Tag Archives: Europe

Rare Books Exhibition — Paper is Fundamental

13 Friday Jul 2018

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“The most fundamental thing about a book is to find the right paper, because it’s the whole ground of the being of a book, and the quality of the paper is in some ways the most elusive…Critics of the book generally focus on the type and when people get into printing, the first thing they get into is type. They learn to recognize the different faces, and become pre-occupied with them. But the paper is more fundamental, because that is where the beauty begins, and in the end, that is all that beauty comes back to — the substance of the paper, the field on which the whole thing can act.” –William Everson (1912-1994), On Printing

Most people see and touch paper every day. Most of us know little about where the paper we use comes from.

Resuscitatio… (1670)
The paper for this book was made in Morlaix, south of Paris. The watermark is made up of a plain and simple monogram, “P.Huet.” Because of cheap labor, Morlaix paper was quite inexpensive and was imported from Brittany to England beginning about 1629 for many years with great regularity. The Huet’s, an astute family of papermakers, outlasted virtually all of their seventeenth-century competitors and continue to make paper today at Pontrieux (Cotes du Nord), east of Morlaix.

Paper is produced by pressing together the moist cellulose fibers of plant material, which is achieved through drawing sheets of the fibers from vats of pulp before pressing and drying them.


Love is Enough (1897)
At Kelmscott Press, William Morris used paper made by Joseph Batchelor. The paper cost two shillings per pound, which was about five or six times the cost of machine-made paper. Morris wrote, “I…considered it necessary that the paper should be hand-made, both for the sake of durability and appearance…the paper must be wholly of linen and must be quite ‘hard’, i.e. thoroughly well sized; and…though it must be ‘laid’ and not ‘wove’, the lines caused by the wires of the mould must not be too strong, so as to give a ribbed appearance. I found that on these points I was at one with the…papermakers of the fifteenth century; so I took as my model a Bolognese paper of about 1473. My friend Mr. Batchelor, of Little Chart, Kent, carried out my views very satisfactorily.” Batchelor made three types of papers for the Kelmscott Press, each named for their watermarks: “Flower” (also called “Primrose”), “Perch,” and “Apple.” Morris designed each of these watermarks.

Developed in China during the Han dynasty by a court official named Cai Lun, the invention of paper was a world-changing event that only seems magnificent in retrospect.


The Prologue to the Tales of Caunterbury (1898):
At the Ashendene Press, C. St. John Hornby, like William Morris, used paper made by Joseph Batchelor.

The use of paper spread slowly from Asia and did not reach Europe until the thirteenth century. Even after its arrival in Europe its use there caught on slowly.

The Nonnes Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen (1902)
James Whatman the Elder (1702-1759), was an English papermaker who made revolutionary advances to the craft. He is noted as the inventor of wove paper. The earliest example of wove paper, bearing his watermark, appeared after 1740. The technique continued to be developed by his son, James Whatman the Younger (1741-1798). At a time when the craft was based in smaller paper mills, his innovations led to the large scale and widespread industrialization of paper manufacturing. The Whatmans held a part interest in the establishment at Turkey Mill, near Maidstone, after 1740, which was acquired through the elder Whatman’s marriage to Ann Harris. Paper bearing the Whatman’s mark was produced for fine press and artists’ books until 2002. The company later specialized in producing filter papers and is now owned by GE Healthcare. The last production at Maidstone was in 2014.

It was only with the development of printing with moveable type in the mid-fifteenth century that the collaboration of ink and paper launched European culture into modernity.

Paper is Fundamental
A Rare Books Exhibition
Special Collections Gallery, Level 4
J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah
July 13 through September 23

For more information, please contact Jon Bingham or Luise Poulton at 801-585-6168

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking (1988)
This paper is handmade Charter Oak from the Barcham Green Hayle Mill in England. The paper mill closed in 1987.

Curated by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator, with help from Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, and the Rare Books Department staff – without whose help this exhibition would not have been possible. Jon is also grateful to Emily Tipps and Crane Giamo for teaching him how to make paper in their Book Arts papermaking class.

Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde [order]

03 Tuesday Jul 2018

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“This is the substance which I haue gathered of this hearb, so celebrated and called Tobaco for that surely it is an hearb of great affirmation for the excellent vertues that it hath…”

Ioyfvll newes out of the new-found vvorlde
Nicolás Bautista Monardes (ca. 1500-1588)
London: E. Allde, by the assigne of Bonham Norton, 1596
Third English edition

Translated by John Frampton (fl. 1577-1596) from several treatises first published in 1565 by Nicolás Monardes, the son of a bookseller, and a distinguished physician of Seville. Monardes, who never traveled to the Americas, wrote several treatises  on healing, medicine, and trade with the Spanish colonies on the Atlantic. He learned most of what he wrote about from spending time at the Seville docks, where he gathered information from sailors, soldiers, merchants, monks, royal officials, and even women.

Monardes described the cultivation and use of quinine, sassafras, cassava, rhubarb, ginger, and sasparilla. He wrote about cocoa, armadillos, minerals and metals (iron, silver, nephrite jade), and diseases like syphilis.

He wrote a lengthy description of an American plant introduced to Europe, calling it “tobaco” or “nicotain,” which he claimed was an antidote to poison. He wrote of more than twenty conditions, including the common cold and cancer, that could be cured with the use of tobacco.

“The Indians of our Occidental Indias, doo use the Tobaco for to take away the wearinesse, and for to make lightsomnesse in their Labour, which in their Daunces they bee so muche wearied, and they remaine so wearie, that they can scarcely stirre: & because that they may labour the next day, and returne to do that foolish exercise, they receiue at the mouth and nose, the smoke of the Tobaco, and they remaine as dead people: and being so, they be eased in such sorte, that when they be awakened of their sleepe, they remaine without weariness, and may return to their labour as much as before, and so they doe alwaies, when they have need of it: for with that sleepe, they do receiue their strength and be much the lustier.”

John Frampton, a Bristol merchant, had been imprisoned by the Inquisition. He translated several Spanish texts about the New World while in confinement. The British looked upon the New World as long-lost paradise with its vegetative bounty and ancient wisdom regarding human ailments, beneficial not just for its precious metals but for its plants. Being published in the vernacular, first in Spanish, then in English, meant that common readers, along with botanists and apothecaries, bought the publications. Frampton, ever the entrepreneur, re-titled the work “joyful news,” counting on brisk sales of the book and the trade in plants from the Americas. The “trade” print culture disseminated new data targeted toward popular practicality but also imagination, circulating news of an “other” ready reality just waiting ’round the bend. Such was the miracle of discovery, such was the miracle of plants, such was the miracle of print.

Illustrated with twelve woodcuts depicting herbs and plants. Rare Books copy bound in 19th century calf, ruled in gold.

De Jonge Amerikaan
Netherlands, ca. 1800
NE1154 J66 1800z

Woodblock depicting a Native American in a feather headdress and loincloth smoking a long clay pipe in a coastal setting with two ships behind him. Around this scene are a crown, trident, winged-staff, cigars, snuff jar, tobacco leaves and baled tobacco. It is likely that this woodblock was printed on paper used for tobacco wrappers, a practice that began as early as 1660 in Holland, one of the world’s great shipping centers.

Below are three prints made by Jonathan Sandberg using the woodblock, demonstrating different papers, including a paper handmade by students in last spring’s papermaking class offered by the Book Arts Program.



On July 1, 2018 The University of Utah went tobacco free and said farewell to its last cigarette.

Book of the Week — Against Fiction

11 Monday Jun 2018

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“Contents were clearly Marked on The Cover: Container A Momentary Sequence Sealed Into Itself.”

Against Fiction
Johanna Drucker (b. 1942)
Oakland, CA: Druckwerk, 1983

From the artist’s statement: “The book embodied the conflicts I had with the traditions of fiction in which I had been steeped as a young writer and the terms of literary production I was being exposed to in the Bay Area literary scene, as well as in the art contexts I had encountered in Europe and on my return. The “Against” of the title was intended to signal dependence on and rejection of that tradition….” From the colophon: “Handset Stymie. Printed on a Vandercook Proof press.” Edition of one hundred and twenty-five copies. University of Utah copy is no. 96, signed by the author.

“The corner of the room gaped wide open, just as she imagined it would standing there yesterday with a grin in her hand and a paper across her face stating the conditions of occupancy.”

“Features of distinction differentiate one house from another. This sense of identity, position, less distinct than letter from letter, accomodates [sic] itself to description. A place dying to be sold.”

“My second idea was to leave, to hide, to remember all I’d seen and manage it later on. But my final, fatal decision in that moment was to lend a hand and not know what I was in for.”

