14 Friday Aug 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Art installation – I Miss Everything About You
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Amos Kennedy, graffiti, Great Salt Lake, I miss everything about you, ink, Kickstarter, letterpress, paper, posters, printer, public art, QR code, rare books, University of Utah, wood type
Rare Books participates in an art installation.
I Miss Everything About You: A Public Spectacle Essay
#IMEAY2015
Follow the project at imisseverythingaboutyou.com
10 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
Tags
Aldus Manutius, Basel, Bible, Byzantine, Cambridge, England, English, Erasmus, Froben, German, Greek, John Colet, Latin, Latin Vulgate, Martin Luther, New Testament, Nikolaus Gergel, Roman Catholic Church, Thomas More (1478-1535), University of Utah, Venice, Western European, William Tyndale
NOUUM TESTAMENTUM GRAECE
Argentorati : Apud Vuolfium Cephalaeum, 1524
BS1965 1524
First edition, first printing in octavo of the Erasmus New Testament in Greek. This edition, in its compact format, was much more affordable than Froben’s earlier editions, two facts that arguably gave Erasmus’ translation greater societal impact. The text closely follows the Nikolaus Gergel edition of 1521, the second edition of the Erasmus Greek New Testament.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) took monastic vows at the age of twenty-five. An independent scholar, he spent time at Cambridge where he befriended John Colet (1467-1519) and Thomas More (1478-1535) during a time of great stress in the English Church. He spent three years in Venice working as an editor in the publishing house of Aldus Manutius (1449-1515). He later worked with printer Johannes Froben (1460-1527) in Basel.
While in England, Erasmus began a systematic examination of available manuscript copies of the New Testament. His resulting Greek New Testament, with Latin in parallel column, was first published by Froben in 1516. The 1516 Greek-Latin New Testament was used as a primary source for Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German (1522), and for William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament into English (1526).
Although Erasmus was criticized by later scholars for not having used all available manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament and for not using Byzantine copies, his translation is noted as the first Western European attempt to find a truer translation of the New Testament than that of the fourth century Latin Vulgate, the translation used almost exclusively by the Roman Catholic Church. The translation re-introduced the study of Greek biblical manuscripts and other Greek works on the Bible into Western Europe.
Only ten copies of this edition and printing are listed in WorldCat. University of Utah copy has extensive marginalia in multiple contemporary or just post-contemporary hands (possibly four) throughout.
03 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
≈ Comments Off on Book of the week – Tractatus theologico-politicus
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Amsterdam, Benedictus de Spinoza, Bible, biblical criticism, English, Europe, Leviathan, metaphysics, Moses Maimonides, Netherlands, philosophy, political philosophy, Synod of Dordrecht, Thomas Hobbes
TRACTATUS THEOLOGICO-POLITICUS CONTINENS…
Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)
Hamburgi [i.e. Amsterdam]: Apud Henricum Kunrath [i.el. Jan Rieuwertsz], MDCLLXX (1670)
First edition, first issue
BS3985 A3 1670
Printed without authorship attribution, a false publisher and imprint were given in order to maintain anonymity and protect the author and printer from political retribution. In 1673, the book was publicly condemned by the Synod of Dordrecht and officially banned the following year. This is one of the few books banned in the Netherlands during the early modern period. In spite of this, it could be found and bought throughout Europe fairly easily. In this Tractatus Spinoza combined biblical criticism with political philosophy. His metaphysics was heavily influenced by Moses Maimonides and English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan (1651). From its first page, the book sparked controversy. Spinoza expressed his skepticism of the authenticity and historicity of the Bible, pointing out its inconsistencies.
27 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
≈ Comments Off on Book of the week — Leviathan
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A. Crooke, English, English Licensers, history, Leviathan, London, philosophy, Puritan Revolution, Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), United States Constitution
Thomas Hobbes lived during a momentous period in English history. His Leviathan, a product of those troubled times, was one of the most important and controversial works of the seventeenth century. The English civil war, and the general conflict between royalists and republicans spurred Hobbes to write this, his greatest work. Banned as heretical and seditious and ordered to be burnt by the English Licensers almost immediately after this first edition was printed, Leviathan was reprinted in numerous spurious editions. In 1703 it was placed on the Index. For all that, the work was extremely influential, affecting, for instance, the early writings of Spinoza. Thomas Hobbes, writing during the period of the Puritan Revolution (1640’s), rejected the prevalent theory of divine right of kings and supported the idea of a social contract. He believed that the power of the sovereign was subject to certain limits. However, he defended absolutism, unpopular even in his day, as a necessary antidote to anarchy. The individual, then, except to save his own life, should always submit to the State. Later emphasis on the rights of the individual led to a decline in Hobbes’s influence. Even so, Leviathan was a major influence on the framers of the United States Constitution.
