Michael Baurenfeind, Vollkommene Wieder-Herstellung der bissher sehr in Verfall gekommenen gründlich-u : zierlichen Schreib-Kunst. Nürnberg, Germany 1716
Writing books — manuals for the instruction of lettering and handwriting — are among the most beautiful of all books in the graphic arts. They are also among the rarest, routinely subjected to the wear and tear of generations of copyists. Bibliographically, they pose formidable challenges to scholars. Culturally, they are fascinating objects of study for a wide range of disciplines.
Writing books — manuals for the instruction of lettering and handwriting — are among the most beautiful of all books in the graphic arts. They are also among the rarest, routinely subjected to the wear and tear of generations of copyists. Bibliographically, they pose formidable challenges to scholars. Culturally, they are fascinating objects of study for a wide range of disciplines.
The Peter Arms Wick collection, currently available for purchase from the rare book firm, Ars Libri, is one of the most important collections of writing and calligraphy books in private hands. It includes 131 printed books ranging in date from 1545 to 1884, together with 40 calligraphic manuscripts from 1569 to 1951. It is particularly strong in Northern European, Spanish and Portuguese material, of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Over the course of his career, the noted connoisseur and bibliophile Peter Arms Wick (1920-2004) held curatorial positions in the print departments of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the Fogg Art Museum, and in the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts of the Harvard College Library. Among his publications are the Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre gravé et lithographié de Paul Signac (1974), written in collaboration with E.W. Kornfeld; The Arts of the French Book, 1900-1965 (1967), written in collaboration with Eleanor M. Garvey; the catalogue of the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Jacques Villon: Master of Graphic Art (1964); and the catalogues of the exhibitions at the Harvard College Library, The Turn of a Century, 1885-1910 (1970) and Sixteenth-Century Architectural Books From Italy and France (1971).
More Ars Libri collections here.
