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We recommend — Weller Book Works Presents FEATHERS, PAWS, FINS and CLAWS

19 Thursday May 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Lecture, Recommended Reading

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ancient, animals, Anne Jamison, bears, Charles Perrault, Christine A. Jones, dancing, Danish, European, fairy tales, feast, Fillings & Emulsions, folklorists, French, frog prince, German, Giovannie Francesco Straparola, girls, Grimm Brothers, historical, Hodder & Stoughton, human, Index of Prohibited Books, Jennifer Schacker, Jørgen Engebretsen Moe, Kay Nielsen, Lina Kusaite, Little Red Riding Hood, London, magic, mythology, Norway, Norwegian, ogres, pagan, Passion Flour, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, pigs, princess, punctuation, rare books, rats, Scandinavia, sheep, snakes, Spanish, spelling, stories, treats, Trolley Square, trolls, University of Guelph, University of Utah, Venetia, Venice, vernacular, Weller Book Works, witches, wolves

“It was all as grand as grand could be.”

Feathers-Paws-Fins-Cover

Feathers, Paws, Fins and Claws
Presentation and Reception
Christine A. Jones and Jennifer Schacker
Weller Book Works
Trolley Square
Thursday, May 26, 6:30PM

This event is free and open to the public

A wide variety of creatures walk, fly, leap, slither, and swim through fairy tale history. Marvelous animals are deeply inscribed in current popular culture — the beast redeemed by beauty, the frog prince released from enchantment by a young princess, wolves in pursuit of little girls and little pigs. Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts presents lesser-known tales featuring animals, wild and gentle, who appear in imaginative landscapes and exhibit a host of surprising talents. The offbeat, haunting stories in this collection, illustrated by Lina Kusaite, are rich and relevant, and provoke the imaginations of readers of all ages.

Editors Christine Jones, University of Utah Associate Professor, and Jennifer Schacker, University of Guelph Associate Professor, chose ten stories that represent several centuries and cultural perspectives on fairy tale animals — rats as seductive as Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf, snakes who find human mates, dancing sheep and well-mannered bears. These beasts move between animal behavior and acts that seem more human than beastly. Each tale is presented as closely as possible to their original print versions, reflecting the use of historical spelling and punctuation.

Join Weller Book Works for a presentation by Jones and Schacker, and an interview by University of Utah Associate Professor Anne Jamison.

Read the tales, feast on treats from Fillings & Emulsions and Passion Flour, and have your very own copy of Feathers, Paws, Fins and Claws signed by the editors.

Feathers-Paws-Fins-Spread


Rare Books celebrates this publication with its own collection of fairy tales, including:

PQ4634-S7-P5-1580-title

Le XIII piaceuoli notti del S. Gio. Francesco Straparola di Carauaggion diuise in due libri…
Giovanni Francesco Straparola (ca. 1480- ca. 1557)
In Venetia: 1580
PQ4634 S7 P5 1580

The Pleasant Nights, a collection of seventy-five stories, was first published in 1550 with twenty-five stories. Giovanni Straparola added stories to the next two editions, including what are considered to be the first “fairy tales” printed in a European vernacular. The collection of stories was reprinted in at least twenty-three editions between 1550 and 1620 and translated into German, Spanish, and French within only a few years after the first printing. The book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1624, for its descriptions and seeming justification of magic.

Several of these tales, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Puss-in-Boots,” were retold and made famous by Charles Perrault and the Grimm Brothers.


PT8802-N813-1924-Bear

East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885)
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1924
PT8802 N813 1924

First published in 1914 as a luxury gift book, East of the Sun and West of the Moon is a collection of fifteen fairy tales gathered by Norwegian folklorists Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe in the mid-nineteenth century. The two spent years traveling across Norway transcribing local lore made up of trolls, ogres, and witches from the ancient pagan mythology of Scandinavia.

London publisher Holder and Stoughton chose Danish artist Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) to illustrate their publication of the tales. The book has since become one of the most well-known and well-beloved of children’s books.

