Art of the Printed Book, 1455-1955: Masterpieces of Typography Through Five Centuries from the Collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York ; With an Essay by Joseph Blumenthal

by Pierpont Morgan Library, Joseph Blumenthal

First edition. Profusely illustrated. Near fine jacket / fine. 192 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 4to..

Genres: Design

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

The Pierpont Morgan Library (now known as The Morgan Library & Museum) is both a museum and a research library in New York, NY. It was established in 1906 to house J. P. Morgan's private collection of prints, drawings, manuscripts and books. Besides an outstanding collection of Old Masters' drawings and illuminated manuscripts, the library maintains original manuscripts from a wide variety of authors from Sir Walter Scott to Bob Dylan (in the latter case, the scraps of paper on which he jotted down two of his most famous songs, Blowin' in the Wind and It Ain't Me Babe).

Designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead and White, the library was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Blog (not an RSS or Atom feed) available at http://blog.themorgan.org/

Reviews

[Marc Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Blumenthal was a fine printer for years at his Spiral Press. One of the great printers of the mid-twentieth century. He was also a typographer, educator, author in all things fine printing and a historian in the history of the printed word. Here he brings all of that acumen to bear on the history of the printed book, from 1455 to 1955. The writing flows freely and the reading is easy. Ther are multiple plates showing examples of the printing mentioned in the text, so the reader not only reads the facts, but sees them as well. This book forms a foundational basis for understanding the history of print. A note must also be made on the production values of this book. It is printed letterpress by the Stinehour Press (which for the size of the book and length is crazy). The tactile feel of the letterpress is amazing and shows the reader what fine press work is all about. The plates were printed by the Meridian Gravure Company, another fine printer, particularly of plates, either black and white or in color (black and white here). This hardbound volume was released in 1973 by the co publishers, The Pierpont Morgan Library and David R. Godine. At the time of writing this review, this particular edition can be had for $22.00 in as new condition. If you are at all interested in the history of the printed book, run and grab this book, It is well worth your time and should be a keeper for your library.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and readable - read for my RBS class but was very enveloped in this one. Learned a lot that I'd not known before, but had to work through the author's clear, stated biases. Large reproduction plates definitely added a lot - so few of these books on printing have been well illustrated.