Rare Book School 1996

List of Courses

Click on the title of any course to retrieve an expanded course description.


WEEK ONE


Monday 15 July - Friday 19 July

11. 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, including music printing; chromolithography in the context of color printing. Instructor: Michael Twyman.


12. 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, machines, and materials introduced in the c19; the identification 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.

13. Printing Design and Publication. In today's museums and libraries, 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 photocopier (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 to class. Instructor: Greer Allen.

14. Introduction to Rare Book Librarianship. Overview of the theory and practice of rare book librarianship. Topics include: the function of rare books in libraries; the interpretation of rare book collections to their publics; patterns of use; special collections reference materials; security; environmental desiderata; exhibitions and publications; friends' groups. Instructor: Daniel Traister.


15. Advanced Seminar in Special Collections Administration. Tactics special collections librarians may use for interpreting needs and objectives to their library and university administrations; assuring an active role for special collections in the research and curricular programs of their institutions; fund-raising, including the most effective use of friends' groups; coping with tight budgets; and measuring the success of the strategies selected. The design of the seminar will emphasize group discussion. Participants will be expected to contribute pertinent ideas, approaches and strategies based on their experience. Instructors: Samuel A. Streit and Merrily E. Taylor.

16. How to Research a Rare Book. Strategies for the efficient identification and interpretation of the bibliographies that are most useful for work with rare and early printed books; aimed at reference librarians, booksellers, catalogers, and others who routinely research rare books. Sources primarily in English and in the major other Roman-alphabet languages; but some attention paid to non-Western sources as well. Instructor: D. W. Krummel.


WEEK TWO


Monday 22 July - Friday 26 July

21. European Bookbinding, 1500-1800. How bookbinding in the post-medieval period developed to meet the demands placed on it by the growth of printing: techniques and materials 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 national and local binding styles. Instructor: Nicholas Pickwoad.


22. Book Collecting. Aimed at persons who spend a fairly substantial amount of time and money on collecting, but who feel isolated from the national (and international) antiquarian book community. Topics include: the rationale of book collecting; developing relations with dealers; buying at auction; bibliophile and friends' groups; preservation and conservation 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.


23. Introduction to the Curatorship of Historical Health Science Collections. Intended for those who have recently assumed (or will soon take on) responsibility for historical collections in health sciences libraries. Topics include: reference sources unique to the history of the health sciences; strategies for developing a knowledge of famous firsts and important periods in the history of medicine; curatorship of medical and surgical artifacts; manuscripts and archives in health sciences history collections; outreach activities, including lectures and exhibits; donor relations and fund-raising; integration with the parent institution; gaining administrative and academic support for history of the health sciences collections and programs. Instructors: Katharine E. S. Donahue and Joan Echtenkamp Klein.

24. Rare Book Cataloging. Aimed at catalog librarians who find that their present duties include (or shortly will include) the cataloging of rare books and/or special collections materials. Attention will be given both to cataloging books from the handpress period and to c19 and c20 books in a special collections context. Topics include: comparison of rare book and general cataloging; application of codes and standards; uses of special files; problems in transcription, collation and physical description; setting cataloging policy within an institutional context. Instructor: Eric Holzenberg.


25. Visual Materials Cataloging. Aimed at librarians and archivists who catalog published or unpublished visual materials. The emphasis will be on c19 and c20 prints and photographs being cataloged either as single items or as part of archival collections. Topics include: descriptive and subject cataloging; form and genre access; special problems in physical description; comparison of AMC and VIM cataloging; the relationship between physical processing and cataloging; establishing institutional priorities. Instructor: Jackie Dooley.


26. Introduction to Electronic Texts (Session I). An exploration of the research, preservation, and pedagogical uses for electronic texts. The course will center around the creation of a set of archival-quality etexts and digital images. Topics include: finding and evaluating existing etexts; SGML tagging and conversion (especially the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines and HTML); publishing on the World Wide Web; text analysis tools; creating an electronic text center; the management and use of online texts. See http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/rbs/rbs16-95.html for information about last year's course. Will be repeated in Week 4. Instructor: David Seaman.


WEEK THREE


Monday 29 July - Friday 2 August

31. History of the Printed Book in the West. Early printed books; printing materials and processes; bookbinding; typography and book design; 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. Instructor: Martin Antonetti.


32. The Use of Physical Evidence in Early Printed Books. A seminar on using a wide variety of evidenceþpaper, types and initials, rubrication and illumination, bindings, ownership marks, and annotationsþto shed light both on questions of analytical bibliography, and wider questions of book distribution, provenance and use. There will be a fairly detailed discussion and analysis of both good and bad features in existing reference works on early printing. The seminar assumes a basic knowledge of descriptive bibliography and a familiarity with Latin. Instructor: Paul Needham.

33. The Company of Stationers and the London Book Trade 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 economics of publishing, printing, and bookselling; the history of the English Stock; the Star Chamber decrees of 1586 and 1637. Instructor: Peter Blayney.

34. Book Illustration to 1890. The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process relief, collotype, photogravure, 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.


35. 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.


36. Introduction to the Internet. Topics include: how to access and navigate the Net; hands-on experience in a range of online resources, including email, the World Wide Web, and Gopher servers; electronic discussion groups and library catalogs; strategies for finding what you need; a look at what is coming in the near future. Basic microcomputer skills such as word-processing are required, but it is assumed that applicants will be persons (eg booksellers, independent scholars, or librarians at institutions not yet supporting network usage and training) who have little or no previous experience with Internet services. Instructors: Peter-john Byrnes and Kelly Tetterton.

WEEK FOUR


Monday 5 August - Friday 9 August

41. 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 interrelationship. Topics include: the Gothic hands; humanistic script; the Renaissance 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 typography; and early commercial typography. Instructor: James Mosley.


42. Children's Books 1740-1860. Techniques for dealing with problems in the study and research of children's books and related materials, often in the absence of adequate bibliographical publications. Topics include: the use (and misuse) of reference books; cataloging options for books, artwork, manuscripts, and three-dimensional objects; bindings; discovering available resources on the Internet; current approaches to collecting children's books in today's marketplace. Applicants should have some historical background knowledge of children's book authors, titles, and publishers. Instructor: Justin G. Schiller.

43. Rare Book Libraries: A Perspective for Booksellers. The interests of rare book and special collections departments and of antiquarian booksellers are closely related, but differences of perspective and function can result in misunderstanding 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-librarian relationships, good and bad; and issues of education and training. Instructor: Richard Landon.


44. Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography. Introduction to the physical examination and description of books especially (but not exclusively) of the period 1550-1875. Designed both for those with little prior exposure to this subject and those with some general knowledge of the field who wish to be presented with a systematic discussion of the elements of physical description. A major part of the course will consist of small, closely-supervised laboratory sessions in which students will gain practice in determining format and collation. Instructors: Terry Belanger and David Ferris.


45. Introduction to Electronic Texts (Session II). For a description of this course, see no. 26. Instructor: David Seaman.