American Antiquarian Society, Worcester MA
NEW ACQUISITION--Early Montreal Imprint

Catholic Church. Officium in honorem Domini Nostri J. C. summi sacerdotis et omnium sanctorum sacerdotum ac levitarum. Monti-Regali [Montreal]: Fleury Mesplet, 1777.

One of the earliest imprints from the first press established at Montreal. Born in France, Fleury Mesplet moved first to London and then to Philadelphia in 1774. There he printed for a short time.including, at the behest of the Continental Congress, a French translation of a military manual for use in the ill-fated Canadian campaign.before moving his press to American-held Montreal in May 1776. But Montreal fell to the British a month later, and Mesplet remained to print a newspaper and other works, though his relations with British authorities were understandably strained. Six hundred copies were printed of this pamphlet containing the office to be celebrated on the first Thursday following August 29. It is now the second earliest Montreal imprint at AAS.

Visit the AAS's website.

Black Founders: The Free Black Community in the Early Republic
An exhibition at The Library Company of Philadelphia
March 10-October 10, 2008

Abraham Lincoln was not the Great Emancipator. True, Lincoln did sign the Emancipation Proclamation 145 years ago, on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation did outlaw slavery in Confederate states. It validated the freedom journeys undertaken by many enslaved people toward the North. But the struggle of American blacks to secure rights as citizens—as free people—began years before our first bearded President took up his pen.

Take Absalom Jones. Born into slavery in 1746, he purchased freedom for himself and his wife, and then became the first African American priest in the Episcopal Church and an outspoken abolitionist.

Or the Allens. Richard Allen and Jones founded the Free Africa Society in 1787, the first organization in the U.S. founded by blacks for blacks. Sarah Allen outlived her husband by almost two decades and was herself a leader in Philadelphia’s free black community, piloting many slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad.

The Library Company’s new exhibition, “Black Founders: The Free Black Community in the Early Republic” features Jones, the Allens, and many other newly-freed African Americans in the north. It tracks their struggles to found independent churches, schools, fraternal, and educational associations, and to champion the status of African Americans as equal citizens on the American landscape. They held close the tenants of egalitarian Christianity and championed that single-sentence affirmation of “certain unalienable rights” in the American Declaration of Independence. Theirs was the most consistent voice for multi-racial democracy in the new republic, and their words and deeds helped inspire a vigorous American antislavery movement.

The issues of abolitionism, exodus, and white supremacy consumed popular media for decades before the Civil War. “Black Founders” features books, pamphlets, and newspaper articles by these individuals, promoting their
own welfare, championing their rights, struggling against slavery, and defining themselves as Americans in what was a mostly hostile white society. Excluded from national civic ceremonies such as Fourth of July festivities, they
celebrated the abolition of the slave trade in 1808—two hundred years ago, on January 1, 1808—by making January 1 the first African American holiday. Excluded from schools and educational societies, they formed their own. Denied access to the political system, they made alliances with supportive whites to promote their political rights. As movements arose to drive them from American society, they protested and resisted—but at the same time supported movements to consider emigration beyond the influence of American slavery and racism. In fact, the liveliness of the printed debate makes Lincoln look like nothing less than a Johnny-come-lately.

The exhibition runs through October 10 in the Louis Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery at 1314 Locust Street (open from 9:00am to 4:45pm, Monday through Friday). It covers the years after the American Revolution up to 1830, when the first national convention of African Americans brought together blacks from all over the north to consider a national program for their rights and sharpen their campaign against slavery. Though “Black Founders” features African Americans from all over the United States, the primary focus is on the Philadelphia black community, the largest of the northern free black communities in the remaining years of American slavery.

“Black Founders” builds on one of the Library Company’s greatest subject strengths. The Afro-Americana Collection comprises over 13,000 titles and almost 1,000 graphics, and includes books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, and graphics. Ranging in date from the mid 16th century into the early years of the 20th century, it covers an equally vast range of topics. It documents the western discovery and exploitation of Africa; the rise of both slavery in the new world and the movements against slavery; the development of racial thought and racism; descriptions of African American life, slave and free, throughout the Americas; slavery and race in fiction and drama; and the printed works of African American individuals and organizations. “Black Founders” will give visitors a choice view of items important in the development of liberty and justice for all.

More info here.

