• Marriott Library
  • About
  • Links We Like

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

OPEN BOOK

Tag Archives: Bruce Rogers

Book of the Week — The Song of Roland

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — The Song of Roland

Tags

Battle of Roncevaux, Bruce Rogers, Cambridge, Cathedral de Chartres, chanson de geste, Charlemagne, chivalry, English, EPIC, French, gilt, Isabel Butler, medieval, Old French, printer's device, Roland, roundels, Song of Roland, stained glass, The Riverside Press, Turoldus, vignette

PQ1521-E5-B8-1906-XXX
“Mult ad apris ki bien conuist ahan.” (He has learned much who knows the pain of struggle.) — stanza CLXXXIV, line 2425, Song of Roland

The Song of Roland
Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1906
PQ1521 E5 B8 1906

The Song of Roland is a French epic dating from about 1040 to 1115CE. It recounts the chivalric and heroic deeds of Charlemagne, based on the historical but minor eighth century battle of Roncevaux. Roland was a nephew of Charlemagne. The author of the legend is unknown, although his name may have been Turoldus. The epic is considered the first masterpiece of literature in the French vernacular, written as a medieval chanson de geste (song of deeds) in four thousand lines. In spite of, or perhaps because of, its status in French literature, it was not translated into English until the late 19th century.

This edition was translated from Old French by Isabel Butler.

This edition was designed by Bruce Rogers, one of the great book designers of the twentieth century.  Seven illustrations derived from the compartments of the window of Charlemagne in the Cathedral de Chartres depict events in the legend of Roland. These have been drawn and printed and then colored by hand in  blues, reds, greens and yellows after the stained glass of the window. Five roundels are placed throughout the text. A large arched head-piece vignette tops the opening text as if a dome. The text is printed in double columns with marginal notes in brown and rubricated in gilt as page headings. The title-page is printed in red and black with a printer’s device in color.

PQ1521-E5-B8-1906-i

PQ1521-E5-B8-1906-XX-XXI

Typefaces are French bâtarde and civilité. Bâtarde was a blackletter script used in France, the Burgundian Netherlands and Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries. The script was a decorative chancery or legal hand dating from the 13th century. Civilité is a type designed by Robert Granjon as a response to the Italian italic. Granjon based the font on a cursive Gothic script. The typeface was first used in 1559 for a book on manners written for children by Desiderius Erasmus.

PQ1521-E5-B8-1906-XXXIV

Printed on American handmade paper. Bound in quarter vellum over printed boards in a fleurs-de-lys pattern taken from paintings in the crypt at Chartres. To achieve an antiqued effect, Rogers rubbed a red paste wash over the printed paper.

PQ1521-E5-B8-1906-Cover

Bruce Rogers (1870-1957) was born in Indiana. As a young man, he moved to Boston, where, in 1895, he began working at the Riverside Press, a printing department of the Houghton, Mifflin publishing company. Rogers began designing trade books. In 1900, a Department of Special Bookmaking was created for the production of fine press editions, with Rogers in charge. He designed more than four hundred books during his career. Of those, he chose thirty (Roger’s Thirty), at the request of an interviewer,  that he considered successful book works. The Song of Roland was one of his choices.

George Mifflin, the head of Houghton, Mifflin was so proud of Roland that he sent a copy to then-President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was so impressed he visited the press to look at other of Rogers’ works. He wrote, “…it seemed to me far ahead, and almost like some of the very beautiful printing[s]…at the end of the Fifteenth Century.”

Edition of two hundred and twenty copies.

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849)

07 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849)

Tags

Alan James Robinson, Bruce Rogers, Centaur type, Cheloniidae Press, David Bourbeau, Easthampton, Edgar Allen Poe, etchings, Harold McGrath, Massachusetts, Raven, wood engravings

EApoe

“Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”

THE RAVEN
Edgar Allan Poe (1909-1949)
Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1980

This is the first book from Alan James Robinson and his Cheloniidae Press. Text is hand-set and printed by Harold McGrath in Bruce Rogers’ 24pt. Centaur type in red and black ink. Illustrated with five etchings and two wood engravings by Alan James Robinson, who printed the etchings. Each plate is titled and signed by the artist. Laid in artists’ proof of the “Crow Quill” on the title-page and proof of the “Raven” that appears on the colophon. Bound by David Bourbeau in a specially painted dark grey paper over boards: Bird wings in black with red highlights on spine extending to front and rear panels. Housed in black cloth clamshell. Signed by the artist.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the week — The Poems of Shakespeare

