Arie Koelewyn at the Bodleian Libraries Centre for the Study of the Book
Sonnet 95, printed by Sarah Teppen
Sonnets 18 and 43, from East Lansing, Michigan
Sonnet 54, printed by Juan Pascoe
Sonnet 65, printed by University College Oxford undergraduates in English
Sonnet 79, printed by the Elrod Press
Sonnet 150 under construction
Sonnet 89, printed by Annette Disslin
The Bodleian Library invited hand-press printers to send examples of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (printed by any form of relief printing in 2016) and the collection of 154 is taking shape. Sonnets arrive daily and reports of printing successes (and disasters) are also circulating. Juan Pascoe’s Sonnet 54 has arrived from Mexico, Ivan Gulkov has set Sonnet 85 in Russian at the Pillowface Press, California https://thebeautyofletterpress.com/printer/pillowface-press/,
Gordon Chesterman has sent Sonnet 128 with an ornate linocut border, Annette Disslin has shown an elegant design on grey, and, as an ‘extra,’ University College students printed a sonnet in college colours, under the supervision of expert letterpress printer and University College librarian, Liz Adams.
Arie Koelewyn, from The Paper Airplane Press, delivered sonnets 18 and 43 in person, from East Lansing, Michigan, and also visited the wooden common press in the Weston Library.
In September 2015, the Bodleian’s Bibliography Room re-opened in the Old Bodleian Library, after a move from temporary quarters in the Story Museum, Oxford. The workshop is now housed in a ground-floor room, the Schola Musicae, opening from the Old Schools Quadrangle. Inside are five free-standing iron presses (four Albions and a Columbian)*, a number of table-top presses, and several composing frames, including three seventeenth-century frames, with a quantity of wooden and metal type.
The room hosts classes in hand-printing for students from Oxford and other universities, and regular workshops for families, adults, and primary school groups. One group from a local school printed a sonnet by Shakespeare; seven children set two lines each while their classmate created a linocut of the school emblem.
Many former students and visitors from other universities will remember that Paul W. Nash expertly shepherded the room through its previous incarnations in the New Library (now refurbished as the Weston Library) and in the Story Museum. His successor as superintendent of the press is Richard Lawrence, who teaches printing to university students and visiting groups and also supervises open sessions, when experienced printers are welcome to use the workshop, on Thursday evenings during term-times. Several projects initiated by students are underway, including the printing of Luther’s 95 theses, catalyst for the Reformation, in time for the 500th anniversary in 2017. Courses in printing history, practical printing, and letterpress printing, open to the public, are offered in June 2016.
This year the Bibliographical Press hosts an effort to gather copies of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets printed in 2016, the 400th anniversary of his death. A call for contributions of sonnets went out in January and was quickly answered by printers around the world. (http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/csb/sonnets2016 ) Though all 154 sonnets are now promised for the Bodleian Rare Books collection, anyone wishing to participate in the effort is invited to contact the Centre for the Study of the Book, e-mail bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk; the CSB will endeavour to announce and display sonnets printed in 2016 by any technique of relief printing.
*A further note on the presses contained in the room. These were reported by Philip Gaskell in the Journal of the Printing Historical Society no. 1, 1965:
“(1) Albion (demy), serial number 539, (1835), from the Daniel Press” [This was the press used by C.H.O. Daniel, Provost of Worcester College, from 1880-1906 and presented to the library in 1919.]
Tamarin Norwood, printweeting on the Albion serial number 2919
From close to home and further afield, from Oxford to Moonshine Road, California, to New Delhi and Llandogo, hand-press printers across the world answered the call to print Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets.
An enthusiastic response meant all 154 sonnets were quickly assigned. The UK and the USA are the most heavily represented countries with particularly strong showing from Oxford, California and Iowa. Submissions are also expected from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy , Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Spain.
The project is now well underway and we eagerly await parcels winging their way to the Bodleian from across the world. Congratulations to the Kings Bookshop, Callander, who were the first to submit sonnet 92, translated into Scots!
Follow the links to see some of the presses and people involved in this effort.
Pictures of sonnets in type and on the press, as these are received from the printers, can be seen on our twitter feed @bodleiancsb, #154sonnets
In a cycle of 154 short, 14-line poems first published in 1609, William Shakespeare meditated on themes of love, death, and desire. During 2016, the Bodleian Libraries will be producing and collecting newly printed copies of each of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The Bodleian is seeking examples from hand-press printers worldwide made in this, the 400th year since the death of William Shakespeare.
Contributions of individual sonnets by Shakespeare, whether in English or in translation, will be welcome from printers up to the deadline of 30 September 2016. These should be created by hand, using any means of relief printing. Selected submissions, forming at least one complete collection of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, will be added to the Bodleian’s permanent collection and the donors will be notified.
Stir-up Sunday, composed and printed by the English masters’ students
Hallelujah!
The Bodleian’s Bibliographical Press is now located in the seventeenth-century Old Library, with an entrance from the Old Schools Quadrangle. Watched over by the statue of the Earl of Pembroke standing in the quad, the door marked ‘Schola Musicae’ opens onto a workshop housing five free-standing presses and the composing frames and type cases that support the teaching of hand-press printing. Here are a few of the things that have been going on since September —- ‘printweeting’: artist Tamarin Norwood composed 140-character messages, and we thought about the difference between characters and sorts — Oxford Open Doors on 12 September welcomed visitors to the room to see demonstrations of typesetting and printing — University of Oxford students learned to compose and print, working with Dickens and Martin Luther texts — at the Christmas Card printing session open to the public, participants were creative with lino cuts and with the display type and metalcut blocks in the room — the press produced a keepsake for the Bodleian’s 12 millionth book: a poem by Percy Shelley championing a free press.
For more information: bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk; tweet @theBroadPress
Common press (c. 18th century) in the Weston Library, Level 2.
