• 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: color

We recommend — Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

≈ Comments Off on We recommend — Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light

Tags

acanthus, Anglo-Norman Litany of Saints, April, Boise, border, burnished gold, Cami Nelson, chrysalis, color, Connecticut College, Craig Dworkin, Elizabeth Peterson, eye, Finger Lakes, fragment, France, Geoffrey Babbitt, gilded, gold pavé, gutters, heliotropic, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Idaho, ink, ivy, Jerry Root, Julie Gonnering Lein, Karen Brennan, Kathryn Cowles, leaf, lift, light, littera gothica textualis, littera gothica textualis formata, Luise Poulton, Marriott Library, National Poetry Month, New York, New York City, Office of the Dead, Paisley Rekdal, Paris, pasture, poet, rare books, rinceaux, scribe, Shira Dentz, Special Collections, Spyten Duyvil, street lamp, tendrils, The University of Utah, thunder, Tom Stillinger, transport, vellum, Vespers, vines


“a trace unnameable — place
holding the child
to the first frost,
the street lamp, the pasture — ”

Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light
Geoffrey Babbitt
New York City: Spuyten Duyvil, 2018
PS3602 A224 A6 2018 (General Collection, Level 2)

“This is Geoffrey Babbitt’s first book. His poems and essays have appeared in North American Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Notre Dame Review, TYPO, Tarpaulin Sky, The Collagist, Interim, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. Raised in Boise, Idaho, he studied at Connecticut College and earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Utah. Geoffrey currently coedits Seneca Review and teaches at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where he lives with poet Kathryn Cowles and their three daughters.”

Geoffrey acknowledges the help of many friends, colleagues and faculty from the University of Utah including Luise Poulton, Karen Brennan, Craig Dworkin, Julie Gonnering Lein, Cami Nelson, Paisley Rekdal, Jerry Root, Tom Stillinger, Shira Dentz, Elizabeth Peterson, and others.

Congratulations, Geoffrey!


MS Fragment: 4 — Date: ca. 1375 — Origin: France (possibly northeastern) — current location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Book Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Illustration: Detail — Size: 7 1/8 in. x 5 7/16 in. — Section: Anglo-Norman Litany of Saints — Script: littera gothica textualis formata

“vines scritched, chrysalis
onto vellum leaf–all
lost color, stolen thunder
–spiritual curl
of the vine tending
ultimately toward–tattered edge
curling from the gutters…”


MS Fragment: 8 — Date: ca. 1425-1450 — Origin: France (possibly Paris) — Current Location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Books Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Size: 7 1/4 in. x 5 3/16 in. — Illustration: Detail, border — section: Office of the Dead, Vespers — Script: littera gothica textualis

“lit border
buoys — acanthus
place setting
scribe sets — rinceaux
sprays, gilded ivy leaf,
bryony tendrils, gold pavé
fleur-de-lis — heliotropic
buoyancy — motor cells in
the pulvinus synthesize
bouncing light, con-
vert eye movement, displace
page’s gravitropic
polar auxin transport —
downwarding becomes lift”

April is National Poetry Month.

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 — Opticks or, a Treatise of the Reflections…

02 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — Opticks or, a Treatise of the Reflections…

Tags

color, copper engravings, Isaac Newton, Leibniz, light, London, Opticks, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, rainbows

qc353-n55-title

“God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportions to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them.”

OPTICKS OR, A TREATISE OF THE REFLECTIONS…
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
London: Printed for S. Smith, and B. Walford, 1704
First edition, first issue
QC353 N55

Isaac Newton’s theories and experimentations on color and light grew out of his undergraduate studies. He introduced some of his ideas detailed in Opticks in an article he wrote for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1671. When Newton presented his concepts about the behavior and characteristics of light, particularly that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors, he posed a number of questions intended to stimulate further research. Opticks explains such phenomena as rainbows and contains two treatises supporting his side of the dispute with Leibniz that it was, indeed, he who discovered calculus.

“In a Letter written to Mr. Leibnitz in the Year 1676, and published by Dr. Wallis, I mentioned a Method by which I had found some general Theorems about squaring Curvilinear Figures, or comparing them with the Conic Sections, or other simplest Figures with which they may be compared. And some Years ago I lent out a Manuscript containing such Theorems, and having since met with some Things copied out of it, I have on this Occasion made it publick, prefixing to it an Introduction and subjoyning a Scholium concerning that Method.”

