#History of Books and Printing Collection

[thepastisalreadywritten]

The Sistine Hall of the Vatican Library

The Library was formally established in 1475 AD.

Although it is much older, it is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of most significant collections of historical texts.

It has 75,000 codices from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500 incunabula.

[mtlibrary]

This 16th Century woodcut print of an bat was published in 'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux' by Pierre Belon (1555). Belon who was a naturalist, writer and diplomat wrote on a range of topics including botony, anatomy and Egyptology.

[muspeccoll]

#WordyWednesday

Type: The letters used to print words. Generally, the term refers specifically to moveable type where the letters can be rearranged in any order to print any text. Printing with moveable type was undertaken in Asia as early as the 11th century and was separately invented in Europe in the 15th century by Johannes Gutenberg. A design for a given alphabet is called a “typeface.” A complete set of type in a specific typeface is called a font.

[britneyshakespeare]

I can't believe the Younger Brother (1689) by Aphra Behn has the only one bed trope

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Alchymya by National Library of Medicine Via Flickr: Author(s): Gesner, Konrad, 1516-1565, Author Publication: London: Peter Short, 1599 Format: Still image Subject(s): Alchemy, Equipment and Supplies Genre(s): Book Illustrations Abstract: A woman is standing among various chemical apparatus, she is holding a pair of tongs and a glass container; a furnace is to the left. Related Title(s): Is part of: Practise of old and new phisicke, title page vignette.; See related catalog record: 2246053R Extent: 1 print Technique: woodcut NLM Unique ID:101435994 NLM Image ID: A016359 Permanent Link: resource.nlm.nih.gov/101435994

[riesenfeldcenter]

Today’s woodcut is brought to you by the letter ‘F.’

I spy two birds and a dragon, but no turkey... darn. Happy Thanksgiving!

[u-mspcoll]

Special Collections After Hours | Treasures from our History of Medicine Collections

Detail of copperplate engraving from "Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus" by William Harvey. Frankfurt: William Fitzer, 1628.

Join the Special Collections Research Center in the Hatcher Graduate Library next Tuesday (13 December) at 4 pm for our final After Hours open house of the term exploring a selection of artifacts illustrating the early history of western medicine. Read more!

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

This week I am sharing German Expressionist Prints: the Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection: Milwaukee Art Museum, published by Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, and Hudson Hills Press, Inc., Manchester Vermont, 2003. This book was published to accompany a traveling exhibition of a selection of prints from the Specks Collection, which was on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2004.

This collection, which lives at the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the most significant collections of German Expressionist prints in the United States. This book features over 500 color reproductions of the works as well as essays, a catalogue of the prints, and artist bios. 

For artists and art students like myself, catalogues such as this one are incredible resources for broadening our visual vocabulary and offering inspiration and broader understanding of our place in art history. The artworks in these kinds of books may be thousands of miles away, stored in back rooms of museums or in private collections. Many of the works in books such as this one are not even accessible online. 

These books may be costly to acquire but many libraries, like UWM’s, have large collections of books like these that are free for you to check out and peruse. 

Lucky for us the more than 450 prints in the Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection have their own gallery in the Milwaukee Art Museum where they are on continuous rotation. You and I are also able to see these works at the Herzfeld Photography, Print, and Drawing Study Center by appointment! 

Use this link for more Staff Pick of the Week posts!

Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[wild-at-mind]

Re: my last post- I'm just remembering a time when with book recommendations especially it seemed like you were expected to do a comprehensive list of problematic aspects and potential triggers in the book when you recced anything. People on twitter would say stuff like 'I can't believe x is being recced, I read it and its triggering in such-and-such way.' In a way that implied they blamed the person who recommended it.

Of course I never wanted to trigger anyone, so I started thinking about the books I love, all the things I might list in each that were problematic. It gets to the point where any book could be reduced to nothing more than a list of its triggers and potential harms. And you look at it and think 'why would I even rec this? Why would I risk it?' And then you don't. (This is a book you truly love.)

Look, I'm not saying don't warn people about obvious stuff. The Color Purple is one of my favourite books and I would never rec it to someone without warning that it opens with a rape. But for stuff that is less major than that, I'm going to say that recommending something that upsets someon else who reads it- it's horrible that they are hurt, and I wouldn't want anyone to be hurt, but also it's not the fault of the person recommending it. It's not a blame game at all. You can't engage much with books at all if you think like this. And also I wouldn't be surprised if this kind of thinking is what put us in the place where how a subject is framed in a book is considereed barely relevant, when in reality it's the most important thing.

[othmeralia]

Jingle Bells in the Offing

Booklet corresponding to a radio broadcast program created by the National Paint, Varnish, and Lacquer Association. The booklet describes how to personalize Christmas gifts with paint. Provides examples of gifts given during the holidays and how they can be improved with paint. For example, one could mount a colored print and paint a border on a breadboard to transform it into a wall plaque. Includes small stylized illustrations throughout and decorated covers.

Check out the rest of the booklet on our digital collections site!

[jamesgraybooksellerworld]

3 Early books for teaching a history of the printed book class.

This Blog is inspired by the two book shows I did last month, these three books seemed to excite many university librarians and their students. One of the books, The Quintilian , prompted Sidney Berger to say: ” I could teach this book for two semesters and still have more to discover! “ After he left my booth I ordered His new edition of THE DICTIONARY OF THE BOOK, which was at my home before I…

[freemoneyfree]

[muspeccoll]

#WordyWednesday

Stereotype: A metal plate that can recreate an entire page of a book, having been made by creating a mold from a page of set type. This is useful because it allows a printer to print the same book over and over again without having to set the type a second time. The mold used to create a stereotype is called a “flong,” which is worth repeating here because it is an amusing word. Stereotyping was invented in 1701 by the Lutheran minister Johann Müller. The use of “stereotype” to refer to an oversimplified and prejudiced image or idea is a reference to stereotype printing.

[gremlinsinthegarden]

Aziraphale has an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible and the Diamond Sutra.

[monkeyssalad-blog]

A tree bound to a stake in an effort to correct the curvature of the trunk by National Library of Medicine Via Flickr: Author(s): Andry de Bois-Regard, Nicolas, 1658-1742, author Publication: Paris: La Veuve Alix [etc.], 1741 Format: Still image Subject(s): Emblems and Insignia Genre(s): Book Illustrations Abstract: A tree with a misshapen trunk is bound to a stout stake. Related Title(s): Is part of: L'orthopédie; ou, L'art de prevenir et de corriger dans les enfans, les difformites du corps, L. 13, p. 282.; See related catalog record: 2436022R Extent: 1 print Technique: etching NLM Unique ID: 101434343 NLM Image ID: A012587 Permanent Link: resource.nlm.nih.gov/101434343

[riesenfeldcenter]

Is it just me, or does it seem like someone might be getting squished here?

This letter ‘B’ could learn a bit about personal space.