{"id":91162,"date":"2025-07-25T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91162\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T10:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:43:11","slug":"this-26-year-old-has-a-thing-for-13th-century-manuscripts-and-a-prize-to-prove-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/91162\/","title":{"rendered":"This 26-year-old has a thing for 13th century manuscripts \u2014 and a prize to prove it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rose McCandless isn\u2019t on TikTok much.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old\u2019s nose is more likely to be in a book about medieval handwriting. The Paleography of Gothic Manuscript Books: from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century, to name one. The 13th century is McCandless\u2019 thing. You know, checking out what the average person was thinking 800 years ago. So much so that she collects books about the history of books from the Middle Ages to the present.<\/p>\n

McCandless recently won the University of Denver\u2019s Taylor C. Kirkpatrick Prize<\/a>. The $1,000 prize recognizes and encourages young Colorado book collectors under the age of 30. Collections are judged on their thoroughness, the approach to their subject, and the seriousness with which the collector has cataloged and presented their materials.<\/p>\n

The young Denver collector is currently a reference and instruction assistant at the University of Denver Special Collections & Archives library. She\u2019s \u201cthe person who watches to make sure you don\u2019t get your salad dressing on the rare books.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also works for the Digital Scriptorium<\/a>, a one-stop shop for information about any medieval manuscript owned in North America.<\/p>\n

McCandless has many ways to describe herself and her interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA book lover is probably number one,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery book has a soul\u201d<\/p>\n

McCandless has a tattoo on her arm in Spanish: \u201cCada libro tiene una alma,\u201d every book has a soul. It\u2019s associated with a quote from Spanish novelist Carlos Ruiz Zaf\u00f3n\u2019s novel, \u201cThe Shadow of the Wind.\u201d The quote encapsulates McCandless\u2019 passion and devotion to books.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YOUNGJenny Brundin\/CPR NewsRose McCandless has a tattoo on her arm in Spanish: “Cada libro tiene una alma,” every book has a soul. <\/p>\n

McCandless loves books not just as things to read, but as objects to hold and touch. She\u2019s interested in how they became objects of value, both on one\u2019s shelf and in the rare book trade. It\u2019s medieval manuscripts that are her true love, books written by hand before the invention of the printing press.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese materials preserve our physical history and our textual history,\u201d she said, especially now, in a world where facts and what constitutes reality are ever-shifting.\u00a0 \u201cHistory is being manipulated, and rare books are just one way to be able to access what really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her small collection of books about books is both scholarly and personal. The books aren\u2019t particularly valuable, but they carry meaning and help her with her studies of medieval manuscripts. McCandless took Latin in middle and high school and she is trained in certain medieval handwriting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you give me a legal document from Henry VIII\u2019s time, I can’t make heads or tails of it, so you know, it’s a very, very niche skill set,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Here is a selection from her collection:<\/p>\n