Reading Copy Book Blog

Last weekend, the Alcuin Society announced the winners of its annual 25th Awards For Excellence in Book Design in Canada. The judges selected 34 winning books from more than 250 entries from almost 100 publishers in nine provinces.  

The Alcuin Society is a particularly interesting organisation based in Vancouver - just across the Georgia Strait from us, here in Victoria on Vancouver Island. A non-profit society, it is devoted to the support and appreciation of fine books. I wondered where its name originated and a brief search of their site told me:

The name “Alcuin” honours the memory of Alcuin of York (c. 735 to 804 A.D.), Abbot of St. Martin at Tours, a man who cared deeply about books and literacy. As Charlemagne’s “Minister of Culture”, and a respected teacher, Alcuin encouraged the study and preservation of ancient texts, contributed to the development of the lowercase alphabet and helped establish numerous schools and libraries.

Look out for the Society’s program of exhibits featuring beautiful books at various locations across Canada this year.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under art, books, design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.