Category Archives: Books

books

PBT 1904-1917

Beginning in September 1904, the journalist and poet Eustaquio Pellicer (1859-1937) wrote, edited, and published the satirical weekly P.B.T. out of Buenos Aires. Subtitled “para niños de 6 a 80 años” [for children ages 6 to 80] the magazine lasted thirteen years–693 issues–and together with the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS), the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a rare, nearly complete run.

Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept. 24, 1904)

“The Buenos Aires of the Early Twentieth Century is Reflected in its Pages with Intelligence and Humor,” writes one advertisement. “The word ‘pebete’ in the title was a popular expression in Spain at the time to refer to a boy and which would later take root in Argentina as ‘pibe’.”

The publication was a resounding success, beginning with a print run of 5,000 and explanding to 45,000 copies. It remained true to its motto, focusing on children and adults with varied content featuring photographs and illustrations of weekly current events, stories, poems and reports, jokes, and informative advertisements.

Political satire and caricature also held a prominent place in its pages. P.B.T. was produced by some of the most renowned graphic artists and caricaturists of the time, since a primary focus was precisely the publication’s visual aspects and political caricature. Among them were Mayol, Cao, Zavattaro and Fortuny. This weekly publication, which enjoyed great popularity, contains a wealth of information for the study of Argentine society from the early 20th century to World War I.  Pellicer retired in 1910, maintaining fluid contact with his publication.

 

Eustaquio Pellicer (1859-1937) was a Spanish journalist, poet, and humorist based in the cities of Rio de Janeiro first and Buenos Aires later. He studied high school in his hometown and in 1886 he traveled to the Río de la Plata where he worked in publications such as La unión Gallega de Montevideo and El Ferrocarril.

In the Uruguayan city of Montevideo he founded a humorous weekly called La Pellicerina and later, in 1890 he founded the magazine Caras y Caretas . Years later he settled in Buenos Aires and at the request of Bartolomé Mitre Vedia founded in that city the Argentine version of the magazine, which gained great popularity.

 

Eustaquio Pellicer (1859-1937 ), P.B.T.; semanario infantil ilustrado (para niños de 6 a 80 años) (Buenos Aires, 1904-1917). This collection was purchased in part with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) and in part the Graphic Arts Collection. GAX 2018- in process.

Playing the weather


Artist Sara Bouchard writes, “Weather Box is a hand-cranked music box, housed in scavenged cardboard and accompanied by 12 punch card scores derived from actual weather data. I obtained hourly reports from the National Climatic DataCenter then graphed changes in temperature, wind and precipitation onto a timeline, which became the foundation for each punch card score. Each score represents one month of weather observations as recorded by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at the Belvedere Castle weather station in Central Park, NYC.”

Weather Box: March 2014 from Sara Bouchard on Vimeo.

When introduced to Professor Beatrice Kitzinger’s class “Arts of the Medieval Book,” who were comparing contemporary artists’ books with traditional codex structures, the students made comparisons to a Medieval book of hours that holds the offices of the canonical hours of the day. In Bouchard’s work, each page or strip activates the various senses in a small, personal reverie: it can be read with its graphic symbols; seen through its visual aesthetics; and heard as a sensory experience.

Sara Bouchard is a “multi-disciplinary artist and songwriter with a strong foothold in American roots. As an artist, I investigate ways to interact with and represent the American landscape through song. As a musician, I perform original and traditional tunes – drawn from bluegrass, old-time, jazz, country and blues – with my band Salt Parade.”– https://sarabouchard.com/

Hans Burgkmair’s woodcuts reused in “Le relationi universali”


Lengthy essays have been written about Giovanni Botero’s Universal relations but for the Graphic Arts Collection, it is the book’s Aggiunta (supplement) added by publisher Alessandro Vecchi with 33 woodcuts from 32 blocks that must be the primary focus of this rare publication. Vecchi knew the power of pictures.

Now attributed to the Renaissance genius Hans Burgkmair (1473-1531), the 30 full-page and 2 half-page woodcuts fall into two sections: the first group depict semi-human monsters and the remainder represent natives of India, Guinea, and East Africa. Walter Oakeshott’s 1960 study claims this was “the first serious study of native life and dress made for publication in a European travel book.”