The Getty Center
Los Angeles
SOME UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Imagining Christ
May 6–July 27, 2008
Medieval and Renaissance images of Christ functioned as powerful entry points to prayer. This exhibition of manuscripts from the Getty's permanent collection spans the years from around 1000 to 1500, and demonstrates the multiple, overlapping ways in which Christ was understood: as the son of God and as God, as human and divine, as the sacrifice made for mankind and the divine judge who would come again. The exhibition examines the role Christ played in the devotional life of medieval and Renaissance faithful and demonstrates how manuscript images allowed viewers to imaginatively participate in Christ's life, sacrifice and acts of salvation.

The Marvel and Measure of Peru: Three Centuries of Visual Histories, 1560–1880
July 8–October 19, 2008
This exhibition features Martín de Murúa's (Spanish, active late 16th and early 17th centuries) Historia general del Piru held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, a recently rediscovered and related manuscript chronicle by Murúa in a private collection in Ireland, textiles from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the University of California, Santa Barbara, two early books in the Huntington Library, and books, prints, maps, watercolors and photographs from the special collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. The Research Library's collections include such famous volumes as de Bry's Grands voyages of 1596 and 1617, and the gently satirical watercolors by 19th-century Lima caricaturist Pancho Fierro. Other highlights are early photographs from a newly acquired collection of long lost views of ancient sites by the pioneering archeologist Augustus Le Plongeon, and studio albums depicting modern Peruvian life. Leading up to the exhibition, the Research Institute is working with the Museum and Conservation Institute, as well as outside scholars, on technical analysis of the two manuscript chronicles. A scholarly workshop, a facsimile publication of the Getty Murúa, and an accompanying volume of essays on the manuscript by an international group of scholars are also under way.

Faces of Power and Piety: Medieval Portraiture
August 12–October 26, 2008
The art of portraiture in illuminated manuscripts developed from the highly stylized portrayals of the early Middle Ages to the late medieval emergence of recognizable portraits. The exhibition explores both historical portraits of people from the past, including religious figures, authors, and artists, and portraits of living individuals, usually the owner or donor of a book. Throughout the period, the goal of portraiture was to present a person not at a particular moment in time, but as the subject wished to be remembered for the ages.

The Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry
November 18, 2008–February 8, 2009
The Belles Heures of John, Duke of Berry is one of the most beloved books of the Middle Ages and one of the most sumptuous. Painted by the Limbourg brothers when the art of manuscript illumination in France reached new heights of elegance and sophistication, the book, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will be presented with its individual leaves unbound. The resulting display offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the visitor to walk through the book to view all of its major miniatures, a unique gallery of paintings of sublime beauty.

Go to the Getty website.

Illuminating the Medieval Hunt
The Morgan Library and Museum New York City April 18--August 10, 2008

The most influential medieval treatise on hunting was Livre de la chasse, written by Gaston Phoebus between 1387 and 1389. The forty-six surviving manuscripts and numerous printed editions of the text testify to its popularity. The Morgan Library & Museum is fortunate in possessing one of the two most luxuriously illustrated manuscripts; the other, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, was made at the same time and also contains eighty-seven miniatures. Both were made in Paris about 1407 and were probably commissioned by John the Fearless. Since the manuscript had to be disbound—for reasons of conservation and the preparation of a facsimile—the Morgan has decided to exhibit as many leaves with miniatures as possible, providing the public a unique opportunity to "walk" through the manuscript as well as to turn the pages of the facsimile. Four parts of the exhibition will show miniatures from the four books of the treatise, which deal with gentle and wild animals, the nature and care of dogs, instructions to hunters with dogs, and the use of various snares and crossbows by hunters. Another part would comprise other hunting-related manuscripts and printed books, including among the latter the famous St. Albans's Hunting Book of 1486 and the first illustrated version of Livre de la chasse (ca. 1505–07).

More info here.

FORMS OF EARLY MODERN WRITING
A Conference and Exhibition presented by the Columbia Early Modern Seminar, in collaboration with the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University

Friday, April 25th
523 Butler Library (on the south side of Columbia University's 116th
street campus).

9:00 Opening Remarks
Michael Ryan, Columbia University
Alan Stewart, Columbia University

9:15
Alan Farmer, Ohio State University, "Forms of News: Printed Newsbooks and the Politics of the Thirty Years' War in England"
Zachary Lesser, University of Pennsylvania, "Shakespeare's Crown and Globe (Bookshops)"

Chair: Benedict Robinson, SUNY Stony Brook

11:15
Amanda Bailey, University of Connecticut, Storrs, "Reading the Hand of Human Capital"
Shankar Raman, MIT, "Specifying the Unknown"

Chair: Henry Turner, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

2:30
Hannibal Hamlin, Ohio State University, "The Geneva Bible as Bible for Dummies"
Heather James, University of Southern California, "Commonplaces, Inventories, and the Forms of Authorship"
Tanya Pollard, CUNY Brooklyn College, "Translating Greek Drama: Schoolbooks and Popular Theater in Early Modern England"

Chair: Adam Zucker, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

5:00 Keynote Lecture
Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania, "Making Commonplaces in English Printed Books"

6:00 Reception

Please also join us for the complementary exhibition---curated by Patricia Akhimie, Rebecca Calcagno, Saskia Cornes, Musa Gurnis, Adam Hooks, Bryan Lowrance, Sara Murphy, and Brynhildur Heiðardóttir Ómarsdóttir in collaboration with the speakers---on display in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, located on the 6th Floor of Butler Library.

