istory
of the 
ook| LSC
601: History of the Book Summer 2004 Tuesday, Thursday 4:30-7:50pm Library of Congress, LM 654e Instructor: Erik Delfino delfino@cua.edu |
Of making many books there is no
end. - Ecclesiastes 12:12
|
| Course
Description What do librarians in the 21st century need to know about the history of the book? How did the book assume its current form, and how is it changing? What is the difference between the book as a physical object, and the information it contains? How did the written word acquire the authority it now has? Why do books inspire such emotional responses - frenzies of buying, burning, banning? How can events in past book history help us understand the “digital revolution” in our libraries? This course will - of necessity - be a broad survey of the large and growing field of book history, so we will focus on certain key areas. Geographically, we will concentrate on events in Western Europe and the Near East. We will spend significant time looking at the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early modern period - eras, like our own, of great social, cultural, political, and technological change, and the periods from which the book as we now know it emerged. We will have a number of "hands-on" experiences exploring some of the book arts from the "handpress" period. Finally, we will look at the history of the book as it relates to the history of libraries in our culture, and the future of the "book". |
| Class |
Lecture and Discussion | Readings (*=class handout) |
Projects/Site Visits/ Class Activities |
| June 29 |
Introduction: Why study the history of the
book? What is a book? Professional, cultural, historical perspectives. "Bibliography" as a discipline. Themes: the authority of the written word and the evaluation of information. True innovations vs. enhancements. “Remediation”: the book among other media. "FRBR" as an organizing principle. Seeing the commonplace. Resources for book history. |
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| UNIT I: The "Scribal" Age | |||
| July 1 |
Writing systems Orality vs. literacy. Arts of memory (part 1). Early writing systems - ideograms, logograms, phonograms. Materials and methods. Cuneiform, hieroglyphics. The Alphabet Sound writing. Origins and development - Palestine, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Europe. The Greek additions. Rome - monumental efforts. Medieval and Renaissance developments. Numbers and numerals. |
SBB - p. 9-41 WM - Ong Casson - ch. 1 Wilford (Web) *McMurtrie - ch. 2 and 3 |
Subscribe to SHARP-L,
ExLibris, SLIS lists In-class labs: Cunieform and "Scrolling forward..." |
| July 6 |
The book & library: ancient and
medieval - Part 1 The Near East. Greece and Rome: literature and scholarship. The book as symbol: the scroll and the codex in the Christian world. From archives to libraries. Religion and literature, magic and science. Libraries in the Near East, Greece, Alexandria, Rome. Monasteries, scribes, Arts of memory . Parchment, writing, illumination. Medieval “mass production” |
SBB - p.50-68 WM - Plato Casson - ch. 2 & 3 Clement1 (scroll) *Manguel - 55-65 |
Video: "The Parchment Makers" |
| July 8 |
The book & library: ancient and
medieval - Part 2 Christianity, East and West. The several “renaissances” - in Islam and Christendom. Private libraries, merchants, princes, universities, cathedrals. Chains and shelving. Chronology |
SBB - p.69-88 Casson - ch. 4-6, 8 *Manguel - 125-147 |
Video: "Out of the
Ashes" In-class lab: Calligraphy |
| UNIT II: The "Handpress" Age | |||
| July 13 |
Setting the stage for print The changing intellectual climate. Merchants and nobles, the Church and the university. “Consumer” demand. The arrival of paper. Herr Gutenberg Movable metal type. Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer. Printing and the Church: Of The Bible, the Psalter, and Indulgences. |
SBB - p.112-123 Clement2 (Web); *McMurtrie - ch. 4, 10 (note-don't worry about ch. 9 - not included in your packet) |
QUIZ
on Unit I In-class lab: Type and printing |
| July 15 |
Book manufacture, part 1 The last great medieval book, and the first great Renaissance book. Hand printing with the “common” press. Printing and allied arts: type. |
SBB - p. 140-153 *Gaskell - pp. 43-54; 78-84, 118-133. |
- Video:
"Renaissance Book" - In-class lab: Printing and typography |
|
July 20 Note special meeting place |
Book manufacture, part 2 Printing and allied arts: ink, paper, binding, illustration |
SBB - p.162-177,
188-197, 235-253 |
Visit to LC Rare Books and Special Collections (note: at Rare Book LJ239) - Video: "Anatomy of a Book" - In-class lab: Format and binding |
| July 22 | The
book & library: Renaissance to the present The impact of printing. Libraries and the rise of nationalism. Libraries and democracy: community, national, university, public. The impact of print and the spread of the book trade Production levels. Early giants. Luther, the Reformation, and science. Geography and printing - 1600-1800. 19th & 20th centuries - mechanization, Linotype, computerization. |
WM - Douglass WM - Eisenstein, WM - Trithemius; |
|
| UNIT III: The "Media" Age | |||
| July 27 | Books and Writers --- Books and Readers Changing roles of the author. Author - anonymous, creator, celebrity, commodity. Modes of reading: “oral”, silent, private. Reading - forbidden and dangerous. Whose book is it, anyway? |
*Febvre - 159-166. Barthes *Foucault; *Manguel - 41-53 |
|
|
July 29 Note: special meeting place/ time. |
The book & library: present and
future , part 1 The book trade in the 21st century. Strange bedfellows: the Web and the book. The paperback and “reader editions” (Modern Library, Book of the Month club) Reading in the 21st century - book clubs, reading groups, and literacy programs. Evolution of publishing: getting from the author to the reader. Access and control: copyright and censorship. |
WM - Borges Lynch (Web) |
Visit to LC Conservation (note: meet at 4:00pm, LMG38) |
|
August 3 Note: special meeting place |
The book & library: present and
future , part 2 |
O'Donnell:
(tba) WM - Bolter |
Visit to LC Collection Mgt. (Meet LJG07) Video: "Infinite Secrets" |
| August 5 |
Wrap up with Guest Speaker, and "Wayzgoose" |
Project due: Guest: John Cole, Director, LC Center for the Book |
|
Required texts:
On order at the CUA Bookstore (also available via Amazon, BN,BooksAMillion,
etc. Used/earlier editions OK.)
