COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

"Can These Bones Live?"
 

IN THE following pages are articles about eight of the most
unusual collections in the Columbia Libraries. Although the
objectsincluded in these collections number several thousand,
there is not a printed book among them! Readers must have noticed
the remarkable variety of the Libraries' holdings described over
the years in Columns, but this issue will, we think, surprise them.
It tells of bones, coins, stones, tiles, lead pipes, papyri, potsherds
and tablets—with some five hundred Islamic manuscripts thrown
in for good measure.

The messages on all this ancient hardware look cryptic indeed
to the layman; translated, they come alive like Ezekiel's dry bones,
and there emerge men and women with very recognizable human
emotions. If you doubt it, turn to page 26 and read what the
misogynist bishop wrote, centuries ago, to the anchorite. . . .