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Tag Archives: German

Book of the Week — Duineser Elegien

10 Monday Sep 2018

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abstractions, alchemy, angel, birth, Castle of Duino, Count Harry Kessler, Cranach Press, crush, destruction, discontent, disdain, driven, E. Prince, Edward Johnston, Edward Sackville West, endure, English, Eric Gill, fugitives, G. T. Friend, Gaspard and Aristide Maillol, German, Germany, Hans Schulze, heart, Hogarth Press, humanities, Insel -Verlag, italic type, itinerants, landscapes, Leipzig, London, Maillol-Kessler paper, Max Goertz, metaphysical, Rainer Maria Rilke, sobs, Tavistock Square, terrible, terror, visions, Vita Sackville-West, Walter Tanz, watermark, will, Willi Laste, wood initials


Who would give ear, among the angelic host,
Were I to cry aloud? and even if one
Amongst them took me swiftly to his heart,
I should dissolve before his strength of being.
For beauty’s nothing but the birth of terror,
Which we endure but barely, and, enduring,
Must wonder at it, in that it disdains
To compass our destruction, every angel
Is terrible, and thus in self-control
I crush the appeal that rises with my sobs.

Duineser Elegien
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
London: Printed for the Hogarth Press, 1931
First edition in English

From the translator’s note: “Something remains to be said of the actual content of the poem (for it is really a single poem in ten sections). This is admittedly exceedingly complex and arcane, and will not yield to a first, or even to a second reading. For Rilke’s poetry is of the metaphysical order and consists for the most part of an elaborate alchemy of hypostatised ideas, in the expression of which the invention of grammatical quips and subtleties plays…is an important part. His imagination seems naturally to have dealt in visions of embodied abstractions, and…he pushed the vision as far as possible, creating detailed landscapes and humanities of abstract categories…”


But tell me, who are these itinerants,
These fugitives more hasty than ourselves,
Urgently driven from the start, — by whom?
To gratify what discontented will?

From the colophon: “Count Harry Kessler planned the format of this volume. Eric Gill designed and himself cut on wood the initials. The Italic type was designed by Edward Johnston and cut by E. Prince and G. T. Friend. The paper was made by a hand process devised in joint research by Count Harry Kessler and Gaspard and Aristide Maillol. The book was printed in the winter and spring of 1931. Count Harry Kessler and Max Goertz supervised the work of setting the type and printing. Compositors: Walter Tanz and Hans Schulze. Pressman: Willi Laste.

The book was printed for the Hogarth Press, 52 Tavistock Square, London W. C. 1, and both the English and the German texts were reproduced by the courtesy of Insel-Verlag in Leipzig who are also the Agents for the book in Germany.

The whole edition consists of two hundred and thirty numbered copies for sale on handmade Maillol-Kessler paper with the watermark of the Cranach Press, and signed by the translators; and eight numbered copies on vellum for sale with hand-gilded initials, signed by the translators. This is copy Nr. 63.”

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Stop and Smell the Flowers

24 Thursday May 2018

Posted by scott beadles in Uncategorized

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Alaska, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Asia, Australia, Bill Edwardes, botany, climate, commerce, découpage, E. C. Alexander, endangered, English, Europe, flora, flower specimens, flowers, France, French, German, Germany, Hebrew, herbaria, Holy Land, International Pressed Flower Art Society, J. Willard Marriott Library, Japan, Jerusalem, Joyce Fenton, Lyuba Basin, May, Mexico, Middle East, nomenclature, olive wood, Oshibana, plant species, poppies, Pressed Flower Craft Guild, pressed flowers, repository, Russian, Ruth Miller Staats, Samurai, San Francisco, seeds, Silk Road, sunflowers, taxonomies, The Popular Bookstore, The University of Utah, tourism, United Kingdom, United States, Valdez, Valdez Museum Historical Archive, vegetation, Worldwide Pressed Flower Guide

“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

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We recommend — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture

08 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Recommended Reading

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architect, Berlin, English, Ernst Wasmuth, Europe, European modernism, Frank Lloyd Wright, German, Jack Quinan, overlays, Pomegranate Communications, portfolio, prints, San Francisco, Special Collections, Taylor Wooley, United States, Wasmuth Portfolio


“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.

