September 2011 Archives

Up From the Stacks is a new music-theater performance by Mark Mulcahy and Ben Katchor, with Ken Maiuri, Dave Trenholm and Brian Marchese.

Set in The New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street and in the environs of Times Square circa 1970, Up From the Stacks is the story of Lincoln Cabinée, a college student working part-time as a page, retrieving books for readers from the Library's collection of 43 million items. This routine evening job inadvertently thrusts young Cabinée into the treacherous crossroads of scholarly obsession and the businesses of amusement and vice that then flourished in the 42nd Street area. The intellectual life of the city and the happiness of a young man hang in the balance.

Often when someone buys a new book, the first things they do is throw away the dust jacket or wrapper. Certainly libraries do. This might also help to conceal the subject matter of the book, should your spouse object to particular genres of literature.

One French collector removed but saved the illustrated wrappers and advertising copy from his book collection. Eventually, the wrappers were bound together and are now in the collection of graphic arts. Authors include Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Armand Silvestre, Catulle Mendes, Jules Hoche, Emile Driant, and many others.

A collection of over 200 French illustrated wrappers and publisher’s specimens (Paris, 1882-1907). Graphic Arts 2011- in process.

J. A. Grozier, Game of Round the World: a Novel and Fascinating Game with Plenty of Excitement by Land and Sea: with Nellie Bly (1864-1922), the World’s Globe Circler (New York: McLoughlin Brothers, 1890). Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process

Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), Niels Klims underjordiske reise, oversat efter den latinske original af Jens Baggesen (Kiöbenhavn [Copenhagen]: Johan Frederik Schultz, 1789). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2004-3316N.

First published in Latin as Nicolai Klimii iter subterraneum (1741) by the Norwegian-Danish author Baron Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754), this deluxe edition has a Danish translation by the poet Jens Baggesen (1764-1826). The volume is illustrated with etchings by the Danish Royal engraver Johan Frederik Clemens (1749-1831) after drawing by Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard (1743-1809).

Originally, Holberg went to Germany to have the book published, fearing religious objections in Denmark. The satirical nature of the novel pushes the eighteenth-century boundaries of sexual equality and social morality. The book was, in the end, a tremendous success—“the Danish Gulliver’s Travels”—and Holberg named the “Molière of the North.”

Holberg’s novel describes a utopian society discovered by Niels Klim when he accidentally fell into a hole in the earth’s crust. He finds an underworld where trees are alive and the rules are different. Nicknamed “overhasty” because he moved so much faster than the trees, he becames the King’s messenger and visited twenty-seven different provinces, not unlike Swift’s Gulliver.

Rare Books and Special Collections holds many copies of Holberg’s fantasy, in Latin, English, Danish, and other languages. Here are a few:

Nicolai Klimii iter svbterranevm: novam tellvris theoriam ac historiam qvintae monarchiae adhvc nobis incognitae exhibens e bibliotheca B. Abelini (1741). Rare Books (Ex) 3351.36.1741

Nicolai Klimii iter svbterranevm, novam tellvris theoriam ac historiam qvintæ monarchiæ adhvc nobis incognitæ exhibens, e bibliotheca B. Abelini (1745). Rare Books (Ex) 3351.36.11

Nicolai Klimii iter svbterranevm novam tellvris theoriam ac historiam qvintae monarchiae adhvc nobis incognitae exhibens e bibliotheca B. Abelini (1766). Rare Books (Ex) PT8085 .N5 1766

Niels Klims underjordiske reise; oversat efter den latinske original af Jens Baggesen (1789). Graphic Arts 2004-3316N

Journey to the World Underground: Being the Subterraneous Travels of Niels Klim (1828). Sheide Library 24.2.5

Niels Klim’s journey under the ground; being a narrative of his wonderful descent to the subterranean lands; together with an account of the sensible animals and trees inhabiting the planet Nazar and the firmament (1845). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2004-2535N

The Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize is endowed from the estate of Elmer Adler, who for many years encouraged the collecting of books by Princeton undergraduates.

The personal essay is about a collection owned by the student. It should describe the thematic or artifactual nature of the collection and discuss with some specificity the unifying characteristics that have prompted the student to think of certain items as a collection. It should also convey a strong sense of the student’s motivations for collecting and what their particular collection means to them personally. The history of the collection, including collecting goals, acquisition methods, and milestones are of particular interest, as is a critical look at how the goals may have evolved over time and an outlook on the future development of the collection. Essays are judged in equal measures on the strength of the collection and the strength of the writing.

