PAUL F. GEHL - Newberry Library

PAUL F. GEHL
Curriculum Vitae
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS:
1987- Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing, The
Newberry Library, Chicago
1984-87 Associate Director of Research and Education, The Newberry Library
1981-84 Assistant Director of Research and Education, The Newberry Library
1979-81 Visiting Lecturer in Christianity, Dept. of the History and Literature of Religions,
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
1978-81 Assistant Director, Religion and Ethics Institute, Inc., Evanston, Illinois
EDUCATION:
1976 Ph.D. (History), University of Chicago
1972 M.A. (History), University of Chicago
1971 A.B. Classics (History major), John Carroll University
FELLOWSHIPS:
Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti (1993-94)
Newberry Library/British Academy Exchange (1989)
American Council of Learned Societies (1987-88)
American Academy in Rome (1977-78)
BOOKS:
A Moral Art: Grammar, Culture and Society in Trecento Florence. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1993.
A Meditation in Rome. New York: Russell Maret, 2012.
ONLINE BOOK:
Humanism For Sale. Making and Marketing School Books in Italy, 1450-1650. Published by the
Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies, 2009: www.humanismforsale.org/text
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES:
“A Libertine in Print (and Not): Bibliographizing Pietro Lasena,” La Bibliofilía 115 (2013), 105-
111.
“Advertising or Fama? Local Markets for Schoolbooks in Sixteenth-Century Italy.” In Print
Culture and Peripheries in Early Modern Europe: A Contribution to the History of
Printing in Small European and Spanish Cities. Edited by Benito Rial-Costas. Leiden:
Brill, 2013. Pp. 69-99.
Co-authored with Kevin M. Stevens, “Cheap Print: A Look Inside the Lucini/Sirtori Stationery
Shop at Milan (1597-1613), La Bibliofilía 112 (2010), 281-327.
“The Calligraphic Tradition in Chicago Graphic Design, 1900-1950,” Bibliología 5 (2010),
127-163.
“Off the Press and Into the Classroom: Using the Textbooks of Antonio Mancinelli,” History of
Education and Children's Literature 3 (2008), 19-30.

“The Maiuscole Moderne of Giovambaptista Verini Fiorentino: From Music Texts to Calligraphic
Musicality,” In Writing Relations, American Scholars in Italian Archives, Essays for Franca
Petruci Nardelli and Armando Petrucci. Edited by Deanna Shemek and Michael Wyatt.
Florence: Olschki, 2008. Pp. 41-70.
“Grammatica Despauteriana: L’adattamento di libri di testo provenienti dal Nord Europa per il
mercato editoriale italiano, 1540-1600,” Bibliología 3 (2008), 51-69.
“Moral Analogies in Print: Emblematic Thinking in the Making of Early Modern Books,”
Philosophica 70 (2002, but 2004), 91-107. [Special issue, Diagrams and the
Anthropology of Space, edited by Kenneth J. Knoespel.]
“Religion and Politics in the Market for Books: The Jesuits and Their Rivals,” Papers of the
Bibliographical Society of America 97 (2003), 435-460.
Co-authored with Kevin M. Stevens, “The Eye of Commerce: Visual Literacy Among the Makers
of Books in Italy.” In The Art Market in Italy. Edited by Sara Matthews Grieco. Ferrara:
Istituto di Studi Rinascimentali, 2003. Pp. 273-281.
“La storia dei tipi può essere una buona storia?” Progetto grafico 1 (July 2003), 34-38. This talk, to
ATypIRoma 2002, was republished in the original English as a small book under the title A
Meditation in Rome, 2012 (see above).
“Latin Orthopraxes.” In Latin Grammar and Rhetoric in the Middle Ages. Edited by Carol Dana
Lanham. London: Continuum, 2002. Pp.1-21.
“Military Courtesy in Sixteenth-Century Lithuania: Il Cavaliere of Domenico Mora,” Archivum
Lithuanicum 3 (2001), 55-76.
“’Mancha uno alfabeto intero’: Recording Defective Book Shipments in Counter-Reformation
Florence,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 93(1999), 316-358.
“Day-by-day on Credit: Binders and Book Sellers in Cinquecento Florence,” La Bibliofilía 100
(1998), 391-409.
“Describing (and Selling) Bindings in Sixteenth-Century Florence,” Italian Studies 53 (1998),
38-51.
“Credit-Sales Strategies in the Late Cinquecento Book Trade.” In Libri tipografi biblioteche.
Ricerche storiche dedicate a Luigi Balsamo. Edited by Arnaldo Ganda and E. Grignani.
Florence: Olschki, 1997. Pp. 193-206.
“Libri per donne: le monache clienti del libraio Piero Morosi, 1588-1607.” In Donna e disciplina.
Edited by Gabriella Zarri. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1996. Pp. 67-82.
“The 1615 Statutes of the Sienese Guild of Stationers and Booksellers. Provincial Publishing in
Early Modern Tuscany,” I Tatti Studies 6 (1995), 215-253.
“Preachers, Teachers and Translators: The Social Meaning of Latin in Trecento Tuscany,” in
Viator 25 (1994), 289-323.
Co-authored with Kevin M. Stevens, “Giovanni Battista Bosso and the Paper Trade in Sixteenth-
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Century Milan,” La Bibliofilía, 96 (1994), 43-90.
“Watermark Evidence for the Competitive Practices of Antonio Miscomini,” The Library, ser. 6,
vol. 15 (1993), 281-305.
“An Augustinian Catechism from Fourteenth-Century Florence, the Epigrammata of Prosper of
Aquitaine,” Augustinian Studies 19 (1990), 93-110.
“Latin Readers in Fourteenth-Century Florence: Schoolkids and their Books,” Scrittura e civiltà
13 (1989), 387-440.
“Competens silentium: Varieties of Monastic Silence in the Middle Ages,” Viator 18 (1987),
125-160.
“An Answering Silence: Medieval and Modern Claims for the Unity of Truth Beyond
Language,” Philosophy Today (Fall 1986), 224-233.
“Philip of Harveng on Silence,” Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association 2 (1985), 168-
181. Partial text on-line at: www.luc.edu/publications/medieval/vol2/gehl.html.
“Mystical Language Models in Monastic Educational Psychology,” Journal of Medieval and
Renaissance Studies 14 (1984), 219-243.
“From Monastic Rhetoric to Ars Dictaminis: Traditionalism and Innovation in the Schools of
Twelfth-Century Italy,” American Benedictine Review 34 (1983), 33-47.
“Some Problems in Cataloging Medieval Grammaticalia,” Res Publica Litterarum 5, 2(1982),
85-91.
“Apropos of Catalogue Notices and the History of Grammatical Pedagogy,” Revue d'Histoire des
Textes 8 (1978), 303-307.
PUBLISHED ESSAYS, TRANSLATIONS, EDITING PROJECTS:
“One Hundred Years of Poetry. Designing the Magazine, 1912-2012: A Detailed Look at Our
Typographic History,” illustrated essay for the Poetry Foundation website, Fall 2012:
www.poetryfoundation.org/article/244922#article
Various entries in The Newberry 125. Stories of Our Collection. Chicago: The Newberry Library,
2012.
“Foreword,” to Jason Dewinetz, Alphabetum Romanum, The Letterforms of Felice Feliciano, ca.
1460, Verona. Vernon, B.C.: Greenboathouse Press, 2010.
Various entries for the Oxford Companion to the Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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“Chicago Graphic Designers” (Talk to the Caxton Club and Society of Typographic Arts,
October 17, 2007). Text and slides in preparation for online publication at: www.sta.org
“Celebrating Robert Williams,” Chicago Calligraphy Collective Newslettter, March 2007, 2-3.
“Norma Rubovits and Her Collection at the Newberry Library in Chicago,” Society of Marbling
2006 Annual, 21-24.
“The Newberry Alphabet: A Note on Provenance,” Typography Papers 6 (2005), 17-18.
“Book Arts” and “Printing” entries for The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2004. Pp. 87-88 and 646-648. Full text with additional illustrations online at:
encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org.
“Education” and “Universities” entries for Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Edited by
Christopher Kleinhenz. New York: Routledge, 2004. Pp. 313-315 and 1107-1109.
“The Making of a Chicago Eccentric,” foreword to John Mansir Wing, The Chicago Diaries of
John M. Wing, 1865-1866, ed. by Robert Williams. Carbondale and Chicago: Southern Illinois
University Press and the Caxton Club of Chicago, 2002. Pp. ix-xiii.
Guest editor, history of design issue of InForm (quarterly journal of the American Institute of
Graphic Arts / Chicago chapter), September 2001.
“Florence in Chicago,” in Chicago Calligraphy Collective Letter, Winter 2001, 4-10.
“Recent Trends in the History of the Italian Book,” talk presented to the Western European
Studies Section of the American Library Association, July 10, 2000; full text available on line at
http://www.newberry.org/printing-history-and-book-arts-recent-trends-history-italian-book
“The Professional Bookman: Middleton at Ludlow,” Caxtonian 6 (1998), 1.
“From Clay Tablets to CDs: A Short History of the Written Word,” The Chicago Calligraphy
Collective Letter, Summer 1998, 6-13.
“What's This Purchase Prize For, Anyway?” The Chicago Calligraphy Collective Letter, Winter
1998, 2.
“Bertram Lord Ashburnham” entry in the Dictionary of Literary Biography vol. 184: Nineteenth-
Century British Book Collectors and Biographers. Atlanta: Bruccoli Clark Leman, 1997. Pp. 10-
20.
“Chicago Collecting?” in Personal Treasures. Chicago: Caxton Club, 1995. Pp. 3-8.
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“Some Thoughts on Politics and Moral Education” in REI Newsletter July 1994.
“Books on View,” in Bookways 8 (1993), l2-13.
Co Author (with Elizabeth Zurawski), “Incunables Bound By Elizabeth Kner: the 1950-51
Project for the Newberry,” Guild of Bookworkers Journal 31 (1993), 1-35. Reprinted in
Hungarian translation with new illustrations as “Inkunábulumok Kner Erzébet köteseben,”
Magyar Grafika 38 (1994), 19-25 and 37-47
Translations of Simone Prudenzani and other fourteenth-century poets for Newberry Consort
recording, Il Solazzo, Music for a Medieval Banquet. Harmonia Mundi CD, 1992.
A Bookplate By Eric Gill. Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1990. 8 pp.
Co-author (with Richard H. Brown), “The Newberry Library Today, a Community of Learners.”
In Humanities' Mirror, Reading at the Newberry, 1887-1987. Chicago: The Newberry Library,
1987. Pp. 37-42.
“Texts and Textures: Dirty Pictures and Other Things in Medieval Manuscripts,” Corona 3
(1982), 68-77.
The Roman Imperial Cult. Illustrated Slide Lecture A4. Evanston: Religion and Ethics Institute,
1979. 8pp., 24 slides.
Cybele and Attis. Mystery Religions Lecture 8. Evanston: Religion and Ethics Institute, 1979.
8pp., 24 slides.
LIBRARY EXHIBITS/CATALOGS:
Co-curator (with Barbara Korbel and Giselle Simon), Marbled Papers and Fine Bindings by
Norma B. Rubovits, The Newberry Library, Chicago, September 30 - December 31, 2010.
Co-curator (with Jenny Schwartzberg), Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children’s Books at
The Newberry Library, September 27, 2008 - January 14, 2009.
[Catalogue essay] “Nothing…About Books: Reading Textures in the Books of Anton Würth.” In
Anton Würth, in Form von Buch. Offenbach: Klingspor Museum, 2008. Pp. 20-25.
Curatorial contributor, Recent Acquisitions at the Newberry Library, March – May 2008.
Local curator, Disbound and Disbursed: The Leaf Book Considered. Caxton Club exhibit hosted
by the Newberry Library April 15- July 15, 2005.
[Foreword], The Press at Colorado College: Pressroom as Classroom. Colorado Springs:
Colorado College, 2004. Pp. 9-10.
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[Introduction], Inland Printers: The Fine Press Movement in Chicago, 1920-1945, Chicago: The
Caxton Club, 2003. Pp. 5-13.
Miniature exhibits in the Newberry Library spotlight series on Napoleon I & Josephine (2003),
Papal Rome (2003), Second Empire Paris (2004), the Klaus Stopp collection (2004), Marie
Antoinette (2005), Copytright issues (2006), Multi-Lingual Typography (2007), Printed
Ephemera (2008).
[Catalogue essay], “Something Added, Thoughts on Process,” in Jerome Book Arts Fellowship
Exhibition VII. Minneapolis: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2001. Pp. 4-5.
Curator, Florentine Humanism and the Church Fathers, The Newberry Library, Chicago, April -
July 2000.
Curatorial contributor, The Joy of Collecting, Recent Acquisitions at the Newberry Library, May
– July 1999.
Curatorial contributor, Living Treasures of the Newberry Library, April - September 1998.
Curatorial contributor, The Hebrew Renaissance, The Newberry Library, Chicago, May – July,
1997.
Curatorial contributor and sometime juror, Explorations, the annual juried exhibit of the Chicago
Calligraphy Collective, 1995 – 2005.
Co-curator, Personal Treasures: Favorite Books of Caxton Club Members, January - March
1995.
Curator, A Century of Book Collecting and Book Loving in Chicago, Caxton Club centennial
exhibit, January - March 1995.
Curator, Ernst F. Detterer: Chicago Teacher, Designer and Collector, 1889-1947, August -
October 1990.
[Foreword] Chicago edition of Fifteenth Century Italian Woodcuts from the Biblioteca Classense
in Ravenna (Ravenna: Longo, 1989).
Co-curator, An Uncommon Collector: Frederic Ives Carpenter (1861-1925), An Exhibit of
Renaissance Imprints at the Newberry Library, December 1985 - February 1986
Curatorial Assistant, Faith, Law and Dissent, The Inquisition in the Early Modern World, The
Newberry Library, Chicago, October - December 1985.
JURYING AND JUDGING: For design and book-arts competitions of the Association of
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American University Presses, Chicago Book Clinic, Chicago Calligraphy Collective, Chicago
Hand Bookbinders, Chicago Public Library, Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and
Paper Arts, Guild of Bookworkers, Minnesota Center for the Book Arts.
BOOK REVIEWS: Have appeared in Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography, La Bibliofilía,
Bulletin du Bibliophile, History of Education Quarterly, Italica, Journal of Interdisciplinary
History, Modern Language Review, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America,
Parenthesis, Printing History, Publishing Research Quarterly, Religious Studies Review,
Renaissance Quarterly, Sixteenth-Century Studies, Speculum, etc.
PERSONAL:
Born:
Citizenship:
Languages:
Memberships:
Service:
September 24, 1949 at West Bend, Wisconsin
U.S.A. (fifth-generation German-American)
Native speaker of English; near fluency in spoken Italian; reading
knowledge of French, German, Spanish, Latin.
American Historical Association; Medieval Academy of America;
American Printing History Association; Caxton Club; Society of Italian
Historians; Early Book Society.
Current or past service on the boards or committees of the American
Printing History Association, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Caxton Club,
Hamilton Wood Type Museum, Press at Colorado College, Religion and
Ethics Institute, Seminary Co-op Bookstores, La Bibliofilía. Currently on
the advisory boards of the Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà,
Litterae Caelestes, and rarebooksinfo.com.
Contact: gehlp@newberry.org 312-255-3645 1/13
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