Course Description

(Formerly numbered 261.) Lecture, four hours. The book as a physical object and its relationship to transmission of the text. History and methods of analytical bibliography, with particular emphasis on handpress books. Printing processes as related to bibliography and librarianship. Discussions, demonstrations, and experiments in design, composition, and presswork. Letter grading.

The goal of this course is to prepare students for such positions.

Hence, the purpose of this course is:

1) to introduce students to the forensic principles of analytical (i.e., descriptive or critical) bibliography; and

2) to provide them with several pedagogical opportunities to describe analytically as well as classify the various components of printed codex books between 1454 (October) and 1900 (approximately).

Relationship to other courses:

This course is not in the librarianly tradition of cataloging (see DIS 461) or rare books cataloging (see, for example, http://www.loc.gov/cds/catman.html#dcormb), rather it follows in the Anglo-American tradition of bibliography (of McKerrow, Gaskell, Bowers, and Tanselle). Students who have successfully completed DIS 289 (History of the Book or History of the Printed Book in Europe, more especially) will benefit.

Teaching Method:

To prepare students for such work environments, I will use a combination of methods:

• Lectures--The instructor will present a brief history of each component of the codex, introduce specialized technical vocabulary, and the detailed procedures for describing these components.
• Laboratory-Seminar Presentations--In advance of the lab-seminar sessions, each student will prepare an outline based on the assigned readings and lead the discussion. Seminar leaders may wish to schedule class meetings in Special Collections and/or identify exemplars along with handouts and/or special bibliographies.
• Readings--In order to increase their formal knowledge of the field, students are encouraged to read and take notes on at least three titles from each unit in addition to the required texts.
• Mid-term and Final Examination--Two quizzes will examine your understanding of the various techniques in analytical bibliography.
• Special Problems--From time to time, special problem books (or portions thereof) may be assigned and/or discussed in the lab-seminar sessions.
  

Grading

Much of your grade will be based on the increase in demonstrated knowledge from a specific baseline, i.e., the first book.

• 45%--Based on your seminar presentation
• 50%--Based on your mid-term examination and your final examination (i.e., 25% each).
• 05%--Based on significant participation in the class discussions during the term.

Grades will be reported to the UCLA Registrar using My UCLA; students may check their grades in progress.

Course Schedule

Some Quotes to Consider about Analytical Bibliography

"has nothing to with the subject matter of books, but only with their formal aspect."

--W.W. Greg

"beyond the surface level of simple enumerative bibliography."

--Roy Stokes

"Bibliography falls into two distinct and well recognized classes:

the enumeration and classification of books and

the comparative and historical study of their make-up."

--Bestermann

Library Abbreviations

Call numbers have been provided for nearly every title on the syllabus. The only exception are last minute additions. For those titles that possess call numbers, the following abbreviations mean:

• ART Art Library, UCLA (including Belt Collection) now part of YRL or SRLF
• BioM Biomedical Library, UCLA
• CHEM Chemistry Library, UCLA
• Clark William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
• College College Library, Powell Library Building
• DIS DIS Laboratory Collection
• Manage Anderson Graduate School of Management
• SC Special Collections Department, YRL
• NIC Not in Collection (noted for your future edification)

Professional Tools for the Analytical Bibliographer

To describe successfully the books that they encounter, students of analytical bibliography will find it necessary to own some professional tools. The requisite minimum are listed under "basic"; however, students may wish to investigate adding to their tool box the additional items under "intermediate" or "advanced". The final category requires institutional support; however, any strong Department of Special Collections should have access to these tools. All quoted prices are approximate.

Basic :

• 1. Transparent hairline, fine-line millimeter ruler, or optician's steel/brass rule ($1-5). Available in Special Collections/Clark Library
• 2. Magnifying glass; preferably 6-10 X type loupe or type finder ($15.00 student model; $65 professional version).

Intermediate :

• 3. Millimeter micrometer ($15.00 student model; $35 professional model). Available in Special Collections/Clark Library
• 4. Vernier calipers ($20.00 student model; $110 professional model).
• 5. Pocket microscope; preferably 20-60X ($10 student model; $130 for professional model).
• 6. Fiber Optic Illuminator, Variable Intensity (Low, medium, and high). (Model 190, Dolan-Jenner Industries Inc.). Available in Clark Library

Advanced :

• 7. Long-wave (320-380 NM) ultra-violet box, also known as UV, or blacklight or Wood's light ($180) Available in Special Collections/Clark Library (purchase: GIA, 1660 Stewart Street, Santa Monica). AVOID short-wave (180-280nm) blacklight--germicidal. In any event, avoid prolonged use (15-20 minutes) or if under any medication, notably antibiotics, which increase skin sensitivity. In prolonged use, special goggles are required.
• 8. Ph strips/measuring kit ($10.00) Available in Clark Library
• 9. Macro-photography equipment.
• 10. Cycloptic microscope; preferably 7-25X, with stand and microphotography equipment attachment ($500.00).
• 11. Infra-red lamp and/or IR photographic equipment ($1000).

Institutional support :

• 12. Hinman collator ($5000); available, Clark Library only.
• 13. (Randall) McLeod Portable Collator; (mcleod@credit.erin.utoronto.ca)
• 14. Spectrophotometric equipment.
• 15. Scanning Auger Microscopy Dating (SAMD); Rod McNeil, Environmental Technologies.
• 16. X-ray inspection (electron radiography, nuclear activation analysis; proton-induced x-ray emission, PIXE; or cyclotron).

Additional information on this subject may be obtained by reading Paul Koda's "Scientific Equipment for the Examination of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Documents," Library Trends 36 (Summer 1987): 39-52.

Besides ASUCLA, potential sources for some of the above include Harbour Freight Salvage (1-800-423-2567); Edmund Scientific Company, 101 E. Gloucester Pike, Barrington, NJ 08007; and Service Engravers, 7 West 22nd Street, NYC 10010.

Required and Recommended Textbooks

G. Thomas Tanselle, Bibliographical Analysis: A Historical Introduction. Sandars Lectures series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 (only recommended due to high price for a pamphlet).

Fredson Bowers, Principles of Bibliographical Description. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949; reprint ed., New York: Russell & Russell, 1962; reprint ed., Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1986; Winchester, England: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1986; New Castle, Del. : Oak Knoll Press, 1994 with Introduction by G. Thomas Tanselle. (required text) YRL Z1001 .B67p 1986 and Clark Library Reference Z1001.B78p 1994 (Cat. Office)

Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography. New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd corrected impression, 1974 or later. (recommended text) Clark/BioM/YRL Ref. Z 116 A2G18 1974; Especially pages 311-360.

Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, Printing on the iron Handpress. Foreword by Harry Duncan. (Newcastle, DE: Oak Knoll Press/British Library, 1998). (recommended text)

Some Interesting and Useful Links

• Bibliographical Society of America (be sure to note their "Bibliography on the Web" link)
• Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at the University of Wisconsin
• Introduction to Bibliography: Seminar Syllabus (Columbia/Virginia Rare Book School, 2002)
• International Antiquarian Book Fair, Los Angeles
• Rare Books and Manscripts Section, ALA

Otherwise, the major e-discussion groups are:

BIBSOCCAN : http://www.library.utoronto.ca/bsc/
Book_Arts-L :http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/bookarts/
SHARP-L : http://www.sharpweb.org/sharp-l.html

Return to Dr. John V. Richardson's HomePage; last revision, 10 March 2010.