Category Archives: Acquisitions

new acquisitions

The specimen book to end all specimen books

Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813), Manuale tipografico del cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni (Parma: Presso la Vedova, 1818). 2 volumes, frontispiece portrait engraved by Francesco Rosaspina after a painting by Andrea Appiani; 33 cm. 250 type specimens designed and cut by Bodoni in Latin, Greek, German, Hebrew, Russian and numerous other languages. One of approximately 290 copies. Purchased with funds provided by the Friends of the Princeton University Library and the Graphic Arts Collection. GA 2016- in process

Thanks to the Friends of the Princeton University Library, we are the proud owner of the second and final edition of Giambattista Bodoni’s Manual tipografico. This much enlarged edition of his 1788 specimen book represents the culmination of more than four decades of work by one of Italy’s greatest typographers, type-designers, compositors, printers, and publishers. Universally celebrated as a “libro importantissimo” (Brooks), “ouvrage magnifique” (Graesse), “an imposing tour de force” (Updike), and “the specimen book to end all specimen books” (Lester), it was surprising to find this pivotal study had been missing from Princeton University Library.

David Pankow, for his introduction to the 1998 DVD, wrote, “The Manuale Tipografico of Giambattista Bodoni has been called the greatest type specimen book ever printed. Issued posthumously in 1818 at Parma by Bodoni’s devoted widow Margherita, the two-volume work contains a dazzling array of 142 roman alphabets with corresponding italics, . . . the culmination of more than forty years of assiduous devotion by Bodoni to the typographic arts, both in his capacity as printer to the Duke of Parma and as proprietor of his own private press and type foundry.”

No facsimile or DVD can truly replace the original printed pages of this typographic milestone and the acquisition of Bodoni’s 1818 Manuale closes a significant gap in our collection on the history of printing. Bodoni’s introduction of what were considered exotic typefaces—Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, Phoenician, and Tibetan alphabets—is essential to the study of European history and publishing.

“Bodoni’s Manuale is a crucial document,” writes Thomas Keenan, Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Librarian, “of the introduction to the West and the first attempts at standardization in the West of the non-Roman scripts of Russia, Eastern Europe and the territories of the present-day Former Soviet Republics, and most particularly of the Cyrillic alphabets used in Russian and other Slavic languages, and the Georgian and Armenian scripts.”

The Water of the Wondrous Isles

William Morris (1834-1896), The Water of the Wondrous Isles (Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1897). Limited ed. of 250 copies printed on paper. Cf. Peterson. “Printed at the Kelmscott Press … The borders and ornaments were designed entirely by William Morris, except the initial words Whilom & Empty, which were completed from his unfinished designs by R. Catterson-Smith …”–Colophon. Original full limp vellum with silk ties, lettered in gilt on spine. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process

A heliogravure portrait of William Morris is tipped in as a frontispiece, engraved by Frederick John Jenkins (1872-1929), after a negative by Elliott & Fry (active 1863-1962), published 1895.

The copy of The Water of the Wondrous Isles recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection was once owned by Sydney Ansell Gimson (1860-1938), with a bookplate on the front pastedown designed by his brother Ernest Gimson (1864-1919). Primarily a furniture and wallpaper designer, Ernest was an early member of the Art-Workers’ Guild and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

This might be his only attempt at a bookplate design. He gave his brother two options, writing “I have done what I can with the book plates and send you the result. They are neither of them satisfactory… I don’t understand designing for reduction. And it would require a more microscopic eye than mine to draw it real size.”

To read the entire text, in this edition, see http://morrisedition.lib.uiowa.edu/Images/WaterWondrousIsles/waterwondrouskelmscott.html.

“In this magical setting,” writes literary historian Holly Ordway, “Morris gives us a characterization that subverts contemporary cultural norms for female behavior at a time in Victorian England when women agitated for the right to vote and equality before the law. What makes it even more complex is the issue of Birdalone’s beauty. In her world of brave knights, evil witches, and magical quests, it’s expected that damsels will be lovely. In this setting, to be the subversive character that she is without being beautiful would suggest that her independence is a compensatory mechanism, and that with physical attractiveness to fall back on she would be more traditional. As it is, her beauty seems irrelevant, making the point beauty is not a prerequisite to love, be loved, and be an individual as Birdalone is.”– “Subverting the Female Stereotype: William Morris’s The Water of the Wondrous Isles,” by Holly E. Ordway, Associate Professor, MiraCosta College

The author and designer, William Morris, died in 1896 before the printing of his novel was finished and so, the book was published by the members of Morris’s estate. Enormously popular, OCLC lists 85 editions of the book from 1897-2016.

16

Several years in the making, the Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to acquire copy 84/150 of the fine press, limited edition entitled 16, published at the centenary of Dublin’s 1916 Rising.

Stoney Road Press, An Post, and Poetry Ireland collaborated to produce this book, which includes four contemporary poems by Harry Clifton, Vona Groarke, Paula Meehan, and Paul Muldoon, alongside eight historical texts.

In addition, Stoney Road Press commissioned four limited edition prints by Irish artists Michael Canning, Alice Maher, Brian O’Doherty, and Kathy Prendergast. The Irish literary scholar, Professor Declan Kiberd, provides the introduction. More information on the project can be found at http://www.stoneyroadpress.com/books/16/

http://rte.ie/r.html?rii=b9_20953810_1526_17-03-2016_

A special program on RTE radio with historian Declan Kiberd, Maureen Kennelly of Poetry Ireland, and publisher Kieran Owens was broadcast last March but it can still be hear at the above link.

Paul Muldoon, Princeton University’s Howard G.B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities; Director, Princeton Atelier; and Professor of Creative Writing reads his own poem in Irish and Kennelly reads her translation in English.

See also W.J. McCormack, Enigmas of sacrifice: a critique of Joseph M. Plunkett and the Dublin Insurrection of 1916 (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, [2016]). Firestone Library (F) DA962 .M243 2016

A selection from Easter, 1916
W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

1869 Eclipse Photographed

John C. Browne (1838-1918), Solar Eclipse Expedition, 1869. print from collodion on glass negative. (c) George Eastman House 75:0130:0071

In June 1869, Edward L. Wilson, editor of The Philadelphia Photographer, was appointed a member of the Solar Eclipse Expedition under the leadership of Prof. Henry Jackson Morton (1836-1902). Throughout the summer, members of the exposition trained in Philadelphia and on August 2, drove to Iowa to observe and hopefully photograph a total eclipse. There were three observation sites in Iowa for the August 7 event. John C. Browne (1838-1918) was at the Ottumwa site and made an exposure of their camp [above].

According to the Reports of Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August 7 1860, “At Mount Pleasant, Iowa, 28 miles to the westward, on the Burlington and Missouri Railway, were stationed: Prof, James C. Watson, director of Ann Arbor Observatory, University of Michigan, for astronomical observations; Prof J. M, Van Vleck, of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., for spectroscopic observations; Prof. Henry Morton, Ph.D,, of the Franklin Institutes in Philadelphia, in charge of the photographic party, with Mr. Edward L. Wilson, of Philadelphia, as photographer.”

Henry Jackson Morton (1836-1902) and party, “Four Views of the Solar Eclipse, August 1869,” in The Philadelphia Photographer 6, no.69 (September 1869), frontispiece.

In the September issue of The Philadelphia Photographer, Wilson published a composite photograph taken from four negatives made in Iowa only two week earlier. With the albumen silver print, he wrote,

“The late Solar Eclipse was an event which was heralded and predicted many years ago, but during the past year has attracted very great attention. The special attention of photographers has been called to it, as a subject of great interest for the camera, and we are glad to know that good and interesting results followed. The idea of making photographs of the great sources of light himself, particularly when he was partially or totally deprived of his power, had a charm about it which many found it impossible to overcome. …

