Library Lens - Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Library LibGuides at Corning Community College

About a year ago, Professor Dave Pindel told me he used to bring his classes to the library to view a sample of items from our History of the Written Word collection. Among those items was a book with paintings on the exposed edges. I'd seen examples of fore-edge paintings online, but had no idea we had them in our collection. Nor did I have any idea how I was going to locate them.

A fore-edge painting is a scene painted on the long edge of book pages. In some cases, the scene is visible when the book is closed, but more often, the book looks like any other until the pages are fanned. The hidden nature of these miniature works of art was what made finding them in our collections especially challenging.

Marks of ownership were common on early books. It wasn't uncommon for bibliophiles to have custom bookplates printed with warnings or threats to discourage theft. Some historians believe fore-edge paintings began as a way to identify a book's owner. Others believe the practice was just one more way of decorating the whole book, much like illuminated manuscripts. The earliest known examples date back to the mid 17th century (Weber 52).

To apply a fore-edge scene, an artist would fan the pages of a book before securely clamping them together. Using watercolors (oil paints would make the pages stick together), the artist would use as dry a brush as possible to create the scene. When the paint was completely dry, the edges of the pages would be gilded and then released from the clamp.

Double fore-edge paintings are especially rare. It is believed that only 2-3% of existing volumes with fore-edge paintings are doubles (Weber 99). Books with a double fore-edge painting can be seen when the book is opened to the middle of its length and is laid flat in an open state with one-half of its pages splayed to the right and one-half to the left. The Library's special collections has one such double fore-edge painted book, a Holy Bible containing the old and new testaments, 1838.

After a detailed search through our database for references to fore-edge paintings (and every variation of the term I could think of) I was able to locate three books with these rare treasures. Some are in better condition than others, but I'd be delighted to share them in-person if you want to schedule a time to visit the archive.

Other fore-edge books in the collection are:

Sketch book of Geoffrey Crayon, Washington Irving, 1852
Complete poetical works of William Cowper, 1853

Works Cited

Weber, Carl J. Fore-Edge Painting: A Historical Survey of a Curious Art in Book Decoration. (Irvington-On-Hudson: Harvey House, Inc., 1966).

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Shakespeare's Second Folio

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Incunabula

You get bonus points for using this vocabulary word in your daily life. But what does it mean? Incunabula is a Latin word that refers to all books printed from the time of Gutenberg's movable type press (around 1455) to the end of 1500. These are the earliest printed books and they're very special to librarians, book collectors, and book historians.The most important contributions to the printing of incunabula came from Germany and Italy. Religious literature was printed in great quantity during this period. The first printers working in Germany created large volumes that were held in monastic libraries. Italy on the other hand overestimated the demand for Latin classics which resulted in a significant overstock. The first fifty years of book publishing were especially productive but technically inefficient, these books often lacked title pages or pagination. As the market for books grew throughout northern Europe, competition among printers became intense and standard formatting became the norm.The Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Library holds an excellent reproduction of the Gutenberg Bible as well as examples of type faces used by leading book printers working in the late 1400s. Our collection has two printed books from the Incunabula period along with a number of leaves.Gutenberg Bible, London, 1611 Cicero, Venice, 1482According to our records, this copy of Cicero's, Libri III cum commento petro marso is one of only two known copies in the United States. Published in Venice, in 1482, it is in excellent condition with handwritten notes in the margins. The earliest printers were trained in the manuscript tradition, as a result, the first generation of printed books imitated manuscripts by including spaces for illuminations that could be painted after printing. This book is a fine example of that practice. Resources“Incunabula.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc, 2020. Stillo, Stephanie. “Incunabula: The Art & History of Printing in Western Europe, c. 1450-1500.” Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=580edae150234258a49a3eeb58d9121c. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025. Martin, Dr. John H., “History of the Written Word” (library records)...

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Our library is dedicated to Arthur A. Houghton Jr. because of his generosity to our college. Take a moment to learn how his vision helped to shape cultural institutions well beyond our community. ...