Description
Book SynopsisExamines the history of Fraktur (illuminated religious manuscripts created and used by Pennsylvania Germans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) and explores its role in early American popular piety and devotional culture.
Trade Review“Ames breaks new ground in the study of Pennsylvania German manuscript art by synthesizing the significance of the religious context with the artistic achievements of creating the pieces. This is also the first book to integrate research based on several collections of Pennsylvania German Fraktur across many regions. The Word in the Wilderness is a remarkable achievement reflecting years of study and an amazing breadth of research.”
—Jeff Bach,author of Voices of the Turtledoves: The Sacred World of Ephrata
“[Ames] presents a novel approach to manuscript studies and provides a thoughtful analysis. With his discussion of the manuscripts’ cultural origins, spiritual purpose, and historical significance, he initiates a debate on early American spirituality that invites more comparative research on literacy instruction and penmanship of religious communities in New England and Pennsylvania. His study of Pennsylvania German calligraphic art should be particularly welcomed by historians and researchers of early American religious history who are interested in new and creative ways of engaging with historical devotional texts.”
—Berit Jany Yearbook of German-American Studies
“Ames’s winsome book gives us a window into understanding why the manuscript objects of these sectarian Protestants require multidimensional analysis. He proves that we need to know something about the theology of reading and writing in Pietistic Protestantisms to understand where fraktur came from and what these early Germanic immigrants were trying to achieve with the practice. And here is the challenge that Ames’s expansive methodology poses to our field: you do need to understand the contours of the Reformation efforts of sixteenth-century Europe, medieval spirituality (including premodern theories of illuminated books), the deep connection between literacy and mysticism, and the sectarianism of the diverse Central European immigrants to Pennsylvania.”
—Christopher M. B. Allison Panorama
“A strong contribution to our understanding of Pennsylvania Germans’ lived religion.”
—Karen Auman Early American Literature
“A happy and inestimable gift.”
—Richard Mammana Medium.com
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface: “The Quill Is My Plow”
Acknowledgments
Note on Sources, Methods, and Abbreviations
Introduction: “Pages of a Mystical Character”; German Manuscripts in American History
1. “Heaven Is My Fatherland”: Manuscript Culture in an Age of Evangelical Piety
2. “The Spirit of the Letter”: Calligraphy and Spirituality During the Long Era of Manuscripts
3. “Worship Always the Scripture”: Teaching Literacy and Pious Wisdom in German Pennsylvania
4. “Incense Hill”: Song, Image, and Ambient Manuscripts
5. Marching to “Step and Time”: Text, Commemoration, and the Rituals of Everyday Life
Conclusion: “Errand into the Wilderness”; Making Meaning from Manuscripts
Notes
Bibliography
Index
