Three New Reference Books
Among recent additions to the Chapin Library are these three books:
An Oak Spring Herbaria: Herbs and Herbals from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries: A Selection of the Rare Books, Manuscripts and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Tony Willis, edited with a description of the American herbals by Mark Argetsinger (Upperville, Va.: Oak Spring Garden Library, 2009). A new standard reference book about historic herbals, of which the Chapin Library has many important examples (including a Hortus Sanitatis of 1491, earlier than any in the Oak Spring collection).
The Graphic Work of Edward Wadsworth by Jeremy Greenwood, with an introduction by Richard Cork (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Wood Lea Press, 2002). Wadsworth (1889–1949) is remembered chiefly for his connections with the Vorticists and for his remarkable depictions of World War One camouflaged “dazzle ships”. This catalogue of his woodcuts, lithographs, and illustrations is a work of fine printing in its own right.
Matrix 28: A Review for Printers and Bibliophiles, Summer 2009. The latest number of this annual journal of the history of printing and illustration, produced in a limited edition by the Whittington Press of Herefordshire. – WGH