[EKStationers] Fwd: BSB München: exhibition of incunabula

[woodwindy]

Bonjour mes amis!

I thought this might be of interest. There are only eight images
actually up at the website, but they're pretty spiffy images. Enjoy!

         -Sabine


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 5:24 AM
Subject: [EXLIBRIS-L] BSB München:  exhibition of incunabula
To: EXLIBRIS-L at listserv.indiana.edu


Dear colleagues,

yesterday, an exhibition of incunabula was opened at the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek München:

"Als die Lettern laufen lernten - Medienwandel im 15. Jahrhundert"
(*When letters became mobile * transition of media in the 15th century*)

90 highlights from the Munich collection of books printed in the 15th
century, which now comprises over 20,000 copies of 9,700 editions, are
on show until the end of October.

More details can be found below and on
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Exhibitions.67+M57d0acf4f16.0.html

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue with
texts in German and English:

Als die Lettern laufen lernten: Medienwandel im 15. Jahrhundert
Inkunabeln aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München
[Ausstellung 19. August - 31. Oktober 2009]
[Ausstellung und Katalogredaktion: Bettina Wagner].
Wiesbaden : Reichert-Verlag, 2009.
240 S. : zahlreiche farbige Illustrationen.
(Ausstellungskataloge / Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 81)
Price: 19,90 €

You can buy the catalogue through the regular book trade or order it
directly from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek:
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Publications-of-the-BSB-in-Sto.265+M57d0acf4f16.0.html

Best wishes,
Bettina Wagner

*****

The invention of printing with movable letters by Johann Gutenberg is
frequently described as a *media revolution* and compared to the
effects of the *electronic revolution* of the past decades. While both
events had far-reaching consequences on the production and
distribution of texts, the exhibition intends to demonstrate that a
gradual transition rather than a sudden turnover took place in the
second half of the 15th century. Increasingly, printing techniques
were employed for the production of books, but the oldest printed
books, traditionally referred to as incunabula, still show many
individual features which were created by hand. Thus, innovation and
tradition overlap in many respects: the modern techniques for
multiplication of texts and images in print only gradually superseded
handwriting, and for a long time, printed books continued to be
corrected by hand and to be decorated with coloured headlines and
painted illustrations.

About 90 items are displayed from the rich holdings of incunabula in
the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, which ranks first among all libraries
world-wide with holdings of more than 20,000 15th-century books. The
most famous incunabula are on show in the *Schatzkammer* (treasury),
including the Gutenberg-Bible and the *Türkenkalender* of 1454, the
earliest printed book in German, which survives in a single copy held
at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. In addition to illustrated
manuscripts and blockbooks, incunabula with painted miniatures and
outstanding examples of 15th-century woodcuts can be seen, among them
the report by the Mainz canon Bernhard von Breydenbach about his
journey to Palestine, Hartmann Schedel*s personal copy of his
*Nuremberg Chronicle* and Sebastian Brant*s *Ship of Fools*, for which
Albrecht Dürer may have designed illustrations. Apart from woodcuts,
examples of other techniques for printing illustrations are presented,
like copper engravings, metal cuts and printing with colour and gold *
still at an experimental stage in the 15th century.

In the second part of the exhibition, a range of very diverse
incunabula give insight into the production and distribution of
printed books * starting with the manuscript copy text used for
typesetting and ending with the book arriving in the hands of a buyer
and reader. Proof-sheets and printed tables of rubrics reveal how
early printers organized the production of books. In the first decades
of printing, modern conventions of book design like title-pages
developed. Texts printed in non-Latin alphabets and unusual formats as
well as evidence for 15th-century print-runs demonstrate the
effectiveness and capability of early printing workshops. The new
medium of the broadside reached entirely new groups of readers. In the
printing press, posters and handbills could be produced in large
numbers and thus served to disseminate all manners of texts * from
pious songs over medical advice up to current news. Early printers
also used broadsides to advertise their products in order to achieve
financial success. This, however, led to a rapid decrease in book
prices: The exhibition ends with a note added to an incunable in 1494
by a buyer who marvels at the low cost of the book. Forty years after
Gutenberg published his Bible, the technology of printing finally
prevailed over older, competing forms of text reproduction. While
conservative circles continued to plead for copying texts by hand, the
printed book*s triumph proved unstoppable, even though some readers,
like Sebastian Brant*s *foolish reader* could not cope with the
massive number of books available.

*****