Sponsored by Columbia University's Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Graduate Student Advisory Council, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

With questions, contact Allison Deutermann (akd2006@columbia.edu) and András Kisery (ak508@columbia.edu).

Scriptorium
Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online

Scriptorium: Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts Online is a three-year (2006-2009) AHRC-funded Resource Enhancement Project, based in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge.

We are constructing a digital archive of manuscript miscellanies and commonplace books from the period c. 1450-1720; our website will provide unrestricted public access to these images. We will also develop and publish a set of online pedagogical and research resources supporting late medieval and early modern manuscript studies.

We will be working with the manuscript collections in a number of college libraries in Cambridge, as well as the Cambridge University Library, the Brotherton Library in Leeds, and other archives, such as that of Holkham Hall in Norfolk.

We will also host three conferences: one-day workshops in online manuscript research in July 2007 and 2009, and a larger, two-day conference in manuscript studies in 2008, which will form the basis of an edited collection of essays.

Access here.

UVA Rare Book School Launches Directory of ARL Librarians

Two years ago, the RBS staff compiled a directory of the principal librarians, curators, directors, and suchlike working in member institutions of the Association of Research Libraries – a non-profit organization of 123 large research libraries in the US and Canada. It is now on the RBS website.

Access here.

THE MACHINE THAT MADE US: GUTENBERG'S BRILLIANT INVENTION
Tuesday 6 May 18.30 - 20.00
Conference Centre
The British Library
96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB

Johann Gutenberg's printing press, which brought about the dawn of mass communication is of barely equalled significance in the development of human culture. His achievement reached its pinnacle with the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. A new documentary 'The Machine That Made Us', presented by Stephen Fry, was screened on BBC4 on 14 April 2008, 9 pm, and excerpts will feature in the event at the BL. For the programme, and in order to unravel mysteries of Gutenberg's technique, a team of experts built a unique copy of his press: watch it action at the event, alongside discussion of the remarkable story behind its invention. Speakers include Alan May (printing expert and press builder), Martin Andrews (University of Reading) and Patrick McGrady (Wavelength Films) Price £ 6 (concessions £ 4), bookable at http://boxoffice.bl.uk by phone on 01937 546546 or in person at the British Library Information Desk.

Institut de Histoire du Livre
Lyon, France
Book History Workshop, 2008

For the sixth edition of its Book History Workshop, organised in collaboration with the Rare Book School (University of Virginia), the Lyon-based Institut d'histoire du livre is offering four advanced courses in the fields of book and printing history.

Courses on offer this year are:

Sandra Hindman
GOTHIC ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK (new course, in English)

Michael Twyman
PRINTED EPHEMERA UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS (course in French)

James Mosley
TYPE, LETTERING AND CALLIGRAPHY: PART TWO 1830-2000 (existing course, for the first time in English)

Kristian Jensen
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INCUNABULA (course in English)

The Book History Workshop is aimed at book and printing historians and at the many other specialists who encounter questions related to book and printing history in the course of their work: researchers, teachers, archivists, librarians, museum curators, antiquarian booksellers, collectors, designers, etc.

The four-day courses offered by the Institut d'histoire du livre cover various aspects of the history of the book and graphic communications. Subjects are dealt with from both theoretical and practical points of view through illustrated lectures, discussions and close study of original documents. The courses make abundant use of the collections of Lyon City Library and Museum of Printing.

The courses will take place in Lyon from the 1st to the 4th September 2008. Classes will be held at the Ecole normale supérieure - lettres et sciences humaines (Lyon) with sessions at the Lyon City Library and Printing Museum.

Tuition fee: 490 euros (mid-day meals included).

In order to facilitate access to collections of original documents the number of participants is limited to twelve per class.

More info here.

Call for Papers
Popular Print Culture--Past and Present, Local and Global
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada
27-30 August, 2008

This is an international conference to be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from 27 to 30 August 2008. The conference and its associated popular culture festivals consider what most people read, here and elsewhere, now and in the past. Though popular print shows an almost overwhelming diversity, adaptability, and mobility over the centuries, and around the world, it is still measured—and too often disparaged—in relation to canonical literature and "high" culture. Yet people read what they do because they find it interesting, and they find it interesting because it speaks to their real material interests, in everyday life. Popular print characteristically includes both words and images, and it is intertwined with music and performance. In these forms it has been and continues to be the most powerful cultural force in human history. Morphing into new media and new technologies, from the phonograph record through radio, film, and television to video games and the internet, it continues to be an awesome cultural, ideological, and political force.

The conference program of papers and presentations and concurrent popular culture festivals include a series of public events that illustrate, celebrate, create, and show the mobility of popular print cultures. There will be reports and displays by students from around the world on popular print cultures in their own countries and regions—their own "local." There will be open-floor forums for participants to discuss popular print cultures informally, as issues arise from and during the conference. There will be a film festival featuring a repertory cinema of global Popular Films from Popular Books; a comics festival highlighting the work of local artists and publishers; and a writers festival bringing together authors, aspiring writers, and fans in discussions, panels, and workshops.

Popular print culture is now a global phenomenon, with striking similarities in what most people read, anywhere. Yet there are also striking local differences, inflections, and variations in what most people read, here or elsewhere. In this complex crossing of the local and global, Canada is one of the leading players, through Harlequin enterprises. The "Continuities and Innovations" conference and festival will bring together in Harlequin's homeland all those who are interested in popular print culture—readers and writers, publishers and fans, distributors and sellers, librarians and collectors, researchers and adapters, teachers and students, and of course student and full-time researchers in many academic disciplines.

Proposals are welcomed from all of these groups for "Continuities and Innovations," directly addressing the conference theme, or taking up any aspect of "Popular Print Cultures, Past and Present, Local and Global." Topics can include relations between popular print and other media, between popular and "high" literatures, between words and images, between words and music. Presentations can be from writers, readers, publishers, teachers, students, distributors, sellers, librarians, illustrators, opponents, promoters, adapters to other media, fans, collectors … Papers and presentations can be on censorship of popular print and undergrounds and underworlds of popular print, on reading it and creating it, publishing it and selling it, counteracting it or transforming it, adapting it and influencing it. Participants can consider popular print and politics, religion, sexuality, class, ethnicity, "race," nationality, or any other theme.

Proposals should be about 200 words in length and clearly state the central theme or argument, the kind of popular print or related media to be considered, and its social and cultural location in time and place. Each proposal should be accompanied by a brief resumé stating the name, address, contact information, and relevant academic, professional, or personal background and knowledge of popular print culture or the particular aspect discussed.

Proposals should be sent by email as a pasted-in document or as an attachment in an up-to-date format to: popprint@ualberta.ca.

Alternatively, a hard copy may be mailed to: Popprint, Gary Kelly, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E5. Any questions or requests to display materials or put on conference-related special events should be sent to either of these addresses.

More info here.

The Manuscript and Printed Book in Germany
Friday, 2nd May 2008
The Scottish Centre for the Book
National Library of Scotland

PROGRAM

09.15 Registration

09.30 General introduction

09.50 Dr. Mary Fischer (Napier University)
Winning hearts and minds: the role of the written word in the conquest of
Prussia in the fourteenth century

10.30 Prof. Dr. Henrike Lähnemann (University of Newcastle)
From print to manuscript: the case of a manuscript workshop in Stuttgart
around 1475

11.10-11.35 Coffee

11.35 Prof. Dr. John Flood (University of London)
A typographical conundrum from 1479

12.15-13.35 Lunch (to be arranged by participants. There are several
suitable establishments in the immediate vicinity of the National Library)

13.40 Dr. William Kelly (Napier University):
Medical and scientific publishing in Germany, 1601-1800

14.20 Susan Reed (British Library)
Printing the revolution: Berlin broadsides from 1848

15.00 Jasmin Adam (University of Mainz)
Marketing rules: changing publishing strategies in the Weimar period

15.40 Questions and general discussion

17.00-18.00 Reception for speakers and participants

Introduction to Manuscript Studies
Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham
Cornell University Press, 2007

Providing a comprehensive and accessible orientation to the field of medieval manuscript studies, this lavishly illustrated book by Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham is unique among handbooks on paleography, codicology, and manuscript illumination in its scope and level of detail. It will be of immeasurable help to students in history, art history, literature, and religious studies who are encountering medieval manuscripts for the first time, while also appealing to advanced scholars and general readers interested in the history of the book before the age of print.

More info here.