Random Finds Are the Best!

There are lots of fancy things you can do with Photoshop, but there was a time when if you wanted to make a document pretty, you had to do it by hand. In the archives, we always stop to take a look when we come across an example of beautiful calligraphy as impressive as the one below.

This small parchment booklet was produced for the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, which is commonly known as the Angelicum. The university traces its roots to 1222, when the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) founded a house of studies.

The lettering is so well done that we debated whether it might be printed, but very small differences between letters lead us to believe that it was done by hand.

The Angelicum is a pontifical university, which means that it has been given authority by the Holy See to grant degrees in sacred faculties.

1934

PO AA41.04

Archbishop Pocock Fonds

The text inside states that Fr. Philip Pocock graduated magna cum laude with a doctorate in canon law in 1934.

The parchment has been stored folded for so long that if we had tried to flatten it for a nicer scan, we would have damaged it.

1934

PO AA41.04

Archbishop Pocock Fonds

Even the back has been decorated with the seal of the university, which features the eponymous St. Thomas Aquinas. It is difficult to capture on the screen the way the gold ink shines when it catches the light.

1934

PO AA41.04

Archbishop Pocock Fonds

Finding treasures like this is one of the best parts of being an archivist!