The Dog's Tooth is the blog of the Special Collections unit of Memorial University Libraries. It will be updated regularly with news about acquisitions, donations, exhibits, lectures and other happenings in Special Collections, as well as interesting pickings and choosing from literature about special collections, book history and bibliography. The blog title refers to the medieval practice of burnishing gold leaf illumination with a dog’s tooth.
Lissitsky, El. About 2 [squares]. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1991. Contents: [1]. About [two squares]: a Suprematist tale in 6 constructions / El Lissitzky (1 v. , unpaged). Text in English and Russian. [2]. More about 2 squares / Patricia Railing (52 p.). Facsimile reprint of the Russian text, printed in black and red; transparent overlays carry the English translation, which attempts to replicate the typographic and design elements of the original. A separate commentary by Patricia Railing accompanies the facsimile.
About 2 [squares] is an facimile reproduction of an experimental book titled Pro 2 ■ (Pro 2 kvadrata: (Of Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale in Six Constructions)) was created in 1920 in Vitebsk and published in 1922 in Berlin and then in De Stijl. It consists of 6 plates, and tells a story about two squares, red and black, travelling through space to Earth. El Lissitzky (1890 –1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union.
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Malevich, Kazimir. On suprematism, 34 drawings: a little handbook of suprematism. With an essay by Patricia Railing. Artists Bookworks; Forest Row, East Sussex, England, 1990. A facsimile edition ofMalevich’s 34 Drawings(1919).
Suprematism is an early twentieth-century art movement founded by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) in 1913. Supremus (Russian: Супремус) conceived of the artist as liberated from everything that predetermined the ideal structure of life and art. The school focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles) and painted in a limited range of colors. The term suprematism refers to an abstract art based upon “the supremacy of pure artistic feeling” rather than on visual depiction of objects.
“Suprematists were fascinated by a new apprehension of reality discovered by science. Newtonian physics had been challenged by what was becoming nuclear physics, the principles of the stability and permance of matter replaced by that of relativity and energy.” P. Railing.
Real Art No. 8, 1980 and Real Art Vol 2. No. 5, 1994.
A visual art anthology journal issued irregularly; content was by members of publishing collective and wider community of contributors, including Malcolm Gibson, Rachel Gibson, Andrew Law, Elsbeth Law, James Hall.
The journal, based in Carlisle, England and beginning in 1987, was devoted entirely to visuals. Some of the work is editioned and signed.
Marinetti, F. T. and Fillia. La Cucina Futurista (The Futurist Cookbook). Milano. Casa Editrice Sonzogno, 2024. Facsimile. Text in Italian. Commentary in Italian by Andrea Pautasso.
In 1932, Marinetti published La cucina futurista (The Futurist Cookbook), a Futurist recipe book accompanied by a metanarrative account of famous Futurist dinners across Italy and the political and culinary controversies surrounding the Futurist food revolution. This volume gathers the essential principles of the renewal of Italian gastronomy, introduced by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in the 1930s in the name of Futurism and Avant-Garde art in the kitchen.
“La cucina futurista (The Futurist Cookbook) was written by Marinetti in collaboration with the second-in-command of the Futurist movement, Fillìa (nom de plume of Luigi Onorato Ermanno Colombo), and although more than ninety years have passed since its publication, it remains unclear which of the two Futurists first came up with the idea to publish it in order to spread the guiding principles of “gastrosophy” and Futurist cuisine. The charm of The Futurist Cookbook lies in its total and absolute originality: it cannot simply be categorized as a cookbook; it not only contains recipes but also fundamental theoretical elements necessary to understand this unique gastronomic experience. The volume collects Marinetti’s latest version of the Manifesto della cucina futurista (Manifesto of Futurist Cuisine) (not the one written in 1913 by the French chef Jules Maincave, which Marinetti later reworked and presented in 1927 in the pages of “La Fiera Letteraria”). As an introduction, it features an intriguing mystery tale titled ‘Un pranzo che evitò un suicidio’ (A Lunch That Avoided a Suicide), starring Marinetti and Enrico Prampolini. The volume also includes the controversies that arose after the declaration of war on pasta and a systematization of the Futurist gastronomic dogmas organized by chapters.” from the commentary by Guido Andrea Pautasso.
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Marchionni, Valentina, Simone Pasquali and Guido Andrea Pautasso. NELLA TAVERNA DI ALLVMINIO (IN THE ALUMINUM TAVERN). Macerata; Biblohaus, 2022. Facsimile in Italian.
This volume includes a facsimile reprint of the Santopalato Tavern’s menu, the article ‘Dal Brodo solare al Pollo d’acciaio nella taverna futurista’ (From Solar Broth to Steel Chicken at the Futurist Tavern) printed on aluminum foil, first published for the inauguration of the Futurist restaurant, as well as a pamphlet containing some of Guido Andrea’s writings.
“On March 8, 1931, the first Futurist restaurant, the Santopalato Tavern, was inaugurated in Turin. Described by Fillìa and Marinetti in La cucina futurista (The Futurist Cookbook) as a large cubic box embedded, on one side, in a smaller one. Adorned with semicircular columns, internally lit, and large metallic eyes, also luminous, set halfway up the wall.
The Turinese restaurant was redesigned in a Futurist style by Fillìa and Nicolay Diulgheroff, who clad the walls with aluminum (an idea later adopted in the 1960s by Andy Warhol to decorate his New York Factory), and furnished the space with an anti-aesthetic minimalist décor that transformed it into a sort of submarine emerged from the waters or – more fancifully – into a spaceship landed on Earth. On the night of the inauguration, Marinetti ambitiously declared: In the realm of culinary art, we are still behind: I invite you to the most revolutionary anarchy. This is nothing. Beyond, even further, oh gentlemen. After this speech came the original banquet and we can still view its inaugural menu. It included two different covers, one made of aluminum like the restaurant’s walls, the other printed on cardboard with the inscription “Santopalato”. The illustrations on the plaquette comprised a photomontage by Diulgheroff and a series of advertising plates made for Amaro Cora, for Metzger Beer, and for Guinzio and Rossi Aluminum.” from Guido Andrea Pautasso’s text.
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Marinetti, F. T. Un Poeta Sansepolcrista with illustrations by Thayaht and Enrico Prampolini. Macerata; Biblohaus, 2020. Facsimile in Italian.
“All collectors of rare bibliographic finds from the 1900s know – at least by reputation – the two famous Futurist litolatte: the Words in Freedom Olfactory Tactile-Thermal by FT Marinetti (November 4, 1932), illustrated by Tullio D’Albisola, and L’Anguria lirica (long passionate poem) by Tullio D’Albisola himself (August 1934), illustrated by Bruno Munari. Only a few specialists on the subject, however, remember that at the time a third work was also planned and put in place poetics in litholact, destined to be printed again by the tinsmith industry of Vincenzo Nosenzo in Zinola; the title of this work in progress was I Sansepolcristi, a synthetic and free word aeropoem by Marinetti, dedicated to the lyrical exaltation of the sadly famous Gathering of Piazza San Sepolcro (1919), founding of the origins of fascism, in which numerous daring and futurists from all regions of Italy participated…” from Domenico Cammarota’s (editor) text.
Sansepolcrismo is a term used to refer to the movement led by Benito Mussolini that preceded Fascism. The Sansepolcrismo takes its name from the rally organized by Mussolini at Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan on March 23, 1919, attended by Marinetti and other Futurists.
Casanatense Theatrum Sanitatis, Rome, Italy, Biblioteca Casanatense, MS 4182
The Casanatense Theatrum Sanitatis is a richly illuminated summary translation into Latin of Taqwīm aṣ‑Ṣiḥḥa by ibn Buṭlān of Baghdad, a medical treatise on the maintenance of good health based on six principles. Made in the late fourteenth-century manuscript in northern Italy, it contains 208 large-scale, vivid, and lively miniatures depicting medicinal plants, the preparation of medicine, and scenes from daily life. One of the earliest illustrated copies of the Theatrum Sanitatis, it is thought to have been commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti, Count of Milan, from the workshop of Giovannino de’ Grassi.
RICOTTA. Nature: cold and humid. Best freshly made from pure milk. Beneficial: it nourishes and fattens the body. Detrimental: it oppilates (blocks up), makes the stomach heavy, is difficult to digest and causes colic. Remedy the Detriment: with butter and honey.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, works that we might define today as “illustrated medical encyclopaedias” were called “Tracuini” or “Theatra Sanitatis”. The European aristocracy, which until shortly before then had left the monopoly of literature to the clergy, now discovered its pleasures and commissioned sumptuous codices which summarised the culture of the era. The Theatrum Sanitatis of the Casanatense Library in Rome is a cross between art and history of medicine, facilitating an understanding of the system of knowledge of ancient medicine. Commentary in Spanish and English
Saint Petersburg Bestiary: St. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. Q.v.V. 1 The Saint Petersburg Bestiary, also known as the Saltykov-Shchedrin Bestiary, is a lavishly illuminated manuscript describing the physical characteristics and Christian moralizations of animals, both real and mythical. It was made in eastern England and is closely related to the Worksop Bestiary (New York, Morgan Library & Museum, MS M.81) in both textual content and the composition of its images. Dating from the 1170s or 1180s, it is an early example of a type of book that became extremely popular in thirteenth-century England. Its ninety-one folios feature 114 miniatures, four of them full-page, illustrating a Creation cycle and 108 animals. The bestiary’s text is a Latin version of the Physiologus (The Naturalist), a Greek text of the second century CE. This core text is preceded by an account of Creation based on Genesis and Adam’s naming of the animals. The text also includes many animal descriptions derived from the Etymologiae of the Spanish bishop, Isidore of Seville (d. 636).
