Review/Crítica: Multilingual Dictionary/Diccionario multilingüe

I am on a quest to discover good resources for the Spanish/English speaking bookish person. 

I'm reviewing Dictionary for the antiquarian booktrade in French, English, German, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Spanish and Dutch because it's more reliable than some other multilingual dictionaries.  I'm not actually sure this could properly be called a "dictionary," maybe more of a multilingual gloss--it doesn't provide parts of speech, definitions, or regional variants. The author, Menno Hertzberger, founded the international league of antiquarian booksellers in 1947. This book was also published midcentury. His native language was Dutch but his French was probably excellent. 

Given France's rich print culture, so much book history has been written in French that the language has an exceptionally large amount of book-related jargon (probably more than English or Spanish). I'd guess this dictionary is most accurate between French and Dutch, but the English-Spanish translations weren't bad.  Sometimes it translates a term into an equivalent phrase that's perfectly intelligible but that isn't often used: "consecutive numbering of pages" instead of "consecutive pagination," for example. Some translations just seemed incorrect: the translation for "turn-in" was "cabezada" (the word I usually use for "headband" or "endband"). 

One quirk was that there were repeat entries: the three different entries for "foxing" in English were alternately translated as "manchas de papel," "marcas de amarillentas," and "picadura roya." But for "filete" Hertzberger gives four equivalent terms in the same entry: "fillet, rule, ornamental line, ornamental band." 

This is very much written for the bookseller rather than -maker; not enough technical vocab for a binder. One thing I appreciated was that the print ID vocab all seemed translated precisely. And, overall, most of the translations were good. 

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Al fin de descubrir más recursos para el encuadernador bilingüe, doy una crítica de Dictionary for the antiquarian booktrade in French, English, German, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Spanish and Dutch por Menno Hertzberger, fundador de la Liga Internacional de Libreros Anticuarios (se fundó en 1947). Este libro se publicó unos pocos años después. No es un verdadero 'diccionario' porque le faltan las categorías, definiciones, y regionalismos. Se supone que la lengua materna de Hertzberger era holandés pero que también hablaba francés, el idioma internacional de su oficio. Dado la rica cultura impresa francesa, el léxico francés que trata del libro es muy amplio. Entre francés y holandés las traslaciones de Hertzberger serían excelentes. Entre inglés y español no eran malas ... decir esto no es decir mucho, pero este libro sí es alguno de los mejores de los que he usado.

A veces no se dan todas las traslaciones en un solo lugar: hay tres entradas distintas en español para traducir el sustantivo inglés "foxing." Pero la entrada para "filete" sí da tres palabras alternativas al lector. Palabras relacionadas con la estampa se trasladan con precisión. 

Claro, el libro sería de mayor utilidad al lector coleccionista ... el pobre encuadernador sigue buscando el diccionario de oro que contiene todas las palabras necesarias. 

This is a bilingual post. If you notice a mistake, please correct my grammar (in either language!)

Publico esta entrada en castellano e inglés. Al notar faltas de ortografía y gramática, hacedme el favor de corregirme (¡el inglés tanto como el español!)

experimental book

Have you ever made a photo album from scratch? Don't.

This is an experiment: a fast and dirty photo album, if you will. Maybe that's cheating, but my sanity is still intact. I thought the weighty feel of these things and the landscape format would be good for photos, although they don't always tend to open very well. This particular book has a 7mm channel between the spine and cover to allow it to open all the way.

My friend Luli screenprinted the endpapers. 

In the studio

The other day I was sewing this book and I knew exactly where to push the needle in and out without having to look. It brought home how much I've learned in class this year. Nada to precise muscle memory.

Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, president of the North Bennet Street School, writes that “When you become involved in the creative work of making useful, beautiful objects and gain a personal understanding of what is meant by the intelligence of the hands, it transforms who you are and how you think.”

It's hard to explain how doing rote tasks, like tearing down paper or sewing signatures (which is how I spend a lot of my time) is changing me. I guess that making useful, beautiful things just feels ... healthy. That's the best way I can describe it.

The other thing is that going to the bookbinding studio really makes me happy. I hate it when class is over, and sometimes when I'm doing other things I wish I was in class.

BOOK NERD. But that's old news ...

This little textblock got the royal treatment. I marbled the end papers and laminated the book cloth ... it is a rough red silk. The photos don't really capture how rich the color is.

I need flickr

Because when I mean "write a blog post" I usually mean "post a string of photos with captions." But my mom asked me to post some more photos of my neighborhood, and how can you say no to your mother? But first, photos of this beautiful city.

Ocupa y resiste:

I think visitors must attach these to the fence at Parc Guell. I don't know why. Also it made me sad that people had carved their initials into the cacti. It's a world heritage site, leave it alone.

I wish I understood the history of the park better so I might go look up a book on it at the library. This monument did not look gaudi-ish, it was a mountain of stone with some stone crosses at the top. I met some German people there. 

This is just after sunset at Parc Puxtet. The golden building is the church on top of Tibidabo. Parc Puxtet is one of my favorite places in Barcelona.

