Felix Cunha and Incunabula Medica at the Roxburghe Club


Here's a letterpress print announcement from Herbert Fahey for the Roxburghe Club in San Francisco in 1947.

The announcement, with an attractive border of antiquarian images of printing-related scenes, is for a presentation by Felix Cunha titled, Incunabula Medica. Cunha is described as a "Doctor of Medicine, Bibliophile, Author, Savant, Traveler."


The printer Fahey, whose name appears on the back, was active in the book arts in California, having served as president of the San Francisco Club of Printing House Craftsmen in 1929. The Book Club of California also published his book, Early Printing in California: From Its Beginning in the Mexican Territory to Statehood, September 9, 1850 (1956, printed by the Grabhorn Press). I would assume he might have also been a member of the Roxburghe Club, which was formed in 1928 in San Francisco.

What I know about Felix Cunha is pretty much what is printed on the announcement about him. As a bibliophile physician with an interest in medical books, he collected among other subjects, the work of Sir William Osler, a founding professor at Johns Hopkins Hospital. A 1987 issue of the Osler Library Newsletter confirms Dr. Cunha's interest in the writing of Dr. Osler, noting that Dr. Cunha's collection of Osleriana had been sold to the Woodward Biomedical Library at the University of British Columbia.

Osler, in turn, had an interest in the early printing history of medical books and wrote about that history in Incunabula Medica: A Study of the Earliest Printed Medical Books, 1467-1480. With that bit of information, one might wonder if Dr. Cunha was lecturing to the Roxburghe Club back in 1947 about an interest in incunabula medica that he shared with Dr. Osler, or was he talking that night about Dr. Osler's book? Regardless, it's likely that Dr. Osler's book found its way into the presentation.

Given Felix Cunha's interest in medical history subjects, it seems only natural that he would pen a few books and articles himself, a list of which can be found here.

Thanks to William R. "Bill" Holman for donating this Roxburghe Club announcement to my collection.


Comments

  1. Bruce HettemaOctober 22, 2012 at 7:07 PM

    Hello, I'm very interested in learning more about this piece. Herb worked for my firm, Patterson & Sullivan and they use this art for one of their promo ads. Bruce Hettema, P&H Creative Group bruce@phcreative.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to open a book

Image
Cataloging books the other day, I came across an 1890s multivolume set called Messages and Papers of the Presidents . Inside one of the volumes was a slip of printed paper with a bookbinder's message: How to Open a Book . The set was published by the Government Printing Office, so they are the likely source of this piece of paper, which reprints a passage from a publication titled, Modern Bookbinding . No other bibliographical detail is included for that title, but I have found a magazine from that era, Modern Bookbinding and Their Designers . No clue, though, as to the author of this particular piece. You might wonder (I did) why there would be a need for instructions to open a book. And if you put those instructions inside the book, doesn't that defeat the purpose somewhat? Opening a book is not as easy as you might think. At least if you read these instructions and try to follow them. Here's the gist of it in the opening run-on sentence: Hold the book with its back on a ...
Read more

A Bookaholic and Bibliophile in Ukraine

Image
A favorite piece in my Bibliophemera collection is an unused postcard illustrated by Ukrainian artists Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv. It features two interesting, whimsical creatures embracing each other while maintaining engagement with their books. Cat-like and bird-like, one in high heels and one barefoot, one with a long tail and prominent ears and one with tail feathers and no visible ears, both with beaks, and both with books. They can’t put their books down even in this intimate moment. Appropriately, they are labeled Bookaholic and Bibliophile. Might they even be an imaginative rendering of the artists themselves? Romana and Andriy were both born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1984 and continue to live and work there. The illustration on the postcard is a fitting depiction of their artistic lives where books and their illustrations comprise their passion for illustration, book design, and writing. Together, they started Art Studio Agrafka in Lviv where they have produced award-win...
Read more

F.F. Hansell & Bro., New Orleans 1900

Image
But for the winds of fate that first weekend in September of 1900, the building pictured above (and below), may have crumbled and the publishing & bookselling firm of F.F. Hansell in New Orleans would not have had produced the billhead above. What if the Great Storm of 1900 that leveled Galveston on September 8, 1900--America's worst natural disaster--had caught steering currents that took it north well before a Texas landfall? Hansell's billhead, dated September 28, 1900, owes its existence to the elements of nature, whatever they were at the time: High pressure over New Orleans pushing the storm west? A weak front approaching the Texas coast, pulling the storm toward it? Whatever, this storm could just as easily have veered north with a change in conditions and destroyed New Orleans. A lot of these storms that enter the Gulf of Mexico seem to make that right turn before striking the Texas coast. We (Houston-Galveston area) got lucky last summer with Gustav. Not so lucky w...
Read more