This Friday at 3 p.m. in the Mabee Learning Center, Oklahoma Christian University will host a ceremony to honor Ron Bever’s donation of hundreds of books and display dozens of them, including a rare Latin incunabulum from 1483.
The pinnacle of the display will be a 15th century book titled “Nicolaus de Ausmo: Supplementum Summae Pisanelle et Canones poenitentiales fratris Astensis.”
Nicolaus de Ausmo is accompanied by an undated newspaper clipping from the Edmond Evening Sun featuring Bever and explaining how he came across the antique in the first place.
“Bever considers his best book discovery one he bought for 50 cents at an estate sale on the outskirts of Chicago,” a section of the article by Carol Smaglinski reads. “He picked up an old book that resembled a Bible with hand-decorated margins. After research at the rare book room at Northwestern University, he found the book was an antique from 1483.”
Bever explained why estate sales were such a good place to find antique books in an interview within the highlighted article.
“It was a fad around the turn of the century for people who were doctors or lawyers to have nice libraries,” Bever said, “so when they would sell out these estates, the books would be priced at 50 cents or so. They didn’t know the value of the books and those sales were a haven for me.”
Cheryl Snyder, interim director of the Beam Library, explained the donation is not recent, but the books have not been available for viewing until now.
“In 2016, he donated hundreds of items to the library,” Snyder said. “This was one of the ones that he had in his collection. It’s been a few years, so this didn’t just happen recently. They’ve been locked up in the archives.”
Snyder said the ceremony is to honor the Bever family and show Oklahoma Christian’s appreciation for Bever’s involvement.
“Ron Bever’s family will be here and it’ll be a dedication kind of thing where they’re going to honor the family and say thank you,” Snyder said. “Unfortunately, his widow cannot make it, but she’s still living. She’s very happy we’re doing this, but his son, Ken, is the main one that was kind of leading the idea of dedicating it.”
Most of the collection is antique according to Snyder, and many works are especially interesting to Oklahoma Christian due to their Church of Christ roots.
“Many of them are antique books, and some are really rare, but many of them are from the 1800s,” Snyder said. “Some of them are identified with founders of the Churches of Christ which would be Alexander Campbell and another one of the early people was Elias Smith. There are books from him in there — all kinds of really fascinating things tied to our history.”
The displayed works will include several songbooks written or edited by early Church of Christ leaders.
“Some of the songbooks were produced or edited or made by early leaders in the Churches of Christ,” Snyder said. “They are songbooks specifically for learning a cappella songs. That’s what makes it unique: the ties to restoration history and the early days of the Churches of Christ.”
Snyder said she hopes students will understand “the importance of Ron Bever to our campus because he was associated with the school for many years — the importance of that family and what they’ve done for OC.”
After the ceremony Friday, Bever’s books will remain on display on the first floor of the Mabee Learning Center.
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