Thanks to funds provided by the estate of Gillett G. Griffin, the copy recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection comes from the collection of Count Wolfgang Engelbert von Auersperg (1641-1709). The volume also holds a 19th-century bookplate of the Auersperg princely library in Laybach (Ljubljana), along with a label of Helmut N. Friedlaender.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder was the foremost Augsburg designer of woodcuts of his time, and together with Hans Holbein the Elder, the most important painter of the early sixteenth century in the city. The British Museum notes that the artist:

“Trained with his father, the painter Thoman Burgkmair (q.v), and from 1488 to 1490, was apprenticed to Martin Schongauer in Colmar. Designed woodcuts for the leading presses in Augsburg throughout his career. He became a master in 1498, and had a short stay in Italy during 1507. Worked primarily for the emperor Maximilian from c.1508 to 1519, for whom he designed the Genealogy of the Habsburgs of 1509-11, Der Weisskunig of 1514-16, Der Theuerdank of 1517 and the Triumphal Procession of 1516-18. …Between 1508 and 1512, [Burgkmair] played a leading role, together with the printer Jost de Negker, in the development of printing in colour. He was particularly influential in the introduction of Italian Renaissance forms into Augsburg.

The first of Burgkmair’s 15 woodcuts in the Aggiunta show mythological semi-human monsters, including a centaur, a dog-headed man, and others reminiscent of the border cuts in Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle.

The remaining 17 cuts depict real men and women, in attire and appearance exotic to European readers, 8 of which form part of a panorama that was cut up into single vignettes. The British Museum owns a rare portion of this procession of the King of Cochin, noting:

“These three blocks come from a set of eight, which was originally printed in the format of a frieze … and was based on a short report by Balthasar Springer published in 1508 of the first voyage made by German traders in 1505-6 to Africa, Arabia and the East Indies.”

The Princeton University Art Museum owns a single section (seen below).

Burgkmair’s original woodcuts must have been known, as they were copied throughout the 16th century, but the blocks themselves were not published until the 1618 edition of Le relationi universali. For the 1622 edition now at Princeton, Vecchi added a title illustration and improved the layout, using a larger type fount.

Giovanni Botero (1544-1617). Le relationi vniversali … diuise in sette parti… In oltre vi s’ aggiunge … un breve racconto di Mostri, & Usanze di quelle Indie, con le sue Figure al naturale d’ Alessandro de Vecchi … Quinta impressione stampata & ricorrette (Venice: Alessandro Vecchi, 1622-1623). Eight parts, numbered to six: with the Aggiunta to Part 4, and Part 6 in two parts, separately titled and paginated. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

See also:
Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), Das Buch der Croniken und Geschichten (Liber chronicarum) (Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 23 Dec. 1493). Rare Books and Special Collections EXI Oversize 1016.816.11f

Walter Oakeshott (1903-1987), Some woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair : printed as an appendix to the fourth part of Le relationi universali di Giovanni Botero, 1618 (Oxford: Printed for presentation to the members of the Roxburghe Club, 1960). Graphic Arts Collection 2009-0966N

Hans, the elder Burgkmair (1473–1531), The Savages of Calicutt woodcut; watermark: HG? Block. Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of Professor Robert A. Koch, Graduate Class of 1954 x1983-159

Krysodav!

front pagesback pages

Together with Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Graphic Arts Collection has brought to North America the first complete run of Krysodav! also known as The Rat Crusher.

Complete in three issues, this short-lived satirical Russian literary journal was produced under the editorial direction of Ukrainian writers Leonid Nedolia (later the main editor of Iugo-Lef magazine) and Mark Gai. It features poetry and prose by a number of noted writers related to contemporary politics and social issues in Russia, although it is the spectacular graphics throughout that will draw you in.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930) wrote the poem My [i.e. Us] for the front cover of the first issue (see top). Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1892-1937) wrote the hymn of the magazine that also appeared in the first issue: in his poem Krysodav is the metaphor for USSR. Sergei Makletsov (born 1892) contributed the impressive collage Nozhnitsy po Trotskomu [i.e. The Scissors according to Trotsky] showing Red Army soldier cutting ‘former people’ with giant scissors (above).

The second issue has several caricatures by Kirill Zdanevich (1892-1969) including the full-page back cover (above) with a Red Army soldier proclaiming Workers of the world, Unite! Issue three also features a Red Army soldier (Lenin) rolling over the map of Istanbul with its people trying to escape. Other contributors include Nikolai Aseev, Osip Brik, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Dmitry Moor, Boris Zemenkov, and Boris Yefimov.

