University of Maryland Libraries
Dr. George Levitine Collection
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Web Site
This web site is dedicated to the Dr. George Levitine Collection at the University of
Maryland, College Park.
The site contains information about the collection:
- an overview of the collection, describing its scope and content;
- biographies of Dr. George and Eda Mezer Levitine, including a selected list of Dr.
Levitine's publications;
- images and descriptions of highlights from the collection;
- a database containing lists of the rare books in the collection;
- information on accessing the items held in Rare Books and on accessing the collection in
VICTORWeb, the UM online library catalog.
The site also contains information about the site:
- this introduction to the web site;
- a notice of copyright and conditions of use for images and information on the site;
- a site map;
- a list of credits identifying the individuals involved in the creation of the content and
design for the site.
A digital exhibit of the rare books in the collection is under development and is
tentatively scheduled to go online in the spring of 2001.
A graphical version of this web site is also available.
Overview of the Collection
The Art Library is pleased to announce the receipt of an important gift from a very distinguished benefactor. Mrs. George
Levitine has generously donated to the University of Maryland Libraries the 2,000-volume collection belonging to her late
husband Dr. George Levitine, distinguished scholar of art history and founding chair of the Department of Art History at
the University of Maryland. While the Art Library will be the primary beneficiary of this gift, Special Collections will
receive several hundred valuable rare books.
Emblematic devices and their significance were a major area of research for Dr. Levitine, and his collection of emblem
books became the centerpiece in his impressive library. The Levitine Collection is also rich in titles, mostly from France
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, concerning art, artists, cultural analysis, and the discussion of matters of
tastes and esthetics. These books will be a valuable addition to the University of Maryland Libraries' already strong
holdings in French art, history, literature, drama, and music.
Biographies of Dr. and Mrs. George Levitine
George Levitine
George Levitine (1916-1989), Professor Emeritus and former Head of the Art Department at the University of Maryland,
Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres, member of the Institute for Advanced Study (1977-78), was a scholar,
teacher, and humanist.
He was born in Kharkow, Ukraine, in 1916. Due to the Russian Revolution, in 1924 his family immigrated to France.
He received a Baccalauréat degree from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris in 1936 and a P.C.B. (pre-med) at
the Université de Paris in 1938. After completing his first year at the Ecole de Médecine, his studies were
interrupted by World War II.
Following the war, he resumed his studies in the United States. He received a M.A. in Art History from Boston University
in 1946 and a Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard University in 1952. Dr. Levitine taught at Boston University from 1948 to
1964 and also served on the faculty of the Harvard Extension Program from 1957 to 1964.
In 1964, Dr. Levitine joined the University of Maryland as a full professor and Head of the Art Department, a department
of three or four which grew to thirty seven faculty members during his tenure. Under Dr. Levitine's leadership, the
University of Maryland's art history and art programs gained national recognition.
Retiring as Head of the department in 1978 to devote time to research and teaching, he taught until being named Professor
Emeritus and Director of Academic Program Development with European Academic Institutions by the university in 1986.
Dr. Levitine's publications include numerous articles on Goya, emblems, and French art from
the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. He gained a reputation as an authority on eighteenth-century French art. In 1987
he organized and edited the papers of a monumental symposium "Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French
Revolution."
Emblematic devices and their significance were a major area of research for Dr. Levitine, and in 1987 the University
sponsored a symposium, chaired by Marie Spiro and Doug Farquhar and entitled "The Protean Life of Emblems after the
Sixteenth Century," in his honor. Papers from this symposium appeared in an issue of Emblematica dedicated to
him.
At the time of his death in 1989, the University of Maryland established the George Levitine Art History Endowment to
support research and study by faculty and students. The keynote speech at the annual Middle Atlantic Symposium in the
History of Art has also been named in his honor.
Selected publications:
Books
The Sculpture of Falconet (Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1972)
The Dawn of Bohemianism: The Barbu Rebellion and Primitivism in
Neo-Classical France (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978)
Girodet-Trioson: An Iconographical Study (New York: Garland, 1978)
Articles
"The Influence of Lavater and Girodet’s Expression des Sentiments de l’Ame." The
Art Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Mar. 1954), pp. 33-44.
"Some Emblematic Sources of Goya." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, Vol. 22, Nos. 1-2 (1959), pp. 106-31.
"Vernet Tied to a Mast in a Storm: The Evolution of an Episode of Art Historical
Romantic Folklore." The Art Bulletin, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Jun. 1967), pp. 93-100.
"Les Origines du mythe de l’artiste bohème en France: Lantara." Gazette des
Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, Vol. 86 (Sep. 1975), pp. 49-60.
"Goya, les emblèmes et la revanche de L’âne portant des reliques." Gazette des
Beaux-Arts, ser. 6, Vol. 93 (Apr. 1979), pp.173-78.
"Some Observations on the Déluge of Girodet: Ambiguity and Invention." Ars Auro
Prior: studia Ioanni Bialostocki sexagenario dicata, ed. Juliusz A.
Chroscicki (Warsaw: Polish Academy of Science, 1982), pp. 619-23.
"A Newly Discovered Project of Girodet: Originality, Ossian, and England." Paris:
Center of Artistic Enlightenment, Vol. 4 of Papers in Art History from the
Pennsylvania State University, (University Park: Pennsylvania State
University, 1988), pp. 160-66.
Eda Mezer Levitine
Eda Levitine, Professor Emerita at Trinity College, has donated the collection of her late husband, Dr. George
Levitine, to the University of Maryland Libraries so that his books may be useful to students who share his passion for
studying art.
Mrs. Levitine was raised in France and came to the United States during World War II. She attended Boston University
College of Liberal Arts and Graduate School, earning a master’s degree in romance languages and literature. She taught
French at Lesley College in Cambridge, MA, and at Trinity College in Washington, DC, where she chaired the French
Department from 1970 to 1984. Her field of specialization focused on French literature of the nineteenth century and the
relationship between French literature and French art. She translated a version of Apollinaire (University of
Alabama Press, 1975) and also authored several articles on Baudelaire. She retired and was named Professor Emerita in 1998.
Eda and George Levitine have three daughters - Elizabeth, Denise, and Annette - and three grandchildren - Christopher,
Jacqueline, and Teddy.
Dr. Arthur K Wheelock Jr's Remarks
Highlights from the Collection
The Dr. George Levitine Collection features over 300 rare books dating from the 16th through
19th centuries. These books reflect Professor Levitine’s interest in emblems, iconography and
the interactions between art and society. This selection highlights themes illustrating the
breath and depth of the collection. All rare books in the Dr. George Levitine Collection are
accessible via the Maryland Room, the reading room for the University of Maryland Libraries
Special Collections.
Iconography
Emblemata, et aliqvot nvmmi antiqvi operis, ioan. sambvci.
Antwerp, 1569.
An emblem book produced from the noted press of Christopher Plantin. Plantin first printed
this title in 1564, with subsequent editions appearing in 1566, 1569, 1576, 1584 and 1599.
These frequent reissues, the use of woodcut illustrations and the small format (12 cm.) all
attest to the popularity of emblem books in the Low Countries and beyond. As was typical of
almost all emblem books, the moral lesson or motto is illustrated both via image and verse.
Iconologie ou la science des emblemes devises, etc.
Amsterdam, 1698.
Cesare Ripa’s seminal work on the study of emblems and other images was first published in
Rome in 1593. Ripa’s enduring influence is evident in this late 17th century edition with a
frontispiece that enshrines Ripa using imagery the author would have undoubtedly appreciated.
The Levitine Collection also includes a mid-18th century Italian edition of Ripa’s work.
Dictionnaire iconologique ou introduction a la connoissance des peintures, sculptures,
medailles, estampes, etc.
Gotha, 1758.
Produced at a time when the French Encyclopedie set the standard for the Enlightenment goal of
organized knowledge, this iconological dictionary compiled by Honore Lacombe de Prezel was
published in the German city of Gotha. It demonstrates both the cultural dominance of
France in 18th-century Europe and the growing interest in a systematic understanding of art.
Art & Artists
Abrege de la vie des peintres, avec des reflexions sur leurs ouvrages.
Paris, 1699.
The author, Roger de Piles, was an influential critic who championed the "Rubenist" faction in
the debate over artistic standards of taste in the late 17th century. His triumph over the
"Poussinists" led to his election to the Royal Academy and the wide dissemination of his books.
Culture in absolutist France was closely controlled by a system of government-sanctioned
academies and official patronage in support of works such as this.
Considerations sur les revolutions des arts.
Paris, 1755.
Guillaume-Alexandre de Mehegan (1721-1766) wrote this analysis of current trends in art at a
time when Enlightenment ideals were challenging official interpretations of good taste in art.
Another example of changing attitudes in the second half of the 18th century is the essay
"Sur l’education des femmes" (On the Education of Women) which is appended to this work.
Culture & Society
Aphorismes de M. Mesmer.
Paris, 1785.
On the eve of the French Revolution, many were literally entranced by Franz Anton Mesmer’s
theories and demonstrations of animal magnetism. Three Parisian editions of this title and at
least one from provincial France were published in 1785. Robert Darnton has written that
the writings of French mesmerists took on the flavor of revolutionary propaganda in what
became a preview of the collapse of public confidence in all established sources of artistic,
scientific or political authority.
Notable among the titles in the Dr. George Levitine Collection that document the cultural life
of France in the second half of the 18th century is a full set of Memoires secretes by
Bachaumont and his successors. The Memoires secrets are an important source for
understanding cultural and literary events in the decades preceding the French Revolution.
Database of Rare Books
Lists of the rare books from the Dr. George Levitine Collection are available online in
Access database tables. Two book lists are available: the main book
list and an additional list of books transferred from the
Art Library later.
Access to the Collection
To access the books in the Dr. George Levitine Collection, search "Levitine" as a keyword in
The Catalog, the university's
online public access catalog. Items in the Rare Books collections will have RARE as the location code in VICTORWeb.
The items from the Dr. George Levitine Collection held in Rare Books are non-circulating. Researchers may view the
collection in the Maryland Room on the third floor of McKeldin Library, Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Email the
subject area specialist at dmcelrat@umd.edu or call (301) 405-9212 for more
information.
Copyright and Conditions of Use
The textual information and images contained in this website are provided for educational
purposes only. Text and/or images may not be borrowed or reproduced beyond educational use
without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. Reproduction in any form is subject to
the copyright law of the United States. Please refer to sources on issues of intellectual
property, copyright, and fair use for further information.
Site Credits
Content:
Overview of the Collection, Biography of Dr. George Levitine:
J. Douglas Farquhar, Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology;
adapted for the web site by Ellen Kempf
Highlights from the Collection (text and images), Database of Rare Books:
Douglas McElrath, Curator, Marylandia and Rare Books Department
Photograph of Dr. and Mrs. George Levitine:
courtesy of Mrs. George Levitine
All other information:
Ellen Kempf, Art Library Graduate Assistant
Design:
Ellen Kempf, with input from Mrs. George Levitine, Louise Greene, and Lynne Woodruff
This web site is currently being maintained by Ellen Kempf, Art Library Graduate Assistant.
Site Map
Introduction to the Website
Overview of the Collection
Biographies of Dr. and Mrs. George Levitine
George Levitine
Selected Publications
Eda Mezer Levitine
Highlights from the Collection
Iconography
Art & Artists
Culture & Society
Database of Rare Books
Main Book List
Books Transferred from the Art Library
Access to the Collection
Copyright and Conditions of Use
Site Credits
Site Map
Graphical Version
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