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.

Journal of the week — Vojvodjanski zbornik

23 Monday May 2016

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Arad, art, artists, Begrade, Bogdan Ciplic, Bogdan Suput, Bogdan Teodorovic, Budapest, children's literature, colorism, cubism, culture, Europe, fascists, German, Hungarian, Hungary, impressionism, Ivan Tabakovic, journal, landscapes, linocuts, Milan Konjovic, Milenko Sevan, modernist, Munich, Nava Sudarska, Novi Sad, Paris, Petar Dobrovic, portraits, Prague, prisoner-of-war, Romania, Serbia, Serbian, Serbo-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic, Sima Cucic, Stepan Bonarov, Vojvodjansk, Vojvojdina, woodcuts, World War II, Yugoslavia, Zagreb

Vojvodjanski zbornik: almanah. vols. 1 (1938) and 2 (1939)
Novi Sad: S.n., 1938-1939
PG1400 I5 V64

This journal of art and culture was produced in Vojvojdina, an autonomous province of Serbia, on the eve of the second World War. The journal, published in these two issues only, assembled the work of modernist artists and writers of the region, including many contributors whose work is otherwise unpublished or unrecorded. Many of the artists and writers did not survive the war.

The journals include prose, poetry and, in the first volume, illustrations – including original graphic works (woodcuts and linocuts) by Bogdan Teodorovic, Stefan Bodnarov, Milan Konjovic (1898-1993), Milenko Servan, Bogdan Suput (1914-1942), Ivan Tabakovic (1898-1977), Nava Sudarska, Petar Dobrovic (1890-1942) and others.

The journal was edited by Bogdan Ciplic and writer and critic Sima Cucic (1905-1988). Today in Serbia, annual awards for achievements in the field of children’s literature are given in the name of Sima Cucic.

Milan Konjovic (1898-1993) became a prominent Serbian painter. He went to school in Prague, lived in Paris between 1924 and 1932 and traveled throughout Europe before returning to Vojvodjansk. He survived a German prisoner-of-war camp.

Bogdan Suput, considered one of the great Serbian painters of the first half of the twentieth century, was born in 1914. He also spent time in Paris. In 1939 he returned to Belgrade where he became a member of the art group, “Ten.” That April, the Germans invaded Yugoslavia. Suput survived German captivity, but was shot by Hungarian fascists in Novi Sad in 1942. An art school in Novi Sad, begun sixty years ago, is named after him.

Ivan Tabakovic was born in Arad, Hungary (now Romania). He studied art in Budapest and Zagreb. He traveled briefly in Munich. In 1930 he moved to Novi Sad and began teaching in Belgrade in 1938.

Petar Dobrovic, a proponent, along with Milan Konjovic, of Serbian colorism, was known for his portraits and landscapes. He experimented with impressionism and cubism. He was President of the short-lived, small Serbo-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic in 1921. He died in Belgrade during the German occupation.

Book of the Week – THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

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Aeneas, Aeneid, Alexander Pope, Antwerp, Augustus, coats of arms, Cologne, Earl of Arundel, England, English, engraved plates, engraving, etching, Frankfurt, Great Fire of 1666, illustration, Jacob Tonson, John Dryden, London, Marcellus, Matthaus Merian, Octavia, Parliament, pastorals, patronage, Prague, Prince of Wales, subscription, Thomas Howard, translation, verse, Virgil, Wenzal Hollar (1607-1677), William III

THE WORKS OF VIRGIL: CONTAINING HIS PASTORALS,…
London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1697
First edition
PA6807 .A1 D7 1697

Translated into English verse by John Dryden. Alexander Pope called Dryden’s translation “the most noble and spirited translation I know in any language.” The book was published by subscription, a method of publishing by which the subscriber’s patronage enabled the production of particularly lavish books. In all, one hundred and one persons subscribed. For five guineas they would each have a full-page illustration in their copy with their names and coat of arms. A second subscription list went out after Dryden had completed half the translation. These subscribers paid two guineas for their copy, which did not include plates dedicated to them. Two hundred and fifty copies were added for this list. Correspondence between Dryden and Jacob Tonson reveal several arguments during the publication process. One such quarrel evolved over the desire of Tonson to dedicate the book to William III and Dryden’s refusal to do so. Tonson made sure that the engravings were adapted so that Aeneas sported a hooked nose a la William. Illustrated with one hundred and one engraved plates by Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677) as well as an engraved title-page and a full-page engraving of Virgil reciting the Marcellus passage in Aeneid Bk VI to Augustus and Octavia. Hollar, born in Prague, studied engraving in Frankfurt in 1627 with publisher Matthaus Merian. In 1633, he was working in Cologne. Under the patronage of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, he moved to England in 1637, where he taught drawing to the Prince of Wales. He fought in the ranks of the King, was captured by Parliament and escaped to Antwerp in 1644. He returned to London in 1652, where he died in poverty. A master etcher he was recognized in his own time and to this day for his work, producing nearly three thousand plates, many of which illustrated books such as this. He is best known for his etchings of London after the Great Fire of 1666. He married and had a daughter, described by a contemporary as “one of the greatest beauties I have seen.” A son died in the plague. He had several children by a second wife. Bound in contemporary speckled calf, the spine tooled in gold.

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

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