Stop and Smell the (Arctic) Flowers

30 Wednesday May 2018

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As if some little Arctic flower
Upon the polar hem –
Went wandering down the Latitudes
Until it puzzled came
To continents of summer –
To firmaments of sun –
To strange, bright crowds of flowers –
And birds, of foreign tongue!
– Emily Dickinson

The Northwest Passage was the name given to the sea route which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific along the northern coast of North America via the waterways in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Toward the end of the 15th century and into the 20th century, colonial powers from Europe sent their best explorers on countless attempts to discover a commercial route, with many failing and turning back and others ending in disaster. The first successful journey was made in 1906 by a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen, completing the passage from Greenland to Alaska.

Prior to Amundsen, notable captains such as John Ross, Elisha Kent Kane, James Clark Ross and William Parry explored separate parts of the Northwest Passage in the first half of the 19th century.  Parry’s first voyage was, without a doubt, the most successful in the search for the passage and his second and third attempts continued to uncover new information about the mysterious archipelago, including research on climate, flora and fauna. In fact, the notes taken by Parry and his shipmates and recorded in three separate journals contributed to crucial research in botany, among other natural sciences.

Journal of a Voyage of the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
William Edward Parry
Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1821
First American Edition
G635 P3 A3 1821

Between 1821-1825 three ships from the British Royal Navy, the Fury, Hecla, and the Gripper, took three separate journeys into the Arctic under the leadership of Captain Parry and Captains John Ross and George Frances Lyon. While their expeditions proved to be successful, they were not without tragedy as scurvy became common and ships were often stuck in ice for weeks on end. Narratives of the journeys were published in London and Philadelphia, respectively, with detailed accounts of the days on board as well as their interactions with the Inuit, described as Esquimaux in the journals.

Journal of a Third Voyage of the Discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
William Edward Parry
Philadelphia: H.C. Carey I. Lea, 1826
First American Edition
G650 1824 P31

A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay
G.F. Lyon
London: J. Murray, 1825
First Edition
G 650 1824 L9 1825

In addition, the journals included spectacular illustrations of the ships amid the looming icebergs and intricate appendices which accounted for the varieties of animals and plants that they encountered along the way. Among one of the shipmates that helped with the drawings and collecting data was Henry Parkyns Hoppner, listed as ‘lieutenant’ on the Griper in the first journal’s roster. Hoppner accompanied Parry on all three expeditions, first as a lieutenant on the Griper and Hecla, and later promoted to second in command on the Fury in the last voyage. Although Hoppner never received the kind of international acclaim as his Captains, his creative and artistic role on board as illustrator and actor proved to leave an impression.

Collection of Plants Found in the Arctic Regions…
Henry Parkyns Hoppner (1795 – 1833)
Publisher not identified, 1821
QK 474 H66

Impressions are also what we find in this small and unassuming book. From each of the pressed flowers, a ghostly accompaniment is imprinted on the opposite page, hinting at traces of life as much from the colorful flowers as from the hands of the shipmate who collected them. Impressions are also present as the handwritten notes inked on the beginning and end pages of the book. With no bibliographic information, we can only look to a small note which describes the book as “a collection of plants found in the Arctic Sections … made by Captain Hopner … 2nd in command of H.M.S. “Fury” … The “Fury” and “Hecla” (Captain Lyon) sailed to discover the N.W. passage May 1821.” Following the description, the book is addressed to Hoppner’s friend James Christie.

Attached to a page, there is also a miniature envelope that holds “moss which Franklin and his party had as their only food.” It is possible that this note alludes to the failed overland expeditions in the Arctic lead by Sir John Franklin between 1819-1822. During this time, Franklin lost more than half of the men in his party to starvation and, in order to survive, the remainder of his crew ate lichen, with some attempting to eat their own leather boots. Furthermore, there were rumors of cannibalism and at least one murder reported.

In addition to the handwritten notes, a bookplate on the first page suggests that sometime during the mid-20th century the book was held in the Department of Botany in Oxford while Nicholas Polunin was the Keeper of the Herbaria, which is now almost four hundred years old. While lecturing at Oxford, Polunin traveled to the Canadian Arctic as a botanist on an expedition that discovered the last major islands to be added to the world’s map.

Polunin was well recognized for his research and publications, specifically Circumpolar Artic Flora which was published in 1959. This book helped inspire James Walsh’ modern herbaria, The Arctic Plants of New York City, which “combines personal letters, poetry, prose essay, scholarly research, botanical exploration and artistic investigation,” of plants gather in Brooklyn, New York. The bibliography includes a reproduction of the index from Polunin’s work, in which the author has marked in red pen the eighty-eight Arctic plants that occur in New York City.

