Tag: Book history
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A Chapbook in Honor of William Edwin Rudge by Karen Brummer, MALA 6000 student
The Typophiles is a New York City organization, founded in the 1930s, which is devoted to the advocacy of fine typography. It’s name, typophiles, refers to those who loves printed matter and typography. In addition to hosting social events and lectures for its members, the group published books and other material, including chapbooks, such as this one, which is now housed in…
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The Baltimore Bibliophiles by Linda G. Hall, MALA 6000 Student
The images below are from a keepsake book printed for members of the Baltimore Bibliophiles in May of 1960. The coverboards are decorated with handmade marbled papers, made in England by Douglas Cockerell, the best known twentieth-century marbler. The pattern looks like the skin of a snake or a bird’s wing feathers. Marbling is a…
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The Danish Aesop by Sandra Flavin, MALA 6000 student
The Danish Aesop is a book of fables written by Aesop, a Greek fabulist. It is not known if Aesop actually existed, although the writings of Aristotle and Phaedrus say he was born around 620 BCE in Phrygia. Aesop’s fables have been translated into many languages, and in The Danish Aesop, the fables are re-told by R. Broby-Johansen, a Danish historian,…
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Volumes on Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging) by Chelsea Able, MALA 6000 student
The book that I chose to discuss for this post is an unusual one. It may have listed the title and other details of the book, but it is in Japanese. While I studied Japanese in my undergrad program, it has been a while, and I only got to the fourth class for Japanese language.…
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MALA 6000: Experiencing Rare Books
MALA 6000 is a foundational course for MTSU’s Master’s of Arts in Liberal Arts. This semester, the seminar was organized on the theme of “Experience.” For the Art History block, which was taught by Laura Cochrane, the students got to handle and explore the rare books and other materials in the Department of Art and…
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Bruce Rogers: An ornamental printer
This week, the book we’ve chosen is a celebration of the renowned book designer and typographer, Bruce Rogers (1870-1957). Rogers worked for publishing houses, such as Riverside Press and Mount Vernon Press, and is best known for his Centaur Type. This book by Frederick Warde was published in 1925 and offers an overview of Rogers…
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Course offering for spring 2023: Art History
An art history course next semester that will have an emphasis on book arts, printing, and letterpress is Northern Renaissance Art (ART 3860). Northern Renaissance Art looks at art in Germany, France, the Low Countries, and England from 1400-1600. This period in Europe saw the development of letterpress, intaglio, and relief printing, and was also…
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Celebrating the Scroll
The “Book of the Week” for this week is in a different format. The codex is what we usually think of when we think of a book today; but books bound together on one edge, with pages that can be turned, were only invented about 2000 years ago. Before that, a book may have been…
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Book of the Week
This week, our “Book of the Week” is just two pages of a book. This hand-colored etching of a wren and its accompanying description are from William Lewin’s publication, The Birds of Great Britain, Systematically Arranged, Accurately Engraved, and Painted from Nature, which was published in London by J. Johnson in eight volumes, between 1795…
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Book of the Week
This week, in honor of the Jewish High Holidays, and the beginning of the year 5783, the book we have chosen is Ben Shahn’s The Alphabet of Creation. Here, Shahn retells and illustrates a legend from the Sefer Ha-Zohar, a mystical text written in medieval Spain, that relates how each letter of the Hebrew alphabet…
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Marbled papers in the MTSU Art and Design Historical and Teaching Collection.
Below are images of marbled papers from our historical collections. Examples range from the early eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century. Web sites with more information on identifying historical marble patterns: https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/index.html https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/patterns.html http://www.payhembury.com/Payhembury_Marbled_Papers/Patterns.html#grid https://marbleart.us/Examples.htm http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2010/11/marbled-paper-designs.html
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Book of the Week
Each week, we will post a “Book of the Week” from one of our classes or collections in the Department of Art and Design, or from another collection in Middle Tennessee, or from our travels. This is the first! This week, in honor of the marbling workshop on Saturday, let us introduce a little French…
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On the Third Floor of Todd Hall
The Department of Art and Design galleries on the second floor of Todd Hall get a lot of visitors. But we also have artworks on view on the third floor, which houses our Book Arts, Letterpress, and Printmaking studios. Examples of student works are on the walls and there are small exhibitions in cases across…
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Paper Marbling Workshop, Oct. 1, 2022
Marbled paper is a traditional material for decorating book covers and end pages, but it is also used to decorate fabric or to be an artwork in its own right. Historical techniques for creating marbled paper can produce images that look like stone, feathers, or waves. You can join us for a paper marbling experience…
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Book and Print Arts Classes: ART 3960 The Art History of the Book (spring 2022)
ART 3960 is taught by Laura Cochrane and looks at the history of the book from the earliest writings on clay tablets to the modern and contemporary book, including digital books. The class looks at the history of book formats, discussing the shift from scrolls to codices; and from hand written texts and images to…
MTSU Book and Printing Arts and History 