Matt Patrick Graham

The publication of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 immediately elicited responses from dozens of Roman Catholics in Germany and beyond. While Luther's works and those of his leading supporters have been available in English translation for many years, those of most of his Catholic opponents have not. In order to address this imbalance, win a fairer hearing for the Catholic opposition, and make it possible for students to understand both sides of the sixteenth-century religious debates, translators have drawn on the rich resources of the Kessler Reformation Collection at the Pitts Theology Library to present here introductions to and translations of ten Catholic pamphlets. The volume begins with an essay sketching the larger background for these publications. The editors' hope is that this book will prove useful for teaching and research and will foster a deeper understanding of the sixteenth-century theological discussions by allowing today's readers to hear voices that have been mostly silent in the English-speaking world for centuries. --

"Special collections of religious and theological materials have been part of the landscape of academic libraries in North America from their beginnings. This collection of ten articles treats several aspects of this rich history in three sections: the first deals with the history of specific collections at four libraries; the second treats current attempts to use special collections in teaching and the outreach mission of the library, including the development and use of digital technologies; and the third explores topics related to building library collections for the future, noting both pitfalls to be avoided and intriguing opportunities." --