The Arctic Plants of New York City
James Walsh
New York: Granary Books, 2015
QK177 W35 2015

From the publisher’s website: “The Arctic Plants of New York City […] ranges from the Doctrine of Signatures to the sleep of plants, and from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Muir on mental travel to Giacomo Leopardi and Charles Baudelaire on the necessity of illusion for art and life. Interspersed throughout the book are a number of two-page spreads that focus on a single plant, such as Common Mugwort, with a mounted botanical specimen of that plant surrounded by texts drawn from earlier writers on botany and set in verse, creating a field of word-objects interacting with plant-objects. The letters that open the book lead into a prose essay that touches on the souls of plants, their use in medicine and as spurs to mental travel, their transience, their migrations, their meaning.” Written, designed, and letterpress printed by James Walsh, with eighteen botanical specimens pressed and mounted by the author. Bound by Daniel Kelm at Wide Awake Garage. Edition of forty copies, 34 of which are for sale.

~Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books

Stop and Smell the Flowers

24 Thursday May 2018

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“But I must gather knots of flowers and buds, and garlands gay;
For I’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I’m to be Queen o’ the May.”
–  Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The May Queen”

When was the last time you stopped to smell the flowers? I did it just two days ago, when the purple and white lilac bushes in front of my house produced such an aroma after the rain that I had to stop in my tracks to take it in. Some days I’ll pick the poppies and sunflowers that grow wild in the backyard and set them in a vase on the kitchen table, and if I’m feeling particularly extra, I will even go out and buy an arrangement to add some oomph to the room.

Although my allergies have been getting worse and worse every year, my enthusiasm for flora has yet to subside. I’ve been enjoying the slower campus days at The University of Utah, when I can wander around outside the library and take in all of the new blooms. I am always impressed with the assortment of flowers lining the pathways, some of which I recognize as native to the state, while others look unfamiliar, yet still alluring.

 

Natural Flowers of the Holy Land
Jerusalem, 1900s
QK 378 N37 1900z

We might find flowers attractive for a number of reasons ranging from color, shape, texture or smell, but did you know the craft of pressing flowers is actually an ancient art that dates back to 16thcentury? It is said that Samurai warriors in Japan once practiced this art, called Oshibana, as part of their discipline to promote patience and harmony with nature, as well as to enhance their powers of concentration.

The art of drawing with petals gradually spread from Asia to the Middle East along growing trade networks of the Silk Road. One outcome of this global commerce and tourism were elaborate souvenir books, popular in the late 19th century, Jerusalem. Different renditions of Flowers of the Holy Land combined photographs of holy sites in and around Jerusalem with pressed flowers gathered from those sites. These flowers were artistically formatted, bound between olive wood covers, and included translations from Hebrew into French, German, English and Russian, as they were sold to visitors coming from different parts of the world.

 

 

Flowers of the Holy Land
Jerusalem, 1900s
QK89 F56

Around the same time, botanists in Europe began systematically collecting and preserving flower specimens from all over the world. No longer a simple art form, the pressed plant books allowed scientists to study the flora of other countries and understand the variety of plant taxonomies, geographic distributions, and to develop an efficient and stable nomenclature. Furthermore, the books are able to preserve a record of change in vegetation over time for future scientists who are tracking changes in climate and human impact. Some books can even be viable repositories, holding seeds of extinct or endangered plant species. These specimen books, or herbaria, are not just pretty to look at for they contain crucial knowledge on every page.

 

A Collection of Wild Flower of California
E.C. Alexander
San Francisco: The Popular Bookstore, 1895
QK 89 A375

Anyone can gather flowers and create their own pressed flower book. Like Ruth Miller Staats, a resident of Valdez, Alaska who sold cards, artwork and booklets of pressed flowers to tourists during the 1930s and 1940s. Although Ruth had been paralyzed from the waist down following an airplane crash (she had sustained a double compound fracture of both legs, fracture of the pelvis, and a fractured lumbar vertebrae), her friends and neighbors gathered flowers for her to compile the pieces. Many of her items can now be found in the Valdez Museum Historical Archive.

Wild Flowers of Alaska
Ruth M. Staats
Valdez, Alaska, 1930s
QK 89 S73

The craft of pressing flowers can also extend beyond books. Petals and leaves can be applied to trays and other wood furnishings using the technique of découpage. Those who have a deep interest in the art can join the Pressed Flower Craft Guild, founded by Joyce Fenton and Bill Edwardes in 1983. Other organizations include the International Pressed Flower Art Society and the Worldwide Pressed Flower Guild, with members coming from countries such as Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States.

So come by and smell the flowers and allow yourself to appreciate the little things in life. Reflect on what is beautiful, fragile and simple, such as this small collection of books.

~Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books

We recommend — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture

08 Tuesday May 2018

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“Between 1906 and 1909 he designed more than one hundred buildings…But after he initiated an affair with one of his clients, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, he ended up abandoning his family and his practice in 1909. Cheney and Wright traveled to Europe, where the architect produced in 1910 a large portfolio of lithographs entitled Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright [Executed Buildings and Studies by Frank Lloyd Wright] for the German publisher Ernst Wasmuth. That elegant summation of his early architectural production significantly influenced the course of European Modernism…”

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture: From the Larkin Building to Broadacre City, A Catalogue of Buildings and Projects
Jack Quinan
San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, Inc., 2012
NA737 W7 Q56 2012, General Collection, Level 2

Rare Books contributed several images to this book.

We invite you to Special Collections to look at:

Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe…
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Berlin: E. Wasmuth, 1910
NA737 W7 A28

The Wasmuth Portfolio was a collaborative effort between Ernst Wasmuth, a Berlin publisher and Frank Lloyd Wright. It was Wasmuth’s idea to publish a complete folio of Wright’s work to date. The project was completed during Wright’s first trip to Europe in 1909 and published in 1910-11. The collection of Wright’s houses and commercial buildings received far more attention and praise in Europe than in the United States. Contemporary architects called it “the most important book of the century.” The portfolio consists of one hundred and thirty-one prints and overlays with accompanying text in English and German. A letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to Taylor Wooley, dated 1911, suggests that six hundred and fifty copies were produced for this edition.

View a digital copy of our portfolio here.

See an article using our portfolio here.

Anno 1664 Den. 18. Decembris…

18 Monday Dec 2017

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Who vagrant transitory comets sees,
Wonders because they’re rare; but a new star
Whose motion with the firmament agrees,
Is miracle; for there no new things are. — John Donne

Anno 1664 den. 18. Decembris…
Martin Zimmermann
Augsburg?: M. Zimmerman, 1664
QB724 Z55 1664

Broadside giving an account of a comet seen in Augsburg, December 18, 1664 with a drawing of its path through the sky. This comet was seen every night across Europe between 14th and 24th December 1664, reaching its perigree on December 18th (December 28th by the Gregorian calendar). The comet was one of the brightest of the time and reported by many including Samuel Pepys, Samuel Danforth, Giovanni Borelli, Robert Hooke, and John Dryden. It was seen again in January 1665, and was last seen in March 1665. The bird represents the constellation of Corvus (the raven). Modern astronomers have designated the 1664-5 comet as C/1664 W1.

Painting the Cities Red

07 Tuesday Nov 2017

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“All for the People and all Through the People” — Programma

Revolution had been bleeding red on the tongues of Russian citizens for a least a decade before the fateful Autumn of 1917 when the Bolsheviks seized power from Tsar Nicholas II, ending the 300 year monarchy of the Romanov family. Through a series of unanticipated events – seeming impossible and shockingly intertwined – the headstrong leftist Socialist revolutionaries took control of the Imperial government and captured the Winter Palace and became the world’s first socialist country. One hundred years later, we remember the Russian Revolution through the words of comrades, dissidents and descendants in a series of books found in our very own collection.

By the early 20th century another revolution had already swept across Europe, Asia and the United States. The industrial market was booming. Yet Imperial Russia found itself far behind in comparison to the surrounding, developing economies. In addition to newfound economic struggles, the country was becoming more difficult to govern as the population sprawled across 8.6 million square miles – nearly 1/6 of the earth’s landmass. Between the deadly winters and the barren soil, anyone outside the upper classes struggled to make a living and even struggled to live.

It was the contention between the different economic classes that became a fundamental component of Bolshevik strategy – aligning the proletariat with the peasantry to fight against the bourgeois leaders who controlled and exploited their working class citizens. Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, the founding fathers of the Russian revolution, organized and educated the masses, inspiring everyday people to stand up and fight for equality and human rights. During the year of revolt, an outline called “Programma” was printed in Odessa by the Social-Democratic Labour Party, detailing the social, political and economic issues at hand, and its method to finally reclaim the country for the people.


