The following information was forwarded by H-URBAN subscriber Thomas Kemp.
It was originally posted to the list EXLIBRIS
<EXLIBRIS%RUTVM1.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
The courses described here clearly have a temporal dimension which is
grounded in cities. Are subscribers aware of historical studies on the
geography of book publishing and production? Alan Mayne, H-Urban Co-Editor
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Posted by Thomas J. Kemp, Head [813] 974-1581
Special Collections Department FAX [813] 974-5153
University of South Florida, LIB 407 email:tomkemp@lib.usf.edu
4202 East Fowler Avenue; Tampa, Florida 33620
BOOKS AT VIRGINIA: RARE BOOK SCHOOL 1995
Books at Virginia: Rare Book School (RBS) offers its usual col-
lection of five-day, non-credit courses on topics concerning rare
books, manuscripts, and special collections. Students make a
full-time commitment to any course they attend, from 8:30 am to 5
pm, Monday-Friday; most students also attend an informal dinner
on the Sunday evening before their first class on Monday. In ad-
dition to the formal classes, there are early-evening public lec-
tures and other events throughout the five weeks of RBS.
The educational and professional prerequisites for RBS courses
vary. Some courses are primarily directed toward research librar-
ians and archivists. Others are intended for academics, persons
working in the antiquarian book trade, bookbinders and conserva-
tors, students of the history of books and printing, and others
with an interest in the subjects being treated.
The tuition for each five-day course is $550. Low-cost, air-con-
ditioned dormitory housing will be offered on the historic
central grounds of the University, and nearby hotel accommodation
is readily available. Students are encouraged to take advantage
of RBS's housing to arrive a few days before their course, or
stay a few days later, in order to give themselves (and their fa-
milies) a better chance to explore the Charlottesville area,
which includes many sites of historic interest as well as various
vacation attractions.
For an application form and a copy of the RBS 1995 Expanded
Course Descriptions, providing further details about the courses
offered this year,
write Rare Book School, 114 Alderman Library, University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2498; or
fax 804/924-8824; or
e-mail biblio@virginia.edu; or
phone 804/924-8851.
RBS 1995 COURSES
WEEK ONE: Monday 10 July - Friday 14 July
11 THE COMPANY OF STATIONERS TO 1637. The evolution and growth
of the Stationers' Company of London after the arrival of
printing transformed the English book trade. Topics include:
the attempts to obtain a charter in 1541-2 and 1554-7; the
changing regulations governing license, entrance, and the
ownership of texts; the prehistory and history of the English
Stock; the Star Chamber decrees of 1586 and 1637. Instructor:
Peter Blayney.
12 COLLECTING TRAVEL LITERATURE. This course will explore the
value of travel literature in research library collections
through consideration of the following topics: travel litera-
ture as a genre; the development of travel literature from
ancient times to the end of the c19; major themes in travel
literature (commerce, religion, science, adventure, jour-
nalism); travel literature as an approach to many disciplines
(anthropology, ecology, geography, geology, natural history,
oceanography, sociology); maps and illustrations; bibliogra-
phies and major collections; philosophy of collecting (origi-
nals, facsimiles, modern editions). Instructor: John Parker.
13 PUBLISHERS' BOOKBINDINGS, 1830-1910. The study of publishers'
bookbindings, chiefly in the United States, but with frequent
reference to England, and occasional reference to Continental
developments. Topics include: the rise of the edition binder;
design styles and how they developed; new techniques, ma-
chines, and materials introduced in the c19; the identifica-
tion of rarities; the physical description of bindings; the
preservation of publishers' bindings. The course will make
extensive use of the Book Arts Press's notable collection of
c19 and early c20 binding exemplars. Instructor: Sue Allen.
14 PRINTING DESIGN AND PUBLICATION. In today's museums and li-
braries, the texts for readers' instructions, call slips,
signs, announcements, posters, checklists, and full-dress
catalogs are generally composed on microcomputers, often by
staff members with little graphic design experience. This
course will teach the principles of good design within the
limits of readily available software programs, centering on
work generated by a laser printer and reproduced on a photo-
copier (but without neglecting more complex projects
requiring the use of a commercial printer). The course will
include critiques of past examples and projected work which
students bring with them to class. Instructor: Greer Allen.
15 COLLECTING THE HISTORY OF ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW. This course is
intended for individuals who collect in some aspect of the
history of the law and for librarians who have custody of
historical legal materials and wish to form focused col-
lections. It will survey printed and MS materials in Anglo-
American law and introduce its bibliography and curatorship.
Course topics include: the role of legal materials in the de-
velopment of the common law; the history of the production
and distribution of law books; legal bibliographies,
catalogs, and reference books; philosophy and techniques of
collecting; acquiring books, MSS, and ephemera in the anti-
quarian book trade; and the history of the collection of
legal materials by private collectors and institutions. In-
structors: Morris L. Cohen and David Warrington.
16 INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC TEXTS. An exploration of the re-
search, preservation, and pedagogical uses for electronic
texts. Topics include: finding and evaluating existing e-
texts; the creation of standards-based e-texts and related
digital images; SGML tagging and conversion (especially the
Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines and HTML); publishing on
the World Wide Web; text analysis tools (including PAT);
electronic text centers and the management and use of on-line
texts. Instructor: David Seaman.
WEEK TWO: Monday 17 July - Friday 21 July
21 HISTORY OF THE PRINTED BOOK IN THE WEST (SESSION I). Topics
include: early printed books; printing materials and proces-
ses; bookbinding; typography and book design; authorship,
publishing, reading, and the book trade; the book in America
and American books; graphic arts and book illustration; the
c19 mechanization of the printing trades; c20 fine printing.
Intended for those with no prior coursework or extensive
reading in the field. The instructor welcomes students from a
broad range of academic disciplines, collectors, dealers, and
librarians. Offered again in Week 3. Instructor: Martin
Antonetti.
22 History of European and American Papermaking. Papermaking
from its introduction in Europe to the Industrial Revolution,
emphasizing changes in technology and the economics of the
trade. Questions of labor and management, the identification
and description of paper in early books and MSS, and the
revival of hand-papermaking in the c20. The course will
include several laboratory sessions in which students will
produce a series of Oriental and Western paper specimens
related to the lecture sessions. Instructors: Timothy Barrett
and John Bidwell.
23 BOOK ILLUSTRATION TO 1880. The identification of illustration
processes and techniques, including woodcut, etching, engrav-
ing, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engrav-
ing, steel engraving, process relief, collotype, photogra-
vure, and various kinds of color printing. The course will be
taught from the extensive Book Arts Press 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.
24 LITHOGRAPHY IN THE AGE OF THE HAND PRESS. This course, which
will explore a wide range of applications of lithography in
Europe, is aimed at those who are concerned with books,
prints, and ephemera especially of the first half of the c19.
Topics include: Senefelder and the discovery of lithography;
lithographic stones and presses; the work of the lithographic
draftsman, letterer, and printer; early lithographed books
and other printing; the development of particular genres, in-
cluding music printing; chromolithography in the context of
color printing. Instructor: Michael Twyman.
25 THE AMERICAN BOOK IN THE INDUSTRIAL ERA: 1820-1914. This
course will explore manufacturing methods, distribution
networks, and publishing patterns introduced in the United
States during the industrial era. A major part of the course
will consist of small, supervised laboratory sessions in
which students will examine, analyze, and describe books
produced during the period. The course will also introduce
students to bibliographical practice and conventions as they
apply to these books. Instructor: Michael Winship.
26 INTRODUCTION TO RARE BOOK LIBRARIANSHIP (SESSION I). Overview
of the theory and practice of rare book librarianship. Topics
include: the function of rare books in libraries; the inter-
pretation of rare book collections to their publics; patterns
of use; special collections reference materials; security;
environmental desiderata; exhibitions and publications;
friends' groups. Offered again in Week 3. Instructor: Daniel
Traister.
