Rare Book School 1997

Books at Virginia: Rare Book School 1997 (RBS): Rare Book School is
pleased to announce its schedule of courses for the summer of 1997,
24 five-day non-credit courses of bookish interest held in
Charlottesville, VA. The brochure and related documents are
available at our Web site:
<URL:http://poe.acc.virginia.edu/~oldbooks/rbs97/>

Subscribers to this list may be particularly interested in three of
the courses being offered (at the end of each description is the
name of the instructor and a list of the previous years during which
the course was offered at RBS):

Week One: Monday 14 July - Friday 18 July

14. Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910. The study of publishers'
bookbindings, chiefly in the US, but with frequent reference to
England, and occasional reference to Continental developments.
Topics: the rise of the edition binder; design styles and how they
developed; new techniques, machines, and materials introduced in the
c19; the identification of rarities; the physical description of
bindings; the preservation of publishers' bindings. The course will
make extensive use of the Book Arts Press's notable collection of
c19 and early c20 binding exemplars. Instructor: Sue Allen: 84-85
91-96.

Sue Allen is recognized as the foremost authority on
19th-century American book covers. Her research, lectures,
writings, and exhibitions guide librarians and conservators in
the selective preservation of English and American bindings of
the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Week Three: Monday 28 July - Friday 1 August

31. Introduction to Medieval and Early Renaissance Bookbinding
Structures. An explanation of the diversities of European
bookbinding structures, up to and including the early period of more
generalized practice and divisions of labor. Topics include:
identification (where possible) of the main types of binding
structures; their dating and provenance; the recognition and
recording of materials and techniques. Instructor: Christopher
Clarkson.

Christopher Clarkson directs the Book and Manuscript Conservation
Workshops and their related internship program at West Dean College,
Sussex. Formerly Conservation Officer at the Bodleian Library,
Oxford University, he also helped develop rare book conservation
programs at the Library of Congress. An internationally renowned
consultant on the care of medieval manuscripts and bindings, he has
taught courses in RBS since 1983.

Week Four: Monday 4 August - Friday 8 August

42. European Bookbinding, 1500-1800. How bookbinding in the post-
medieval period developed to meet the demands placed on it by the
growth of printing: techniques and materials employed to meet these
demands; the development of temporary bindings (for example,
pamphlets and publishers' bindings); the emergence of structures
usually associated with volume production in the c19; the dating of
undecorated bindings; the identification of national and local
binding styles. Instructor: Nicholas Pickwoad: 87 [three times]
88-93 95 [twice each year] 94 96.

Nicholas Pickwoad is a book conservator in private practice. From
1992 to 1995, he was Conservator at the Harvard University Library,
before which he was Advisor to the [English] National Trust for
Conservation. This will be the 17th time he has taught his
celebrated course at RBS.

Books at Virginia: Rare Book School (RBS) offers a collection of
five-day, non-credit courses on topics concerning rare books,
manuscripts, and special collections. Students make a full-time
commitment to any course they attend, from 8:30 am to 5 pm, Monday-
Friday; most students also attend an informal dinner on the Sunday
evening before their first class on Monday. In addition to the
formal classes, there are early-evening public lectures and other
events throughout the four weeks of RBS.

The educational and professional pre-requisites for RBS courses
vary. Some courses are primarily directed toward research librarians
and archivists. Others are intended for academics, persons working
in the antiquarian book trade, bookbinders and conservators,
students of the history of books and printing, and others with an
interest in the subjects being treated.

The tuition for each five-day course is $595. Low-cost,
air-conditioned dormitory housing will be offered on the historic
central grounds of the University, and nearby hotel accommodation is
readily available. Students are encouraged to take advantage of
RBS's housing to arrive a few days before their course, or stay a
few days later, in order to give themselves (and their families) a
better chance to explore the Charlottesville area, which includes
many sites of historic interest as well as various vacation
attractions.

For further information about any aspect of RBS
write:
    Rare Book School
    114 Alderman Library
    University of Virginia
    Charlottesville, VA 22903-2498
    804-924-8851
    fax: 804-924-8824
    biblio<-a t->virginia< . >edu
    <URL:http://poe.acc.virginia.edu/~oldbooks/>

Prospective students for RBS courses are invited to consult the
widely-distributed annual RBS Yearbooks, in which students'
exhaustive evaluations of all RBS courses offered since 1989 have
been published in their entirety. RBS was not held in 1992. Copies
of the 1990 and 1993-1995 RBS Yearbooks are in print and available
postpaid for $10 (1990 and 1993) or $15 (1994 and 1995). The 1996
RBS Yearbook is in the press, and will be available in late April
for $15. Copies of the 1989 and 1991 Yearbooks are out of print.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:79
                  Distributed: Tuesday, March 11, 1997
                       Message Id: cdl-10-79-022
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