Rare Book School
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Deadlines & Reminders

Application forms for the RBS fall and winter sessions in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York City are now available online.
New applications!

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Preserving Pages in Charlottesville
by Jacki Lyden

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Rare Book School (RBS) is an independent non-profit educational institute supporting the study of the history of books and printing and related subjects. Founded in 1983, it moved to its present home at the University of Virginia in 1992.

RBS News Feed

2009 RBS Scholarship Awardees Announced

[ 6 October 2009 ] The great generosity of our benefactors has enabled Rare Book School to award scholarships to a bumper crop of new students of the history of books and printing. There were an enormous number of applications ... Full Story

RBS Directors Scholarship Fund triples its goal

[ 29 June 2009 ] In late April 2009, a group of friends and colleagues of Terry Belanger mailed out letters to Friends and other friends of Rare Book School, soliciting contributions to a scholarship fund established in honor of his retirement as founding director ... Full Story

Michael Suarez to head Rare Book School

[ 18 June 2009 ] Michael F. Suarez, S.J., will be the new director of Rare Book School (RBS), a bibliographical institute based at the University of Virginia. UVa President John T. Casteen III announced the appointment this morning during his keynote address ... Full Story

‘Exit, pursued by a bear’ and other RBS summer lectures

[ 14 May 2009 ] Rare Book School is pleased to announce its schedule of 6 pm public lectures during its summer Charlottesville sessions. The roster of speakers includes Stephen Enniss (8 June), Roger Stoddard (22 June), Mark Dimunation (20 July), Stephen Greenberg (27 July), Andrew Stauffer (3 August) ... Full Story

Support our cemetery

[ 4 March 2009 ] Rare Book School has recently acquired a set of three American steel-engraved plates, each about 10" x 7", made (perhaps in Philadelphia) in 1864-65. They show vignetted head-and-shoulders portraits of Generals U. S. Grant, Joseph Hooker, and William D. Whipple. The steel plate used for Grant is stamped ... Full Story

Tanselle bibliographies now online

[ 2 March 2009 ] G. Thomas Tanselle's Introduction to Bibliography: Seminar Syllabus and Introduction to Scholarly Editing: Seminar Syllabus are comprehensive guides to the literature of these two fields, including suggestions for basic reading and chronological lists of the writings on specific topics. Through the generosity of their compiler, the two volumes are now available free for consultation or downloading ... Full Story

Save the date: Belanger farewell party on 20 June 2009

[ 4 February 2009 ] This summer, Terry Belanger (founding director of Rare Book School, UVa; University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia; and 2005 MacArthur Fellow) will be stepping down from his position as RBS director in order to ensure a smooth transition ... Full Story

Forthcoming fall and winter courses in NYC, Baltimore, and DC

[ 2 September 2008 ] This fall and winter, RBS will be running courses in New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. At the Freer/Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Ellis Tinios will inaugurate a new course on “The Art of the Book in Edo and Meiji Japan, 1615-1912,” running Mon-Fri, 20-24 October 2008. In the same week, but at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, Roger E. Wieck will offer ... Full Story

Summer schedule of RBS public lectures announced

[ 3 June 2008 ] Rare Book School is pleased to announce its schedule of 6 pm public lectures during its June and July Charlottesville sessions. The roster of speakers includes Steve Beare (9 June), William Noel (16 June), Sumner Stone (18 June), Alice Hudson (7 July), Russell Johnson (9 July), Richard Kuhta (21 July), and Andrea Krupp (28 July) ... Full Story

Danielle Culpepper joins the RBS Staff

[ 10 May 2008 ] Danielle Culpepper started work as RBS's new administrator at the end of April, succeeding Carolyn Cades Engel (who has accepted a position on the program staff of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities). As RBS Administrator, Culpepper will be responsible for ... Full Story

Book Arts Press Address Book, 25th year edition

[ 9 April 2008 ] Approximately every two years since 1989, Rare Book School and its publishing arm, the Book Arts Press, have published a directory of RBS attendees, ABAA members, and others with a connection to the school ... Full Story

Directory of ARL special collections librarians

[ 2 April 2008 ] The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 large research libraries in the US and Canada. In recent years, the ARL has become interested in rare books and special collections, and its website contains useful material about the ARL Special Collections Task Force, the Hidden Collections initiative, and related matters. Two years ago, the RBS staff compiled a directory of the principal librarians, curators, directors, and the like working in member institutions of the ARL ... Full Story

Board changes

[ 29 February 2008 ] In January 2008, RBS Board of Directors chairman Hans Tausig completed his second and final term on the board, as did the board’s vice-chair, Peter Herdrich. RBS is grateful to them both for their many years of service to RBS ... Full Story

James M. Reilly to teach Photographic Print Process ID at UVa

[ 30 January 2008 ] James M. Reilly, the Director of the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) will teach a new course in June on The Identification of Photographic Print Processes, assisted by Ryan Boatright (also of IPI). The new course will offer instruction in ... Full Story

Rare Book School now has a Facebook group

[ 31 October 2007 ] Rare Book School has recently formed a group on Facebook, the online social networking site that allows members to share news and announcements, photographs, contact information and more. ... Full Story

Albert Derolez to teach Latin paleography at UVa in October

[ 6 September 2007 ] In October, Albert Derolez will teach a five-day seminar on Latin paleography, 1100-1500 at Rare Book School in Charlottesville; a special course limited to six students ... Full Story

New Storm van Leeuwen Seminar in the History of Bookbinding

[ 2 August 2007 ] In October, Jan Storm van Leeuwen will inaugurate a new RBS seminar in the history of bookbinding, to be taught at the Walters Art Museum and at various rare book libraries at The Johns Hopkins University. Topics in this five-day seminar will vary from year to year ... Full Story

Anybody seen my hammer?

[ 19 March 2007 ] In 1997, RBS acquired a stack of printed but unbound folio sheets intended to make several volumes of early c19 British House of Commons committee reports. The sheets were roughly folded for storage ... Full Story