A couple of weeks ago I had the joy and privilege of participating in a conference held by the Bodleian library called “Forms and Formats” (September 8-9, 14). The most able and gracious conference conveners were Louisiane Ferlier and Bénédicte Miyamoto, in conjunction with Oriel College and the Sorbonne Nouvelle. My talk was called “Turn-ups, Harlequinades and Metamorphoses 1688-1811: format and meaning-making in simple interactive books; or contemplative and antic reading.” There were only fifteen speakers and the audience was composed of curators, librarians, book historians, book dealers, collectors and other knowledgeable people. Ample time for discussion was built into the organization of the session, so the questions engaged the whole group. Since we travelled around Oxford together attending a print making session at the Story museum on a working 18th century press, visiting Oriel’s beautiful library which recalls a gentleman’s private library and being allowed to enter the august but austere Fellow’s library at Jesus College, the conversations were ambulatory! In each location there were rare books on view with interesting formats, in keeping with the conference theme. We would cluster around unusual books and other items such as maps and globes to listen to several people in the group discuss the objects spontaneously. We were also well fed, nibbling on 18th century foods prepared by the Oriel librarian, Majory Szurko, and a lovely dinner in a glamorous room at Oriel. It was like participating in an intense but elegant rare books seminar telescoped into two days.
One of the participants, tongue in cheek, tweeted this shelfie promoting the conference showing some of the texts we discussed. Most unusually, under strict supervision of Alexandra Franklin, the Coordinator for the Centre of the Book, some of the books and objects we talked about were allowed to attend the conference as well!
For me, the trip and conference were a joyful return. As I mentioned early in the blog, my love affair with harlequinade turn-up books began at the Bodleian Library when Clive Hurst, Head of the Special Collections (now retired) introduced several to me from the Opie Collection of children’s books. When he opened them up I saw stories of words and etched pictures about a set of commedia characters that progressed by means of flaps that could be lifted up and down, the directions for use being set in the verse or printed on top of the picture. He looked at me and said, ‘Are these books or toys?’
This was my opportunity to present at the site of origin my ever-emerging, (metamorphosing!) answers in response to Clive’s question. I discussed six items in their collection, emphasizing four. Three are versions of the same text: The Beginning, Progress and End Of Man (London J. Deacon 1688/89), Metamorphosis or, a transformation of pictures, with poetical explanations for the amusement of young persons (Philadelphia: Pounder 1811) and an 18th century manuscript by William Wood (1741) in the Opie Collection. The fourth was Harlequin Skeleton 1772 published by Robert Sayer shown in the shelfie photo. In each case I considered how the format of the strip and moveable flaps both supports and upturns a reader’s engagement with the words and images.
Throughout the conference I learned much about form and format from new colleagues and friends, all lovers of old books, about how different types of turn-ups were made, and how they changed over their life-cycle as published objects and handmade artifacts well into the 19th century.
Each day I walked from a short route from a student dormitory in Oriel down Catte Street pasts the Radcliffe Camera luminous in the morning sun. Such beauty devoted to scholarship takes my breath away, even in memory.
Radcliffe Camera