Notes and news

DR. ERNSTKYRISS 90

Still in excellent health, Dr. Ernst Kyriss, the well-known historian of German Bookbinding, celebrated his ninetieth birthday on 2 June 1971. Dr. Kyriss originally started on a technical career, but gave up his post in the spring of 1924 for health reasons. Soon afterwards he went to Munich where he studied Art History and where he became interested in fine old books and bindings. In the course of a few years he succeeded in forming a valuable collection of German incunabula, all of them in the original blind-stamped bindings. Bindings of the late gothic period had scarcely been studied as yet, so Kyriss deliberately set himself the task of clarifying matters. Henceforth he became an assiduous reader in the most important libraries, seeking out the bindings, rubbing and studying them and filling sheets with carefully written notes. He went back to study at the university and eventually took his doc- tor's degree at Erlangen, in January I940, with a thesis on Nuremberg monastic bindings. For over 40 years Dr. Kyriss has devoted his time to study and research in the field of book- binding, chiefly of the gothic period. Over the years he collected a wealth of material which he afterwards gave shape to in numerous articles and papers, no fewer than 175 in all, which saw print in various publications such as Gr.?tenberg Jahrbnch,B'orsenblatt fi%rden deutsclrenBuchhandcl, AllgemeinerAnzeiger.ftir Biichbiiidercieii, to mention only a few. His separately published works are: Katalog der Haiid.?chr?ftender Un illersitätsbibliothekEr- langen, Band VI, 2. Teil: Die Einbdtideder Handschriften,Erlangen 1936. - NiirnbergerKloster- eifib3ndeder Jahre 1433-1 525, Erlangen 1940. - Verzierte gotische Einbände illl alterr detitschen Sprnclr?yebiet,4 vol., Stuttgart I9sI-s8. - Katalog historisc?rerEirrbar2de des i i. bis 20. jahrhiiiiderts aus der Wiirtt. LalldesbibliothekStuttgart, Stuttgart 1955. - Der llerzierteouropaisclre Einbarrd ior dcr Renaissance,Stuttgart 1957. VerziertegotischeEÍ11bände is a standard work whicb anybody in- terested in the subject ought to look up. The senior historian of Bookbinding is an amiable gentleman, looking much younger than his age. He is still very active, going every day to the library he is working at, and not to be kept from his business by any means at all. A shining example to every one of us!

GEORGKURT SCHAUER

This well-known expert on book art, founder and first director of the Stiftung Buchkunst at the Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main, author of DeutscheBuchkullst 1890-1950 and editor of the German version of the jubilee book of the printing firm ofG.J. Thieme in Nijmegen - the English edition of which appeared under the title Book 1815-Igds - received an honorary professorate at the Technical Academy at Darmstadt. After a long and successful career as editor and producer with various publishing firms, Dr. Schauer, born in I899, was asked to start a course on the history of book art at this Academy in 1968. It is a proof of his successthat the Minister of Culture in the State of Hessen, on the recommendation of the Aca- demy, should have bestowed this honour on him. Professor Schauer is well versed in the Dutch language and has translated several Belgian and Dutch authors into German. This is one more reason why his colleagues in the Low Countries should be keen to express their satisfaction with his appointment. 309

HENRYFRIEDLAENDER RECEIVES THE GUTENBERGAWARD 197 1

The triennial award of the City of Mainz 'for outstanding accomplishments in the spirit of Gutenberg', first given to Dr. Giovanni Mardcrsteig of Verona in 1968, has now been con- ferred on Henri Friedlaender of during a ceremony on `Johannes Day', June 21St, conducted by the Lord Mayor of Mainz, who is also President of the Gutenberg Gesellschaft. The laudatiowas delivered by G. W. Ovink of Amsterdam in a speech in which he pointed to Die Gesinnungdes Typographen(The mental attitude of the typographer) as the decisive factor in finding the right degree of interference by the typographer in the work of the author and in the mind of the reader. The 'modest, but self-assured persistency' of both Mardersteig and Friedlaender was cited as characteristic and exemplifying the right attitude. Henri Friedlaender, who was born in 1906 at Lyons of a German father and an English mother, received his training at the Academy and further by working for some of the best German typographers and letterers of the twenties, such as Jakob Hegner (with Max Malte Miiller as his works manager) in Hellerau, the Klingspor Foundry at Offenbach (with and Max Dorn) and Ernst Kellner of the Offizin Haag-Drugulin in Leipzig, where he was in charge of production for the Insel Verlag and its typographer at that time, Gotthard de Beauclair. After coming to Holland as a refugee in 1932, Friedlaender worked for cighteen years in this country for the firm of Mouton in The Hague and as a free-lancer. He also gave many courses in lettering and calligraphy. During the German occupation he went underground, and pro- duced many calligraphic texts, mostly from the Bible and of his own, and some clandestine editions in a series called Pulvis Viarum. In 195o Friedlaender took charge of the Hadassah School of Printing in Jerusalem. Under the most difficult circumstances he succeeded in training a new generation of compositors, printers and reproduction specialists, sometimes from nearly illiterate pupils. He also produced in his school some of the finest books and jobbing work the young state of can boast of. In addition, he wrote several books and articles on typographical subjects, in Hebrew, Dutch, German and English. He retired from the school in his 65th year, and now teaches at the Bezalel Academy and is working again as a free-lance book designer. His 'Hadassah Hebrew' type, produced in 1958 by the Tetterode Foundry of Amsterdam and now also available on composing machine matrices of the Harris-Intertype Company of Slough, England, is widely used in Israel; it was also chosen by Joseph Blumenthal of The Spiral Press in New York for his monumental Hagadah. On the present occasion, one which must have given deep satisfaction both to Friedlaender and to his collaborators and pupils in Israel, Quaerefidosalutes him as a man who has made significant contributions to typography and lettering in the and as one of the world's foremost all round typographers. , , JUST BEFORETHE WAR

`Just Before thc'War', an exhibition of photographs from the Farm Security Administration in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress was on display in the Royal Library, Brussels, from 10 Feb. to 13 March, 1971. This exhibition was organised by Th. H. Garver of the Newport Harbor Art Museum (Calif.) with the assistanceand advice of the staff in the Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division. It was first mounted at the above mentioned museum, after which it travelled to other institutions in the U.S.A. Thanks to the efforts of the Center for American Studies and the Services Educatifs of the Royal Library it was also on show in Brussels.