{"id":53,"date":"2012-01-12T18:45:56","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T23:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2017-03-07T12:07:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:07:46","slug":"syllabus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/syllabus\/","title":{"rendered":"syllabus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please note that this syllabus is subject to change. I will announce any changes in class and by email, and will update this page. If you’d like a pdf of the syllabus, you can download one here<\/a>; it will not, however, be updated as regularly as this page.<\/p>\n

Readings marked on the syllabus with a diamond (\u2666) are the primary readings for that day; other readings listed should be read as your time and interest allows.\u00a0Links to all the readings on this syllabus may be found here (note: readings are accessible only by current students in the seminar). Each item is followed by a download button that will download that single article.<\/p>\n

You will notice that the readings specified on the syllabus below consist nearly entirely of modern books about early modern books and book history. We will be working with early modern books in class and outside of class, and you will be provided with a bibliography of the books we have consulted in class. Students are always welcome to bring into the classroom particular books that they are interested in and would like to discuss; should you wish to bring rare material into the seminar room, you must notify Dr Werner by Monday of that week\u2019s class meeting. Students should also avail themselves of the resources in the Folger, both of our collections of rare materials, but also of our range of experts in the field. The library\u2019s curators and staff will help you find your way through our collection.<\/p>\n

January 31: Orientation<\/strong><\/p>\n

February 8: Preface: What is book history?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Robert Darnton, \u201cWhat is the History of Books?\u201d in The Kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in Cultural History<\/em> (New York & London: Norton, 1990), 107-135. [Originally published in Daedalus<\/em> 111:3 (1982): 65-83.]<\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0D.F. McKenzie, \u201cThe Book as an Expressive Form\u201d in Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999), 9-30. [Originally given as a Panizzi lecture at the British Library in 1985.]<\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Roger Chartier, \u201cLabourers and Voyagers: From the Text to the Reader,\u201d Diacritics<\/em> 22:2 (Summer 1992): 49-61.<\/p>\n

Eltjo Buringh and Jan Luiten van Zanden, \u201cCharting the \u2018Rise of the West\u2019: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries,\u201d The Journal of Economic History<\/em> 69 (2009): 409-445.<\/p>\n

Robert Darnton, \u201c\u2018What Is the History of Books\u2019 Revisited,\u201d Modern Intellectual History<\/em> 4.3 (2007): 495-508.<\/p>\n

February 14: Volume I: Books as objects<\/del><\/strong> Class cancelled for snow<\/span><\/p>\n

In-class exercise: describing a book<\/p>\n

Monday, February 17: reading rooms closed<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

February 21: Volume I: Books as objects: casting off, format, printing<\/strong>
\nTo make up for last week’s snow day, we’ll start the class with our in-class book descriptions, using this worksheet<\/a>, and then move on to talking about casting off and format. Depending on how far we get, we’ll adjust next week’s class accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Sarah Werner’s in-progress Handbook for Studying Early Printed Books<\/em> Part 1: Overview<\/p>\n

\u2666 Philip Gaskell,\u00a0A New Introduction to Bibliography<\/em> (Oak Knoll Press, 1972; 2006 reprint), pp 78-105.<\/p>\n

A series of short videos<\/a> from the Plantin-Moretus Museum showing the printing of a broadside, from setting to printing<\/p>\n

animation of a printing press<\/a> from The Atlas of Early Printing<\/p>\n

There are some useful videos illustrating aspects of printing, punchcutting, typecasting, and understanding format; these can be watched at the Folger, but are not required viewing:
\n\u2014The Making of a Renaissance Book. <\/em>Dir. Dana Atchely, prod. American Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum (Antwerp). 16 mm film, 22 min., 1969. Re-released by Book Arts Press, VHS, 2000.
\n\u2014<\/em>From Punch to Printing Type: The Art and Craft of Hand Punchcutting and Typecasting<\/em>, dir. Peter Herdrich, prod. Book Arts Press, 1985. VHS, 45 min.
\n\u2014<\/em>The Anatomy of a Book, I: Format in the Hand-Press Period<\/em>, dir. Peter Herdrich, written by Terry Belanger, prod. Viking Productions, distrib. Book Arts Press, 1991. VHS, 30 min.
\n\u2014<\/em>How to Operate a Book<\/em>, dir. Peter Herdrich, written by Terry Belanger and Gary Frost, prod. Book Arts Press, 1986. VHS 30 min.<\/p>\n