PT8802-N813-1924-pg23
PT8802-N813-1924-pg44

alluNeedSingleLine

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KUED’s VERVE features Rare Books in “Artists’ Books”

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Video

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Tags

accordion, acrylic paint, Alicia Bailey, Alise Alousi, altered books, American Southwest, American West, Arches 90 lb., artists' books, Barry McCallion, Basingwerk, BFK, binding, birch, blankets, bookseller, Bradypress, bullet, Canson, Carolyn Hull, Carrier Pigeon, chapbook, Chinese, CMC, collage, collector, Connecticut, Daniel Kelm, deceit, desert, East Hampton, embossed paper, enamel, feathers, felt tip marker, Ferrum Wheel Press, galley proofs, gelatin, gesso, goatskin, gold tooling, Goudy, Goudy Bold, Granary Books, graph paper, Graphite, handmade paper, Harvard, hatchet, hoax, ink, inkjet, James Turrell, Japanese, Jen Bervin, Joelle Webber, John Van Dyke, KUED, l;oop, Lake City, laserfoil, laserprinted, leather, leporello, letterpress, maps, metal, Middletown, mixed media, Mohawk Via, Nebraska, New York, New York City, Omaha, Owen Wister, paper-mache, pens, photograph, pigment, pistol, poem, Portland, rare books, Ravenpress, Richard de Bas, Rick Moody, rifle, Robin Price, Roden Crater, Rutgers University, Saint Armand, Santa Monica, shovel, silk, stones, suede, sumi, Thomas Ingmire, Timothy C. Ely, trains, VERVE, voyeurism, Walt Whitman, watercolor, Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour, wax, white-out correction, Wide Awake Garage, wooden nickel

“Artists’ books are…a blown-up conference of multiple elements.”

KUED‘s online video series, VERVE, features artist’s books from the rare book collections in “Artists’ Books,” episode 5, season 6, “Its All About the Book.”

Here are some of the pieces chosen by the Rare Books staff for this episode:


ARKA
Timothy C. Ely
Portland, OR: T. Ely, 1995
N7433.4 E35 A7 1995

The book is drawn on BFK gray paper that was brush-sized with gelatin and CMC, then under painted with CMC and acrylic paint. Other materials include ink, Graphite, and watercolor. Each folio is sewn onto four raised cords that, on completion of the sewing, were laced into birch plywood boards. The end bands are silk worked over cores of leather. The spine of the book is goatskin. The board pastedowns are painted paper. The boards have a small amount of gold tooling suggestive of one part of the history and technology of the art of binding. Otherwise the cover boards are painted. The book is contained in a wooden box.



Hunting the Burn
Alicia Bailey
Lake City, CO: Ravenpress, 1998
N7433.4 B22 H86 1998

Two-sided leporello with self in-folded covers and removable spines. One side is Carolyn Hull’s poem “Hunting the Burn,” laserprinted on Basingwerk, overcoated with wax and pigment; the other side is a panoramic painting by Alicia Bailey, digitally reworked and printed with color inkjet on Arches 90 lb. cover and overcoated with wax. Four of the twelve panels have hand-cut rectangular openings with mixed media insertions. Covers are black Canson with hand applied enamel. Title piece is laserfoil on black paper. Spine pieces are black embossed paper laminated to black Canson. The box is paper-mache, gesso and pigmented wax. Box top has metal mesh and hemp-wrapped, wax-covered bullet attached. Inside box are stones and feathers. Edition of twenty copies, signed by Alicia Bailey and Carolyn Hull. Rare Books copy is no. 10.



Surplus Value Books: Catalog Number 13
Rick Moody
Santa Monica, CA: Danger! Books, 2002
N7433.4 M644 S6 2002

Deluxe edition presented as a collector’s box, containing two pens, one felt tip marker, one white-out correction pen, one pencil, one wooden nickel, one photograph with loop, seven photographs of “original artwork for placement only,” and other items. Text is composed in the form of galley proofs. Upon removing the galley holding the text, the reader is presented with a removable panel resembling a hospital release checklist. Holes cut into this panel reveal the objects contained below. The collectible objects in the box act as literal illustrations to the story. The narrator of the story is a bookseller, collector, mental patient. The story is told through the description of books for sale in the bookseller’s catalog. Values are assigned to each item in the catalog according to the bookseller’s inherent personal desire for each item. Themes of value, voyeurism, and deceit are presented as a pathology of collecting through the multiple layering of information and the revealing of objects of desire that are contained in the collector’s box. This work was first published in offset. Collector’s box constructed by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage. Rare Books copy is lettered “H.”



43, According to Robin Price with Annotated…
Robin Price
Middletown, CT: Robin Price, 2007
N7433.4 P753 A15 2007

From the colophon: “Paper maps from locations along the 43rd parallel are bound in an accordion that structurally supports the main text, which is printed on graph paper and also hinged together as an accordion (opening to 20 ft.)…The unusual double-layer accordion, housed in a printed cloth-covered clamshell box, is co-designed and co-produced by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage…” Edition of eighty-six plus twelve deluxe copies. Rare books copy is no. 23.



The Desert: Further Studies in Natural Appearances
Jen Bervin
New York City: Granary Books, 2008
N7433.4 B47 D47 2008

An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that takes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its meaning. The artist may take an old or new book and cut, tear, glue, burn, fold, paint, add collage, create pop-ups, rubber-stamp, drill, bolt or be-ribbon the book to create a new work that is the expression of the artist. In this case, it is the text that is altered — by sewing over certain passages and leaving others exposed. The text from which Jen Bervin’s poem emerges is The Desert, written by John Van Dyke (1856-1932), a professor of Art History at Rutgers University. Van Dyke, the author of several books on art theory of the Art-For-Art’s-Sake school, claimed to have spent three years in the American Southwest desert with only his fox terrier for company and a pony for transportation. According to Van Dyke, he carried with him a rifle, a pistol, a hatchet, a shovel, blankets, tin pans and cups, dried food and a gallon of water. His romantic rhapsody of this trip, published in 1901, was a big hit, extremely influential and remains in print. In fact, Van Dyke saw most of the great desert over which he swooned looking out the windows of trains on his way from one first-class hotel to another. The Desert, version 1901, is the fact-faulted, fantastic hoax of a well-bred, well-educated Easterner, in much the same way that Harvard-educated New Englander Owen Wister’s novel The Virginian (1902) is a glorification of an American West culture that didn’t exist. Prose poem adaptation with overlay of zig zag stitches in pale blue thread. Composed and sewn at James Turrell’s Roden Crater on the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour in October, 2006. Housed in a hinged archival case. Issued in a wrapper of white muslim cloth and white felt stitched together with blue thread.



Justice: What is Justice?
Thomas Ingmire
T. Ingmire, 2009
N7433.4 I48 J87 2008

Handmade paper mounted over board, Chinese Sumi ink, wide-edged pen (Automatic pen), Japanese brush.



Tangent
Alise Alousi
Omaha, NE: Bradypress, 2011
PS3551 L665 T36 2011



The Latest Things in Kites
Christopher Fritton
Ferrum Wheel Press, 2014
PS3606 R58 L37 2014

Artist’s statement: “A chapbook produced for Carrier Pigeon magazine as as tip-in, The Latest Things in Kites borrows language and its title from a chapter in the book, Fun for Boys. The chapbook is a single-sheet, four-page fold-over with rounded corners and a small embroidery thread tail. Handset in 14pt Goudy Bold and 10pt Goudy with antique copper cuts on Mohawk Via vellum. Hand letterpressed.” Edition of 1200 copies.



Whitman Crosshatch
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
East Hampton, NY: 2015
PS3222 A7 2015

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Book of the Week — Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Tags

al-Gitrif, al-Malik al-K'amil, al-Mutawakkili, Arabic, architecture, aristocracy, art, Baghdad, birds of prey, Bologna, caliph, chamber, Charles V, Christian, crusade, diplomat, diseases, dogs, Europe, excommunication, Faenz, Fakhr ad-d'in al-F'ars'e, falcon, falconer, falconry, feudal, Frederick II, Germans, Germany, Gothic Textura, historiated initials, Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Empire, Hunayn ib Ish aq al-Ibad, hunting, illuminator, imperial, Islamic, Italian, Italy, Jerusalem, Knights of Saint John, Latin, literature, Malta, manual, manuscript, medieval, Mediterranean, miniatures, Moamin, Mongolian Empire, moulting, mouse, Palestine, papacy, parchment, Persian, physician, poetry, science, scribe, Sicily, Siege of Parma, sport, Sufi, sultan, Syrian, Theodore of Antioch, translator, vernacular

fFalconry1r
“In quantum enim sunt reges non habent propriam delectationem nisi venationem” — Moamin

“A wise falcon hides his talons.” — Proverb

Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

Facsimile. The so-called “Wiener Moamin” was created on the Italian penisula in the second half of the 13th century at the request of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, king of the Germans and the Holy Roman Empire. It is illuminated with 101 historiated initials and more than 80 miniatures. The Wiener Moamin is a Latin version of an Arabic treatise on falconry, Kitab al-mutawakkili, attributed to one Moamin by the Western world. The original content was probably inspired by two oriental hunting treatises from the 8th and 9th centuries: the falcon book of al-Gitrif and the treatise dedicated to the caliph al-Mutawakkili of Baghdad, a work written by Christian scholar, physician and translator Hunayn ib Ish aq al-Ibad who resided at the court of al-Mutawakkili between 809 and 873. These two works exist only in fragments. As early as this, falconry was embraced as an empirical science as well as a sport.

The work provides an in-depth aspect of hunting with birds and dogs, formatted in five books:

The first book focuses on birds of prey.
Books two and three are devoted to diseases of birds and tried and tested methods of healing.
The last two books deal with the keeping and care of hunting dogs.

Falconry17v
Falconer treats a bird’s headache with massage.

The translation of the Arabic version was done by the philosopher Theodore of Antioch, a Syrian naturalist and interpreter, one of the most prominent cultural representatives of the court of Frederick II. This manual became one of the earliest to circulate in medieval Europe. Several copies survive. Copies translated into the vernacular began to appear soon after the first manual appeared

Frederick II (1194-1250) was a falconer of note and participated in correcting the work in 1240, during the siege of Faenz, near Bologna. A few years after the king worked on this book, he wrote his own on the subject, De arte venandi cum avibus. This manuscript was lost in 1248 during the siege of Parma, but other copies exist. For his work, Frederick II used several sources, including the manuscript here.

Frederick II, a larger-than-life figure, counted himself as a direct successor to the Roman Emperors. He was excommunicated four times during a lifelong power struggle the papacy. He took part in a crusade (the sixth, in 1238) and spoke six languages, including Arabic. He was married three times and had at least nine mistresses, with whom he had illegitimate offspring. He was also an avid patron of art, poetry, literature, and architecture.

Frederick II ruled over most of what is now Italy and Germany as well as territories around the Mediterranean (including Malta and Palestine.) He is recognized as an enlightened ruler over a multi-cultural multitude of people.  Frederick II was an enthusiast of Arabic culture and became acquainted with falconry through personal contacts with representatives of the Islamic world. One of his teachers was Fakhr ad-d’in al-F’ars’e, a Persian Sufi and advisor to sultan al-Malik al-K’amil, who stayed at the Sicilian court as a diplomat. It is probable that he gained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars conducted in 1228 through 1229. He obtained a copy of Moamin’s manual on falconry during this time.

Falconry was a popular sport and status symbol among aristocracy in medieval Europe, the Middle East, and the Mongolian Empire. There is some evidence of its use by commoners, although that was likely unusual due to the commitment of time, money, and space. So valuable were falcons that when Charles V ceded Malta as a fief to the Knights of Saint John, the feudal rent was the annual payment of a Maltese falcon. Scholars differ on the origin of falconry. Some speculate that it entered Europe through warring Germanic tribes. The Arab world claims a two thousand year headstart before Frederick II mastered it.

Falconry31v
An elegant lady falconer giving medicine to a sick bird.

The text is laid out in one-column in a uniform script of dark brown ink with red chapter headings. The historiated initials range form 4 to 10 lines in size. The initials offer information along with the text. The initial opening the section on fol. 7v, for instance depicts the mouse chamber of the falcons. During the annual moulting in the late spring, the birds were secluded by the falconer in a specially made chamber.

Falconry7v
Falcon renewing its flying feathers.

The initials are enhanced by flower and leaf forms which spread over the parchment. The painters of the manuscript added decorative interest to scientific text and image.

Marginal notes, written in Italian, give precise instructions to the illuminator, detailing which scenes to paint in the fields of the initials written by the scribe. Written by a single scribe, the script is Gothic Textura, identified by two forms of “r” and sharp, straight, angular lines.

The facsimile is bound in a manner of a time later than the text block — a mid-century fifteenth sample — green patterned velvet covers and two metal clasps. Facsimile edition of three hundred and eighty-one, two hundred and twenty of which are reserved for the Arab Region. Rare Books copy is no. 39.