Nineteen copper-engraved folding plates. This first issue was published anonymously, with only the initials “I.N.” at the end of the Advertisement.

 

qc353-n55-fig8

 

qc353-n55-fig13

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 — Colours of Persia

26 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

airbrush, Barcham Green, Baskerville, Bembo, calligraphy, carborundum, collages, color, crayon, Curzon, cut-outs, drypoint, English, etchings, Farsi, foldouts, Garamond Italic, goatskin, gold foil, Hafez, inlaid leather, Isfahan, Ker Porter, letterpress, linocuts, London, Mashad, onlays, Persia, Prix de Rome, Richard de Bas, Saadi, Shiraz, silver foil, Susan Allix, Tehran, tilework, University of Utah, watercolor, Yazd

n7433-4-a57-c65-2007-cover

Although I have no beauty, colour & perfume
Am I not after all the grass of His garden?”
— Saadi

COLOURS OF PERSIA: PERCEPTIONS, ACCOUNTS…
Susan Allix (b. 1943)
London, 2007
N7433.4 A57 C65 2007

From the artist: “The text is arranged around the headings of five cities – Tehran, Mashad, Yazd, Shiraz and Isfahan. These names are printed in English in 48pt. Garamond Italic and Farsi, which was cast in Tehran. Different typefaces have been used for the different voices of the authors: Ker Porter speaks in Bembo, Curzon in Baskerville, Hafez in varying sizes of Garamond.
Handset and letterpress printed on handmade Barcham Green. The paper for the prints is handmade Richard de Bas. Twenty-six prints, of which seventeen are etchings with drypoint, carborundum and other methods, seven are linocuts, and two are a combination of two or more of these processes. Four prints in black and white, the rest in color, including hand coloring by watercolor, crayon and airbrush, and gold and silver foil.
Additionally illustrated with some foldouts of varying sizes, including some with cut-out shapes. A variety of colored sheets act as interleaving or free colored collages.
Bound in goatskin, some of which has been dyed cobalt blue and yellow. The inlaid leather is also inlaid with waxed paper printed in a style similar to tilework, its semi-transparent quality allowing the title to show through in shadow. The design, based on architectural shapes, has onlays of black, freely-cut leather reminiscent of calligraphy. Within the edition, each binding differs slightly.”
This is the forty-fifth publication of Susan Allix, who has received the Prix de Rome for her book work. Edition of twenty-five copies, signed by the producer. University of Utah copy is no. 9.

n7433-4-a57-c65-2007-i-saw

n7433-4-a57-c65-2007-carpet

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 — Color for the Letterpress

19 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

color, Colorado Springs, James Trissel, letterpress, The Press at Colorado College, University of Utah

ne1850-t75-1987-title

“The simplest color relationship…still requires understanding of the color characteristics…that is, hue, value, intensity and temperature, etc.”
–James Trissel

COLOR FOR THE LETTERPRESS
James Trissel
Colorado Springs: The Press at Colorado College, 1987
NE1850 T75 1987

Twenty unnumbered, unbound folded leaves issued in plastic and wooden cases. Edition of seventy-five copies, signed by the author. University of Utah copy is no. 11.

ne1850-t75-1987-yellow

ne1850-t75-1987-blue

ne1850-t75-1987-purplegold

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 Grammar of Color

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — A Grammar of Color

Tags

advertising, Alfred H. Munsell, Arthur S. Allen, balance, behaviour, color, color system, dimension, Fortune Magazine, grammar, Massachusetts, mathematics, Mittineague, Munsell System of Color, paper trade, printing, proportion, quality, Rudolph Ruzicka, Strathmore Paper Company, Thomas M. Cleland

qc495-c7-1921-title

“The sense of comfort is the outcome of balance, while marked unbalance immediately urges a corrective. That this approximate balance is desirable may be shown by reference to our behavior, as to temperatures, quality of smoothness and roughness, degrees of light and dark, proportion of work and rest. One special application of this quality is balance which underlies beautiful color.”
— A. H. Munsell

