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Book of the Week — Wrenching Times: Poems from Drum-Taps

15 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Abraham Lincoln, Alan Wood, assassination, Brooklyn, Capitol, David Esslemont, democratic, frontier, Gaylord Schanilec, Gwasg Gregynog, Hugh Willmer, lilacs, M. Wynn Thomas, memorial, Monotype Baskerville, New York, Newton, North Wales Arts Association, poet, Powys, President, rare books, Rhian Ticehurst, typeface, Union, Wales, Walt Whitman, Washington, Western, wood blocks, wood engravings, Zerkall mould-made paper

PS3211-A3-1991-Portrait

“When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d…and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”

Wrenching Times: Poems from Drum-Taps
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Newton, Powys, Wales: Gwasg Gregynog, 1991
PS3211 A3 1991

From notes by M. Wynn Thomas: “Whitman was in New York, seeing Drum-Taps through the press, when Lincoln was assassinated on the evening of 14 April 1865, at the very time when he had finally secured victory for the Union. Whitman had come to identify very closely with the president, having supported him when others dismissed him as a mere country hick, and having seen him pass every day under Whitman’s window in Washington on his journey to and from the Capitol. Lincoln was, for the poet, the very epitome of Western, frontier qualities and his steadfast adherence, through the worst of times, to his principled belief in a democratic Union had won Whitman’s unqualified and undying admiration. Years later, in his old age, he would still endeavour, whenever his health allowed, to deliver an annual memorial lecture on the day of Lincoln’s death. On that occasion he always ensured that lilacs were placed on the table in front of him.

“The lilac was in flower near his Brooklyn home when Whitman heard of Lincoln’s murder.”

PS3211-A3-1991-Locomotive

Wood engravings by Gaylord Schanilec, made at Gregynog during a residency, supported by the North Wales Arts Association, and printed from the original wood-blocks. Designed and printed by David Esslemont with the assistance of Hugh Willmer on Zerkall mould-made paper. Typeface is Monotype Baskerville. Edition of four hundred and fifty copies, one of four hundred copies bound in quarter leather by Alan Wood and Rhian Ticehurst at Gregynog.

Gregynog Press was a Welsh private press, started and run by two wealthy sisters, whose interests were more artistic than literary. All of the work of the books from this press happened under one roof – design layout, composition, presswork, design and execution of woodblocks, hand-coloring and binding – an unusual circumstance for early twentieth century presses.

Rare Books copy is number 201 with unpublished wood engraving laid in.

PS3211-A3-1991-Horse

April is National Poetry Month.

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Curtis Census

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Publication

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American Indians, copper plates, Curtis Census, drawing, Edward Curtis, etchings, ethnography, field notes, French Impressionists, glass negative, glass positive, gravures, gum prints, handpress, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japanese handmade silk tissues, Mississippi, negatives, nineteenth century, painting, papers, photographer, photogravures, Pictorialism, platinotypes, printing process, rare books, rice paper, Scott Beadles, Seattle, sepia inks, Tim Greyhavens, Tissue, Van Gelder, vellum, watermark

Rare Books is pleased to announce the launch of the Curtis Census, a website produced by Tim Greyhavens for the global community. The J. Willard Marriott Library is one of the institutions that holds an entire set of Edward Curtis’ The North American Indian.

From Tim’s website: “Published by Edward Curtis from 1907 to 1930, The North American Indian was planned to be a limited edition of 500 sets. Due to the extremely high cost of the publication and the prolonged publication cycle, it’s thought that no more than 300 complete or partial sets were finally printed. This census will determine, as accurately as possible, the actual number of complete or partial sets that were printed and their present locations…Although The North American Indian is one of the great publications of all time, there is no definitive answer about how many sets were originally published. Curtis did not keep a master subscription list, and different documentation about the project provides conflicting information.”

Congratulations, Tim, on a great project.

Click here for the website’s biography of Edward Curtis. Curtis was born in 1868. 2018 is the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Click here for the website’s excellent article on Curtis’s The North American Indian.

Visit Rare Books to look at this remarkable set of photogravures.

