





I called up twenty three items and spent two happy days in the reading room of Princeton’s Firestone Library.
There are ten separate collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. While the reading room serves these collections, a researcher is dealing with 10 catalogs. Princeton makes it easy to search with its integrated catalog, but there are subtleties to the presentation and cataloging. My research before visiting showed that there were books that would be of interest, but I didn’t have a good idea of their holdings as searching a catalog by title is not an efficient way to do research.
For a specific title, I used WordCat, noting what libraries might have it. This is an inefficient way of finding things as WorldCat is not always up to date or accurate. So, I missed a number of books at libraries along the way. I had no illusion that this trip would net a complete survey, but it was frustrating to come back and realize that I passed by institutions that held a book of interest.
When I arrived at Princeton, I took some time with their online catalog to fill out call slips. The newly renovated reading room is well lit, with large windows that give the room a cathedral-like feel. Coming in and sitting down to look at material, there was no doubt that I was in a research library and not some open-plan office complex.
The Graphic Arts 1535 copy of Ugo da Carpi’s Thesauro de scrittori was rebound in recent years. I had seen two copies (1525 and 1535) of this book at the Harry Ransom Center, and again at the Newberry (1535). WorldCat does the Texas or Princeton copies, thus creating another “hidden book” in two different libraries. A.S. Osley’s The variant issues of Ugo da Carpi’s T’hesauro de scrittori published in Quaerendo details the changes made in this early writing manual. That da Carpi borrowed freely from Fanti, Arrighi, and Tagliente is well known, and Osley’s article from 1972 delineates typesetting and plate order changes in the three dates the book was issued: 1525, 1532 and 1535.
His description is so detailed that the Graphic Arts cataloger was able to determine which issue (“Designated as “first issue” of this edition in Osley, …”) they own.
Should you wish to travel down a bibliographic side alley, read his Quarendo article, and try to keep in mind which issues you’ve seen at any given institution. It’s a bit much to keep straight in one’s head.
da Carpi wasn’t the only book on my list, so I moved on to Albrecht Dürer’s geometry book with a section on constructed capitals. Princeton’s copy of Albertus Durerus Nurembergensis pictor huius … is in good shape, sewn on split thongs, laced onto pasteboards. The covering material has been lost, but the book is still intact. This copy was owned by Stanley Morison, whose research and opinions dominate the field of writing manuals, type design, and history of printing.
Dürer first published his book in 1525 at a time when writing manuals were just beginning to be published. Italian writing masters teach scribes how to write with a quill pen. Ugo da Carpi’s book is mostly a compendium of instruction by other writing masters while Dürer’s book includes geometric Roman capitals that would be used for inscriptional purposes. There are constructed gothic and rotunda minuscules in da Carpi’s work, but no capitals. The instructions that Dürer gives on how to make the Roman capitals is not strictly a writing manual, but it involves instructions on how to construct these forms using a compass and a square. Dürer’s instructions are familiar today in the book Of the Just Shaping of Letters.
Leaving Winterthur before 5:00, I went to eat a late lunch heading North. I didn’t know where I was staying that night. I had anticipated staying at a friend’s place, but misunderstood the location of his home. My plan was to get to Princeton in the morning and I wanted to be close enough to get there at opening time.
I belong to an online motorcycle forum and have a number of imaginary internet friends, some of whom I’ve met in person. One such, is my friend Bill Morris. He lives in Central New Jersey and travels about 30 minutes to work by motorcycle as often as he can. He was serving as Executive Officer of the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Lawrenceville, NJ. I called him and asked if I could stay with he and his family for about 3 nights and I’d be arriving in 2 hours at the most as I was no more than 75 miles south. Ever the moto-gentleman, he said yes and gave me directions to come to the post and hang out till he was headed home. It took me 3.5 hours to get there!
I was leaving Delaware around 4:30 and knew that I’d hit commuter traffic. East Coast roads can be a little confusing as the signage isn’t always that large or very well placed. Turnpikes are unforgiving if you miss an entrance or exit and correcting a mistake can take you out of the way. This happened to me a couple of times on my trek north so it took much longer than I expected. Bill was patient and waited till I arrived.
We told a few stories and then he pointed me back south and we retraced my last 25 miles. Bill likes to go fast – really fast. He promised to keep his bike from flying, but I don’t think he was much under escape velocity the whole time. At that time of night, the roads are fairly empty and it felt like we were on a private racecourse. I never once tried to catch or pass him, I just tried to keep his tail light in sight! That invigorating ride was a tonic after the frustrating experience of eastern road navigation.
After 8 or so years of reading about Bill, his service and motorcycle adventures, it was nice to meet him and his family in person. His daughters get up quite early for school and they went to bed soon after I arrived. Bill and I caught up until well after midnight. Following a person online is an odd way of acquiring friends. Do they represent themselves or a facade of the person they want you to see? Will they be as tall as they look on screen? It’s a bit of a risk meeting someone you respect online. I’ve found that the people that I connect with online have, for the most part, been even better than what I imagined. Bill is one of those guys. And it was nice to see him in his work and home environments.
Morning came sooner than I wanted, but I did get a good night’s sleep. Now for a ride up 295 in morning rush hour traffic – without getting shunted in the wrong direction. I navigated most of that well, except I had to stop and check myself getting off of 95 at 206. I got out my phone and checked the map, saw that I was on track and kept riding up the used-to-be rural road. Like many outlying urban areas, farmland gives way to estates and generously spaced-out housing developments or gated communities. More traffic than the roads were designed for, so the traffic is often congested throughout the day.
As I rode into Princeton, I had to check the phone map a couple more times but finally get myself situated and get the bike parked close to campus even though I’ll have to move it in a little while. Why don’t I have a GPS, or at least a paper map? I used to be assiduous about having local maps as I travelled across the country. They were in my tank bag, so all I had to do was study them prior to that leg of the ride and then check my progress with a quick look down. I was resistant to GPS devices when they started to be used in the early 2000’s as I felt that they don’t promote being engaged in mentally acquiring the route I’m traveling. Just follow the screen and the little man on the motorcycle, and you’ll get there without thinking. Now I’m not opposed, but I didn’t see the need to buy one on the trip.
It was a bit of an ordeal, however I made it to the campus fairly early and was ready to get to work at the Firestone Library. I was psyched by the chance to see their writing manuals and other, non-book instructional aids. I’m a sucker for 3D objects, and they had a number of them to review!