History Courses at Rare Book School
Rare Book School
RARE BOOK SCHOOL (RBS) is pleased to announce its Spring and Summer
Sessiona 2003, a collection of five-day, non-credit courses on topics
concerning rare books, manuscripts, the history of books and printing,
and special collections to be held at the University of Virginia.
FOR AN APPLICATION FORM and electronic copies of the complete brochure
and the RBS Expanded Course Descriptions (ECDs), providing additional
details about the courses offered and other information about RBS,
visit our Web site at:
Subscribers to the list may find the following Rare Book School
courses to be of particular interest:
41. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ILLUSTRATION. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, JULY
7-11). This introductory course is a survey of the history of
illustration from medieval manuscripts to the contemporary book.
Topics include: painted and drawn illustrations before the advent of
printing, early woodblock printing (including blockbooks), German and
Italian Renaissance illustration, the Encyclopédie and other works of
the French Enlightenment, children's books, the private press
movement, the period of l'Art nouveau, and the use of photography in
book illustration, among other subjects. Instructor: Alan Fern.
ALAN FERN retired in 2000 after 18 years as director of the National
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, before which
he was Chief of the Prints and Photographs Division (and later
Director for Special Collections) at the Library of Congress. He has
published and lectured widely on various topics in the graphic arts,
including the history of the poster, the Art Nouveau, the history of
photography, American portraiture, and the work of such 20th century
artists as Leonard Baskin, Fritz Eichenberg, Maurizio Lasansky, and
Arnold Newman.
44. HISTORY OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN PAPERMAKING. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, JULY
7-11). Papermaking from its introduction in Europe through the
Industrial Revolution, emphasizing changes in technology and the
economics of the trade. Topics include: labor and management, the
identification and description of paper in early books and
manuscripts, and the revival of hand-papermaking in the c20. The
course will include demonstrations of manufacturing techniques, and
sessions in which students will date and localize early papers on the
basis of watermark and other physical evidence. Instructors: Timothy
D. Barrett and John Bidwell.
TIMOTHY D. BARRETT is is Research Scientist at the University of
Iowa, where he was the director of the Center for the Book between
1996 and 2002. His publications include Japanese Papermaking:
Traditions, Tools and Techniques (1983) and other books, articles and
videotapes on the history, technique and aesthetics of both oriental
and western papermaking. He and John Bidwell have taught this course
together at RBS many times since 1987.
JOHN BIDWELL is Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at the
Pierpont Morgan Library, before which he was Curator of Graphic Arts
in the Princeton University Library; and he has held curatorial
positions at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, RIT's Cary
Collection, and at the Chapin Library, Williams College. He has
published widely on the history of American papermaking.
63. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 28 JULY
- 1 AUGUST). A survey of European and American typographic history
from 1450 to the present, but concentrating on the period 1480-1950.
Topics will include: the development of Roman and italic; from Old
Style to Transitional to Modern (Italian, French, Dutch, and English
developments); display types; the coming of machine composition and
the historic revivals; typeface nomenclature; and techniques for
dating pre-1885 hand-set typefaces and for naming post-1885
machine-set typefaces. In laboratory sessions, students will have a
chance to set type by hand, proof, and print. Instructor: Stanley
Nelson.
STANLEY NELSON has been a specialist for many years in the Graphic
Arts Collection of the National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution, and he has given many demonstrations and
lectured widely on various aspects of typographic history. He is both
author and presenter in the 1985 Book Arts Press videotape, From Punch
to Printing Type: The Art and Craft of Hand Punchcutting and
Typecasting.
71. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF BOOKBINDING. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 4-8
AUGUST) A bookbinding has two main functions. It protects its text
block against wear and tear, and, by its structure, it makes a book
out of a heap of otherwise separate leaves or quires. Through the
ages, the covers, spine, fore-edge and other parts of the book have
been decorated in almost every conceivable manner, technique, and
material, thereby turning the binding into a work of decorative art.
This introductory course, which will discuss the principal techniques
and materials used in the West over binding's long history, is
intended for those who wish to develop a better understanding of the
history of the field; it is not a practical binding course. It is
aimed at historians, special collections personnel, collectors,
dealers, conservators and bookbinders, and others with an interest in
the binding and its history. Instructor: Jan Storm van Leeuwen.
JAN STORM VAN LEEUWEN is Keeper of the Binding Collection at the Dutch
Royal Library in The Hague. He has published widely in Dutch, English,
French, and German on the history of bookbinding. He gives courses in
the history of bookbinding at the Amsterdam Restoration School and at
the Plantin Society in Antwerp. He is honorary member of the
International Association of Bibliophiles and the Amis de la Reliure
d'Art.