Stephanie Stillo, the new Rosenwald curator, will be our host and she will make some remarks about the books. Each page of these books is printed from a wood block on one side of the paper. There are 11 of these books in the collection, at least one of which is hand colored.

Chapter member Chris Manson, who is arranging the visit for us, has provided this introduction to block-books:

A block-book is a book whose pages (whether text only, or text combined with pictures) are printed entirely from wood blocks, the text being cut on the block and not printed separately from moveable type. Many of the earliest European woodcuts from the first half of the 15th century incorporated words as well as pictures cut in the same block, and the block-book may reasonably be seen as a logical extension and elaboration of this practice, resulting in illustrative images being cut in series with more substantial accompanying text, the whole published as a book.

Block-Books have been proposed as an intermediary stage in the development of printed books but, while single-leaf woodcuts began appearing around the year 1400, most, if not all, surviving block-books are dated from the middle of the century, contemporaneous with the invention of printing from moveable type. The blockbook, therefore, may represent a parallel development in book-printing, rather than a precursor, though this assertion is controversial, with some scholars dating some examples of block-books to the 1430’s. Block-books were not as highly valued as manuscripts or books printed from moveable type, and the greater number of them have perished, making accurate dating of the survivors problematic.

To further confuse the distinctions, there are books with block-book images combined with manuscript text, and with text printed from metal types, and one example we will Chesapeake Chapter, American Printing History Association March 2017 see at the Library of Congress has pages of text printed from both wood blocks and metal types.

The block-book may perhaps have a place as the earliest iteration of the ™graphic novel∫ and the books we will see (the Library of Congress has eleven of these rarities) are stunning displays of graphic art showing surprisingly sophisticated composition and draftsmanship, some being hand-colored as well.

There is a 2nd story about visiting the Rare Book Reading Room later the same day. Click here for the story.

The following 20 or so photos are the books we had on display at our meeting along with a close-up of the text and an image.

Below are photo of those in attendance along with a few from the talk.

You have to get down sometimes to really see the bindings.

Chris Manson who set up the meeting and Stephanie Stillo, the new Rosenwald curator, who delivered the lecture.

Yep it was the color of the day.

Stephanie Stillo curator during the talk.

An image from the talk showing a page with raking light to show the “impact” of printing on the paper.

There must have been something going on next door.

After the talk and lunch 4 of us headed back to the Rare Book Reading Room for a serious bit of history. Click here to see that story. 

Photos by Ray Nichols & Jill Cypher