Our friend Dr. Vogel, whom it will be remembered, secured the best photographs of the 1868 eclipse, awakened a desire in us to emulate him, so we joined Prof. Morton in his plans and efforts to organize a party for the purpose. During the last Session of Congress, an appropriation of five thousand dollars was made for the expenses of photographing and observing the eclipse. This was placed in the hands of Prof. J. H. C. Coffin, head of the Nautical Almanac Office, W.S.N., who taking charge of the Astronomical department himself, authorized Prof. Henry Morton, Ph.D., to make up the photographic branch and take charge of the same. This Prof. Morton undertook. …

Early on Monday morning, August 2d, the entire party started form this city in a handsome new car, fresh from the shops of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad company, at Altoona, which, on the way out was shifted from one road to the other, until our destination was reached … With the University telescope, were Prof. Morton and ourselves, in charge of the instrument, and Messrs. H.M. Clifford. James Cremer and W.V. Ranger, as photographers. We were also joined by Mr. John Carbutt of Chicago as a volunteer, who gave us most efficient aid in our manipulations….

We were now told by the astronomers that the moon would soon reach the sun. Plates were prepared at once ready to get a picture of first contact. Prof. Watson was to signal us by lifting his hand at the moment. Our plate was in the camera and the slide drawn, while we watched for the signal. Up went the hand; click! went the stop and the first exposure was made, the plate showing on development the least contact, looking like the impression made upon an apple by the thumb when testing its ripeness. Negatives were then made at intervals of five to ten minutes until totality took place and after totality until the eclipse was ended and over.”

Additional reports were printed in The Philadelphia Photographer from Henry Morton; Edward Curtis (assistant surgeon U.S. Army); J. H. C. Coffin; John Whipple; and several others. Following the expedition in 1869, Morton received an honorary Ph.D. from Dickinson College and in 1871, Princeton University also recognize Morton’s accomplishments with an honorary degree.

Additional prints from the eclipse are found in: Reports on Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun, August, 7, 1869 (Washington, Govʾt print. off., 1870). Lithographs by J. Bien and J. F. Gedney. (GAX) Oversize 2003-0133Q

Nap Poems published by the Letterpress Club

Congratulations to the members of the Princeton University Letterpress Club who printed and published their first limited edition, fine press poetry book, entitled Nap Poems. The Graphic Arts Collection is proud to receive copy 5 of 30 for Rare Books and Special Collections, a few pages of which are shown here.

The edition was set at the Typography Studio located in the Lewis Center for the Arts, 185 Nassau Street. Monica Youn, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Michael Dickman, and Ben Lerner from Creative Writing at the Center graciously donated the poems, which were printed on a Vandercook SP20 proof press using Bixler’s Garamond type.

Members of the Letterpress Club who spent the spring semester producing Nap Poems include Jazmyn Blackburn, Class of 2019; Joyce Lee, Class of 2017; Zachary Liu, Class of 2018; Shefali Nayak, Class of 2018; Duc Nguyen, Class of 2017; Kennedy Poore, Class of 2018; and Jonathan Zong, Class of 2018. Peter Kazantsev was the letterpress studio technician for the Lewis Center.

Here are a few pictures from the Club’s open house last year: http://dailyprincetonian.com/galleries/sports/2015/02/princeton-university-letterpress-club-open-house/

For more information about classes and events at the Lewis Center, see: http://arts.princeton.edu/

Stammbaum des Königlichen Hauses Bayern

Stammbaum des Königlichen Hauses Bayern = Family Tree of the Royal House of Bavaria (München: Michael Masson, 1855). Hand colored lithograph in 12 parts (each 550 x 520 mm), mounted on linen, measuring together: 2200 x 1550 mm. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2006- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection holds several large format family trees, printed in an almost life-size tree. This one depicts the ancestry of the Bavarian Royal House, lithographed by the Wild’sche Firm in Munich.

At the bottom of the trunk is Ernst I, Herzog von Bayern-München (1373-1438) and at the very top of the tree sits Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm, 1845-1886), who was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. This was after the printing of our chart and so, Ludwig doesn’t yet have a crown on his name.