22 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on Two Medieval Monks Invent Writing
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Associate Chair, bookmaking, Department of Languages and Literature, Mallory Ortberg, Maria Dobozy, medieval, monks, rare books, The Toast, The University of Utah, writing
Thank you to friend of Rare Books, Maria Dobozy, Associate Chair, Department of Languages & Literature, The University of Utah, for sending this glimpse into early medieval bookmaking.
MONK #2: i think youre ready to move on to something a little trickier this time
reading and writing
MONK #1: oh wow
MONK #2: the really important thing to remember about writing is that you dont use any words
ever
just blank pages in careful order
…
P.S. Don’t miss the tags.
20 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – Book of Commandments
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Book of Commandments, Caroline Rollins, Hyrum Smith, Ida Taylor Whitaker, John M. Whitaker, John Taylor, John Whitmer, Joseph Smith, library, Martin Harris, Mary Elizabeth Rollins, mob, Morman Commandments, Oliver Cowdery, press, revelations, Sidney Rigdon, type, W. W. Phelps, William Wines Phelps, Zion
BOOK OF COMMANDMENTS, FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF…
Zion: W. W. Phelps, 1833
BX8628 A2 1833
Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, Sidney Rigdon, and William Wines Phelps were responsible for the first publication of this work. Phelps, Cowdery, and Whitmer were also on a committee to review the revelations within. The original publishing plan called for an edition of ten thousand copies. In the end, this number was only three thousand.
Printing began in December 1832 and ended on 20 July 1833 when a mob destroyed the type, the press, and the building in which the work was being done. Mary Elizabeth and Caroline Rollins managed to rescue the sheets gathered here.
In her diary, Mary Rollins, writes of this event. “The mob renewed their work again by tearing down the printing office and driving the family of Brother Phelps out of the lower part of the building, throwing their things into the street. My sister, Caroline, and I were in the corner of the fence, tremblingly watching them and when they brought out a pile of large sheets of paper saying, “Here are the damned Mormon Commandments’ I was determined to have some of them. Sister said she would go too, but she added, ‘They will kill us.’ While their backs were turned prying out the gable end of the building, we ran and got our arms full and were turning away when some of the mob saw us and called for us to stop, but we ran as fast as we could, with two of them after us…we ran toward a gap in the fence, through into a large cornfield, laid the papers on the ground, and laid flat over them. The corn was five or six feet tall and very thick…”
This copy belonged to Hyrum Smith, was then given to President John Taylor, and was preserved by his daughter, Ida Taylor Whitaker. The book then rested in John M. Whitaker’ library and contains his bookplate. Appoximately two dozen copies of the unfinished work are known to exist today.
15 Wednesday Jul 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
≈ Comments Off on Another Book of the Week – AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…
Tags
American, Austria, Bologna, Brigham Young, California, cattle, consul, Corsica, Domenico Ballo, Florentine, Italian Consul General in San Francisco, John Taylor, King of Sardinia, Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888), Marriott Library Advisory Board, Michael W. Homer, Mormon, On the Way to Somewhere Else, orchestra, politics, polygamy, rare books, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Theatre, San Francisco, settlers, Sicilian, The University of Utah Press, Zanichelli
AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…
Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888)
Bologna: N. Zanichelli editore, 1934
First edition
DG552.8 C56 M67 1934
In 1852, Leonetto Cipriani was appointed by the King of Sardinia as that country’s first consul in San Francisco. Cipriani, born into a Florentine family living in Corsica, fought against Austria in 1848 and was imprisoned and then exiled. After resigning as consul, he purchased cattle in the American mid-west with the intention of selling them in California. During his cattle drive, in 1852, six years after the Mormon settlers arrived, he passed through Salt Lake City. There, a converted Sicilian, Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young. In this book, Cipriani reminisces about the Salt Lake Theatre, where Ballo conducted the orchestra, and conversations with Taylor regarding polygamy and politics.
University of Utah copy gift of Michael W. Homer.