“The three dimensions of color are not involved in the mysteries of higher mathematics. There is nothing about them which should not be as readily comprehended by the average reader as the three dimensions of a box, or any other form which can be felt or seen. We have been unaccustomed to regarding color with any sense of order and it is this fact, rather than any complexity inherent in the idea itself, which will be the source of whatever difficulty may be encountered by the reader, who faces this conception of color for the first time.”
— T. M. Cleland


A GRAMMAR OF COLOR. ARRANGEMENTS OF…
Thomas Maitland Cleland (1880-1964)
Mittineague, MA: The Strathmore Paper Co., 1921
QC495 C7 1921

Thomas Cleland wrote and designed this manual of color, funded by the Strathmore Paper Company. He suggested nearly endless options, good and bad, for printing various colored inks onto colored papers. Twenty-six paper samples from Strathmore were provided in a separate envelope at the back of the book for experimentation. Soon after publication of this book Cleland became the art director for Fortune Magazine. Cleland’s text, with diagrams, explains the dynamics of the color system developed by theorist Alfred H. Munsell, who introduces Cleland’s essay. Munsell died just before the publication of the book.

A. H. Munsell devoted his life perfecting his Munsell System of Color. This is the first presentation of his system to the printing, advertising and paper trade. Nineteen folding color-printed specimens demonstrate color combinations.

qc495-c7-1921-3dcolor

Arthur S. Allen selected and arranged the color sheets.

Two plates engraved by artist and type designer Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978) depict balanced and unbalanced color schemes. Born in the Czech Republic, Ruzicka worked as a consultant to Mergenthaler Linotype Company for fifty years. He contributed illustrations to books published by the Grolier Club, Lakeside Press, and Overbrook Press. He collaborated with D. B. Updike on the design of several books for Merrymount Press.

qc495-c7-1921-balancespread

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 — De coloribus libellus

05 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ Comments Off on Book of the Week — De coloribus libellus

Tags

animals, color, color theory, Empedocles, Florence, Florentinae, Isaac Newton, Laurentii Torrentini, Loeb Classical Library, medicine, Neapolitan, philosopher, Piza, plants, Pseudo Aristotle, scientist, Simone Porzio (1497-1554), soul, vellum

qc495-a7-1548-title

“Those colours are simple which belong to the elements, fire, air, water and earth. For air and water are naturally white in themselves, while fire and the sun are golden. The earth is also naturally white, but seems coloured because it is dyed. This becomes clear when we consider ashes; for they become white when the moisture which caused their dyeing is burned out of them; but not completely so, for they are also dyed by smoke, which is black. In the same way sand becomes golden, because the fiery red and black tints the water. The colour black belongs to the elements of things while they are undergoing a transformation of their nature. But the other colours are evidently due to mixture, when they are blended with each other. For darkness follows when light fails. — Loeb Classical Library translation

DE COLORIBUS LIBELLVS A SIMONE PORTIO…
Pseudo Aristotele (384 BC – 322 BC)
Florentinae: ex officina Laurentii Torrentini, 1548
Editio princips

This is perhaps the earliest work on color theory, attributed to Aristotle, who took his ideas from Empedocles and went a step further, creating a base line occupied by seven colors. Aristotle’s base line was applied to all color-systems up to the time of Isaac Newton. His assumption was to represent colors as actual characteristics of the surface of bodies and not as subjective phenomena produced by the eye or in the brain as a result of the properties of light. Aristotle observed colors very accurately, as well as their contrasts. He noted, for instance, that the violet appearing on white wool appeared different when on black wool and that colors appeared different in daylight than in candlelight. Only much later were these phenomena systematically examined and explained.

This edition was translated and edited with extensive scholarly commentary by Simone Porzio (1497-1554), a Neapolitan philosopher and scientist who was a fanatical disciple of Pomponazzi. Porzio eventually gave up lecturing on medicine at Piza and his scientific studies to focus on studying philosophy. Porzio denied immortality in all forms and taught that the human soul is homogeneous with the soul of animals and plants.

Binding is old vellum with a red leather lettering piece.

qc495-a7-1548-pg23

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...