The bestiary proper is comprised of short chapters, each devoted to a particular species, introduced by a miniature and by a pen-flourished initial. The animals described and depicted vary from large farm animals to worms and include a variety of exotic, fantastic, and hybrid beasts. The text is written in the Transitional Script of the long twelfth century. Although made in England, the manuscript reached France by the sixteenth century, when annotations, most labeling the depicted animals, were added in French. One annotation is in Greek. Commentary in Spanish
A bestiary (Latin: bestiarium vocabulum) is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson.
Hortus Amoenissimus by Franciscus de Geest. Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Varia 291
Franciscus De Geest, Baroque painter from Holland (1638-1699), who had become famous for painting portraits and still-lifes, also enthusiastically devoted himself to the illustration of flowers, which resulted in this anthology of plants, Hortus Amoenissimus, dated “Leeuwarden 1668” and currently held in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome. It is a collection of 201 original drawings made directly from the plants and splendidly coloured using a combination of techniques. It provides evidence of the variety of flowered plants cultivated in botanical gardens at that time and of the extensive collections of the highly sought-after tulips originating in the Orient. A testimony to the immense variety of species that were cultivated in Europe.
Duilio Contin (commentary author) wrote: “The Hortus Amoenissimus by Franciscus de Geest is an extraordinary collection of 198 works of art, so many plates, drawn with a precise phytographic and watercolour technique with an elegant taste for a mise en page of 17th century art. A jubilant celebration of colour and mild accompanying flavours such as rose, hemerocallis, lilium, mallow and especially a multitude of tulips so alive that they seem to be just cut, in a grand, multi-coloured and joyful baroque garden. Franciscus de Geest fully seizes the botanic spirit and interest of his time and his works are worthy of a place among the best floral painters of that time”. Commentary in Italian.
Latin Dioscorides. Vatican City, Vatican City State, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. F.VII.158
The Latin Dioscorides is a fifteenth-century Italian picture book of plants understood in Greco-Roman antiquity to have medicinal properties. It is based on the text known as De materia medica by the Greek physician Dioscorides Pedanius, and the paintings may have been copied from a late antique manuscript of the text. It boasts more than 200 pages of illustrations, mostly sensitive naturalistic renderings of medicinal plants on bare parchment, but also some human and animal figures. Portraits of Dioscorides and other ancient Greek authorities on medicine are included.
Pedanius Dioscorides (40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of De materia medica (in the original Ancient Greek: Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς, Peri hulēs iatrikēs, both meaning “On Medical Material”) , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic pharmacopeia on herbal medicine and related medicinal substances, that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the most prominent writer on plants and plant drugs.
The International Labour and Radical History Pamphlet Collection is now digitized, marking a milestone for both the Digital Archives Initiative (DAI) and the Archives and Special Collections Division. The scale of the task was enormous: 2,176 pamphlets or 110,400 pages. Completion of this project (begun in 2011) is all the more remarkable because scanning was done wholly by students. Enormous thanks is due to the DAI team – Don Walsh, Heather Kinsella, and all the DAI students over the last decade (too many to name individually). The Collection is an invaluable resource for anyone studying the international history of socialism.
The pamphlet collection initially came from a bookdealer. Retired Collections Librarian Michael Lonardo was instrumental in organizing and providing initial access through a searchable standalone database. The collection was subsequently catalogued by staff of the QEII Library’s Cataloguing & Metadata division. Now fully digitized, it is available to anyone with computer access.
Ethiopian Psalter in Ge’ez with the Canticles, Song of Songs of Solomon, “Weddase Maryam” (Praises of Mary) and Gate of Light.
