Book of the Week — A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children

31 Monday Jul 2017

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Alexander Anderson, America, American, Augsburg, Baltimore, Bible, children, Dutch, emblem books, English, French, hieroglyphical, Isaiah Thomas, New York, Samuel W. Wood & Co., Samuel Wood & Sons, wood engraving

“…so also can nothing be more unprofitable, than the too customary mode of charging the infant memory with verses, or even chapters of abstract doctrines, or passages, about the true meaning of which, schoolmen themselves have hitherto been divided in opinion.” — from the Preface

A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children
Alexander Anderson (1775-1870)
New York: Published by Samuel Wood & Sons, And Samuel W. Wood & Co…Baltimore, 1818
BS560 H54 1818

Hieroglyphic Bibles were a natural development from emblem books, in which often complex visual images served as emblems for intellectual or aesthetic ideas presented as moral or religious lessons. The first one was published in Augsburg in 1687. French and Dutch editions followed in the eighteenth century. The first English edition appeared fairly late, but it was followed by at least thirteen other editions before the end of the eighteenth century. The first American hieroglyphic Bible was published in 1788 by Isaiah Thomas.

Alexander Anderson has been called the father of wood engraving in America, and was certainly one of its masters. His work included prints, almanacs, fiction, travel, children’s books, Bibles, religious tracts, medical texts, and broadsides.

Book of the week — Decalogus

15 Monday Aug 2016

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blindstamped, bookbinder, Bridwell Library, Case Western Reserve University, cross, Czech, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Decalogus, Dutch, English, French, German, handmade paper, inlays, Italian, Jan Sobota, Jarmila Sobota, Latin, Loket, morocco, Old Testament, Pilzen, Portuguese, Prague, Slovak, Spanish, Switzerland, ten commandments, United States, University of Utah

DECALOGUS
Loket, Czech Republic: Jan and Jarmila Sobota, 1999

The ten commandments of the Old Testament in Latin, Czech, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Slovak designed as a cross.

Master bookbinder Jan Bohuslav Sobota (1939-2012) was born in Czechoslovakia. He studied binding in Pilzen and Prague until 1957. In 1982 he defected to Switzerland. He took his family to the United States in 1984, where he worked as a conservator at Case Western Reserve University before going to Bridwell Library, where he was Director of the Conservation Laboratory from 1990 to 1997. He and his family returned to the Czech Republic in 1997

Handmade paper printed in gold. Bound in pale turquoise morocco with binder’s blindstamped monogram on rear cover, upper cover with colored morocco inlays, comprising a central square cross. Issued in gold pouch. Edition of one hundred copies, numbered and signed by the artists. University of Utah copy is no. 6.

Book of the week — The Next Word: Red Square

18 Monday Jul 2016

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Alan Loney, Albion press, Arthur C. Danto, Australia, Barcham Green India Office, Bill Stewart, Dante, Dutch, Electio Editions, English, Groningen, Harvard University Press, Hendrik Werkman, Holland, letterpress, Lewis Allen, Malvern East, philosopher, printer, Ruscombe India Office, typography, University of Utah, Vamp & Tramp, wood type

THE NEXT WORD: RED SQUARE
Alan Loney (b. 1940)
Malvern East VIC, Australia: Electio Editions, 2012
PR9639.3 L6 N49 2012

From the artist’s statement: “This book derives from putting two small obsessions together and seeing what happens. The first is with the typographical wonder of Hendrik Werkman (1882-1945), and his remarkable periodical ‘The Next Call,’ printed from 1923 to 1926. Each issue was 8 pages long, in approximately 40 copies, and designed and printed entirely from the materials of his print shop in Groningen, Holland…

My second obsession is the imaginary exhibition outlined by Arthur C Danto in his now famous book The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (Harvard University Press, 1981) where he poses the thorny set of intellectual problems around the question of the wording one attaches to paintings. Simply, Danto’s exhibition was a series of red rectangles, all looking the same, but all painted by different artists, and each with a different title. This apparently simple proposition created for Danto one of the knottiest philosophical speculations in contemporary criticism.

My book is designed to honor both these men, the material printer who said, ‘I produce designs during the course of printing,’ and the intellectual who wrote, “I am speaking as a philosopher, construing the gesture as a philosophical act.’ The pages for the ‘exhibition’ appear on the rectos only. The texts on the versos are constructed solely from all the Dutch words that in their spelling are also English words in Werkman’s texts through out the nine issues of ‘The Next Call.’”

Designed, printed, and bound by Alan Loney. Letterpress printed with Dante and wood types in red, blue, yellow, and gold on vintage Barcham Green India Office or Ruscombe India Office paper using a copy of Lewis Allen’s Albion press.* Bound with Ruscombe paper over boards. Issued in slipcase. Edition of forty-five copies, numbered, five copies hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is number 36, signed by the author.

*Thanks to Bill Stewart, Vamp & Tramp, for his knowledge, friendship and inspiration.

Book of the week – Halakhot yesode ha-Torah

13 Monday Jul 2015

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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.

Book of the Week – Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time

30 Monday Mar 2015

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anti-Catholic, Commonwealth of England, Dutch, Elizabethan Religious Settlement, English Civil War, English Reformation, French, Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Greek, Hebrew, Henry VIII, Henry Woodfall, James II, Joseph Downing, Latin, London, Nicholas Sanders, politics, religion, Salisbury, Scotland, theology, Thomas Ward, Treaty of Utrecht, William of Orange

Bishop Burnet’s History of his Own Time
Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715)
London: Thomas Ward, Joseph Downing & Henry Woodfall, 1724-34
First edition
DA430 B955

Scottish theologian and religious leader Gilbert Burnet was an influential advisor to William and Mary. Burnet’s anti-Catholic writing and preaching gained him the friendship of William of Orange at The Hague. He became bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In the mid-1670s a French translation of Nicholas Sanders’ De origine et progressu schismatio Anglicani librie tres (1585) appeared. Sanders attacked the English Reformation as a political act carried out by a corrupt king. Several of Burnet’s friends wished him to publish a rebuttal of the work.

In 1679 the first volume of The History of the Reformation of the Church of England was published. It covered the reign of Henry VIII. The second volume (1681) covered the reign of Elizabeth and the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The third volume (1714) consisted of corrections and additional material. Burnet began his History of His Own Time in 1683, covering the English Civil War and the Commonwealth of England to the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. This chronicle of the political and religious events during his lifetime demonstrated his fierce bias against James II and was a celebrated book at the time of publication.

Undecorated sheep over six raised double cords. Striped cloth bands pasted to head and tail.

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.

Book of the Week – Harmonia Macrocosmica

07 Monday Oct 2013

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Andreas Cellarius, astronomers, astronomy, atlas, burins, cartography, cherubs, compasses, Copernicus, Dutch, engraving, Europe, Galileo, Gerald Valk, gravers, illustrations, Jan Jansson, Pieter Schenck, Pope Paul V, printing press, Ptolemy, transits, Tycho Brahe

: Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1661

: Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1661

: Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1661

Harmonia Macrocosmica
Andreas Cellarius
Amsterdam: Jansson, 1661
Second edition
QB41 C39

The Celestial Atlas of Harmony was published in varying formats in 1660, 1661, 1666, and 1708. Very few copies of the first edition of 1660 survive. (One known copy is held by the British Museum). The Harmonia Macrocosmica, a summary of pre-Newtonian astronomy, compares the various cosmological theories up to and of that time, including those of Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, and Copernicus.

The geocentric theories of Ptolemy, suggesting that the earth is the center of the universe, are contrasted with those of Copernicus, who put the sun at the center of our solar system. Tycho Brahe’s theory attempted to unify the two. Brahe’s version shows the sun revolving around the earth and the rest of the planets revolving around the sun.

The book also has sections on the Earth’s climate zones, the sizes of the sun, moon, and planets, and the constellations of the zodiac. It is this broad overview of astronomical thought that kept the book from being banned under strictures put in place by Pope Paul V in 1616. These same strictures put Galileo under house arrest for the rest of his life after the printing of his Dialogo (1632), which was based on Copernican theory.

Andreas Cellarius was the rector of a college in the northern Netherlands. The printer, Jan Jansson, was one of the preeminent publishers of his time. Both art and science were applied to this production, with discoveries heralded by imaginative images as well as observed fact. Cheerful cherubs, floating over head earnest astronomers hold transits and compasses. The first edition was extremely popular, prompting the second edition.

The second edition of the atlas contains twenty-nine lavishly designed and hand-colored engraved plates, some of the finest examples of seventeenth-century Dutch cartography in existence. The technique of engraving began in ancient times as a way to decorate objects, particularly of metal. After the development of the printing press in Europe in 1450, engraving became a way to create high quality illustrations which retained precise detail, even after multiple impressions. Specialized tools, known as “burins” and “gravers” of various sizes and shapes were used to cut away the surface of a metal plate. The 1708 reissue bears the engraved names of Gerald Valk and Pieter Schenck on each plate, although not one line had been changed.

View more images at the J. Willard Marriott Library Digital Library

OPEN BOOK

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

Tag Archives: Dutch

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