Progamma
Trudovaia (narodno-sotsialisticheskaia) Partiia
Odessa: 1917
JN6598 T8 A12

“All citizens of Russia, without distinction of sex, preoccupation and disposition, should be equal before the law. In this way – a man and a woman, a Russian, a Pole, an Armenian, a Tatar, an Orthodox Jew, a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Mohammedan, an old believer, a stuntman – all should get the same rights …”

Unfortunately not all of Russia’s citizens were given the same opportunity to participate with the increasingly fashionable revolutionaries. In fact, of the 170 million people who lived in the vast territory, 3/4 had been labeled ‘peasants’ and most among them could not read. While the participation of the peasantry was crucial to overthrowing the Tsarist rule, many of these rural villagers suffered greatly in the coming months and years as dramatic changes in urban governments left their communities incredibly destabilized. Once Bolshevik power had been gained, it became quickly noticeable that the Revolution, according to both Lenin and Trotsky, would benefit neither the bourgeoisie nor the peasants of Russia – the rewards of Revolution were given solely to the working classes, and even then, at quite the cost.

Amid the riots and marches that had become common since February and March of 1917, writers and artists were compiling their own narratives about what was going on in the streets. Some were critical of the violence and looting. Maxim Gorky and Marina Tsvetaeva were two such writers who depicted the chaos of the ‘wine riots’ where the cities cellars were taken over by citizens and Bolsheviks alike. The Bolsheviks saw an enemy among their drunk comrades and “replied with machine-guns pouring lead into the bottles… [destroying] three million rubles’ worth of vintage in the vaults of the winter palace.” Tsvetaeva, who changed allegiances over time, was concerned over the newfound ‘freedom’ and her poems often reflected musings about humanity, growing mobs and the unstable political state. In her poem, “To Tsar, on Easter” Tsvetaeva addresses Tsar Nicholas II and imagines the fall of the Russian Empire. Just three months after her poem was written, the Tsar was forced to abdicate the throne, leaving power in the hands of a provisional government.


Poezija Revolutsiooni Moskvy
Il’ia Erenburg (1891-1967)
Berlin: 1922
PG3505 M7 P64

To Tsar, on Easter
Open, Open,
The gates of the tsar!
Darkness dimmed and poured out far.
With clean heat
Burns the altar –
Resurrect, Christ,
Yesterday’s tsar!

Without glory fell
Two-headed eagle.
Tsar – you were wrong.

He’ll remember inheritance
Many more times –
Byzantine sacrilege
Of your clear eyes.

Your judges –
Lightning and wave!
Tsar! God sought
You, not men.

But now there’s Easter
In all the land,
Sleep in your village
With a calm mind,
Don’t dream of
The banners red.

Tsar! Descendants
And ancestors – sleep.
There is a knapsack since
A throne you won’t keep.
– April 1917 (Translated by Ilya Shambat)

Although power had been stripped from the Tsar, the revolution was far from over. It would not be until October that the Bolsheviks would officially seize power. Behind the front lines many writers and artists worked to help deliver the party’s propaganda. By 1917, Vladimir Mayakovsky, renowned Russian Futurist, had already been a major player of the socialist cause for ten years. Tied to the political left, the Futurists often contributed to underground journals and protests, but they had their own agenda: seeking to reject the symbolic and romantic ideas enforced by an imperial Russia. Rather than conform to the stringent structures of literature developed by their renowned predecessors, they proposed a return to the earth and the primeval spirit of the Russian language. In doing so, writers and artists collaborated to develop books of poetry written in a style they passionately declared as Zaum. In the immediate aftermath of the October Revolution, Mayakovsky wrote “Our March” – a reflection on the frenzy and madness that had been taking place. Mayakovsky’s and Tsvetaeva’s poems were both included in a small collection of Revolutionary poetry published in Berlin, 1922.

Our March
Let the squares ring to the tramp of revolt!
Lift your heads’ glorious mountain range higher!
We’ll cleanse all the cities around the world
With a flood even greater than Noah’s.

The days’ bull’s pied.
The years’ cart creaks.
Our god is speed.
Our heart’s drum beats.

Is our treasure, our gold not the loftiest thing?
Can we ever be stung by the wasp of a bullet?
Our weapon’s the songs that we sing.
Our voices are our gold bullion.

Lay yourself down, grass,
Cushion the days’ tread.
Rainbow, yoke the years’
Galloping steeds’ heads.

Look up! The skyful of stars is bored!
We weave our songs without the sky.
Hey, you there! Yes, you, Great Bear!
Demand we be taken to heaven alive.