 


Крысодав! = Krysodav! (Moskva: [Sibkraĭizdat], 1923). No. 1 (ii︠u︡nʹ 1923 g.)-no. 3 (okt. 1923 g.). Complete run. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

See also online: https://primarysources.brillonline.com/browse/russian-avantgarde-19041946/krysodavdvukhnedelnik;ava332

Coming Soon…

Paul Souday (1869-1929), Les livres du temps (Paris: Émile-Paul Frères, 1913). ReCAP PQ281 .S71 1913

If Colette, author of La vagabonde, opened a store, would it be a travel shop? Wouldn’t Max Jacob, author of Le Cabinet noir, open a photography store? What about others?

This is the brilliant literary jeu d’esprit attempted by Pierre Henri Mac Orlan (Pierre Dumarchey, 1882-1970) in conjunction with the artist Henri Guilac (1888-1953) and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979) who was publishing under the name Simon Kra. It’s easy to imagine them sitting at a sidewalk cafe late one night devising the scenarios, and then preparing a limited edition with pochoir plates under the title Coming Soon. 62 Literary Shops. Here are a few.


André Maurois (1885-1967), Ni ange, ni bête (Paris: B. Grasset, 1927, c1919). ReCAP 3269.34.367

Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), Adorable Clio (Paris: Emile-Paul, 1920). ReCAP *Z-4838

Anatole France (1844-1924), Le livre de mon ami (Paris, Calmann-Lévy [189-?]). First edition published in 1885. ReCAP PQ2254 .L587 1890z

André Salmon, Peindre (Edité par Paris Ed La Sirène, 1921)

Edmond Jaloux (1878-1949), Le Reste est silence (Paris: P.-V. Stock, 1909). ReCAP 3260.26.376.11

Max Jacob (1876-19 ), Le Cabinet noir, lettres avec commentaires ([Paris] Gallimard, 1968). ReCAP 3260.24.323

Benjamin Crémieux (1888-1944), Le premier de la classe (Paris: B. Grasset, 1921). ReCAP PQ2605.R4 P7 1921

Pierre Mac Orlan and Henri Guilac, Prochainement Ouverture … de 62 boutiques littéraires (Paris: Simon Kra, [1925]). 62 pochoir plates. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process.

Shake-speare’s Sonnets

“The Petrarch Press edition of Shake-speare’s Sonnets has been the most significant project in our history,” writes William Bentley, “both for the end result and for the new skills and capabilities we developed along the way. The decision to print the original text was itself a journey of discovery, in which we abandoned our initial plan to issue (yet another) modernized edition of these timeless poems, and learned to appreciate the orthography of Shakespeare’s day.”

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a copy of their Sonnets, for which they cast their own metal type and engraved the special characters needed to print a 17th-century text.
http://www.petrarchpress.com/shakespeare-sonnets/

When we began to visualize our new edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, just a few ideas stood out. We wanted an intimate volume where each sonnet would be presented on its own page and where each verse would stand on one line, regardless of its length. Visually, we wanted our edition to resonate with the books produced by the early fine presses: Handmade paper with deckle edges, an authentic limp-vellum binding, and types that have their roots in classic early printing.

Our access to typecasting matrices for Cloister Old Style (designed in 1913 to resemble the Jenson-based types of the Kelmscott Press) made the choice of font easy. William had already begun casting our own metal type after we acquired our first Monotype Thompson casting machine (as told in Our New Typecasting Foundry). But preparing the type for Shakespeare’s Sonnets turned into an adventure on a different level.

http://www.petrarchpress.com/creating-new-types-for-shakespeare/

 

The Petrarch Press in Oregon House, California, is a revival and expansion of the late Peter Bishop’s own Petrarch Press, which produced a series of special, hand-printed, limited editions both in Northern California and in New York City from 1985 through 1996.

“The Petrarch Press now builds on the rich history of 110 years of fine-press printing, using our passion and standards of refinement to create lasting fine editions of great world literature with a focus on typography.”

 

“This edition of Shakespeare’s sequence of sonnets honours the Quarto impression of 1609, perhaps the last publication of Shakespeare’s writings in his own lifetime. We have chosen to respect the arrangement, orthography, and punctuation of the original, with all its peculiarities, the only significant departure being to give each poem a page of its own. In all other ways we have tried to present the most authentic version of the Sonnets possible, in both typography and content, for our modern age.”

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Shake-speare’s sonnets (Oregon House, CA: Petrarch Press, 2018). Copy 68 of 75 numbered copies on handmade Twin Rocker paper; bound in semi-limp calfskin vellum with slipcase. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

SONNET 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

“Destined for an audience of connoisseurs”

If you are a Friend of the Princeton University Library, you should be patting yourself on the back for your connoisseurship and good judgement in providing the funds for the purchase of this amazing new volume of satirical engravings. Congratulations.

Thanks to the generosity of the Friends, the Graphic Arts Collection has acquired a rare set of Dutch satirical engravings under the title (in English): Rome Perturbed or the Catholic Church in an uproar, presented in ten emblems showing how the papacy, but especially the monks, trespass against the Ten commandments… The volume holds eleven engravings with accompanying verses in Dutch. The imprint is false, ascribed tentatively to the publisher Carel Allard, Amsterdam. The author is identified on the title page by initials only “L.V.J.” for Liefhebber van Jansenius (an anonymous friend of Jansenius).


In his study Graphic Satire and Religious Change: The Dutch Republic, 1676-1707, Joke Spaans notes that Roma Perturbata was part of a media offensive against the Catholic Church, culminating in the schism between the Curia and the Dutch diocese in 1723. Apparently the book became something of a bestseller although copies are now extremely rare. This group of elaborate satirical prints focuses on Clement XI’s response to Jansenism in the Netherlands, with particular attention to Pieter Codde and his replacement Theodore de Coc.

The collected engravings went through two editions, one in 1706 consisting of eleven plates [now at Princeton], and an expanded edition with thirteen plates in 1707. Spaans writes

These ‘editions’ are not the fixed entities suggested by this term: the individual plates exist in several versions and the extant copies of the series show some variation in composition. This means that individual plates circulated independently before the series was conceived. The Allard firm collected these prints, altered them as and where they saw fit, and fleshed out the collection with other suitable material they had at hand.

They added a title page, on the reverse side of which they printed ten four-line stanzas that provide the reader with what amounts to a reasoned table of contents. This rhymed table interprets each of the emblems in turn within the wider context of the justification of Codde, the praise of the States of Holland for their support of the Clergy, and the vilification of DeCock, the Jesuits and the Pope and loosely connects them with the Ten Commandments, as referred to in the title of the series.

Spaans also notes that while there were many satirical pamphlets and broadside at this time of dubious quality, “all those in Roma Perturbata were intelligently made, and seem to have been destined for an audience of connoisseurs.”

 


Roma perturbata, ofte ‘t Beroerde Romen, vertoond door x zinnebeelden, toegepast op de x Geboden, door die van ‘t Pausdom … doorgaans meest overtreeden, gelijk nu in de historien van P. Codde, en T. de Kok; waar in de hoogmoedigheid van de Paus … en zyn onmacht om ‘t gewaande recht uit te voeren … voor oogen gesteld worden. By een gesteld door L.V.J. en zijn medehelpers, etc. (Loven [Amsterdam?]: gedrukt ten koste van de Groote Compagnie [Carel Allard?], 1706).

Small folio, 314 x 185 mm, bound in contemporary Dutch speckled calf. Provenance: Bibliotheca Abbatiae Vallis-Dei (Abbot of Gottesthal?), with their ex-libris on front pastedown and stamp of same on front and rear endpaper verso. Purchased with funds donated by the Friends of the Princeton University Library. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

 


Given the rarity and uniqueness of each copy, the potential for new research is enormous. OCLC lists only six complete paper copies of the 1706 Roma Perturbata in public collections and none in North America. With current online records and limited published research, it is impossible to know which copies differ and to what extent. Since many of these prints are altered from the original, if in fact an original is known, the study of each impression is not only valuable but essential.

In his catalogue raisonné, Frederik Muller lists the plates of the 1707 publication under numbers 3410 a and b, 1-13, as follows:
Title page: letterpress, kept with the present print
Plate 1: Three medallions, Chronogram 1705
Plate 2: “De niewe Roomse kerktrophee”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 3: “Door Munneke jagt, wordt Babel verkracht”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 4: “Zinnebeeldig pourtret v.d. Ew.Hr. Theodorus de Coc”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 5: “Jansenisten en Munneken zeef”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 6: “Coddige droom van de smalle en brede weg”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 7: “Een Jansenist smeedt met zijn knapen…”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 8: “‘t Rooms Hollands Recht”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 9: “De Rooms Hollandse Tongeslijper”, Chronogram 1705
Plate 10: “‘t Roomse Rad van Avontuur”, Chronogram 1706
Plate 11: “Coddig nachtgezicht”
Plate 12: “De Roomse Kerken-Visiteerder of de Ridder…” Chronogram 1706
Plate 13: “Sic itur ad astra scilicet”; “Rooms Cocceaans Munnike…”

However, these titles vary from the collection catalogue of the British Museum, which also gives lengthy visual descriptions of each plate, suggesting earlier versions and or variations on each theme. Until a compendium of all the extent copies can be attempted, each rare copy of Roma Perturbata in a public collection adds to the scholarship not only of the individual engravings but also to the publication history of the set.


