Notes and News ALLAN H. STEVENSON T the Untimely Death of Dr. Allan H. Stevenson, the Man Who Gave the History of Paper a Scient
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Notes and news ALLANH. STEVENSON t The untimely death of Dr. Allan H. Stevenson, the man who gave the history of paper a scientific basis, is a great loss to scholarship. His greatest achievement was the application of Beta-radiography to the investigation of old paper, which enabled him to observe the pro- gressive deterioration of twin moulds. With this aid he arrived at astonishingly accurate datings. He provided a brilliant application of his method in his book The problem of the Missale Spe- ciale, published in 1967, where he proved that this much debated work was printed in 1473. A few years ago he visited the Netherlands in order to carry out research into the dating of the Netherlandish block-books and prototypography. The former was the subject of talks given by him for the Tiele-Stichting and the University Library of Amsterdam, in which he came to the conclusion that the block-books could not be dated earlier than the i46os. We hope that these talks will be published. Dr. Stevenson assisted the Paper Publications Society in publishing Briquet's Opuscula, and he also wrote a masterly introduction to the new edition of Briquet's great work, Les filigranes,published in 1968. FRITS LUGT'f' On IS July 1970 the well-known collector Frits Lugt died in Paris. Lugt started off as an art- dealer and finished up as one of the foremost connoisseurs of old Dutch art, especially of drawings and engravings, of which he had built up an unrivalled collection. He supported and enriched the collections of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague, and was the founder of the Institut N6erlandals in Paris, where parts of his collection were frequently exhibited. He also owned a valuable accumulation of old Dutch books, a section of which came from the famous library belonging to the art-dealer Vincent van Gogh, auctioned in I9I8; and in addition he possessed a collection of autographs by famous Dutch artists. HENDERIKUSBOS KNZ t With the death of Dr. Henderikus Bos Kzn on 3 September 1970 at the age of 89, one of Hol- land's most talented and unusual bookcollectors has passed away. As a timber merchant he travelled widely and never failed to visit the antiquarian bookshops in the places he journeyed to. Later on in life he began to study law at the university of Leiden and gained his LLD The great work which he had undertaken on the history of natural law in the 16th century remained unfinished. He built up large collections in a number of fields, including maps, atlassesand works on the Reformation, and sold parts of them again. His most meritorious services were those he rendered on behalf of the Protestant Church's aid to the insanc. DUTCH ANTIQUARIANBOOKSELLERS The Nederlandsche Vereniging van Antiquaren (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of The Netherlands) mourned the loss in 1969 of three prominent members, all of whom also be- longed to the small circle of auctioneers. On 24 May J. P. Stam died at Leiden at the age of 65. Since 1940 he had been director of the firm of Burgcrsdijk & Niermans. With his death the Dutch antiquarians have lost an all-round dealer. Many important libraries came under his hammer. On 13 August the death occurred of J. Kuipers (1906-1969), owner since 1941of Van Stockum's Antiquariaat at The Hague in succession to J. B. J. Kerling. His departure has deprived us of another expert judge of old books. 14 October 1969 saw the death of F. W. G. Théonville in his 8I st year. Since 1923 he had been manager of A. J. van Huffel's Antiquariaat at Utrecht. Here again we have lost an antiquarian bookseller with an extensive knowledge of books and 60 prints, of genealogy and heraldry. Many important collections (including Menso) and castle libraries were auctioned by him. The firm has since gone into liquidation. INAUGURATIONOF THEROYAL LIBRARY, BRUSSELS King Baudouin I and Queen Fabiola officially inaugurated the Royal Library on the 17th of February 1969. A special exhibition was devoted to 15 years of acquisitions, 1954-1968, comprising manuscripts, coins, prints, maps, rare books, autographs, literary and musical documents, etc. A 548 pp. catalogue (No. 34), the collective work of the various departments, was issued complete with illustrations and indexes. The speeches delivered in the course of the `Seance acad6mique' and the 'Colloque international' which gathered on this occasion were col- lected and published together with an historical account of the various premises occupied by the Royal Library since its Burgundian origins and a description of the most important donations. ALEXANDERSTOLS On 21 January z9?o, A. A. M. Stols reached the age of 70. It is now a year later, but in a chronicle of the most important recent events in the book world, a jubilee such as this must not go un- mentioned. The contribution made by Alexander Stols to the content and appearance of the well-made book has been a major one. The youngest of the 'big five' - De Roos, Van Royen, Van Krim- pen, Nypels and himself - who breathed new life into the art of book-producing in the Nether- lands, he helped largely to improve the quality of machine-made, literary, trade-editions. He sought for, and found, his answer in simple typographical virtues - sound type, carefully set up and balanced on the page, correctly printed on good paper - but he also commissioned work from many illustrators and letter designers, work which not seldom started them off on a distinguished career. The same feeling for quality, the same creative urge, and the same desire to provide talented youngsters with an outlet for their skill, also characterized his activities as a literary publisher. The list of his authors comprises a series of names such as only the largest publishers in the largest countries could attract. And yet the building up of this list was the work of one man on his own. It was Stols's own personality that encouraged writers such as Paul Valery and Andre Gide to entrust their work to this Dutchman operating single-handedly. His publications during the years 1925-1940 alone, have almost no parallel in our century if one considers the quality of their contents, the excellence of their form, and their international importance. Nor were Holland and Belgium the only countries so magnificently represented; France, England and Germany had their place too. One wonders, in fact, whether the French appreciate how much Stols, and Nypels too, have done for the publication of French literature. Do they not tend to regard it as a rightful tribute paid by foreigners to the genius of France? As a commendable, but essentially redundant activity on the fringe of Parisian book-production, rather than as a welcome corrective to shortcomings in that very field ? Whatever the truth may be, Holland and Belgium at any rate are grateful for what Stols has done for their literature and printing. His example influenced the following generation, even if it was too much bound up with his personal skills to be followed straight-forwardly or repeated directly. From his present home at Tarragona on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, Stols can look back on an exceptionally active career, pursued throughout the course of an exciting but also ex- tremely difficult life. Quaerendosends him its best wishes, well aware that the soil in which it hopes to thrive has to no small extent been prepared by Stols himself MENNO HERTZBERGER The well-known antiquarian bookseller Menno Hertzberger celebrated the fiftieth anni- .