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The art of wood-engraving

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Woodcuts and some words by Edward Gordon Craig embodies glorious reproductions of woodcuts. My zest for the art of wood-engraving has grown after reading the history of wood blocks, cutting, and printing machines.

A McGill Library note from the catalogue record:
Copy no. 123 of a limited ed. of 160 copies signed by the author and with extra woodcut inserted.

The original book is available for consultation from our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room during regular opening hours or you can download the digital version from our catalogue.

Figure 17 of "Woodcuts and some words"

Figure 17 of “Woodcuts and some words”

Figure 21 of "Woodcuts and some words"

Figure 21 of “Woodcuts and some words”

Figure 57 of "Woodcuts and some words"

Figure 57 of “Woodcuts and some words”

Notes on noses

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This is an entertaining book about popular Victorian era conceptions of noses and pseudoscience of physiognomy.

Notes on Noses is available for consultation from our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room during regular opening hours or you can download the digital version from our catalogue.

Title page of "Notes on noses"

Title page of “Notes on noses”

Cholera Epidemic of 1832 in Canada

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Pamphlets published in 1832 by the New York Board of Health and the Philadelphia Sanitary Board contain interesting reports that investigated the cholera epidemic in Montreal, Quebec, and the rest of Canada.

Report of the commissioners employed to investigate the origin and nature of the epidemic cholera of Canada and Report of the Commission appointed by the Sanitary Baord of the City Councils, to visit Canada, for the investigation of the epidemic cholera, prevailing in Montreal and Quebec are available for consultation from our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room during regular opening hours or you can download the digital version from our catalogue. 

Title page of "Report of the commissioners employed to investigate the origin and nature of the epidemic cholera of Canada published by order of the Board of Health July 31 1832."

Title page of “Report of the commissioners employed to investigate the origin and nature of the epidemic cholera of Canada published by order of the Board of Health July 31 1832.”

Title page of "Report of the Commission appointed by the Sanitary Board of the City Councils to visit Canada for the investigation of the epidemic cholera prevailing in Montreal and Quebec"

Title page of “Report of the Commission appointed by the Sanitary Board of the City Councils to visit Canada for the investigation of the epidemic cholera prevailing in Montreal and Quebec.”

 

11 ways to a man’s heart

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Cream cheese is NOT a way to my heart but it may work for some!

Front page of The Ingersoll Cream Cheese Co pamphlet "11 ways to a man's heart.".

Front page of The Ingersoll Cream Cheese Co pamphlet “11 ways to a man’s heart.” from between 1920 and 1950?

Back page of The Ingersoll Cream Cheese Co pamphlet "11 ways to a man's heart." from between 1920 and 1950?

Back page of The Ingersoll Cream Cheese Co pamphlet “11 ways to a man’s heart.” from between 1920 and 1950?

The original pamphlet is available for consultation from our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room during regular opening hours or you can download the digital version from our catalogue. 

To learn more about Ingersoll you can check out this virtual exhibition about Mammoth Cheese and the History of Cheese Making in Oxford County.

 

The manuscripts of Cardinal Bessarion

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Guest post by Jillian Tomm, Postdoctoral Fellow in Rare Books & Special Collections

This volume, the Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468, records a number of Greek and Latin manuscripts, once owned by the fifteenth-century scholar Cardinal Bessarion (1403-1472), which formed the nucleus of the Bibliotheca Marciana of Venice. The list is heavily marked by a reader with a parallel and different set of numbers.

It is possible that this volume was used and marked by Bessarion specialist Lotte Labowsky, who published on Bessarion’s library. The volume is part of the Raymond Klibansky Collection—Klibansky and Labowsky worked closely for decades on several topics including Labowsky’s Bessarion work, and a number of books in the Klibansky Collection were previously owned by her. The handwritten numbers resemble those left by Labowsky in her corrections to Klibansky’s Latin edition of Locke’s Epistola de tolerantia.”

Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468 (Book)
Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468 (eBook)

Title page of "Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468"

Title page of “Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468”

Page 29 of "Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468"

Page 29 of “Inventaire des manuscrits grecs & latins donnés à Saint-Marc de Venise par le cardinal Bessarion en 1468”

History of the newspaper printing industry in Montreal

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This is a fascinating book about the history of the newspaper printing industry in Montreal and moreover, the line art illustrations are beautiful.

From page 4 of The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution. (Book & eBook):

‘The early printers, in their work, had either to rival the exquisite manuscripts of the monkish transcribers of written knowledge, or be considered far behind in the “art preservative of all arts.” Everything was done conscientiously in those days, and with the greatest care. The inventors were the printers: and their hearts were in their work. Printers then looked upon their productions as works of art.’

Front cover of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Front cover of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 3 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 3 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 7 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 7 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 8 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 8 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 10 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 10 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 12 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 12 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

Illustration on page 13 of "The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution."

Illustration on page 13 of “The daily newspaper : the history of its production and distribution.”

List of Greek manuscripts in Escorial library of Spain

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Guest post by Jillian Tomm, Postdoctoral Fellow in Rare Books & Special Collections

This short book provides a list of Greek manuscripts from the library of the sixteenth-century Platonist Francesco Patrizi  (1529-1597), acquired by the celebrated Escorial library of Spain in the 1570s. The introductory text (in German) also provides biographical information about Patrizi. Both the inventory and introduction have been marked by a reader, perhaps by Raymond Klibansky (1905-2005). The volume was once in the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg of Hamburg (now the Warburg Library in London), and today the volume is part of McGill’s Raymond Klibansky Collection.

See images of the Escorial library on their website: http://rbme.patrimonionacional.es/

Front cover of "Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung [...]"

Front cover of “Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung […]”

Title page of "Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung [...]"

Title page of “Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung […]”

Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung griechischer Handschriften in der Bibliothek des Escorial (Book)
Francesco Patricio und seine Sammlung griechischer Handschriften in der Bibliothek des Escorial (eBook)

You can live in an apartment

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“You can live in an apartment” but I rather live in a condo! This is an entertaining book about life in various 1930s city apartments. Montreal is one of the cities mentioned along with Halifax, Hollywood, Oxford, Chicago, Freiburg in Germany, London, and Princeton.

The original book is available for consultation from our Rare Books and Special Collections reading room during regular opening hours or you can download the digital version from our catalogue.

Title page of "You can live in an apartment"

Title page of “You can live in an apartment”

Illustration on page 3 of "You can live in an apartment"

Illustration on page 3 of “You can live in an apartment”

Contents page of "You can live in an apartment"

Contents page of “You can live in an apartment”

I am

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THE ARGUMENT

We all of us appear to ourselves and to our
fellows as living material organisms of body, brain
and thought existing as objects in Space-Time and
coming into existence in Space-Time at birth while
going out of existence on death. We appear to
ourselves and our fellows as impermanent, for each
one of us, in appearance, changes in bodily form
from childhood to age between the times of birth
and death. We know all this, and some hold that
man is no more than what he appears to be, that
is, an impermanent object in Space-Time.

—from page ix of “I am”

I am (Book)
I am (eBook)

Title page of "I am"

Title page of “I am”

 

Yukon Gold Mining in 1905

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I enjoy the photographs and the landscape page orientation of this book about Yukon gold mining in 1905.

Cataloguing notes: “Published as a souvenir for the meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. ’The gold in the gold pan on the cover page is from Discovery claim, Bonanza, the claim on which the gold was found that started the Klondike rush. Mr. J. Moore Elmer, manager of the property, kindly furnished the gold for this purpose’–P. [1].”

The Klondike (Book)
The Klondike (eBook)

Front cover of "The Klondike"

Front cover of “The Klondike”

Page 9 of "The Klondike"

Page 9 of “The Klondike”

Page 4 of "The Klondike"

Page 4 of “The Klondike”