A university is eminently a place for research. The living core of a place of learning is the library. Andrews University believes in having a building large enough for housing its increasing number of books, magazines, and collections. Such a building is in the process of being built here, with a view to serving all three divisions of the university. Aside from the necessary rooms for reading, research, and administration, provision is made for the conducting of seminars of selected groups of students who are assigned specific work or research, and who should, therefore, benefit from the proximity of the best available sources.
A Denominational Historical Society
Provision is made for a room dedicated to denominational history. We hope to assemble all available documents concerning our denomination, to be preserved, cataloged, and well cared for. We already have a foundation backlog called the "Advent Source Collection," assembled mainly under the direction of Dr. L. E. Froom to serve as basis for Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. We also have collections of the Review and Herald and other denominational periodicals. Some of these collections are complete; others are not. We take occasion here to bring this project to the urgent attention of our ministers everywhere, so that with everyone's cooperation we may come in contact with authentic writings by the pioneers, especially letters, diaries, sermons, and studies in manuscript form. Any item that is directly or indirectly related to the Advent Movement is of immense importance and significance, and we would urge everyone, worker and layman, to help us collect everything we possibly can. Already a number of men in this country, and in other countries, have expressed an enthusiastic interest in this project and are ready to assist as much as possible. Your contributions and your loyal, genuine interest are our main hope for obtaining some of these denominational documents. We are interested, of course, not only in manuscripts and primary printed sources but in all books and pamphlets put out by our people, whether they be in English or another language, even writings directed against us. If you do not own any items that you would be willing to part with for our denominational historical collection, you may perhaps know of someone who has in his possession items that we could purchase. Any leads from anyone will be appreciated. Please write to me at your earliest convenience.
Quality of Research Material
A university library is not mainly concerned with the quantity of books to be acquired. We are very careful about the quality of our possessions. Nothing is too good to serve our purpose. Only the best should be made available to our young people at study. From time to time we are fortunate in obtaining outstanding collections. One of these is the Weimar edition of the Works of Luther. This edition, of course, is by far the best. Such collections are expensive, and often we do not have the necessary funds ready for such a purchase; but we are getting, increasingly, the generous cooperation of friends who are vitally interested to help us in this work. Thus the gracious gift of James Trefz, of Takoma Park, made possible the purchase of the Weimar edition and Luther's Pentateuch. Among other priceless books we also have the coveted Migne collection which in 414 volumes contains the writings of the Church Fathers in the original languages (Latin and Greek); this is an invaluable foundation collection.
Recently our library was able to add another series of rare books. One night a friend called to inform us of the availability of forty-one works, all of which are first editions and published in the early sixteenth century. We were given the privilege of examining the set and were thrilled at what we saw, hoping that we might add these books to our library. Here again we were faced by the expense, but once more, owing to the deep interest of Brother Trefz, the purchase of this set was made possible. (We sincerely hope that funds for other works of quality will be made available for the university library from other quarters as well.)
This recent acquisition includes twenty-one writings by Martin Luther in the first edition. Some of these books are from the library of the Reformer at Wittenberg. It will not be possible here to list all of them; suffice it to mention the Reformation Tracts of 1520, among them the De Captivitate Babylonica, which caused such a stir that King Henry VIII of England was roused to defend the Catholic faith against Luther's ideas, which were gaining momentum. We also have in our new collection Luther's answer: Contra Henricum Regem Angliae (1522).
Another interesting tract is one of the earliest in Luther's career—his account of the interview with the papal legate in 1518 (Resolutiones Disputationum). By the way, most of these newly acquired books are adorned with exquisite drawings, some in color; they are mostly by Luther's friend Cranach.
Most interesting to us is Luther's discussion on the end of the world: A Christian and Well-founded Proof of the Judgment and of Its Signs, and That It Is Not Far Off. Luther on many occasions openly confessed his faith in the Lord's return and several times even indicated definite dates. In the copy we now have, the signs on earth and in heaven, which to him were the proof that the last day is not far off, are so graphically described that they could be used verbatim by our evangelists. Another work of interest to our ministers is a discussion by Luther in 1523 on baptism, containing the views the Reformer held at the moment. Humorous and quite revealing is Luther's view on the relationship of Christian parents and children, especially in regard to marriage. Somehow these tracts, when we have them in our hands as they were actually read in those stormy days 450 years ago, seem to bring us closer to the live issues than when the same texts are read in translation or in poorly, if not incorrectly, edited texts.
The newly acquired collection of first editions also contains works by other writers. There is a curious book published in 1524 by Carlstadt, discussing the will of God and the nature of man. Very welcome to us are the first editions from some of Luther's close friends and language specialists who helped him in the translation of the Scriptures, such as a sermon by Bugenhagen (in German) and another by Justus, who gives an account of Luther's death in 1546, which he witnessed. Of great value to us is a work by Erasmus, the ubiquitous humanist whose book in 1522 deals with pilgrimages. Perhaps the rarest of all is a first edition of the extremely rare tract by Pope Hadrian VI, Suggestio Deliberandi, giving Hadrian's proposals, presented to the diet at Nurnberg, that the German princes unite to eliminate Lutheranism! In our collection another pope even more famous, Leo X, is represented by the text of the Bull of Excommunication (given here in full); Bulla Contra Errores Martini Luther. It was that bull which was burned in Wittenberg in December, 1520. Priceless, also, is a small work by the famous Hans Sachs, the cobbler-humanist in Nurnberg who was a loyal follower of the evangelical cause in Germany. All these works, including Luther's small catechism, are in fine condition—the text is large, clear, and easily readable. We are very fortunate indeed to have the new Andrews University library enriched by such a rare collection.