169 fols. on parchment, complete. Northern Ethiopia, ca. 1800: 138 mm x 102 mm (justification, 93 mm x 79 mm). Collation: I6 + II12-XIV12 + XV7 (7 an added singleton used as a fly-leaf). Ruled in drypoint, the prickings still visible in the margins. Written in one or two columns of 22 lines per page. The consistency suggests that the book was designed in this format. Foliated 1-169 in modern pencil. The earlier (European) foliation begins at fol. 30 and skips by tens, ending at 168. The second (American) foliation is consistent on all other folios. On fol. 46 a bright green thread that marked the liturgical divisions still remains. Fol. 52, 81, 113, 116 and 142 bear remnants of red and purple threads. Note that these correspond to pages with harags. Decoration: written solely in black and red ink, as is common in Ethiopian manuscripts. Simple harags appear on fols. 21r, 28v, 46v, 52v, 73r, 81v, 87r, 113v, 116v, 129r, 142r and 149v; purple interlace has been added later on fols. 28v, 87v, 123v and 129r. The scribe of this manuscript has chosen to use micrography to copy lines that would extend into the margins or wrap onto the next line. In some cases the writing is exceptionally small and delicate. The parchment, it should be noted, is unusually fine, with very few natural imperfections. Parchment flaws can be found only on fols. 77. 98-99, 152. Three parchment singletons appear only in the final quire. (Dealer’s description)
Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury: A Defence of The True and Catholike doctrine of the sacrament of the body and bloud of our sauiour Christ, with a confutation of sundry errors concernyng the same, grounded and stablished vpon Goddes holy woorde, & approued by ye consent of the moste auncient doctors of the Churche. Made by the moste Reuerende father in God Thomas Archebyshop of Canterbury, Primate of all Englande and Metropolitane. Imprynted at London : in Paules Churcheyard, at the signe of the Brasen serpent, by Reynold Wolfe. Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum, 1489-1556. Imprynted at London : in Paules Churcheyard, at the signe of the Brasen serpent, by Reynold Wolfe Cum priuilegio ad imprimendum solum, anno Domini M D L [1550].
187 x 135 mm Quarto [4], 117, [3] leaves Collation: *4, A-Z4, Aa-Gg4. The text is printed in Black Letter. The title page features an elaborate woodcut border with four vignettes including the Last Supper (McKerrow and Ferguson 73). The final leaf bears the colophon and Wolfe’s printer’s device (McKerrow 119). There are several woodcut initials in the text Provenance: 1 Thomas Maker, his gift to Philip Cowrtney (contemporary inscription by Cowrtney on title and with his marginalia and his initials ‘PC’ on colophon) 2 Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885; Crewe Hall bookplate) 3 George Goyder (bookplate; sold Sotheby’s London, 19 July 1993, lot 54). This copy is bound in contemporary, blind-stamped English calf with small medallion portrait rolls. The boards are composed of printer’s waste taken from John Bale’s ” Illustrium Maioris Britanniae Scriptorum” of 1548.The text block is backed with vellum manuscript fragments. A number of blank leaves have been bound in at the beginning of the volume. Internally, this copy is in excellent condition with clean, wide margins. Both the binding and the text are in strictly original condition. STC 6002 (with catchwords B4r “des”, S1r “before”). Title page border: McKerrow and Ferguson 73; Printer’s device: McKerrow 119 References: Diarmaid MacCulloch, “Thomas Cranmer, A Life”; GW Broniley, “Thomas Cranmer, Theologian”). Item #187J (Dealer’s description)
The following descriptions draw on a variety of sources, including information provided by the vendors, commentaries included with the works, the facsimiles themselves, Worldcat, and the Oxford Companion to the Book.
Der Lorscher Rotulus : Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt a. Main, Ms. Barth. 179. Graz (Austria): Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt. 2004
Full-colour facsimile of a 9th-century scroll containing a litany for use at Lorsh. The commentary in German (2004) was edited by Johannes Fried, with contributions by Katharina Bierbrauer and others. Issued in a box; the scroll is attached to two wooden roller. The text is in Latin in Carolingian minuscule. Roll on parchment: 257 × 23.5 cm. Silver and gold ink used in the lettering, with decorative braided border. This is no. 333 of 980 numbered and 50 unnumbered copies.
The only liturgical book roll to reach us from the Carolingian period, the Lorsch Rotulus is now preserved at the City and University Library of Frankfurt. The original manuscript was made during the 3rd quarter of the 9th century in the scriptorium of Lorsch. Its place of origin is indicated by the style of the colourful interlaced decorations that fill the borders and also by the in pride of place within the Litany given to Nazariaus, the patron saint of Lorsch. The front side of the scroll consists of a long sequence of 534 Saints names in three columns, some of which are highlighted in gold and silver letters. Texts on the reverse side of the Rotulus were added in the 11th century. These are a votive mass for a feverish person, mass orations, a list of treasures and books from the Salvatorstift in Frankfurt and an Officium Stellae (the liturgical representation of the visit by the Magi to the infant Jesus on the feast of the Epiphany).
Codice de Metz. Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid 3.307 : una compilación medieval de cómputo y astronomía. Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional : Testimonio, 1994.
