Compass History of Art

International Paperback Art Series Starts in Jan., PW, Nov. 26, 1962, at 25 (announcing new series with images of CA1 and CA8):

Viking Press, as the American partner in a ten-country international publishing venture, will introduce in this country next January the first three-titles in a handsome new paperback line, the Compass History of Art Series. Ultimately, there will be 12 volumes in the series, spanning the entire history of western painting. The Compass History of Art books are all originals, and the subject material for each book has been especially photographed for these editions. The texts are written by experts in the art of each period. Each book in the series will be priced at $2.25 and will contain 64 pages of full-color illustrations and 112 pages in black and white. The books are all being printed in Amsterdam at J. M. Meulenhoff.

The collection is prepared under the direction of D.W. Bloemena of Meulenhoff and André Held, photography director, who has worked with many art publishing firms in Europe.

The first three Compass History of Art titles in January will be: “Greek Painting” by Pierre Devambez, curator of Greek and Roman antiquities at the Louvre; "Roman and Etruscan Painting" by Arturo Stenico, professor of art at the University of Milan; "Renaissance Painting" by Franco Russoli, director of the Brera Gallery, Milan.

The tentative schedule of the remaining nine volumes is as follows: spring, 1963—"Romanesque Painting," "20th Century Painting"; fall, 1963—"Gothic Painting," "17th Century Painting," "18th Century Painting"; spring 1964—"Gothic and Romanesque Manuscripts," "19th Century Painting"; fall, 1964—"Early Christian Painting," "Christian Painting."

The paperback art series will be published in Germany (Bertelsmann), Denmark (Gyldendal), Finland (Söderstrom), England (Weidenfeld and Nicolson), Italy (Mondadori), France (Laffont), Norway (Gyldendal), Sweden (Norstedt), Netherlands (Meulenhoff).