Book of the Week – A Poet’s Alphabet of Influences

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A Poet’s Alphabet of Influences
Mark Strand (1934- 2014)
Salt Lake City: Red Butte Press, c1993

Drawings by Bonnie Sucec. Fine press book from the Red Butte Press, University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library. Printed under the direction of Everett L. Cooley. Issued in a linen-bound case. Edition of 75 copies, signed by poet and artist. University of Utah copies are no. 20 and no. 27.

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Rare Books Welcomes CBAA

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The Book Arts Program at the J. Willard Marriott Library hosts the 2014 College Book Arts Association meeting with Print, Produce, Publish in January 2014.

The conference features a variety of events including member’s exhibition, invited speakers, panel presentations, studio demonstrations, roundtable discussions, vendor’s fair, Salt Lake City area tours, local exhibitions, student member portfolio reviews, members’ showcase, auction and Cornered – a folded-form exchange.

As part of the conference, the Rare Books Division offers two hands-on sessions of forty artists’ books selected from the rare book collections by Luise Poulton, on Thursday, January 2.

On Friday, January 3, Luise moderates the panel discussion, “Artists’ Book Collections and the Classroom.”

For more information and to register, please go to the conference webpage.

See you there!

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Book of the Week – The Garden

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The Garden: A Meditation on Man and Nature
Maureen Cummins (1963-)
New York: Inanna Press, 1993

Maureen Cummins was born in New York and received a BFA from Cooper Union School of Art in printmaking and book arts. Her imprint, Inanna Press, specializes in literature of the east. Inanna Press books are handset and printed on a Vandercook Universal I. Illustrated with thirty hand-colored woodcuts. Printed on double leaves. Accordion bound with patterned paper boards and a beige cloth spine lettered in gilt. Issued in beige buckram-bound slipcase with mounted woodcut illustration on the front. Edition of 30 copies, signed. University of Utah copy is no. 17.

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Recommended Lecture — In the Workshop of the Mind

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The Department of History, University of Utah, hosts the O. Meredith Wilson Lecture in History on Thursday, September 19, 2013.

Harvard University professor Ann Blair is the guest lecturer. Dr. Blair’s specialty is early modern France, early modern European intellectual and cultural history; the history of the book, and the history of science. The title of her lecture is, “In the Workshop of the Mind: Methods of Collaboration in Early Modern Europe.”

Dr. Blair writes,  “Today we are well aware of the collaborative nature of intellectual work: the majority of scientific papers are co-authored; in the humanities interdisciplinary initiatives and digital methods of research have all encouraged collaboration. We generally have the sense that collaborative work is a recent development, that in the past scholarship was a solitary activity. Indeed in paintings and descriptions of the early modern period scholars were typically depicted working alone, but the working papers and letters that survive tell a different story. Through these sources we can appreciate how early moderns worked collaboratively through correspondence and in person, with peers, with patrons, and with helpers (amanuenses, students, family members). Collaborations worked differently in early modern Europe, and with different conceptions of credit and authority from ours today, but in this talk illustrated from early modern paintings, manuscripts, and printed books I will argue that collaboration was even more widespread and essential to scholarship than it is today.”

When: Thursday, September 19, 2013, 4:00PM

Where: Eccles Auditorium, Room 109, Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building (CTIHB), University of Utah

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Book of the Week – Elementa Geometriae

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Elementa Geometriae
Euclid
Venice, Erhardt Ratdolt, 1482
QA31 E86 E5 1482

This is the editio princeps, or first printed edition, of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, the oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today. The Greek mathematician Euclid compiled the work around 300 BC. Its success can be attributed to its simple structure where each theorum follows logically from its predecessor.

In 1482, Erhardt Ratdolt, famous for his beautifully produced scientific books, printed eight works – Euclid’s Elements among them. Ratdolt’s fame largely rests upon this edition of Elements. It is the first printed book to contain geometrical figures. An elegant three-sided woodblock and a white-vine style woodcut initial, several hundred small ornamental capitals, and more than four hundred and twenty carefully designed and perfectly printed marginal diagrams, confirm its standing as a landmark publication.

The page layout, particularly the first page, is an outstanding example of Ratdolt’s consideration of the overall look and readability of his work. Note the closeness of the type to the initial and the close set of the text page. For the text, Ratdolt used a type called “rotunda” or “round-text.” The Italian writing-masters called this littera moderna.

Ratdolt’s book was based on the standard Euclid of the later Middle ages: Abelard of Bath’s twelfth-century translation from the Arabic, revised in the following century by Campanus of Novara (d. 1296). In his dedication to this edition, Ratdolt suggested that the scarcity of printed mathematical works was due to the problems involved in printing the geometrical diagrams.  He then happily announced that he had discovered a method of printing them as easily as the text. He did not elaborate upon this method, but it most likely involved the use of type-metal rule arrangements that could be printed along with the text.

Book of the Week – After the Wedding

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After the Wedding
Maralyn Crosetto
Waterland Press, 1993

Illustrations by the author. Pages fold out accordion style. Edition of lettered copies, A through Z. University of Utah copy is letter ‘L’.

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Brooke Hopkins, In Memoriam

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The staff of the Rare Books Division extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Brooke Hopkins. Professor Hopkins was a friend of the rare book collections through his donation of several books, each of which has been used by students for research and the Rare Books staff for lectures, presentations, and exhibitions. We are ever grateful for his generous support. Thank you, Brooke. Memory eternal!

Brooke Hopkins

 

The beings of the mind are not of clay;
Essentially immortal, they create
And multiply in us a brighter ray
And more beloved existence…
–Lord Byron from Childe Harold

 

 

U Mourns Death of Beloved English Professor Brooke Hopkins

PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA
Sir Thomas Browne (1605 – 1682)
London: Printed by R.W. for N. Ekins, at the Gun in Paul’s church-yard, 1658
Third edition, corrected and enlarged by the author

In this famous book, the writer and physician from Norwich demonstrated the absurdity of commonly presumed truths. Among the traditions which Thomas Browne deposed of were the beliefs that “The Elephant hath no joynts, That an Horse hath no Gall, That the Chameleon lives only by Aire, That the Ostridge digesteth Iron; That the forbidden fruit was an Apple; That our Savior never laughed, That a man have one rib lesse than a woman, That there was no Rainbowe before the flood.” University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.

DESIGNS BY MR. R. BENTLEY FOR SIX POEMS
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
London: R. Dodsley, 1753
First edition

English poet Thomas Gray was educated at Eton in Cambridge. There he met Horace Walpole, the father of the Gothic novel, and traveled with him throughout Europe. After his return to Cambridge, where he remained for most of his life, Gray lived in seclusion. Much of Gray’s poetry was tinged with melancholy. Richard Bentley (1708-1782), another friend of Walpole’s, created illustrations for several of Gray’s poems. Gray admired the drawings very much. This book contains six engraved plates, thirteen engraved vignettes, and six engraved initials by Muller and Grignon based upon designs by Robert Bentley. University of Utah copy on loan from Brooke Hopkins.


THE DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, AND PRESENT STATE OF KENTUCKE: AND AN ESSAY TOWARDS THE TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY OF THAT IMPORTANT COUNTRY; TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING, I. THE ADVENTURES OF COL. DANIEL BOON, ONE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS, COMPREHENDING EVERY IMPORTANT OCCURRENCE IN THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THAT PROVINCE. II. THE MINUTES OF THE PIANKASHAW COUNCIL, HELD AT POST ST. VINCENTS, APRIL 15, 1784. III. AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN NATIONS INHABITING WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES…IV. THE STAGES AND DISTANCES BETWEEN PHILADELPHIA AND THE FALLS OF THE OHIO; FROM PITTSBURGH TO PENSACOLA AND SEVERAL OTHER PLACES. THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED BY A NEW AND ACCURATE MAP OF KENTUCKE AND THE COUNTRY ADJOINING, DRAWN FROM ACTUAL SURVEYS…
John Filson (ca. 1747-1788)
Wilmington, DE: Printed by James Adams, 1784
First edition

