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Monthly Archives: April 2017

Book of the Week — Offering Time: Songs

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Amy Hutchinson, Bangladesh, birch, Blue Heron Press, Gitanjali, Indian, Japanese Nishinouchi, Karen Kunc, Lincoln, lyrics, Macmillan India Limited, Madras, music, Nebraska, Nobel Prize in Literature, playwright, poems, Rabindranath Tagore, rabindrasangeet, rare books, Romulus, Scott Beadles, songs, songwriter, Vandercook SP15, woodblocks

N7433.4-K84-O35-2001-Closeup2 copy
“Let all the strains of joy mingle in my last song — the joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of the grass, the joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death, dancing over the wide world, the joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking all life with laughter, the joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain, and the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, and knows not a word.” — Rabindranath Tagore

Offering Time: Songs
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Lincoln, NE: Blue Heron Press, 2001
N7433.4 K84 O35 2001

A reader of the New York Times Sunday Book Review wrote (April 16, 2017): In 1913, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Rabindranath Tagore. He was the first non-Western Nobelist. Tagore was a playwright and novelist, but also a musician and songwriter. He composed, music and lyrics, nearly two thousand songs. One hundred of these were collected into Gitanjali and published in 1913. The lyrics were published without music. Western critics called the songs “poems.” It was for this collection of songs that Tagore was recognized with the Nobel prize.

In Bangladesh, Tagore’s opus of songs became known as rabindrasangeet, a musical genre unto itself. Two of his songs were chosen as national anthems. His songs are still sung throughout the Indian subcontinent.

This reminded us of Karen Kunc’s Offering Time, a brilliant book designed to be hung, printed on one side of a single sheet made of several sheets glued together, folded to form pages.

From the colophon: “These prose translations were made by Rabindranath Tagore from his original Bengali songs, published in 1913, and in current publication by Macmillan India Limited, Madras. The text is 11 point Romulus, printed on a Vandercook SP15. The paper is Japanese Nishinouchi, and the woodblocks are birch. The production was greatly assisted by intern Amy Hutchinson throughout the fall, winter, and spring amid classes and entwining projects. All of the printing and production was done at the UNL studio of Karen Kunc…marking the millennium…edition of 50 impressions…”

Rare Books copy is no. 31, signed by the artist, Karen Kunc.

N7433.4-K84-O35-2001-Closeup1 copy

N7433.4-K84-O35-2001-Hanging

Photographs by Scott Beadles

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Book of the Week — An Essay Towards a Real Character…

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

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animals, Bishop of Chester, cryptography, engravings, Gellibrand, grammar, Great Fire of London, John Ray, John Wilkins, Joseph Moxon, language, Latin, letterforms, London, music, Oliver Cromwell, paneled calf, phonetics, plants, printing, Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Royal Society, space travel, symbols, theology, Trinity College, typography, University of Utah, vowels, William Harvey, William Lloyd

P101-W4-1668-pg311
“…Letters, the Invention of which was a thing of so great Art and exquisiteness, that…doth from hence inferr the divinity and spirituality of the humane soul, and that it must needs be of a farr more excellent and abstracted Essence that mere Matter or Body…” — John Wilkins

An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language
John Wilkins (1616-1672)
London: Printed for S. Gellibrand, 1668
First edition

John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, was the chief founder of the Royal Society and its first secretary. He was Master of Trinity College. Wilkins was acquainted with many of the great minds of his day: William Harvey, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. He married the younger sister of Oliver Cromwell. In 1662, he lost all of his library and scientific instruments to the Great Fire of London. He was interested in just about everything — from theology to cryptography, music to space travel. He worked on creating an artificial universal language to replace Latin as a means of clearer communication between scholars and philosophers.

In this book Wilkins discussed the origin of language and letterforms, as well as a theory of grammar and phonetics. He classified words by their meanings and assigned each class a set of typographical characters, in an attempt to create a rationally ordered language and system of symbols.

P101-W4-1668-pg186

He divided the universe into forty classes, or categories, and subdivided these, and then subdivided these. To each class he assigned a monosyllable of two letters; to each subdivision he added a consonant; to each further subdivision, or species, he added a vowel. Each letter, or symbol, had meaning.

P101-W4-1668-Faces

John Ray drew up systematic tables of plants and animals for the book. An index was created by Dr. William Lloyd. Joseph Moxon (1627-1691) cut the typographical characters Wilkins proposed for his language. Moxon was the author of Mechanick Exercises, the first comprehensive manual of printing and letter-founding in any language.

