Book Arts And Bookbinding

Visual and cultural analysis of Meiji shōnen kaiko 明治少年懐古 (Reminiscences of a Meiji youth, 1944), an illustrated book that nostalgically recalls Japan's late nineteenth and early twentieth century period of modernization. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/440/title/1.

A pesquisa percorre bibliotecas, museus, editoras e espaços culturais em busca do fotolivro, formato de livro que vem se popularizando nos últimos anos. Primeiro, define o que é fotolivro/livro fotográfico. Em seguida, descreve a produção ‒ dividida nas etapas de pré-impressão, impressão e pós-impressão ‒ da Ipsis Gráfica e Editora, uma das principais do segmento de livros de arte na América Latina. Por fim, analisa o acervo da Biblioteca de Fotografia do Instituto Moreira Salles Paulista, bem como coleções de livros fotográficos de outras bibliotecas de arte. A pesquisa tem como referencial teórico o conceito de “biografia cultural”, de Kopytoff, para mostrar as transformações do fotolivro desde sua produção até o fim de sua vida útil.

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no hana 日本の花(1946), a book pairing pictures and poetry by diverse artists and poets on the theme of flowers. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/462/title/1.

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Armenian Printing, 1512-2012, the Bibliothèque Mazarine of the French Academy hosted a major exhibition of a selection of early printed Armenian books dating before 1800 from its own rich collection, which together with that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France have the richest holdings of early Armenian prints in France.  The exhibit was supplemented from holdings in the special collection of the Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), and a private Paris collection.  This, the second of two groups of descriptive notices, includes  eleven publications from sections III. Imprimeries d’Orient & V. Livres d’orientalistes.

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no shiro 日本の城 (Japanese Castles, 1944), a book containing text by architectural historian Kishida Hideto and woodblock print illustrations by artist Hashimoto Okiie. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/429/title/1.

Visual and cultural analysis of Maekawa Senpan's Shitōchō  偲糖帖 (Remembered Sweets, 1945), a woodblock-printed compendium of sweets that was conceived of and executed during a period of severe wartime food shortage. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book,  may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/455/title/1.

Key words: book, bookbinding, sewing, spine, structure, archaeology of bookbinding.

Abstract: Books are structurally complex objects. In order to provide a good restoration diagnosis it is necessary to differenciate between damage intrinsic to their production and other causes. This article examines some of the most widely known structures, assessing their strengths and weaknesse in accordance with the following considerations: sewing, adhesion, articulation and proportion. Finally, three restoration cases which demonstrate the aforementioned ideas are presented.

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of Armenian Printing, 1512-2012, the Bibliothèque Mazarine of the French Academy hosted a major exhibition of a selection of early printed Armenian books dating before 1800 from its own rich collection, which together with that of the Bibliothèque nationale de France have the richest holdings of early Armenian prints in France.  The exhibit was supplemented from holdings in the special collection of the Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), and a private Paris collection.  This, the first of two groups of descriptive notices, included six publications from sections I. Venise & II. d’Amsterdam à Marseille.

This paper deals with a category of elaborate endbands commonly
found in all the bookbinding traditions which evolved
around the Eastern Mediterranean – including the Islamic one
– which so far have been often described as woven. The use of
such endbands can be evidenced at least as early as the ninthtenth
century.
The aims of this paper are:
1. To clearly identify the various techniques and their major
variations used in making these particular endbands.
2. To clarify the use of technical terms and propose the use of a
new, common terminology for all of them based on technical
rather than ethnic or religious ground. Whenever there seem
to be variations consistently used in the context of specific
bookbinding traditions, to clearly describe such variations.
3. To stress the common use of the technique in some of the
major bookbinding cultures which evolved in this area –
namely the Byzantine, the Syriac,
the Armenian, the Georgian
and the Islamic.

Ряд напрестольных Евангелий в отечественных собраниях объединяет редкая особенность их художественного убранства — иконописные крышки, исполненные в традиционной технике: темперой и золотом по коже, дереву или туго пролевкашенной паволоке, подобно двусторонним «таблеткам». Внешний вид их заметно отличался как от обиходных переплетов, так и от драгоценных окладов. Живописные сцены уподобляли иконному образу, чему способствовала и техника их исполнения, и размещение в углубленном ковчеге. При этом иконографический репертуар повторял чеканное убранство книг, здесь также чаще представлена сцена Распятия, в том числе обрамлённая образами четырёх евангелистов, но встречаются и другие редкие сюжеты. Подавляющее число выявленных памятников связано с искусством Пскова XV–XVII вв., что позволяет последовательно рассмотреть этапы становления здесь этого вида убранства. Изображения Распятия повторяли аналогичные псковские иконы, сохраняя устойчивость своих собственных изводов, заметно отличающихся от других центров. Они неизменно включали летящих ангелов и отличались готическим обликом изможденного тела Христа с провисшими руками. Широкое распространение здесь получила традиция обрамления иконописных крышек драгоценными полями, на которые крепились накладные дробницы и касты с камнями.  Художественные особенности книжных крышек и изучение писцовых книг дают повод думать о псковском происхождении древней традиции и её широком здесь распространении. Многочисленные письменные источники называют такие напрестольные кодексы «Евангелиями в Страстях», при их описании подчеркивают технику исполнения верхних крышек: «писаны Страсти». Это подтверждает не только пристрастие псковичей к такому декору книг, но и сложение особой терминологии, отразившей индивидуальность их облика.

Visual and cultural analysis of Shinshō Fuji  新頌富士 (1946), a book of poems on Mt. Fuji by Maeda Yugure that was designed and illustrated by artist Onchi Kōshirō. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese Illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/460/title/1

Abstract (ITA):
Nella sua semplicità formale e tematica questo manoscritto sulla legatura libraria condensa in sé i molteplici aspetti tipici del secolo in cui è stato redatto, il XVIII, storiograficamente noto ai più come il “secolo dei Lumi”. Tra le sue righe vergate a mano, quasi di getto, senza troppa attenzione alla forma e alla calligrafia, ma solo alla possibilità di fissare nero su bianco appunti e riflessioni di un anonimo maestro legatore, ritroviamo vivido e attualissimo tutto il fermento culturale di quegli anni, a testimonianza (peraltro non del tutto scontata) del fatto che le influenze culturali ed “enciclopedistiche” del XVIII secolo hanno avuto modo di varcare anche la soglia del monastero di San Martino, fino ad addentrarsi all’interno del laboratorio del nostro anonimo legatore. Per coglierne la presenza non è necessario alcuno sforzo: fin dalle prime battute, infatti, il nostro anonimo autore fornisce al suo lettore, quasi certamente un addetto ai lavori, forse proprio un collega di bottega, precisi riferimenti a tecniche, ad autori e a opere tipiche di quegli anni e che hanno segnato, in special modo per il mondo del libro e delle tecniche legate alla sua produzione, una codificazione e un rapidissimo sviluppo in chiave industriale.
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Abstract (ENG):
By examining an unpublished 18th-century manuscript from the archive of the Benedictine abbey of San Martino delle Scale (near Monreale and Palermo), I will focus on the fascinating evolution of book binding and marbling of books techniques, from Gabriel Naudé (author of the precious book Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque) to Ephraim Chambers (author of the Cyclopaedia, one of the first general encyclopedias printed in English), until to the Encyclopédie in the Age of Enlightenment.

This research seeks to complete the subjects related to an article under the heading " Glossary of Book and library Conservation Terms " Beside the point in order to complete and coherence of his article, the writer has indirectly exploited from the book " Glossary on paper conservation ". In this book, the writer has cited some specialized terms in the course of paper conservation and bookbinding, from English language to three German, Chinese and Korean languages. In present article we have endeavored to acquaint and complete the book mentioned above effectively through a wide view of other related sources. Over 200 specialized and technical terms in conservation of paper are given by three points of view: Book Structure and bookbinding, Materials and tools of Book binding and binding techniques and Book Conservation. All terms in this glossary are edited as classified series of concepts.

The work of teachers and literacy specialists has a lot of potential overlap with that of teaching artists of visual and literary arts within early childhood education. When young people in preschools and kindergartens practice early art and literacy, these two areas build in a sort of symphony as youngsters tell stories, make drawings of their experiences, and have illustrated books read and shown to them by others. Over the past five years as a professor, Courtney Weida has organized collaborations within her institution's community literacy center between preservice art teachers and preservice literacy specialists, bringing book arts projects into a sort of dialogue with literacy curricula for educators and young people. This article explores key book arts activities with young people from those teaching experiences that promote and document early art and literacy learning.

