After the Fact

Hindsight is always 20/20 and that applies to prophecy as well. It's funny how a prophecy "never accurately printed before" 1685 manages to capture the the entirety of an event that happened in 1530. So it is with the complete story of Cardinal Wolsey and his ill-fated and never completed trip to York which appears in our copy of Mother Shipton's Prophesie: with Three and XX more, all most Terrible and Wonderful, Predicting strange Alterations to befall this Climate of England (London: printed for W. Thackeray, at the sign of the Angel in Duck-Lane, neer West-smithfield, [1685]). The title page depicts the event, with Mother Shipton, in all of her ugliness, featured prominently in the center.

The editor or, more likely, author of our copy has helpfully provided historical notes and explanations of many of Mother Shipton's utterances, including anecdotes relating to King James, an anonymous Lord Mayor, and battles between Scotland and England. We're also provided potential confirmation of another prophecy with the note that "There is a Child not many years since born at Pomfret, with three thumbs."

In addition to Mother Shipton's words of warning, the book also includes an additional twenty-three foreshadowings of the past and future. We are treated to "A Prediction of Richard the Third" as well as several entries that could be read as lightly veiled political opinions on the succession of James II after the death of Charles II in 1685.

Ask for Rare Book BF 1777 .M66 1685 to read the "prophesies" yourself.

Item as deScribed: Medieval and Modern Illuminations

A new exhibit that showcases selections from Rauner's medieval manuscripts collection is available for viewing at Rauner Special Collections Library from August 5th through August 31st. “Item as deScribed” is an artistic exploration of medieval illuminations by Ben Patrick, chair of the Visual and Performing Arts programs at Vermont Commons School in South Burlington, Vermont. Ben graduated from Saint Michael's College in 1998 with a BA in Fine Arts and from Pratt Institute in 2004 with an MS in Art Education of Art and Design. He has been the Artist in Residence at Vermont Commons School since 2004, where he designed the Visual Arts Program, which unites media, concept, and studio application.

The inspiration for this exhibition originated from a field trip to Rauner Special Collection Library with a group of seventeen VCS art students. The concept for the exhibition involves language, media, and iconography, as well as the parallels and differences involving medieval and contemporary lexicons. In the process of examining these relationships, Ben has experimented with a wide range of materials: calfskin vellum in multiple ink jet printers and heat presses; lapis lazuli in petroleum distillates; and 24k gold (carefully painted on the halo of the Virgin Mary). Ultimately, these investigations seek to demonstrate that our illuminated text and icons, and our need to communicate with them, have not altered significantly over the last thousand years.

The exhibition is divided into three parts, each juxtaposing old and new media (and materials). It is the artist’s hope that this exhibit will shed light upon the timeless currency of ‘language’ in all of its processes, materials and meanings. Like the students and artists at Vermont Commons School, to whom this exhibition is dedicated, Ben also hopes that this current show will “inspire in others the restless, curious, always questioning tides of the creative process.” We hope that you'll have an opportunity to come by and examine Ben's inspiring artwork alongside equally enthralling illuminations from our medieval manuscripts some time this month. Once the exhibit comes down, the manuscripts can be requested at Rauner using the following call numbers: Codex 002253; MS 002088; MS 002254; Codex 001965; Codex 001598; and Codex 001918.

Surrealists Inspired by Lautréamont

Isidore-Lucien Ducasse (1846-1870) was a Uruguayan-born French poet who, under the pseudonym Comte de Lautréamont, published Les Chants de Maldoror in 1869. Although he died as a relatively unknown writer, his works resurfaced and became a crucial inspiration for the burgeoning surrealist movement in the early twentieth century. It was while reading Les Chants de Maldoror that French surrealist André Breton discovered the singular phrase that became foundational to the surrealist doctrine of objective chance: "as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table."

This metaphor captures one of the most important principles of surrealist aesthetic: the enforced juxtaposition of two completely alien realities that challenges an observer's preconditioned perception of reality. German surrealist Max Ernst would also refer to Lautréamont's sewing machine and umbrella to define the structure of the surrealist painting as "a linking of two realities that by all appearances have nothing to link them, in a setting that by all appearances does not fit them."

Lautréamont’s prose poem is comprised of six cantos that recount the epic of the anti-hero Maldoror who seeks to combat the forces of God and humanity. The work is full of sadistic, cynical passages that work in conjunction with ironic references to classical authors such as Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare. Surrealists identified themselves with Lautréamont’s use of black humor and celebrated the ways in which he defied convention, ridiculed values and standards, and challenged the construct of absolute reason.

