RBS 2000 Summer Sessions

Rare Book School Summer Sessions 2000
Course Descriptions

June Session (first week)
Monday 19 June - Friday 23 June 2000

11 Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910. The perception of the importance of c19 books in library stack and other collections has risen dramatically in recent years, and a variety of steps is being taken to preserve them. The cover provided by the publisher is the prime compelling physical aspect of these books. This course is aimed at those working with or interested in c19 book covers. Emphasis is on American book covers with comparisons to English and continental styles. Topics include: the materials (often beautiful), technology, evolving styles of ornamentation, the network of practitioners, the description of bindings, preservation, ongoing research, and developing opportunities in the field. Instructor: Sue Allen. See the Expanded Course Description.

12 Printing Design and Publication. 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 with commercial printers. Prime concerns are suitability, client expectations and institutional authority. Instructor: Greer Allen. See the Expanded Course Description.

13 Rare Book Cataloging. Aimed at catalog librarians who find that their present duties include (or shortly will include) the cataloging of rare books or special collections materials. Attention will be given both to cataloging books from the hand-press 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 (especially DCRB); uses of special files; problems in transcription, collation and physical description; setting cataloging policy within an institutional context. Instructor: Deborah J. Leslie. See the Expanded Course Description.

14 Electronic Texts and Images. A practical exploration of the research, preservation, editing, and pedagogical uses of electronic texts and images in the humanities. The course will center around the creation of a set of archival- quality etexts and digital images, for which we shall also create an Encoded Archival Description guide. Topics include: SGML tagging and conversion; using the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines; the form and implications of XML; publishing on the World Wide Web; and the management and use of online texts. For details about last year's version of this course, see < http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/rbs/99>. Some experience with HTML is a prerequisite for admission to the course. Instructor: David Seaman. See the Expanded Course Description.

June Session (second week)
Monday 26 June - Friday 30 June 2000

21 The Printed Book in the West to 1800. The introduction and spread of printing in Europe; the development of book design and illustration; the rise of the publishing industry; freedom and the regulation of the press; the increase in literacy and its social consequences; the traffic in printed matter and the growth of personal and institutional collections; the impact of the Industrial Revolution. Intended for those who have a limited background - but a considerable interest - in the history of the book, and who expect, sooner or later, to take the other two courses in this RBS sequence (The Medieval Book and The Printed Book in the West since 1800), both scheduled to be offered in 2001. Instructor: Martin Antonetti. See the Expanded Course Description.

22 Lithography: The Popularization of Printing in the c19. Aimed at those concerned with books, prints, and ephemera, especially of the first two-thirds of the c19. Topics: Senefelder an d 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. Instructor: Michael Twyman. See the Expanded Course Description.

23 The American Book in the Industrial Era, 1820-1940. Manufacturing methods, distribution networks, and publishing patterns introduced in the US during the industrial era. There will be hands-on sessions in which students examine and describe books produced during the period, providing an introduction to analytical and bibliographical practice. Students will also have the opportunity to discuss their own research projects with the instructor and class members. Instructor: Michael Winship. See the Expanded Course Description.

24 How to Research a Rare Book. A survey of major reference sources covering rare and early printed books, and the strategies for working with them. 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. Instructor: D. W. Krummel. See the Expanded Course Description.

25 Implementing Encoded Archival Description (Session I). Encoded Archival Description (EAD) provides standardized machine-readable access to primary resource materials. This course is aimed at archivist s, librarians, and museum personnel who would like an introduction to EAD that includes an extensive supervised hands-on component. Students will learn SGML encoding techniques in part using examples selected from among their own institution's finding aids. Topics: the context out of which EAD emerged; introduction to the use of SGML authoring tools and browsers; the conversion of existing finding aids to EAD. Offered again July 31 - August 4. Instructor: Daniel Pitti. See the Expanded Course Description.

July/August Session (first week)
Monday 24 July - Friday 28 July 2000

31 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. The course presupposes a general knowledge of Western history and some awareness of the continuity of the Latin script but no special knowledge of typographical history. Instructor: James Mosley. See the Expanded Course Description.

32 Book Illustration to 1890. The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including (but not only) woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process line and halftone relief, collotype, photogravure, and color printing. The course will be taught almost entirely 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. See the Expanded Course Description.

33 Japanese Printmaking, 1615-1868. A survey of Ukiyo-e, the art of the Japanese woodblock print. Ukiyo-e literally means floating world art, and it is through an exploration of the Floating World that produced this art that we come to understand it. The course considers how the Floating World developed in the c17 out of the earlier court culture, how it created an interest in the courtesans, actors, and famous places of Japan that became the chief subject-matter of c17-c19 printmakers, and how it declined and changed in the late c19. The course will take advantage of the extensive collection of Japanese prints owned by UVa's Bayly Museum. Instructor: Sandy Kita. See the Expanded Course Description.

34 Managing the Past. This course is intended for librarians and others for whom the custody and deployment of books printed or written before 1850 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? Instructor: Nicolas Barker. See the Expanded Course Description.

July/August Session (second week)
Monday 31 July - Friday 4 August 2000

41 Introduction to Codicology. The principles, bibliography, and methodology of the analysis and description of Western medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. The course includes a survey of the development of the physical features of manuscript books and practical work by the students on particular points. This is a course for non-specialists, but applicants must have considerable background in the historical humanities; in admitting students to the class, the instructor will prefer those with at least an introductory knowledge of Latin and some previous exposure to paleography. Instructor: Albert Derolez. See the Expanded Course Description.

42 Advanced Descriptive Bibliography. A continuation and extension of RBS course no. 53, Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography, this course will be based on the intensive examination of a representative range of books from the 1550-1875 period. The goal of the course is to deepen students' familiarity with the physical composition of books; to gain further experience in the use of Bowers' Principles of Bibliographical Description; and to consider critically some of the uses of Bowers' method (and its limitations) in the production of catalogs, bibliographies, critical editions, and histories of books and reading. Instructor: Richard Noble. See the Expanded Course Description.

43 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 collec tions to their publics; patterns of use; special collections reference materials; security; environmental desiderata; exhibitions and publications; and friends' groups. Instructor: Daniel Traister. See the Expanded Course Description.

44 Implementing Encoded Archival Description (Session II). This course will also be offered in the June session (for description, see June 26-30); the two sessions will be identical in content. Instructor: Daniel Pitti. See the Expanded Course Description.

July/August Session (third week)
Monday 7 August - Friday 11 August 2000

51 European Decorative Bookbinding. An historical survey of decorative bookbinding in England and on the European Continent, concentrating on the period 1500-1800, but with examples drawn from the late c7 to the late c20. Topics include: the emergence and development of various decorative techniques and styles; readership and collecting; the history of bookbinding in a wider historical context; the pitfalls and possibilities of binding research. Enrollment in this course is strictly limited to those who have already taken Nicholas Pickwoad's RBS bookbinding course, European Bookbinding, 1500-1800. Instructor: Mirjam Foot. See the Expanded Course Description.

52 Artists' Books: Strategies for Collecting. The field of artists' books includes work that spans the full spectrum of cultural objects, handmade originals, calligraphic and typographic experimentation, conceptual productions, and works produced in the traditions of fine printing and independent publishing. This course provides critical and historical perspectives from which to conceive of a collecting rationale for both individuals and institutions. Instructor: Johanna Drucker. See the Expanded Course Description.

53 Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography. An introduction to the physical examination and description of printed books, especially of the period 1550-1875. Designed both for those with little previous formal exposure to this subject and for 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 and in writing standard descriptions of signings and pagination. In daily museum sessions, students will have the opportunity to see a wide variety of printed books drawn from the extensive Book Arts Press laboratory collections. Instructors: Terry Belanger and Richard Noble. See the Expanded Course Description.

54 Visual Materials Cataloging. Aimed at librarians and archivists who catalog published and unpublished visual materials. The emphasis will be on c19 and c20 prints and photographs being handled either as single items or as collections. Topics include: descriptive and subject cataloging; form and genre access; special problems in physical description; comparison of Graphic Materials, AACR2 (Chapter 8), and APPM guidelines; the relationship between physical processing and cataloging; establishing institutional priorities. Instructor: Helena Zinkham. See the Expanded Course Description.

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