Land speculator John Filson’s early history of Kentucky contained, among other appendices, a narrative of Daniel Boone. Filson was the first American to write about the area. The book was very popular and helped influence the decision of many to migrate to this newly opened land. A tipped-in map is missing in most copies, as it is in this one. The map is so rare that antiquarians began to suspect that there never was one, in spite of reference to it on the title page. However, the Philadelphia Library has a copy with map intact. The map, drawn by Filson, was printed separately in Philadelphia. Filson was killed by Indians of the Ohio. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


AN ESSAY ON MAN: IN FOUR EPISTLES TO H. ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
New York: Printed and sold by Smith & Forman, 1809

Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man, first published in 1733, was a philosophical work consisting of four epistles in couplets and addressed to his friend, Henry St. John Bolingbroke, head of the Tory ministry. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


THE ILIAD OF HOMER TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY ALEXANDER POPE
Homer
Baltimore: Philip H. Nicklin, 1812

Stationer Philip H. Nicklin (1786-1842) studied law. Due to financial difficulties after the death of his father in 1807, Nicklin began selling books, first in Baltimore then in Philadelphia. After 1827, he confined his bookshop’s inventory to law. He retired in 1839, having earned enough money to live out his life in comfort. He occupied the rest of his short life with writing, mostly about literary copyright. This book, although sold from Baltimore, was printed in Philadelphia by Fry and Kammerer. William Fry (d. 1854) formed a printing partnership with Joseph L. Kammerer in 1806. Fry was a well-respected pressman, compositor and proof-reader. Fry and Kammerer separated in 1810, but renewed their joint printing efforts a year later. In 1814, Kammerer died. Fry was the first to use the newly developed Columbian press, and ordered several of them for his large print shop. Added title-page engraved. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


THE POETICAL WORKS OF LORD BYRON…: CONTAINING ALL HIS POEMS, ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED, FROM THE LATEST EDITIONS
George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
Baltimore: B. Edes, 1814

Benjamin Edes, the son and grandson of printers from Maine and Boston, continued the family business in Baltimore, where he worked as job printer and printed the newspaper, The Minerva and Emerald. Benjamin was an officer in the 27th Militia during the War of 1812 and supposedly printed the first version, in the form of handbills, of Francis Scott Key’s poem, “The Star Spangled Banner.” According to one story, the manuscript was taken to Edes’ printing shop, located on the corner of Baltimore and Gay Streets. Edes was on duty with his regiment, so the typesetting and printing was done by his apprentice, Samuel Sands, only twelve years old. Benjamin’s father, Peter Edes, moved from Boston to work for Benjamin, typesetting and keeping account books until 1832. Peter’s wife and Benjamin died that year of cholera. Peter returned to Maine, where he died in 1840. At the time of his death, according to his obituary in the Baltimore Sun, he was the oldest printer in the United States. Benjamin Edes’ grandfather, after whom he was named, participated in the Boston Tea Party. He was the printer of The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


THE WORKS OF VIRGIL TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE, BY JOHN DRYDEN
Virgil
Baltimore, MD: F. Lucas, Jun., 1814

Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1781-1854) was a prominent publisher and cartographer in the early 19th century. He was especially recognized for his excellently produced maps. Lucas founded his first print shop in 1804 and became the first stationer of the newly formed United States. In 1806, Lucas became a partner in the Philadelphia publisher and bookselling firm, M. & J. Conrad, which focused on schoolbooks, maps, atlases, art instruction, children’s literature and Roman Catholic religious material. Baltimore, in most part because of Lucas, became the major center for Roman Catholic publishing through the beginning of the twentieth century. Lucas was a leader in the effort to raise funds for the Washington Monument. He was a founder of the Maryland Historical Society and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Added engraved title-page printed in Philadelphia by John Conrad. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE: IN THREE VOLUMES COMPLETE, WITH HIS LAST CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, AND IMPROVEMENTS, TOGETHER WITH ALL HIS NOTES AS THEY WERE DELIVERED TO THE EDITOR A LITTLE BEFORE HIS DEATH TOGETHER WITH THE COMMENTARY AND NOTES OF MR. WARBURTON
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Philadelphia: S. A. Bascom, 1819