Belgian surrealist René Magritte drew a series of full-page illustrations and vignettes in a caricatural style for a 1948 edition of Les Chants de Maldoror that can be found here at Rauner. To read the famous passage from Les chants de Maldoror that inspired André Breton to represent surrealism as “the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table,” ask for Ilus M276d and turn to page 166.

Colonial Edition

And another thing... the book inside that box with noxious chemicals. The reason we took a look in the box in the first place is because the book within is a "colonial edition" put out by George Bell and Sons. Colonial editions were a ploy used by British publishers to protect their market share in the colonies by offering current literature at cheaper prices.

This book is part of Bell's "Indian and Colonial Library" of books "issued for circulation in India and the Colonies only." We have another colonial edition of another Crane novel, Active Services (London: William Heinemann, 1900), that states more boldly "Issues for sale in the British Colonies and India, and not to be imported into Europe or the United States of America." The result was to stunt local production and maintain British publishing dominance.

Ask for Crane PS1449.C85 L34 1902.

Book Protectors, Inc.

We found a new one this week. Our copy of the "Colonial Edition" of Stephen Crane's Last Words (London and Bombay: George Bell and Sons, 1902) is housed in a Masonite box painted yellow with a faux spine tricked out in red leather. The box alone is an oddity, with a sliding top to allow access to the book inside. Then we saw what was inside the box other than the book...

Two strips of white tape manufactured by "Book Protectors, Inc. Lake Helen, Florida." The strips each have three dots over small circular wells. The instructions for one say "Pierce Dots to make Anti-Mildew wells operative," the other says "Pierce Dots to make Insecticide wells operative."

Oooh, who knows what nasty chemicals reside under the (thankfully) non-pierced dots? Of course, if ever you needed protection from mildew and insects, it would be in Florida. We recommend washing your hands after using this one. Ask for Crane PS1449.C85 L34 1902.

Bloomsbury Trifecta

We have written about the aura of the Hogarth edition of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, but our recent acquisition of the first book Leonard and Virginia Woolf produced at Hogarth Press is positively spine tingling. Two Stories (Richmond: Hogarth Press, 1917) is a simple 32-page, pamphlet-style book. The wrapper appears to be a blue woven wallpaper (but we can't tell for sure) loosely sewn on to protect the text block and add a bit of decorative appeal. The book has the feel of two people trying to figure out how to wed their new-found book aesthetic with their literary style.

It offers a perfect entry point into the Bloomsbury group: our copy belonged to Virginia's sister, the artist Vanessa Bell; the woodcuts are by another Bloomsbury artist, Dora Carrington; and, of course, its authors are key figures in the group. Two Stories also reflects their struggle for artistic independence as Hogarth was founded in part to free Virginia and Leonard from the conservative tastes of the literary publishing establishment. It gave them complete control--they could even bind in wallpaper if they saw fit.

To see this unique window into an artistic flowering, ask for Rare PR1309.S5W6 1917.

Kauffer Illustrates T.S. Eliot's Ariel Poems

Between 1927 and 1931, the publishing firm Faber and Gwyer issued a series of illustrated poems called the Ariel Poems, named after Shakespeare’s sprite. Several prominent English writers contributed to the series including T.S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, G. K. Chesterton, D. H. Lawrence, Siegfried Sassoon, Vita Sackville-West, and Edith Sitwell. Each pamphlet had more or less the same simple format: a black and white artist print on the cover and a colored print inside followed by a poem.

What is most striking about these deceptively simple pamphlets is the role the illustrations play to complement and vastly enrich the poetry. Edward McKnight Kauffer, one of England’s most prolific and influential advertising poster artists during the 1920s and 30s, illustrated five of the poems T.S. Eliot wrote for the Ariel series. These poems were “The Journey of the Magi” (1927), “A Song for Simeon” (1928), “Marina” (1930), “Triumphal March” (1931), and later when the series was revived in the 1950s, “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees” (1954).

Kauffer was renowned for his avant-garde graphic design and poster art for companies such as London Underground Railways (1915–40), Shell UK Ltd., the Daily Herald and British Petroleum (1934–6). His work incorporated techniques and aesthetics from numerous modernist movements including cubism, futurism, and surrealism. These influences are evident in his illustrations for T.S. Eliot’s Ariel Poems with their whimsical play with geometric form and abstraction.

To see Kauffer’s illustrations of T.S. Eliot’s poems, ask for Val 817 E42 X3, Val 817 E42 W7, Val 817 E42 S2, Val 817 E42 P451, and Rare Book PS 3509.L43 M3 1930.