Writing manualsThere are 21 items
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Libro nuovo da imparare a scrivere tutte sorte lettere antiche et moderne di tutte nationi, con nuove regole, misure, et essempi
Rome, Girolama Cartolari, 1543 (2 October)Second edition of Palatino’s enormously popular calligraphy book, noted for its examples of cursive chancery scripts, mercantile hands, and national hands, but including non-western scripts (Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabic, Greek, Egyptian, Syrian, Indian, Cyrillic, etc.), a rebus, and cipher alphabets, as well as “Lettera Mancina” (right-to-left handwriting, of the kind practised by Leonardo). Only four other copies of the edition can be located ● Bergamo, Biblioteca civica “Angelo Mai” ● Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum ● Rome, Biblioteca nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II ● Turin, Biblioteca Reale. The present copy was bound at Augsburg about 1560 in a style inspired by Italian models. On the upper cover, displayed within a double-ruled-lozenge, is a stamp (height 19 mm) of the civic insignia of Augsburg, the “Stadtpyr” or “Zirbelnuss” (pine cone) set on a column base. -
Arte subtilissima, por la qual se enseña a escrevir perfectamente, hecho y experimentado, y agora; de nuevo añadido
Saragossa, Pedro Bernúz, 1550 (23 July)The Arte subtilissima is the revised second edition of the first calligraphy and handwriting manual published in Spain. The woodblocks of the first edition (1548) are re-employed, except for three; twenty-four “Tablas mas estudiadas y mas esmeradas que antes” are added, and these enlarge the book by two gatherings (sixteen leaves). One of the new blocks is dated 1547, seven are dated 1550, and sixteen are undated. J.P.R. Lyell’s complaint that Iciar’s writing books were “thumbed out of existence” is validated by modern bibliographical tools: ten copies of the 1548 first edition, some just fragments, are recorded in public collections worldwide. Our 1550 second edition is less rare, but equally difficult to find complete and in good condition: twelve copies are recorded public collections, of which at least four are incomplete. -
A remarkable volume containing eight books of ornament and seven suites of prints, published at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Prague, and Strasbourg, between circa 1562 and 1605, together with three series of drawings executed by a single hand on related papers manufactured at Bern in Switzerland between 1601 and 1608. The paper used by the binder for the paste-downs also was made at Bern, circa 1601-1608, and it may be inferred that the volume was assembled and bound there, probably about 1605
[Bern], c. 1562-1605This highly interesting and well-preserved volume was compiled at Bern about 1605 to provide an architect or artisan with a convenient repertory of exempla for the ornamentation of architecture, sculpture, and metalwork. In it the owner assembled contemporary printed ornament and safe-guarded some drawings – probably his own – to ensure they were easily accessible whenever need for them arose.
At the time our volume was assembled, Daniel Heintz the Younger (1574-1633) was establishing himself as the pre-eminent architect of Bern. Heintz gave his library to his nephew, the architect, painter, and cartographer Joseph Plepp, and some books eventually passed into the Burgerbibliothek Bern. Mostly architectural treatises and compendia of ornament, those “Heintz-Plepp” volumes contain no marks of ownership, and are identifiable only through entries in the Library’s “Donationenbuch”. Several books are in Bernese bindings and for one (a Sammelband of models of Schweifwerk ornament) the binder employed a paper stock found in our volume. There is additional, circumstantial evidence that suggests Daniel II Heintz was the compiler-owner of our volume.
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Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de calígrafos españoles
Madrid, Imprenta de la "Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos", 1913-1916Two volumes (28.5 cm), I: 453 (1) pp., 101 plates. II: 347 (1) pp., and 101 plates. 1213 catalogue entries. Uniformly bound in collector’s cloth-backed boards, leather lettering-pieces (original printed wrappers retained). - First edition. “Cotarelo y Mori’s monumental bio-bibliographical dictionary of the Spanish calligraphers is still the best work of its kind; it contains, in addition to its studies of the national masters, useful notes on the Italians…” (Stanley Morison, Early Italian writing-books: Renaissance to Baroque, edited by Nicolas Barker, Verona 1990, p.28). Palau 63929. ¶ Original wrappers chipped; otherwise an excellent, unmarked copy. -
A Catalogue of Italian writing-books of the sixteenth century
London, Printed at the Curwen Press, 1950(25 cm), original issue of Signature: a quadrimestrial of typography and graphic arts, new series, volume 10 (1950). Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Bibliography of Arrighi, Tagliente, Carpi, Celebrino, Palatino, Amphiareo, Ruano, Cresci, etc. (pp.22-48). ¶ Ownership inscription in ink on upper wrapper (″Williams”). Wrappers soiled; back worn, chipped. -
A Catalogue of Italian writing-books of the sixteenth century