See also: http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2009/03/anthony_morris_family_tree.html and
https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/09/05/zuberspoerlin-family-tree/

Picasso and Iliazd

Iliazd (Ilya Zdanevich, 1894-1975), Pirosmanachvili 1914 (Paris: Le Degré 41, 1972). Original vellum binding, with yellow dust-wrapper and preserved in publisher’s beige cloth chemise and slipcase. Presentation copy from Iliazd’s last wife to Chota Takaishvili. One of 78 copies printed on Japon ancien paper, signed in red pencil on the colophon by Iliazd and with the original etching signed by Picasso, printed by Atelier Lacourière Frélaut. Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

“It was something of a secret after World War II that one of the most rewarding people in Paris was a man who liked to be addressed simply as Iliazd,” wrote John Russell for the New York Times. “He was known—when known at all—as the architect, designer and publisher of illustrated books in which, one after another, the great surviving names of the School of Paris played a part.” Russell goes on to assert that Iliazd excelled “as poet, geographer, book designer, mountain climber, printer, publisher, fabric designer for Sonia Delaunay and Coco Chanel, pioneer dismantler of language, idiosyncratic stage performer and organizer in the early 1920’s of some of the last of the great classic artists’ balls.” All true.

Born Ilia Zdanevitch in Tiflis, Georgia, Iliazd (1894-1975) was a founding member of the Russian Futurists. Like many of his contemporaries, the artist eventually made his way to Paris where he designed and published extraordinary livres d’artistes, including several with his own prose and poetry under the imprint Le Degré 41 (41 degrees refers to the latitude of his hometown, the alcoholic content of brandy, and the Celsius measure of the point at which fever leads to delirium).

From 1940 to 1974, Iliazd produced 20 extraordinary books, including 9 with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). None have been collected by Princeton University until now.

According to Bookvica, a rare book shop from Iliazd’s hometown of Tiflis, “Iliazd returned to his homeland in 1912 and with his brother, artist Kirill Zdanevitch, he met Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918). They became very enthusiastic about him.

Iliazd was alarmed by the difficult economic straits that the painter was in and wrote a manifesto to promote his art; it was published in a local paper Zakavkazskaya Rech’ in 1913 under the title “Khudozhnik-samorodok” (A natural-born artist). It was Iliazd’s first publication. In June 1914 the journal Vostok published his article “Niko Pirosmani,” in which he mythologized the biography of the older artist, linking him with the Silver Age and the Russian avant-garde.”

In the summer of 1971, Iliazd decided to reprint the article and to help promote it, he asked Picasso to etch the frontispiece. His friend agreed and produced a beautiful drypoint, which was printed at the Atelier Lacourière Frélaut (originally the studio of Roger Lacourière, who passed it on to his collaborator and successor Jacques Frélaut in 1957).

The edition of 78 was completed and signed by December 1972, four months before Picasso’s death. Although this was also intended to be Iliazd’s last book, technical difficulties on another project, Courtisan Grotesque (which had been finished in 1974), caused it to be printed after Pirosmanachvili.

The copy now in the Princeton University Library comes from the collection of Damian Alaniya. This collector once erased the owner’s stamp of the previous owner to whom this copy was presented by the Iliazd’s wife with signature on the front endpaper: “Eu souvenir de Ms Zdanevitch pour Chota Takaishvili avec les amitiés Ms Helene Zdanevitch. 1.7.82.”

Johanna Drucker writes, “Drawing to the end of his energies, Iliazd had evidently wished this book to perform a double closure: as the end of the cycle of large books, and as the close of the full cycle of his life’s work. There was a mirroring effect between the beginning and the end, a deliberate, marked recognition of the self-consciousness which had dictated the construction of the oeuvre as a whole.” “Iliazd and the Book as a Form of Art,” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 7 (Winter 1988): 36-51.

Le faux satyrique puni

Marc Perachon (1630-1709). Le faux satyrique puni, et le merite couronné, dans une lettre d’artiste, a l’un de ses amis, contenant L’Apologie de Mr. Perachon l’Avocat, contre les fausses Satyres du pretendu Poëte sans fard, & La Juste Critique des ses Satyres, & des faux Satyriques avec La Defense de Plusieurs personnes qu’il a Satyrisées: & Le Brevet du Roy (Lyon: Chez Claude Rey, [1696]). First ed., bound in 1800s chocolate calf by Koehler. Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

C’est ainsi que les Dieux, pour Signaler leurs dons, Punissent les mechants, et couronnent les bon

Quoting the dealer’s note, “Uncommon first edition of this somewhat pious attack on the satirical poetry of François Gacon (1667-1725) [Poëte sans fard] and, by extension, on the man himself, by the Lyonnais lawyer Marc Perrachon (or Perachon, 1630-1709). Perrachon, a protestant convert and “auteur de poésies passablement misérables,” was one of the many targets of the Oratorian Gacon’s pen, but not the best known; Gacon also satirized the likes of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau and Boileau, whom he initially took as a model.

His attack on Perrachon . . . in fact landed him in gaol for a few months, but this was not enough to discourage Perrachon from publishing the present work in response, and in his own defence; the caption to the engraved title (”C’est ainsi que les Dieux, pour signaler leurs dons, Punissent les mechants, et couronnent les bons”) shows on which side Perrachon considered himself to lie.

Perrachon, writing in the third person, describes the faults in Gacon’s writing, contrasting it with the true satires of the Greeks, and attacking his “mauvaises rimes, ses hemistiches d’un mesme son, ses mauvaises cesures, ses enjambemens, ses mauvaises constructions, ses transpositions, ses fausses cadences, ses mauvaises mots, ou barbarismes, ses fausses significations des termes,” and so on, giving examples of each.”

Note the use of engraved initials.

See also below: François Gacon (1667-1725), Discours satiriques en vers (Cologne, 1696). Fictitious imprint; printed in Lyons by Boudet. Rare Books (Ex) PQ1985.G2 A7 1696

and François Gacon (1667-1725), Le journal satirique intercepté, ou, Apologie de Monsieur Arrouet de Voltaire, et de Monsieur Houdart de La Motte ([S.l. : s.n.], 1719). Rare Books (Ex) 3298.368

John Tryon and William Wallett, found in a railway carriage.

John Tryon, The Old Clown’s History; in Three Periods. Introducing graphic sketches of show life in its multifarious phases … With characteristics of distinguished showmen … (New York: Torrey Brothers, Printers, 1872). Dedication copy inscribed on front free endpaper: “Jn. Tryon to W.F. Wallett. With author’s respectful compts.” Above it, the inscription: “Found in a Railway Carriage, Jany. 22nd 1873. M.B. Rogers.” Graphic Arts Collection in process

Found in a Railway Carriage, January 22, 1873. Dedicated to William Frederick Wallett, ‘the Queen’s Jester.’
Frontispiece portrait of John Tryon (1800-1876), who managed the New York Bowery Amphitheater from 1843 to 1848. He went on to found the New York Sunday Courier newspaper. Note the picture on the wall of a cynocephalus, or a creature with the head of a dog and on the floor a poster advertising a learned pig (see William Frederick Pinchbeck, The expositor; or many mysteries unravelled. Delineated in a series of letters … Comprising the learned pig. . . (Boston: Printed for the author, 1805). EX 4293.721)

Wallett’s autobiography mentions Tryon several times. “There was a jolly old Trojan named John Tryon, who has for the last thirty years provided a circus home in New York or Boston during each winter for those who are thrown out of employment at the end of the summer season. In fact, instead of calling his establishment a circus, it ought to be entitled ‘John Tryon’s Refuge for the Destitute.’ It was he who first offered to take and open the circus, in order to give me an opportunity of appearing before a New York audience. But the dear friend with whom I lived urged upon me the policy of not being in too great a hurry, remarking that a week or two made no difference to him, and would be a great object in my engagements. Therefore, being independent for the time, I was not compelled to accept the first offer, but could wait to make my own terms, which I soon obtained.”