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Book of the Week — Bulla Cene Domini

23 Monday Oct 2017

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bull, excommunication, Fraticeli, German, heretics, Hussites, Martin Luther, Maundy Thursday, Melchior Lotter, papacy, Pope Leo X, Roman Catholic Church, translation, Wittenberg, Wycliffites

“Denn nach dem wir erlitten haben, so viel Bullen kremer: Cardinel, Legaten, Commissarien, Untercommissarien, Ertzbischoff, Bishoff, Abte, Prebste, Dechant, Dorthumpte Herrn, Priors, Gardianten, Stacionirer, Terminierer, stifft boten, klosterboten, capellen boten, alter boten, glocken boten, turn boten. Und wer kundt die rotte solcher schynder und schlinder all ertzelen? … Aber ich halt das sie nicht dein urfach gewesen, sondern das sichs hat zu mit auf ein trunken abend solch latin zu reden. Zu der Zeit wenn die Zunge auf steltzen geht und die vornunft mit halben segel ferret.”

“For after which we have suffered the clamor of so many Bulls: Cardinals, Legates, Commissioners, Under Commissioners, First Bishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priests, Lords, Priors, Stationers, monastery messengers, convent messengers, chapel messengers, alter messengers, and bell messengers. And who can explain the speech of such harassing stuff? … But I believe their origin has not been this, but rather they were begun on a drunken evening when such Latin was being spoken. At a time when the tongue was lifted up and the future was explored with half a sail.” — loose translation by Jon Bingham

BULLA CENE DOMINI DAS IST: DIE BULLA VOM…
Wittenberg: Melchior Lotter, 1523
Fifth edition
BV824 C37 1523

The first edition of this bull was printed by Melchior Lotter in 1522. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church on January 3, 1521. On April 15, Maundy Thursday, Pope Leo X published the bull “Consueverunt Romani Pontifices,” in which Luther’s name appeared for the first time on the Church’s list of heretics. Luther prepared this German translation of the bull with notes and an afterward. Luther, irony intended, dedicated the printing to Leo X as a “New Year’s gift.” Pope Leo died on December 21, 1521 and never received the gift.

Every Maundy Thursday the pope announced the excommunication of heretics, also naming the external enemies of the papacy. Bishops were required to publish these special bulls. In his 1521 bull, the pope included the Wycliffites, the Hussites, and the Fraticeli along with Luther. Luther entitled his response, the translation and printing in German of the bull, “Bull of the Supper-devouring Most Holy Lord, the Pope.” Luther commented that the bull could only have been written by a drunk.

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Banned! — Le XIII Piacevoli Notti

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Beauty and the Beast, Caravaggio, cat, cats, Charles Perrault, fairy tales, folk tales, French, German, Giovanni Boccaccio, Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Giuseppe Rua, Grimm Brothers, Index of Prohibited Books, Italy, king, lies, magic, marry, Murano, ogre, Piacevoli Notti, Pope Clement VIII, princess, Prohibitorun, Puss-in-Boots, Shakespeare, Spanish, stories, supernatural, tales, truth, Venetia, Venice, vernacular, wealth

PQ4634-S7-P5-1580-title
“Of a truth I confess they [the tales] are not mine, and if I said otherwise I
should lie, but nevertheless I have faithfully set them down according to the manner in which they are told…”

Le XIII Piacevoli Notti…
Giovanni Francesco Straparola (ca. 1480- ca. 1557)
In Venetia: 1580
PQ4634 S7 P5 1580

Le XIII Piacevoli Nottie (The Pleasant Nights,) a collection of seventy-five stories, was first published in 1550 with twenty-five stories. Giovanni Straparola added stories to the next two editions, including what are considered to be the first “fairy tales” printed in a European vernacular. The collection of stories was reprinted in at least twenty-three editions between 1550 and 1620 and translated into German, Spanish, and French within only a few years after the first printing. The book was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books the year this edition was published, for its seeming justification of magic. Pope Clement VIII placed it on the Prohibitorum again in 1601. After 1608, the work was no longer published in Italy until Giuseppe Rua’s scholarly 1899-1908 edition.

Almost nothing is known of Giovanni Francesco Straparola except what he tells of himself in this book: he was from Caravaggio. Whoever he (or she) is, he is considered to be the progenitor of the literary form of the fairy tale. The surname “Straparola” is not a typical family name of the period or location. It is likely a nickname, meaning “babbler.” Straparola anthologized already-known folk tales and presented them to an urban audience. Straparola’s Nights is modeled after Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decamaron. Sixteen characters are engaged in a thirteen night-long party on the island of Murano, near Venice, and tell seventy-four stories that range from bawdy to fantastic. Straparola’s work was a sourcebook for Shakespeare.

Several of these tales, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and the cunning “Puss-in-Boots,” were retold and made famous by Charles Perrault and the Grimm Brothers. In “Puss-in-Boots” a cat is inherited by the youngest of three brothers. The cat — a lowly gift to the last, and therefore most redundant, son — requests of his master a pair of boots and, through a series of magic tricks (he is a cat, afterall!), proceeds to introduce his master to the king’s court and have the king’s princess-daughter fall in love and marry him. Supernatural indeed: a talking animal, an ogre and magical transformations — all bringing good results: the acquisition of wealth and a rise in social standing.

And that is why we love cats (and books) and, perhaps, why Pope Clement did not.

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Banned! — Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la India por los Portugueses

25 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Anvers, archivist, Asia, Brazil, Castilian, East Indies, English, European, Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, French, German, Goa, India, Martin Nucio, Pedro Alvares Cabral, Portugal, Portuguese, scribe, South America, University of Coimbra, Vasco de Gama, Western European

DS498.3-C37-1554
“He who writes histories must make the efforts that I made and see the land that he is to write about, as I saw it, for so was it done by ancient and modern historians…Very supernatural must be the talented man who will know how to write about things that he never did.” — Fernão Castanheda

Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la India por los Portugueses
Fernão Lopes de Castanheda (d. 1559)
En Anvers: En casa de Martin Nucio, MDLIIII (1554)
Second edition

Fernão Lopes de Castanheda’s History of the Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India is one of the earliest Western European chronicles of Portuguese expansion into Asia. Castanheda left Portugal in 1528 to serve as a scribe in Goa. He traveled Asia extensively. After returning home ten years later, he became administrative officer at the University of Coimbra, acting as archivist. In that capacity he gathered his personal experiences along with other eye-witness accounts, interviews and library documents.

Castanheda wrote the history of the Portuguese in Asia beginning with the travels of Vasco de Gama and focusing on the East Indies and India but also including the Portuguese conquest of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1467-c. 1520) in 1500. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the Northeast coast of South America. Catanheda’s painstaking work took him twenty years to complete.

This work is divided into eight books covering roughly five years each. The first book was printed in parts in Coimbra between 1551 and 1561.

The first edition is extremely rare. Castanheda was forced, shortly after its publication, to withdraw the work from circulation because it wounded the sensibilities of some people holding high position. The Portuguese Crown sought to keep secret the nautical details about the voyage to India, but Portuguese printed histories were soon translated in whole or part in other European languages, including French, Castilian (1554), German and English (1582).

DS498.3-C37-1554-marble

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Book of the Week — Instituzioni Analitiche ad uso della gioventu’ italiana

14 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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algebra, Baltimore, Bologna, calculus, copper engravings, English, French, geometry, German, Greek, headpieces, Hebrew, historiated initials, Isaac Newton, Italian, John Colson, John Hellens, Johns Hopkins University Press, Latin, Leibniz, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Massimo Mazzotti, Milan, Pietro Agnesi, Pope Benedict XIV, silk merchant, Spanish, vignettes

QA35-A27-1748-v.1-title

Instituzioni Analitiche
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799)
Milan: Nella Regia-Ducal Corte, 1748
First edition
QA35 A27 1748

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was the eldest in a family of at least twenty-one children. Her father, Pietro Agnesi, a wealthy silk merchant, could afford to provide her with some of the best tutors available. A child prodigy, at an early age she had mastered Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and Latin.