Looking Forward to Book Arts Program Workshop, “Up-cycled Stories: Books as Process”

20 Friday May 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Workshop

≈ Comments Off on Looking Forward to Book Arts Program Workshop, “Up-cycled Stories: Books as Process”

Tags

Arches Text Wove, artists' books, Big Caslon, binding, blind-embossed, Book Arts Program, Book Arts Studio, bookmaking, books, Boston College, Bugra, Center for Book Arts, collage, College Book Arts Association, color, Emily Tipps, English, Granary Books, handmade, Harvard, High5 Press, ink, J. Willard Marriott Library, Julianna Christie, letterpress, literature, Marnie Powers-Torrey, New York City, photograpy, photopolymer plates, pochoir, Red Butte Press, Salt Lake City, shape, Stonehenge, storytelling, text, texture, University of Alabama, University of Colorado, University of Utah, Utah, Vandercook SP-15, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University

Rare Books is proud to support the Book Arts Program with its collections. For more information about the Book Arts Program and future workshops, visit their website or like them on Facebook.

Up-cycled Stories: Books as Process
Julianna Christie, Marnie Powers-Torrey & Emily Tipps

May 28 
Saturday, 10:00–6:00
Book Arts Studio, J. Willard Marriott Library, Level 4
Free spots are limited; please apply here. The application deadline is April 14.
Additional spots: $110, register here.
Registration is closed!

Bring a personally challenging story to retell in a new light or a daily routine to reconsider and reframe. With a focus on finding joy and beauty in the everyday, participants stamp out insecurities, recontextualize shortcomings, and re-imagine the self in book form. In this workshop, employ ink, brushes, stamps, mark-making tools, text, and re-collected common objects to produce process pages. Through a reimagining of the past, reinvent present perspective with an open heart, mind, and eyes toward gratitude and compassion. Instructors demonstrate a binding to be completed post-workshop from produced sheets. Come with a willingness to play with color, shape, narrative, and texture.
– – – – –

Julianna Christie graduated from Wellesley College and holds a BA in English Literature and Studio Art, with an emphasis in bookmaking. Upon graduating, she worked at the Center for Book Arts and Granary Books in New York City. She has been making books for over 20 years, with books held in Special Collections libraries at Wellesley College and Harvard. She incorporates collage, photography, sewing and love into her books. Julianna is also a life coach, specializing in personal growth and transformation. In her coaching, she invites clients to explore the art of storytelling, using words and imagery to examine and ultimately re-conceive a happy life.

Marnie Powers-Torrey holds an MFA in photography from the University of Utah and a BA in English and Philosophy from Boston College’s Honors Program. She is the Managing Director of the Book Arts Program and Red Butte Press, an Associate Librarian (Lecturer), and academic advisor for minor and certificate students in Book Arts. Marnie teaches letterpress printing, artists’ books, and other courses for the Book Arts Program and elsewhere. She is master printer for the Red Butte Press, harnessing the mighty printing power of a full staff of excellent printers. A founding member of the College Book Arts Association, she served as Awards Chair for three years and currently serves on the board of directors. Her work is exhibited and held in collections nationally.

N7433.4-P69-E8-2000-Front
N7433.4-P69-E8-2000-back

Evidence
Marnie Powers-Torrey
Salt Lake City, UT: M. Powers-Torrey, 2000
N7433.4 P69 E8 2000

Edition of ten copies. University of Utah copy is no. 4, signed by the author.

Emily Tipps is the Binding Instructor, Program Manager, and an Assistant Librarian (Lecturer) at the Book Arts Program at the University of Utah, as well as the proprietor of High5 Press, which publishes innovative writing in the form of handmade artists’ books. She holds a BA in English from Wesleyan University, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado, and an MFA in Book Arts from the University of Alabama. Emily’s work is exhibited and held in collections nationally.

N7433.4-T574-O73-2007-spread
N7433.4-T574-O73-2007-spread2

Orders
Emily Tipps
Tuscaloosa, AL: High5 Press, 2007
N7433.4 T574 O73 2007

Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on a Vandercook SP-15. Paper is Arches Text Wove and Stonehenge. Text type is Big Caslon. Pochoir illustrations. Endsheets are gray Bugra paper. Handsewn binding in black Stone Henge paper covers. Front cover blind-embossed. Edition of sixty copies. University of Utah copy is no. 42.

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...

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: