Meetup at the Swann Gallery with the New York Library Club, April 6, 6:00 p.m. with the New York Library Club.

Meetup at the Swann Gallery with the New York Library Club, April 6, 6:00 p.m. with the New York Library Club.

Introduction

On April 6, 2011 the New York Librarians and the New York Library Club had a special preview of rare books that were being auctioned by the Swann Gallery. The books being auctioned were beautiful to look at. Swann Gallery gave a copy of the auction catalog, April 7, 2011. Auction 2242 was finalized on April 10, 2011. http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/searchresults.asp?sale_no=2242&st=D

Before the description of the items to be auctioned started, I had a brief chance to look at some of the books. They were quite beautiful. Many of them had fine bindings; moroccan leather, pigskin, sharkskin, gold leaf, and silver clasps were prevalent.

The event itself was excellent. It had a different crowd because it combined both the New York Librarians Meetup and the New York Library Club. Larry Kroah, President of the New York Library Club introduced George Lowry the Chairman of the Board for the Swann Galleries.

History of the Swann Gallery
George Lowry started by giving some history on the Swann Galleries. The Swann Galleries was started by Benjamin Swann a book dealer who came across a very large collection of rare books. As a result of his find, he started an auction house. The auction house has since grown to include prints, Americana, African American books, and a variety of material which is on paper.

This particular events was in preparation for the Antiquarian book fair at the Park Avenue Armory on April 8-10, 2011 http://www.sanfordsmith.com/default.aspx?pageId=6  . George Lowry reminded us that a variety of people collect books. Many people start collecting as part of their profession or travels. He also told us that much of the bidding for books is done over the phone and the internet, not just in person.

He also told us that they used a variety of sources to put together a show including Worldcat, the ABAA-- Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, and other sources. It took four months of preparation to craft this sale.

Books From the Swann Gallery

Presentation of Antiquarian Books

Christine von der Linn commented on some of the books that were being auctioned. She had a large lcd screen which she displayed the items on in addition to the books themselves which were on a table at the front of the room. She started by presenting incunabula, books that were printed before 1501.

Incunabula

 The first book she showed was #99 http://bit.ly/i2nhjL L Orosius Paulus, Hiistoriae Adversus Paganos. It is the first universal history by a christian author. The next book was Satyrae by Filelfo. It was a popular novel by an Italian Author. The authors was satirizing the Medici. She reminded us that most books of the time were religious in nature. #39 http://bit.ly/hIpDdB  I enjoyed looking at item #1, Astrolabium by Angelus Johannes. The book was in full colored woodcuts. It reminded me a little bit of Lynd Wards woodcut novels. It was a book about astrology, #1 http://bit.ly/eCCqeb

Fine Antiquarian Books

This was followed by two illustrated liturgical manuscripts. An illustrated liturgical manuscript in Dutch, #51 http://bit.ly/gmW1Bq  , and an illustrated liturgical manuscript in Latin #52, http://bit.ly/gqkmzn  Christine von der Linn told that most books of the time were religious in nature.

Prieres et Oraisons Devotes by Jarry Nicholas was interesting because it is a very small book with silver clasps.  It looks like a book for a lady. Jarry Nicholas was the premiere calligrapher of his time. #55, http://bit.ly/hF93uN

I found #59, http://bit.ly/h1fud7  Syr Ymbrace to be fascinating. It was printed by the Kelmscott Press which was the press which William Morris ran. William Morris is known as a founding member of the Arts and Crafts Movement. What many people also do not know is that he is considered to have written the first modern fantasy novel, The Hollow Land.

Lot #57, JUSTINUS, MARCUS JUNIANUS. Warhafftige Hystorien . . . auss Trogo Pompeio gezoge[n]. German translation by Hieronymus Boner was a bit different. The book is a compilation of three different historical works commissioned to be printed as a single volume. http://bit.ly/hIUVDd

The illustartions by Walter Crane in #17, http://bit.ly/hLjGGI  Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene, a Poem in Six Books with the Fragment Mutabilitie. 6 volumes bound in 3 were ornate and wonderful to look at. Walter Crane is known for his early children's book illustration. He also had a strong influence on fantasy illustration. There were several books being auctioned in the catalog by Edmund Dulac who is known for his illustrations of the Arabian Nights.