Monday, February 24, 7:00pm: Exercise 1:\u00a0Catalog wishlist due<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

February 28: Volume I: Books as objects: format, printing, illustrations<\/strong>
\nIf last week’s readings aren’t fresh in your mind, please review them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2666 Roger Gaskell, \u201cPrinting House and Engraving Shop,\u201d The Book Collector<\/em> 53 (2004): 213-251.<\/p>\n

James A. Knapp, \u201cThe Bastard Art: Woodcut Illustration in Sixteenth-Century England\u201d in Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England<\/em>, ed. Douglas A. Brooks (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2005), 151-172.<\/p>\n

Blair Hedges, \u201cA Method for Dating Early Books and Prints Using Image Analysis<\/a>,\u201d Proceedings of the Royal Society<\/em> 462 (2006): 3555-3573.<\/p>\n

David Pearson, et al,\u00a0Preservation Advisory Centre: Bookbindings<\/em><\/a> (London: British Library, 2010).<\/p>\n

Mirjam M. Foot, “Bookbinding and the History of Books” in\u00a0A Potencie of Life<\/em>, ed. Nicolas Barker (London: British Library, 1993), 113-126.<\/p>\n

Sunday, March 2, 7:00 pm: notify me by email of your book selection for your semester’s project<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 7: Volume II: Books and culture: Stationers\u2019 Company<\/strong>
\nMaking a quarto exercise due<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Peter W. M. Blayney, excerpt of \u201cThe Publication of Playbooks\u201d in A New History of Early English Drama<\/em>, eds John D. Cox and David Scott Kastan (New York: Columbia UP, 1997), 389-415<\/strong>. (n.b., you do not need to read the entire article, only this section)<\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Zachary Lesser, \u201cSpeculation in the book trade\u201d in Renaissance Drama and the Politics of Publication: Readings in the English Book Trade<\/em> (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004), 26-51.<\/p>\n

\u2666 Cyndia Susan Clegg, \u201cThe Stationers\u2019 Company of London\u201d in The British Literary Book Trade, 1475-1700<\/em>, eds James K. Bracken and Joel Silver, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 170 (Detroit: Gale Research, 1996), 275-291.<\/p>\n

Peter Stallybrass, \u201c\u2018Little Jobs\u2019: Broadsides and the Printing Revolution\u201d in Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein<\/em>, eds Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin (Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 2007), 315-341.<\/p>\n

Helen Smith, \u201c\u2018A free Stationers wife of this companye\u2019: Women and the Stationers\u201d in\u00a0\u2018Grossly Material Things\u2019: Women and Book Production in Early Modern England<\/em>\u00a0(Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012), 87-134.<\/p>\n

March 14: Volume II: Books and early modern culture: stationers and authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Michel Foucault, \u201cWhat is an Author?\u201d in Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism<\/em>, ed. Josu\u00e9 V. Harari (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1979), 141-160.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0Marcy L. North, \u201cIgnoto and the Book Industry\u201d in\u00a0The Anonymous Renaissance: Cultures of Discretion in Tudor-Stuart England<\/em>\u00a0(Chicago and London: U Chicago P, 2003), 56-88.<\/p>\n

\u2666 David Scott Kastan, “Humphrey Moseley and the Invention of English Literature” in\u00a0Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein<\/em>, eds Sabrina Alcorn Baron, Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F. Shevlin (Amherst: U Massachusetts P, 2007), 56-88.<\/p>\n

Adrian Johns, \u201cThe Invention of Piracy\u201d in Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates<\/em> (Chicago: U Chicago P, 2010), 17-40.<\/p>\n

Sunday, March 16, 7:00 pm: Assignment due: Your book’s stationers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

{March 21: NO CLASS: Spring break}<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday, March 25, 7:00 pm: Assignment due: Your book’s authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 28: Volume II: Books and early modern culture: early readers and users<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0John Jowett, \u201cFor Many of Your Companies: Middleton\u2019s Early Readers\u201d in Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture: A Companion to The Collected Works<\/em>, eds Gary Taylor and John Lavagino (Oxford: Clarendon P, 2007), 286-327. main text and appendices<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0William H. Sherman, \u201cToward a History of the Manicule\u201d\u00a0in\u00a0Used Books: Marking Readers in Renaissance England<\/em>\u00a0(Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2008), 25-52.<\/p>\n

Franklin B. Williams, Jr. \u201cCommendatory Verses: The Rise of the Art of Puffing,\u201d Studies in Bibliography<\/i> 19 (1966): 1-14.<\/p>\n

