#fore-edge

Fore-edge Friday: Bolts of Blue?

The edges of this 18th century German work by Christian Pietist, Johann Arndt have been decorated using blue paste. We think it has an almost meteorological vibe--like rolling clouds or even lightning.

(For the lovely surprise we found inside, see our earlier post.)

It's Fore-edge Friday!

These marbled edges come from four volumes of Bentley's Miscellany, a 19th-century English literary magazine.

Call Number: AP4 .B43

Vulgate Bible. [xfBS75 1538]

Incipit Liber q[ui] rosella casuu[m] appellatur. [INC BJ1240 T76 1499]

Psalterivm romanvm. [x264.028 C36p 1576]

Astrolabium. [INC QB41 A54 1488]

King Florus and the Fair Jehane. [xPQ1461 F47 E5 1893]

Here are more!

All from our Instagram @uispeccoll.

Photos by Lindsay Moen.

Special Collections recently welcomed students from Professor Chloe Hogg’s “Global French.” Professor Hogg introduced students to volumes of the 1780 edition of Guillaume-Thomas Raynal’s Histoire Philosophique et Politique, various maps, and editions of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Paul et Virginie.

Students especially enjoyed this fore-edge painting from the 1799 edition of Paul et Virginie:

Pictured (in order of appearance):

Hennepin, Louis. Description de la Louisiane... Paris: Chez la veuve Sebastien Huré ..., 1683.

Raynal, Guillaume-Thomas. Histoire Philosophique Et Politique (vols. 1 & 2). Genève: 1781.

Bellin, Jacques Nicolas. Le Petit Atlas Maritime...Paris, 1764.

St. Pierre, Bernardin de. Paul and Virginia (translated from the French of by Helen Maria Williams). Boston: Lilly, Wait & Co, 1834.

St. Pierre, Bernardin de. Paul and Virginia (with illustrations by Maurice Leloir). New York : T.Y. Crowell, 1892.

St. Pierre, Bernardin de. Paul et Virginie. Londres: l’Impr. de Baylis, 1799.

I feel like I’m one of the only people who cringe when I see book art that has destroyed a book. I tell myself that it could have been a waterlogged or other already-damaged book. I do find this trend to be extremely creative and beautiful. Check out this example: https://www.etsy.com/listing/240461852/book-folding-patterns-love-278-folds?ref=share_v4_lx As a kid, I discovered books that had…