Water Yam

https://music.princeton.edu/events/tim-ruszala-fluxus

It isn’t often that our artists’ books get a performance, but that is the case with the new acquisition of George Brecht’s Water Yam (Fluxus no. C, 1963). At 4:30 on Friday, November 16, 2018, music major Tim Ruszala will present a Junior Paper recital about Fluxus, a radical avant-garde interdisciplinary art movement of the early 1960s.

He writes, “A large part of their corpus consisted of written instructions or short phrases, intended for performance / reflection, and the pieces were often framed in musical terms or had to do with questioning art production and conventions of consumption.” Tim will hold a recital in Theatre Intime of a selection of interesting pieces that he found in this process, including Brecht’s Water Yam.

When the BBC described Water Yam, they noted:

In a series of classes given at the New School for Social Research between 1956 and 1960, John Cage influenced a generation of artists who would develop the performance script into an art form, and lay the ground for Happenings and Fluxus. Having earlier embraced chance compositional procedures as a means of effacing his own likes and dislikes (and, as he put it, ” imitating nature in her manner of operation”), Cage encouraged students who already were using chance in their work – such as George Brecht and Jackson Mac Low – and prompted others – such as Allan Karpow, Dick Higgins and Al Hanson – to do so. And his classroom assignments led to instructions for events and performances that yielded some of the most important intermedia activity of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Out of the Cage class came the kind of event cards for which Fluxus would become well-known, an evocative form whose power is best appreciated in the 1959-66 works of George Brecht published by the movement’s impresario George Maciunas in a box called Water Yam. While most Fluxus event cards are performance scripts, Water Yam also includes instructions for the creation of objects or tableaux–obscure directions whose realization left almost everything to the realizer. In such works as Six Exhibits (“ceiling, first wall, second wall, third wall, fourth wall, floor”) and Egg (“at least one egg”), Brecht applied to objects and physical situations the freedom of execution and openness to serendipity that is the hallmark of a Fluxus performance.

Water Yam, arranged by George Brecht ([New York]: Fluxus, [1963?]). 1 cardboard box with 76 cards. Fluxus ; no. C. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

Rare London Cries

John Leighton [pseudonym Luke Limner] (1822–1912), London Cries & Public Edifices (London: Grant and Griffith, successors to Newberry and Marris, [1847]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

Writing for the DNB, Edmund M. B. King notes “Leighton created over 400 cover designs in the 1850s and 1860s, some of which were for serial publications, though the majority of his work was for monographs. For The Keepsake his cover design was first used in 1849. It was repeated each year until 1857. He made different upper cover vignettes for each year of the Court Album from 1850 to 1855.

He carried out much work for two publishers in these years: for Griffith and Farran he made over forty designs; for Routledge he created over eighty. The series Routledge’s British Poets provides an early example of the reuse of vignette design by Leighton for many of the individual volumes published in the 1850s.

…Distinguishable by his sheer proficiency as well as by his artistic talent, Leighton’s work as a book illustrator also showed him capable of providing a rich vein of comic art in the 1840s and 1850s. He also created more studied work in the 1850s and 1860s, often within the prevailing fashion for gothic design and motifs. He designed covers for a wide range of subject material, including religion, engineering, history, natural history, and particularly imaginative literature. His commissions from a few publishers spanned many years. His cover and spine designs are frequently a marvel of intricate line within a confined space. Above all, Leighton provided designs that the publishers wanted, often incorporating deft touches of humour with a flourish.”

First published at the end of 1847, Leighton’s Cries was issued in three different formats, plain at 2s 6d; tinted at 5s; and hand colored at 7s 6d, which is the format the Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired. Beall E51; Hiler p. 536; Gumuchian 3700; and Lipperheide Gcb 19.

