I might add that she was a very generous woman who answered queries
rapidly and helpfully. I owed her a lot and will miss her. Anne Prescott.

On Thu, 5 Sep 2002, Thomas P. Roche wrote:

> I am very happy to add a small commendation for the life and work of Ruth
> Luborsky.  Her work on the illustrations for  SC was one of the earliest mss
> Patrick Cullen and I received when we were first wondering whether Spenser
> Studies would ever get off the ground.  We had made a bargain that we would not
> accept any ms from anyone on the board for the first three years and thought we
> had cut off our noses to spite our faces--when Ruth's ms arrived.  We knew we
> were off, for which our thanks to Ruth.  May she rest in peace. tpr
>
> "Peter C. Herman" wrote:
>
> > >X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U)
> > >X-Accept-Language: en
> > >X-Orcpt: rfc822;[log in to unmask]
> > >Date:         Thu, 5 Sep 2002 20:53:15 -0400
> > >Reply-To: "FICINO: FICINO Discussion - Renaissance and Reformation
> > >Studies" <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Sender: "FICINO: FICINO Discussion - Renaissance and Reformation Studies"
> > ><[log in to unmask]>
> > >From: Germaine Warkentin <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Subject:      Death of Ruth Luborsky
> > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > >X-MailScanner: Found to be clean
> > >
> > >I forward below a message (posted on another list) from Dan Traister,
> > >announcing the death of Ruth Luborsky.  Ruth was an early member of
> > >FICINO, and there will be many acquainted with her work who will miss
> > >her occasional but very well-informed postings.  Included below Dan's
> > >announcement is a memorial by Peter Stallybrass of the University of
> > >Pennsylvania Department of English.  With great regret, Germaine.
> > >
> > >--
> > >***********************************************************************
> > >Germaine Warkentin // English (Emeritus)
> > >VC 205, Victoria College (University of Toronto),
> > >73 Queen's Park Crescent East, Toronto, Ont. M5S 1K7, CANADA
> > >[log in to unmask]   (fax number on request)
> > >***********************************************************************
> > >
> > >Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]>
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> > >         by library.berkeley.edu (8.11.2/8.11.2) with SMTP id g85LoMu18726;
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> > >Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 14:50:22 -0700 (PDT)
> > >Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
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> > >Precedence: bulk
> > >From:   [log in to unmask] (Daniel Traister)
> > >To:     Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Subject: Ruth Luborsky
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> > >
> > >ExLibris readers will want to learn of the death on August 28th of Ruth
> > >Luborsky.
> > >
> > >An independent scholar whose major work, co-authored with Elizabeth
> > >Ingram, *A Guide to English Illustrated Books 1536-1603* (1998 for 1999),
> > >gave bibliographers, other scholars, and the public a new tool for
> > >understanding Elizabethan print culture, Ruth Samson Luborsky died of
> > >pancreatic cancer. She was 77. She is survived by her husband, Lester
> > >Luborsky, Professor emeritus of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University
> > >of Pennsylvania; two daughters, Lise Luborsky of Philadelphia and Ellen
> > >Luborsky of New York; a son, Peter Luborsky of Chester Springs,
> > >Pennsylvania; and four grandchildren.
> > >
> > >Ruth was born in Philadelphia. A graduate of Olney High School, she
> > >attended the University of Chicago and completed her B.A. at the
> > >University of Kansas while raising three children. The family returned to
> > >Philadelphia in 1959. Her 1977 doctorate was -- unusually -- a joint
> > >degree awarded both in English literature (at Temple University) and in
> > >Renaissance art history (at the University of Pennsylvania). This dual
> > >interest in the art and literature of the Renaissance was the mainspring
> > >of Ruth's scholarly career.
> > >
> > >Fundamental to that career was the meticulously detailed work done in
> > >preparing, over many years, for publication of the *Guide to English
> > >Illustrated Books*. Continuing a path initiated by Edward Hodnett's 1935
> > >*English woodcuts, 1480-1535*, Ruth greatly expanded on Hodnett's access
> > >points and added immensely to the information about the history of uses of
> > >the woodblocks found in the books the *Guide* covers. Looking both at
> > >reappearances of the same cuts within one work and their re-use in others,
> > >the *Guide* is a resource for several aspects of printing history. It
> > >offers information about the circulation of cuts within the trade, as well
> > >as, more generally, the visual basis of Tudor (and Continental) print
> > >culture that text alone does not reveal. The *Guide* also discusses
> > >relationships between image and text in headnotes to the works it lists.