Drink up the joy! Sing!
The veins’ spring’s sprung.
Heart! Fight! Ring!
Our breasts are the copper of kettledrums.
– December 1917 (Translated by James Womack)

With the Social-Democratic Labour Party officially in control, there was now the question of who among the party’s officials would take the role of leadership, Lenin or Trotsky. Leninism and Trotskyism became the two dominant perspectives of the socialist movement and, while similar in many ways, the debate between two caused major conflict within the party. Allegiances were made and votes were taken. Trotsky came before a Communist Party court, consisting of Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin, to defend his positions. In the end, Lenin would eventually take power in 1922, and Trotsky would be banished to exile yet again just five years later. During his ongoing split from the party, Trotsky’s commentary on the differences between ‘Leninism’ and ‘Trotskyism’ was published in Berlin, 1925. Written in two parts, Trotsky first details the fateful events of the October Revolution before giving his final response to the court. Ultimately, it was Stalin who arranged his assassination.


Trotskii pered sudom kommunisticheskoii partii: Uroki Oktiabria… Kamenev i Stalin. Leninizm ili trotskizm? Otvet Trotskomu
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)
Berlin: 1925
DK265 T6 T73

Lenin had a different fate. While his reign over the country only lasted seven years, his influence over the people remained for much longer. He was the face of the Revolution, and subsequently, the face of freedom for many people. Unlike Stalin’s violent wrath, Lenin embodied a hope which, perhaps, is still sought-after to this day. Images of Lenin still remain throughout Russia and other Eastern European countries, and his revolutionary prowess even crossed the seas into countries such as Cuba. It could be argued that he has transcended the role of mere politician to a sort of religious icon. 100 years after the October Revolution, you can still visit his resting body, preserved in a massive mausoleum in Moscow – in a way, for the Russian people, he is ‘always alive.’ In a way, the Revolution is ongoing.


Vechno Zhivoi : fotoalʹbom
Egor Iakovlev. 1977
Moscow: 1977
DK254 L4 V43

Suggested Reading…

For the Voice
Vladimir Mayakovsky and El Lissitzky
PG3476 M3 D5713 2000

Inside the Rainbow : Russian children’s literature, 1920-35
Julian Rothenstein and Olga Budashevskaya
PG3190 I5 2013

1917 : Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution
Boris Dralyuk
PG3213 A15 2016

Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art
Nancy Perloff
PG3065 F8 P47 2016

–Contributed by Lyuba Basin, Rare Books Assistant, known in these parts as “Golden Girl”

Book of the Week — Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

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fFalconry1r
“In quantum enim sunt reges non habent propriam delectationem nisi venationem” — Moamin

“A wise falcon hides his talons.” — Proverb

Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

Facsimile. The so-called “Wiener Moamin” was created on the Italian penisula in the second half of the 13th century at the request of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, king of the Germans and the Holy Roman Empire. It is illuminated with 101 historiated initials and more than 80 miniatures. The Wiener Moamin is a Latin version of an Arabic treatise on falconry, Kitab al-mutawakkili, attributed to one Moamin by the Western world. The original content was probably inspired by two oriental hunting treatises from the 8th and 9th centuries: the falcon book of al-Gitrif and the treatise dedicated to the caliph al-Mutawakkili of Baghdad, a work written by Christian scholar, physician and translator Hunayn ib Ish aq al-Ibad who resided at the court of al-Mutawakkili between 809 and 873. These two works exist only in fragments. As early as this, falconry was embraced as an empirical science as well as a sport.

The work provides an in-depth aspect of hunting with birds and dogs, formatted in five books:

The first book focuses on birds of prey.
Books two and three are devoted to diseases of birds and tried and tested methods of healing.
The last two books deal with the keeping and care of hunting dogs.

Falconry17v
Falconer treats a bird’s headache with massage.

The translation of the Arabic version was done by the philosopher Theodore of Antioch, a Syrian naturalist and interpreter, one of the most prominent cultural representatives of the court of Frederick II. This manual became one of the earliest to circulate in medieval Europe. Several copies survive. Copies translated into the vernacular began to appear soon after the first manual appeared

Frederick II (1194-1250) was a falconer of note and participated in correcting the work in 1240, during the siege of Faenz, near Bologna. A few years after the king worked on this book, he wrote his own on the subject, De arte venandi cum avibus. This manuscript was lost in 1248 during the siege of Parma, but other copies exist. For his work, Frederick II used several sources, including the manuscript here.

Frederick II, a larger-than-life figure, counted himself as a direct successor to the Roman Emperors. He was excommunicated four times during a lifelong power struggle the papacy. He took part in a crusade (the sixth, in 1238) and spoke six languages, including Arabic. He was married three times and had at least nine mistresses, with whom he had illegitimate offspring. He was also an avid patron of art, poetry, literature, and architecture.

