I’ve always wished I could have majored in Rare Books in college, and now, finally, I can. Today I received notification that the 2008 course descriptions and dates for the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia are available. Where else can a bookseller or collector go to learn historical and bibliographic information about rare books and how they were made? Aside from the Colorado Antiquarian Book Market Seminar, not many other places in this country give newcomers the opportunity to learn from the experts. If you can, try a course this year. If you can’t take a course this year, read over the descriptions and allow yourself to dream about what’s possible in the world of rare books. Rare Book School does offer scholarships to help with expenses. I plan to attend myself in either 2008 or 2009. Here’s a bulletin that lists all of the new courses along with all of the relevant links and information. Click on the course titles to read their full descriptions.
Rare Book School FRESHEST ADVICES November 2007
RBS 2008 COURSE SCHEDULE
The schedule for most of the courses to be offered in 2008 has been posted on our website: see Current Schedule. Six new RBS courses will be offered in 2008:
BIBLIOGRAPHERS’ TOOLKIT COURSES (G-20 and G-30)
Bibliographers’ Toolkit: Printed Books to 1800, taught by David Whitesell (American Antiquarian Society) will run 21-25 July; its mate, Bibliographers’ Toolkit: Printed Books since 1800, co-taught by Tom Congalton (Between the Covers) and Katherine Reagan (Cornell) will run 9-13 June. This pair of new courses is intended for those seeking a better understanding of how to recognize, evaluate and describe the physical aspects of printed materials.
DESIGNING ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION SYSTEMS (L-90)
This new course, taught by Daniel Pitti (UVa), will explore in detail markup and database technologies, efforts underway to integrate the two technologies, and the opportunity provided by this integration for transforming archival description.
INTRODUCTION TO ARCHIVES FOR RARE BOOK LIBRARIANS (L-60)
Co-taught by Jackie Dooley (UC Irvine) and Bill Landis (Yale), this course is intended for those whose education and experience are principally rare book-oriented who now find themselves working with archival materials or managing the work of archivists.
THE ART OF THE BOOK IN EDO AND MEIJI JAPAN, 1615-1912 (I-90)
The illustrated woodblock printed books produced in Japan in the Edo and Meiji periods represent a remarkable achievement in terms of their technical perfection, broad range of styles and subject matter, and their beauty; no comparable sustained tradition of artistically significant printed illustrated books existed in China or the West. Taught by Ellis Tinios (University of Leeds) as a complement to his
existing RBS course: Japanese Illustrated Books, 1615-1858 (I-85).
We expect that a sixth new course will be offered at Princeton in October on the history of children’s books, co-taught by Andrea Immel (Princeton) and Justin G. Schiller (Justin G. Schiller Ltd); further details shortly.
A seventh new course, Introduction to the History, Collection, Description, and Use of Maps (H-65), taught by Alice Hudson (NYPL), will debut in RBS 2009.
See you in Charlottesville, Virginia at Rare Book School!
Thank you Chris for this info. Not that I can attend, because I would love to attend. But right now poor health, lack of money and other events prevent me from attending. However the list of books for reading is VERY helpful. I shall attempt to purchase some of these books.
Historia
Thanks for posting this information about Rare Book School. Don’t forget that RBS has an active program providing full-tuition scholarships to applicants to the school. The Scholarship Committee favors applications from relative beginners in the various professions the school serves: notably academics interested in the history of books and printing and related subjects, antiquarian booksellers, conservators and binders, rare book librarians and curators — and those training to become one of the above. For a list of this year’s scholarship winners, see http://www.rarebookschool.org/scholarship/winners/
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