The next book that was shown was The Tarih-I Hindi Garbi (Description of the India of the West) by Francisco Lopez De Gomara. This was the book on America printed in the muslim world. It had a curious quality to the pictures. The book was printed in Constantinople which is interesting in itself. http://bit.ly/hoXT5Y


The next book, #56, http://bit.ly/fjcjN6  which was shown was a first edition of James Joyce, Ulysses, #128 of 150 copies. This was a very controversial book at the time. It is considered one of the greatest novels in english. Christine Von Der Linn said it was the finest novel ever written.


The final book which she showed us was a limited edition of The Four Gospels printed by the Golden Cockerell Press inscribed by Gill to Leonard Wolf, #46, http://bit.ly/hyO6Pl

Reception and Viewing

                                  Before the Presentation Started
Afterwards there was a reception with wine, cheese, and crackers where people could talk and relax. They also gave us a chance to look at the books under the direction of Mr. Tobias Abeloff who handles incunablia and early books.

I had a chance to see some of the other books in the catalog including #112 http://bit.ly/fuBEJB  A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Arthur Rackham is considered to be one of the great illustrators of fantasy and childrens books.  It was wonderful to turn the pages and look at the illustrations.


This was a tremendous collection of books to see in one place. I did not get a chance to look at the Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling books. I did get to look at #61, http://bit.ly/gvwlD9  Jean De La Fontaine, De Contes et Nouvelles en Vers though.

This was very much a showing for people who loved books.

George Lowry let us know that there was a newsletter and some postcards if we wanted to take them. On the way out, I had brief conversation with Caroline Birnbaum, the Communications Specialist for Swann Galleries about the different auction houses in Manhattan and found out a bit about the magazine, International Auctioneers. He also said that the galleries are open to the public and librarians are welcome.


We also had some time beforehand to mingle a bit with other librarians. There was an interesting crowd of librarians. Afterwards we had a breakout session with the New York Librarians Meetup and talked about the Librarians Yellow Pages, book apps, ebooks, and old books. It was a very nice evening. Stephanie Gross Vice President of the New York Library Club and Organizer for the New York Librarians meetup took numerous pictures of people at the event.

It was very nice seeing Barbara Genco who works with Library Journal as well as meeting Larry Kroah, President of the New York Library Club.

The Swann Galleries is on 104 East 25th Street in Manhattan.  We met on the sixth floor.

New York Library Club's 2011 Winter Event: "Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam"

Over the millennia, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have each created a rich body of founding and interpretive texts that serve as underpinnings for their respective faiths--each of which derives from the teachings of Abraham, an “itinerant herdsman” from the Middle East. On Tuesday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m., the New York Library Club was invited to marvel at some of these magnificent texts, in an exhibit called "Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam" at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The tour was guided by an expert docent.

"Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam" is a stunning exhibition which displays the majestic beauty of rare and precious works from the three great Abrahamic religions. The exhibition sets forth in splendid and historic detail the complementarities, similarities and differences among the three religions, explaining their development, and exploring their lived experience through public and private prayer. (Photo at right: A mahzor, or Jewish prayer book for the High Holy Days, from the Kingdom of Naples in the 15th century.)

“Three Faiths” focuses on “the three Abrahamic religions” — Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Each faith takes Abraham, who affirmed belief in a single God, as a forebear. Abraham rejected “the religions of antiquity with their plethora of gods, each imbued with a particular attribute, purpose and power,” replacing the many with the one. Each of the Abrahamic religions believes that God has made himself known to his prophets through acts of revelation. And such revelations shape groups of believers by being incorporated in canonical written texts: the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Gospels, the Islamic Koran. These commonalities are traced through the exhibits display of manuscripts and books from the ancient and medieval to modern times.

