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Category Archives: Book of the Week

Book of the Week – De la Lingua che si Parla & Scriue in Firenza…

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Antwerp, Arnoldus Arlenius, Basel, Bologna, Cosimo, Duke Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, Dutch, Filipo Giunta, Florence, France, Germany, Greek, Italian, Italy, Ivie J. and Jeanne M. Nielson, Latin, Lorenzo Torrentinus, Lyon, Netherlands, Pierfrancesco Giambullari, printer, printing, Torrentino, type foundry, typographic, Venice

Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551, Title Page
Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551, Portrait
Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551

De la Lingua che si Parla & Scriue in Firenza…
Pierfrancesco Giambullari (1495-1555)
Firenze: Torrentino, 1551

Printer Lorenzo Torrentinus (1499-1563) was a Dutch-Italian humanist and printer for Cosimo, Duke of Florence. He was born in the Netherlands into a wealthy family. After his studies, he began working for printers and booksellers in Antwerp, Basel, Lyon, Venice and Bologna. There, he worked as a bookseller with Arnoldus Arlenius, a well-known and well-respected Greek scholar. They imported books in Greek and Latin from France and Germany, selling them throughout Italy. They also acted as liaisons between authors and printers.

After the death of Filippo Giunta, the great Florentian pressman, printing in Florence deteriorated from an art to a trade. Duke Cosimo I brought Torrentino to Florence to improve the quality of printing in his city. In 1577 Torrentino opened his own press in Florence. He produced nearly two hundred and seventy-five editions. His work was of high quality and his reputation and business flourished. In 1562 he became director of a type foundry. His press was managed by his sons. His careful and artful typographic skills enabled him to contribute to the development of Italian languages. Like the best printers of the era, Torrentino carried equally the roles of editor, translator and commentator.

University of Utah copy gift of Ivie J. and Jeanne M. Nielson.

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Book of the Week – Vue de la Colonie Espagnole du Mississipi, ou des…

24 Monday Mar 2014

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abolition, colonist, commerce, cotton, Florida, French, government, Haiti, Haitian Revolution, indigo, law, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mississippi River, New Orleans, rice, slavery, slaves, sugar, tobacco, trade, wood

Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie…, 1803, Title Page
Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie…, 1803, Chapter 11
Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie…, 1803, Map

Vue de la Colonie Espagnole du Mississipi, ou des…
Pierre Louis Berquin-Duvallon (1769 – aft 1804))
Paris : Imprimerie Expeditive, 1803
First edition
F373 B53

This work on Louisiana and the western part of Florida gives a general survey of the area, with special attention paid to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. The author writes of the climate; soil; flora and fauna; production of sugar, cotton, indigo, tobacco, rice and wood ; as well as trade, commerce, law and government. Berquin-Duvallon was a planter who lived in Louisiana from 1799 until 1802. A French colonist, he fled San Domingo in 1803, after slaves successfully revolted. The Haitian Revolution resulted in the abolition of slavery on Haiti.

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Book of the Week – Calendarium

17 Monday Mar 2014

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almanacs, astronomers, border, calendar, Calendarium, Easter, eclipses, Erhard Ratdolt, imprint, initial, instruments, Italian, lunar, Nuremburg, printer, printing, Regiomontanus, title page, Venice, woodcut

Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, First Page
Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, Solar Chart
Mueller, Calendarium, 1482, March Measurements

Calendarium
Johannes Mueller, Regiomontanus (1435 – 1476)
Venice; Erhard Ratdolt, 1482
CE73 M8 1482

Regiomontanus’ Calendarium was first printed at his own press in Nuremberg in 1474. In 1476, master printer Erhard Ratdolt published it in Venice, the capital of Italian printing, followed by this edition in 1482. Regiomontanus was one of the first publishers of astronomical material. His Calendarium represents the first application of modern scientific methods of astronomical calculation and observation to the problems of the lunar calendar, such as Easter, and the accurate prediction of eclipses.Regiomontanus’ almanacs contained planetary positions for a particular year as calculated from astronomical tables, freeing astronomers from performing the laborious task themselves.

This edition also contains verses by J. Sentius in praise of the author, and by Santritter in praise of the printer. Santritter would later become a printer himself. The last two leaves of this book are printed on four pages of thick paper pasted together to form astronomical instruments. The ingenuity of the instruments demonstrates Ratdolt’s technical skill in overcoming the challenges posed by early scientific publishing. This edition was not only technically innovative but artistically elegant as well. The title page is ornamented with an intricate border. The title-page initial is printed in red and black. Other woodcut initials are printed in black and white. Ratdolt included imprint details – that is, the information which tells us when and by whom the book was printed – at the end of the opening verses on the verso of the title-page.

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Book of the Week – The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Compared With…

10 Monday Mar 2014

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copper engravings, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Urry, London, Pigue, Vertue, vignette, woodcut initials

Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1721, Title Page
Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1721, The Nun’s Tale
Chaucer, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1721, The Monk’s Tale

The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: Compared With…
Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400)
London: Printed for B. Lintot, 1721
First edition
PR1851 U7 1721

John Urry’s intent was to establish an authoritative text for Chaucer, but he altered the text wherever he thought that he could better achieve the essential mood established by Chaucer. A later editor of Chaucer wrote of Urry’s edition, “Mr. Urry’s edition should never be opened by any one for the purpose of studying Chaucer.” Maybe not, but the illustrations in this edition have often been reprinted.

John Urry’s illustrated folio edition of Chaucer’s work contains three previously unpublished tails: “The Coke’s Tale of Gamelyn,” “The Merchant’s Second Tale,” and “The Adventure of the Pardoner and Tapster at the Inn at Canterbury.” The edition includes a preface, a Life of Chaucer, and a glossary of Middle English terms. Urry died before the edition was finished. It was completed by others before publication.

The thirty copper-engraved illustrations include portraits of Chaucer by Vertue and Urry by Pigue, the pilgrims (set within the text), a title page vignette (Chaucer’s tomb), the pilgrims leaving the Tabard Inn, and woodcut initials and head and tail pieces throughout.

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Book of the Week – Das Backerbuch

03 Monday Mar 2014

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cookbook, Frank Pusch, German, Stuttgart

Pusch, Das Backerbuch, 1901, Cover
Pusch, Das Backerbuch, 1901, Bakery
Pusch, Das Backerbuch, 1901, Bread

Das Backerbuch
Frank Pusch
Stuttgart: F. Krais, 1901

This German cookbook is a practical handbook of baking for all countries, with twenty-five plates printed in color and 445 illustrations within the text.

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Book of the Week – Zuschrift an Seine Zuhoerer Worinnen…

24 Monday Feb 2014

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Branschweig, E.G. von Kleist, electrical condensor, electricity, Halle, Johann Gottlob Krueger, Leyden jar, medicine

Kruger, Zuschrift…, 1744, Title Page
Kruger, Zuschrift…, 1744
Kruger, Zuschrift…, 1744, End Page

Zuschrift an Seine Zuhoerer Worinnen…
Johann Gottlob Krueger (1715-1759)
Halle: C.H. Hemmerde, 1744
First edition
QC516 K7

Johann Krueger was Professor of Medicine at Halle, and later at Branschweig. He was fairly well-known in his day as an electrical experimenter. He was one of the few persons to whom E.G. von Kleist communicated his invention of the Leyden jar (the electrical condensor). Krueger’s interest in electricity was largely in possible medical applications, as suggested in this lecture. This printing of his lecture is unrecorded. The first recorded printing is dated 1745.

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Book of the Week – The Life of George Washington, Commander in…

17 Monday Feb 2014

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C. P. Wayne, Chief Justice, David Edwin, engraving, frontispiece, George Washington, Gilbert Stuart, John Marshall, Philadelphia, President, stipple-engraving

Marshall, The Life of George Washington, 1804

Marshall, The Life of George Washington, 1804

The Life of George Washington, Commander in…
John Marshall (1755-1835)
Philadelphia: Printed and published by C.P. Wayne, 1804-07
First edition
E312 M33 1-5

Shortly after John Marshall became Chief Justice he was asked by George Washington’s nephew to write the first President’s official biography. As a personal friend of Washington, it was Marshall who announced the death of the President in 1799, offered the eulogy, chaired the committee that arranged the funeral rites, and led the commission to plan a monument in the capital city. Marshall wrote this biography using records and papers provided him by the President’s family. The seminal work was written as the Chief Justice was beginning the enormous task of constructing the judicial review and the American system of constitutional law. Gilbert Stuart’s famous portrait of Washington, introduced to the public through the engraved frontispiece of this work, was produced by Philadelphia stipple-engraver David Edwin. The second edition of this five volume work was issued within one year of the first.

 

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Book of the Week – Valentines to the Wide World

10 Monday Feb 2014

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Cummington Press, Curtis Rag, Eldora, Fred Becker, Harry Duncan, Iowa, Iowa City, Jarvis Thurston, K. Kimer Merker, Lutetia Italic, Mona Van Duyn, National Institute of Arts and Letters, Northern Iowa University, paper, Perspective: A Quarterly of Literature, poem, Raeburn Miller, Romanee, St. Louis, typefaces, University of Iowa, University of Louisville, Washington University, Waterloo

Van Duyn, Valentines, 1958, Title Page
Van Duyn, Valentines, 1958, The Gentle Snorer
Van Duyn, Valentines, 1958, Paratrooper

Valentines to the Wide World
Mona Van Duyn (1921- 2004)
Iowa City: Cummington Press, 1958
First edition
PS3543 A563 V3 1958

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Mona Van Duyn grew up in the small town of Eldora, Iowa (pop. 3,200) where she read voraciously and secretly wrote poems in her school notebooks from grade school to high school. In a 1991 interview she recalled a typical punishment in small town Iowa grade school: “One was made to stay after school and learn a poem.”