“The great day of appearance arrived. It was a very fine morning, but about noon commenced the first and only real snow storm I had ever seen. It seemed to increase in density as evening approached. About six o’clock while we were at dinner, I had risen from the table several times to look through the blinds, and had seen the snow still coming down, and about knee-deep on the ground—I could not eat, but almost gave way to despair. I said to my wife, “It’s of no use; we might as well give it up, our old fortune pursues us everywhere.” But her cheering smile and words encouraged me. At that moment a knock was heard at the door. It was one of Mr. Tryon’s sons, who came to tell me the house had long been full, and they wished me to come immediately, to commence an hour before the time announced. So I hurried away and found the house crowded in every part, and a thousand persons outside unable to gain admission. Everything went off beautifully; and I received my share of the proceeds at the close of the performance. On my arrival home I counted out before the astonished eyes of my rejoicing partner 300 dollars, or £60 sterling for this first night’s performance in New York.”

“…My next visit was to Boston, Massachusetts, with my old friend Tryon again, at the old Federal Theatre. Here my success was equal to that in New York or Philadelphia. We had only three horses in the establishment, Lady North, Old Mex, and Washington. They belonged to S. B. Howes, and all had the camel itch. Jem Nixon was equestrian manager. To make out our entrees our manager had to hire horses from livery stables, and as there had been a heavy fall of snow, and horses were in great demand for sleighing, we sometimes had to put off our entrees till nearly ten o’clock at night, waiting for the horses’ return from their day’s work. Their legs were hastily washed, and their sweating and stained bodies covered with rich velvet, bedizened with spangles, really cut a very respectable figure.”

See also William Frederick Wallett and John Luntley, The Public Life of W.F. Wallett, the Queen’s Jester: an autobiography of forty years’ professional experience and travels (London: Bemrose and Sons, 1870). Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) GV1811.W2 A2

Osages, Peuplade Sauvage de l’Amerique Septentrionale

François Séraphin Delpech (1778-1825), after drawings by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845), Osages: peuplade sauvage de l’Amerique Septentrionale dans l’Etat de Missouri [Osages: Primitive Tribes of North America, in the State of Missouri]. 1827. From the series Recueil de Grimaces, no. 89. Lithograph with added hand color. Joint acquisition of the Graphic Arts Collection and Western Americana. GAX 2016 in process.

Between 1823 and 1828, Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845) and his lithographer François Séraphin Delpech (1778-1825) created a series of genre portraits or caricatures of occupations under the title Recueil de Grimaces or Les Grimaces. The Getty Research Institute holds one copy of the portfolio with eight prints and the National Library of France holds another with 93 prints in 5 volumes. It is unclear whether there was one definitive set. The prints could be purchased together or separate, colored or uncolored.

Each sheet usually presents a cluster of three to five heads. Boilly was somewhat unique in caricaturing a whole profession, not an individual, targeting groups of writers, doctors, art critics, etc. However, as the series continued, the faces became less grotesque and more descriptive.

Numbers 89, 90, and possibly 91 in the series represent members of the Osages Tribe from the Ohio River Valley in Arkansas and Missouri, who traveled to France in 1827. No. 89, recently acquired jointly by the Graphic Arts Collection and the Western Americana Collection, depicts Kishagashugah or Little Chief (age 28), Minckchatahooh or Little Soldier (age 22), and Grétomih (age 18 and cousin to Kishagashugah’s wife). No.90, available at the Beinecke Library, presents Mohongo (Sacred Sun, ca. 1789–1836), Washingsabba (Black Bird, 1795–1829?), and Big Soldier (1773?–1844).

See also Marie-Claude Feltes-Strigler, Les indiens Osages: Enfants-des-eaux-du-milieu (Paris: O.D. éditions-Indiens de tous pays, [2016]) Firestone Library (F) E99.O8 F45 2016

Louis F. Burns, A history of the Osage people (Tuscaloosa; London: University of Alabama Press, 2004). Firestone Library (F) E99.O7 B85 2004

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: