PIMSPontifical Institute
of
Mediaeval Studies

The Institute Library, which opened in 1929 with a mere 3,000 titles donated by St Michael’s College, today has holdings of about 150,000 volumes whose lustre is enhanced and complemented by specialized collections of 2,550 rare books, 10,000 manuscripts on microfilm and 60,000 slides.

Location and Access

The Institute Library is located on the fourth floor of the John M. Kelly Library of St Michael’s College at 113 St Joseph Street, Toronto.

The Institute Council alone exercises control and authority over Library policies and use. Access to the library is normally granted to those professors and graduate students of the University of Toronto who need to consult unique copies or materials not otherwise accessible. Every reasonable opportunity to use the library is also given to visiting scholars, particularly Guests of the Institute.

Hours

Please note the following schedule. While every effort is made to keep information current, patrons are requested to confirm opening hours and any other matters relating to access or to the collections directly with the library staff (see below).

• Summer Hours (starting 1 May 2025): 
  
  • Monday: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
  • Tuesday: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
  • Wednesday: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
  • Thursday: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
  • Friday: 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
  • Saturday–Sunday: closed.
• Holiday closings:
  • Labour Day: Monday, September 2, 2024
  • Thanksgiving Day: Monday, October 14, 2024
  • Christmas/New Year: Saturday, December 21, 2024 to Sunday, January 5, 2025 inclusive
  • Family Day: Monday, February 17, 2025
  • Good Friday: Friday, April 18, 2025
  • Easter Monday: Monday, April 21, 2025
  • Presidential Day: Friday, May 16, 2025
  • Victoria Day: Monday, May 19, 2025
  • Presidential Day: Monday, June 30, 2025
  • Canada Day: Tuesday, July 1, 2025
  • Presidential Day: Friday, August 1, 2025
  • Civic Holiday: Monday, August 4, 2025
  • The PIMS Library will be open every week in August 2024.

Contact Information

For general inquiries, please use the PIMS Library's email address: pims.library@utoronto.ca.

For questions regarding policy and acquisitions, or to consult rare books and manuscripts, please contact the Librarian, Dr Greti Dinkova-Bruun, or James K. Farge, CSB, Curator of the Rare Book Room. To consult the collections, and for other general information, please write to Michael Sloan or telephone 416 926 7146. Reference questions should be directed to Tristan Major at 416 926 2094.

Policies and Regulations

The Library is owned and operated by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, which alone exercises authority over its policies and use. It functions as a research library.

Admission to the Library is by a PIMS Library pass, valid for one year, signed by the Librarian. An up-to-date Registration Form must be on file for every pass holder and occasional user. The user's signature on the pass signifies agreement to abide by the regulations. PIMS Library Passes are normally limited to the following:

• Fellows, Associates, Guests, and Staff of the Pontifical Institute.
• Professors and Graduate Students in the Centre for Medieval Studies or other Departments of the University of Toronto who are working in medieval studies.
• Undergraduate Students Majoring in Medieval Studies at St Michael's College.
• Visiting Professors and Graduate Students from other universities working in medieval studies. Please provide reference on university letterhead.
• Private scholars working in medieval studies.
• Others needing materials held uniquely in this library may be given access for the day.

The Library Pass must be shown to the door monitor upon entry. Please sign the register. Although access is gratis, salaried card holders are urged to help support the Library by becoming members of the Friends of the Library.

PLEASE NOTE

1. Library materials do not circulate.
2. Only materials for research (notes, paper, laptops or writing materials) may be brought into the Library. All other materials (such as briefcases, large purses, bags, and books from St Michael's College Library that have not been checked out) are to be consigned to the lockers provided.
3. Sixty personal lockers inside the library are available for an annual fee ($5.00) and a key-return fee ($15.00). They are suitable for purses, laptops, notes, and microfilms.
4. When photocopying, please avoid pressing on the book spine. Books likely to be photocopied by multiple users in a course should be copied one time only, and that master copied provided for re-copying by others.
5. For reasons of conservation, Folio and Oversize books MAY NOT BE PHOTOCOPIED. The latter should be consulted on the reading stands.
6. Bound journals and books in the Reference and Palaeography Rooms should be returned to the shelves daily by the user. All other books should be returned daily to the re-shelving trolley at the entrance to the stacks.
7. Please exit the Library for conversations. Please do not engage the door monitor in conversation.
8. No food, drink, or use of cell phones is permitted in the Library.
9. Notices posted on the bulletin boards are subject to the approval of the Librarian.
10. Refusal or failure to observe these regulations may result in loss of library access.

Catalogues and Facilities

The entire collection is non-circulating. For a description of its resources, see A Conspectus of the Collections. The library maintains separate catalogues for its holdings of printed books, microfilms, and many of its slides. Its catalogue of printed books is now searchable through the University of Toronto's computerized Library Catalogue but the shelf-list of manuscripts on microfilm, the microfiches of the Vatican Palatine Collection of early printed books, and journal holdings have not been entered into the on-line catalogue.

In addition to the principal collections of sources indispensable to any research on the Middle Ages (such as the Patrologia Graeca, Patrologia Latina, the Corpus Christianorum in its various series, the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, the volumes of the Acta Sanctorum) and major reference works (such as the Pauly-Wissowa and Der neue Pauly, the Italia Sacra, and the Gallia Christiana), patrons also have access to CD–ROM databases of the Corpus Christianorum series (CETEDOC), the Catalogue of Latin Incipits, and Thomas Aquinas’ Opera omnia (for further details, see A Conspectus of the Collections). The Institute library contains seminar rooms, six individual offices (wired for network access), open study carrels, microfilm readers, a microfilm digital reader-printer with greyscale capabilities for enhancing images, as well as computing and photocopying facilities.

The Library now provides full-colour scanning service of most of its collection. This requires that scans be sent to the patron’s email address as an electronic copy (JPG/TIFF/PDF). We aim to have the electronic copy sent within 24 hours of request (with the exception of weekends and holidays). The cost for this service is $0.25/page. Requests must be made in person as payment is required prior to the scanning. Further details and the scanning request form are available.

The PIMS Library, 2021–2023

During the period 2021–2023, we have acquired several thousands of new volumes (both purchased and donated). In the academic year 2022–2023 alone, there were 3,962 new records added to our holdings. Notable arrivals of medieval originals include an early 13th-century manuscript of Peter Riga’s Aurora and a dossier of 11 original medieval charters, both items purchased by the Library with the generous support of our community and donors. A facsimile of of the famous Codex Sinaiticus (4th century CE) was donated to the Library by Tina Marshall on behalf of her mother Linda Marshall. The Friends of the Library (FOTL) acquired two important items: a rare 1515 printing of Nicolaus Hanapus’s Exempla sacre scripture and a facsimile of the Goslar Gospels.

We estimate that our holdings consist of about 133,600 book titles (in many cases there are several volumes to a title) and 1,500 journal volumes. Rare books and facsimiles count ca. 2,600, of which 40 are incunabula. We also have 46 manuscripts mostly in Latin, but some also in Greek and different vernacular languages; 60 single manuscript pages and fragments; ca. 700 documents from the archive of the Nantel family (both medieval and early modern); ca. 10,000 manuscripts on microfilm; and about 1,200 CD-ROMs and DVDs of papal registers preserved in the Vatican Archive. The Library collection comprises as many as 468 scholarly journals in 10 different languages. We currently subscribe to 175 periodicals, of which 89 represent the only Toronto holdings. 42 of these periodicals are received in exchange for the Institute’s prestigious journal Mediaeval Studies. We also hold around 13,300 offprints of scholarly articles and pamphlets and about 60,000 colour slides, 10,000 of which have been digitized. Two pieces from the PIMS fragment collection were discussed by Greti Dinkova-Bruun in her article “Two Fragments of the Speculum humanae salvationis in Toronto,” Litterae caelestes 13 (2022): 45–58; and the Riga manuscript was presented in her “A New Manuscript of Peter Riga’s Aurora at PIMS and Its Unusual Contents,” Mediaeval Studies 83 (2021): 291–301.

We have added 70 columns of shelving, 60 of which a gift of Kelly Library. Their 500 shelves make room for about 15,000 additional books. New chairs from the Basilian Fathers have greatly enhanced the former “Seminar Room” that will henceforth be known as the “Board Room.” The shelves in it (from the Leonard Gillis Collection) now hold two large series of Latin sources: the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum and the Corpus Christianorum (Series Latina, Series Graeca, and Continuation Mediaevalis) that were formerly in the Reference Room. This move has freed up 60 shelves for the Reference Room collection.

A significant change is personnel occurred in the Fall of 2022 when William (Bill) Edwards retired after 20 years of serving as the Reference Librarian. Bill oversaw the journal collection and the reference materials in general, while working on a number of other projects at the same time. His contribution to the PIMS library is enormous, and he worked tirelessly, helping readers and improving general operations. Bill sponsors several publications, which he has generously agreed to continue supporting even after his retirement. Bill’s post has been assumed by Dr. Tristan Major who received his PhD from the Centre for Medieval Studies in Toronto in 2010. From 2011 to 2013 he had a post-doctoral fellowship at the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, and from 2014 to 2021 he worked as a Professor of English Literature at the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at Qatar University. Tristan has published 17 articles and his book of 2018 Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature has received many favourable reviews. Tristan is also the Review Editor of The Journal of Medieval Latin. We welcome Tristan to the PIMS community also as a newly elected Associate Fellow.

During the past three years we had 375 registered readers, the majority regular readers, but also some occasional visitors. Most of them were Canadians from various provinces and academic institutions. 17 patrons came form the US, representing 9 different states and 13 academic institutions). 65% of our readers are graduate students and faculty members, 20% are alumni and post-docs, and 15% are undergraduate students. On the average we serve 20-25 patrons each day.

Father Farge and the Librarian gave many tours of the Library to potential students and faculty, visitors, undergraduate classes, and scholars from several universities and programs as well as to members of various professional and religious organizations. Numerous classes, on both undergraduate and graduate level, were taught in the library.

The books donated to the Library by Leonard Gillis were sold at auction in November 2022. The proceeds of this sale – just under 100,000 CAD – are designated for rare book acquisition. Also, in October of 2023, the Library had a Book Sale of duplicate materials, which raised ca. 7,000 dollars towards general acquisition.

We are grateful to the Janet E. Hutchison Foundation, the Estate of Edouard Jeauneau, the Comper Foundation, William Edwards, James Estes, Carl Hammer, Erika Rummel, the late Jennifer Rigg, and Jill Webster, for their generous monetary contributions to our acquisition funds, special projects, and book conservation. As always, we are thankful to the Friends of the Library for their numerous initiatives and continuous support. We would like to express our thanks to everybody who has donated money for the Library through FOTL.

In the last three years the Library received several remarkable donations of books. Four of them came from the late professor of Classics at Trent University, Konrad Kinzle; the late George Rigg, a professor of Medieval Latin at Center for Medieval Studies in Toronto; Jill Webster, a former Director of CMS and an expert of Catalan history and literature; and Jacqueline Murray, a professor emerita from the University of Guelph whose research focuses on sexuality and gender in medieval Europe. The entire libraries of these esteemed colleagues were transferred to the PIMS Library and incorporated into its holdings. Another extraordinary donation came from Professor Paul Grendler, an emeritus from U of T’s Department of History. His donation comprises 223 rare books, among which one incunable printing of the Bible and 122 sixteenth-century volumes. In addition, around 1,000 books were also donated by Professor Grendler, whose expertise is in the history of medieval and Renaissance education. Finally, 23 facsimiles of richly decorated medieval manuscripts were donated to the PIMS Library by Tony Comper.

We received particularly large numbers of books from Greti Dinkova-Bruun, Konrad Eisenbichler, Michael Gervers, Wesley Giselle Gos, Linda Marshall, David Klausner, Peter Konieczny, William McCready, Tristan Major, Hans Moser, John Osborne, Brian Stock, and David Townsend. Other smaller gifts in kind (primarily books) and donations for journal adoptions came from Alexander Andrée, Maureen Boulton, Christer Bruun, Anna Burko, James Carley, Isabelle Cochelin, Carol Desoer, William Edwards, Michael Herren, Ann Hutchison, Jonathan Locke Hart, Sarah King Head, Cillian O’Hogan, Stephen Pelle, Martin Pickavé, Jaclyn Piudik, Christine Kralik, Erika Rummel, Ron Thomson, Fred Unwalla, Daniel Wakelin, Germaine Warkentin, and Benjamin Wheaton. Our apologies to any donors whose names we have failed to record. The generosity of all our supporters is truly appreciated.

We wish to acknowledge the work of our staff, Tristan Major and Michael Sloan, who work tirelessly in ordering and cataloguing our new acquisitions and donations. We are also aided by our dedicated student-monitors who provide invaluable assistance to many of our readers. Thanks are due also to Ron Thomson who has been working on the pamphlet collection and the collection of microfilms for the last few years. In 2022–2023 alone, he added 1973 pamphlets to the pamphlet collection (mostly from Paul Grendler’s donation) and catalogued 217 microfilms and 20 CDs containing images of medieval manuscripts. Finally, we would like to acknowledge our fruitful collaboration with Natalie Oeltjen from the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS) at U of T’s Victoria College, Timothy Perry from Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at U of T, Michela Ghera from the Vatican Library, and Stanislav Hlaváč from the Library of the Centre for Medieval Studies in Prague.

Greti Dinkova-Bruun, Librarian (2012–)
James K. Farge, CSB, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections (2012–)