What makes a book beautiful? This is a question I never even once considered, much less answering. I’m a knowledge seeker, and have always viewed books as a way of obtaining new information, whether it be for education or personal enjoyment. The beauty of a book for me lies in what the book can tell you, and because of this I never once thought of the aesthetic qualities a book might have to make it beautiful. Not until I enrolled into this Honors Seminar called The Book Beautiful that is.
Being a part of this seminar has started me on a journey to select a special book and study what makes the book beautiful by looking at the aesthetics of the book and the history it has to offer. For the past couple weeks, the hunt has been on to find that one book that intrigues you enough that you want to learn more about it. I thought finding this book for me would be nearly impossible. What book would I want to study in this way? Typography, printing, paper, bindings? These aren’t things I ever considered other than the fact they were the building blocks of my beloved vaults of information. Therefore, you can see why I felt finding a book to study would be a long process.
I was tossing around the idea of using Alice In Wonderland or perhaps The Hobbit as my book when a miracle happened. My book found me! Professor Ingersoll brought in books from her personal library that she considered to be good examples of beautiful books. One of these books was Youatt on the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse as complied by H.S. Randall. Published by Derby and Miller in 1851, this book I have chosen was complied to be a simplified text containing all the important parts of William Youatt’s book The Horse, published in 1831. Though this book is slightly worse for wear, it is an interesting text, with beautiful illustrations, fonts, and a history of its own.
A veterinary equine book? Sounds nerdy right? Not to me. As an equestrian and pre-veterinary student, I don’t believe I could have chosen a better book. Which is why I stopped looking when I found this one. It was obvious to me that this book was “the one” for me for this class, and because of that I look forward to learning more about this interesting piece of history.
Youatt On The Structures of The Horse 