11 July to 20 December 2013 - The John Rylands Library - Manchester
The work of Giovanni Boccaccio has had a lasting impact across hundreds of years. This exhibition in Manchester shows his major works, explains the influences his works had and displays new books about Boccaccio made by invited artists.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) studied literature and poetry: classical and chivalric. He used varied sources to create poetic and prose works collecting material in his autograph notebooks called zibaldoni. His earliest works referencing French Romance, Latin and historical works and Italian poetry were: Caccia di Diana (1334), Filostrato (1335), and Filocolo (1338). He is perhaps best known for 'Decameron' the banned book. The exhibition showed a variety of editions and explained how attitudes to censorship have varied in different times and places.
Boccaccio was writing in an experimental literary form in which he created strong women characters . He produced a collection of biographies of famous women: 'De mulieribus claris' which resulted in better rights for women at that time in Italy. Some regard his as a proto-feminist.
Boccaccio's prose was valued in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and came a model for how to write in the new standardized Italian language. Aldo Manuzio, a Venetian printer, introduced a new italic typeface which meant that books could be printed in a smaller format. I saw the sixteenth century edition of ' Decameron ' (Venice Trinode Monferrado 1542). What struck me was just how small it was (iphone size) yet it had the same textual features of the larger editions and an elaborate typographical layout at the end of the book. There was beautiful gold patterning on the inside edges of the cover. The paper was gold edged. A small printed book meant that ideas could be circulated to a wide group of people quickly.
Early printed books had the same layout and style of manuscripts. The typefaces were gothic and humanist scripts. Spaces were left for decorated initials and printed woodcut illustrations were embellished with paint or ink washes. It was interesting to see whole pages of italic typeface. It is delicate and there is such a contrast between gothic and italic.
Boccaccio's works made classical Latin and Greek attractive to the educated throughout Europe. He also promoted an interest in medieval Italian poetry and prose. His works were translated into French, Spanish, English and Latin and distributed across Europe. He was recognised as a great medieval author in his day and subsequent generations have seen the visual possibilities of his text leading to his works being republished many times in many formats.
It is significant that this exhibition is in Manchester. In Victorian times Manchester merchants compared their city with the late medieval and Renaissance Florence as they too were a trading centre with wealth invested in civic buildings, education and cultured patronage. One of the largest collections of Boccaccio's printed works is housed at the John Ryland's library.
It was exciting to see how today's artists have responded to Boccaccio. The works are varied and thought provoking. Click on these links below to see the artists' books created for this exhibition:
Book Artists
Mike Clements locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/mike-clements/
www.paperweight.org.uk/memberspages/clements.htm
Steve Dales locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/steve-dales/
Jeremy Dixon locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/jeremy-dixon/
hazardpress.co.uk
Sue Doggett locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/sue-doggett/
www.suedoggett.com/#New-Works
Gynnis Fawkes locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/glynnis-fawkes/
Shirley Greer locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/shirley-greer/
personalhistoriesartistbookexhibition.blogspot.co.uk/2013_09_01_archive.html
Heather Hunter locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/heather-hunter
www.hunterbooks.co.uk
Paul Johnson locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/paul-johnson
www.popularkinetics.com/pauljohnson_page.html
www.bookart.co.uk/paul_johnson_works.html
John McDowall locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/john-mcdowall
James Reid-Cunningham
locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/james-reid-cunningham
www.reid-cunningham.com
Carolyn Thompson locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/carolyn-thompson
www.carolynthompson.co.uk/selectedwork.html
Carolyn Trant locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com./carolyn-trant
www.carolyntrant.co.uk
Horst Weierstall locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/horst-weierstall
Looking at Heather Hunter's 'Famous Proba - found (2013) I realised that found poetry has a long history. It goes back to ancient Greece in the form of Cento. Poets would stitch together their own poems entirely form lines or verses from Homer. Faltonia Betitia Proba, a Roman Christian, was the wife of Adephus and born in Othrys in 360AD. She created a cento. Boccaccio wrote about Proba in 'On Famous Women' (De mulieribus claris) and Hunter has created her found poem from a word pool collected from that part of Boccaccio's book.
The collaged pages are in a patchwork style that is so eye-catching and colourful. locatingboccaccio.wordpress.com/heather-hunter It was opened in such a way inside the display case that I was able to read all of the found poem. It read beautifully with such an economy of words.
The past is relevant to us today. We can learn from those who went before us.
This exhibition has opened my understanding of a period of history I was unfamiliar with. I was excited to realise that found poetry has such a long history and I am keen to now to learn more about found poetry past and present.
The John Rylands Library is a fantastic building and well worth a visit just to have a good walk around.....
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