University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ALUMNI AND THE SENIOR CLASS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA…
Charles Manly (1795-1871)
Raleigh, NC: Printed by T. Loring, 1838

A collection of miscellaneous pamphlets including, “An address delivered before the two literary societies of the University of North Carolina” by William B. Shepard; “Opinion of John Fox against the exercise of Negro suffrage in Pennsylvania, also, The vote of the members of the Pennsylvania Convention; Address of his excellency Governor Bagby: when inducting into office the president of the University of Alabama, together with The address of the president Rev. Basil Manly; An address delivered before the two literary societies of the University of North Carolina by Robert Strange; and Report of Chas. B. Shae on the drainage of the swamp lands of North Carolina. University of Utah copy gift of Brooke Hopkins.


THE VISION OF HELL
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1866
New edition: with critical and explanatory notes, life of Dante, and chronology

Translated by Henry Franci Cary. Illustrated with the designs of M. Gustave Doré. Each plate accompanied by leaf with descriptive letterpress. University of Utah copy on loan from Brooke Hopkins.

 

Rare Books Contributes to Montana Exhibit

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Montana State Parks recently installed a new educational exhibit interpreting the life-ways and material culture of the Bitteroot Salish when Lewis and Clark encountered them in 1805. An image of “Indians Hunting the Bison,” a Karl Bodmer aquatint held in the rare book collections, was used as part of an interpretive banner for the exhibit. Vernon Carroll, interpretive specialist, Travelers Rest State Park, Lolo, Montana writes, “[The] image enhances the visitor’s experience.” Road trip!

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Karl Bodmer, Indians Hunting the Bison, 1839

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Book of the Week – Martyrs

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Martyrs
Ken Campbell (b. 1939)
Oxford, England: K. Campbell, 1989
N7433.4 C35 M38 1989

 

From the artist’s statement: “One day in Edinburgh I happened to pass the School of Scottish Studies. Remembering some music that I had heard twenty years before and wished to trace, I went in. An extremely patient lady told me it was on a record of polyphonic singing called ‘Gaelic Psalms from Lewis…which was first published in 1615. This stunning music gets right to your soul; it’s very upsetting. It is a style of singing that arose because Gaelic populations of the Western Isles had no psalm books in their native tongue. Consequently a form developed whereby the Precentor (or priest) would sing a line, and then the congregation would follow with great passion and devotion but, being Scots, often at their own speed. This action produces great waves of sound that sometimes start before the Precentor has finished ‘singing the line.’ I got a friend of mine, Stuart Elliot Rae, to transcribe the music for me, and translate the Gaelic to match the text with the music that was being sung. Then I put the note being sung at the top of a stave composed of brass rules. Underneath, I put the syllable that was being sung in Gaelic in woodletter, then below that the Pictish Ogham script equivalent, again in brass rule (Ogham is a Celtic script consisting of grouped lines). This looked faintly martial and certainly not Roman. I thought I would show Gaelic as a thing of beauty. The colour in the book was celebratory: it goes from cool to hot, with royal purple and gold and silver. Each new stanza starts with a representation of the saltire, the St Andrew’s cross, printed from a cut zinc solid that just kisses the small wavetops of the Zerkall paper to appear like granite. The notes are represented by Bembo italic capital Os set on their side. These are strung together at the end of the book, to make the chain that went from the tongue of the Celtic god Ogma as language binding all men…I tried to make this book as simple as I could, allowing such typographic skills as I may possess to carry its elements as a chant for the eye and the heart. The English, in progressively diminishing sizes, is at the back. Copy no. 1 of this edition now rests at the Stornoway Congregation on the Isle of Lewis, whose recorded singing inspired its making. The book is dedicated to those Scots who, circa 1800, when they were but 3% of the population of this nation state, nonetheless supplied 38% of its infantry. Text is Psalm 79, verses 3 & 4: “Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem…’ rendered into Gaelic, (sung to the tune ‘Martyrs’). Printed on double leaves in traditional Oriental format. Edition of 40 copies.

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