Frederick II ruled over most of what is now Italy and Germany as well as territories around the Mediterranean (including Malta and Palestine.) He is recognized as an enlightened ruler over a multi-cultural multitude of people.  Frederick II was an enthusiast of Arabic culture and became acquainted with falconry through personal contacts with representatives of the Islamic world. One of his teachers was Fakhr ad-d’in al-F’ars’e, a Persian Sufi and advisor to sultan al-Malik al-K’amil, who stayed at the Sicilian court as a diplomat. It is probable that he gained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars conducted in 1228 through 1229. He obtained a copy of Moamin’s manual on falconry during this time.

Falconry was a popular sport and status symbol among aristocracy in medieval Europe, the Middle East, and the Mongolian Empire. There is some evidence of its use by commoners, although that was likely unusual due to the commitment of time, money, and space. So valuable were falcons that when Charles V ceded Malta as a fief to the Knights of Saint John, the feudal rent was the annual payment of a Maltese falcon. Scholars differ on the origin of falconry. Some speculate that it entered Europe through warring Germanic tribes. The Arab world claims a two thousand year headstart before Frederick II mastered it.

Falconry31v
An elegant lady falconer giving medicine to a sick bird.

The text is laid out in one-column in a uniform script of dark brown ink with red chapter headings. The historiated initials range form 4 to 10 lines in size. The initials offer information along with the text. The initial opening the section on fol. 7v, for instance depicts the mouse chamber of the falcons. During the annual moulting in the late spring, the birds were secluded by the falconer in a specially made chamber.

Falconry7v
Falcon renewing its flying feathers.

The initials are enhanced by flower and leaf forms which spread over the parchment. The painters of the manuscript added decorative interest to scientific text and image.

Marginal notes, written in Italian, give precise instructions to the illuminator, detailing which scenes to paint in the fields of the initials written by the scribe. Written by a single scribe, the script is Gothic Textura, identified by two forms of “r” and sharp, straight, angular lines.

The facsimile is bound in a manner of a time later than the text block — a mid-century fifteenth sample — green patterned velvet covers and two metal clasps. Facsimile edition of three hundred and eighty-one, two hundred and twenty of which are reserved for the Arab Region. Rare Books copy is no. 39.

 

Virtue and Knowledge

14 Thursday Sep 2017

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PQ4301-A1-2016-Devil

“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.”

La Divina Commedia Angelica
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Castel Guelfo di Bologna, Italy: Imago la Nobilita del Facsimile, 2016
PQ4301 A1 2016

Facsimile. MS1102 from the Biblioteca Angelica, this late fourteenth century Bolognese codex contains The Divine Comedy, commentary by Jacopo Alighieri and Bosone da Gubbio, and a fragment of a poem written by Alexander the Great Gualterus de Castellione. Each of the Cantos are introduced with a miniature depicting the contents of the song. Thirty-four other miniatures depict scenes from hell in bright colors on a gold background. The manuscript is incomplete. Empty spaces were left for miniatures for the songs of “Paradiso” and “Purgatorio.” It is likely that only one scribe is responsible for the text. The script hand is littera textualis. The facsimile has hand applied gold leaf before each canticle on hand-treated paper. The binding is hand stitched in a naturally tanned leather.

Dante Alighieri, born in Florence, to a notable family but of modest means, was an Italian poet and philosopher. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), a medieval Christian allegory of man’s temporal and eternal destiny. The poet draws on his own experience of exile from his native city, in which he encounters hell, purgatory, and paradise. Along the way, the poet offers analysis of contemporary problems and spiritual wisdom through inventive linguistic imagery. Dante wrote his epic poem in the vivid Italian vernacular, rather than Latin, using primarily a Tuscan dialect which became the literary language in western Europe for centuries. Dante’s use of the vernacular opened his work to an audience broader than the academy.

Dante was classically trained and drew on the works of Virgil, Cicero, Boethius and others for his philosophical thinking. He was also well aware of more contemporary writers such as Thomas Aquinas. A soldier, he fought in the ranks at the battle of Campaldino in 1289 on the side of the Guelphs — a battle instrumental in the reformation of the Florentine constitution.

Dante is credited with inventing terza rima, composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme. He ended each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite stanza is symbolic with the Holy Trinity. Later Italian poets, including Boccaccio and Petrarch, followed this form.

Facsimile edition of 423 copies, 25 hors de commerce. University of Utah copy is no. 18.

PQ4301-A1-2016-Lion