVI Kal. (14) |
XVIII Kal. (15) | Id. (15) | XVII Kal. (15) | XV Kal. (15) |
XVII Kal. (16) | XVII Kal. (16) | XVI Kal. (16) | XIV Kal. (16) |
XVI Kal. (17) | XVI Kal. (17) | XV Kal. (17) | XIII Kal. (17) |
XV Kal. (18) | XV Kal. (18) | XIV Kal. (18) | XII Kal. (18) |
XIV Kal. (19) | XIV Kal. (19) | XIII Kal. (19) | XI Kal. (19) |
XIII Kal. (20) | XIII Kal. (20 | XII Kal. (20) | X Kal. (20) |
XII Kal. (21) | XII Kal. (21) | XI Kal. (21) | IX Kal. (21) |
XI Kal. (22) | XI Kal. (22) | X Kal. (22) | VIII Kal. (22) |
X Kal. (23) | X Kal. (23) | IX Kal. (23) | VII Kal. (23) |
IX Kal. (24) | IX Kal. (24) | VIII Kal. (24) | VI Kal (the extra day in a leap year) |
VIII Kal. (25) | VIII Kal. (25) | VII Kal. (25) | VI Kal. (24/25) |
VII Kal. (26) | VII Kal. (26) | VI Kal. (26) | V Kal. (25/26) |
VI Kal. (27) | VI Kal. (27) | V Kal. (28) | V Kal. (26/27) |
V Kal. (28) | V Kal. (28) | V Kal. (28) | V Kal. (27/28) |
IV Kal. (29) | IV Kal. (29) | III Kal. (29) | III Kal. (28/29) |
III Kal. (30) | III Kal. (30) | II Kal. (30) | |
II Kal. (31) | II Kal. (31) |
Almost all medieval calendars give each day's date according to the Roman method of reckoning time. In the Roman system, each month had three fixed points known as Kalends (Kal), the Nons and the Ides. The Nones fell on the fifth of the month in January, February, April, June, August, September, November and December, but on the seventh of the month in March, May, July and October. The Ides fell on the thirteenth in those months in which the Nones fell on the fifth, and the fifteenth in the other four months. All other days were dated by the number of days by which they preceded one of those fixed points.[11][15]
Scripts[edit]
Manuscript, Codex Manesse. Most manuscripts were ruled with horizontal lines that served as the baselines on which the text was entered.
Merovingian script, or 'Luxeuil minuscule', is named after an abbey in Western France, the Luxeuil Abbey, founded by the Irish missionary St Columba ca. 590.[16][17]Caroline minuscule is a calligraphic script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Latin alphabet could be easily recognized by the literate class from different regions. It was used in the Holy Roman Empire between approximately 800 and 1200. Codices, classical and Christian texts, and educational material were written in Carolingian minuscule throughout the Carolingian Renaissance. The script developed into blackletter and became obsolete, though its revival in the Italian renaissance forms the basis of more recent scripts.[11] In Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Clemens and Graham associate the beginning of this text coming from the Abby of Saint-Martin at Tours.[11]
Caroline Minuscule arrived in England in the second half of the 10th century. Its adoption there, replacing Insular script, was encouraged by the importation of continental European manuscripts by Saints Dunstan, Aethelwold, and Oswald. This script spread quite rapidly, being employed in many English centres for copying Latin texts. English scribes adapted the Carolingian script, giving it proportion and legibility. This new revision of the Caroline Minuscule was called English Protogothic Bookhand.Another script that is derived from the Caroline Minuscule was the German Protogothic Bookhand. It originated in southern Germany during the second half of the 12th century.[18]All the individual letters are Caroline; but just as with English Protogothic Bookhand it evolved. This can be seen most notably in the arm of the letter h. It has a hairline that tapers out by curving to the left. When first read the German Protogothic h looks like the German Protogothic b.[19] Many more scripts sprang out of the German Protogothic Bookhand. After those came Bastard Anglicana, which is best described as:lipi = pandu lipi pura lipi vignayani
The coexistence in the Gothic period of formal hands employed for the copying of books and cursive scripts used for documentary purposes eventually resulted in cross-fertilization between these two fundamentally different writing styles. Notably, scribes began to upgrade some of the cursive scripts. A script that has been thus formalized is known as a bastard script (whereas a bookhand that has had cursive elements fused onto it is known as a hybrid script). The advantage of such a script was that it could be written more quickly than a pure bookhand; it thus recommended itself to scribes in a period when demand for books was increasing and authors were tending to write longer texts. In England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many books were written in the script known as Bastard Anglicana.