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Seattle, WA: E. S. Curtis, 1907-30
E77 C97

A collection of 2,232 photogravures of American Indians taken between 1890 and 1930 and published between 1907 and 1930. A massive project, professional photographer Edward Curtis’ intention was to document every major tribe west of the Mississippi, portraying what he perceived to be a vanishing culture. While he was neither the first nor the last person to photograph the American Indian, he was surely the most prolific. His monumental publication presented to the public an extensive ethnographic study of numerous peoples.

The North American Indian consists of twenty portfolios of photogravures and twenty volumes of field notes bound with smaller gravures. A photogravure is made from a printing process utilizing a copper plate that is made from a glass positive which itself is made from a glass negative. The plate is hand wiped with sepia inks. Excess ink is removed and the plate is forced onto paper with a handpress, capturing all the etched details on the plate. The photogravure produces a soft, atmospheric appearance similar to that achieved by French Impressionist painters. This photographic process, along with drawing and painting on negatives, platinotypes and gum prints, was popular at the end of the nineteenth century. The movement, known as “Pictorialism” was a way for photographers to add personal vision and expression to their works.

The portfolio gravures were printed on three different papers, Van Gelder, a watermarked paper, Vellum, a rice paper, and Tissue, Japanese handmade silk tissues. Forty of the original sets were printed on Tissue, the rest equally split between Van Gelder and Vellum.

Images selected and scanned by Scott Beadles.

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Rare Books goes to UMFA

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Rare Books Loans, Recommended Exhibition

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Arabic Papyrus, Aziz S. Atiya, Brigham Young University, J. Willard Marriott Library, Lincoln Blumell, Lola Atiya, rare books, University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Greek inscription

A piece from the rare book collections is on loan at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, in its ongoing exhibition,  Ancient Mediterranean Art: Res Mortis. The piece may be viewed at the museum through September, 2018.

The carved fragment of limestone celebrates the life of Helene, to whom is given the credit “In peace and blessing Ama Helene, a Jew, who loves the orphans, [died]. For about 60 years her path was one of mercy and blessing; on it she prospered.”

The piece has been at the J. Willard Marriott for nearly thirty years, a gift of Aziz S. and Lola Atiya. Aziz Atiya founded the University of Utah’s Middle East Center and the Marriott’s Middle East Library in 1969. Rare Books holds many gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Atiya, including this epitaph and one of the largest collections of Arabic papyrus fragments in the world.

When the epitaph was given to the library, it was provisionally identified as a “Coptic inscription, dating from the dawn of the use of the Greek alphabet, not earlier than the second century, but not later than the third.”

Years later, in 2016, Lincoln Blumell, associate professor of ancient scripture, at Brigham Young University translated it, publishing his translation in Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period. News of the piece attracted world wide press attention.

For more information on Dr. Blumell’s translation see our previous post.

— photographs by Scott Beadles

 

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A Lasting Gift — The Principles of Psychology

16 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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Bertrand Russell, brain, emotion, George Santayana, Gertrude Stein, habit, Harvard, Henry Holt and Company, Henry James, history, John Dewey, literature, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Mark Twain, natural science, New York, philosophy, psychology, Ralph Waldo Emerson, rare books, Sigmund Freud, Theodore Roosevelt, W. E. B. Du Bois, William James


“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” — William James

The Principles of Psychology
William James (1842-1910)
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1890
First edition, first state

Rare Books is pleased to announce the anonymous donation of this first edition of William James’ The Principles of Psychology, a work emphasizing his experimental method and treatment of psychology as a natural science. A landmark in the history of philosophy, The Principles of Psychology includes a survey of literature on the localized functions of the brain, an extensive analysis of the self, and theories of habit, emotion, and association, among other topics. The phrase “stream of consciousness” comes from his writings.

William James came from a large, wealthy New York family. He is the brother of novelist Henry James. His godfather was Ralph Waldo Emerson. While teaching at Harvard, his students included Theodore Roosevelt, George Santayana, and Gertrude Stein. His writings influenced W. E. B. Du Bois and Ludwig Wittgenstein. He associated with Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud and many others. That’s a special bunch of people in the world of literature and scholarship.

We also have special friends, named and unnamed. Thank you!



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Beer libator

05 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Arad, beer libator, cult, cuneiform, Dr. Renee Kovacs, funerary banquet, grain, J. Willard Marriott Library, Kenneth Lieurance Ott, King Amar-Suen of Ur, libations, mill, Okanagan County Museum, priestesses, rare books, receipt, Special Collections, Sumerian, tablet, The University of Utah, Third Dynasty of Ur, Ur-mes, Washington

https://openbook.lib.utah.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Tablet1080p11s.mp4

Photograph and stop motion by Scott Beadles.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur
PJ3824 B33
From the Kenneth Lieurance Ott Collection donated to the Okanangan County Museum, Washington, now in the Rare Books collection, J. Willard Marriott Library, the University of Utah.

Our thanks to Dr. Renee Kovacs for this translation.

This tablet will appear in the master database of cuneiform tablets, CDLI Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative  and the specialised database of administrative tablets of this period, the Third Dynasty of Ur: BDTNS Database of Neo-Sumerian Texts.

Sumerian Cuneiform Tablet of Third Dynasty of Ur

Administrative, receipt of grain

dated to King Amar-Suen of Ur, year 2 (ca. 2045 BC)

3.0 x 3.0 cm. The tablet is complete, 8 lines of Sumerian cuneiform, (6 obverse, 2 reverse).

The tablet records an amount of a grain (lillan”-grain) for provisions for the funerary cult of the former “lords”, that is the rulers, the en-priests and priestesses. The grain was issued from the mill by an official named Arad and received by an official Ur-mes with the title ‘beer libator”  This title was used specifically for an official who performed libations during the funerary banquet for the deceased rulers.

The English units of measure  in the translation do not reflect actual Sumerian volumes but merely the sequence of units, large to small, of the Sumerian.  The regnal years of kings were identified by assigning a  name for a significant event of that year.

1 0.2.2  4 silà (še <gur> lugal 2 “barrels”, 2 “gallons” 4 “quarts”  of lillan-grain
2 níg-dab5-en-en-ne provisions for the Lords
3 é-HAR-ta from the mill
4 ki Arad2-ta from Arad
5 Ur-mes kaš-dé-dé Ur-mes, libator for ritual meals,
6 šu ba-ti received.
rev 7 iti dLi9-si4 Month IX
8 mu Ur-bí-/lumki ba-hul Year (named) ” The year Urbilum was destroyed.”

 

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A Donation Makes a Difference in Denmark

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

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20th century, article, Brooklyn, commercial, communication, composing, Compugraphic, Compugraphic Universal V, Dad, Danish Association for Communication, Denmark, Design & Media, Don Gale, donation, electrical, electronics, ephemera, Fotosetter, Garamond, GRAKOM, gravure, Henning Impgaard Madsen, industry magazine, Intertype, Intertype Corporation, KSL, letterpress, lithographic plates, machine, manuals, marketing, media production, museum, offset, Outcome, paper, photographic, platemaking, plates, printer, rare books, Royal Danish Library, Special Collections, technology, type specimens, typographers, UDKOM, United States, Viborg, Vingaard Officinet


“These showings of Intertype “Fotosetter” Garamond mark an important event in the history of Intertype Corporation. All of the composition was produced on an Intertype Fotosetter photographic line-composing machine. The original film positives were used to make deep-etch lithographic plates, from which this booklet was printed. Quite appropriately for such an occasion Garamond, considered among leading typographers to be one of the most successful type faces ever introduced, was selected for these introductory specimens of Fotosetter technique.”

Fotosetter Garamond
Brooklyn: Intertype Corp., 1949
Z250 F75 1949


Any one of a certain age living in Utah knows who Don Gale is. Three times a day, in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, KSL aired Don’s short, stern, fair editorials. Don was the Vice President for Public Affairs and Editorial Director at KSL.

Over the years, Don has donated personal papers, videos of his editorials and other material to Special Collections. In 2006, Rare Books was the happy recipient of a collection of books and printed ephemera concerning twentieth century commercial printing technologies, including manuals and type specimen books.

Don’s dad was a printer.

In late November we received an email from Henning Impgaard Madsen in Denmark, who had discovered through the internet that we had “some information about the first Fotosetter in the world.” The Royal Danish Library did not have “any information.” Mr. Madsen said that he was helping a museum get an Intertype Fotosetter working but that he needed “some details about the electrical parts and how to work it.”

Thanks to Don’s donation, we were able to provide Mr. Madsen with all the details he needed.

Like Mr. Gale, Mr. Madsen is “retired,” although neither one of them is spending much time retiring. He studied electronics in school. Among other things, he worked with Fotosetters, “mainly Compugraphic from US.”
After he retired, Mr. Madsen and his wife visited museums featuring typesetting, but never ran across a Fotosetter. Then, in a museum in Viborg, the Vingaards Officinet, he found an Intertype Fotosetter. “I had no idea that the first Fotosetter looked like this.

“I talked to the people at the museum and asked why they did not have a Compugraphic, the one I knew from the 1970[s]. They answered, ‘If you can find one we would very much like to have one.’ Mr. Madsen thought to himself, no problem, easy job. “I started to call around, but all the machines or my old customers [had] disappeared. [Someone] gave me the idea” to contact, GRAKOM, the Danish  Association for Communication, Design & Media. That contact led to an article about Mr. Mardsen in UDKOM (Outcome), an industry magazine covering issues and news for companies straddling design, media production, communication and marketing.

The article eventually led to a phone call from a man who had a Compugraphic Universal V. It wasn’t working, but Mr. Mardsen found some parts, did what he could and donated it to Vingaards Officinet.

The museum staff then asked Mr. Madsen to get their Intertype Fotosetter running.

And that is how Don Gale’s donation made a difference in Denmark. We supplied Mr. Madsen scans of a manual for operating the first Intertype Fotosetter, from Mr. Gale’s collection. And Mr. Madsen got the mid-century Fotosetter running. A generation made to last.

Thank you, Don Gale and good work, Mr. Madsen!

###


“The Fotosetter is an automatic, photographic line composing machine. It produces justified composition in galley form directly on film or photographic paper in one operation. This composition can be reproduced on offset-lithographic, gravure and letterpress plates, using standard platemaking methods in each case.”

Introducing the Fotosetter: the photographic line composing machine
Brooklyn, NY: Intertype Corp., 1950
TR1010 I58 1950



“The greater party of this manual is devoted to suppplying the Fotosetter operator with the information which he must have to set up, operate, and maintain his machine, and to understand the principles of its operation.”

Operators manual for the Intertype Fotosetter photographic typesetting machine
Brooklyn, NY: Intertype Corporation, 1955
Z249 O643 1955

Rare Books copy is a gift from Don Gale.



“Following a three year period of field testing in the U. S. Government Printing Office in Washington the first commercial installation was made in 1949. Since then Fotosetter photographic line composing machines have been installed and proven highly successful in all types of printing and composition plants throughout the United States and the world.”

Fotosetter type faces
Brooklyn: Intertype Corporation, ca. 1950
Z250 I58 F6

Rare Books copy is a gift from Don Gale.

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Merci, Paris!

24 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Uncategorized

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Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, David Taillades, Editions Dervy, Freemasonry, Freemasons, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jon Bingham, Kent Walgren, Margate, Masonic, Paris, Quatuor Coronati, rare books

David TAILLADES, Hiram, Le Mystere de la Maitrise et les origines de la franc-maconnerie (Paris: Editions Dervy, 2017)

Presented as a gift from the author to Rare Books for assistance with Masonic sources, such as articles from the Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Ars Quatuor Coronatorum: Being the Transactions of the Quatuor Coronati, Lodge No. 2076, London. Volume I.

Author: Freemasons

Edited by: G. W. Speth, P.M., Secretary

Publisher: Margate: Printed at “Kemble’s Gazette” Office, MDCCCXCV (1895)

Quatuor Coronati is the world’s premier Freemason research lodge. Established in 1884 (and consecrated in 1886), the lodge’s founders wished to advance an evidence-based approach to study Masonic history and research the origins of Freemasonry. Their approach was intended to replace the more imaginative writings of earlier authors and is referred to as the ‘authentic school’ of Masonic research. The Lodge publishes lectures, research papers, and ‘notes & queries’ annually in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum (‘AQC’), which also consists of the transactions of the Lodge. The AQC is distributed internationally. The J. Willard Marriott Library holds the first one hundred and seventeen volumes of the publication (up through 2004). The volumes in Rare Books came to the collections from the library of Kent Walgren.

David Taillades approached Rare Books in November 2016, requesting digital reproductions of articles from the the AQC because the documents “can’t be found in France.” Over the next six months Rare Books worked to support David’s research into the origins of Freemasonry in France by providing access to select articles found throughout its set of AQC. According to David, the support the Rare Books staff provided aided him greatly in his ability to publish his research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rare Books Goes to Utah State University!

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Rare Books Loans

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ailments, Alexa Sand, Andromachus, animal, antidotes, Antioch, antiquity, Arab, Arabic, aristocracy, artists, Athalus III, Avicenna, Baghdad, Barcelona, benefits, Bibliotheque National de France, binding, bites, border, Byzantine Renaissance, Cairo, climate, codex, Constantinople, court, covers, Criton, culture, display, doctor, drink, drugs, Egypt, Ellucasim Elimittar, exhibition, facsimile, food, formulas, French, fruits, Giovaninno de Grassi, grammarian, Graz, Greek, handbook, happiness, healing, health, Hebrew, Hellenistic, herbal, herbs, Homeric, household, hygiene, Ibn Butlan, illustration, Italian, Italy, King of Pergamum, Latin, layout, layperson, leather, magical, management, manual, Materia medica, medical, medicine, medieval, Merrill-Cazier Library, Mesopotamia, Middle Ages, mineral, miniatures, Mithridates, Moleiro, monk, movement, nature, Nero, Nestorian, Nicander of Colophon, observation, occidental, opium, pain, paper, patrician, Pedanius Dioskurides, pharmacological, physician, plants, poet, poisons, potions, publicity, rare books, reception, remedies, rest, Roman, sadness, samples, scholar, science, simples, sleep, Special Collections, stings, substances, symposium, Syria, Syrian, Theatrum sanitatis, therapeutic, toxicology, Trajan, Ububchasym of Baldach, University of Utah, Utah State University, vegetables, Venice, woman, wooden

Last semester, Rare Books loaned six of its medieval manuscript facsimiles to the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University in collaboration with an art history course taught by Professor Alexa Sand. The upper-level course, “Special Topics Seminar in Medieval and Early Modern Art: Rare Books and Facsimiles,” provided a wide-ranging introduction to the interdisciplinary field of manuscript studies. The focus was the history of the codex from its advent in late Roman times to the early print era.

Each student selected a facsimile and researched its origins, history, and significance toward the final assignment of including it in a group-curated exhibition displayed in the library. The seminar concluded with a one-day symposium in which student researchers played an active role in discussion.

The materials selected for study related to botany and its medical and magical associations from late antiquity through the early modern period. Students prepared all aspects of the exhibition, from layout and display to publicity and the opening reception, working with Special Collections faculty and staff and Professor Sand.

Facsimiles on loan from Rare Books were:


Des Pedanius Dioskurides aus anazarbos arzneimittellehre in funf buchern
Ca. seventh century, Italy
Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1988
R126 D56 1988

Facsimile. This manuscript is one of the oldest in the tradition of Materia medica, a pharmacological treatise written by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the first century CE. Dioscorides’ work was used by the medieval world for centuries. In the sixth century it was translated into Latin and by the ninth century it had been translated into Arabic, Syrian and Hebrew. More than four hundred plants are described in this illustrated herbal manual, each illustration bordered in red ink. The binding of wooden covers and leather accords with the character of the original.


Theriaka y Alexipharmaka de Nicandro
Nicander of Colophon
Barcelona: Moleiro, 1997
QP41 N53 1997

Facsimile. The Greek text for this codex, produced in the tenth century, was written in Constantinople in the second century BCE. Nicander, a trusted doctor, poet, and grammarian served in the court of Athalus III, King of Pergamum. In Homeric-style verses, Nicander describes poisons caused by animal bites and stings and by the ingestion of plant, animal, and mineral substances. Antidotes are given for each type of poisoning. These nearly sixty formulas were later improved upon by Mithridates, who added opium and aromatic herbs to the potions. Nicander’s work was used by Criton, the doctor of Trajan, and Andromachus, Nero’s doctor, and is the oldest extant Greek text relating to toxicology. Using this text as his basis, Andromachus compiled a list of seventy-one curative remedies – a list used until the nineteenth-century as the panacea textbook for all and any poisonings. The tenth-century codex, a product of the Byzantine Renaissance, is the only remaining illuminated copy of Nicander’s poetry. The forty-one illustrations form a part of the Hellenistic artistic tradition. The original is now housed at the Bibliotheque National de France. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty-seven copies. University of Utah copy is no. 469.


Theatrum sanitatis
Ububchasym of Baldach (d. ca. 1068 AD)
Eleventh Century
Barcelona: M. Moleiro, 1999
RS79 T46 1999

Facsimile. This handbook of health was written between 1052 and 1063 CE by the Arab scholar Ububshasym of Baldach, better known throughout medieval literature as Ellucasim Elimittar. Many of the concepts used in his writing were derived from earlier Greek, Roman, and Arabic medical treatises. Good health depended upon six essential factors: climate, food and drink, movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, happiness, pain and sadness. Plants, fruits, vegetables, and basic hygiene also affect a person’s health. Ninety-nine of these and other elements are described with the therapeutic properties of each and the ailments that may be helped by them. The illustrations were influenced by the school of Giovannino de Grassi. Two hundred and eight red-framed, nearly full-page illuminations illustrate scenes from daily life as well as the elements described.


Tacuinum sanitatus in medicina.
Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1986
RS79 T335 1986

Facsimile. Northern Italy. This illuminated medical handbook was produced for a layperson – a woman of the upper aristocracy or of a rich patrician family able to read, and afford, a lavish book. A reference of sorts for the household management of health and healing, this type of book goes back to an Arab source written by the physician Ibn Butlan in the 11th century. The Arab art and science of healing decisively influenced occidental medicine and enjoyed a long-lived and distinguished reputation. The Latin translation, which made the codex accessible to the educated of the medieval western world, was widely known. Many copies survive. This particular copy is one of the finest of its kind, displaying over two hundred full-page miniatures of all that was considered important with regard to human health and well being. Beginning in the 14th century, the text was placed below an individual image. The evocative miniatures portray everyday life of late Medieval Italian culture. With a natural style and strong colors, two artists portrayed plants, animals, food, and drugs. All of the objects are within scenes centered upon a human. The text below each miniature describes both the benefits and shortfalls of the object depicted. Derived from the classical herbal tradition, but closely related to Arab manuscripts, the format follows a later western tradition. Bound in leather on wooden boards with hand stamping according to contemporary pattern.


Livre des simples medecines
Antwerp : De Schutter, 1984
QK99 A1 L58 1984 v.1

Facsimile. This late fifteenth-century manuscript is of what has become known as “Livre des Simple Medecines,” a major text of medieval science. Many manuscript copies of this work exist – at least twenty-three from the fifteenth century and one from the sixteenth century. It was first printed in 1488 and printed nine more times before 1548. In classic herbal format, Livre des simple medecines is an alphabetical list of “simples,” that is, unadulterated vegetable, mineral or animal products. Each entry provides a description and, among other things, its usefulness in treating ailments. Herbals as pharmacopeia began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The earliest surviving medical herbal is a work in Greek compiled by Pedianos Dioscorides. This work would dominate European herbals for the next fifteen centuries. It was translated into Arabic as early as the ninth century and influenced Avicenna and other physicians from the Arab world. Herbals were living works. That is, copyists, often practitioners of medicine themselves or copying for practitioners, would contribute to adapt or modify an herbal depending on new or different experience. In this tradition, the French translation here includes new sources such as ibn Butlan, an Arab physician, and others. The four hundred and fifty-seven illuminations in this copy, the Codex Bruxellensis IV, reveal an attempt by the artists to be faithful to nature. In this sense, the desire was to return to copying nature, instead of merely copying degraded illustrations from older herbals. Deliberate observation and representation of nature emerged in all forms of art in the fifteenth century. Codex Bruxellensis IV was copied onto paper. Written in maroon ink by a single hand sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century in a cursive script, the copy also contains marginal annotations by at least two sixteenth-century hands. An attempted pagination was added by a seventeenth-century hand. At some point in its history, one owner added dried samples of plants within its leaves. Facsimile edition of two thousand copies. The University of Utah copy is no. 316.


