Part One - The Technologies of Transmission
Week 1 - Why study the history of the book?
1) Lecture - Why study the history of the book? An introduction to the technologies and themes of the course
2) Book Culture in Antiquity
Readings: Introduction to book history, pp. 1-6, 29-35
Plato, Phaedrus 274-end [pdf]
Week 2 - Books before printing
1) Lecture - Book Culture in Medieval Europe
Readings: Introduction to Book History, pp. 35-44
Michael Johnston and Michael Van Dussen, “Introduction: Manuscripts and Cultural History,” in The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches, pp. 1-15 [pdf]
Eugene Rice and Anthony Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, pp. 1-10 [pdf]
2) Guest Lecture - Book culture in Islam
Week 3 - The Printing Press
Assignment due: office hours to choose the book you’ll “adopt” for the upcoming exercises and final paper
1) The Origins of Printing in Europe
Readings: Intro to Book History, pp. 18-9 and 45-66
Anthony Grafton, "The Importance of Being Printed" (Review of Eisenstein's 1980 The Printing Press as an Agent of Change) in Journal of Interdisciplinary History 11 (1980): 265-286.
Adrian Johns, “How to Acknowledge a Revolution,” (in dialogue with Eisenstein) American Historical Review 107:1 (Feb. 2002): 106-125.
2) Guest lecture - The Origins of Printing in China
Week 4 - The Mechanization of Printing
1) Lecture: The Mechanization of Printing
2) Midterm Exam
Part Two - Themes
Week 5 - Publication
1) Lecture: The iterations of a book - what is publication?
Readings: Introduction to Book History, pp. 86-100
Johan Gerritsen, “Printing at Froben’s: an Eye Witness Account,” Studies in Bibliography 44 (1991): 144-63
Nicolò Franco, Dialogo di un venditore di libro, ed. Mario Infelise, Marsilio, 2005.
2) The impact of publication - the paratext. Visit to Rare Book Library
Week 6 - The Economy of the Book Trade: Authorship
Assignment due: Exercise #1 in material bibliography
1) Genres of the Book Trade
Explore: https://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/
2) The Socio-economic status of the author: Pietro Aretino
Readings: Introduction to Book History, pp. 67-75
Week 7 - The Economy of the Book Trade - Intellectual Property
Assignment due: Exercise #2 statement of paper topic --identify primary source, 1-2 themes, 3-4 secondary sources (see Assignments)
1) no class - holiday
2) Socio-economic status of the author: Samuel Johnson
Readings: Introduction to Book History, pp. 75-85
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets, vol. 2, pp. 215: Savage
Richard Holmes, introduction from Harper-Perennial edition of Savage (2005)
Week 8 - Reading and Readers
Assignment due: Exercise #3—report on the authorship of your source (see Assignments)
1) Lecture: Toward a history of reading
Reading: Introduction to Book History, pp. 101-112
William Sherman, "What Renaissance readers wrote in their books," in Books and Readers in Early Modern England (2002)
+ 1
2) Learned Reading - Annotating
Explore: https://archaeologyofreading.org/
https://www.annotatedbooksonline.com/highlights/
https://takenote.harvard.edu/Itineraries
Week 9 - Expanding Readerships
Assignment due: Exercise #4 -- close reading of a passage of your choice (see Assignments)
1) Popular reading
Reading: Wilkie Collins, "The Unknown Public," https://www.djo.org.uk/household-words/volume-xviii/page-217.html
Jonathan Rose, “How Historians Study Reader Response” in Literature in the Marketplace
2) Lecture: Censorship
Reading: Introduction to Book History, pp. 112-18
The Book: A Global History pp. 169-82 [pdf]
Week 10 - Periodicals and reauthoring
Assignment due: Exercise #5 -- report on reception of your source (intended or actual readers) + printing history (see Assignments)
1) Newspapers
Reading: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp. 26-46.
2) Reprinting , Re-editing
Reading: Benjamin Franklin, excerpts from Poor Richard and other writings [pdf]
Jim Green and Peter Stallybrass, Benjamin Franklin, Writer and Printer (2006), "Inventing Poor Richard," pp. 101-15 [pdf]
Week 11 - Libraries
Assignment due: Exercise #6 (see Assignments)
1) Brief history of libraries
Intro to Book History, pp. 119-35
2) Visit to American Philosophical Society Library
Reading: Simon Eliot, "Circulating Libraries in the Victorian Age and After." In The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, edited by Peter Hoare, E. S. Leedham-Green, Teresa Webber and Giles Mandelbrote. 125-46 [more closely aligned reading? ]
Week 12 - Book Futures
Assignment due: Exercise #7--2-page reflection on how your source has survived so far and on the challenges facing its further survival (see Assignments)
1) The challenges of preservation
2) The economy of attention
Week 13 - Writing week
1) conversations on final papers
2) no class - holiday
Week 14 - Book futures
1) Book futures
2) Final lecture
Final papers due:
Review Session:
Final Exam: