This competition is open to professional bookbinders worldwide. The competition will be organised by the Foundation for the sponsorship of Bookbinding (SfB). Both competitions take place in Ascona.

All applications to be received by 30 August 2008. Books to be received no later than 1 February 2009.

For full details about centro del bel libro, and to register online go to:

http://www.cbl-ascona.ch/03_English/e_bel_libro.htm

Emulating Gutenberg with B-42 Type

A Lecture by Kitty Maryatt

July 19, 2008 2-4 pm at The International Printing Museum 315 Torrance Blvd.. Carson, CA 90745 Free admission but please RSVP to bookarts@printmuseum..org Download the PDF flyer at www.printmuseum.org

On July 19, 2008, the International Printing Museum will present a lecture by Kitty Maryatt, Director of the Scripps College Press, “Emulating Gutenberg with B-42 Type.” This lecture is sponsored by a generous grant for the Book Club of California. Founded in 1912, The Book Club is a non-profit organization of book lovers and collectors who have a special interest in Pacific Coast history, literature, and fine printing. Its chief aims are to further the interests of book collectors and scholars and to promote an understanding and
appreciation of fine books.

Ms. Maryatt will discuss her fascinating experiences hand setting a facsimile page of the Gutenberg Bible using Dale Guild Type Foundry’s B-42 type, a faithful re-cutting of the types of Johann Gutenberg, as seen in his monumental 42-line Bibla Sacra, ca. 1455 Production of this font required that 245 characters were drawn, cut and cast.

In her lecture, Ms. Maryatt provides an explanation of scribal practices used in medieval books to enhance an understanding of the abbreviations and ligatures in the font. She will also provide information and elaboration related to the printing press, the handmade paper and vellum used for the edition, the decoration and aspects of medieval bookbinding practices and bookselling.

In addition to the lecture and PowerPoint presentation, attendees will have opportunities to see one of the printed pages pieces and see some pieces of the Gutenberg type.

“How do you find out whether a book was renewed? You have to check the U.S. Copyright Office records. Records from 1978 onward are online but not downloadable in bulk. The Copyright Office hasn’t digitized their earlier records, but Carnegie Mellon scanned them as part of their Universal Library Project, and the tireless folks at Project Gutenberg and the Distributed Proofreaders painstakingly typed in every word.

Thanks to the efforts of Google software engineer Jarkko Hietaniemi, we’ve [Google] gathered the records from both sources, massaged them a bit for easier parsing, and combined them into a single XML file available for download here.”

Girdle Books

Prominent in the 15th Century, girdle bindings were meant to be tucked under the belt or girdle of the wearer by their leather tail. Recreate a model of this historic binding, sewn over raised cords and featuring prominent medieval headbands. The book will be covered in deerskin and feature a prominent Turks Head knot.

Wed-Fri, Jul 9-11, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $500

Instructor: Stacie Dolin

Chemistry for Bookbinders and Book Artists

The goal of this workshop is to help us gain insight into the chemical nature of the operations we perform in our work as Bookbinders and Book Artists and the conditions necessary for their success.

Mon-Fri, Jul 14-18, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $660

Instructor: Dan Kelm

18th Century French Binding Structures

Focus on reconstructing a typical full calf French 18th Century structure by comparing and contrasting the descriptions in bookbinding manuals of the time.

Mon-Thurs, Jul 21-24, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $665

Instructor: Jeff Peachey

Paul Johnson’s Magical World of Pop-Up Books

Free lecture: A Suitcase Full of Pop-Up Books, Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008, 6-8 pm

Pop-Up Extravaganza

Wed, Jul 23, 2008, 9:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $250

Instructor: Paul Johnson

Dream House Carousel Book

Thurs, Jul 24, 2008, 9:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $250

Instructor: Paul Johnson

Introduction to Leather Paring

This course will introduce the tools and techniques of leather paring through demonstrations and hands-on practice time.

Mon-Fri, Jul 28-Aug 1, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $675

Instructor: Jeff Altepeter

Vellum Stiffboard Binding

This course explores a hybrid modern structure utilizing historical elements found in early versions of the vellum stiffboard binding, but with flexible joints that create less stress on fragile text blocks.

Mon-Wed, Aug 18-20, 2008, 8:30am-4:30pm

Tuition: $550

Instructor: James Reid-Cunningham

For more information or to register, please visit
http://www.nbss.org/workshops/schedule.asp, email workshop@nbss.org, or call
(617) 227-0155.

Thank you,

Jourdan Abel, Workshop Director

North Bennet Street School

39 North Bennet Street

Boston, MA 02113

(617) 227-0155 X 102

workshop@nbss.org

www.nbss.org

12 Weeks: Aug 2-Dec 13
Alternate Saturdays: 9:00-5:00
$143.50 including materials

Registration Closes June 30th:

Location: 12345 El Monte Rd., Los Altos Hills CA.

Course description.

1483
Printing was forbidden to the Turkish population by command of the Sultan Bajazet II and again, in 1515 by Selim I.

1562
Friar Diego de Landa conducted an auto-da-fe in Mani, when he burned 27 books in Maya writing, leaving only 4 Mayan books for scholars to puzzle over.

1933
20,000 books are burned by the Nazis in a Berlin public square. Books that Goebbels referred to as holding “….the unclean spirit of the past.”

1981
Sri Lankan policemen and other government sponsored enforcers set fire to the Jaffina Public Library destroying 97,000 volumes, including many culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts.

1992
During the Bosnian War, the Oriental Institute was attacked and 5263 bound manuscripts were destroyed along with hundreds of thousands of Ottoman documents.

On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Mutanabbi Street is in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. This locale is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. Named after the famed 10th century classical Arab poet, al-Mutanabbi, this is an old and established street for bookselling and has been for hundreds of years. Mutanabbi Street also holds cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community.

Any group that wants to control a people also wants to control the content of every printed page, and they inevitably come to regard any other unsanctioned page as a possible threat. Those that targeted Mutanabbi Street were— are, as much affronted by any novelist or poet as they are by any political or religious tract. They want ultimate control, and they will kill as many as they need to, until no other voice but their own leaves the printed page. Oppression extracts not just a terrible human toll, but it also subtracts the words and images of the writers/artists who hold and express the cultural memory of any people.

This is our starting point: where language, thought, and reality reside; where memory, ideas, and even dreams wait patiently in their black ink. We are extending our call to letterpress printers to contribute a personal response to the bombing on Mutanabbi Street. To date, we have received 42 broadsides which may be viewed at the Florida Atlantic University/Jaffe Center for Book Arts site.

We would like to add to our existing archive, to bring the total to 130 broadsides, which is the approximate number of people killed and wounded on Mutanabbi Street that day.

Also today is the last day for EARLY registration for Typecon.

If you are a member of WNYBAC or SOTA, you get the Early member discount rate.