CAN YOU BELIEVE TWO YEARS have almost passed since the first CODEX book fair in 2007 gathered together an impressive congress of the world’s finest private presses, book artists, artisans, curators, collectors, and scholars?

With such an impressive beginning, we wouldn’t dare miss the 2009 biennial CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium, scheduled from February 9 through 11, 2009 on the campus of The University of California Berkeley. We have reserved our place among the 120 booths for printers and international publishers and we hope to see you there.

The inaugural fair in 2007 provided an opportunity to see and be seen in a relaxed setting; a chance for all to admire the current work of a truly international group of book artists and artisans. The fair itself featured hand-press printers and fine art presses and included booksellers, bookbinders, papermakers, bibliophile organizations, and educational programs in the book arts.

This year, we will be exhibiting our newest publication, Canticle of the Creatures by Francis of Assisi, in original Umbrian text with English translation by John Venerella. We will also have copies on display of our earlier Gospel According to Philip and Thoughts from the Letters of Petrarch. To purchase one of these beautiful books now, contact us by clicking here.

The second biennial CODEX International Book Fair will be taking place in the ASUC Pauley Ballroom on the campus of the University of California Berkeley. The ballroom is near the intersection of Telegraph Ave. and Bancroft way. The fair is rapidly becoming the “world’s fair” of the book as art and artifact. Over 120 artists from around the globe will be exhibiting what amounts to “a staggering panopoly of riches.” For the latest information on the bookfair, visit the CODEX Foundation website.

The CODEX Foundation has a worthy aim to preserve and promote the art and craft of the book. We share that aim and hope to see you there.

While the text of the poem has been printed before (short texts are favorite targets for fine press publishers), most break the song into individual verses, printing them on separate pages paired with illustrations of the sun, moon, and so forth. But read in this way, the reader may miss the poetry of Francis’s text – his rhyming early Italian verses, the visual repetition of “Laudato si misignore…”, the simple naivete of his words in song. So we decided to present the full text on a single page with its English reflection facing it. A thin book? Yes, but no less monumental for that.

We designed the book to use the full sheet of handmade paper, folded into an eight-page section, which allowed us to keep both the bottom and the fore-edge deckles intact. However, these large sheets pushed the limits even of our Super Royal Albion handpress, forcing us to find creative ways to position the platen bearers so they didn’t crush the paper.

As none of us here at the Press are fluent in Umbrian, we spent many painstaking hours on proofreading and discussions with the translator. Another challenge was achieving even printing on the large page size. Although the bed on our Albion is impressively flat for a 158-year old press, the many-layered makeready resembled a most intricate mosaic by the time we were ready to print.

Two collectible limited editions of the Canticle are being issued: 6 copies printed on sheepskin parchment, and 60 copies printed on cream-colored handmade paper, produced especially for the Press by Ruscombe Mills in France. The text has been set in beautiful Poliphilus type, with large initial letters in red, designed at the Press in the style of the original manuscript initial. (See the original here.)

Our eight-page edition of the Canticle is printed in Large Quarto format. Both the paper and the parchment editions are bound in half Japanese linen with the boards covered in handmade Nepalese Lokta paper printed with our own Canticle pattern. Parchment copies are ornamented with the sun in gold leaf on the title page and are protected by a slipcase.

Canticle of the Creatures

The Petrarch Press, 2008

10 x 13-1/2 inches; pages 8.

EDITIONS

Parchment 6 numbered copies (I-VI) on sheepskin parchment; bound in quarter Japanese linen with boards covered in printed Red Earth Lokta paper; with slipcase.	Handmade Paper 66 numbered copies (7-66) on handmade Ruscombe Mills paper; bound in quarter Japanese linen with boards covered in printed Nutmeg Lokta paper.
$ 625 Sold Out	$ 260

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The Petrarch Press
PO Box 488
9690 Stackhouse Lane
Oregon House, CA 95962
U.S.A.

Tel: +1 (530) 692-9531
Fax: +1 (530) 730-2469

Wonderful stories were told by Henry Morris about his Bird & Bull Press, whose first booklet he sold for $3 and was happy to find selling in 1980 for $900. We appreciated his tip about using the magic flat rate postal service boxes which, much to the dismay of his postman, came from all parts of the U.S. stuffed full of lead type for his newest book The Private Type Casters, but most importantly Henry Morris reminded us all about how fun this work really is.

Meanwhile, Graham Moss (Incline Press in the UK) had written some new lyrics to an old popular melody (“A-nutting we will go”) and printed them beautifully as a keepsake for this memorable weekend. Gathering in Bob Fleck’s garden on Saturday evening, Graham passed out copies of his keepsake to the entire crowd and led us all in rousing rendition of the song when Henry emerged from the house.

We were pleased with the caliber of guests drawn to this years event and appreciated being a select part of the panel discussion with other printers and librarians. A memorable slice of pre-meeting communication included the musings of one pressman on the state of the fine press world today:

While most of us shared his views, we still seemed to flourish this year as the committed following of fine press lovers continued to find their way to our table.

At Oak Knoll 2008 we previewed our newest publication, Canticle of the Creatures by Francis of Assisi, in original Umbrian text with English translation by John Venerella. Though we will have many handmade paper copies available, by the end of Oak Knoll Fest, the parchment copies were already sold out! If you want more information on this publication please see our announcement here and to purchase this beautiful book contact us by clicking here.

Two collectible limited editions of the Canticle are being issued: 6 copies printed on sheepskin parchment, and 60 copies printed on cream-colored handmade paper, produced especially for the Press by Ruscombe Mills in France. The text has been set in beautiful Poliphilus type, with large initial letters in red, designed at the Press in the style of the original manuscript initial. (See the original here.) Our eight-page edition of the Canticle is printed in Large Quarto format – 10 x 13-1/2 inches. Both the paper and the parchment editions are bound in half Japanese linen with the boards covered in handmade Nepalese Lokta paper printed with our own Canticle pattern. Parchment copies are protected by a slipcase.

We expect to deliver finished books to their owners in December 2008.

For details about the 15th annual Oak Knoll Fest visit visit their website.
We hope to see you there!

This year we will enter our second book, The Gospel According to Philip, also with a parchment edition, into the Gregynog Letterpress competition for the finest book printed using traditional letterpress. We will also enter the Judges’ Choice Awards where three collectors and dealers chose their favorites of the books published since the previous fair. Wish us luck!

Although some official recognition would be nice, what we really love is meeting old and new friends and enjoying Oxford.

For more information about the Oak Knoll Book Festival, visit their website. We look forward to seeing the early fall colors, joining our old friends and meeting new faces. And we are always inspired by wonderful work of our peers.

We have. And we are passionate about bringing that joy back! The aim of the Petrarch Press is to preserve the tradition of fine press printing and share the beauty of fine press with this generation, the next generation and many generations to come. We create, by hand, letter by letter, page by page, lasting fine-press editions of important world literature for today’s fast paced world. And in doing so we teach the skills necessary to keep the tradition alive and share the beauty of traditional fine-press books with the public. We maintain a library with historical examples of fine-press printing and reference books on all aspects of the book arts: calligraphy, press operation, punch cutting, and with bibliographies of the great historical fine presses. We have restored several antique presses and have all the tools needed to produce fine press books. We still know how to print on parchment and we are keeping this costly and time consuming form alive. Instead of making books that rely on graphics and images, we focus on elegant typography and printing craftsmanship.

Of course we appreciate the advances of this modern world (you are, after all, reading this on our web site), but if you gave us a choice between a classic Bentley and a new Toyota, you know which one we would pick.