Researches into the History of Playing Cards: With Illustrations of the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood (Cambridge Library Collection - Art and Architecture) - Softcover

Singer, Samuel Weller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108079113 ISBN 13: 9781108079112

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2016

Synopsis

The literary scholar Samuel Weller Singer (1783-1858) was largely self-taught, but his enthusiasm for reading caused him to open a bookshop, and he developed a wide circle of bibliomaniac friends, including Francis Douce (who later left him enough money to retire from writing for a living). He was an editor of many early modern poets, and his editions of John Selden's Table-Talk and Joseph Spence's Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men are also reissued in this series. This highly illustrated 1816 work, originally published in a run of only 250 copies, was praised for its quality by Thomas Frognall Dibdin. In it, Singer argues that the increasing sophistication sought by the buyers of playing cards led to increasing improvements in the art of wood engraving, and that the study of these humble and rarely surviving artefacts can give insights into the achievements of the greatest Renaissance carvers.

About this title

Book Description:

In this highly illustrated 1816 work, Samuel Weller Singer argues that the increasing sophistication sought by buyers of playing cards led to increasing improvements in the art of wood engraving, and that the study of these rarely surviving artefacts can give insights into the achievements of the greatest Renaissance carvers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1108079113
• ISBN 13: 9781108079112
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 430