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La Magie du manuscrit. Collection Pedro Corrêa do Lago

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Pedro Corrêa do Lago has gathered one of the world’s finest autograph collections. From a parchment signed by four popes to Stephen Hawking’s thumbprint signature, this book spans nearly 900 years of handwriting from the likes of van Gogh, Michelangelo, Queen Victoria, Einstein, and many more legendary figures across art, literature, science, music, philosophy, and history.
Clothbound6.7 x 9.4 in.3.55 lb464 pages
“Corrêa do Lago shows us what it’s like to hold a piece of handwritten history in your hands.”
BBC
“What did Gauguin say about van Gogh behind his back? This new book reveals the raw, handwritten notes of great artists.”
artnet
The Magic of Handwriting. The Corrêa do Lago Collection

The Magic of Handwriting. The Corrêa do Lago Collection

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History Marked by Hand

An extraordinary collection of handwritten documents

Handwriting works magic: it transports us back to defining moments in history, creativity, and everyday life and connects us intimately with the people who marked the page. For nearly half a century, Brazilian author and publisher Pedro Corrêa do Lago has been assembling one of the most comprehensive autograph collections of our era, acquiring thousands of handwritten letters, manuscripts, and musical compositions as well as inscribed photographs, documents, and drawings.

From an 1153 parchment signed by four medieval popes to a 2006 thumbprint signature by physicist Stephen Hawking, the items illustrated here span nearly nine hundred years, and along the way bring us up close and personal with writers, artists, composers, political figures, performers, explorers, scientists, philosophers, and rebels whose actions and creations have made them legends.

Rather than focusing on a single era or subject, Corrêa do Lago made the ambitious decision to seek important autographs in eight broad areas of human endeavor—art, history, literature, science, music, philosophy, exploration, and entertainment. The 140 extraordinary selections gathered in this book—displayed for the first time in a major exhibition at New York’s Morgan Library and Museum—include letters by Lucrezia Borgia, Vincent van Gogh, and Emily Dickinson, annotated sketches by Michelangelo, Jean Cocteau, and Charlie Chaplin, and manuscripts by Giacomo Puccini, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marcel Proust.

Handwriting is one of the most visceral means by which we leave tracks of our existence. At a time when so much of our communication has become utterly immaterial, this collection conveys the power of the pen to illuminate the energy, passion, vulnerability, and imagination of humankind across the ages.
The author

Christine Nelson is the Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum. She is the author of The Brontës: A Family Writes and Drawing Babar: Early Drafts and Watercolors and has curated major exhibitions on the work of Henry David Thoreau, Charlotte Brontë, Robert Burns, Oscar Wilde, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and Voltaire.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

The from_the_collection_of

Pedro Corrêa do Lago is a Brazilian art historian and curator who has formed one of the world’s largest private collections of autograph letters and documents. He is the author of more than 20 books on manuscripts and Brazilian art and served as president of Brazil’s National Library from 2003 to 2005. Together with his wife Bia, he founded Capivara in 2002, an art publishing house specialized in catalogues raisonnés of artists active in Brazil. Corrêa do Lago has curated several exhibitions and has published an illustrated book on manuscripts, True to the Letter.

The contributor

Located in the heart of New York City, the Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in United States history. Today it is a museum, research library, performance venue, architectural landmark, and historic site housing one of the world’s foremost collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, literary and historical manuscripts and letters, music manuscripts, rare printed books and bindings, drawings, and ancient works of art.

La Magie du manuscrit. Collection Pedro Corrêa do Lago
Clothbound17 x 24 cm1.61 kg464 pages

ISBN 978-3-8365-7520-1

Edition: French

ISBN 978-3-8365-7521-8

Edition: Spanish
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4.5

/5

4 Ratings

Magic indeed!

Brendan,October 27, 2021
I'm going to cherish having this on my bookshelf for years to come. For me, it's not the sort of volume to read cover to cover - but rather learn the backstory of this singular collection and come to appreciate the remarkable endeavor it took to collect these. Then, over time I've thumbed through it piece by piece, soaking up each document and seeing the spirit of its author come alive through their script.

Such a kaleidoscope...

Ana-Maria,October 27, 2021
...of stories and history.. Taschen never ceases to surprise me in a pleasant way when it comes to content and the way it is curated.

Manoscritti

E.P.,October 27, 2021
What could be more mad and senseless than collecting? But if the collection of manuscripts of Pedro Corrȇa do Lago is the result well, we need this madness.

Edición maravillosa

Mario,November 2, 2021
Desde la cubierta a cada página es un tesoro