Conceived in the aftermath of the tragic September 11th attacks of 2001, the exhibit also focuses on the many similarities shared by the three faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. One of the main sponsors of “Three Faiths,” is the Coexist Foundation, whose aim is “to promote better understanding between Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

The NYPL’s exhibition "Three Faiths" grew out of a show mounted in 2007 at the British Library called "Sacred;" but was reconstructed using the New York Public Library’s own collection by H. George Fletcher, the library’s retired director of special collections, and a team of five scholars and advisers. According to a New York Public Library spokesman, the British Library backed out, worried that post-9/11 inspections by the Transportation Security Administration could put its rare manuscripts at risk. (Photo at left: Ibrahim Prepares to Sacrifice His Son, Isma‛il.)

The exhibition includes 200 rare and valuable works created over the past 1,500 years: among them, great works of the miniaturist's art and of calligraphy, drawn from all three faiths. The scrolls, codices, illuminated manuscripts, and printed volumes are complemented selectively, by important bindings, early photographs, prints, maps, and liturgical or ritual objects dating from the fifth century of the Common Era (CE) to the present. In addition, the manuscript materials are accompanied by some of the most significant printed works of the past 550 years.

Materials on display in Gottesman Hall range from a Bible found in a monastery in coastal Brittany that was sacked by the Vikings in the year 917, to a 1904 lithograph showing the original Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue. It encompasses both an elaborately decorated book of 20th-century Coptic Christian readings and a modest 19th-century printing of the Gospels in the African language Grebo. There are Korans, with pages that shimmer with gold leaf and elegant calligraphy, and a 13th-century Pentateuch from Jerusalem, written in script used by Samaritans who traced their origins to the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel. (Photo at right: 18th-century Ethiopian illustration of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.)

A few of the exhibition's treasures include the New York Public Library’s Gutenberg Bible; the King James translation of the Bible of 1611; the remarkably rendered Scroll of Esther, which illustrates the story of Purim and features cityscapes from the once-vast Persian Empire; a 15th -century book of Islamic Tafsir (commentary on the Koran) from Syria; and a lovely volume of the Psalms from 1516, printed in Genoa, Italy, with the original Hebrew and columns of Septuagint Greek, Arabic, Aramaic and Latin. Moreover, the exhibition’s Christian texts from Czech, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian lands are extraordinary-- growing out of a collection the library purchased from the Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

One section of the exhibition also surveys the spread of the three religions after their birth in the Middle East through “the growth of the Jewish Diaspora, the evangelical mission of Paul to the Gentiles, and the military conquests of the early Islamic armies.” As the faiths spread, translations of sacred texts were needed; complex “polyglot” editions developed in which translations might appear in columns beside the original text or interwoven between its lines. (Photo at left: Psalterium, Herbraeum, Arabicum, Chaldaeum [The Psalterin Hebrew, Greek Arabic, and Aramaic]. Ed. Agostino Giustiniani, O.P., 1470 -1536.)

The tour began at 6:00 p.m. in order to allow NYLC members sufficient time to visit the miniature exhibition in the Wachenheim Gallery, called the “Scriptorium.” Named after the medieval monastic writing rooms where scribes copied manuscripts and wrote and illuminated books or scrolls, this specially converted interactive center compares and contrasts scribing traditions of

the three faiths, showcasing the natural materials—animal hides and minerals and gems—from which the parchment and ink are derived. Here in the Scriptorium, visitors are free “to explore various physical aspects of the art of the book in its many incarnations.” There are samples of parchment (skins of goats, sheep and deer); several kinds of traditional paper (including ahar — paper coated with alum and egg whites); display cases with the sources of pigments like pomegranate peel or dried insects; and videos on the creation of pens, inks and manuscripts. There is also an activity table where visitors can try their hand at calligraphy. (Photo at right: Russian altar Gospels with gilt binding, circa 1791, from the Reign of Catherine the Great.)

“Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam” is on view through Feb. 27 at the New York Public Library.

Works Cited:

L. Kroah (personal communication, January 21, 2011)

Rothstein, Edward. (2010). Abraham’s progeny, and their text. [Electronic version]. New York Times, C1.

The New York Public Library. Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. In Classes, programs and exhibitions: Exhibitions. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/three-faiths-judaism-christianity-islam

The New York Public Library. Three Faiths online. In Scriptorium. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://exhibitions.nypl.org/threefaiths/node/82

The New York Public Library. Three Faiths online. In Three highlights. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://exhibitions.nypl.org/threefaiths/node/20