An informational session introducing the contest will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 6, 2011 in the Scheide Library, located in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Firestone Library. The Scheide Library holds outstanding collections of Bibles in manuscript and print, including a Gutenberg and a 36-line Bible; medieval manuscripts and incunabula; music manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven; and other rare materials. Scheide Librarian Paul Needham will give a brief tour and talk about the importance of book collecting. Regine Heberlein, RBSC archivist, will be on hand to answer questions about the Adler Prize.

Essays should be submitted via e-mail, in a Microsoft Word attachment, to
Regine: heberlei@princeton.edu by Monday, November 28, 2011 and should be between 9-10 pages long, double-spaced. In addition to the ten-page essay, each entry should include a selected bibliography of no more than 3 pages detailing the items in the collection. A separate cover sheet should include your name, class year, residential address, email address, and phone number. Please note that essays submitted in file formats other than Microsoft Word, submitted without cover sheet, or submitted without a bibliography will not be forwarded to the judges.

Winners will receive their prizes at the annual winter dinner of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, which they are expected to attend. The first-prize essay will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle. In addition, the first-prize essay has the honor of representing Princeton University in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Please note that per the ABAA’s contest rules, the winning essay will be entered exactly as submitted to the Adler Prize contest, without possibility of revision.

DATES TO REMEMBER
Informational meeting: 4:30 pm, October 6, 2011
Deadline for entries: November 28, 2011

First prize: $2000

Second prize: $1500

Third prize: $1000

Suggested readings from Paul Needham, Scheide Librarian:
Michael Sadleir, preface to his XIX Century Fiction (1951). Firestone 3579.079
A.N.L. Munby, Essays and Papers (1977). Firestone Z992.M958
John Carter, Taste and Technique in Book Collecting (1970). Firestone 0511.241.2.1970
G. Thomas Tanselle “The Rationale of Collecting,” Studies in Bibliography. Online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/bsuva/sb

Ovid (43 B.C.E.-17 or 18 A.D.E.), La vita et Metamorfoseo d'Ovidio, figurato & abbreuiato in forma d'epigrammi da m. Gabriello Symeoni ([Lyons, France]: Giouanni di Tornes ... , 1559. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2005-0147N. This copy is from the printing collection of Elmer Adler (1884-1962).

In 1557, French artist Bernard Salomon (ca. 1508 or 1510-ca. 1561) created 178 woodcuts for a new translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Ten of the cuts from this series, according to Ruth Mortimer, first appeared in Clement Marot's translation of Ovid in his Oevvres (1549) and a few in various other books.

Two years later, an Italian version by Gabriele Simeoni (1509-1570) was published in the same manner, with Salomon's woodcuts, Simeoni's verse legends in italic letter, and ornamenteal borders throughout. With six of the earlier blocks omitted and fifteen new subjects included, the total number of illustrations is 188.

Salomon was an amazingly prolific draftsman. An attempt at a complete list of his book illustrations can be found at: http://www.studiolo.org/BSProject/Outline3.bs.htm

The Oxford Dictionary of Art gives a brief biography: "French painter, draughtsman and engraver. He was probably from a family of belt-makers in Lyon. He was involved as a master painter in the ephemeral decorations for the ceremonial entries of the Archbishop of Lyon in 1540, of Henry II in 1548 and of the Maréchal de Saint-André in 1550. He designed numerous plates for booksellers in Lyon and probably also engraved them. His vignettes for the Fables d'Esope (1551), the Quadrins historiques de la Bible (1553, 1555), the Figures du Nouveau Testament (1556) and the Métamorphoses d'Ovide figurée (1557) were inspired by the elegant Mannerist art of the Fontainebleau school; they became models for engravers working in Lyon and were widely distributed and copied."

I never posted the details for the image at the top of this blog, printed by François-Séraphin Delpech (1778-1825) after a painting by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845), Les amateurs de tableaux (The Art Connoisseurs), 1823-1828. Lithograph. Graphic Arts GC077 French prints

This is one of ninety-six lithographs created and published under the series Recueil de grimaces (A Collection of Grimaces) between 1823 and 1828. A copy of this print, along with several other Boilly caricatures, is included in the current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine. One of the Grimaces is also on the cover of the excellent catalogue written by our colleagues Constance McPhee and Nadine Orenstein.

Boilly’s Grimaces were created and sold in separate sheets rather than bound or in portfolio and so, they are usually not recorded in databases such as OCLC. While these prints were extremely popular and sold well, complete sets are very rare and to my knowledge, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is the only institution with all ninety-six.

For an image of Delpech’s print shop, see the earlier post: /~graphicarts/2007/11/theprintshopoff_delpech.html

The first international retrospective of Boilly’s work opens at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in November to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the artist’s birth. For more information, see www.pba-lille.fr/spip.php?article2135

For more information about the artist, see Louis Boilly (1761-1845), Grimaces, Léopold Boilly, 1994. Marquand Library (SA), ND553.B4 D445 1994q.

Louis Boilly (1761-1845), L.-L. Boilly, peintre, dessinateur, et lithographe; sa vie et son œuvre, 1761-1845, 1898. Marquand Lib.ND553.B4 H24.

Louis Boilly (1761-1845), Louis Boilly, 1761-1845, 1984. Marquand Library (SA) ND553.B4 L68.

Laurence Sterne insisted on including a sheet of marbled paper within his novel Tristram Shandy, hand-set into volume three, usually p. 169. He called the paper “the motly emblem of my work.” Of the 4,000 copies of the first edition published, Princeton University owns seven, each issued in nine volumes from 1759-1767. Volume three, Shandy is born, came in 1761.

Rare Books (Ex) 3943.7.391 v.1-9
Rare Books (Ex) 3943.7.391.11 v.1-9
Rare Books (Ex) 3943.7.391.12 v.1-9
Rare Books: William H. Scheide Library (WHS) 25.2.11-19 vol.1-9
Rare Books: Robert H. Taylor Collection (RHT) 18th-563 vol.1-9
Rare Books: Robert H. Taylor Collection (RHT) 18th-555 vol.1-9
Rare Books: Robert H. Taylor Collection (RHT) 18th-562 vol.1-9

To celebrate this occasion, 169 artists and writers have created a one page emblem of themselves, now in the exhibition The Emblem of My Work, at Shandy Hall, Coxwold, UK (see: www.emblemofmywork169.blogspot.com). For better or worse, it’s up to you and me to match the name of the artist or writer to his or her work. Can you match the emblem to the artist?

Esatta relazione del dolorosissimo funerale della felice memoria dell’augustissimo, potentissimo, et invittissimo imperatore de’ Romani Leopoldo primo il grande [Exact Relationship of the Most Painful Funeral, of the Happy Memory, of the Most Sacred, Most Powerful, and Most Invincible Roman Emperor Leopold I] (Rome, 1705). Stitched together with a similarly titled broadside containing an engraving “Si Stampa da Luigi Neri in piazza Nauona” [From the press of Luigi Neri in piazza Nauona]. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2011- in process

According to Mark Hengerer’s The Funerals of the Habsburg Emperors in the Eighteenth Century, “In 1705, only an hour after the death of Leopold I (1658-1705), the High Steward … and the Lord Chamberlain … discussed the preparations for the lying-in-state, the post mortem, the embalming and robing of the corpse, provision for a first coffin and receptacles für the heart and for the coffin, the fitting of the Knight’s Chamber … with altars and black cloths, the guards, and the music. The rest of the arrangements were discussed at a council meeting with other court officials on the next day. At this meeting, the ceremonial records of r657 (concerning the death of Ferdinand IV) were read, and thus became, with only a few variations, the guidelines for the funeral of Leopold L

A nice compliment to the volume: Castrum doloris quod immortali gloriae, et sacratissimis manibus Leopoldi Magni: augustissimi Romanorum imperatoris, Hungariae et Bohemiae regis, archiducis Austriae, &c. &c. ([Würzburg, Germany]: Typis Joannis Michaëlis Kleyer, universitatis typographi, [1705]) Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2010-0048Q

See also Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly’s essay, “The Early Modern Festival Book: Function and Form,” in Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004). Marquand SA GT3530 .E87 2004

The life of San Felipe de Jesus (1572-1597), patron saint of Mexico City, is presented through thirty engraved plates in this early graphic narrative. It is, in fact, the earliest all-engraved book to be published in Mexico and tells its story through images, with only brief engraved comments below.

