«In the words of the historian Jacob Burckhardt, fifteenth-century Italy was "the place where the notion of the individual was born." In keeping with this notion, early Renaissance Italy hosted the first great age of portraiture in Europe.

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I am just back from Long Beach, CA, where I spoke at TED, the annual four-day conference started twenty-five years ago and dedicated to the concept of "Ideas Worth Spreading."

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One hundred and forty years ago, on February 20, 1872, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its doors to the public for the first time.

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A Metropolitan Museum patron interested in Islamic art in the 1880s would have found little of relevance on display. By 1910, however, the situation was very much improved, and in the century since then, the Islamic art displays at the Museum have become the largest in the Western world.

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"Pity my life and be my wife."

These words were delivered in a round, white box to a Miss Oliver in Hythe, Southampton, in the mid-nineteenth century. The box contained a beautiful Valentine's Day card covered in lace, with a basket of textile flowers in its center. Although we may never know if Miss Oliver accepted the somewhat woefully expressed petition of the man who loved her, we do know that the card and even its container survived the test of time, cherished at the very least as a keepsake.

Boxed Valentine's Day Card (Lid), 1840–1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mrs. Richard Riddel, 1981 (1981.1136.186)

Miss Oliver's card is not the only one of its kind. Greeting cards—and Valentine's Day cards, in particular—have become a beloved collector's item. Through the bequests of several avid collectors, the Department of Drawings and Prints holds a large group of these cards and gifts within our extensive collection of ephemera. With objects dating from as early as the eighteenth century, the Met's collection of valentines illustrates almost 250 years of traditions related to the holiday, and a selection of this material, principally from the collection of Mrs. Richard Riddell (American, 1910–2010), is on view in the current rotation of selections from the permanent collection in the Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Gallery.

The association between love and Saint Valentine began in the Middle Ages, but the first known traces of lovers exchanging short, romantic notes on his feast day (February 14) don't appear until the seventeenth century. Over time, more attention was paid to the presentation of these messages in the form of letters, poems, rebuses, cards, and other gifts. Using the latest inventions in decorative paper and graphic arts—colored, embossed papers and (chromo-) lithographs, for example—some of these "tokens of love" became veritable masterpieces of virtuosic craftsmanship.

Germany in particular seems to have played a leading role in the development of the valentine industry and, accordingly, a large part of the earliest valentines in our collection have a German provenance. England followed suit, with a particularly thriving gift card industry during the Victorian period. The United States imported many of these items from Europe, but eventually started to produce its own cards and gifts. Because American tastes were still strongly linked to the European continent throughout the nineteenth century, it's often hard to determine a valentine's distinct place of manufacture without additional information.

Heart-shaped valentines card, 1850–1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Morrison H. Heckscher, 1989 (1989.1154)

Various types of preserved cards show that many clever and endearing ways have been used to express affection—not just to a romantic interest, but also to friends, siblings, and other family members. Although each piece strongly reflects the etiquette and taste of its era, the intimate messages they contain often transcend time and place. What is most striking is how delicate, elaborate, and even exuberant the cards and gifts can be. Many cards were made in relief with craftily cut-out paper frames—made to look like lace, for example, or covered in gilding—and embellished with colorful scraps, dried and textile flowers, beads, precious stones, fabrics, and many other decorative materials.

Left: Boxed Valentine's Day Card (Lid), 1840–1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mrs. Richard Riddel, 1981 (1981.1136.195); Right: Boxed Valentine's Day Card (Lid), 1840–1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Mrs. Richard Riddel, 1981 (1981.1136.187);

Because of their three-dimensional quality, these cards were often presented in custom-made boxes, which were, in turn, beautifully decorated. It's not surprising that many of these richly clad, hopeful solicitations were treasured and safeguarded by their recipients, allowing us a glimpse into these ephemeral yet priceless expressions of love.

Paper Kisses

Left: Master bxg (German (?), active ca. 1470–1490). The Lovers, 15th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1934 (34.38.6); Right: Umberto Boccioni (Italian, 1882–1916). States of Mind: The Farewells, 1911. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Lydia Winston Malbin, 1989 (1990.38.22a,b)

Another meaningful gesture of love included in the current rotation is found in drawings and prints exploring the theme of the kiss. From the cheeky courtly lovers by the fifteenth-century Master bxg to the anonymous figures caught up in a swirl of movement in Umberto Boccioni's drawing for States of Mind: The Farewells, each kiss has its own story and significance.