152 pages / 31.5 × 25.0 cm. The text is in Latin on parchment. The hand is early Carolingian miniscule with headings in Rustic Capitals or Uncial often in red or in green. Bound in brown goatskin with dry embossing on both sides. Bronze (plastic) fittings with motifs inspired by the original. Commentary in Spanish. Facsimile No. 219 of 980.
The Metz Codex is a miscellany of texts on astronomy, with a focus on computus—the calculation of the movement of astronomical bodies and the dates of movable Christian holy days each year. The manual was created in Metz in the 820s for Drogo (801-855), Bishop of Metz, perhaps upon his elevation to the bishopric in 828. Drogo was the son of Charlemagne. It is a deluxe manuscript with forty-two illusionistic paintings of the highest quality depicting the people, animals, and objects that gave their names to the constellations. These Symbolic figures of the constellations draw on manuscripts from late-antiquity. The text of the Metz Codex comes from the “Handbook of 809-812,” of which numerous copies were made in the early ninth century. Although only four of the handbook’s seven books are preserved in the Metz Codex, the manuscript nevertheless provides the best textual record of the handbook.
L’unique manuscrit d’Ibn al-Bawwab à la Chester Beatty Library. D. S. Rice (Commentator for written text), Jacqueline Bernard (Translator), ʻAlī ibn Hilāl Ibn al-Bawwāb (Calligrapher). Facsimile edition. Paris: Club du livre, 1972.
Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab. Chester Beattie MS: K 16. 183 mm x 145 mm x 58 mm (height x width x depth). Codex, ink, colours and gold on paper, 282 folios, Arabic text in cursive script 15 lines per page (identified as naskh or rayhan), with illuminated double-pages (ff. 6v-8r, 284v-5r), sura-headings and verse markers throughout, complete Qur’an, colophon (f. 284r) signed `Ali ibn Hilal (known as Ibn al-Bawwab) and dated Baghdad, Iraq, 391/1000-1001. Commentary in French, English and Arabic. Facsimile edition.
The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur’an was produced in Baghdad in the year 1000. Its smooth cursive calligraphy is the work of Abu’l Hasan `Ali ibn Hilal (d. 1022), more commonly known as Ibn al-Bawwab (meaning “son of the doorkeeper”). Ibn al-Bawwab is renowned as one of Islam’s greatest master-calligraphers, and this manuscript is held to be the only Qur’an genuinely written in his hand. It is also important for being one of the earliest dated Qur’ans copied on paper (as opposed to parchment) and one of the earliest written in a cursive script. The original is located at Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
The Parma Psalter: a thirteenth-century illuminated Hebrew book of Psalms with a commentary by Abraham Ibn Ezra. London: Facsimile Editions, 1996.
The Parma Psalter. Ms. Parm.1870 (Cod. De Rossi 510). 226 folios (452 pages) of vegetable parchment, 13.5cm x 10 cm (5.33″ x 4.0″), written in clear, large vocalized Hebrew. The commentary by Abraham Ibn Ezra (b. 1089) is in small cursive script. This illuminated book of Psalms was written ca.1280, probably in Emilia in Northern Italy. The psalms are in 23 quires with one 16-page quire, added at a later date, containing the ceremonies for engagements, marriages, circumcisions and funerals. The pages are an elegant balance of Psalms and commentary, often with elaborate images in the margins, some of which reflect on the accompanying Psalm. Gold is used throughout. The facsimile was printed by offset lithography on vegan or vegetable parchment. Commentary in English.
The Parma Psalter was first documented in the collection of Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (1742-1831), a Christian Hebraist. The original manuscript is now housed in the Palatina Library in Parma, Italy, which also holds a significant number of Hebrew Manuscripts.
El Decamerón. [Valencia, Spain], [Paris]: Scriptorium, S.L.; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2009.
Boccaccio’s Decameron. MS 5070 Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal. 40 × 28.5 cm . 395 fols. in 51 gatherings or quires. The manuscript was translated into French between 1411and 1414 by Laurent de Premierfait from a Latin translation of the original Florentine. This manuscript (MS 5070) was written in bâtarde cursive by copyist Guillebert de Mets between1435-1439. It was probably commissioned by one of the abbots of Saint-Adrien de Grammont to be given to Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgandy on the occasion of his visit to the abbey in 1441. The decoration combines the work of two different workshops. Marginal decoration are found only on pages illustrated with a miniature (100 in total) which mark the beginning of each tale. The miniatures, were copied or traced from a 1414 manuscript of the Decameron made for John the Fearless, and now housed at the Vatican Library (Palatinus Latinus 1989). The binding (probably 18th century) bears the Count d’Argenson’s arms and a border of three gold fillets. This facsimile is number 350 of 390. Commentary in Spanish and English.
The Decameron is a collection of short stories by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book contains 100 tales ranging from the erotic to the tragic as told by a group men and women sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death. Boccaccio probably conceived of the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348, and completed it by 1353.
Das Stundenbuch der Katerina von Kleve. Gutersloh/Munchen, Faksimile Verlag, 2009.
Hours of Catherine of Cleves MS M.917/945(192 × 130 mm). 714 pages on parchment. The binding is an illustrated reproduction of a post-1480 binding from Utrecht: embossed brown leather, two gilt book clasps on fine gold chains, and a red gemstone on the front cover. Facsimile No. 480 of 980 copies. Commentary volume in German.
This lavish book of hours in Latin (ca. 1430) was probably made for Catherine of Cleves (1417–1479). The 157 full miniatures, half-miniatures and numerous border decorations were created by an unknown artist, referenced as the Master of Catherine of Cleves. The visual representations, including a depiction of the gates of hell, realistic depiction of ordinary life at the time (a tavern scene, a bakery), as well as rich border decorations (mussels, fruit, birds, fish, and more) are said to have influenced Bruegel and other artists associated with the great achievements of Netherlandish art. The book had a turbulent history. Appearing on the market after almost 400 years in private hands, it was divided, the pages shuffled, before being sold as two separate books. Both parts were purchased by New York’s Pierpont Morgan Library in 1963 and subsequently reunited. This Zieris facsimile edition shows us the book as it would have been when it was in the possession of its original owner, Catherine of Cleves.
Johannes Gutenberg la biblia de 42 lineas comentario al facsimil el eEjemplar en Burgos. Inc. 66 Biblioteca Pública del Estado (Burgos, Spain). 2 volumes – 1,254 pages / 41.0 × 31.0 cm. Paper. Valencia: Vicent Garcia Editores, 1995. Limited Edition: This is no. 87 of 1380 copies
Between 1452 and 1454 Johannes Gutenberg (ca. 1400–1468) printed either 158 or 180 copies of the now famous Bible in his Mainz workshop. The work is referred to as the 42-Line Bible since every page of text contains 42 lines. The handwritten template for the printed Bible was the so-called Vulgate, a 4th century translation by St. Jerome of the books of the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament. Spaces were left in the text for rubrication and for the addition of capital letters. Spacious margins allowed for the addition of border decorations. The illustrators of this copy inserted colourful elaborate floral illustrations in the borders with realistic plant tendrils around the text. From the original print run, only 49 copies of the 42-Line Bible survive, with only twenty of these complete. The copy used as exemplar for this facsimile can be found in the Biblioteca Pública del Estado (State Library) in the Spanish city of Burgos.
Schatzbibel des Mittelalters. Reproduktion und Kommentarband : Limitiert Nr. M 103/499. R, Rimini, Imago: CommentaryMedia Exklusiv GmbH, 2019. 363/499 copies. 96 pages / 18.6 × 14.9 cm. Manuscript (Gothic Textura Semiquadrata Littera bastarda) on parchment.
The Picture Bible of Manchester is a Gothic picture Bible originating from Northern France in the first half of the 13th century. It contains 48 full-page miniatures, each depicting a single scene from the first two books of the Old Testament (Genesis and Exodus). It is possible that the manuscript is a fragment or was unfinished. It is a true picture Bible consisting purely of full-page miniatures decorated with bright pigments and brilliantly burnished gold leaf backgrounds. The short captions in French that were added sometime later. Produced sometime between 1200 and 1250, it is regarded as a fine specimen of the Gothic style from the so-called Channel school in Northern France. The manuscript’s format and content indicates that it was most likely intended for personal use. The original manuscript is stored in the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library
Biblia Pauperum (Golden Bible) Kings MS 5British Library (London, United Kingdom). Commentary by Janet Backhouse; James H Marrow and Gerhard Schmidt. Faksimile Verlag Luzern, 1994. 70 pages / 17.9 × 38.4 cm in Gothic script with 93 miniatures, richly coloured and gilded with gold and silver, preserved (out of at least 99 originally. The binding is in red Morocco with gilt decoration. The work (ca. 1395–1405) is attributed to the Master of the Hours of Margaret of Cleves. It was commissioned for Albert I, Duke of Bavaria (1336–1404), or his second wife Margaret of Cleves (ca. 1375–1411).
A Biblia Pauperum (so-called pauper’s Bible) is a work that consists mainly of illustrations of scenes from the Bible. The form first appeared in the middle of the 13th century and probably originated in Austria or Bavaria. The title, given in a later age, is a misinterpretation of the purpose of the work, which was not primarily intended for teaching the contents of the Bible to those who could not read; rather it delivered a complicated theological message to those who would recognize the biblical scenes. This is the typological notion that events described in the Old Testament (‘Types’) prefigure the events described in the Gospels (‘Antitypes’). On each page a central image of the life of Christ is flanked by two prefiguring images from the Old Testament. The sequence follows the life of Christ, in some versions extended with the life of the Virgin, and the Last Judgement.