Ouch! Van Duyn earned a B.A. from Northern Iowa University in 1942, and an M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1943, the year she married Jarvis Thurston. In 1946 she was hired as an instructor at the University of Louisville when her husband became an assistant professor there. Together they began Perspective: A Quarterly of Literature in 1947 and continued it at Washington University in St. Louis when they moved there in 1950. Van Duyn lectured in the University College adult education program until her retirement in 1990. In 1983, a year after she had published her fifth book of poems, she was named an adjunct Professor in the English Department and became the “Visiting Hurst Professor” in 1987, the year she was invited to be a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She was awarded numerous national prizes, awards, and fellowships.  She served as the first female Poet Laureate of the United States.

Printed by Raeburn Miller, K. Kimer Merker, and Harry Duncan with Romanee and Lutetia Italic typefaces on Curtis Rag paper. Edition of one hundred and eighty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 18.

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Book of the Week – Abrege Chronologique des Grands Fiefs de la…

03 Monday Feb 2014

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ballet, Desaint, fiefs, France, French, history, medieval, Mercure de France, opera, Paris, Paris Opera, Pierre Nicolas Brunet, poetry, Saillant

Brunet, Abrege, 1759, Titile Page
Brunet, Abrege, 1759
Brunet, Abrege, 1759

Abrege Chronologique des Grands Fiefs de la…
Pierre Nicolas Brunet (1733-1771)
Paris: Desaint & Saillant, 1759
First edition
DC36.6 B78 1759

Pierre Brunet was a French poet and dramatist. He is known for a heroic poem he published in 1756. Less successful were his plays, but he worked for several years with the Paris Opera on opera and ballet productions. He edited the political newspaper “Mercure de France,” contributing several pieces. Abrege is his longest and most serious attempt at writing, a history that he worked on with his father. Well-educated and articulate, Brunet was not a particularly good writer, nor was he a very strong researcher. Still, his history of medieval fiefs is an example of the study of medieval France going on in his day.

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Book of the Week – Emblemata et Aliqvot Nvmmi Antiqvi…

31 Friday Jan 2014

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Arnold Nicolai, Christopher Plantin, Cornelis Muller, emblem book, emblemata, engraving, Ferdinand I, Geoffroy Ballain, Gerard Janssen van Kampen, humanism, Hungarian, Janos Zsamboki, Kenneth Lawrence Ott, Lucas d'Heere, Maximilian II, Okanagan County Museum, Pieter Huys, Plantin, Plantini, Roman coins, Rudolf II, vignettes, wood engravings, woodcuts

Zsamboki, Emblemata, 1569, Cover
Zsamboki, Emblemata, 1569, Title Page
Zsamboki, Emblemata, 1569

Emblemata et Aliqvot Nvmmi Antiqvi…
Janos Zsamboki (1531-1584)
Antverpiae: Ex officina Christophori Plantini, mdlxix [1569]

The emblem book addressed a wide range of interests within humanist culture, among them the purpose of poetry and the relative power of the visual and the verbal. The first edition of physician Janos Zsamboki’s Emblemata was printed by the Plantin press in 1564. It was the first new emblem book to appear outside of Italy or France and is one of the largest and most influential examples of the genre at an early state of its development. An expanded edition was published in 1566 and was reprinted four times.

Janos Zsamboky was a Hungarian humanist who spent much of his life in Vienna as court-historiographer to the Habsburg emperors Ferdinand I, Maximilian II, and Rudolf II. This edition opens with an emblem dedicated to the newly elected emperor Maximilian II. Zsamboky prepared his emblem book at the end of two decades of traveling throughout Germany, France, Italy, and the Low Countries, before he entered the court in Vienna. Other works from Zsamboki include editions of classical texts and historiographical works. His was renowned for his scholarly patronage and an impressive collection of books and old manuscripts.

Emblemata consists of single pages containing a motto, a woodcut illustration and an epigram. Nearly a third of the emblems are also accompanied by dedications to well-known humanists, powerful courtiers, clergymen and friends and relatives. Zsamboki commissioned Lucas d’Heere to draw the illustrations. Christopher Plantin had half of d’Heere’s designs redrawn by Geoffory Ballain and Pieter Huys. The woodcuts were produced by Gerard Janssen van Kampen, Cornelis Muller and Arnold Nicolai. The Plantin printer’s device appears on the title-page. A full-page engraving of Zsamboki faces the preface. Various decorative vignettes throughout. Several leaves with wood engravings of Roman coins at the end of the book.

From the Kenneth Lieurance Ott Collection donated to the Okanagan County Museum, Washington.

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