(Casson). Casson, Lionel. Libraries in the Ancient World. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2001.
(SBB) Olmert, Michael. The Smithsonian Book of Books. Washington:
Smithsonian, 1992.
(WM). Tribble, Evelyn and Trubek, Anne,
eds. Writing Material: Readings from Plato
to the Digital Age. New York, Longman, 2002.
Additional required reading:
Web:
- (Barthes) Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author"
http://faculty.smu.edu/dfoster/theory/Barthes.htm
- (Clement1) Clement, Richard W. “Medieval
and Renaissance Book Production - Manuscript Books” (Online Reference
Book for Medieval Studies) http://www.ukans.edu/~bookhist/medbook1.html
- (Clement2) ----- “Medieval and Renaissance
Book Production - Printed Books” (Online Reference Book for Medieval
Studies) http://www.ukans.edu/~bookhist/medbook2.html
- (Johns) Johns, Adrian. "The Nature of the Book and
the Book of Nature" in The Nature of the Book. (Electronic version: http://libraries.cua.edu
> Electronic books > History E-Book Project).
- (Lynch) Lynch, Clifford. “The Battle to
Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World.” (FirstMonday:
Peer Reviewed Journal on the Internet) http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_6/lynch/index.html
- (O'Donnell) O'Donnell, James. Avatars of the Word:
From Papyrus to Cyberspace. Cambridge: Harvard, 1998. (Electronic
version: htttp://libraries.cua.edu > Electronic books > History E-Book
Project)
- (Wilford) Wilford, John Noble. “Who
Began Writing? Many Theories, Few Answers” New York Times (April 6,
1999). http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/040699sci-early-writing.html
Additional (short) readings will be distributed in class throughout the semester.
Additional Resources:
a. General
"Remediation" (Bolter and Grusin)
b. Web sites
SHARPweb - http://www.sharpweb.org
"Glossary of
Terms for Pre-industrial Book History" (Richard Clement, University
of Kansas). - http://www.ukans.edu/~bookhist/glossary.html
The Book Arts Web -
http://www.philobiblon.com/
Background
on the Historiography of Book History (Anne Marie Roos, Univ. of
Minnesota) http://www.d.umn.edu/~aroos/backgroundbook.html
Archimedes
Palimpsest (PBS)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/archimedes/palimpsest.html
Digital Gutenberg B42s:
-- Univ
of Texas - Harry Ransom Center
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/
-- Gutenberg
Digital (Goettingen State and University Library, Germany)
http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/gudi/start.htm
"Altered Books"
-- Intl. Assn. of Altered
Book Artists http://www.alteredbookartists.com/
-- Altered
Book Techniques (HGTV)
Time-table of Book
History http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/timetab.html
Life
of Boethius (James O'Donnell, Georgetown Univ.)
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/boethius/boebio.html
c. Books
Bolter, Jay David. Writing Spaces: Computers, Hypertext, and the
Remediation of Print. Z52.4.B65 2001
Bolter, Jay David and Grusin, David. Remediation: Understanding New
Media. P96.T42 B59 1999
Brown, Michelle. The British Library Guide to Writing and Scripts.
P211.B6967 1980
Carruthers, Mary. The Book of Memory. BF371.C325 1990.
Carter, John. ABC for Book Collectors. Z1006.C37 1995
Chartier, Roger. The Order of Books. Z1003.5.E9 C4713 1994
de Hamel, Christopher. The Book: A History of the Bible.
de Hamel, Christopher. The British Library Guide to Manuscript
Illumination. ND2900. D35 2001
de Hamel, Christopher. The History of Illuminated Manuscripts.
ND2900.D36
Diringer, David. The Book Before Printing. Z6.D57 1982
Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe.
Z124.E374 1983.
Febvre, Lucien and Martin, Henri-Jean. The Coming of the Book.
Z4.F413 1976.
Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. Z116.A2 G24 N5
Harris, Michael. History of Libraries in the Western World. Z21.H227
1995
McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy. Z116.M16 G9 1969
McMurtrie, Douglas. The Book: The Story of Printing and Bookmaking.
Z4.M161 1989
Man, John. Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western World. New
York: John Wiley, 2000.
Nunberg, Geoffery, ed. The Future of the Book. Z1003.F9 1996.
Petroski, Henry. The Book on the Bookshelf. Z685.P48 1999
Twyman, Michael. The British Library Guide to Printing. Z124.T89 1990