Join the University Libraries this Tuesday, in a quest for knowledge that's both essential and trivial!
Special Collections, Archives, & Preservation (SCAP) and the Department of French & Italian present How To Do It In Renaissance Italy, an exhibit featuring the curatorial work of the students of Literary and Artistic Cultures in Italy.
Working with Associate Professor Suzanne Magnanini, students Ian Loustalot, Marlen Montanez, Haden Ongaro, and Finnbar Shortall translated passages from rare 16th and 17th-century Italian books by such authors as Baldassare Castiglione, Vannoccio Biringuccio, and Vincentio Saviolo.
This exhibit includes student translations of the old ‘how to’ manuals that guided Renaissance behavior in:
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How to Rule
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How to Conduct an Honorable Quarrel
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How to Dye One’s Hair Blond
"Student translations serve as a guide to the connection between the past and our present-day world," said SCAP's Instruction Manager Susan Guinn-Chipman. “By setting and printing their own translations of these works in a fashion similar to that of Renaissance Italy, Magnanini’s students can demonstrate both continuity and change across centuries of communication. Close readings of these Italian Renaissance works provide a sense of the past and show how, four centuries on, we continue to share much in common with our predecessors.”
The students also handset and letterpress-printed guides of some of their translations at the Book Arts League of Lafayette, with the assistance of book artists Guinn-Chipman, Gregory Robl, and Julia Seko.
These hand-printed guides will be offered free to exhibit visitors at the SCAP Open House on Tuesday, April 23, 4 p.m. - 6 p.m in Special Collections Classroom N345.