Benny Alba, Coordinator
Details of [Baren Exchange #38]
- Medium: woodblock print (hand rubbed or pulled on a press, B&W or colour, any pigments, any paper)
Coordinator's comments:
Colophon (Greek) was a city in the region of Lydia in antiquity, dating from about the turn of the first millennum - bc. It was likely one of the oldest of the 12 Ionian League cities. The city’s name comes from the word “summit”, which is the origin of the bibliographic term “colophon”, in the metaphorical sense of a “crowning touch”, as it was sited along a ridge line. Wikipedia
Colophon [GR.,= finishing stroke]. Before the use of printing in Western Europe a manuscript often ended with a statement about the author, the scribe, or the illuminator. The first printed book to have a comparable concluding statement was the Mainz Psalter, crediting the printer & giving the date printed (1457) in its last paragraph. After this, a printed book commonly ended with this statement, now called a colophon. The information came to be given on the title page after c.1520. The name colophon is applied also to a printer's mark or a publisher's device on a title page or elsewhere. The Columbia Encyclopedia.
col-o-phon [kol-uh-fon, fuhn] noun
1. a publisher’s or printer’s distinctive emblem, used as an identifying device on its books and other works. 2. an inscription at the end of a book or manuscript, used esp. in the 15th & 16th centuries, giving the title or subject of the work, its author, the name of the printer or publisher, & the date & place of publication. Dictionary.com
Origin: 1615-25. Greek kolophon, summit, finishing touch.
Colophon
The title of a book
A monastery’s blog
A company in Illinois
A location in Houston, Texas
A site for independent music on the web
A cafe and deli in Bellingham, Washington
A magazine published in a slavic speaking country
An international Magazine Symposium in Luxembourg
A thesis presented to the Grad. Faculty of the U of Virginia
A bookshop specializing in antiquarian and in-print books about books
This gathering of colophons for the web based group, The Baren, and the collation of the described prints was done by printmaker Benny Alba of Oakland, California in the year of 2008.
Colophon coming soon...