HIST4251 - History of the Book
Dr. Brian Regal
Professor for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Department of History
LHAC 212
Email: bregal@kean.edu
Course Description:
In this course students will study the history of books, printing, and reading culture from the ancient world to the present. The course will focus on books as artifacts, as transmitters of knowledge and literary creativity, and as epistemological indicators.
Syllabus: Spring 2023 (NOTE: the professor reserves the right to change the syllabus over the course of the semester).
Required Text:
Michelle Levy & Tom Mole. The Broadview Introduction to Book History (Broadview Press, 2017): ISBN# 978-1-55481-087-1
Additional required reading:
- What is the History of the Book?
- History of the book: introduction
- Edward the Confessor original mss
- Life of Edward the Confessor
- Reading medieval manuscripts in a digital age
- The Luttrell Psalter from the British Library, the most beautiful medieval manuscript ever?
- Stealing Shakespeare (video approx. 50 min) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
- The Inklings, "Time Shall Run Backwards" and
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Oxfords-Influential-Inklings/229967
- Introduction to the Paratext
NOTE: other readings may be made required throughout the course of the semester.
PowerPoint slide show: updated 11.5.2021
CMS Quick guide for writing the papers: 4.18.2021
Supplementary Texts: Recommended but not required
David Finkelstein & Alistair McCleery. An Introduction to Book History (Routledge, New York: 2005). ISBN: 978-0-415
Nicole Howard. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). ISBN: 978-0-801893117.
- The strange way some old books were repaired with even older books: Manuscript waste
- A medieval gloss: what makes a textbook?
- The bravest book collector in the world, saving Mali's past
- Banning Ralph Ellison (September 2013)
- Hidden Treasures: or how destruction creates beautiful things article on the use of old manuscripts to repair books
- The Smell of Books, NYT article about historic preservation
- The little known history of book vending machines
Suggestions for possible research projects:
a. The history of a specific book
b. The history of a genre of books
c. Biography of an author, printer, designer or publisher
d. History of how books are made
e. History of printing
f. History of a library or bookshop
Video
Making Parchment, video 4 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-SpLPFaRd0
The Art of Bookbinding, video 10 minutes
On-Line Resources:
- Kean University guide to book history at the Kean Library.
- Atlas of Early Printing, interactive map program
- British Library Mediaeval Manuscript Blog - link to many on-line copies of rare manuscripts
- The Caxton Chaucer on-line from the Bodelian.
https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e9ddab12-2110-4aa0-ac87-74d77b55836a/
- Creepy book history, books bound with human skin
- Digital Bodleian, great resource for scanned medieval manuscripts and rare books
- Fascinating secret Fore-Edge Paintings
- Folger Shakespeare Library, history of the book site
- Guess the manuscript! British Library
- Harvard History of The Book resource page
- How to make Iron Gall ink, British Library
- Incunabula Blog, Cambridge University
- The inklings (two web pages)
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0142.html
http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/03/c-s-lewis-and-oxford/
- Inside the Smithsonian's Book Concervation Lab
- LUNA Bodleian Library medieval manuscript resource page
- New York Public Library Book History Timeline
- Oldest complete copy of the New Testament, British Library
- Rare Book School, University of Virginia
- The Riddle of the Voynich Manuscript (video approx. 46 minutes)
- Women in Book History, Sammelband Blog
- Yale University Podcast series, History of the Book
Renaissance era book wheel allowing the reading of several books at a time
The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
• Kean University Department of History Main Page
Page copyright 2023.