[DCRM-L] Alternative to "xylographic"

[Noble, Richard]

Not so sure about Deborah's suggestion as it stands, since it seems to be
*defining* the term more narrowly than it should do. Maybe "... xylographic
(woodcut)"--still far from perfect, since you have to know what the term
means to understand that the parenthetical term specifies a subset. (By the
way, has anyone in this discussion ever encountered wood-engraved text that
wasn't part of a "graphic"?)

What we're talking about is *xylographic text* (which sounds almost like a
candidate for rbpri) not associated with pictorial content. A title page or
other purely textual page printed wholly from a woodcut would be included
in this category, along with isolated words set in a page with type.
Pictorial woodcut or wood-engraved title pages, etc., being "graphics", can
simply be referred to by those terms, just as we refer to equivalent
intaglio (engraved and etched) or lithographic matter.

We're often hampered by the imprecise use of terms by uninformed writers,
and terminological ambiguities--"plate", anyone? A DCRM description is
principally of interest to those who care about such a level of description
and either know what the appropriate technical terms mean or will be
motivated to look them up. Perhaps it  *would* be useful to have 655
Xylographic text (Printing), with an informative scope note. - Richard

RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
<Richard_Noble at Br <RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu>


On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Nipps, Karen <nipps at fas.harvard.edu> wrote:

>  I was just about to agree with Erin, but I like your compromise.
>
>
>
> Karen Nipps
>
> Head, Rare Book Team
>
> Houghton Library
>
> Harvard University
>
> Cambridge, MA 02138
>
> Phone: 617-496-9190
>
> FAX: 617-495-1376
>
>
>
> *From:* dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] *On
> Behalf Of *Deborah J. Leslie
> *Sent:* Wednesday, December 18, 2013 9:04 AM
>
> *To:* DCRM Users' Group
> *Subject:* Re: [DCRM-L] Alternative to "xylographic"
>
>
>
> I would dispute how widely understood the term is by users, but how about:
>
>
>
> 500 The first word of the title is xylographic (printed from a wood block).
>
>
>
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Folger Shakespeare Library |
> djleslie at folger.edu | 202.675-0369 | www.folger.edu
>
>
>
> *From:* dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>]
> *On Behalf Of *William Hale
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 18 December, 2013 04:38
> *To:* dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [DCRM-L] Alternative to "xylographic"
>
>
>
> Quite. I'm all for discarding obfuscatory jargon, but there seems no
> reason to reject a term which is widely used and understood by our users,
> and for which there is no obvious substitute.
>
> --
>
> William Hale.
>
>
>
> Rare Books Department,
>
> Cambridge University Library,
>
> West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DR,
>
> England.
>
>
>
> Telephone: (+44) (0)1223 333122
>
> Email: William.Hale at lib.cam.ac.uk
>
> On 18/12/2013 01:40, Erin Blake wrote:
>
> Good question. I'm surprised to discover that I'm coming down on the side
> of keeping "xylographic" (normally, I'm a big fan of the vernacular).
> Reasons for keeping "xylographic":
>
> ·       It covers both "woodcut" [plank-side technique] and "wood
> engraving" [end-grain technique]; the terms are easily confused, but
> meaningful to specialists; we don't want to have the same problem with wood
> cuts that we do with "metal cuts" in ESTC (where what are called "metal
> cuts" are almost always actually engravings, i.e. intaglio prints; metal
> cuts are a very rare form of illustration, printed in relief from metal
> plates)
>
> ·       The term "xylography" is widely used in the literature (enough so
> that on Friday, I overheard a professor making sure that his dissertation
> seminar students understood it)
>
> ·        It is understood by specialists to mean "graphic" in the sense
> "of or relating to the written or printed word" as opposed to "pictorial"
> (not just when talking about title pages, but when talking about woodcuts:
> there are times when it's important to distinguish which words in a picture
> are cut from the block and which are set from type, since only the latter
> can easily be changed; it's a big deal in the history of book illustration)
>
> ·       It's an important distinction that would be lost in keyword
> searching and datamining (it's fine to read "title printed from wood block"
> if you're looking for more information about a known book, but if you're
> studying printing history, you'll want to be able to search "xylograph*"
>
> ·       It's easily understood from the dictionary definition if someone
> doesn't know what it means.
>
>
>
> Thanks for bringing it up!
>
>
>
> Erin.
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Erin C. Blake, Ph.D.  |  Interim Head of Collection Information Services
> and Cataloging; Curator of Art & Special Collections  |  Folger Shakespeare
> Library  |  201 E. Capitol St. SE  |  Washington, DC 20003-1004  |  office
> tel. +1 (202) 675-0323  |  fax:  +1 (202) 675-0328  |  eblake at folger.edu
> |  www.folger.edu |  collation.folger.edu
>
>
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> *From:* dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>]
> *On Behalf Of *Noble, Richard
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 17, 2013 4:06 PM
> *To:* DCRM Users' Group
> *Subject:* Re: [DCRM-L] Alternative to "xylographic"
>
>
>
> I suppose the attraction of "xylographic" is that it corresponds
> semantically to "typographic". But we have "woodcut".
>
>
>
> How to phrase it? "First word is a woodcut", "First word is woodcut",
> "First word is printed from a woodcut block"? I ask, because in ordinary
> discourse there's a strong pictorial connotation to "woodcut", where the
> technical term "xylographic" simply means "printed from wood", with the
> understanding that it's from a block,  not wood type.
>
>
>
> Anyway, "woodcut"--or "wood engraving", if we're describing such a
> thing--does seem like the best candidate.
>
>
>  RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
>
> BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
>
> <Richard_Noble at Br <RICHARD_NOBLE at BROWN.EDU>own.edu>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Deborah J. Leslie <DJLeslie at folger.edu>
> wrote:
>
> In an effort to drop obscure vocabulary in catalog records, I'm casting
> about for another way to word a note on the fact that a word or block of
> text is printed from a wood block instead of metal type. The ESTC uses it
> extensively: e.g., http://estc.bl.uk/S120001
>
>
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
>
>
>
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East
> Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003 | djleslie at folger.edu |
> 202.675-0369 | http://www.folger.edu
>
>
>
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>
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