Armenian Printing in London

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Armenian type, George Whiston, History of Armenia, John A. Lane, Mosis Khorenaci (Moses of Kohren), William Caslon, William Whiston

A recent enquiry from John A. Lane, a freelance historian of printing types, typefounding and type specimens, who has just completed a book about the history of the printed book in Armenian type, has led to an exciting discovery in the Library.

Prospectus for Mosis Khorenaci, History of Armenia (1730). Pressmark UCC/1886.2.

John was interested in a four-page book prospectus issued by William and George Whiston, sons of the natural philosopher and theologian William Whiston (1667-1752), who planned to print by subscription an Armenian and Latin edition of the history of Armenia by Mosis Khorenaci (Moses of Kohren). Khorenaci’s text is one of the earliest and most extensive primary sources for the early history of Armenia. The first printed edition (in Armenian only) was published at Amsterdam in 1695, and this second edition of the Armenian text is the first to include a Latin (or any other) translation.

The actual book – with parallel Latin and Armenian text – was published in 1736 and a copy can be found in our Spencer Collection. The prospectus itself is dated ‘March 19, 1729-30’ (30 March 1730 by the modern calendar) and John was keen to find out whether it included the new Armenian printing type that was cut for the book as that would be the earliest known use of the type. In fact, the prospectus includes two pages of parallel Armenian and Latin text, along with the boast that ‘We have already been enabled, by the kind contribution of several Gentlemen, … to defray the expence [sic] of Armenian types, which the nation did not before afford’. John pointed out that this was not strictly true, as Peter de Walpergen cut Armenian for the University Press at Oxford, but he first made only 7 letters which were used in a 1690 book. Although he does appear to have cut all of the characters before his death in 1703, nothing else is known to have been printed with Oxford’s Armenian until 1768. The prospectus does not mention that the type was cut by William Caslon (1693-1766), the first great English punchcutter. He had been cutting type for eight or ten years and his mature work had begun to appear only around 1728.

We would like to thank John for bringing the significance of this item to our attention.  We have now reported the item to ESTC (English Short Title Catalogue). The diaspora of Armenian printing 1512-2012 by John A. Lane was published by the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia on 12 June (ISBN 978-90-819264-0-9).

Julie Ramwell

Roxburghe Club Bicentenary

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Armorials, Bibliographical societies, Bindings, Enriqueta Rylands, George John 2nd Earl Spencer, Incunabula, Marquess of Blandford, Roxburghe Club, Thomas Frognall Dibdin, Valdarfer Boccaccio

June 2012 marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Roxburghe Club, the world’s oldest and most prestigious bibliophilic society. The John Rylands Library has a particular association with the Club, in that we possess the very book whose sale inspired the Club’s foundation.

On 16 June 1812 the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin and a coterie of fellow collectors and bibliophiles dined together, on the eve of the sale of the Duke of Roxburghe’s celebrated library. The Roxburghe sale is famous in the annals of book collecting, for the Duke’s copy (then thought to be unique) of the 1471 Valdarfer edition of Boccaccio’s Decameron fetched an astonishing sum: George Spencer, Marquess of Blandford (later the 5th Duke of Marlborough) paid £2,260 for it, against fierce competition from his cousin and fellow bibliomaniac, George John, 2nd Earl Spencer. This was a record price for a single book that was not exceeded until Bernard Quaritch paid £4,950 for the 1459 Mainz Psalter at the Syston Park sale in 1884.

Lord Spencer would have the last laugh, though. When financial difficulties forced Marlborough to sell his library seven years later, Spencer snapped up the Valdarfer Boccaccio for only £918. The volume passed to Enriqueta Rylands when she purchased the Spencer Collection from the 2nd Earl’s grandson in 1892. It is now one of the most important printed books in the John Rylands Library (see below).

The Roxburghe copy of Boccaccio, Decameron (Venice: Christopherus Valdarfer, 1471), ff. 120v-121r. Pressmark 17659.

Detail of the Duke of Roxburghe’s coat of arms, gilt-stamped inside the front cover of the Valdarfer Boccaccio, 1471. Pressmark 17659.

Gauffered top edge of the Valdarfer Boccaccio.