The Cries of London and Public Edifices [lithographic plate list]
The Tinker and the Tower of London
The East India House and Rhubarb
The Bank of England and Matches
The Royal Exchange and Oranges, Sweet St. Michael Oranges
The Mansion House and Buy a Cage . . .
Old College of Physicians and Old chairs to Mend . . .
Smithfield & Cat’s Meat! — Dog’s Meat!
St. Johns Gate, Clerkenwell, and Dust Oh!
Temple Bar & Pity the Poor Blind!
Somerset House & Umbrellas to Mend!
Covent Garden Theatre and the Costard-Monger
Trafalgar Square — Images! Buy Images
Charing Cross — Baked Potatoes, All Hot!
White Hall — Bow Pots!
Burlington House — Wild Duck, Rabbit, or Fowl!
St. George’s, Hanover Square — New Mackarel!
St. James’ Palace — Old Clothes!
Westminster Abbey — Milk Below!
Lambeth Palace — Water Cresses
New Hall, Lincolns Inn — Knifes and Scissors to Grind!
The Foundling Hospital — Sweep! — Soot Oh!
The North-Western Railway — Muffins! — Crumpets!
The Coliseum — Buy a Broom!

 

Maurice-Georges-Elie Lalau


Maurice-Georges-Elie Lalau (1881-1961), Les quinze joyes de mariage … Edition conforme au manuscript de la Bibliothèque de Rouen avec un glossaire publié par Jules Meynial… (Paris, 1928). Copy 45 of 150. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2018- in process

       
[left] Antoine de La Sale (born 1388?), The Fyftene Joyes of Maryage [Quinze joyes de mariage] ([London: Wynkyn de Worde, 1509]). [right] Les quinze joyes de mariage: ouvrage tres̀ ancien, auquel on a joint le Blason des fausses amours, le Loyer des folles amours, & le Triomphe des muses contre amour. Le tout enrichi de remarques & de diverses leçons (A La Haye: Chez A. De Rogissart, 1726). Rare Books 2004-0836N

In 1926, Maurice Lalau and the bibliophile/publisher Jules Meynial formed a partnership to create a deluxe edition using innovative printing techniques. For their text, they chose Les quinze joyes, a Medieval satire on the tricks wives play on their husbands, sexual and otherwise.

A 1726 edition [above] has notes by le Duchat, who describes it as a favorite of ‘jeunes Courtisans François’ of the mid-fifteenth century. The work has been attributed to Antoine de la Sale and various dates have been suggested for its composition; le Duchat comes down in favor of the late fourteenth century. Wynkyn de Worde published a translation in English verse, The Fyftene Joyes of Maryage, at least as early as 1507, a fragment of that survives and a single complete copy of a 1509 reprint. STC 15257.5-15258

Lalau called his printing process, first seen with this volume, Graphichromie: “un moyen nouveau d’impression des illustrations en couleurs.” He designed and printed the edition of 150 copies, each with 37 plates, which means hand-printing 5,550 multi-color plates. The project took Lalau two years to complete. In addition, this copy has 37 single leaves, reproducing the illustrations in grey ink only (the initial color in the process).


Their book was the subject of an article in the January 1929 issue of Le Gaulois artistique, [above and left] in which the author laments the suppression of traditional illustration processes in favor of newer mechanical techniques:

“L’emploi de découvertes techniques, améliorées et perfectionées sans cesse, ont éliminé presque définitivement ces traducteurs. La photographie, la photogravure, la similigravure, l’héliogravure, la phototype et, plus récemment, la rotogravure, sont cause de la suppression, dans la domaine du livre, des graveurs au burin, des aquafortistes, des xylographes et des lithographes.

Néanmoins, ces applications mécaniques de la reproduction, excellentes pour les publications à grand tirage, resente insuffisantes, quelque soin que l’on puisse apporter à leur execution, quand il s’agit du livre du luxe.”

Although the author disdains mechanical processes, in general, he praises Lalau’s technique for its insistence on intimacy between artist and workman:
“Il n’est plus question d’interprétation indirecte à laquelle l’artiste ne peut prendre part, mais au contraire d’une union constante entre lui et l’ouvrier chargé du tirage de ses planches.”

In addition, he compliments Lalau’s ability to convey the spirit of the Middle Ages through modern mechanical means: “Elle fait le plus grand honneur à l’artiste qui en est l’inventeur et à l’éditeur qui a réalisé le difficile problème de conserver son caractère à un ouvrage du moyen âge, en employant pour l’éditer des proceeds modernes.”