Rare Book School Winter 1998

Extended Course Descriptions

11 European Bookbinding, 1500-1800. The history of bookbinding is not simply the history of a decorative art, but also that of a craft answering a commercial need. This course will follow European bookbinding from the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, using the bindings to illustrate the aims and intentions of the binding trade. A large part of the course will be devoted to the identification of both broad and detailed distinctions within the larger groups of plain commercial bindings and the possibilities of identifying the work of different countries, cities, and even workshops without reference to finishing tools. The identification and significance of the different materials used in bookbindings by structural type, and how these types developed through the three centuries covered by the course. The development of binding decoration will be touched on, but will be not form a major part of the discussion.

There will be slide lectures each day. Actual examples from the BAP collections will be used to supplement the slides in three afternoon sessions, and another afternoon will be spent examining finely bound books in UVa.'s Special Collections. NB: students will not be able to touch or handle personally the books shown to them in class, because of the fragility and/or value of the material being used-- an understandably irritating but nevertheless very necessary policy instituted to protect the RBS and UVa collections from collective overuse.

Students are expected to have a sound knowledge of bookbinding terms and a basic knowledge of the history of book production in the period under consideration. The purpose of the course is to encourage an awareness of the possibilities latent in the detailed study of bookbindings and is thus aimed at all those handling books bound in this period, but it has particular relevance for those involved in the repair and conservation of such materials.

In their personal statement, applicants should describe the nature and extent of their bench training (if any) in bookbinding and/or related disciplines, and they should also describe any previous formal or informal historical study in the field. Nicholas Pickwoad. Previously offered 87[three times], 88-93, 95[twice each year] 94 96-97

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Book Illustration to 1890. The purpose of this course is to teach students how to tell the difference between the various relief, intaglio, and planographic printing methods used in printed book illustration in the period before the domination of photographic processes. The emphasis of the course will be on process rather than on connoisseurship, on execution rather than design, and on the practical rather than the theoretical.

Almost the sole medium of instruction will be actual examples of original prints drawn from substanital BAP collection, many of them divided into suites or (as they are known locally) packets of twelve prints all from the same (or a very similar) source. The twelve students in the class study the packets under close instruction, using 8X loupes and 30X microscopes (both provided), as necessary.

During the course, students will make and printa linoleum cut, a zinc etching, and an acrylic drypoint. These are exercises in reproductive--not creative--work: no artistic ability of any kind whatsoever is either necessary or expected.

In their personal statement, prospective applicants should describe the extent of their formal and/or informal background in the field. Terry Belanger. Previously offered 83-85 87-88 90-93 94 [twice] 95-97

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Publishers' Bookbindings 1830-1910. The purpose of this course is to develop skills in recognizing and understanding the technical and stylistic components of C19 American book covers. As the microforming and digital imaging of brittle books proceeds in research libraries, it becomes increasingly important to appreciate the book and its cover as they were initially manufactured. Each day, significant bookcloths and endpapers are discarded, because their role in book history is not understood.

The course will provide laboratory sessions in distinguishing between graining, stamping, and embossing on leather, paper, and cloth-covered bindings. The differences between American and English covers will be explored. The BAP collection of clothbound books, intensively built up over the last several years and chronologically arranged, will be used to illustrate the evolution of cover design and its relation to Victorian decorative art and architecture. Special emphasis will be given to identifying "signed" bindings--the periods in which they occur and how to look for them. Sue Allen. Previously offered 84-85 91-92 93-97



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