The course will study the exemplar of the hand printed book analyzed under three survey profiles . The exemplar as the result and the witness of a compositorial practice and editorial policy . The second point of view observe the exemplar as a carrier of marks that allow us to rebuild the history from the workshop production to its presence in the library . Finally , the third point of observation will verify the description of the exemplar in the historical progress of cataloging theory.
The bibliography will come supplied during the course
Learning Objectives
The course aims to provide the theoretical and technical tools to deal with the management of the copies of hand press books
both from a bibliographic identification point of view, and from that of its description. In addition , the acquired skills will enable the student to use the data collected for the reconstruction of the history of the collections .
Prerequisites
Knowledge of the history of the book and libraries
Teaching Methods
The course consists of lectures and some seminars in the first module and the application and verification of the skills learned at the collection of the National Central Library of Florence
Further information
The second part of the course may require a change of schedule that will be discussed in advance
Type of Assessment
An individual interview will verify, by means of oral questions, the achievement of the teaching objective by the student.
Course program
Marks of manufacture: making a hand-press book. The economic aspects of an edition. Book design and book formats.
Typesetting and print. The different supports: paper, colored paper, parchment, silk. Imposition and printing errors. Edition, impression, issue and state.
The collation formula. Gatherings without signature. Cancellans and cancellandum.
The component parts of the item: the frontispiece, the title page, the colophon.
The elements of the page: current title, cathchword, signature. The collation of the copies: the ideal copy.
Typeface classification. Margins of the item. Bookbinding and rebound. Bookbinding as witness. The story of bookbinding: collectors and the suppression of religious orders.
Marks of use and their classification.
Marks of ownership: main features. Marks of ownership in italian public libraries: from the regulation in 1885 up to present days. Marks of ownership in religious libraries.
Fore-edge painting, las marcas de fuego. Analysis of some marks on books case studies.
Marks of studying: postils, glosses and marginalia. The signs of reading.
The fund's card in author libraries. The copies in author libraries.
The catalog of incunabula of the Central National Library of Florence. Notes and description of copies.
The marks on books in authors libraries: some case studies.
The main online repertoires for incunabula and for 16th century editions: Istc and Edit16.
The editorial paratext in the twentieth century in author libraries; the copies with dedication in the funds of the Vieusseux Cabinet of Florence.
Analysis and discussion of a type-card for the detection of copy notes.
The Central National Library of Florence and its funds: stratigraphy of collections.
Analysis of the signs of production and use in copies of the Central National Library of Florence.