Research Update: The Best Part

Reading in the Special Collections Library

I AM SO EXCITED RIGHT NOW! I just got home from spending several lovely hours in Boulder's Special Collections Library where I discovered 6 boxes full of the small Brazilian chapbooks I love. I am so glad I brought my camera because they allowed me to take photographs of the beautiful xilogravura artwork that adorn these chapbooks. (Apparently, their policy is changing soon, however, and in the future I will likely not be able to take my own photos of the books- so today I clicked away as much as I could!)

I am in the process of doing research for an article (and maybe a dissertation??) in which I will be writing about this literary art form. I think that working with the primary texts is the absolute best part of any research project; finding these books right in my own library was like finding fifty dollars in your pocket... no, it was like finding fifty dollars and a chocolate cake in your pocket.

Reading history and beginning to write your own thoughts is great, too, but there is something so completely satisfying about taking in the books you love-- smelling them, touching the cheap delicate paper they were printed on, beginning to read, for your first time, at the top of the very first page.

From A intriga do Cachorro com Gato ("The Thriller of Dog and Cat") by José Pacheco. Art by José Francisco Borges. 

Three hours just flew by in the library as I read from these little poetry pamphlets-- the one pictured above was about a man who made his living as a repentista, or improvisational singer, who began an improv singing battle with a strange man... who turned out to be the devil! Each pamphlet had a new, rhymed story to explore... I read so many of them that my very thoughts became rhymed and rhythmic!

From Peleja de Riachão com o Diabo ("The Musical Duel of Riachão and the Devil") by Leando Gomes de Barros

From Milton e Cléa ("Milton and Cléa") by Luis da Costa Pinheiro. Art by Erivaldo.

From Os amores de Chiquinha e as Bravuras de Apolinário ("Chiquinha's Love Life and Apolinário's Brave Life)

Many of these chapbooks are first edition, published by Academia Brasileira de Literatura de Cordel (ABLC) and the others are re-released versions of classic cordel literature, reprinted by this same organization. In fact, the 6 boxes of books that the Special Collecitons Library had are available through their website here. The boxes of books are grouped by topic (such as bandits, humor, science and politics, etc.) and they each contain a collection of 10-20 chapbooks. Their website says they are 30 reais per box, which comes to about $15 US. (By the way, I ACCEPT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS EARLY.)

From Chico Xavier, o Maior Médium do Mundo Morre nos Braços do Povo ("Chico Xavier, the World's Greatest Spiritual Medium, Dies in the Arms of the People") by Gonçalo Ferreira da Silva. Art by J. Victtor. 

From A Peleja de Boa Voz com o Cantador Misterioso ("The Musical Duel of Boa Voz and the Mysterious Singer") by Victor Alvim Itahim Garcia. Art by Erivaldo.

From A Pérola Sagrada ("The Sacred Pearl") by João Martins de Athayde

I am so happy that the ABLC exists. Not only do they publish new cordel literature, they also make these collections available, publish scholarly books on cordel, publish anthologies of hundreds of cordel poems, and they update their site regularly with videos of musical recitations of cordel that take place in their cordel bookstore. (I must, must, MUST go there.)

I am not aware of any other organizations who attempt to preserve and promote this art form to the same extent; they are ensuring that literatura de cordel will not slowly fade away into obscurity, a lost cultural bit of heritage. Rather, they are inviting young people to be a part of learning cordel's history and participating actively in its future...

From Zé Baiano, Ferredor de Gente ("Zé Baiano, the Stabber") by Gonçalo Ferreira da Silva. Art by Erivaldo.

From Lambada no Inferno ("Lambada in Hell") by Gonçalo Ferreira da Silva. Art by Erivaldo.

Definitely check out the ABLC website to peruse their projects and resources.

Oh, and by the way, the "Research Update" is going to become yet another new feature here on the blog. You can expect them to get more frequent the deeper I go into the library and my various projects.

<All the translations in this post are my own.>
<The two smaller pictures are, from right to left, as follows: 1) From Jararaca, o Cancaçeiro Militar ("Jararaca, the Military Bandit") by Gonçalo Ferreira da Silva; art by Erivaldo. 2) From A Mulher que deu Tabaco na Presença do Marido ("The Woman who Smoked Weed in Front of her Husband") by Gonçalo Ferreira da Silva.

***
Until next time, fair petticoat rustlers-- keep rustling!

The Lost and Found Art: Reviving the Pictorial Webster

The Pictorial Webster's, as arranged, printed and bound by John M. Carrera

I love books with pictures. So I now find myself asking why it is that I never knew about the pictorial Webster's dictionaries being printed in the 19th century. These large books with thousands of thin pages displayed pictorial definitions rather than traditional verbal definitions. Several years ago, John Carrera discovered a copy of a pictorial Webster's under his late grandfather's favorite reading chair. After falling in love with the beautifully detailed images, he set about finding where the original typeset blocks for these images ended up. Covered with dust in drawers in Yale's library, Carrera discovered the tens of thousands of engravings that the Merriam-Webster company had gifted the institution. Over the course of the next ten years, Carrera cleaned, restored, and used the engravings to create by hand his own recreation of the pictorial Webster's. The result of his work is absolutely astonishing.

"Polypheme" to "Peach" in John Carrera's pictorial Webster's

"Acute Angle" to "Adelphia" in John Carrera's pictorial Webster's

"Rat" to "Rattlesnake" in John Carrera's pictorial Webster's

The following video shows the incredible process he uses to create these masterpieces, of which he created 4,000 by hand. Using a 1938 Model A Linotype machine, he cast the engravings on large sheets of paper, hand cut the pages, sewed the bindings, decorated the fore-edges, and added a stamp and gold leaf to the leather binding.

What an intense labor of love! I absolutely adore book arts and John Carrera's project is truly a masterpiece. It serves as a great reminder of the importance of paper-based reading materials, even though we all love our e-readers.

In that spirit, I'd like to leave you with this hilarious commercial that also extols the virtues of paper... Enjoy, my rustlers of petticoats! Until next time!

On the (Fore) Edge

Horse Race scene painted on the fore-edge of an 1811 version of Songs of Chace
Image via Boston Public Library site

Speaking of cross-dressing, here are some books posing as gorgeous paintings.

Woman and House scene on the fore-edge of Education of Henry Adams

Today I came across the Boston Public Library's collection of books with fore-edge hand painted artwork. I fell in love not only with the elaborate detail of the paintings themselves, but the way in which the books must be manhandled fanned in order to reveal the image. According to the website,  If the page edges are themselves gilded or marbled, this results in the image disappearing when the book is relaxed. When re-fanned, the painting magically re-appears. Here is an example of the books being twisted into just the right angle so as to display the painted fore-edge:

So these books actually have both a gilt edge to look fancy on the shelf or the reading table and the hidden painted fore-edge to entertain the reader with a scene that may or may not have anything to do with the book's content.

Man fishing scene on fore-edge of The Lives of Dr. John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton

The website has a wonderful zoom function that allows you to get a pretty close look at the intricacies of this lost art.

But hold on to your petticoats for one second, because it gets better. There is such a thing as the "Two-Way Double" in which the book's pages, when fanned one way reveal one painted scene and a completely different scene when fanned in the opposite direction.

From there, you have the "Split Double" which has two paintings per fan direction (resulting in a total of four paintings), and finally there is the grandaddy of them all: the ALL EDGE.

There are lots more to look at, my fair petticoat rustlers! Enjoy! 

People Playing Chess scene painted on Analysis of the Game of Chess