19 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the week — The Poems of Shakespeare

Tags

Ann Simons, Ashlar Press, Bruce Rogers, Connecticut, Cromwell, Daniel Updike, decorative initials, Frank Altschul (1887-1981), George Lyman Kittredge, Harvard, Jean Hugo, John Macnamara, letterpress, Lucretia type, marbled boards, Margaret B. Evans, morocco, Overbrook Farm, Overbrook Press, poems, printing, Shakespeare, sonnet, Stamford, Thomas Maitland Cleland, Valenti Angelo

Titlepage

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIII

The Poems of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Stamford, CT: Overbrook Press, 1939
PR2841 A2 K5 1939

Edited by George Lyman Kittredge, Gurney Professor of English Literature, Harvard University.

Overbrook Press was founded by investment banker, civic leader, and bibliophile Frank Altschul (1887-1981), who had pursued printing as a hobby since childhood. In 1934 he was approached by designer Margaret B. Evans, who had been working for Ashlar Press, which was closing. Altschul set up the Ashlar press in an abandoned outbuilding on his 450-acre estate, Overbrook Farms, in Stamford, Connecticut. He hired Evans as designer and compositor and John MacNamara as pressman. Overbrook Press printed an eclectic mix of books, pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera, emphasizing technical expertise and craftsmanship. The press engaged contemporary book designers and artists such as Daniel Updike, Jean Hugo, Bruce Rogers, Ann Simons, Valenti Angelo, and Thomas Maitland Cleland. Overbrook Press closed in 1969.

The Poems of Shakespeare is one of its most ambitious projects. It’s decorative initials were designed by Bruce Rogers. Text handset and letterpress printed in red and black with Lucretia type on handmade Cromwell grey paper. The press offered copies for sale, but most of them were given as gifts by Alschul. Copies for sale to the public were bound in three quarter morocco and slipcased, but more than a third of the edition was never bound, presumably to accommodate individual binding tastes.

University of Utah copy is bound in quarter brown morocco over marbled boards with gilt-lettered spine, issued uncut, in publisher’s slipcase. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies.

Sonnets-spread

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio arrives at the City Library in October.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Rare Books Exhibition — Love Letters: A Gallery of Type

21 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Physical Exhibitions

≈ Comments Off on Rare Books Exhibition — Love Letters: A Gallery of Type

Tags

American, book design, book designers, Bruce Rogers, Johan Gutenberg, Marriott Library, movable type, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), printers, printing, rare books, type, typographers, typography

Posterfinal(jpegforblog)

Love Letters: A Gallery of Type

Love Letters celebrates type, typographers, and printers – from Johann Gutenberg (c.1398-1468), who developed printing with movable type, to Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), an American typographer and book designer. Type is designed to be both functional and evocative. Type has personality, flair, and style, inspired by time and place. It can age quickly or become classic. Good type grabs our attention. Great type keeps our attention.

On display are books and printed ephemera, dating from 1482 to the first decade of the 21st century, from the J. Willard Marriott’s rare book collections – examples of the development of typography and printing and why we love type.

July 22, 2016 — September 30, 2016
Marriott Library, Levels 1, 4, & 5

This exhibition is free and open to the public.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the Week – Types and Bookmaking: Containing Notes on the…

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – Types and Bookmaking: Containing Notes on the…

Tags

book collector, bookmaking, bookplate, Boston, Bruce Rogers, D.B. Updike, Denmark, Estelle Doheny, Fred Anthoensen, Frederick William Anthoesen, Maine, morocco, Portland, Southworth Press, The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, type, type specimens, typographic, typographic ornaments, typography, United States

Anthoensen, Types and Bookmaking, 1943, Title Page
Anthoensen, Types and Bookmaking, 1943, Type
Anthoensen, Types and Bookmaking, 1943, Decoration

Types and Bookmaking: Containing Notes on the…
Fred Anthoensen (1892-1969)
Portland, ME: The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1943

Frederick William Anthoensen was born in Denmark, but came to the United States as an infant. He attended school in Portland, Maine. He became interested in printing under the influence of D.B. Updike and Bruce Rogers, both of Boston, and both heavy hitters of early US twentieth-century typography. In 1901, Anthoensen began working as a compositor for Southworth Press. Seventeen years later he became its managing director. In 1934, the name of the press changed its name to Southworth-Anthoenson Press. After 1944, it became Anthoensen Press. Anthoensen was recognized as an exemplary craftsman in his day.