In some cases, a kiss is just a kiss—as in Edvard Munch's 1902 woodcut The Kiss IV. In other instances, artists have adopted the kiss as a way of portraying something more abstract: Hendrick Goltzius chose a kissing couple to illustrate Touch in his Five Senses series; William Blake depicted a man and woman rushing into each other's arms and kissing to personify Robert Blair's "Reunion of the Body and Soul" from the poem The Grave (1743).

Luigi Schiavonetti (Italian, 1765–1810). The Reunion of the Soul & the Body, from The Grave, a Poem by Robert Blair, March 1, 1813. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 (17.3.2400)

Mythology's many interesting love stories have induced artists to create ingenious, sensual, and perhaps even slightly bewildering scenes of kissing. A case in point is the painting of Leda and the Swan that Michelangelo painted for the Duke of Ferrara (which ended up in the collection of King François I of France). Although the painting was lost, several copies were made, including an engraving by the Netherlandish engraver and publisher Cornelis Bos.

Cornelis Bos (Netherlandish, ca. 1510?–before 1566). Leda and the Swan, 1544–66. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1957 (57.658.153)

Through reproductions such as this one, Michelangelo's original, extremely sensual, yet tender and convincing rendering of the story has been preserved. We see Leda straddling a graceful swan—a disguise adopted by Zeus to seduce her—right at the moment when she gently kisses his beak as a sign of surrender to his unwavering advances.

Mythology also offered the perfect framework for artists to experiment with suggestive imagery without causing offense. Illustrations of beloved antique sources held a legitimate place in the wide range of acceptable subjects that didn't breach the lines of propriety, which was a necessary concern for artists. In the 1520s, for example, the engraver Marcantonio Raimondi was imprisoned by Pope Clement VII over his involvement in the production of a book that contained images of everyday men and women making love. A few decades later, Giulio Bonasone cleverly avoided a similar persecution by choosing Greek gods as the protagonists in his provocative print series Loves of the Gods. (However, the fact that it is difficult to identify most of Bonasone's gods today indicates that their guises were thin enough to be ignored by the viewer.)

Guilio Bonasone (Italian, 1531–after 1576). Apollo and Leucothea, from the Loves of the Gods Loves of the Gods, 1531–60. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1962 [62.602.145(4)]

Aside from the many ways kisses were employed to convey a story or additional meaning, this overview also reveals that rendering a convincing kiss on paper is not easy from a technical point of view—it involves both a thorough understanding of anatomy and a strong command of perspectival drawing. Perhaps that's why lovers' kisses are relatively rare in the graphic arts, more often implied than actually displayed. This may also be one of the most intriguing attractions of this type of imagery, as it allows the viewer to fill in the details of what will happen next.

Left: Heroic Africans exhibition catalogue; Right: Commemorative figure of a priestess, 19th century. Cameroon, Grassfields region, Bangwa chiefdom. Bamileke peoples. Wood, pigments. Musée Dapper, Paris (3343)

Alisa LaGamma, curator of Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures and author of the accompanying catalogue, recently discussed the Commemorative figure of a priestess, one of the masterpieces from the exhibition, for the Yale University Press blog. Don't miss the rare opportunity to see the powerful figure, on loan from the Musée Dapper, Paris (3343). The exhibition at the Met closes on January 29 before traveling to the Museum Rietberg in Zurich.

This week we celebrated the completion of the rebuilding of the Met's extraordinary American Wing, and in doing so unequivocally acknowledged the importance of the arts of this nation to the Metropolitan Museum.

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Reading Room of the National Library of Portugal, Lisbon

By any standards, Lisbon's Hebrew Bible—now on view at the Met—is a masterpiece of medieval illumination. Its acquisition in 1804 by the National Library of Portugal may be credited to the enlightened intellectualism of the institution's first librarian, António Ribeiro dos Santos. The library had been founded by Queen Maria I on February 29, 1796, as the "Royal Public Library of the Court," at the instigation of Fra Manuel do Cenáculo Villas-Boas, bishop of Beja and archbishop of Evora. The archbishop's own collections, those of Ribeiro dos Santos, and those of Portugal's Jesuit Colleges formed the nucleus of the collection. In that distinctly Roman Catholic context, the Library's early acquisition of an illuminated Hebrew Bible may seem, at first, a surprising addition. After all, the Jewish community of Portugal had been forcibly expelled in 1496, and the Inquisition did not officially end there until 1821.

The First Librarian

Portuguese Painter. António Ribeiro dos Santos, 1790 (?). Oil on canvas. Galeria dos Directores, Colecção de Pintura da  Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon

In every regard, the training and background of António Ribeiro dos Santos, the first librarian, seem very traditional and church oriented. Born in 1745 in Oporto, he was sent to Brazil to study under Jesuits in Rio de Janeiro. When he returned to Portugal in 1764, he studied canon law at University of Coimbra, completing his dissertation in 1771. Six years later, he was named librarian of his university. In his official portrait, preserved at the National Library, he wears the Insignia of the Royal Military order of Saint James of the Sword, founded in the Middle Ages as an order of knights for the protection of Christian pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. Looking beyond his résumé and his official portrait, however, it becomes apparent that Ribeiro dos Santos was possessed of a more independent spirit than appearances would suggest.

The eighteenth-century Joanina Library of the University of Coimbra, Portugal

An Enlightened Thinker

We can begin to glimpse something of his patterns of thinking by considering the guidelines that he drafted for the Coimbra university library during his tenure there, especially concerning the acquisition of books to enhance its collections. Ribeiro dos Santos felt strongly that the collections should be constantly enriched, and advocated including books that historically had been forbidden by the defunct Royal Censorship Board. (At the National Library, these would eventually include a fifteenth-century Portuguese edition of a Perpetual Almanac, the work of Abraham Zacuto, a Jewish mathematician and astronomer, who had been in the employ of the Portuguese King Manuel I before the Expulsion.)

As director of the university library, Ribeiro dos Santos argued in favor of opening the collections to the public, so that people could be informed about arts and sciences in other nations. Ribeiro dos Santos is also recognized today for his opposition to slavery and for wrestling with issues such as capital punishment. When accused of espousing populist and republican doctrines, Ribeiro dos Santos defended his notion of tolerance to the Court as rooted in the faith of the Catholic Church.

Ribeiro dos Santos's publications attest to his deep interest in the contributions of different historic cultures—including Greek, Visigothic, Arabic, and Celtic—to the Portuguese language. Moreover, he published a multivolume series of memories about the sacred literature of the Portuguese Jews, from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. He also studied historical, anti-Jewish writings by ecclesiastics, including his Portuguese predecessors, and the "Civil and Religious Status of Portuguese Jews and their Emigration to Different Parts of the World" in two volumes. Indeed, some consider Ribeiro dos Santos the first Portuguese intellectual since the Expulsion to have had a positive view of Judaism.

"The Oldest and Most Rare Hebrew Manuscript"

Against this background, António Ribeiro dos Santos was, it seems to us, in a position to be particularly receptive to a missive sent in 1804 from the Portuguese ambassador Francisco Maria de Brito, advocating the acquisition of "the oldest and most rare Hebrew manuscript," then being offered for sale at the Hague. Ribeiro dos Santos, in turn, obtained royal patronage to support the purchase of the manuscript.

Detail of folio 304r, with Jonah and the Whale, from the Cervera Bible, illuminated by Joseph the Frenchman, Spain, 1299–1300. Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment. Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon (BNP, IL.72)

As the images seen at the Metropolitan Museum this winter and the details illustrated here attest, the ambassador's enthusiasm was more than warranted. At the same time, both the ambassador's and the librarian's enthusiasm for the book may also be a reflection of a new era, for around 1800 Portugal decided to invite Jews back into the country as part of an effort to bolster the country's economy. But against the backdrop of the library's other early acquisitions, it seems more simply a reflection of a "catholic" (in the literal sense, meaning "universal") interest in learning. In that regard, it is worth noting that in 1805, the year after the purchase of the illuminated Hebrew Bible, Ribeiro dos Santos arranged for the National Library to purchase a Gutenberg Bible.