Visual and cultural analysis of Nihon no yūshū 日本の憂愁 (1955), a posthumous book featuring prints, poems and other texts by the artist Onchi Kōshirō. The book is part of the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/461/title/1.

In the 500-year-long history of marbling, flowers have become the cheerful destiny of artists from every culture desiring to attain the glamour of the world by combining creative charm and excitement with their observations of nature on the surface of the marbling water. Guided by his heart, the master's hands reaching out to the floating drops of paint sometimes create blossoms, whereas the drops sometimes take the form of tulips, hyacinths or carnations all of a sudden." 1 The flower has occupied me for 40 years, in marbling practice and in research. For centuries, flowers have been among the most beautiful and special motifs in the art of marbling. In my studies of the history of this art, I encounter marbled flowers in the most varied of ways and in the most varied of forms.

La legatura di Pietro Giustiniani, Rerum Venetarum ab vrbe condita Historia, Venezia 1560. Note sulla Libreria di San Marco, in La finosomìa del libro medieval y moderno entre la funcionalidad, la estética y la información. Manuel José Pedraza Gracia (dir.); Camino Sánchez Oliveira y Alberto Gamarra Gonzalo (eds.). Zaragoza, Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2019 (In culpa est, 8), pp. 325-340.

Die marmorierte Blüten aus dem 17. Jahrhundert aus Deutschland sind sehr selten. Im Gegensatz zu den Beispielen aus dem Orient ist es deshalb auch schwierig, diese alten Beispiele zu datieren. Marmorierte Blumen in der Sammlung der Herzog August Bibliothek können uns neue Informationen über den Beginn dieser Praxis in Deutschland liefern.

In the United States, scholars rarely see manuscripts and incunabula in their original bindings. Most texts in American rare book collections have been rebound at least once, if not many times, between the time they were created and the present day. Rebinding is therefore an important point to consider in the study of these objects. When and why did it occur? How were decisions made, and who made them? What informed the practice of rebinding? This paper attempts to contextualize the practice of rebinding in the early twentieth century in America – a time when American collectors were particularly interested in the acquisition of rare books – by using the rebinding practices at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York (now the Morgan Library & Museum) as a case study. From 1908 until 1958, much of the rebinding work for the Morgan was carried out by one person – Marguerite Duprez Lahey (1880-1958). Duprez Lahey, born in Brooklyn to a well-to-do family, took up bookbinding as a hobby at the turn of the twentieth century. She studied under several French bookbinders and finishers before beginning her employment at the Morgan. Despite being widely hailed at the time as the best bookbinder in America, she did not receive formal apprenticeship training and from today's viewpoint, many of her bindings are idiosyncratic and problematic. A study of the Morgan archives reveals that Duprez Lahey was not the sole decision maker in rebinding manuscripts – John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) and his son, John Pierpont (Jack) Morgan, Jr., (1867-1943) as well as Belle da Costa Greene (1883-1950), the Morgan's first librarian and director, played active roles in the eventual fate of the books. Their decisions, in turn, were influenced by aesthetics, a possible concern for durability, and the way in which best practices were understood at the time. Conservation is a very young field, and book conservation is an even more recent development. At the time Duprez Lahey was practicing, conservation ethics were not yet codified. The practice of rebinding rare books had not received the depth of attention that it has today. As such, Duprez Lahey's work was necessarily limited by the knowledge available to the binder and her employers. While a lack of documentation makes it difficult to determine exactly why specific books were chosen for rebinding over others, or why certain books were bound in certain styles, an examination of rebinding practices at the Morgan during the first half of the twentieth century offers a glimpse into practices in a library at the forefront of the book world at the time. It provides a new understanding of the relationship between bookbinder and collector, the various influences (artistic and economic) on bookbinders, and the aesthetic values of the collectors of the era.

Visual and cultural analysis of Kawakami Sumio's Haraiso (Paradise, 1951), a handprinted book pairing text and images on the Christian paradise theme. The book is in the Pulverer Collection of Japanese illustrated books of the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and is featured on The World of the Japanese Illustrated Book website. My commentary, along with a complete set of readable images of the book, may be found here: http://pulverer.si.edu/node/439/title/1.