On September 29th, 1547, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid. To celebrate the great Spanish writer, we are highlighting one of the stories originally collected in Novelas ejemplares, published in 1613, between the first and second parts of Don Quijote.
Our copy of The Dialogue of the Dogs was released by The Allen Press in 1969, in a limited edition of 140 copies. Dorothy Allen and Lewis Allen designed the book, and completed the printing and binding in Kenfield, California, working with a nineteenth century translation by Walter Keating Kelly. The type is a hand set Goudy 30; the rag paper is by the Wookey Hole paper mill, which closed in 1972. Mallette Dean (1907-1975) created the exuberant ornamentations that border the text.
Earlier this month I outlined an Independent Study I am doing with the Head of Special Collections, Max Yela, where I am exploring the European tradition of plant and animal illustrations in books. I named the Summer Series “The Spectacle of Nature." As a refresher, I am investigating illustrated natural history books in the West, starting in the manuscript tradition through the advent of printing in the 15th century. From there I will track how illustrated natural history books have changed over the centuries. My goal is to form a foundation for my thesis research in the popularization of natural history books in the 19th century, when new printing technologies made books cheaper and more accessible to a wider consumer base.
Today I am highlighting the Physiologus, a collection of animal legends compiled by an anonymous author in Alexandria, Egypt around the 2nd century CE. The word “Physiologus” can be translated as “naturalist,” or more accurately, “allegorist,” someone who interprets the hidden meanings of the natural world. The Physiologus was originally written in Greek, with early translations appearing in Latin around the 4th century, and Ethiopian, Syrian, and Armenian around the 5th century. These translations increased the popularity of the stories, which were incorporated into Isidore of Seville’s encyclopedic work Etymologies (ca. 623). Illustrations and stories from Physiologus formed the primary basis of medieval bestiaries (book of beasts).
The Physiologus is a compilation of folklore from various traditions including Indian, Hebrew, and Egyptian legends, that were passed down through ancient scientific writers such as Pliny the Elder. These legends were then filtered through a Christian framework of the world. Natural things like plants, animals, and stones are shown as representing qualities of Christ. For example, the Physiologus describes the serpent growing old and losing its vision. To restore its eyesight, the serpent will fast for forty days and forty nights to shed its skin and renew itself.
My interest in the Physiologus is its visual representations of plants and animals, and how those depictions became iconographic over hundreds of years. The earliest surviving illustrated copy is the Bern Physiologus from around the 9th century CE. I’ve included illustrations of the lion and elephant from the digitized Bern Physiolgus from Europeana.
Many illustrations that first appear in copies of the Physiologus later appear in medieval bestiaries, and even early printed books.
One of my favorite examples is the pelican bird. From Michael J. Curley’s English translation:
“Physiologus says of the pelican that it is an exceeding lover of its young. If the pelican brings forth young and the little ones grow, they take to striking their parents in the face. The parents, however, hitting back kill their young ones and then, moved my compassion, they weep over them for three days, lamenting over those whom they killed. On the third day, their mother strikes her side and spills her own blood over their dead bodies (that is, of the chicks) and the blood itself awakens them from death.”
The illustration shows the mother pelican rejuvenating the chicks with her blood. I included three visual examples of this: A woodcut from UW-Madison's copy of Ortus sanitatis (Latin for The Garden of Health) from the 1490s, a woodcut from the 1587 G. Ponce de Leon edition of Physiologus from the Newberry Library in Chicago (scanned from Michal J. Curley’s book), and the 1953 Book Club of California edition of Physiologus illustrated by Mallette Dean, which we have featured in several Fine Press Friday posts. Francis J. Carmody‘s translation for the Book Club of California is a composite of Greek, Syrian, Ethiopian, and Latin.
I will explore other illustrated natural history books from the manuscript tradition in upcoming posts before moving on to early printed zoological and botanical books.
View more posts in the Summer Series: The Spectacle of Nature.
–Sarah, Special Collections Senior Graduate Intern
Scholarly works that I consulted while researching the Physiologus:
Curley, Michael J. Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Kay, Sarah. Animal Skins and the Reading Self in Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Morrison, Elizabeth, and Larisa Grollemond, eds. Book of Beasts: the Bestiary in the Medieval World. Los Angeles: Published by the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019.
This week we present some lovely hand-colored calligraphic flourishes by California printmaker and illustrator Mallette Dean (1907-1975) for the opening chapters in California writer Gertrude Atherton‘s The Splendid Idle Forties: Six Stories of Spanish California (originally published in 1902) with a preface by Oscar Lewis, printed in Kentfield, California at The Allen Press by Lewis and Dorothy Allen in an edition of 150 copies in 1960. Mallette Dean produced illustrations for several California fine presses, most especially for the Grabhorn Press.
The text font is hand-set Romanée, designed by Dutch book and type designer Jan van Krimpen, cut by the influential German punchcutter Paul H. Rädisch, and released by the Enschedé type foundry in 1928. Dean’s designs also appear throughout the text, and we are particularly impressed the beautiful Romanée display initials that mark the beginning of every unquoted paragraph. Printed damp on all-rag Rives paper on the Allen’s ca. 1830 Acorn-Smith hand press, the overall impression is one of lithe elegance. Our copy of The Splendid Idle Forties is a gift from our friend Jerry Buff.