London, Printed at the Curwen Press, 1950(25 cm), original issue of Signature: a quadrimestrial of typography and graphic arts, new series, volume 10 (1950). Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Bibliography of Arrighi, Tagliente, Carpi, Celebrino, Palatino, Amphiareo, Ruano, Cresci, etc. (pp.22-48). ¶ Excellent copy, retaining the publisher’s plain glassine jacket. -
[Stock catalogues, numbered series: 145] Calligraphy : a catalogue of specimen books with sections on bibliography & typography
London, Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, 1951(21.5 cm), 28 pp. 190 items; priced. Publisher’s printed self-wrappers. - The drop-head title states “Calligraphy: the collection of Giuseppe Paoletti, Professor of engraving and calligraphy at Venice”. Includes (item 81) the rare 1524 first edition of Tagliente (£80). The catalogues issued by Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (1905-1969) are uncommon in the market. ¶ Good, unmarked copy. -
Bibliografia delle arti scrittorie e della calligrafia (Biblioteca Bibliografia Italica, 5)
Florence, Sansoni, 1953(26 cm), 409 (3) pp., illustrations. 2086 catalogue entries. Bound in blue buckram, skiver lettering-piece (a collector’s binding). - The most comprehensive bibliography yet to appear on the subject of calligraphy. ¶ Copy 341 of 666. Fine copy. -
Bibliographie deutscher Schreibmeisterbücher von Neudörffer bis 1800 § Glanz und Elend der Fraktur
Hamburg, Ernst Hauswedell & Co., 1958(31 cm), 123, 52 pp., illustrations include 32 plates and facsimiles. Publisher’s cloth, original plain card slipcase. - Describes more than 250 writing manuals dating from 1519 to about 1800. Edition of 600 copies.Offered with the author’s additions and corrections (published in Philobiblon, volume 27, 1983, Heft 4). ¶ Superior copies in new condition.
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[Stock catalogues, unnumbered series] Calligraphy 1535-1885: a collection of seventy-two writing-books and specimens from the Italian, French, Low Countries and Spanish schools. Catalogued and described with upwards of 210 illustrations and an introduction by Stanley Morison
Milan, La Bibliofilia, 1962(24.5 cm), 175 (1) pp., approximately 200 illustrations. 72 items. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - The excellent descriptions (of fourteen French, one Portuguese, three Spanish, three Netherlandish, and fifty-one Italian writing books) cite other copies, in forty-five libraries (European and American) surveyed by the compiler. The introduction by Morison occupies pp.11-29. “Although booksellers’ catalogues do not as a rule call for a review, an exception must be made for this one because it makes important contributions to scholarship and bibliography” (P.H. Muir, in The Book Collector, volume 11, 1962, pp.510-514). Fernand Baudin, Stanley Morison et la tradition typographique (Brussels 1966), no. 140. Tony Appleton, The writings of Stanley Morison: a handlist (Brighton 1976), no. 214. ¶ Copy 41 of 2000 printed on Fabriano paper. Presentation inscription by Carla Marzoli, dated 1981, on endpaper. Wrapper rubbed. -
2000 years of calligraphy : a three-part exhibition organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art, Peabody Institute Library, Walters Art Gallery, June 6-July 18, 1965 : a comprehensive catalog
Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, 1965(28 cm), 201 (1) pp., illustrations. 218 catalogue entries. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - The opening part of the exhibition, covering the first to the fifteenth centuries, includes a remarkable 15th-century illuminator’s sample book of ornamental alphabets of initials, formerly in the Robert Hoe and C.L. Ricketts collections (item 38, lent by the Lilly Library). Original edition, printed by the Stinehour Press. ¶ Spine finger-marked; otherwise an excellent, unmarked copy. -
American penmanship 1800-1850 : a history of writing and a bibliography of copybooks from Jenkins to Spencer
Worcester, MA, American Antiquarian Society, 1969(24 cm), xii, 303 (3) pp., with numerous reproductions of title-pages, 1 folding double-sided plate. Publisher’s black cloth. - Records 377 different texts and editions. Printed by the Stinehour Press at Lunenburg, Vermont. ¶ Fine copy. -
Luminario : an introduction to the Italian writing-books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Nieuwkoop, Miland Publishers, 1972(35 cm), xiii (1), 173 pp., 116 illustrations, 13 vignettes. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - An account of the manuals teaching a fast legible hand based on Renaissance humanist manuscripts. “Dr. Osley has provided us with a much needed book that no library, museum or other institution interested in the history of writing, or in its wider sense the history of culture, can afford to miss” (from a review by A.R.A. Croiset van Uchelen, in Quaerendo, volume 3, 1973, pp.226-228). Edition limited to 800 copies. ¶ Fine copy. -
Catalogue of calligraphic books and manuscripts, the property of Mrs. E.F. Hutton, New York … including a very fine and large manuscript written for Richelieu by Nicolas Jarry; a writing book of four Nürnberg Masters, including Paul Franck, compiled by Hans Georg Schwingsharlein, 1585; Neudörffer, Gesprechbuchlein, 1549, and other works, with 13 fine pages of specimens in Neudörffer’s hand; a very fine illustrated manuscript of coinage in circulation in the Holy Roman Empire, written by a master of the Nürnberg School for Rudolph II, 1601; the manuscript of Florez, Methodo facil del arte de escrivir, probably written for Philip III of Spain, 1614; a richly illuminated Garter manuscript for Henry, Prince of Wales; and manuscripts by Valerio Spada, the Chevalier de Berny, Caspar Brynner, Hieronymo de Nascimbeni, Graily Hewitt, Dorothy Hutton, and others from the eleventh century to the present day. Printed books, including works by Allais, Amphiareo, Andrade de Gigueiredo, Baurenfeind, Bickham, Curione, Josse de Hondt, Lesgret, Luis de Olod, Ortiz, Palatino, Scalzini, Segaro, Schwandner, Servidori, and Torio (catalogue for an auction conducted by Sotheby & Co., London, 27 March 1972)
London, Sotheby & Co., 1972(25 cm), 96 pp., text illustrations (some folding). 88 lots. List of prices realised and buyers’ names loosely inserted. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - A collection largely supplied by the London booksellers E.P. Goldschmidt & Company to Dorothy Hutton (1908-2002), widow of the financier Edward F. Hutton (1875-1962). She sold all of her collections in New York and London prior to her marriage in 1973 to James Kenneth, 2nd Viscount Weir (1905-1975). ¶ Folding pp.65-66 cracked along fold. Good, unmarked copy. Photocopy of List of estimates loosely inserted. -
Trattati di scrittura del Cinquecento italiano (Documenti sulle arti del libro; Collana diretta da Alberto Vigevani, 5)
Milan, Edizioni Il Polifilo, 1977(34 cm), 107 pp., 96 illustrations. Publisher’s printed wrappers, original slipcase. - The author analyses the contents and provides full descriptions of the books of the Italian writing masters of the 16th century. “Ristampa dell’edizione originale del 1966 Stamperia Valdonega Verona 1977”. ¶ Superior copy in new condition. -
[Stock catalogues, numbered series: 511] The Art of ornament and writing : Writing master books
Zurich, Helmut Schumann AG, [1977?](27 cm), 38 pp., 10 p. of plates (nos.I-XI). 69 items; priced. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Among the printed books are copies of Arrighi (Venice: Zoppino, 1533), Ugo da Carpi (Rome: Blado, 1530 [but c. 1545]; the Essling copy), Materot (Avignon 1608), and Verini (Toscolano: Paganino da Paganinis, [c. 1526-1527]; the Landau copy, ex-Kündig sale, Geneva, 26 June 1948, lot 250). ¶ Unmarked copy. -
The Universal penman : A survey of Western calligraphy from the Roman period to 1980 (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, July-September 1980)
London, HMSO, 1980(21 × 30 cm), (2) ix (1), 152 pp., illustrations. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - 280 catalogue entries. ¶ Very good copy. -
Scribes and sources. Handbook of the chancery hand in the sixteenth century. Texts from the writing masters, selected, introduced, and translated by A.S. Osley, with an account of Jean de Beauchesne by Berthold Wolpe
Boston, David R. Godine, 1980(25.5 cm), 291 (1) pp., 22 illustrations including frontispiece. Publisher’s red cloth, printed dust jacket. - A critical survey and translated anthology of treatises on handwriting (Fanti, Tagliente, Arrighi, Palatino, Amphiareo, Cresci, Iciar, etc.), with an account by Wolpe of John de Beauchesne (c. 1538-1620), who produced the first writing-book in England. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy. -
The Art of writing and drawing : a selection of one hundred books from the Ekström Collection in the National Library for Psychology and Education, Stockholm : a descriptive and annotated catalogue of 16th through 18th century rare and important books on calligraphy, perspective, architecture, drawing, anatomy, colours, and related arts
Stockholm, National Library for Psychology and Education / Hagelin Antikvariat, 1987(28 cm), 232 pp., illustrations. Corrigendum loosely inserted. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - 100 entries, copiously annotated. The collector, John Ekström (1858-1924) was a drawing teacher at Norra Real School in Stockholm; he presented his collection to Svenska skolmuseet, and when it closed in 1960 the collection passed to Statens pedagogiska och psykologiska bibliotek. This library was later absorbed by Stockholm University library, which donated the collection to Umeå University library in 1999. “No library or print room can afford to be without this work” (from a review by Nicolas Barker, in The Book Collector, Autumn 1988, pp.427-428). ¶ Page margins age-toned; otherwise a fine, unmarked copy. -
Early Italian writing books : Renaissance to Baroque
Verona & London, Edizioni Valdonega / British Library, 1990(22 cm), 219 pp., 21 plates & folding table. Publisher’s cloth, printed dust jacket. - The manuscript was left unfinished when Morison died in 1967, and was eventually edited and completed by Nicolas Barker owing to the persistence of Carlo Marzoli, Giovanni and Martino Mardersteig. Giovanni and Martino Mardersteig : book designers, typographers, and printers in Verona: an exhibition celebrating sixty years since the founding of the press Stamperia Valdonega 1948-2008 (New York 2008), no. 15. ¶ Excellent, unmarked copy.
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