She was shy, and suffered convulsions and headaches, but had strong impetus to please her father, who was focused on moving his family from its merchant class status to aristocracy. He proudly and frequently had her present at small social gatherings in which she gave discourses in Latin on natural philosophy — subjects such as the nature of tides and the origins of spring water –, mathematics, or the nature of the soul. These discourses took place in her well-appointed family home, surrounded by lush furnishings and paintings of sacred subjects.

Several of her sisters entered convents. One of her brothers became a monk. Pietro Agnesi denied Gaetana’s request to enter a convent, but eventually agreed to keep her out of the public sphere.

Instituzioni Analitiche is her momumental work, which she dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Her objective was to give a complete comprehensible analysis of algebra, with emphasis on relatively new concepts. She wrote in Italian rather than Latin in an attempt to attract younger readers (in particular her brothers) and other readers, such as women, who were less than welcome in the world of Latin scholars. She explained elementary algebra, classical geometry, differential calculus, and integral calculus. Calculus was little understood by many intellectuals, including mathematicians, of the time — Isaac Newton had only recently died in 1727, Leibniz in 1716. This was the first vernacular textbook on calculus. And the first mathematics book to be published by a woman.

In her introduction, Agnesi states that some of the methods, material, and generalizations in her book were original to her. Her book was translated into English and French. John Hellens, editor of John Colson’s English translation, noted that Colson “found [Agnesi’s] work to be so excellent that he was at the pains of learning the Italian language at an advanced age for the sole purpose of translating her book into English, that the British Youth might have the benefit of it as well as the Youth of Italy.”

Today, Agnesi’s name is known to math students for her geometric “curve,” the witch of Agnesi, expressed as a mathematical equation.

Agnesi received her greatest recognition from Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) in the form of two letters. The first letter (June 1749) congratulated her on the publication of her book and was accompanied by a gold wreath containing valuable stones and a gold medal. In his second letter (September 1750), the pope appointed her to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bologna. Though she accepted the position as “honorary,” she ultimately did not teach there.

Following the death of her father, she no longer engaged in any scientific activity and spent the rest of her life in religious studies, devoting herself to the poor, the sick, the hungry and the homeless. She was all but forgotten for her treatise on calculus.

Illustrated with fifty-nine copper engraved folding plates and two folding tables. Copper-engraved title page vignettes, headpieces and historiated initials. Rare Books copy bound in early nineteenth century calf over paste paper boards, green and red gilt-lettered spine labels.

QA35-A27-1748-v.2-pg705

QA35-A27-1748-v.2-pg708

Recommended reading:
Mazzotti, Massimo. The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, QA29 A28 M39 2007, L1, General Collection

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Rare Books Goes to Geneva!

06 Thursday Jul 2017

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American, Americas, aquatints, Elizabeth Daley, English, fairy tale, Fort McKenzie, French, frontier, German, indigenous, July, Karl Bodmer, Montana, Patek Philippe, Prince Maximilian zu Wied, rare books, Romantic, Scott Beadles, Special Collections Reading Room, watercolors

Tableau_41
“A seemingly idyllic, rarely seen American past comes to life like a fairy tale — some land before time, before film, before death.”

Patek Philippe: The International Magazine used images from the Karl Bodmer aquatints held in the rare book collections for an article in its July 2017 issue. The digital reproductions, especially crafted by Rare Books assistant Scott Beadles for this issue, illustrate “Home of the Braves,” by Elizabeth Daley.

“In the 1830s, when the American West was on the verge of momentous change, a German prince set off to explore the country and its people. He took with him a Swiss artist, whose intricate depictions are the last record [before photography] of a disappearing world.” Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian zu Wied on his two-year journey across the American frontier, reaching as far west as Fort McKenzie, Montana.

Tableau_5edited

The Rare Books Department holds a set of the eighty-one aquatints produced after watercolors by Bodmer for zu Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America, first published in German in 1839 and later translated into English and French. Rare Books holds first editions of the German and of the English translation.