Read more about Leonetti Cipriani here, on the Italian Consul General in San Francisco’s blog. Read an abstract of his memoirs from On the Way to Somewhere Else, published by The University of Utah Press and edited by Michael W. Homer, member of the Marriott Library Advisory Board and ever-faithful friend of Rare Books.
13 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
Tags
Amsterdam, Calvinist, Christian, Conrad Vorst, Council of Trent, Dutch, Giustiniani, Hebrew, Jewish, Johann Reuchlin, Latin, Menasseh ben Israel, metaphysics, Moses Maimonides, Spinoza, theology, Venetian, Venice, Vorst, Willem Vorstius
HALAKHOT YESODE HA-TORAH
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
Amstelodami: Apud Guiliel and Iohannem Blaev, 1638
BM497.7 M3 1638
Editor Willem Vorstius, or Vorst, was the son of Dutch Calvinist theologian Conrad Vorst, and a significant Hebraist. Vorstius was a friend of Menasseh Ben Israel. As a Christian, Vorstius was impressed by Maimonides, although he could not accept all of his ideas. Vorstius used Johann Reuchlin’s De Arte Cabbalistica (1517) as a basis for some of his commentary here. The text of Maimonides is Book I of Mishne Torah, first printed in the fifteenth century, and often reprinted. Part 2 of this edition is the Latin translation of Ro’sh Emunah, and contains detailed notes on two chapters only (XIII, and XIV, where some Hebrew is quoted). In his preface Vorstius wrote that the most recent edition of the text printed since the Council of Trent omitted certain passages in chapters XII and XIV, supplied, he claimed, from a Venetian edition (possibly the Giustiniani edition of 1547). The Maimonides text is his introduction to his magnum opus, Mishne Thorah, a systematization of Jewish theological thought. The work heavily influenced Spinoza’s metaphysics. In Hebrew and in Latin.
07 Tuesday Jul 2015
Posted in Physical Exhibitions
≈ Comments Off on Special Collections Exhibition – Bill of Fare
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cookbook, cookbooks, Horst E. Schober (1880-1950), J. Willard Marriott Library, Newhouse Hotel, Salt Lake Country Club, Special Collections, Special Collections Gallery, The University of Utah
Bill of Fare: The cookbook Collections of Horst Schober and Friends
Horst E. Schober (1880-1950) was the chef at the Newhouse Hotel and the Salt Lake Country Club during the 1930s and 1940s. His family generously donated his cookbook collection to Special Collections. We celebrate the art of haute cuisine with his collection and others, and beloved local restaurants of times past.
Exhibition FRIDAY, JULY 3 – SUNDAY, AUGUST 30, 2015
Special Collections Gallery
Level 4, J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah
Free and open to the public
06 Monday Jul 2015
Posted in Book of the Week
Tags
Act of Succession, Amerigo Vespucci, crime, Francis Bacon, Henry VII, historiated, History of Richard III, imprisonment, Latin, Plato, poverty, Raphael Hythloday, religious intolerance, Republic, Shakespeare, taxation, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas More (1478-1535), title page, Tower of London, treason, University of Utah, Utopia, war, woodcut, woodcut initials, Zangrius
THOMAE MORI ANGLI, VIRI ERVDITIONIS PARTIER AC…
Thomas More (1478-1535)
Lovanij: Apud Petrum Zangrium Tiletanum, sub fonte, Anno 1566
PA8553 A2 1566
This collection of Thomas More’s works includes the original Latin text of Utopia and is likely the fourth Latin printing of the work. It also includes History of Richard III, on which Shakespeare based his play, and a piece written during More’s imprisonment in the Tower of London.
Utopia, first printed in 1516, a satire on the administration of Henry VII, puts forward political and philosophical principles of a fictional ideal state. The literary form, most likely based on Plato’s “Republic,” was later adopted by Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes. The title has become a word synonymous with an optimistic but impractical social reform. The book addresses, among other social ills, religious intolerance, extreme punishment for crime, unjust taxation, and disparity of wealth between social classes. The protagonist, Raphael Hythloday, discovers “Utopia” when travelling with Amerigo Vespucci. In Utopia there is no war, no crime, and no poverty.
Thomas More refused to subscribe to a new oath required by the Act of Succession (1534). For this, he was cast into the London Tower, where he was kept, tried for treason nearly a year later, convicted and beheaded.
Title-page carries Zangrius woodcut device of a fountain within a historiated fame. Woodcut initials throughout. University of Utah copy bound in seventeenth-century calf with preserved gilded spine.
Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.
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