 

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We recommend — Mother Goose Refigured

29 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cassel & Company, Charles Perrault, chocolate, Christine A. Jones, Christine Jones, Cinderella, Circle Publishing Co., collotype, Detroit, Dunewald Printing Corporation, Edmund Dulac, fairy tale, folklore, France, history, Hollywood, Honors Humanities Professorship Lecture, Jennifer Schacker, Julian Wehr, Kathryn Kay, Leon Bakst, Little Red Riding Hood, luxury, magic, Matt Saunders, medicine, Mother Goose, Pierpont Morgan Library, rare books, Special Collections, The University Distinguished Teaching Award, tippet, trades, University of Utah, Wayne State University Press


cover art by Matt Saunders

cover art by Matt Saunders

“…its no surprise
If the wolf takes many a prize.
I say the wolf because not all wolves are the same.
There are those of courteous fame,
No noise or bile or rage,
But reserved, compliant, and sage,
Who will trail a girl well bred
All the way home, into her bed.
Ah! But as everyone knows, it’s the saccharine tongues,
Of all the wolves, who are the most dangerous ones.”
— Charles Perrault, “The Little Red Tippet”
—- translation by Christine Jones

Mother Goose Refigured: A Critical Translation of Charles Perrault’s Fairy Tales
Christine A. Jones
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016

University of Utah Associate Professor Christine Jones is a specialist of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, with interests in the luxury trades and the fairy tale. She is the author of Shapely Bodies: The image of Porcelain in Eighteenth-Century France, as well as numerous articles on trade history. With folklore scholar Jennifer Schacker, she coedited Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives and Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts.

Her work as a scholar and a teacher has been recognized with numerous honors and awards, including The University Distinguished Teaching Award (2014) and the Honors-Humanities Professorship (2015). For the Honors-Humanities Professorship Lecture she spoke to a packed house about “When Chocolate was Magic and Medicine.” She has introduced numerous undergraduate and graduate students to the enchantment of working with rare books and Rare Books.

We celebrate the publication of Christine’s latest book with an invitation to hold some of the rare magic for yourself by visiting Special Collections.

Tales of Mother Goose: the dedication manuscript of 1695 reproduced in collotype facsimile, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1956 Z115Z P43

Tales of Mother Goose: the dedication manuscript of 1695 reproduced in collotype facsimile, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1956
Z115Z P43

pq1877-c66-1955-v-2-portrait


“Cinderella is not a singular but plural, not a stable identity but a constantly shifting one. She is made of so many different versions of identity layered up in printed, oral, and visual media that she might be called a ‘palimpsest.'” — from the Introduction, Mother Goose Revisited

Possible Squeeze Play. This Advice I chanced Upon, That's Influenced Me Quit a Lot -- "If the shoe fits--put it on!" Just Look What Cinderella Got!, Kathryn Kay, Circle Publishing Co., 1942

Possible Squeeze Play. This Advice I chanced Upon, That’s Influenced Me Quite a Lot — “If the shoe fits–put it on!” Just Look What Cinderella Got!, Kathryn Kay, Circle Publishing Co., 1941 PS3521 A88 P677 1941


“Dressing the part so that people take you seriously as a way to draw attention to yourself when you would otherwise go unnoticed…sounds logical.” — from the Introduction, Mother Goose Refigured

A FAIRY GARLAND, BEING FAIRY TALES… Edmund Dulac, Cassel & Company, 1928 PZ8 F1685 1928 PZ8 F1685 1928

A FAIRY GARLAND, BEING FAIRY TALES…
Edmund Dulac,
Cassel & Company, 1928
PZ8 F1685 1928


“Even a wit of the dimmest cast,
Who is not so very worldly,
Will discover anon that this story
Is a tale of times long past.
No more the horrible husband of old
Whose demands were impossibly bold.
Though now he be discontent and domineering
Still with his wife he’s endearing.
The color of his beard no longer stands
To show among them who wears the pants.”
—Charles Perrault, “The Blue Beard”
—-translation by Christine Jones

L'Oeuvre de Leon Bakst pour La belle au bois dormant, M. de Brunhoff, 1922 ND699 B3 L38

L’Oeuvre de Leon Bakst pour La belle au bois dormant, M. de Brunhoff, 1922
ND699 B3 L38

nd699-b3-l38


“While she was crossing the woods, she ran into the neighborhood wolf, who very much wanted to eat her but did not dare because of the woodsmen in the forest. He asked her where she was going. The poor girl, who did not know that it is dangerous to stop and listen to wolves, told him…”
—Charles Perrault, “Little Red Tippet”
—-translation by Christine Jones

Little Red Riding Hood, animated by Julian Wehr, Dunewald Printing Corporation, 1944 PZ8 L783 We

Little Red Riding Hood, animated by Julian Wehr, Dunewald Printing Corporation, 1944
PZ8 L783 We

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Indigenous Peoples — student response

03 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Courses

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Tags

accordion fold, American, ancient, animal hide, Ann Wilcox, Antonio del Rincon, Antonio Peñafiel (1831-1922), archaeology, Austria, background, bark paper, Book of Mormon, books, border culture, Brisa Zavala, cactus, Catholicism, Cecilia Vicuña, Chanccani, codex, Codex Tulane, códices, collage, colonial, colonized, colonizer, comic books, context, demographics, dictionary, English, Enrique Chagoya, experience, facsimiles, feathers, Felicia Rice, form, genealogical, genealogy, geography, grammar, Granary Books, Graz, Guillermo Gomez Peña, gum wrappers, handwritten, Incan kipu, indigenous peoples, indigenous populations, interdisciplinary, Isabel Dulfano, Japanese, Joe D'Ambrosio, knots, language, Latin America, library, linguistics, literature, Luise Poulton, manga, manuscripts, Marriott Library, Mary Elizabeth Smith, Maya, Mayan epigraphy, Melissa Gutierrez, Mesoamerican, metallic, Mexican, Mexico, Middle American Research Institute, Miranda Best, Mixtec, Moving Parts Press, Nahuatl, New Orleans, New York, Oaxaca, Pedro Balli, performance artist, Phoenix, pictographs, poem, pop-culture, pop-up, pre-Hispanic, priest, quipu, rare book collections, Rare Books Department, resources, saguaro, Salt Lake City, Santa Cruz, Spanish, surreal, Tulane University, University of Utah, wool, words, writing

These commentaries are excerpts from an assigned project for Humanities4900/6900, “Indigenous Peoples: Social and Cultural Perspectives,” taught by Isabel Dulfano, Spring semester 2016. Students studied demographics, Mayan epigraphy, Incan kipu, archaeology, linguistics and other topics as an interdisciplinary approach to critically expanding their understanding of indigenous peoples, historically and in a contemporary setting.

Dr. Dulfano arranged for two class periods to be devoted to working with pieces ranging from Mesoamerican codex facsimiles to 16th through 19th century books to 20th and 21st century artist’s books from the rare book collections. The students looked at books which reflected the colonized and the colonizer, the perspective of Church and State, and self-referential texts depicting imposed visions of time and place.

From Brisa Zavala:

F1219-P39-title
Nombres geograficos de Mexico…
Antonio Peñafiel (1831-1922)
Mexico: Oficina tip. De la Secretaria de foment, 1885
First edition
F1219 P39 1885

As part of a two-day class activity we visited the Marriott Library’s rare book collections and had the opportunity to interact with facsimiles and original copies of books pertaining to indigenous peoples of Latin America.

On the first day we interacted with pieces dating from the 8th century Common Era to 1899. One of the books that caught my eye was Nombres Geograficos de Mexico, 1885. This book contains names of various geographical places in Mexico, some of which still remain as the names of towns in present-day Mexico. The author, Antonio Peñafiel, was the Director General of the Census Department of Mexico. The book was bound and organized in a traditional western way, is about the size of a notebook, and written in Spanish. The first half contains detailed explanations of the meaning of each geographical name and the second half contains colored pictographs corresponding to each place name.

F1219-P39-pg11

I particularly enjoyed looking at this piece. I have traveled in Mexico and noticed many names of smaller towns in Nahuatl, but never knew the meaning of the name. I am studying Nahuatl at the University of Utah and I have some knowledge on how place names are formed but it was fascinating to not only learn the meaning behind the names but also see corresponding pictographs.

On the second visit to the Rare Books Department we looked at “contemporary” books, also pertaining to indigenous peoples of Latin America. My favorite piece was Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol.

N7433.4-G652-C63-1998-cover N7433.4-G652-C63-1998-Noctli
Codex espangliensis…
Guillermo Gomez-Peña
Santa Cruz, CA: Moving Parts Press, 1998
N7433.4 G652 C63 1998
Text in English and Spanish written by performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña, collage images by Enrique Chagoya and designed and printed by Felicia Rice.

This piece “confronts realities and surrealities of border culture, juxtaposing examples of graphic art from pre-Hispanic times to present-day Mexico with traditions of Western art and contemporary American pop-culture.” The book is structured as an accordion-fold similar to Mesoamerican codices. However, it is printed on one side only and thus can be read western-style. The print is black and red and the art style has a strong resemblance to Japanese manga and comic books. I plan to visit Rare Books soon and “read” this piece with more time to observe and pick up on the detail.

My experience with the rare book collections expanded my knowledge not only of what kinds of “books” exist, both in past and present times, but also how time periods effect contents and form.

As a student of the Nahuatl language it is very important to me to have access to codices and other material written in Nahuatl, from grammar to doctrines. It is also interesting to experience how the form of older texts, such as the accordion structure, has impacted contemporary texts and how these forms are used to make a statement. It is important to society to preserve these books in order to preserve knowledge and to allow for future studies of past societies. This opportunity was extremely enriching academically and all students should visit the rare book collections.

From Melissa Gutierrez:

At first I thought it was odd that we were going to the library to see old books, to be honest, at that moment I would rather have had a class discussion on the very many topics regarding the indigenous populations we had been learning about. However, going to see the rare book collections was a surreal experience. Having about 40 some books laid out on tables, waiting to be explored was an invitation to me. That invitation was to sit down and dive into history and discover. I found this experience to be powerful and enriching. The old books came to life, helping me picture and understand history on a whole new and different level. When I sat down with the books it gave me the opportunity to ask myself, “Do I value history?”

PM4063-R5-title

PM4063-R5
Arte mexicana
Antonio del Rincon (1556-1601)
En Mexico: en casa Pedro Balli, 1595
First edition
PM4063 R5

One of the books that I enjoyed analyzing was a book written in the 1500’s. This book was written by a Spanish priest who learned the language of Nahuatl. The book had grammar and a dictionary. The book was falling apart and not handwritten. While looking at this book I wondered what the Spanish priest thought as he was learning Nahuatl. Most Spanish priests believed that they were helping the indigenous peoples come to God by converting them to Catholicism. I wonder how it would have felt to be part of that project. Did the Spanish priest have indigenous people help him learn and understand Nahuatl? These are the kinds of questions I asked myself while analyzing the book.

From Ann Wilcox

N7433.4-V536-C48-2012
Chanccani quipu
Cecilia Vicuña
New York: Granary Books, 2012
N7433.4 V536 C48 2012

The piece that impressed me the most was Chancanni Quipu. It was a modern quipu that had writing on the wool, rather than knots in the wool. The writing was of a Chancanni poem. I thought this piece was interesting because it had a mix of the ancient system of writing of the quipu and modern system of writing with words.

The writing was a mix of Spanish and the Chanccani language. Accompanying the quipu was a translation of the poem and a brief history and explanation of how quipu are made.

The important thing about this piece is that it takes ancient culture and practice and puts a modern spin on it. The author, using diverse cultural cues, was able to communicate in a way that people from diverse cultures could understand. I think that it also shows that there are many forms of quipu now and authors can be creative while still connecting with their culture. It is an important piece because it wasn’t a bound book or words or illustrations on paper. This was a new medium that the author found to communicate and still be effective.

The experience of seeing the rare books, especially in the context of indigenous work, opened my eyes to the amount of types of book and recording methods there exist in the world. It impressed me that there were so many perspectives shown through the pieces. I valued that I got to touch and read the book in person and not through pictures. It was a very special experience and I don’t think that it can be replicated. I will always appreciate this experience, especially when I am visiting museums and see works of art and literature that are behind glass. I will think of this experience, when I got to handle the books myself.

From Miranda Best:

F1421-T95-no.61
Codex Tulane
Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u Verlaganstalt; New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, 1991
F1421 T95 no. 61
Facsimile with introduction by Mary Elizabeth Smith (b. 1932)

The first piece I would like to discuss is the Codex Tulane, ca. 16th century. The codex, originally made from overlapping animal hide, is an early Colonial manuscript from the Mixtec-speaking region of southern Mexico. The manuscript presents genealogical information with a list of native rulers of two Mixtec communities. Within this list are contained more than one hundred male and female figures, seated opposite of their spouses.

The piece is beautifully made. Although we were only able to see a facsimile, it is wonderful to experience these pieces in physical form. How amazing it would have been to touch and see the original piece!

Something interesting about the experience I had was that when I approached the codex, the way it was rolled up was in a way so that I would be unrolling it from the bottom and opening it up. When I began to see the figures, they were very simply drawn, but further up, as I unrolled the codex, the figures began to be a little more elaborate. What I observed is that it was the same figures, but something was added onto them as it went up each row. I did not quite understand what was going on until Luise [Poulton] explained that it could be like genealogy and it made a lot more sense to me. I felt like I could connect with what I was seeing. I loved being able to see the advancement of the figures. It made me wonder if it meant that there was a connection with those who seemed to be of higher power (higher up on the codex) and those who were further down (with less details and figures added).

The first day in the library, I had a hard time finding pieces that I could really connect to. All of the pieces were beautiful and I thought they were interesting, but I did not feel anything super exciting about them. I enjoyed this codex after I understood a little more about it and I liked learning about the resources we have available to us. I would love to take more advantage of this and utilize it to learn more about the history of these people. I thought it was very interesting that Luise pointed out the importance of looking at the “who, what, where, when, why and how.” Not because it is something new to me, but rather something that Professor Dulfano is always pointing out to us. We cannot read a piece of literature without understanding the context and its background. It makes for a much more fulfilling experience.

BX8625-M39-1983-cover

BX8625-M39-1983-title

BX8625-M39-1983-2-3spread

Ump’it u yeybilil ti’ u libroil Mormon: hahil t’an Yo’olal Cristo
Salt Lake City: Dza’an ohetbil tumen u Iglesia Jesucristo ti’ le Ma’alob Maco’obo’ tu Dzo’oc kino’oba’, 1983
BX8625 M39 1983

The second day in the library was a real treat. I felt a connection with a lot of the pieces and definitely enjoyed the experience more that day than the first day. Of all the pieces I saw, my two most favorite were the Book of Mormon, written in a Maya language and the 1997 piece by Joe D’Ambrosio, Oaxaca and the Saguaro. It is one of one hundred and twenty five copies made. The University of Utah copy is numbered 19.

N7433.4-D34-O29-1996-cover
Oaxaca (Wa-ha-ka) and the saguaro (sa-wah-row)…
Joe D’Ambrosio
Phoenix, AZ: D’Ambrosio, 1996
N7433.4 D34 O29 1996

This book was hand bound by the author in a brown cloth and Mexican bark paper. The front cover has a beautifully structured cactus with twisted material to give more structure to the cactus.

N7433.4-D34-O29-1996-Feathers

Throughout this book, you will find beautifully crafted pop-up images and real feathers, as well as other illustrations.

This piece made me very excited for numerous reasons. First, I love books made from raw hide/leather, or other natural materials. I find them so beautiful and real. The cactus made it even more exciting to see what was inside. As I flipped through the pages, I really enjoyed seeing the illustration because they reminded me a lot of my childhood. Pop-up books were my favorite as a child, so it was a nice moment to reminisce. Other illustrations in this book continued to remind me of my childhood and some of the art projects I did. There was one page in particular that was decorated with a metallic material. It almost seemed to me to be made from gum wrappers. I used to peel apart gum wrappers and use the silver part to make figures on another piece of paper. This particular page reminded me of that.

N7433.4-D34-O29-1996-pg8-9apread

Generally speaking, it was a beautifully made book and very enjoyable to look at. But it was an even more delightful experience because it had a nostalgic feeling for me.

As I mentioned above, I had a better experience the second day than the first. I don’t know if it was because there were more pieces that caught my attention or if it was because we had more time to look at everything. But it really made me appreciate the resources we have and made me think how privileged we are to have access to such “rare objects.” Many of these books, codices, etc. are completely from “out of our world” and we have the opportunity to step inside the world of others and experience it. If we had had more time, I would have loved to look longer at all the books and discover what they were all about. As it was, I only got to observe a small portion of everything. I would love to be able to go back and see what more there is and learn more.

alluNeedSingleLine

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