China News Service, Shanghai, September 12 (Reporter Chen Jing) The new book launch ceremony of "The Renaissance in the Study: Copying, Printing and Binding of Western Books from the 10th to the 17th Centuries" and "The Elegance of Books: Notes on Renaissance Books" was held in Shanghai on the 11th. The two books build a solid foundation for readers to understand Renaissance book culture from the dual dimensions of physical textual research and humanistic speculation.
The event brought together well-known art historian and professor of China Academy of Art Fan Jingzhong, deputy director of Shanghai Library Xue Feng, president of Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Publishing House Wang Chun and other experts and scholars from academia, library circles, art circles and publishing circles to witness the release of the new book.
The study of Western book history and Renaissance humanism is an important intersecting field that connects philology, art history, and intellectual history. It profoundly interprets the inner logic of civilization evolution in a rich form that spans eras and regions. For a long time, domestic academic circles have been relatively lacking in systematic physical examination and in-depth interpretation of this field.
The "Renaissance in the Study - Special Exhibition of Western Copying, Printing and Binding Art from the 10th to 17th Centuries" held at the same time takes Western copying, printing and binding art as its core theme, breaking through the traditional narrative model of Renaissance exhibitions focusing on painting and sculpture. For the first time, books are used as the entry point, aiming to clarify the fundamental fact that "the Renaissance began with books and was also driven by books".
"Renaissance in the Study: Copying, Printing and Binding of Western Books from the 10th to the 17th Century" is edited by the Medici Shanghai Center. It is an academic bibliographical catalog that systematically presents the ideological landscape of the Renaissance. It selects 130 rare Western ancient books from the 10th to the 17th century, covering manuscripts, cradle volumes, Aldus octavo and the first editions of the Scientific Revolution. The book is based on physical visual inspection, completes the description and textual research of editions one by one, and provides an in-depth analysis of the book's carrier materials, font evolution (Carolingian lowercase, Romanesque, Gothic, humanistic), and colorful decorations (plate decoration, Greek decoration, Grotesque decoration, etc.). It also includes 8 research monographs by domestic and foreign scholars, which completely outlines the intellectual revolution process from the monastery scriptorium to the movable type printing workshop. It integrates the recording of rare ancient books, physical textual research and special research.
"The Elegance of Books: Notes on Renaissance Books" written by Professor Fan Jingzhong is an artistic and literary note-style academic monograph focusing on the core of Renaissance humanities. With "elegance" as the core, it connects the three dimensions of books, art and humanistic scholarship, and revolves around three "elegances": the Roman movable type created by Janssen defines the elegance of printing and establishes the aesthetic paradigm of printing in the West for more than 500 years; Castiglione's "On Courtiers" proposes the concept of "sprezzatura" to shape the elegance of personality; Vasari's "Lives of Famous People" highlights the elegance of art. It is reported that the book integrates close reading of physical objects, citations of classic texts and humanistic insights. It analyzes the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western editions and provides numerous insights. It is not only an in-depth interpretation of the core concept of humanism, "elegance", but also a history of Renaissance book culture.
The publication of these two new books not only provides systematic literature and image references for domestic research fields such as book history, art history, and philology, but also contributes new academic knowledge to understanding the continuity and creativity of Western civilization from a global perspective. Professor Fan Jingzhong has long advocated that "art history should be a humanities subject", and these two works are the vivid practice of this concept. They transcend disciplinary barriers and effectively promote comparative research and interdisciplinary dialogue in the global context of Chinese art history, allowing Chinese readers to experience the humanistic charm of the Renaissance through elegant texts and images.
On that day, Professor Fan Jingzhong gave a themed lecture titled "Before and After the Cradle Book—Focusing on the Three Exhibits of the "Renaissance in the Study" Special Exhibition." With his profound knowledge of art history, he used three precious books in the special exhibition - the handwritten "Jewish Ancient History", the cradle version of "Love Dreams" and the pocket-sized italicized version of "Virgil" - as examples to talk about the beauty of book binding, illustrations and fonts, searching for the aesthetic exploration and spiritual pursuit of Renaissance humanists in the process of reviving classical culture, and showing how book art has become an important carrier to carry and spread classical civilization.