You can look at the digitized collection here:

Karl Bodmer Aquatints

In this digital format, you can also look at the first German and English editions of zu Wied’s Travels. Better than that, however, you can visit the Special Collections Reading Room and browse the lush, exquisitely detailed aquatints in their original state.

Hardly a romantic fairy tale, the history of indigenous peoples in the Americas is often tragic (they were not saved by a Prince) but always rich in its antiquity and its currency. Bodmer’s aquatints and zu Wied’s Travels are only part of a story worth exploring to your heart’s content in Special Collections.

Patek-Philippe-Cover

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A Noble Genealogy — Happy Birthday, Philip the Fair

22 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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angel, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bruges, Burgundy, Carthusian, Charles the Bold, Chlothar, Christian, Dijon, Dole, Duchy of Burgundy, Duke of Merania, Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, facsimile, Flanders, Flemish, Flemish Chronicles, France, German, Ghent, Girart de Roussillon, Holy Roman Empire, House of Burgundy, Hungary, illuminators, John the Fearless, King Boson, Louis XI, manuscript illumination, Margaret of York, Mary Magdalene, Master of Edward IV, Maximilian of Austria, Mechelen, miniatures, Montereau-Fault-Yonne, Oise, Olivier de la Marche, Philip the Bold, Philip the Fair, Poligny, rare books, Saint-Stephen of Besancon, Seine, spite, sword, Theodoric, Turks, tutor, workshop

DC611-B776-F5-2015-spread1
“Here follow some chronicles excerpted from some ancient registers and other teachings of certain ancient kings, princes and several holy persons from the very noble and ancient house of Burgundy.”

THE FLEMISH CHRONICLES OF PHILIP THE FAIR
Quaternio verlag Luzern, 2015
DC611 HB776 F5 2015

Facsimile. The Flemish Chronicles was produced in 1485/86 in Bruges for Philip, the heir to the House of Burgundy, who was just seven years old at the time. The Chronicles is a history of Burgundy illustrated with eleven large miniatures depicting historical events, idyllic nature scenes and scenes at court. The text is minimal, as would befit the beginning reading capacity of a child.

DC611-B776-F5-2015-spread2
“Theodoric, King of Burgundy, defeated Chlothar, second King of this name of France, in battle in the year 605 after the resurrection of Our Lord. 30,000 men were then killed. During this battle an angel was seen holding a naked sword above the people. And at that time the said Theoderic conquered all the land situated between the rivers Seine and Oise, as it is written in detail in the chronicles of France.”

Like any children’s book, the images were intended to overtake the text. In this case, the images announce the importance of the dynasty Philip was to inherit. The Duchy of Burgundy ended with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. Louis XI of France pounced on the Burgundian lands, but the economically powerful Flanders rebelled. Charles’ daughter Mary, in an effort to avoid catastrophe, married the son of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian of Austria, three months after her father’s death.

DC611-B776-F5-2015-spread3
“Frederick, who since that time was Emperor, and who was a brother of the said King Boson, despite his young age recovered all the land of Burgundy and a part of the German lands.
Otto, by grace of God palatine count of Burgundy, was a son of the said Frederick, and he died in the year 1191, on the 26th day of June.
Jeanne, daughter of the said Otto, whose body lies in the church of Saint-Stephen of Besancon, was wife of the Emperor and lady of Burgundy.
Otto, by the grace of God Duke of Merania and palatine count of Burgundy, of Macon, and of Vienne was a son of the said Jeanne, who formerly claimed the Kingdom of Burgundy, and founded the canons of Poligny, who since then were transferred to Dole. And at that time, out of spite, the Kingdom of Burgundy was turned into a Duchy.”

Their son, Philip, was born on June 22 in Bruges. Mary died in an accident in 1482.

DC611-B776-F5-2015-spread4
“From the said Philip the Bold descended John the Fearless Duke of Burgundy, most victorious and most Christian prince who fought the Turks in Hungary, and died at Montereau-Fault-Yonne in the year 1419. His tomb is in the Carthusian church at Dijon.”

