When English professor Jane Toswell‘s father arrived at Western in the late 1940s on a hockey scholarship, he found two things he loved: tables laden with as much milk as a young man from northern Ontario could want, and a defenseman position that kept him skating backwards into pucks, sticks and elbows.
After a year of taking hits, he made a practical decision. Toswell once asked her dad, “why did you give up the scholarship?” Her father replied: “Jane, I wanted to have some teeth.”
Decades later, that memory would guide Toswell to an extraordinary find – a 15th century Dominican Book of Hours containing prayers to Saint Apollonia, the patron saint of dentists and those suffering from toothache.
“A manuscript with prayers to Saint Apollonia just kind of spoke to me,” said Toswell, program director of medieval studies at Western.
Following her father’s death in 2012, Toswell’s mother decided to make a gift to the university in honour of her husband. She chose Western Libraries rare book fund. As a scholar who has devoted her career to studying medieval manuscripts, particularly early medieval England psalters and texts, Toswell knew she wanted to select a manuscript for the collection.
“I’m a manuscript person. This is what I love,” she said. “But my father was a hockey and football coach who later became a guidance counsellor. These were not obvious paradigms for medieval manuscripts. It took me a while to find the right one.”
The manuscript she ultimately selected, acquired from the dealer who had sold Western its very first manuscripts when the medieval studies program was established, is a remarkably complete 15th century Book of Hours – a personalized prayer book that offers an intimate window into medieval devotional life.
Toswell’s gift marks an important milestone as the first donation to Western Libraries’ newly established rare books fund, which enables supporters to contribute funds directly toward acquiring rare materials that support teaching and research across disciplines.
