About this Item
4to (145 x 175 mm). [50] pp., each page within neo-gothic decorative borders, and four full-page illustrations, all inspired illuminated gothic manuscripts. Woven in black and grey on silver silk, mounted on card. Bound in fine contemporary ocean-blue morocco Jansenist, by J. Kauffmann-Petit & Maillard, top and bottom edges gilt, doublures of brown morocco, five raised bands on spine, double silver and blue moire silk flyleaves. Preserved in a hinged silk-lined case with push-button lock. AN ASTONISHING, ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC TRIUMPH IN THE SERVICE OF BOOKMAKING THROUGH "MODERN" SCIENTIFIC INGENUITY AND THE WEAVING ARTS. IT IS A CELEBRATION OF LATE 19TH-CENTURY FRENCH NEO-GOTHIC DESIGN, REALIZED THROUGH THE EMPLOYMENT OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PUNCHED CARDS UTILIZED AS AUTOMATED WEAVING INSTRUCTIONS CONVEYED TO AN ARRAY OF MECHANIZED JACQUARD LOOMS. OUR COPY, WHICH IS PERFECTLY PRESERVED, WAS MADE TO ORDER, A PRESENT FROM A WOMAN TO HER MOTHER. Only approximately fifty, or at most sixty, copies of this book were produced, and it took more than two years of programming and weaving on Jacquard looms to do so. Each page is entirely woven from silver silk thread, programmed into the Jacquard loom using approximately 200,000 individual punch cards. Conceptually, the punch-card system is the very foundation of computer programming. The "Livre de prières tissé" has been described in error as "the first computer woven book." In fact, it was preceded by the virtually unobtainable, unillustrated, and less accomplished "Les Laboureurs: poeme tire de Jocelyn" by Alphonse de Lamartine (1883), likewise woven in silk by J.A. Henry in Lyon. Here is one of the true marvels of nineteenth-century technology in the service of the "Book Arts," and absolutely must be seen to be fully appreciated. It is a spectacular neo-Gothic Book of Prayers, made of silvery-grey and black silk thread, woven together by means of the Jacquard automated loom method, the results being accurate to within one-tenth of a millimeter. There is a strange and wondrous dimensionality in these pages, which without exaggeration can be said to shimmer. The Jacquard loom was invented in 1801, and for decades it remained the most complex programmable machine in existence. The incredible potential of the "Operations / Variables" punched card system, with its binary data and modern "Input / Output / Storage" capabilities, was seized upon by English visionary Charles Babbage, who integrated the process into his theoretical "Analytical Engine." James Essinger has argued convincingly that the Jacquard loom was pivotal in the in the development of computer science. With uncanny prescience, the data input mechanisms and intricate algorithms that created the present volume prefigure modern computer automation and computer programming: input in the form of "zeros and ones" that conveying complex instructions to the mechanical looms by means of punched cards; output in the form predetermined patterns; and memory in which the instructions can be stored and subsequently recovered. The designs for the present silk Prayer Book, including its floral and illustrated borders, were made by R.P.J. Hervier. Lillian Randall determined that the full-page "illuminations" herein were actually derived from a published book, namely the "Imitation de Jesus-Christ" (Paris, Gruel et Engelmann) which contained reproductions of a variety of medieval illuminated manuscripts. Michael Laird, writing about the book in "The World from Here: Treasures of the Great Libraries of Los Angeles," explains: "Despite the fact that this rare volume is not a printed book, it is of singular interest in that it was completely woven with silver and black silk thread. It also represents an extremely early book production involving automation and programming. The book was manufactured on silk looms that were programmed using the punched-card system developed by Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834). Several hund.
Seller Inventory # 4318
Contact seller
Report this item