The Flemish territories refused to recognize Maximilian as regent for his son. Ghent and Bruges rebelled. In 1485 Maximilian took Philip to Mechelen, where his grandmother, Margaret of York, raised him.

This chronicle, written and produced for Philip, featured a century of his Burgundian ancestors. This is an unusual book for its time, made especially for a child. The chronicler, Olivier de la Marche, was Philip’s tutor. The chronicle sets the Burgundian throne within a thousand year-old history, beginning in 14CE and ending just after the death of Philip’s mother. In this setting, the Burgundian ancestors were placed alongside Mary Magdalene (who purportedly baptized the first Burgundian king), the knight Girart de Roussillon, Bernard of Clairvaux, Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa and the Burgundian dukes from Philip the Bold on.

Flanders was a bevy of wealthy commercial cities at this time. Bruges and Ghent had a concentration of talented and well-funded illuminators. These cities became the center of European manuscript illumination in the second half of the fifteenth century. In this highly competitive atmosphere, Master of Edward IV operated a flourishing workshop. One of his assistants created the miniatures and border art for The Flemish Chronicles.

Facsimile edition of seven hundred and forty copies, sixty of which are hors de commerce. Rare Books copy is no. 134.

DC611-B776-F5-2015-spread5

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Book of the Week — Mrs. Delany Meets Herr Haeckel

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Arches, Arches MBM Ingres, artist, Barbara Hodgson, biologist, botanical, Canada, Claudia Cohen, cut-paper, decorations, English, Ernst Haeckel, Europe, German, Gifu, gilt, Hahnemuhle Ingres, hand-colored, handmade, HM Editions, Ingres, initials, Japan, Kiraku kozo, Kitikata, Kozuke, marbling, Mary Delany, microscopic organism, morocco, mulberry, paper, papermaker, Reg Lissel, single-cell, Suminigashi, Turkish, Vancouver, wove, Yatsuo

MreD&HerrHTitle

“Mrs. Delany’s was an age when genteel women, whether amateur or professional, were occupied with crafts, decorative works, design and fine arts. Embroidery, quilling, shellwork, japanning, silhouette making, drawing, painting in oils and watercolours, knitting, sewing, flower making, modelling in wax and clay, miniature painting, and horticulture were among the arts practiced.”

MRS. DELANY MEETS HERR HAECKEL
Barbara Hodgson
Vancouver: HM Editions, 2015
N7433.4 H63 M77 2015

From the publisher’s website: [Mrs. Delany] is an “imagined collaboration between Mrs. Mary Delany (1700-1788), an English widow, woman of accomplishment, and creator of imaginative botanical ‘paper mosaics’ and Herr Ernst Haeckel (1852-1911), a distinguished and controversial German biologist and artist who devoted much of his time to the study and rendering of single-celled creatures.”

MreD&HerrHPlateVIII

Cut paper image of a microscopic organism affixed to frontispiece with another cut-paper image affixed to the recto of the same sheet; eleven cut-paper interpretations of microscopic organisms tipped on to captioned plates; tipped-in cut-paper initials, numerous smaller cut-paper decorations. The paper cuttings are adapted from Ernst Haeckel’s Die Radiolarien (1862) and Kunstformen der Natur (1899-1904). They are cut from a variety of papers, including Yatsuo, Kozuke, mulberry, Gifu, Kitikata, and Kiraku kozo from Japan; Ingres and unidentified wove from Europe; and Reg Lissel handmade papers from Canada. Some were cut from papers previously marbled in the Turkish or Suminigashi styles. Some were dyed by the papermaker; some were dyed or otherwise hand-colored for this book. The cuttings are mounted on one of Arches text wove (white), Arches MBM Ingres (black) or Hahnemuhle Ingres (black).

Bound in full polished morocco, ruled and stamped decoratively in red and gilt with a gilt-lettered spine by Claudia Cohen. Marbled endpapers. Issued in orange clamshell case with a gilt-lettered spine label.

MrsD&HerrHCover2

MrsD&HerrHMarble

Edition of twenty-five copies plus six hors de commerce, each signed by the author, printer, and binder. Rare Books copy is XXII.

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