Parts[edit]
- Cover
- Flyleaf
- Colophon
- incipit
- decoration; illustrations
- dimensions
- Shelfmark or Signature in holding library
(as opposed to printed Catalog number)
- works/compositions included in same ms
- codicological elements:
- deletions method: erasure? overstrike? dots above letters?
- headers/footers
- page format/layout: columns? text and surrounding commentary/additions/glosses?
- interpolations
- owners' marginal notations/corrections
- owner signatures
- dedication/inscription
- censor signatures
- collation (quires)
- foliation
- Binding
- materials: paper/vellum/papyrus/uncials
- Ink
- writing implement used
- pastedown
- page numeration
- paleographic elements:
- script (one or more?)
- dating
- line fillers
- rubrication
- ruled lines
- leading word at bottom corner of page to indicate what first word on next page is [=catchwords?]
- historical elements of ms: blood, wine etc. stains
- condition: (e.g. smokiness/evidence of fire)
- mold
- wormed
Major U.S. repositories of medieval manuscripts[edit]
- The Morgan Library & Museum = 1,300 (including papyri)
- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale = 1,100
- Walters Art Museum = 1,000
- Houghton Library, Harvard = 850
- Huntington Library = 400
- Robbins Collection = 300
- Newberry Library = 260
- Cornell University Library = 150
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Definition of MANUSCRIPT'. www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^'manuscript'. Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^Harper, Douglas. 'Manuscript.' Online Etymology Dictionary. November 2001. Accessed 10-11-2007.
- ^'Medieval English Literary ManuscriptsArchived 9 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine.' www.Library.Rtruuochester.Edu. 22 June 2004. University of Rochester Libraries. Accessed 10-11-2007.
- ^'Manuscript' (abbreviated ms. and mss.) in British Library Glossaries, The British Library. Accessed 12 March 2016.
- ^'ms', 'ms.' and 'MS' in The Free Dictionary (American Heritage 2011 and Random House Kernerman Webster's 2010). Accessed 12 March 2016.
- ^'MSS', 'mss' and 'mss.' in The Free Dictionary (American Heritage 2011, Collins 2014 and Random House Kernerman Webster's 2010). Accessed 12 March 2016.
- ^'MSS' (MS. and ms., MSS. and mss.) in Dictionary.com LLC(Random House 2014 and Collins 2012). Accessed 12 March 2016.
- ^Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster.
- ^Buringh, Eltjo; Van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2009). 'Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries'. The Journal of Economic History. 69 (2): 409–445. doi:10.1017/s0022050709000837. (see p. 416, table 1)
- ^ abcdefghClemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.
- ^Pass, Gregory. Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2002.
- ^Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1983), xxvii
- ^'Learn: Basic Tutorial'. Les Enluminures.
- ^F.P. Pickering, The Calendar Pages of Medieval Service Books: An Introductory Note for Art Historians (Reading, UK., 1980.
- ^Brown, Michelle P. (1991). Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN9780802077288.
- ^Brown, Michelle P. A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600. Toronto,1990.
- ^Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. 'English Protogothic Bookhand.' In Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. 146-147.
- ^Clemens, Raymond, and Timothy Graham. 'German Protogothic Bookhand.' In Introduction to Manuscript Studies. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. 149-150.
External links[edit]
Look up manuscript or handwrit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manuscripts. |
- The Sarasvati Mahal Library, has the richest collection of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 'Manuscripts' . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Manuscripts of Lichfield Cathedral - Digital facsimile of the 8th-century St Chad Gospels and Cathedral's 15th-century Wycliffe New Testament, 2010. Includes the ability to overlay images captured with 13 different bands of light, historical images (starting in 1887), and multispectral visualizations. Also includes sixteen interactive 3D renderings. College of Arts & Sciences, University of Kentucky
- Historical Image Overlays - See how an early medieval manuscript is aging
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manuscript&oldid=919749999'
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The Ellen G. White Estate, Incorporated, or simply the (Ellen) White Estate, is an organization created in 1933 by the five trustees named in Ellen G. White's last will and testament to act as the custodian of her writings, which Seventh-day Adventists consider as divinely inspired. The headquarters is located at the General Conference in Silver Spring, Maryland, where it functions as a quasi-independent department of the denomination. It has an independent and self-perpetuating board, but the organization receives an annual allocation just like other departments of the world headquarters. The White Estate has branch offices and research centers at Adventist universities and colleges around the world with at least one center in each division of the world church.
The mission of the White Estate is to circulate Ellen White's writings, translate them, and provide resources for helping to better understand her life and ministry. At the TorontoGeneral Conference Session in 2000, the world church expanded the mission of the organization to include a responsibility for promoting Adventist history for the entire denomination. After a century since Ellen G. White's death in 1915 the White Estate will publicly release all of her unpublished writings online.
- 8List of chief officers
History[edit]
Other duties include handling her properties, 'conducting the business thereof,' 'securing the printing of new translations,' and the 'printing of compilations from my manuscripts.'[1] Her will, dated February 9, 1912, named five church administrators to serve as a board of trustees:[2]Arthur G. Daniells, William C. White, Clarence C. Crisler, Charles H. Jones, and Francis M. Wilcox. Appointment of the trustees was for life, Ellen White providing that “if a vacancy shall occur for any reason among said trustees, or their successors, a majority of the surviving or remaining trustees are hereby empowered and directed to fill such vacancy by the appointment of some other fit person”;[1] or if this provision were to fail, the General Conference Executive Committee should appoint someone to fill such a vacancy. The will dedicated the major portion of the existing and potential royalty incomes from her books to the work of the trustees.
At the death of Ellen White, July 16, 1915, this self-perpetuating board began to function. It soon sold Ellen White’s real estate, consisting mainly of Elmshaven, her home property near St. Helena, California, then began the continued care of her literary properties. Under the terms of the will, such responsibilities fell into three areas:
- possession of the copyrights to her writings and the care and promotion of her books in the English language
- preparation of manuscripts for, and the promotion of the translation and publication of her writings in other languages
- custody of the files of manuscripts and other files, and the selection of matter from the Ellen G. White manuscript files for publication.
The board now carries a fourth responsibility, which has developed naturally through the years—acquainting Seventh-day Adventists and others with Mrs. White and her work.
Organization[edit]
When the board was first organized in 1915, A. G. Daniells served as president. The secretaryship, after being held for a short time by C. C. Crisler, passed to W. C. White, the only member of the board devoting full-time to the work of the trustees. He filled this office until his death in 1937. From 1915 to 1937 the work was carried on at Elmshaven in a rented office building with a vault that was used to house the E. G. White materials.
During the 19 years they worked together, the original members, in addition to routine tasks, (1) published 10 posthumous compilations; (2) produced an 865-page Comprehensive Index to the Writings of Ellen G. White, published in 1926; (3) carried forward the thorough indexing of the Ellen G. White manuscript files; and (4) in counsel with the leading officers of the General Conference in 1933 and 1934, laid the foundation for continuing the trusteeship in perpetuity. The steps taken to ensure the perpetuation of the trusteeship were: (a) in 1933 the trustees, as the constituency, formed a corporation under the laws of the state of California “to carry out and perform the provisions of the charitable trust created by the last will and testament of Ellen G. White deceased”; (b) the General Conference agreed to provide adequate financial support for the work of the trustees in the form of an annual budget; the trustees, in turn, assigned to the General Conference all royalty incomes produced by the Ellen G. White books; (c) it was agreed to move the property and work of the trustees at some appropriate future time to Washington, D.C., thus placing it close to the world headquarters of the church.
