March 11, 2008
This month Panmedia launches a website for The Mill Press, a project that had its beginnings ten years ago. In 1998, we were so impressed with The Mill Press’ preservation of Jamaica’s historical heritage, that we designed a demo site for Executive Director Valerie Facey. She liked the idea, but believed then that The Mill Press was not yet ready to go online.
The new site features work The Mill Press has produced since it began 20 years ago, but its special focus is on the soon to be published Jackie Ranston’s Belisario – Sketches of Character – A Historical biography of a Jamaican Artist.
Belisario is the first historical study of this little-known painter and lithographer, although a few months ago Yale University Press published a multidisciplinary volume titled Art and Emancipation in Jamaica, Issac Mendes Belisario and His Worlds.
The Mill Press’ Belisario reads like a narrative and is much less academic than the Yale work. Still, its references are enormous, reflecting Ranston’s extensive research. It is fully illustrated with documents (100 of the 400 pages) on slavery, the history of Jamaica, the Inquisition, Judaism and other issues of the period in which Belisario lived.
The Mill Press showcases Jamaica’s rich historical heritage with reproductions of rare old books and manuscripts as well as productions of new titles in art, history and biography. This includes educational children’s books, poetry, fine art and architectural design books and historically oriented cookbooks.
“We put an emphasis on fine editions,†says Facey.
Belisario is being printed in Verona, Italy, by Martino Mardersteig, owner of the Stamperia Valdonega press.