Noble Fragments
Book review by Dr Anne Sarzin
In 1921, when American antiquarian book dealer Gabriel Wells detached pages from his rare copy of the 15th century Gutenberg Bible—one of only 49 extant copies in the world—and then proceeded to sell them as ‘Noble Fragments’ of the original masterpiece, he triggered a literary goldrush; as well as a bitter and enduring debate about the ethics of his unorthodox actions, a scholarly controversy with echoes to this day among the international community of scholars, book dealers and bibliophiles.
Gabriel Wells, whose real name was Gabor Weisz, was born in 1862, the eldest child of a prosperous Jewish wool merchant in Balassagyarmar, north of Budapest. Escaping financial and matrimonial problems, he arrived in Boston in 1894, Americanised his name and reinvented himself. Although he had no academic qualifications, he was a fine linguist and secured work with William James, a renowned psychology professor at Harvard University. Later, Wells moved into the world of antiquarian bookselling.
Australian author and journalist Michael Visontay has bought into the ongoing debate about Wells and his unorthodox actions with a richly researched book, Noble Fragments, into which he weaves his own fascinating family saga. For this reviewer, however, there is a disjunction stylistically between these two narratives, the intriguing and moving personal story contrasts sharply with the comprehensive and academically rigorous historical review of Wells’ actions, and the consequences of his maverick decisions. One is tempted to speculate what might have happened if Visontay had followed his subject’s example and divided his own book into noble fragments, two books instead of one, each doing fulsome justice to its specialised topic.
That said, Visontay has undoubtedly authored an authoritative resource for scholars, educators, bibliophiles, book dealers, auctioneers and members of the general public interested in the history of printing and, in particular, the emergence and significance of Gutenberg’s remarkable Bible.
Visontay asks important questions that probe this rarefied sphere of scholarship and business. He quotes specialists who maintain that Wells’ actions in ‘dis-binding and dispersing’ the Bible into fragments, however glorious, was an act of vandalism, depriving scholars of the opportunity to examine the original bookbinding. Others applaud the ‘democratisation’ of a great artwork, enabling less affluent book lovers to purchase an individual page or, in some cases, several pages comprising more substantial parts of the Gutenberg Bible; and thereby fostering scholarship among a far more diverse community across the Western world. Book conservator Jeff Peachey delivers a harsh judgement of Wells’ actions, ‘The leaves in the Noble Fragments have been removed from their original context and, much like a looted archaeological site, contain less information than they did when they were bound together’. And, according to the curation team from the Museum of the Bible, ‘Wells’ decision certainly does not meet with current cultural heritage standards of preservation’.
When Visontay writes about his family’s painful background, his tone becomes emotionally charged and the reader is drawn into the beating heart of his story, one of Holocaust trauma, pain, suffering and survival of his paternal grandfather Pali Weiszmann and his father Ivan despite horrific odds. Tragically, Pali’s wife Sara was murdered on arrival at Auschwitz. With Pali’s second marriage to Olga Illovfsky, the linkage between their personal story and that of Gabriel Wells becomes clear. Olga was Gabriel’s niece and one of the beneficiaries of his will, inheriting eight percent of his estate. Sadly, she died aged 53 only two years after she, Pali, and Ivan settled in Sydney. ‘Wells gave Olga, my grandfather’s second wife, a chance to rebuild her life,’ Visontay writes. ‘Through that inheritance, he also gave my grandfather and my father a chance to start afresh.’
The family stayed in Penkivil Street, Bondi and opened a delicatessen, the Minerva, in Kings Cross, a notorious but entertaining Sydney suburb peopled with colourful characters whom the author brings to life in a series of lively anecdotes. Visontay does justice to the bohemian environment of Kings Cross, which he evokes with affection and a measure of nostalgia. The Visontay family story, rooted in sorrow and anguish, transforms into one of triumph as they strive, succeed and flourish together through the generations. This is an Australian story with which so many will identify.
Noble Fragments: the maverick who broke up the world’s greatest book
Author: Michael Visontay
Scribe Publications, Melbourne
October 2024