> > >
> > >Ruth also wrote important essays on the illustrative tradition of Edmund
> > >Spenser's *Shepheardes Calendar* (*Spenser Studies* 1980, 1981, 1988).  An
> > >article on "Connections and Disconnections between Images and Texts: The
> > >Case of Secular Tudor Book Illustration" appeared in *Word and Image*
> > >(1987). Her contribution to the Library of Congress memorial volume
> > >honoring Lessing J. Rosenwald, *Vision of a Collector* (1990), was an
> > >article about the *Hypnerotomachi Poliphili*. "Woodcuts in Tudor Books"
> > >appeared in *PBSA* (1992); "The Pictorial Image of the Jew in Elizabethan
> > >Secular Books" in *Shakespeare Quarterly* (1995). The first of a projected
> > >longer series of essays on the illustrative tradition of John Foxe
> > >appeared in 1999.
> > >
> > >Full of plans from the professional to the personal -- papers to revise
> > >for publication, long-term projects to be developed, Philadelphia Zoo
> > >balloons to be ridden -- Ruth was no septuagenarian sitting on a shelf. A
> > >constant fixture in the reading room of the Rare Book and Manuscript
> > >Library at Penn, a constant participant in the long-term seminar at Penn
> > >of the History of Material Texts (History of the Book), always working,
> > >reading, commenting, Ruth is someone whose absence will be felt for a very
> > >long time to come.
> > >
> > >Plans for posthumous publication of essays at or very near completion are
> > >already under discussion.
> > >
> > >                             ----------
> > >
> > >In a memorial statement circulated at the University of Pennsylvania,
> > >Professor Peter Stallybrass (Department of English) wrote:
> > >
> > >  Ruth has been one of the great contributors to, and supporters of, the
> > >  seminar on the History of Material Texts. No one knew as much as Ruth
> > >  about the use of illustrations in early modern books. Her groundbreaking,
> > >  two volume *A Guide to English Illustrated Books 1536-1603*, which she
> > >  published with Elizabeth Ingram in 1998, was a modestly titled book that
> > >  is in fact unequalled in any period for its range and detail. The Guide
> > >  was the product of decades of scholarship, conducted in a multitude of
> > >  libraries throughout Europe and the United States. It examines every
> > >  surviving book image (more than 5,000 woodcuts and engravings) used in
> > >  England from 1536-1603, not only giving details of where the images first
> > >  appeared but also tracing every time they were *reused*. It consequently
> > >  critiques a mass of scholarship that assumed that images usually relate
> > >  directly to the books in which they appear. As Ruth and Elizabeth show,
> > >  the economics of printing necessitated the constant reuse of images. Even
> > >  when a specific woodcut was made of a known person, it was often reused
> > >  to portray someone else. Thus a woodcut of Edward VI of England was
> > >  reused to portray James VI of Scotland (who shortly afterwards became
> > >  James I of England). What are the consequences for notions of early
> > >  modern identity when several people (however famous) were condensed into
> > >  a single image because of printing house practices?
> > >
> > >  Ruth and Elizabeth showed how the same woodblock might be reused for a
> > >  wide variety of different purposes for fifty years or more. Among many
> > >  wonderful details, they show that several of the illustrations of the
> > >  1568 Bishops' Bible, printed in London, were made from a woodblock that
> > >  had first been used for Catholic bibles in Cologne in 1564. But the
> > >  Catholic images had to be transformed for Protestants who rejected
> > >  representations of God as idolatrous. As a result, the image of God was
> > >  cut out of five woodblocks. In the woodcut of Eve's creation, God was
> > >  replaced by a rabbit. Two years after the publication of the Bishops'
> > >  Bible, the woodblock migrated to Antwerp, where "the figures of the
> > >  deity [were] meticulously replaced." After the woodblock had been used
> > >  for the printing of a Catholic bible in Antwerp, the woodblock returned
> > >  to Cologne for further Catholic use (vol. 1. pp. 122-3;  vol. 2, figs.
> > >  43, 45).
> > >
> > >  Ruth gave generously of her unrivalled knowledge to learned experts and
> > >  beginning students alike. For many of us, her work was the beginning of
> > >  our own fumbling attempts to understand the centrality and complexity of
> > >  illustrations in books. We will miss her energy, her enthusiasm, her
> > >  kindness.
> > >
> > >  The following announcement was published in the Philadelphia
> > >  Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News on 8/29/2002:
> > >
> > >  RUTH LUBORSKY Aug. 28, 2002,  (nee Samson) wife of Lester, mother of Lise
> > >  Luborsky, Ellen Luborsky and Peter Luborsky; also survived by 4
> > >  grandchildren, Miranda, Alex, David, and Marie. . . . The family
> > >  respectfully requests that contributions in her memory be made to the
> > >  Weizmann Institute of Science, 130 E. 59th St., New York, NY 10022 or
> > >  to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at The University of
> > >  Pennsylvania, 3420 Walnut St., Phila. PA 19104-6206.
> > >
> > >
> > >Dan Traister
> > >University of Pennsylvania
>