In 1596, twenty-six passengers sailing from the Philippines to Mexico were shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. San Felipe, a Franciscan monk, was captured, tortured and killed, along with his fellow passengers. The first fourteen plates of this volume depict his life before reaching Japan, the next eight his capture and death, and the final six show events after his death.

Rubén Gallo, Director of Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies, notes in his paper on “Orientalism in Mexican Art” (Conference in Wroclaw, Poland, June 1999), that San Felipe’s death at the end of the sixteenth century marked the beginning of a period of orientalism, the product of a curious incident that culminated in the canonization of Mexico’s first martyr. My thanks to Dorothy Sloan for leading me to this citation.

Detail from The Roast Beef Cantata, 1748. Courtesy of a private collector.

According to Grove’s Dictionary of Music, The Roast Beef of Old England was an English national song whose tune has become associated with the serving of dinner at public functions, and occasionally used as a signal for the same in the army. The air is a fine marked specimen of English melody, and is probably the composition of Richard Leveridge, who doubtless sang the song in public. The first two verses were inserted in Henry Fielding’s ballad opera, Don Quixote in England, produced in 1733. They are considered to be by Fielding himself, and are marked as to be sung to the air The Queen’s old Courtier.

Other sources indicate there were three versions of the words of this song: the original two verses by Fielding (1731); Leveridge’s six verses, the first being simply an appropriation of Fielding’s; and The Roast Beef Cantata, by Theodosius Forest, as seen in William Hogarth’s print, The Gate of Calais (1748).

Here are a few lines:

THE ROAST BEEF CANTATA.
‘Twas at the gate of Calais, Hogarth tells,
Where sad despair and famine always dwells,
A meagre Frenchman, Madame Grand-sire’s cook,
Ah home he steered, his carcase that way took.
Bending beneath the weight of famed Sirloin,
On whom he’d often wish’d in vain to dine,
Good Father Dominick by chance came by,
With rosy gills, round paunch, and greedy eye;
Who, when he first beheld the greasy load,
His benediction on it he bestowed;
And as the solid fat his fingers press’d,
He lick’d his chaps, and thus the knight address’d:
“Oh, rare roast beef, lov’d by all mankind,
If I was doom’d to have thee, when dress’d and garnish’d to my mind,
And swimming in thy gravy, not all thy country’s force combin’d
Should from my fury save thee.

Hogarth’s print and the broadside with the poem are both on view in our gallery.

In 1997, John Bidwell (former curator of graphic arts) arranged the acquisition of the Charles Rahn Fry Collection, holding significant work by artists who specialized in the pochoir technique, preeminently Robert Bonfils, Georges Lepape, and George Barbier.

Bidwell wrote, “The definitive commentary on the elegant excesses of the postwar period is George Barbier’s Le bonheur du jour, ou les grâces à la mode (ca. 1924), a hymn to modern luxury, glorifying the pursuit of pleasure amidst splendid surroundings stocked with precious trifles. The Fry copy includes a proof of the “Eventails” plate with a completely different color scheme, apparently rejected by Barbier because he wanted richer tones and greater contrast in this group portrait of theatergoers, sporting an assortment of delicately tinted ostrich-feather fans, clearly intended more for plumage than for comfort.”

For a longer description of the collection, see http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visualmaterials/pulc/pulcv59n_1.pdf

The French designer, architect, and engraver Jean Bérain, the elder (1640-1711) has been credited with being one of the creators of the Louis XIV style. His drawings of the wall and ceiling ornaments of Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre and those for doors and wall paneling of Louis XIV’s apartment in the Tuileries were published under the title Ornemens de peinture et de sculpture (ca. 1710). The large folio volume included an engraved title page and twenty-eight engraved plates. An incomplete, unbound set is in graphic arts.

These designs have been alternately ascribed to Bérain, the elder, and to his son, Jean Bérain, the younger (1674-1726). What is clear is that the Bérains engraved eleven of the plates themselves and had the rest done by a series of French printmakers. François Chauveau (1613-1676) engraved thirteen, Jean Lemoyne (sometimes spelled Le Moine, 1638-1715) engraved four, and Gérard Jean-Baptiste Scotin (1671-1716) is responsible for the title page.

