Category Archives: Acquisitions

New Acquisition of Les Illuminations

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In recent years, Fondren has been building an impressive collection of livres d’artiste to support the university’s visual arts department. While American artists have been the primary focus, we have increasingly been collecting works by European and international artists. Our most recent acquisition is by the French artist Fernand Léger, consisting of fifteen original lithographs illustrating a selection of poems from Arthur Rimbaud’s Les Illuminations. From a total edition of 395 copies, Fondren’s is one of 25 on vélin teinte lourd paper and includes additional signed lithographs. You can find more information about this work on Princeton University’s Graphic Arts Collection website.

CORAL: A new ERM for Fondren

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The library recently implemented a new open-source Electronic Resource Management System (ERM) called CORAL to better manage our electronic resources. A small implementation group spearheaded by Scott Vieira has been put in place. Work with the ERM currently will be limited to Acquisitions Staff, but use by other departments is being explored to help with workflow processes.

New Music Acquisitions

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Cartier's L'Art du Violon

The Library recently acquired two rare French violin treatises. The first is Jean-Baptiste Cartier’s L’Art du Violon, originally published in 1798. Fondren’s copy is an expanded third edition from c. 1803 and is bound in beautiful marble boards. Grove’s music dictionary describes the importance of this treatise: “This imposing volume  contained a comprehensive selection of sonatas and single movements composed by Italian, French and German masters of the 17th and 18th centuries. Cartier included both manuscripts and early editions, and he salvaged a number of masterpieces from oblivion.”

 

Corrette's L'Ecole d'Orphee

The second acquisition is a much rarer item and the only known copy in a library outside of Paris. Michel Corrette’s L’Ecole d’Orphée Méthode Pour Apprendre facilement a jouer du Violon dates from 1738 and was the most advanced method on violin playing to appear in France up to that time. Corrette would go on to write a number of additional treatises on string playing, and this particular book, which details both French and Italian styles of playing,  provides valuable insight in the historical methods for playing the violin as well as the development of the instrument and its repertoire.