This week we present Physiologus: The Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants, and Stones translated from Greek and other languages by Francis J. Carmody. Physiologus is a didactic Christian text that describes the moral and symbolic meaning of various plants, animals, and mythical creatures, often comparing them to heavenly things. This 1953 version of Physiologus was printed by Vivien Dean and Mallette Dean for The Book Club of California in an edition of 325 copies. The type is hand-set French Elzevir, the paper is Arches mould-made, and the hand-colored illustrations have been engraved and printed from linoleum blocks.
Francis J. Carmody wrote in the introduction to Physiologus:
“In the second century, in Egypt or in Palestine, a Christian monk gathered some fifty legends of animals, plants, and stones. He found hidden in each of them a mystic meaning; then, boldly calling himself The Physiologer, he prepared the first Greek bestiary. This text, long since lost in its original form, is reconstructed here. During the fourth century, to satisfy a new need evident in the writings of such Church Fathers as Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome, Latin translations appeared. Copied and endlessly revised, the Latin versions spread over Europe, were set into mediaeval French and German. And penetrated even further into our ways of thought through the many compilations and encyclopedias of universal knowledge.”
This week we present Physiologus: The Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants, and Stones translated from Greek and other languages by Francis J. Carmody. Physiologus is a didactic Christian text that describes the moral and symbolic meaning of various plants, animals, and mythical creatures, often comparing them to heavenly things. This 1953 version of Physiologus was printed by Vivien Dean and Mallette Dean for The Book Club of California in an edition of 325 copies. The type is hand-set French Elzevir, the paper is Arches mould-made, and the hand-colored illustrations have been engraved and printed from linoleum blocks.
Francis J. Carmody wrote in the introduction to Physiologus:
“In the second century, in Egypt or in Palestine, a Christian monk gathered some fifty legends of animals, plants, and stones. He found hidden in each of them a mystic meaning; then, boldly calling himself The Physiologer, he prepared the first Greek bestiary. This text, long since lost in its original form, is reconstructed here. During the fourth century, to satisfy a new need evident in the writings of such Church Fathers as Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome, Latin translations appeared. Copied and endlessly revised, the Latin versions spread over Europe, were set into mediaeval French and German. And penetrated even further into our ways of thought through the many compilations and encyclopedias of universal knowledge.”
We will probably revisit Physiologus in the future because there are many more fantastic beasts to choose from!
View more posts about the Book Club of California.
View more Fine Press Friday posts.
–Sarah, Special Collections Undergraduate Assistant
This past Friday we brought you a work by one of the founders of the modern fine-press movement in San Francisco, John Henry Nash. This Tuesday, we present exquisite typographic press work and original historiated initials by Nash’s successors, the Grabhorns -- Edwin, Robert, and Jane -- who would dominate San Francisco's fine printing for over fifty years.
The Discovery of Florida was published in 1946 by the Grabhorn Press in an edition of 280 copies.The initials and illustrations were designed and cut in wood by Mallette Dean, the principal illustrator for the Grabhorn Press from 1935-1950. Robert and Jane Grabhorn hand set the proprietary Franciscan type, designed for the Grabhorns by Frederic Goudy in 1932. The book was printed by Edwin Grabhorn and the Press’s long-time partner Sherwood Grover.
Physiologus: the Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants, and Stones, Translated from Greek and Other Languages by Francis J. Carmody.
The eighty-fifth book published by the Book Club of California. Printed by Mallette Dean in French Elzevir, handset, on mold made paper. The title is in red and black, and the book has fifty-four illustrations, including those on title and half-title, all drawn and hand-colored by Mallette Dean. There are hand-colored initials throughout, some decorative. Marginal headings and printer’s device on colophon are in red. It is bound in white parchment with an over-all decorative pattern in grey-blue, with the title in red on the spine. 1953.
This handsome book took a year to print. Much of the time, of course, was consumed in hand-coloring the illustrations. One enthusiastic member from Chicago wrote: “In many respects Physiologus is the most exciting book to go on my shelf... I salute the Deans and the great state of California that has done and is doing so much toward maintaining the art of bookmaking at a high level.” Included in the Exhibition of Western Books (Rounce & Coffin Club).
The Coppa Murals: A Pageant of Bohemian Life in San Francisco at the Turn of the Century. By Warren Unna, with an introduction by Joseph Henry Jackson.
The eightieth book published by the Book Club of California. Printed by Adrian Wilson at the Sign of the Interplayers in Centaur monotype on machine made paper. The title and colophon are in red and black; chapter headings and numbers, and pagination are all in red. Eight reproductions of photographs within red rules. The in red pictorial boards were designed by Mallette Dean. 1952.
Coppa’s Restaurant—the one destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906— was a famous hangout for the bohemian set in San Francisco at the turn of the century. Artists who frequented the place made murals for its walls. This book is the story behind these murals, the identification of their painters and in general the history of Coppa’s and its patrons. The frieze of black cats, reproduced here to adorn the flyleaves and chapter headings, was the work of Xavier Martinez, friend of Gelett Burgess, Porter Garnett and a host of others who combined to make their favorite restaurant a place of great originality. Included in the Exhibition of Western Books (Rounce & Coffin Club).