Several of our colleagues will be speaking at Mobility Shifts, an international conference to be held in New York City October 10-16, 2011. http://mobilityshifts.org/

Panels include:
The Library in Your Pocket: Library Tech Development and DIY Learning with Kim Dulin (Harvard Library Innovation Lab); Linda Johnson (Brooklyn Public Library); Deanna Lee (The New York Public Library); and Shannon Mattern (The New School). Their introductory text states, “Libraries, in their dual - and often precariously balanced - commitments to cultural uplift and cultural outreach, have long been, at least in theory, places of self-directed, DIY learning. Yet as materials once available only in the stacks have become ever more accessible in people’s homes and in their pockets, libraries’ strategies for cultural outreach, and for supporting patrons’ self-education, have evolved… “

The conference will offer a wide variety of hands-on workshops including:
Learning with Mobile x Printed Media with Orkan Telhan, University of Pennsylvania, who will explore “alternative models of learning using mobile media and paper-based interfaces that are augmented with computational and electronic capabilities… .”

In addition, you might want to try Book Sprints and Booki, which will introduce the participants to Book Sprints and the Social Book Production environment, Booki. “The workshop will cover the Booki production process, export tools, and the social features which are integrated into the workflow of Booki… .”

We will see if they hand out paper programs on the days of the event.

The Butterfly (London: Grant Richards for The Butterfly Press, No.1, March 1899-No. 12, February 1900). Graphic Arts GAX 2011- in process

In 1897, Grant Richards (1872-1948) opened a publishing house on 9 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden, London, using his name as the imprint. He published works by G. B. Shaw, A. E. Housman, G. K. Chesterton, Alfred Noyes, John Masefield, Hector H. Munro (Saki), Arnold Bennett, and Maurice Baring, among others.

In 1899, Richards attempted to revive a literary monthly created by Walter Haddon in 1893 called The Butterfly. Like the earlier magazine, Richards bound his in yellow wrappers (ours are slightly washed out), a style also followed by The Yellow Book (1894-1897). The title may be a reference to the celebrated painter of the moment, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), whose signature was a butterfly and whose art marketing company (established 1897) was named the Company of the Butterfly. Contributors to The Butterfly, which only lasted twelve issues, included H. D. Lowry, Arthur Morrison, Nora Hopper, and many others. Each issue was heavily Illustrated with reproductions of drawings by Max Beerbohm,
S. H. Sime, and Joseph Pennell, among others.

In 1968, Princeton acquired a collection of nearly 600 botanical watercolors by the British artist Mary Lind (Mrs. James) White made in 1876 during a trip through the United States to China. Her great granddaughter, Lady Berwick of Attingham Park, Shrewsbury, facilitated the acquisition with our curator of Western Americana Alfred Bush.

In a letter to Bush, Lady Berwick writes, “I am delighted to hear that you are pleased with the collection of botanical studies of Californian flora by my great grandmother Mrs. White (née Lind). I wish I could tell you more about her life and travels—all I know is that her husband Mr. James White had a business as a China merchant (teas, etc.) and he took his wife on journeys to China and America, though as they had a family of three or four daughters and five sons, it must have been difficult for her to get away.

Mr. White was [a] member of Parliament (Liberal) for Brighton for many years. Their home was at 8 Thurloe Square, London S.W. Both Mr. & Mrs. White died in 1883, I think. I wish I had a diary or other correspondence in order to give you more facts about Mrs. White—all I have is an album with a few larger flower paintings handsomely bound and inscribed Shanghae [sic] Flowers presented to James White by his wife on his Birthday April 10, 1868. Mr. White was in the U.S. again in the 1870s.”

James White was indeed part of the English Liberal party in the House of Commons between 1857 and 1874. Many of Mary White’s watercolors are dated August 1876 and the box includes a handwritten list of every plant dated 1879, presumably written after she had returned home.

Mary Lind White (1810?-1883), Botanical sketches of California flora, 1876. Watercolors. Graphic Arts 2011- in process

James Gillray (1756 -1815), The Zenith of French Glory; -the Pinnacle of Liberty, 12 February 1793. Etching. Graphic Arts GA201-01475

The British caricaturist James Gillray drew this printed to commemorate the beheading of Louis XVI (note the crown on the guillotine’s blade). Beneath the title is written “Religion, Justice, Loyalty, & all the Bugbears of Unenlightened Minds, Farewell!” A sansculotte (sans-culottes, without the knee-length pants that were fashionable) is perched on a lamp post fiddling, one foot on the hanged body of the bishop. His cap says “Ca ira” (It will be fine), the song of the working class radicals of the French revolution.