The images of the Cervera Bible, a recognized National Treasure of Portugal, are now available online, a development that Ribeiro dos Santos would surely have approved.

Detail of folio 147r (left) and folio 318v (right)

Further Reading

Domingos, Manuela D. Subsídios para a história da Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, 1995

Do Terreiro do Paço ao Campo Grande: 200 anos da Biblioteca Nacional, (exh. cat.), Lisbon, 1997

Libório, Fátima. Guia da Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, 1996

Pereira, José Esteves. O pensamento politico em Portugal no século XVIII: António Ribeiro dos Santos, Lisbon, 1983

Prato, Jeonathan. "Ribeiro dos Santos, António," Encyclopaedia Judaica, Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, eds., 2nd ed., Detroit, 2007, vol. 17, 280–281

The Museum Library, authorized by the Museum's 1870 charter and formally established in 1880, is one of the world's great collections of art historical research materials. However, thousands of printed books in the Library and other departments of the Museum are deteriorating rapidly through heavy use, acidic paper, or both. In some cases, important information has already been lost.

Over the past two years the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art has established a digitization program, with the dual goals of preserving these original printed materials and expanding access to their content. This post inaugurates a series of Now at the Met entries in which we'll highlight some of the interesting and valuable items we've decided to digitize.

Catalogue of engravings, etchings and mezzotints, belonging to James L. Claghorn of Philadelphia, and lent by him for exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 128 West 14th Street, New York, March, 1874 (Detail of page 5). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1874. 7 pages, 25 cm. Thomas J. Watson Library (NE57 .C6 1874)

Illustrated above is a page from an 1874 print exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, and it's clear that we're close to losing forever some of the crucial details like artists' names and the titles of their works. Materials like these are historically important and frequently consulted, but will not be able to physically withstand much further use. If we only have a few turns through a physical object before it irreparably disintegrates, we want to make sure that one of those uses is for the scanner so we can preserve as much of the item and its information as possible.

A Library staff member scanning eighteenth-century fashion plates on the Zeutschel book scanner

Our process comprises three basic stages. We select the books and collections to be digitized; typically we look for items that are unique or rare, in the public domain, and not accessible elsewhere in digitized form. Next, we scan the items here in the library on our high-quality Zeutschel book scanner, illustrated above, or we send them to an outside vendor for scanning. Finally, we provide access to the digitized files using a software package that includes a public website and the option to index the full text of our items, thereby making vast amounts of previously unavailable content searchable.

We believe it is both important and in line with the Library's and the Museum's missions to digitize as many of the Museum's earliest and most ephemeral publications as possible.

To date, thanks to a dedicated group of interns, we have digitized more than 250 early Museum publications using our Zeutschel scanner. Most of these items relate to the Museum's collections and exhibitions, but we have also scanned publications on topics ranging from collection development and Museum policies to lecture programs to early versions of the constitution and by-laws.

Catalogue of the New York Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings, selected from the private art galleries, 1876 (Detail of cover). New York, 1876. 23 pages, 23 cm. Thomas J. Watson Library (N610.A53 M48 1870–76)

Shown above is a catalogue from the 1876 Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings. This exhibition, one of many celebratory events held throughout New York City and the country during that year, gathered together paintings and watercolors from preeminent galleries and private collectors in the area. According to the exhibition's organizers, the quality of the art in this exhibition had "never been surpassed on this continent."1

This digital collection of early Metropolitan Museum of Art publications will undoubtedly grow much larger as we identify more material; as of this writing, more than one hundred publications dating between 1870 and 1905 are in the final stages of scanning and will be available online soon. We are also working with Museum Archives to identify and include additional Museum publications not held by Watson Library. One of our ultimate goals is to compile the "digital library of record" for early Metropolitan Museum of Art publications.

The Thomas J. Watson Library has already digitized more than three thousand items both independently and in collaboration with Metropolitan Museum of Art curatorial departments as well as other art museum libraries and galleries. Together, these items represent a wealth of content for researchers to explore in order to further their knowledge of art history, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and its collections.

Related Link
Explore The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries' digital collections: http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm

[1] Catalogue of the New York Centennial Loan Exhibition of Paintings, selected from the private art galleries, 1876 (New York: s.n., 1876), Introduction.