Contains type specimens, typographic ornaments and flowers, and specimen pages, accompanied by a descriptive catalogue. Bound in full charcoal linen buckram with black morocco spine.  Issued in slipcase. University of Utah copy contains bookplate of book collector Estelle Doheny.

alluNeedSingleLine

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Book of the Week – A Leaf from the Gutenberg Bible

31 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week – A Leaf from the Gutenberg Bible

Tags

Bible, Bruce Rogers, Centaur, fine press, font, Grolier Club, Gutenberg Bible, Johann Gutenberg, medieval manuscript, moveable metal type, Niclas Jenson, printed, printer, Riverside Press, textura, type, typeface, typographer, William Edwin Rudge

Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455
Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455

A Noble Fragment, Being a Leaf of the Gutenberg Bible 1450-1455; With a Bibliographical Essay by A. Edward Newton
New York: Gabriel Wells, 1921
Z241 B581 1921, oversize

A leaf from the Old Testament, Samuel, 2nd, xxii-xxiii, from a Latin translation dating to about 380. The first book printed from moveable metal type, the Biblia Latina or 42-line Bible (in reference to the number of lines in a column) was based on medieval manuscript design. The typeface was developed after a book-hand used in western Germany during the fifteenth century for liturgical works. Known as “textura,” this formal upright and angular hand features letters that have pointed feet and almost no curvature. The first font of type, made by goldsmith Johann Gutenberg, consisted of nearly three hundred characters, including variant forms of letters, ligatures, and abbreviations to simulate as much as possible manuscript conventions. Gutenberg’s choice of the Bible as his first printed publication was a good business decision. All copies (approximately one hundred and eighty) had sold before they were off the press. Forty-eight full copies are known to exist today, thirty-six on paper and twelve on vellum. A. Edward Newton’s bibliographical essay for this leaf book was printed under the direction of Bruce Rogers at the shop of William Edwin Rudge. Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), the distinguished American printer and typographer, is widely recognized as one of the most talented book designers of all time. He spent his earliest years as a designer with Riverside Press, then as a freelance artist during which time he worked with the printing house of W.E. Rudge of Mt. Vernon, New York, the Grolier Club, and the Limited Editions Club of New York. Rogers established American fine press standards, insisting that the design of a book – its type, illustrations, and format should reflect and enhance the author’s text. He designed more than seven hundred books. Rogers also designed Centaur type for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1914. Released by Monotype in 1929, Centaur is modeled on letters cut by the fifteenth-century French printer Nicolas Jenson. Centaur has a beauty of line and a proportion that has been widely acclaimed since its release. An attractive typeface for books in particular, it is effective for shorter texts. Bound in black morocco, lettered in gold on front cover.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Follow Open Book via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 172 other subscribers

Archives

  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • September 2011
  • April 2011

Categories

  • Alice
  • Awards
  • Book of the Week
  • Chronicle
  • Courses
  • Donations
  • Events
  • Journal Articles
  • Newspaper Articles
  • On Jon's Desk
  • Online Exhibitions
  • Physical Exhibitions
  • Publication
  • Radio
  • Rare Books Loans
  • Recommended Exhibition
  • Recommended Lecture
  • Recommended Reading
  • Recommended Workshop
  • TV News
  • Uncategorized
  • Vesalius
  • Video

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • RSS - Posts

Recent Posts

  • Book of the Week — Home Thoughts from Abroad
  • Donation adds to Latin hymn fragments: “He himself shall come and shall make us saved.”
  • Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “And whatever with bonds you shall have bound upon earth will be bound strongly in heaven.”
  • Books of the week — Off with her head!
  • Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part D: “…of the holy found rest through him.”

Recent Comments

  • rarebooks on Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “Her mother ordered the dancing girl…”
  • Jonathan Bingham on On Jon’s Desk: Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, A Celebration of Heritage on Pioneer Day
  • Robin Booth on On Jon’s Desk: Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, A Celebration of Heritage on Pioneer Day
  • Mary Johnson on Memorial Day 2017
  • Collett on Book of the Week — Dictionnaire des Proverbes Francais

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.

    %d bloggers like this: