Thomas Bewick, “Cameleopard” block from A General History of Quadrupeds, eighth edition, 1824. (Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)

Friday, October 26. “Imperfect Iterations: Duplicate Iconography in Wood Engraving Blocks,” Todd Samuelson ✧ “Postage Stamps on Handmade Paper: An Early Collaboration of Function & Necessity,” Robert Cagna   ✧ “Resisting Paradise: The Craftsman Press Archive,” Sonia Farmer 

[Read more]

Registration has opened for the sixteenth annual Book History Workshop at Texas A&M University, scheduled for 21-26 May 2017. Taking place at Cushing Memorial Library & Archives, the Workshop provides an intensive, hands-on introduction to the history of books and printing.  [Read more]

Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia Libris Tres

1:15-2:45 pm  saturday, october 8

Michaela Rae Ryerson Baca: Blood Book: The Magic of Henry Cornelius Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia libris tres  ♦  Todd Samuelson: The Alchemy of Erasure: Book Waste as Evidence ♦ Laura Forsberg: Magic & the Miniature Book

Michaela Rae Ryerson Baca, presented findings on her examination of marginalia in a copy of Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia Libris Tres (Occult Philosophy in Three Books), believed to have been published with all three texts combined for the first time in 1533. These texts covered the elemental world, physical and celestial objects, mathematics, and the religious and divine.  [Read more]

Conference speaker Todd Samuelson uses the pantograph to trace a pattern, at right, this defines the path of the router bit over the wood block, at left. (Ray Nichols)

Geri McCormick & Matt Rieck: “Making Wood Type Today: Using the Same Methods from Yesteryear”

9 am-noon thursday, october 22

Geri McCormick & Matt Rieck hosted a hands-on morning making wood type at Virgin Wood Type. The garage-sized workspace for the beginning stages of the production process was packed with boxes of wood ready for surfacing with shellac, shellaced-wood ready for cutting, and boxes of patterns.  [Read more]