Temporary Exhibition Catalogues as a Source for Book History
Speaker(s): William Stoneman
Related events: New sources for book history – International Conference
Releated Working Group(s):
Collection: CERl conferences
Recorded: November 28, 2017
Abstract:
William Stoneman (Houghton Library, Harvard), Temporary Exhibition Catalogues as a Source for Book History Tracing the history of individual printed books and manuscripts from creation through to their present home is now an accepted and well-practiced scholarly approach in the field of book history. The bibliographical data from the books themselves tell us a great deal about their production, value, use, alteration, and preservation over their lifecycles. An historical bibliographical source which has not seen much use up until now is the genre of temporary exhibition catalogues. These exhibitions can reveal a great deal about how books and manuscripts were valued at the time of the exhibition. What topics are of interest? What is considered essential information in a description of the object exhibited? Who loaned the object to the exhibition? Where are these books and manuscripts now? This paper takes as its genesis Giles Waterfield’s The People Galleries: Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800-1914 (New haven: Yale University Press, 2015) which was the winner of the 2016 William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History. It is worth reminding ourselves that temporary exhibitions of medieval manuscripts were held at the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1861 and 1896 at its rooms in Burlington House in Piccadilly and these exhibitions and the accompanying lectures are documented in its Proceedings.
In 1862 and 1896 the South Kensington Museum hosted similar exhibitions. The Burlington Fine Arts Club held exhibitions of medieval manuscripts in 1874, 1886 and again 1908. The Grolier Club in New York held exhibitions of medieval manuscripts in 1884 and 1892. Less well known is that manuscripts were included in Manchester Art Treasures exhibition of 1857 and that the Liverpool Fine Arts Club exhibited medieval manuscripts in 1876 and 1897. In the limited time available in this session I would like to demonstrate how medieval manuscripts and early printed books were exhibited in 1893-94 in the Exhibition of Early Italian Art from 1300 to 1550 at the New Gallery in Regent Street, London.
This exhibition included cases of illuminated manuscripts, printed books, as well as autograph letters, drawings, paintings and sculpture. I hope that examples of the context, description and ownership of this material drawn from this exhibition in 1893 will suggest that temporary exhibition catalogues deserve to be better known as a source of book history.
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