#bookstudies

[uicb]

We made it to the @newberrylibrary! Today, UICB students, faculty, and UI Conservation Lab staff are visiting rare book collections in Chicago, IL (just a few hours away from Iowa City, IA). Follow our feed and our story throughout the day for exciting photos of our bookapalooza adventures! #uiowa #uicb #rarebook #adventures #books #bookhistory #history #historicalbooks #mfa #bookstudies #historicalstructures (at Newberry Library)

[uicb]

A group from AUA toured the UICB today and got to make a book, letterpress print a leaflet, have their name calligraphed, and learn about papermaking in less than an hour! #uicb #bookarts #bookstudies #letterpress #lettering #bookbinding #aua #uiowa

[uicb]

Choose your own adventure night for #rbms17 Book Studies and Book Arts at UIowa #uicb #uiowa #bookarts #bookstudies

[pittrarebooks]

The Function of a Book: Readers and Collectors

Special Collections welcomed Will Rhodes’ ENGLIT1125 Masterpieces of Renaissance Literature on Wednesday, March 15th. Students had the opportunity to examine facsimiles of Renaissance literature and poetry; fine press and private press editions of literature and poetry; and historical texts dating back to the Renaissance. Students worked closely with these materials and completed an in-class assignment to create a short essay.  Professor Rhodes selected a handful of these essays for us to feature on the Special Collections Tumblr.  We hope that you enjoy!

What is the purpose of a book? Well, to be read of course! But is that always true? While the contents of a book may never change, even down to the style of font it is published in in various editions, the purpose of the book may change. Special Collections houses many facsimiles, or exact copies, and modern editions of older books. I will compare one facsimile and one Renaissance book in order to show how a book is transformed from an object with a practical function to an object meant to be collected.

Purchas His Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World, Samuel Purchas, 1614

This book is an encyclopedic work, which describes various religions, their practices, and briefly about the nation from which they originate. Samuel Purchas was a well-educated Anglican priest, who, despite the extent of his works, never left England. In fact, he collected this knowledge from the stories of sailors and the manuscripts of past travelers. One might wonder why 17th century Christians would be interested in the traditions of other cultures. This is clearly answered on the title page.

Under the author’s name is the phrase “Unus Deus, Una Veritas,” meaning “One God, One Truth.” Therefore, these descriptions of other cultures represent what is false in the world. In an era where Europe is exploring and missioning to these places it would make sense to try and understand the culture of the native people. Purchas calls this his “pilgrimage.” This book therefore has a religious function. It is not a literal journey but a metaphoric journey around the world. The knowledge gained on this journey could allow others to better conduct their mission work in these countries.

But the book also functions to justify the growing authority of Christianity in these places. In one description of religious practice in China, the author writes that when people “obtain not their requests [to the Gods], they will whip and beat these Gods.” It is clear that these people do not understand the reverence and proper worship that Europeans do. This likely pleased, the Archbishop of Canterbury George Abbot, to whom the dedicatory epistle is written.

Another indication of its intended use by the clergy is the numerous printed notes in the margin. These often give evidence for what has been written or more avenues for research. The notes may be in Latin, Greek, or English, which implies the reader must have had the education to understand these annotations. The clergy would have learned Greek to read some of the oldest versions of the Bible and Latin for most church documents up until the reformation.

Essayes- Religious Meditations- Places of Perswasion and Disswasion, Francis Bacon, Originally Published 1597, Haslewood Edition: 1924

This collection of writings from philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon covers a wide variety of topics from a “regiment of health” to “atheism.” I am most interested in the middle text of the three works included in this book. It is called the “Meditationes Sacrae” or “Sacred Meditations.” This work is completely in Latin despite the other texts of this book being in English. Bacon must have had a sense that for anyone to take you seriously when writing about religious matters you had to write in Latin. In these short meditations he discusses common religious concerns such as the nature of Christ’s miracles and controversies between Church and scripture. This was likely regarded as a useful and edifying book in its time.

While one could make some interesting points about how Bacon’s logical scientific method influenced his religious beliefs, the fact that a facsimile was published more than three hundred years after it was originally published raises equally interesting ideas. While the book says it is an exact copy, “page for page and line for line,” of the first edition octavo this is not quite true. The note in the front of the book reveals that the outdated “f” has been replaced with the modern “s.” The frontispiece, shown above, is also redrawn from a different work of Bacon’s. It is also interesting that the editor’s note points out that this version is not the most well known, because Bacon continued to add to and edit these essays for many years.

This book is neither the text that made it famous nor a totally accurate copy of the original so perhaps the purpose is not for it to be read but to be collected. Part of the challenge and fun of collecting is the rarity of the object. For instance, you could go to a comic book store and buy any new comic and there’s no challenge there. But if you want issue #134 of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen to complete your collection of Jack Kirby comics it’s a lot harder. So the publisher has created this sort of challenge by limiting the number of copies printed. This book had a run of only 975 books. 

Artist and architect Frederick Etchells founded Haslewood Press, the publisher of this book. This explains why this book is an object of aesthetic value. It was printed on all cotton paper with a deckled edge that gives the appearance of the paper being handmade. The top edge is gilt. It is these small details that make the book more beautiful almost to the point that it does not matter which classic work of literature it is. The back of this book is an advertisement for other books from this publisher. To promote the collecting of this series it announces that their copies of the first book have been “exhausted” and that only “some copies remain” of the second. Also interesting, is a review of one book, which describes the contents as “charming” but the printing to be “excellent” on “good rag paper.” A list of the upcoming books with their unique features is also included. These details further convey that in the case of these reprints, it seems more important to have a beautiful library of famous books than to be particularly invested in the contents of the book.

-Mark Connor, University of Pittsburgh undergraduate

[hsquareddesigns]

Today, I am adulting. #adultingishard #hsquareddesigns #putalittleprettyinyourlife #professionaldevelopment #needthosehourstokeepmycertification #bookstudies #are10hourseach