Didbin and his fellow diners decided to mark the anniversary of the Roxburghe sale with another dinner on 17 June 1813, and thus was born the Roxburghe Club, which continues to meet on or around that date every year. Membership is limited to forty, all of whom are distinguished collectors and/or experts in bibliography and book history. Each member is expected to produce a book at his or her own expense, handsomely printed and finely bound, for presentation to fellow members. The John Rylands Library holds a complete set of Roxburghe Club publications, many of the volumes being the personal copies of members.

We wish the Roxburghe Club well in its bicentenary, and we offer a toast to another two hundred years of fine books and fine dining.

To mark the bicentenary, the Valdarfer Boccaccio will feature in a “One Hour/One Object” session at the John Rylands Library on Monday 18 June, 12.00-13.00. Booking is essential; please contact our Customer Services Team on 0161 306 0555 or jrul.events@manchester.ac.uk.

Living with Uniformity: the Church of England and Dissent, 1662 to 1689

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Act of Uniformity 1662, Church of England, Conferences, Dissent, George Southcombe, Jacqueline Rose, John Rylands Library, Nonconformity

Living with Uniformity: the Church of England and Dissent, 1662 to 1689, A conference to mark the 350th anniversary of the Act of Uniformity, The John Rylands Library, 27 June 2012.

Living with Uniformity: the Church of England and Dissent, 1662 to 1689

2012 marks the 350th anniversary of the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Widely regarded as the act which both defined what it was to be a member of, or a dissenter from, the Church of England, it was of vital importance for English political, social, and cultural, as well as religious, history.  Politically, for example, during the next twenty five years, major pieces of legislation were passed which either enforced or softened the implementation of the act, and within nonconformist historiography this is often seen as ‘the age of persecution’. While there is no doubt that dissenters could be treated harshly in this period, nevertheless, as some recent research has indicated, the history of dissent was more nuanced and multi-faceted than this blanket label assumes. Moreover the terms ‘Church of England’ and ‘dissent’ are complicated by the fact that a growing body of evidence suggests that people were not simply members of one or the other, and that boundaries between ‘the Church’ and ‘dissent’ were more fluid than some older research implied.

This conference will explore the history of all Protestant nonconformist denominations in the period between 1662 and the so-called ‘Toleration Act’ of 1689, when they were given (some) relief, and their relations with the established Church. Some questions contributors might ask include: what was the relationship between ‘the Church’ and ‘dissent’; how did the different nonconformist denominations fare; and what were the social and cultural consequences of and for dissent during these years?

Keynote speakers:

• Dr Jacqueline Rose (University of St Andrews)
• Dr George Southcombe (Brasenose College, Oxford)

The full programme is available here. Registration is now open on the University of Manchester estore.

The Conference will coincide with a major exhibition at the John Rylands Library on ‘St Bartholomew’s Day 1662: the triumph of bigotry and the birth of toleration’.

Dr Peter Nockles

A Visit from the Doctors

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Academic engagement, Anatomical drawings, Andreas Vesalius, De corpore et anima, History of medicine

Earlier this week a group of fourth-year medical students from the University of Manchester interrupted their busy schedules working on wards and clinics across our city’s hospitals to squeeze in a seminar in the John Rylands Library, led by Dr Anne Kirkham and me.

Anne, who is a historian of art and visual culture, regularly assists with the supervision of student projects on the history of medicine and asks us to host collection-based seminars of this kind because they form a valuable part of the students’ research experience. The session this week was no exception as we examined a number of books and manuscripts, dating from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, on a range of medical topics including pharmacy, anatomy, surgery, blood letting, insanity and sexually transmitted disease. We had particularly lively discussions about the importance of images in the diagnostic process and the transmission of medical knowledge. We also explored how medical texts books have historically been shaped by the traditions of artistic conventions especially within the context of the dazzling illustrations in Andreas Vesalius’ On the Structure of the Human Body from the sixteenth century (one of which is shown below).

Bowled over by the materials they saw in the seminar, the students all vowed to return to use the collections in their research for their projects.

Stella Halkyard

Anatomical drawing from De corpore et anima medical manuscript, 1497, Latin MS 500. The manuscript has recently returned from the ‘Images of the Mind’ exhibition in Dresden and Brno.

Humani corporis ossium ex latere delineatio, from Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem, 3rd edition (Basel: Joannes Oporinus, 1555), p. 204. Parkinson Collection, 2500.