Category Archives: History

Lab Assignment

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During part 3 of “The History of the Alphabet”, I was surprised to learn that there are modern scribes. Initially it came as a shock that there are people today who would chose to participate in such tedious work. However, it later made sense when considering that, like many other obsolete technologies, it has survived due to transitioning into an art form. Arguably, modern scribes have it tougher than those who lived during the Middle Ages. As the video says, they often now work independently on all of their projects, unlike the scribes of the Middle Ages who worked in larger teams. Other interesting facts included the concept of using a knife to “erase” ink off of a piece of parchment.

Other than that, the video was great for reinforcing the topics discussed in class and the readings. Several main points in the video, such as the part discussing the different route that Italian fonts took from north German fonts, were also heavily discussed in The Book. So, this video essentially summarized what we have been doing these past few weeks.

Medieval Manuscript Making

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In the second part of The Story of Writing we are treated to a demonstration of medieval quill pens and illumination coupled with a few historical announcements. One of which, towards the beginning of the section, reminded me of the pain I felt in 9th grade. The video explains that in Ireland during the middle ages, the art of manuscripts flourished. Ireland was the only bastion of literate society during this time, according to Thomas Cahill in his book How the Irish Saved Civilization. Unlike the article here, I would not consider this book a “small treasure.”

Back to the video: I was enthralled looking at the first pen presented making letters on parchment. From about 35:30-37:15 the pen made beautiful brushstrokes to create multiple fonts. The flexibility of this tool entranced me. It could make all sorts of Gothic variations depending on how you held it, bent your hand, stopped short, or pressed firmly. Unfortunately, they did not give the name of this tool; it was different from the feather quills discussed in greater detail later.

Lab Assignment

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For today’s lab assignment, I watched the documentary The Making of a Renaissance Book.  While the demonstration in the Experimental Printmaking Institute made me more appreciative of the hard work that goes into printing, this documentary enhanced that feeling of appreciation immensely.  The documentary shows many clips of artists creating the individual letters of the typecast for printing by hand.  From setting the mold to carving the letters, these jobs took an enormous amount of technical skill and artistry that I was previously unaware of.

The filmmaker did an excellent job of portraying these artists as real people.  Many of the shots focused on the artist’s hands as they were working, but the filmmaker also made sure to focus on the faces of the artists as well.  The documentary also included diagrams of the various objects used in printing that explained the parts of those objects.  This aspect of the film helped demonstrate how these objects worked and arouse even more appreciation for these artists and engineers of book history.

Tuesday’s Class

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In Tuesday’s class we talked a little more about a books history.  It was really fascinating to learn about the different places each book has been and how it ended up in our special collections department.  I particularly found it interesting that the Dickens set, which was beautifully bound, contained the original covers and spines within the books, or at least within A Christmas Carol.   It made me wonder if that is something that many people do when they replace original binding.

Art and Print

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We can better see the social and political impact of printing technology in the 19th century, especially when we look to those whom we deem artists. The lithograph allowed for clear, dependent, and immediate reproduction of images and type. For this, newspapers flourished as they were able to print many copies to distribute, as well as hone their quality. For an artist, this medium could be a perfect way to get their art (and name) out there, or to send a message. Daumier was a virulent critic of French politics in the first half of the 19th century. His lithographs were today’s political cartoons, showing up in newspapers during an era of uncharacteristic weak censorship. Though we have been reading much of the technical aspect of production, here we have a sense of the content made available by these technologies.

If Gutenburg had a lithograph…

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These “what if” questions give me a headache. Not that I don’t like them, but there is no evidence to strongly support them. I am inclined to just answer like this: had lithography or photography been available at the incunabula era, the 16th century would look just like the 20th. That is really the most logical answer of which I can think. But let me explain:

If, for example, linotype followed closely after the hand-press (perhaps as a way to hasten the compositor’s job and speed up the whole process) jobs would be at stake. The compositor was perhaps the most skilled worker besides the owner in the incunabula print house. Linotype is much simpler to create, though a good deal of spelling and grammatical skill is still involved. This would incur labor unrest not seen until the 19th century. Although, even the book details short (possibly daily) labor disputes between the master and his workers (Howard 87-91). And lithography? Forget about it! All the compositor’s skill is thrown to the wayside when you can make molded impressions of a page that can be reused indefinitely. However, with the newer machine technology, more skilled workers are needed who can operate and sometimes repair them. Regardless, a shift in technology will shake up the labor market – much to the dismay of employers.

West Wing Reference #2

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Last week we discussed the dynamic between an author’s voice in a literary work and readers bringing their own assumptions to a piece. I think a literary work that epitomizes the controversy and difficulty in determining how to balance the two sides is the Bible. How does or should one read the Bible, which is automatically presuming there is a correct way to read it? In the West Wing clip, Dr. Jacobs believes that the Bible should be read and interpreted strictly–the letter of the law. President Bartlett points out, however, that following that method leads to many modern day scenarios with which she would not agree. Who is the author(s) of the Bible and should it be read with their intentions in mind or should it be adapted to readers’ modern day values?

Intellectual “Property”

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I hadn’t even thought of this before. The very term intellectual property has property in it. Copyrights, which seek to protect intellectual property, are nothing more than divergent land property laws. In reading this article, I came upon some recent historical roots of this idea. The article deals with the pains of authors by profession in 19th century England, before the Copyright Act of 1842. Seeing literary work as true labor, these authors would argue one should have a right to it as one does to his property. Only reading a bit of the article, it would appear that the desire for copyright laws comes out of the desire to make authorship a profession. To protect one’s own skill, some government assistance would be required. After all, no one can steal the skill of the carpenter, the metal worker, the engineer. It is the poor author, who’s very genius can be reproduced and disseminated unbeknownst to him, who needs the help.

Tuesday’s Class

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When I first learned we were going to have class in the library on Tuesday to look at old texts, I think it is safe to say that I was not amused.  I went into the class with little to no enthusiasm. After having read all about the infancy period of books, looking at them just seemed like such a dull activity.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by Tuesday’s class. I ended up really enjoying seeing the different texts and comparing them in real life to the imagines I had imagined.  As people have previously stated, the egyptian scroll was definitely very cool, as were seeing texts that were printed next to texts that were handwritten.

Course of the Course

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In our first week of readings and discussions, we talked about how technology and available materials affect publication. We also analyzed the experience between author and reader and how it relates to ownership of text. I am interested how in these ideas, as well as those that we will learn about this semester, apply to literary and daily experiences in today’s age and in the future. What do I mean by that?

Recently, I sent out an email to set up a meeting for my Student Organization Committee. One of the committee members emailed back asking what he should bring to the meeting to which I was going to respond a pen and paper until I realized that this technology is becoming increasingly outdated. Smartphone technology, iPads, computers, etc. are changing the way people record notes. What does this mean for how note taking and idea exchange is recorded? How will we access and assess this information in the future when smartphones, iPads, and computers are outdated? In 100 or 1000 years, will people be able to look back at our notes and written record of exchanges like we were able to see when we looked at the cuneiform tablets in the library on Tuesday? Does it matter?

Secondly, when we discussed the relationship between reader and author presented by Baurtes (the reader adds his or her own interpretation to the work), it reminded me of the dilemma of text messaging and emails. More and more, technology is becoming a substitute for human interactions. Sometimes, readers misperceive the message sent via text or email because they cannot get the facial or vocal cues given by the author. Are there other instances that we will encounter that we can apply more broadly to our own lives?