Period of Transition[edit]
When three of the original trustees died—one in 1935 and two in 1936–the vacancies were filled in harmony with the provisions of the will and the bylaws of the 1933 corporation. The full-time secretary, W. C. White, died September 1, 1937. He was replaced by his son, Arthur L. White, who for nine years had served as his secretary and for four years as assistant secretary of the White Estate. The work of the White Estate was moved to the General Conference, Washington, D.C., in January, 1938.
Present Organization[edit]
As demands upon them increasing steadily with the growth of the church and numerous constituencies to be represented, in 1950 the trustees increased the board’s membership from five to seven, and in 1958 amended the bylaws of the corporation to provide for a constituency and board of nine, seven to be life members and two to be elected for a term corresponding to that of General Conference elected personnel (originally four years, but now five). In 1970 the board was increased to 11; in 1980, to 13; and, in 1985, to 15. The number of life members is currently five. At quinquennial meetings the board also elects the secretary and associate secretaries, as well as officers of the corporation, as provided for in the bylaws.Relationship to General Conference. Through the years a close working relationship has obtained between the White trustees and the General Conference. Most of the trustees are members of the General Conference Executive Committee. Various matters, such as promoting the overseas publication of the Ellen G. White material, appropriation of funds to assist in the foreign language publication of Ellen G. White books, and overall planning of Spirit of Prophecy promotion, including preparation of materials for the annual Spirit of Prophecy Sabbath, although intimately related to the work of the White trustees, are beyond the sphere of their direct responsibility. These are handled by the General Conference Committee through a sub-committee known as the Spirit of Prophecy Committee. This committee includes several of the White trustees. The duties of this subcommittee and the working relationship between the General Conference Committee and the White Estate are currently set forth in a joint agreement adopted by the General Conference Committee and the White Estate trustees on October 10, 1957. There is an interlocking and at times overlapping of responsibilities; nevertheless, a smooth and efficient working relationship between the two organizations is maintained.
Routine Work[edit]
The paid staff members:
- safeguard and maintain the records in the custody of the trustees, and the indexes thereto, in such a manner as to serve the church
- handle the copyrights to the Ellen G. White works
- conduct such research in these works and the related historical materials as may be called for
- respond to questions that may be directed to the White Estate in personal interviews and in a worldwide correspondence
- assemble, when authorized by the trustees, materials for compilations from Ellen G. White’s writings
- foster, in conjunction with the Spirit of Prophecy Committee, the ever-widening publication of these writings in various languages and at times make selections or abridgments as called for and authorized
- fill assignments in church, institutional, and field visitation as the needs and best interests of the advancing work of the church require
- conduct tours of historical sites of denominational interest, especially in the New England states
- prepare articles, correspondence lessons, and text materials.
Productions of special value to the church include the four-volume Comprehensive Index to the Writings of Ellen G. White (1962, 1992); the six-volume facsimile reprints of the Ellen G. White Present Truth and Review and Herald articles; the four-volume Ellen G. White Signs of the Times articles; the Ellen G. White Youth’s Instructor articles; the Periodical Resource Collection volumes; the six-volume biography of Ellen G. White, by Arthur L. White; and The Published Writings of Ellen G. White on Compact Disc (CD-ROM), a tool of inestimable value to users of computers. Most of her writings are now available online.[citation needed]
Branch Offices and Research Centers[edit]
Beginning in 1974 the White Estate began to set up 'Ellen G. White-SDA Research Centers' on the campuses of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities. These offices contain duplicates of the Ellen White documents and other historical materials housed in the main office at General Conference headquarters. The five branch offices are located at:
- Andrews University,
- Loma Linda University,
- Oakwood University,
- Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, and
It has local research centers around the world, including a center opened in 2004 at
- Southwestern Adventist University,
and 12 centers are located at:
- Argentina (Adventist University of Plata)
- Australia (Avondale College) [2]
- Brazil (Brazil Adventist University - Campus 2)
- England (Newbold College)
- France (Adventist University of France)
- India (Spicer Adventist University)
- Jamaica (Northern Caribbean University)
- Korea (Sahmyook University)
- Mexico (University of Montemorelos)
- Nigeria (Babcock University)
- Russia (Zaoksky Adventist University)
- South Africa (Helderberg College).
Use of E. G. White Manuscript Materials[edit]
During the later years of her life, Ellen White often drew upon her unique 50,000-page manuscript file in the preparation of published works. The White trustees have continued to draw upon this for the compilations made since her death. These manuscripts constitute an invaluable basic file of historical records and of counsel to the church. As of 2012, approximately half of these manuscripts and letters have been published in full, with about two thirds of the collection published in full or in part.[3]
While all of Ellen White’s writings are available for research, the unpublished letters, manuscripts, and other materials in the Ellen G. White files do not constitute a public archive. The sacred nature of the files generally and the confidential nature of many of the communications in the files require that they be cared for and used responsibly. Even manuscripts whose primary value is historical in nature must not be used in a solely secular manner.[4] Because of this, during the first few decades following Ellen White’s death, careful policies governing the use and release of unpublished materials were set up, ultimately resulting in the publication of 21 volumes known as Manuscript Releases. In recent years the earlier restrictive policies have been adapted to accommodate the needs of increased research.
List of chief officers[edit]
The two chief officers of the board are the chair and the secretary. The chair is also president of the corporation. The secretary serves not only as secretary of the board but as executive secretary of the organization, being responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office and staff. Beginning in 1915, when the terms of Ellen White’s will went into effect, the White Estate has had 10 chairs and 7 secretaries. During the first meeting of the White Estate board, Oct. 28-29, 1915, the trustees elected A. G. Daniells as the first chair, but at the next meeting on Nov. 22, 1915, elected F. M. Wilcox. At that same meeting (Oct. 28-29, 1915) they elected C. C. Crisler who served as the secretary until July 27, 1917, when W. C. White replaced him.
Chair[edit]
- 1915 Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
- 1915-1922 Francis M. Wilcox
- 1922-1935 Arthur Grosvenor Daniells
- 1935-1936 John Edwin Fulton
- 1936-1937 John Luis Shaw
- 1938-1944 Francis M. Wilcox
- 1944-1951 Milton E. Kern
- 1952 Denton E. Rebok
- 1952-1963 Albert Victor Olson
- 1963-1966 Francis D. Nichol
- 1966-1980 William Paul Bradley
- 1980-2008 Kenneth H. Wood
- 2008-2013 Don Schneider
- 2014- G. T. Ng
Secretary[edit]
- 1915-1917 C. C. Crisler
- 1917-1937 William C. White
- 1937-1978 Arthur L. White
- 1978-1990 Robert W. Olson
- 1990-1995 Paul A. Gordon
- 1995-2000 Juan Carlos Viera
- 2000- James R. Nix
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- 'From Z File to Compact Disk: The Democratization of Ellen White Sources' by Ronald Graybill. Unpublished paper, 1988
- ^ ab'Ellen G. White Estate'. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. 10. Review and Herald Publishing Association. 1996.
- ^Appendix N: Last Will and Testament of Ellen G. White
- ^Catalogue of Ellen White Letters and Manuscripts with[1]
- ^The Desire of Ages, p. 55: “Spiritual things are spiritually discerned”; see also 1 Cor 2:14
Further reading[edit]
- The Struggle for the Prophetic Heritage, by Gilbert Valentine, ISBN974-8343-00-6
External links[edit]
- Ellen G. White Estate, the official Ellen White website
- The Complete Published Writings of Ellen G. White Online Search
- Last Will and Testament of Ellen G. White from Messenger of the Lord by Herbert Douglass
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