Ann Blair, \u201cReading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload ca. 1550-1700,\u201d Journal of the History of Ideas<\/em> 64 (2003): 11-28.<\/p>\n

Keith Thomas, \u201cThe Meaning of Literacy in Early Modern England\u201d in The Written Word: Literacy in Transition<\/em>, ed. Gerd Baumann (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1986), 98-131.<\/p>\n

April 4: Volume II: Books and culture: modern readers and users<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666 Jeffrey Todd Knight, \u201cFast Bind, Fast Find: The History of the Book and the Modern Collection,\u201d Criticism<\/i> 51 (2009): 79-104.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0William H. Sherman, \u201cDirty Books? Attitudes Toward Readers\u2019 Marks\u201d in Used Books: Marking Readers in Renaissance England<\/i> (Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2008), 151-178.<\/p>\n

Louis B. Wright, “The Harmsworth Collection and the Folger Library,” The Book Collector<\/em>\u00a0(1957): 123-128. [primarily useful for those of you working with books that were once owned by Harmsworth]<\/p>\n

Stephen H. Grant, “A Most Interesting and Attractive Problem: Creating Washington’s Folger Shakespeare Library,”\u00a0Washington History<\/em> 24: 1 (January 1, 2012): 2-21.<\/p>\n

Sunday, April 6, 7:00 pm: Assignment due: Your book’s early users<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 11: Case Study: [to be announced]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday, April 13, 7:00 pm: Assignment due: Your book’s provenance OR Your book’s afterlife<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 18: Case Study: Bibles<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Paul Saenger, \u201cThe Impact of the Early Printed Page on the Reading of the Bible\u201d in\u00a0The Bible as Book: The First Printed Editions<\/em>, eds Kimberly Van Kampen and Paul Saenger (New Castle, DE and London: Oak Knoll P and British Library, 1999), 31-45.<\/p>\n

\u2666 \u00a0Evelyn B. Tribble, \u201cAuthority, Control, Community: The English Printed Bible Page from Tyndale to the Authorized Version\u201d in\u00a0Margins and Marginality: The Printed Page in Early Modern England<\/em>\u00a0(Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1993), 11-56.<\/p>\n

Peter Stallybrass, \u201cBooks and Scrolls: Navigating the Bible\u201d in\u00a0Books and Readers in Early Modern England: Material Studies<\/em>, eds Jennifer Andersen and Elizabeth Sauer (Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2002), 42-79.<\/p>\n

Wednesday April 23, noon–Thursday,April 24, noon: Reading Rooms closed<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

April 25: Volume III: Books as vehicles for texts: editing a text<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0Erick Keleman, \u201cTextual Criticism and Kinds of Editions\u201d in Textual Editing and Criticism: An Introduction<\/em> (New York: Norton, 2009), 73-120.<\/p>\n

May 2: Volume III: Books as vehicles for texts: annotating a text<\/strong>
\nExercise due in class: Editing your text<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0Robert D. Hume, \u201cThe Aims and Uses of \u2018Textual Studies\u2019\u201d PBSA<\/em> 99:2 (2005): 197-230.<\/p>\n

\u2666\u00a0\u00a0Gerard Genette, \u201cIntroduction\u201d in Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation<\/em>, trans. Jane E. Lewin (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997), 1-15. [Originally published as Seuils<\/em> (Paris, 1987).]<\/p>\n

May 9: Volume III: Books as vehicles for texts: digital texts and tools<\/strong>
\nSarah Werner, “where material book culture meets digital humanities<\/a>,”\u00a0Journal of Digital Humanities<\/em> 1:3 (Summer 2012).<\/p>\n

Alan Galey, “The Enkindling Reciter: E-Books in the Bibliographical Imagination,”\u00a0Book History<\/em> 15 (2012): 210-247.<\/p>\n

Matthew Kirschenbaum, “‘Every Contact Leaves a Trace’: Storage, Encryption, and Computer Forensics” in Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination<\/em> (MIT Press, 2008), 25-72.<\/p>\n

Friday, May 16, 7:00 pm: Assignment due: Your book\u2019s biography<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please note that this syllabus is subject to change. I will announce any changes in class and by email, and will update this page. If you’d like a pdf of the syllabus, you can download one here; it will not, however, be updated as regularly as this page. Readings marked on the syllabus with a … Continue reading syllabus<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":96,"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahwerner.net\/FolgerBooks\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}