Visible Voices: Translating Verse into Script and Print 3000 BC - AD 2000: Translating Verse into Script & Print, 3000 B.C.-A.D. 2000 - Softcover

Nicolas Barker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847772129 ISBN 13: 9781847772121

Publisher: Lives and Letters, 2016

Synopsis

In Visible Voices Nicolas Barker traces the history of the 'translation' of poetry from a spoken medium to a written, or printed, medium. The book moves from the pictograms of the Ancient Near East through the development of alphabetic scripts, the traditions of Medieval European manuscripts, the shift from script to print, all the way to the innovations and experiments of the modernist period. Stephane Mallarme's typographically exploded poem Un coup de des n'abolira pas le hasard, Barker writes, 'takes the problem that has haunted poets and their audiences over 4000 years to a logical conclusion: that is, how the evanescent iridescent idea in the poet's mind is to be registered in graphic form - what, in short, is the art of poetry?' Illustrated throughout with photographs of the texts, this book provides a fascinating account of the history of this art.

About this title

About the Author

NICOLAS BARKER grew up in Cambridge, surrounded by books. He started printing them at fourteen, then went into publishing, becoming editor of The Book Collector, and in 1976 first Head of Conservation of the British Library. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has written or edited thirty books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lives and Letters
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1847772129
• ISBN 13: 9781847772121
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 191