Catalan Romanesque - Tanuma Takeyoshi Photos (1987) ISBN: 4000081349 [Japanese Import]
by Takeyoshi Tanuma
In Catalan and Japanese. 1990 association copy (1977 Nobel winner and Confrerie member Roger Guillemin), Diputacio de Lleida (Lleida, Spain), oblong 12 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches tall pale grey hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, black lettering to spine, textured beige endpapers, title page in green and black ink, copiously illustrated with black-and-white photographs, [4], 178 pp. plus laid in is a 19-page 11 3/4 x 11 3/8 inches tall stapled paperbound supplement, 'Versio Catalana' by Xavier Benet and Guillem Saez. Also laid in is a card reading, 'From the Private Collection of Dr. Roger and Lucienne Guillemin, Nobel Laureate, 1977, Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA.' Roger Charles Louis Guillemin was a French-American neuroscientist who received the National Medal of Science in 1976, and the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1977 for his work on neurohormones which helped lead to the birth control pill and cancer treatments. Very slight rubbing to hardbound covers, with very slight bumping to the lower edge of the front board. Very slight foxing to front cover of the laid-in Catalan supplement. Otherwise, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a very good dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve.
Photographs of Romanesque art and architecture in Catalonia, northeastern Spain, by Japanese photographer Takeyoshi Tanuma (1929-2022), who, in 2019, was honored by the Japanese government with the Order of Culture, making him the first photographer to receive the award.
Spanish Romanesque designates the Romanesque art developed in the Hispanic-Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the 11th and 12th centuries. Its stylistic features are essentially common to the European Romanesque although it developed particular characteristics in the different regions of the peninsula. There is no Romanesque art in the southern half of the peninsula because it remained under Muslim rule (Al-Andalus). The First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque is specially present in Catalonia, while the full Romanesque spread from the foundations of the Order of Cluny along the axis of the Camino de Santiago.
About the prior owner: From the library of Roger Guillemin (1924-2024), a French-American neuroscientist, who joined the Salk Institute in 1970 at the invitation of Jonas Salk. In separate research laboratories, Guillemin and neuroscientist Andrew Schally (1926-2024) discovered the structures of Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) and Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). They were jointly awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. In addition, Guillemin received awards from the National Academy of Sciences, 1974; the Canada Gairdner International Award, 1974; the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, 1975; the Dickson Prize in Medicine, 1976; the Passano Award in Medical Sciences, 1976; the National Medal of Science, 1976; and from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1977.