Recent research on fifteenth-century Venetian roman types has docu mented the punchcutters’ ability to imitate existing types so closely that it can be very hard to distinguish them from their original models. This talk will introduce three examples of close imitations taken from Venetian incunabula and discuss the procedures that the punchcutters likely adopted. It will also briefly introduce later examples of close imitations, from Sanlecque imitating Garamond in sixteenth-century Paris to the famous Caslon imitations produced by the Fry foundry in London in the late eighteenth century.
Events
Tuesday, December 17, 2019 - 17:30
Location:
Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 17:30
This talk will present an overview of the Waddesdon collection of printed books, manuscripts and bookbindings, including its highlights alongside its lesser known ‘working library’. It will discuss the formation of the collection, its display within the Manor and its subsequent growth, and it will also look at some more recent acquisitions.
Before the lecture the Society’s Gold Medal will be presented to Professor James P. Carley.
Location:
Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE
Tuesday, March 17, 2020 - 17:30
Presidential Address
Despite their essentially ephemeral nature, catalogues of books for sale have played an important role in the history of bibliography, and it may be useful to look afresh at the influence commerce and scholarship exercised on each other, largely down to the end of the eighteenth century, through our modern lens of the archaeology of the book.
Location:
Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 17:30
Graham Pollard Memorial Lecture
Medieval paper makers produced paper in four distinct sizes. Paul Needham has identified several variants used by fifteenth-century printers and another variant introduced by Aldus Manutius for his octavo classics. These paper sizes, new and old, continued in use in the sixteenth century.
Location:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 - 17:30
Homee and Phiroze Randeria Lecture
In the first half of the twentieth century, a group of designers in France, initially encouraged by an enlightened patron and book collector, started to produce wonderfully varied, and often amazingly beautiful designs for bindings, applying to books and bindings the philosophy and artistic skills that had inspired their drawings, engravings or etchings, as well as their designs for furniture and ceramics. They chose the best forwarders and finishers to carry out their designs, producing the most stunning results. Their work was mostly, but not entirely, intended for discerning collectors. This talk will concentrate on this group of designers who worked mainly in Paris until c. 1960.
Location:
