FR 535SEM - The History of the Book

This course provides a critical, methodological and creative examination of the stakes of research in the history of the book and print culture. We will examine the early modern period from the advent of the printing press and incunabula to printed books up to the late 18th century. We will reevaluate claims of the printing press as an agent of change, discuss the persistence of manuscript culture, and approach the problems of the circulation of knowledge and information among the different literate and semi-literate communities of early modern Europe by observing their production, use and circulation of texts. We will examine the basic notions of the material conditions of text production, such as the presses themselves, the characters, the workers in specialized labor, as well as in ancillary fields such as engraving, paper fabrication, binding, etc.

Credits: 3