A lot of the shops in my neighborhood have signs like this that tell you where to enter and exit. Inside, the shop is a U-shape, with the register in the middle of the U. My neighborhood, Gracia, actually used to be its own little town, but in the 1800s it was absorbed into the city. So that's why not on quite as large a scale as the other neighborhoods nearby. 

I love these windows. On a building on my way to the library.

This intrigues me so much. It's next to a boarded-up shop. WHEN DID THIS EXISIT?

Met Leo while he was painting a sign for the organic market near the metro stop. He did a really beautiful job; his blog does not even do his work justice. The word for "gilding" in Spanish is "filetes." "Filete" is also the word for "leading," in printing.

The public fountain. The sign reads, "This fountain was constructed in 1844 for the good citizens of Gracia." Today people use it to water their plants and when they're walking their dogs. But in 1844, this was probably an important spot in the neighborhood, where some people got all their water.

The main plaza, where the seat of the local government is, has this sweet clock tower. Thanks Rachel for showing it to me!

This private home is near my apartment. Sadly, my apartment does not resemble it at all. Catalan architecture is playful, decorative, organic, and eccentric. UPDATE: later I found out that this was Gaudi's first big commission. And I thought all those Japanese people with cameras had just stumbled on it, too.

A neighborhood street with light pouring in from above. Barcelona has strict building codes to make the city liveable and retain its character, so you can't build too high.

One of my favorite architectural details in buildings are terraces that have stone- or tile-work below. It's a thoughtful gesture to the street viewer.

A few snapshots of a parade in Poblenou. Reminded me so much of the Mayday parade in MPLS. 

This is what I did yesterday. These little books were made to take advantage of some paper scraps that were lying around the shop. I painted the striped paper with Noodler's Ink, which is my favorite. Coptic bindings are as old as books are. 

Setting type for some very special, bilingual business cards ... stay tuned!

Japanese ... ish

These are some books I made today. I have sewn these Japanese structures before (who hasn't?) but what what different this time around was making them with a hard cover. This way the books are more substantial. But maybe a bit klunky.

Each time I make these I'm amazed at both how simple and pleasing the effect is, and how elegantly the whole thing comes together.

Happy Endings

At the book arts conservatory we ended the semester with friends, food, and books (big surprise there). Corks flew in the intaglio studio on Thursday night and large amounts of tortilla, chorizo, and empanada were consumed.

The Spanish are big on what they call the "sobremesa" ... lingering over a meal long after the food is gone.

Bookbinders can be shy (they do, after all, spend more time with paper than with people). But they're definitely not cold! I feel so grateful to have found this corner of the book arts world.

What I'm most grateful for this holiday season: my parents and my brother, my grandparents, and the great Seogvian family I'm going to spend Christmas with. I'm getting a shot at living all my bookish dreams, but I know I wouldn't be here without the support from my family, and all the mentoring that goes on in the book arts community.

Internationally nerdy: we've got paper people from Russia, Peru, Chile, Switzerland, Japan, Spain, and the US.

Homemade sushi from one of the other exchange students

How bookbinders catch the metro: with big rolls of paper.

My first batch of nice books :)

"Holandés" binding

Hand-painted endpapers (by me!) with a softcover binding

More snazzy end papers. 

 This red book has a textured cover and more striped paper inside.

An envelope. 

Also on the note of mentoring, I was thrilled to listen to this story on MPR. John mentored me at Leg Up Studio. The article captures John's generosity, and the great things that are going on at Leg Up, which is a community printmaking studio in NE Minneapolis.

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz navidad! Or, even more Spanish: ¡Felices fiestas!

Older is better

It takes a loooooooong time to make good books. In the two months of class I've had, I've only turned out a dozen finished books (but there are more in the works, so stay tuned).

Here are some photos of sewing some textblocks .... very slowly:

The books are sewn on hemp cords. You get all the holes in line by using a saw on the spine. (TOOLS).

The nerve is level with the pages (not above or too deep).

Even though it takes forever, it's super satisfying to finish sewing textblocks and for them to turn out well. I guess that's what the handmade book still has going for it!

Cizallas y cicatrices

The bookbinding shop at school is pretty incredible. Here are some photos to drool over. 

We have two of these antique cabinets filled with antique tools for
foil stamping. They were rescued from a shop in Madrid that was
closing. 

A close up of the tools. It is a pretty incredible collection and,
like a lot of our equipment, should probably be in a museum.
The school is very careful with it all and you can only be in
the shop when the professor is there too.

This platen needs someone to love it/clean it (me?)

Each student receives their own work surface and storage space.

Some of the equipment, like this guillotine, is just so beautiful. And
each piece tells a story ... most have a little plaque attached with the
name of the original equipment dealer or manufacturer and the year.

The cizalla ... or at least one of them. I'm not used to this one yet and yesterday
I banged my head on it. Since the equipment in the shop doesn't meet current
 safety regulations, part of what we pay in tuition goes into an "emergency room" fund.

Also, try to say "cizalla" five times fast. (THE - THI - UH).