WEEK THREE: Monday 24 July - Friday 28 July
31 HISTORY OF THE PRINTED BOOK IN THE WEST (SESSION II). For a
description of this course, see above, no. 21. Instructor:
Martin Antonetti.
32 TYPE, LETTERING, AND CALLIGRAPHY, 1450-1830. The development
of the major formal and informal book hands, the dominant
printing types of each period, and their inter-relationship.
Topics include: the Gothic hands; humanistic script; the Re-
naissance inscriptional capital; Garamond and the spread of
the Aldine Roman; calligraphy from the chancery italic to the
English round hand; the neo-classical book and its typogra-
phy; and early commercial typography. Instructor: James Mos-
ley.
33 BOOK PRODUCTION IN 16TH-CENTURY FRANCE. Of potential interest
to scholars of literature and the book trade in the French
Renaissance, this course will focus on printers in Paris and
Lyon and will examine their relations with the writers whose
works they produced. Writers may include Marot, Rabelais, Du
Bellay, Ronsard, Montaigne and others according to the
interests of the participants. The course will be conducted
in French. Instructor: Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer.
34 INTRODUCTION TO RARE BOOK LIBRARIANSHIP (SESSION II). For a
description of this course, see above, no. 26. The first ses-
sion of the course (17-21 July) is intended for professional
librarians who have had no formal training in this field but
whose duties now include the administration or care of rare
book collections. This session of the course is open to all
those with an interest in rare book librarianship, whether or
not they are currently working in a library or have had for-
mal training in the field. Instructor: Daniel Traister.
35 RARE BOOK LIBRARIES: A PERSPECTIVE FOR BOOKSELLERS. The in-
terests of rare book and special collections departments and
of antiquarian booksellers are closely related, but differ-
ences of perspective and function can result in misunder-
standing and confusion. This course, intended to improve
booksellers' ability to deal effectively with librarians,
presents the viewpoint of institutional collectors. Topics:
the concepts of special collections and their relationship to
scholarly research in the humanities; the rare book
librarian's day; how and why rare book librarians buy (and
sell); the collector/dealer/librarian triangle; dealer-libra-
rian relationships, good and bad; and issues of education and
training. Instructor: Richard Landon.
36 INTRODUCTION TO BOOK COLLECTING. This course is aimed at per-
sons who spend a fairly substantial amount of time and money
on book collecting, but who feel isolated from the national
(and international) antiquarian book community. Topics
include: the rationale of book collecting; developing rela-
tions with dealers; buying at auction; bibliophile and frien-
ds' groups; cataloging possibilities; preservation and con-
servation options; tax and other financial implications; what
finally to do with your books; and the literature of book
collecting. Instructors: Wm P. Barlow, Jr and Terry Belanger.
WEEK FOUR: Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August
41 EUROPEAN DECORATIVE BOOKBINDING. An historical survey of de-
corative bookbinding in England and on the European Conti-
nent, concentrating on the period 1500-1800, but with exam-
ples drawn from the late c7 to the late c20. Topics include:
the emergence and development of various decorative tech-
niques and styles; readership and collecting; the history of
bookbinding in a wider historical context; the pitfalls and
possibilities of binding research. Enrollment in this course
is limited to those who have taken Nicholas Pickwoad's RBS
course (see below, nos. 42 and 53). Instructor: Mirjam Foot.
42 EUROPEAN BOOKBINDING, 1500-1800 (SESSION I). How bookbinding
in the post-medieval period developed to meet the demands
placed on it by the growth of printing: techniques and mate-
rials employed to meet these demands; the development of
temporary bindings (eg pamphlets and publishers' bindings);
the emergence of structures usually associated with volume
production in the c19; the development of decoration; the
dating of undecorated bindings; the identification of nation-
al and local binding styles. Offered again in Week 5. In-
structor: Nicholas Pickwoad.