Tacuinum sanitatis/enchiridion virtutum vegetablilium, animalium, mineralium rerumque omnium: explicans naturam, iuvamentum, nocumentum remotionemque nocumentoru[m] eorum/ authore anonymo
Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1984 RS79 T33 1984

Facsimile. Venice, 1490. Tacuinum Sanitatis (Handbook of Health) is the modern title given to one of the most popular treatises on medicine during the later Middle Ages. It combines Arabic and western knowledge on many types of foods, plants, and circumstances, with particular reference to their useful and harmful properties, and how the latter could be cured if necessary. The illustrated versions of this text yield much information on medieval daily life. The manuscript is comprised of 82 leaves, with four miniatures per page, a total of 294 miniatures. The captions or text are based on the Taqwin al-sihhah of Ibn Butlan (d. 1066), which was unillustrated. Ibn Butlan, originally from Baghdad, visited Cairo about 1049, after which he went to Constantinople before settling at Antioch in Syria and becoming a Nestorian monk. Facsimile edition of nine hundred and eighty copies, numbered.

Photographs of people by Andrew McAllister/Caine College of the Arts, Utah State University

Digital scans of books by Scott Beadles/Department of Art, University of Utah

Special thanks to our colleague Jennifer Duncan, Head of Special Collections, Book Curator, Merrill Cazier Library, Utah State University.

 

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You are invited! ~~ Seventh Annual Book Collector’s Evening

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Alice, Events

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Alice, Alta Club, bibliomaniacs, Book Collectors' Evening, books, cat, dinner, Friends of the Library, history, humankind, Judy Jarrow, mad people, printing press, rare books, Rebecca Romney, silent auction


“The history of the printed word reveals our capacity for brilliance, but it also reveals our capacity for blunder. The printing press is a stage upon which the entire drama of human thought and morality is acted out.” — Rebecca Romney, from Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History

Please join us for The Friends of the Library seventh annual Book Collector’s Evening. Rebecca Romney, co-author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History presents “Human Error in the History of Print: A Story in Five Books.”

Tuesday, February 13
6:00PM
Alta Club
100 East South Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah
tickets are $60

RSVP by February 9
Judy Jarrow
judy.jarrow@utah.edu or 801-581-3421

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer at Honey & Wax Booksellers and the author (with J.P. Romney) of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories in Book History (HarperCollins). Romney first joined the rare book trade in 2007, when she was hired to help launch the Las Vegas gallery of Bauman Rare Books. She became manager of the gallery two years later, eventually moving to Philadelphia to manage the central operations of the firm. Since 2011, she has appeared regularly as the rare book expert on the History Channel’s show “Pawn Stars.” Now settled on the East Coast, Romney joined Honey & Wax in the summer of 2016; in 2017, she and her partner Heather O’Donnell established the Honey & Wax Prize, an award for an accomplished book collection created by a young woman. She is a member of the Grolier Club, the Philobiblon Club, the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP), a graduate of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar and Rare Book School, and serves on the Rare Book School Scholarship Committee.

Our evening includes dinner, a silent auction (including copies of Rebecca’s book), and a hands-on display of books, selected especially with bibliomaniacs in mind, from the Rare Books Department.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that…we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Feed your head!

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Sassy Faith

05 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

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5oth Anniversary, books, faith, Friends of the Library, J. Willard Marriott Library, Jon Bingham, Jonathan Sandberg, libraries, Luise Poulton, Lyuba Basin, rare books, Scott Beadles, Wallace Stegner

“To erect a great library in the year 1968 is an act of stubborn and sassy faith.” — Wallace Stegner, from his dedication address for the opening of the J. Willard Marriott Library

Rare Books joins in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the J. Willard Marriott Library, recognizing the work of the Friends of the Library, past, present, and future, in its charge to keep our collections safe and growing at a time when digital matter consumes students and administrators alike.

Long live the Book! Long live libraries!

J. Willard Marriott Library
Level 1 lobby
Friday, January 5 through Sunday, March 18

Curated by Lyuba Basin and Luise Poulton with help from Scott Beadles, Jonathan Sandburg, and Jon Bingham.

For more information, contact Luise Poulton 

 

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