C-20. Book Collecting
William P. Barlow, Jr &
Terry Belanger
This course is aimed at persons who spend a fairly substantial amount of time, energy, and money on collecting, but who feel rather isolated from the national (and international) antiquarian book communities. Topics include: the rationale of book collecting; developing relations with dealers; buying at auction and via the Internet; evaluating prices; bibliophile and friends' groups; preservation, conservation, and insurance options; tax and other financial implications; what finally to do with your books; and the literature of book collecting.
This course is intended for serious collectors who would like to learn more about the current American rare book scene: about the interlocking professional and social worlds of antiquarian book collecting, the rare book trade, and research librarianship. It is aimed at persons who collect energetically but who currently are not active members of bibliophilic social clubs and who do not participate to any great extent in library friends' organizations. The course will have at least something of a proselytizing bent (the instructors admit to being members of various social and scholarly bibliophilic and bibliographical organizations, as well as a good many library friends' groups; and they are well acquainted with a fair number of book dealers).
Among the questions the course will address: Why do we collect? How can I most effectively use the services provided by dealers, the Internet, auction houses and other agents? How do I know that a price is "right," and what should I do if it isn't? How can I best use bibliographies and other lists in my collecting? What kind of records should I keep? What can I do to preserve books on my own? When professional conservation is required, how do I find it? What should I do about insurance? What are the benefits of professional and bibliophilic organizations and cooperation with libraries and scholars? How should I dispose of my books? What are the tax and collecting implications of sale, gift, and bequest? How can I establish my own program for learning more about books and collecting?
In their personal statement, applicants should describe their book collections and their most active current collecting interests, and state what they would particularly like to see the course cover.
C-40. Cataloging Private Collections
A course for book collectors wishing to make a computer-based catalog of their collection. Instructors' names, course description,
and workshop dates will be posted in the future.
C-50. Managing the Past
Nicolas Barker
This course is intended for librarians and others for whom the custody and deployment of books printed or written before 1950 is part of the day's work. How to make the most of what you've got, what to buy, how to buy, whether to sell (and if so, how and when) is on the agenda; but the core of the course is the analysis of copy-specific data: what makes this copy in (or about to be in) my library different from and more important than anyone else's?
This course will focus tightly on the various physical attributes of individual books that make the use of reformatted substitutes (later editions, reprints, facsimiles, microforms, photocopies, scanned images, &c.) undesirable or impossible. Topics include: the non-textual use of books; original condition vs present condition; provenance and signs of use; cultural and monetary values; restoration, conservation, and tampering; dealers, auction houses, and trade expertise; changing conditions in the antiquarian book trade; and changing conditions in rare book libraries.
In their personal statement, applicants should explain their specific reasons for wishing to take this course and any topics they would particularly like it to cover.
G-60. Introduction to c15 Printing (formerly Physical Evidence in Early Printed Books)
Paul Needham
The use of a wide variety of evidence -- paper, type, rubrication and illumination, bindings, ownership marks, and annotations -- to 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.
This course is intended to serve as a general introduction to bibliographical analysis. Its examples and methods are primarily derived from C15 printing, as this is a period commonly overlooked or only summarily treated by the standard guides. Copy-specific features of books will also be examined, for the same reason that the standard guides generally neglect them.
Note that this course is not a general historical introduction to incunabula; the primary purpose of the course is to encourage a way of bibliographical thinking that should prove useful in the analysis of all books, early or modern.
Students should have already taken the RBS Descriptive Bibliography course (G-10) or its equivalent. Since so many of the books studied will be in Latin, some familiarity with that language will be an advantage. In their personal statement, students should indicate the extent of their proficiency with descriptive bibliography and with Latin.
L-20. How to Research a Rare Book
D. W. Krummel
A survey of major reference sources covering rare and early printed books, and the strategies for working with them. The course is aimed at reference librarians and others who need to find citations and interpret particulars, whether for work in acquisitions, cataloging or description, captions in an exhibition, or informed work with readers.
The course is concerned with searching for the bibliographical citations that will tell us about out the character and importance of rare books. Proceeding by country and period, the most important lists will be introduced for work with printed materials before 1900. Non- English sources will be emphasized and citation practices discussed, although no special background in either languages or in library cataloging is expected. Experience in searching is provided through daily assignments, followed by class discussions of the strategies and techniques for locating and evaluating entries and for verifying citations. The class will also evaluate the bibliographical record, in general and in terms of regions, nations, periods, and genres.
The course should prove useful for reference librarians and others who need to find citations and interpret their particulars, whether for purposes of acquisitions, cataloging or description, or captions in exhibitions or annotations. While the course is not restricted to persons with library degrees, prospective students without library degrees should have had a considerable period of practice in working with bibliographical citations. In their personal statement, applicants are encouraged to speak briefly to their subject and language backgrounds, and the extent of their previous training or experience in bibliographical searching and verification.
M-75. Indian Manuscript Illustration, 1450-1800
Daniel Ehnbom
A survey of Indian manuscript illustration concentrating on both imperial and regional styles. Through lectures and the direct study of miniatures, the course will cover the development of the art of Indian miniature painting in the period leading up to the coming of the Mughal dynasty (1526-1858) and the time of its political and cultural control in north India. Lectures will introduce the styles and subjects of Indian manuscript painting, including religious, literary, and historical texts. Topics include the sources, themes, functions, and stylistic developments and interactions among major styles. There will be a strong emphasis on visual analysis and the relationship of style to text and meaning. The collection of the University of Virginia Art Museum includes important examples from manuscripts and illustrated series prepared for imperial and lesser patrons.
The course is intended both for interested amateurs and for professionals who wish to develop their skills in understanding Indian illustrated manuscript traditions. The course requires no knowledge of Indian languages, though the instructor will be available to advise those who have some linguistic background and wish to develop skills in reading texts and inscriptions. Prospective students should describe any background they have in the study of South Asia, including travel in the region.
T-70. Printing Design and Publication
Greer Allen
In today's cultural institutions, the texts for announcements, newsletters -- even full-dress catalogs -- are composed on computers, often by staff members with scant graphic design background. By precept and critical examination of work, the course pinpoints how available software can generate appropriate design from laser-printed posters and leaflets through complex projects involving commercial printers. Prime concerns are suitability, client expectations and institutional authority.
This course is aimed at library and museum staff responsible for the appearance of printed materials ranging from simple case labels to elaborately illustrated catalogs. It will begin by examining expectations: What constitutes a document meeting library or museum standards? What fails? And why? The developing doctrine of typographic organization and design calls forth an evaluation of materials, tools, and processes.
With the computer's seemingly infinite choice of type faces and visual approaches, how can an institution's materials appear assertive, but not commercial; authoritative, yet not passé? How is the identity of a cultural institution to be achieved? The course dwells less on how to run available software than upon the question, "What should your next printed piece really look like in every detail?" Design problems are posed as student exercises, and considerable time will be spent evaluating examples of museum and library printing supplied by students, the instructor, and the Rare Book School collections.
Applicants, in their personal statement, should describe their present design, production, and/or administrative responsibilities, opportunities and aspirations -- mentioning topics they would particularly like to see covered by the course.