The first issue of the first edition appeared without any of the engraved plates. This copy, apparently a second issue, contains all of the plates, although two folded leaves of tables and diagrams that are in other copies are missing. Bound with Wilkins’ An alphabetical dictionary, wherin all English Words According to their various significations, are either referred to their Places in the Philosophical Tables, Or explained by such words as are in those tables. The second work functions as an index to the first.

University of Utah copy bound in contemporary paneled calf with covers ruled in blind.

P101-W4-1668-NoahsArk

“From what hath been said it may appear, that the measure and capacity of the Ark, which some Atheistical irreligious men make use of, as an argument against the Scripture, ought rather to be esteemed a most rational confirmation of the truth and divine authority of it. Especially if it be well considered, that in those first and ruder ages of the World… men were less versed in Arts and Philosophy, and therefore probably more obnoxious to vulgar prejudices than now they are… — John Wilkins

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On Jon’s Desk: Annals of the American Revolution, celebrating Patriots’ Day

17 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk

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Academy of Woodstock, Annals of the American Revolution, Battle of Concord, Battle of Lexington, Battle of Saratoga, Boston Marathon, Boston Tea Party, Calvinist Congregational Church, geography, George Washington, Jedidiah Morse, Jon Bingham, liberty, Maine, Massachussettes, Patriots' Day, Revolutionary War, University of Edinburgh, Yale University

Title page of the Annals of the American Revolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Immediately upon the arrival of the tea-ships in the harbor of Boston, the first step taken was to request the consignees to refuse the commission. The inhabitants warmly remonstrated against the teas being landed in any of their ports, and urged the return of the ships without permitting them to break bulk. Resolved not to yield to the smallest vestige of parliamentary taxation, however disguised, a numerous assembly of the most respectable people of Boston and its neighborhood, repaired to the public hall, and drew up a remonstrance to the governor, urging the necessity of his order, to send back the ships without suffering any part of their cargoes to be landed. His answer confirmed the opinion, that he was the instigator of the measure.

…

Within an hour after this was known abroad, there appeared a great number of persons, clad like the aborigines of the wilderness, with tomahawks in their hands and clubs on their shoulders, who, without the least molestation, marched through the streets with silent solemnity, and amidst innumerable spectators, proceeded to the wharves, boarded the ships, demanded the keys, and without much deliberation knocked open the chests, and emptied several thousand weight of the finest teas into the ocean. No opposition was made, though surrounded by the king’s ships; all was silence and dismay.”

– Jedidiah Morse, Annals of the American Revolution, pages 176 & 177

Illustration (frontis piece engraving) of the Annals of the American Revolution, showing a depiction of the Boston Tea Party.

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Annals of the American Revolution; or a Record of the Causes and Events which Produced, and Terminated in the Establishment and Independence of the American Republic

Author: Jedidiah Morse, D.D.

Printed: Hartford, CT: 1824

First Edition

Call Number: E208 M88

Fold out plate (engraving) of the Battle of Saratoga from the Annals of the American Revolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Patriots’ Day! Unless you are from the New England area, you may not know what Patriots’ Day is. It is the commemoration of the first battles of the American Revolution (Lexington and Concord) and is observed on the third Monday of April in some states (Maine and Massachusetts, for example). Each year the Boston Marathon is run on Patriots’ Day, linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty (the twenty-six mile race being so named after the Greek Battle of Marathon). For those of us who want a link to the past that does not involve the pain of running twenty-six miles, a book about the American Revolution provides just such an opportunity. So while some people may show their Patriot-ism in Boston via running shoes, let’s take a look at Jedidiah Morse’s Annals of the American Revolution.

Preface to the Annals of the American Revolution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morse’s Annals of the American Revolution is a compilation of accounts relating events leading up to and through the Revolutionary War. The book also includes an index with descriptions of the notable military leaders of the time. The accounts begin with the establishment of the British colonies in North America in the 16th century and end with General George Washington’s resignation of his commission as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in front of Congress on December 23rd, 1783.

Jedidiah Morse was a geographer and pastor. Born August 23, 1761 in Woodstock, Connecticut, Morse attended the Academy of Woodstock and then Yale University (M.A., 1786), and later graduated with a Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh (D.D., 1795). His writing career began after starting and teaching at a school for young women. He saw the need for a geography text book and wrote Geography Made Easy (1784), followed by American Geography (1789). Morse was a pastor in the Calvinist Congregational Church, but remained active in education and geography throughout his life (died June 9, 1826, age 64, New Haven, Connecticut). He published sixty-three works during his career, most of them religious.

~Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

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Book of the Week — Cilantro, sage, rosemary and thyme

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Africa, America, Asia, barrister, C. J. Phipps, California, Capul, Cavendish, Columbian Encounter, Comte de Buffon, Daines Barrington, Don Francisco Antonio Mourelle, English, Europe, French, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Greenland, Labrador, London, Lord Mulgrave, Magna Carta, Manilla, Mozart, natural history, naturalist, New Guinea, New World, Nichols, potatotes, Schouten, science, Spanish, tobacco, Turkey, Wales, White

AC7-B34-1781-Map
“What we saw of the country leaves us no doubt of its fertility, and that it is capable of producing all the plants of Europe. In most of the gullies of the hills there are rills of clear and cool water, the sides of which are covered with herbs (as in the meadows of Europe) of both agreeable verdure and smell. Amongst these were Castilian roses, smallage, lilies, plantain, thistles, camomile, and many others. We likewise found strawberries, rasberries, blackberries, sweet onions, and potatoes, all which grew in considerable abundance, and particularly near the rills. Amongst other plants we observed one which much resembled percely (though not in its smell), which the Indians bruised and eat, after mixing it with onions.”
— Daines Barrington translating Don Francisco Antonio Mourelle’s Journal of a Voyage, in 1775, to Explore the Coast of America, northward of California

Miscellanies
Daines Barrington (1727-1800)
London: Printed by J. Nichols, sold by B. White, 1781
First edition
AC7 B34 1781

Daines Barrington was an English barrister and naturalist. After filling various posts, he was appointed a judge in 1757, in Wales. He was noted for his observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more ancient, from Magna Carta to 21st James I (1766). Many of Barrington’s writings were published by the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, of which he was a member. Some of these papers were collected by Barrington in this volume.

Miscellanies contains the first publication of Don Francisco Antonio Mourelle’s Journal of a Voyage, in 1775, to Explore the Coast of America, Northward of California… translated from a Spanish manuscript. This is the only contemporary source in English of the voyage exploring the northwest coast of America.

Also in this volume is “The Probability of Reaching the North Pole” (1775), a tract reporting on the results of the northern voyage of discovery undertaken by Captain C. J. Phipps, who later became Lord Mulgrave. The report discussed the floating ice found in high northern and southern latitudes. For this and other reasons, it was especially helpful to whaling captains who frequented the coasts of Greenland and Labrador.

Included in Miscellanies is a biography of Mozart, various essays on natural history, and a discussion on whether the turkey was known in Europe before the Columbian Encounter. Barrington concluded that it was, as were tobacco and potatoes, contradicting the great French naturalist and encyclopedist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788).

“If M. de Buffon had not thus excluded Asia and Africa, the controversy would have turned out, as if the point to be discussed was, whether tobacco and potatoes were not peculiar to the New World. Now it is certan that both these plants are of American growth, but not exclusively so, for in 1584, Cavendish received potatoes from the inhabitants of Capul, which is an island not far from Manilla; and in 1616, Schouten was supplied with tobacco from the coast of New Guiney.”

Science was and is as political as war — England was at war with France during this time. And it never occurred to either de Buffon or Barrington that indigenous peoples might have crossed oceans long before the Europeans did.

AC7-B34-1781-Plate

AC7-B34-1781-title

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Book of the Week — Dictionnaire des Proverbes Francais

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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bookseller, college, dictionnaire, Dubucourt Philibert-Louis, fashion, Flèche, literature, Louis Marie Lante Gavarni, magazine, marbled paper, Old Regime, Paris, Parisian, philosophy, Pierre de La Mésangère, professor, revolution, Sellèque, Treuttel & Wurz, Vernet

PN6451-L3-1823-spread232
“L’esprit qu’on veut avoir gâte celuis qu’on a.”

DICTIONNAIRE DES PROVERBES FRANCAIS
Pierre de La Mésangère (1761-1831)
Paris: Treuttel & Wurz: 1823
Third edition
PN6451 L3 1823

Published anonymously in its first and second editions, Pierre de La Mésangère’s Dictionnaire is still in print today. Professor of literature and philosophy at the college of Flèche, Mésangère lost his job during the Revolution and made a living by writing. In 1797, he went into partnership with Sellèque, another unemployed college professor turned bookseller. Together, they began a successful fashion magazine. Journal des dames et des modes was published from 1799 until Mésangère’s death. The magazine, reflecting the elegance of the Old Regime, became a staple of Parisian fashion. Well-known artists of the time, such as Debucourt Philibert-Louis, C. and H. Vernet, and Louis Marie Lante Gavarni contributed to the magazine. Mésangère collected the prints from the magazine and published them separately. The prints continued to be published through the early twentieth century.

We think this marbled paper covering the boards of our Proverbes is very stylish.

PN6451-L3-1823-cover

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