Upcoming Courses at Rare Book School
Rare Book School
Sessions 2004, 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, 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:
61. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF BOOKBINDING. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 12-16
JULY). 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.
41. BOOK ILLUSTRATION PROCESSES TO 1890. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 14-18 JUNE).
The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including
(but not only) woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint,
mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process line
and halftone relief, collotype, photogravure, and color printing. The
course will be taught almost entirely from the extensive Rare Book
School files of examples of illustration processes. As part of the
course, students will make their own etchings, drypoints, and relief
cuts in supervised laboratory sessions. Instructor: Terry Belanger.
TERRY BELANGER, founding director of Rare Book School, is University
Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the
University of Virginia.
53. INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY. (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 5-9
JULY). 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.
55. TYPE, LETTERING, AND CALLIGRAPHY, 1830-1940 (MONDAY-FRIDAY, 5-9
JULY). An examination of typefaces and related letterforms. Topics
include: commercial typography and the evolution of decorative display
types: Perrin, Whittingham, and the revival of old style typefaces;
the types of the private presses; art nouveau; the artist and
printmaker as letter designer; Edward Johnston and broad-pen
calligraphy; type design for machine production; the American
Typefounders Company, Mergenthaler Linotype, Monotype (in the USA and
England); new types in Germany and France. This course continues the
themes developed in T-50. Instructor: James Mosley.
JAMES MOSLEY is Visiting Professor in the Department of Typography &
Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He retired as
Librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in London in 1999. The
founding editor of the Journal of the Printing Historical Society, he
has written and lectured extensively on the history of European and
English typography. In 2003 he received the annual award of the
American Printing History Association for his contributions to
printing history. He first taught this course at Rare Book School in
1990. It reenters the Rare Book School curriculum in 2004 after an
absence of many years.
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Rare Book School
114 Alderman Library
PO Box 400103
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4103
Phone: 434-924-8851
Fax: 434-924-8824