Der Ulmer Aesop von 1476/1477. Commentary by Peter Amelung. Ludwigsberg: Edition Libri Illustri Verlags-GmbH, 1995. 550 pages / 30.5 × 22.5 cm with 191 coloured woodcut illustrations. Print work on paper. Commentary in German. This facsimile is number 539 of 800.
The so-called Ulm Aesop was published around 1476 by the Ulm humanist and translator Heinrich Steinhöwel (1412–1482/3). Printed by Johann Zainer (d.1523) in Latin and German, the work is one of the most important editions of Aesop’s ancient fables. Printing the ancient work in German made the fables more widely comprehensible. With its more than 190 coloured woodcuts by Ulm Minster, Jörg Syrlin the Elder (1425-1491), it was stylistically influential for subsequent editions and other works. This edition assembled all of the known fables at that time together with a biography of Aesop. Additionally, Steinhöwel attached a few tales by Poccio Bracciolini (b.1380-1459), a famous Italian Renaissance humanist. The original of this historically important codex is now kept in the Otto Schäfer Museum in Schweinfurt.
The Bible with the Apocrypha: King James Version. London, Folio Society, 2011. 2 v. in slipcase (xxxvi, 1868 pages); 28 cm. This facsimile is no. 107 or 1000. Both volumes and fully bound in pale blue goatskin leather with upper covers and spines lettered in gilt. 400th anniversary issue.
At the beginning of the 17th century, two English versions of the Bible were current: the official Bishops’ Bible, first published in 1568 and the Geneva Bible, first published in 1560. A revised translation of the Scriptures was proposed at a conference convened by James I in 1604. Fifty-four scholars were chosen; the 47 actual participants formed six subcommittees. Each group was assigned certain books of the Bible; their first drafts were sent to the other groups for criticism, and a final text was edited by a revision committee, convened at Stationers’ Hall. Their task was to revise the Bishops’ Bible (itself heavily dependent on Tyndale’s version) in the light of the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. The final text was published in 1611 by R. Barker, the King’s Printer. The Authorized Version was never formally authorized by king, Church, or Parliament; it nevertheless immediately superseded the Bishops’ Bible in public worship. It has been described as a masterpiece of classical English prose, giving us many memorable expressions: ‘labour of love’, ‘sign of the times’, ‘bite the dust’, ‘land of milk and honey’, ‘fly in the ointment’, and many others.
Die Luther-Bibel von 1534 aus der Werkstatt von Lucas Cranach = The Luther Bible of 1534. Taschen, Köln, 2002. 1674 pages / 31.5 × 21.0 cm. Bound in two volumes in brown leather with gilt lettering. This is facsimile number 91 of 500.
The Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) began to translate the New Testament from Erasmus’ Greek version in 1521. He finished the task in eleven weeks. In September 1522, Lotter printed the result (Das Newe Testament Deutzsch), later known as the September Bible. Luther then started work on the Old Testament. In 1523–1524 three volumes appeared, comprising the canon up to the Song of Songs; the Prophets remained a work in progress until 1532, and the apocryphal books, translated jointly with Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) and others, were included only in the complete Bible of 1534, printed by Lufft (1495-1584). There are only 60 surviving copies of the 1534 printed edition of Luther’s vernacular German Bible. The exemplar used for this facsimile is housed in the. Its 128 woodcuts, including a title page by Lucas Cranach the Elder, were coloured shortly after they were printed with opaque blue, green, and red paints. Gold leaf was also used to illuminate some of the woodcuts.
Zerbster Prunkbibel: “Cranachbibel”: die Apokalypse. Edition Leipzig, Leipzig, 2008. Pages cccxciiii-ccccx, xxii pages: color facsimiles; 39 cm. With commentary in English and German. This facsimile is number 116 of 800.
The biblical text of the Apocalypse is taken from Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. The text for this edition is taken from Luther’s revised 1541 edition and is illustrated by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) with 26 coloured and gilt woodcuts, with each of the images framed in gold. There are decorated capitals throughout. The work was printed in 1541 in Wittenberg in the workshop of the famous Bible printer Hans Lufft (1495–1584). Lucas Cranach the Younger was a German Renaissance painter and portraitist, the son Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), painter and engraver, and brother of Hans Cranach (1513-1537), also a painter.
Codex Sinaiticus (the Sinai Book), a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version known as the Septuagint (earliest extant Greek translation from the original Hebrew) that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. The text, written by three or four scribes, was heavily annotated by a series of early collectors. The significance of Codex Sinaiticus for the reconstruction of the Christian Bible’s original text, the history of the Bible, and the history of Western book-making is immense. The surviving parts of the original manuscript, written on parchment, are now held by four libraries. This facsimile is based on digital facsimiles. The resulting pages are 5% smaller than the original.
An exhibit of prize winners for the 2020-2021 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada is showing on the third floor of the QEII Library. A limited number of print catalogues are available. The exhibit will remain in place until late April 2023.
The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada is the only national competition for book design. The Alcuin Awards competition has been held annually since 1984, with the exception of 2022 which combine 2020-1 submissions. Categories have changed slightly over the years. Most recently, “Comics/Bandes dessinées” was added in 2016 to recognize the increase in publication of graphic novels. Further changes may occur as publishing patterns evolve.
Winners of Alcuin awards are Canadian book designers whose books were published in Canada in the previous calendar year. Every year, the Society selects three judges with slightly varied areas of expertise. The winning books are exhibited both nationally and internationally, and recognized in the media and at award ceremonies, as well as in our beautiful annual exhibition catalogues.
An exhibition of miniature books from the holdings of Archives & Special Collections is currently on show on the 3rd floor of QEII Library. The Exhibition runs from September to December, 2022.
Visit a Memorial University Gazette article about the exhibit here
Magnencij Rabani Mauri De Laudib[us] sancte Crucis opus. erudcione versu prosaq[ue] mirificum. Edited by Jacobus Wimpheling. Phorçheim. [Pforzheim : In ædibus Thom[ae] Anshelmi., 1503.
This is a sixteen century edition of De Laudibus Sancte Crucis (In Praise of the Holy Cross). It is the work of Hrabanus Maurus (b. 780/781, d. 856), one of the greatest teachers and scholars of the Carolingian age. Maurus became known as the preceptor Germaniae (Teacher of Germany) and was in charge of the imperial abbey school of Fulda, in central Germany, and was later archbishop of Mainz. While in Fulda he composed this poem. The elaborate work comprises a set of verses where the words both embody and celebrate the cross, drawing on an antique tradition of arranging words and phrases within figures. It is one of the earliest books printed at Pforzheim and earliest examples of figurative poetry (carmina figurata). It includes preliminary verses by Sebastian Brant, Wimpheling, Johann Reuchlin and Georg Simler and Joannes Tritemius.
ChanceryFolio 31 x 21cm. signatures: Aa6 Bb4 a-k6; A, B6 C4. [Complete] Types 3:109R, 4:180G; 40 lines of transcribed verse + headline, 40 lines of commentary + headline, red and black printing throughout, calligraphic woodcut initial (Proctor, fig. 24) M on title page, woodcut initials printed in red, and a figured prefatory poem, 28 carmina figurata, the first entirely xylographic, the remaining poems combining printed and xylographic letters with the versus intexti printed in red (except fig. xvi), enclosed by either woodcut figures (of the emperor, Christ, the Evangelists, Cherubim, etc.) printed in black or by Christian symbols and characters, most defined by metal rules in red.
This copy is bound in a quarter bound vellum spine over a 15th century printed leaf of a part of Luke from a Latin Vulgate Bible over boards with central gilt arms of Signet Library to covers, Provenance: Signet Library (gilt arms to covers); and then Alan G. Thomas. The text is divided in two books. The first, preceded by some poems praising the author of the book, consists of figures-poems typed out on the opposite page of the illustrations with following comment and explanation. The second part consists of remarks on each figure. In this copy the final 3 signatures (part II) were supplied from another copy.
Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language: in Which The Words are Deduced From Their Originals. Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples From the Best Writers, To Which Are Prefixed, A History of the Language and An English Grammar. Published by For W. Strahan for J. & P. Knapton, T. & T. Longman, C. Hitch & L. Hawes, A. Millar, and R. & J. Dodsley, London, 1755.
“Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language was first published in 1755, the dictionary took just over eight years to compile, required six helpers and listed 40,000 words. Each word was defined in detail, the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning. It was a huge scholarly achievement, a more extensive and complex dictionary than any of its predecessors.
In all, there are over 114,000 quotations in the dictionary. Johnson was the first English lexicographer to use citations in this way, a method that greatly influenced the style of future dictionaries. He had scoured books stretching back to the 16th century, often quoting from those thought to be ‘great works’, such as poems by Milton or plays by Shakespeare. Therefore the quotations reflect his own distinct literary taste and political views. And yet, if Johnson didn’t like a quotation, or if a phrase didn’t convey the exact meaning he required, he did not hesitate to chop, twist around, or rewrite a few words – Johnson famously scribbled all over his books, underlining, highlighting, altering and correcting…
The Dog's Tooth 