Class
|
Lecture
and Discussion |
Readings
(*=class handout)
|
Projects/Site Visits/
Class Activities |
June 28
|
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.
|
|
|
| UNIT I: The
"Scribal" Age |
June 30
|
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. (Examples
- PPT slides).
|
SBB - p. 9-41
HR -
p. 177-185; 27-39
Belanger (Web)
Wilford (Web)
|
Subscribe to
SHARP-L, ExLibris, SLIS lists
LC Reader Registration
|
July 5
|
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
HR - p. 41-53; 125-133
|
Video:
"The Parchment Makers"
|
July 7
|
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
Clement1
(Web) |
|
| UNIT II: The
"Handpress" Age |
July 12
|
Setting the stage for print
Technology, politics, disasters, and a new world.
|
HR - 67-83
Clement2 (Web)
|
QUIZ on Unit I
In-class lab:
Type and printing
|
July 14
|
Herr
Gutenberg
Movable metal type. Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer. Printing and the
Church: Of The Bible, the Psalter, and Indulgences.
|
SBB - p. 112-113
|
- Video: "Renaissance Book" |
July 19
|
Book manufacture, part 1
The last great medieval book, and the first great Renaissance book.
Hand printing with the “common” press. Role of the printer/publisher.
Early giants. Luther, the Reformation, and science. Geography and printing
- 1600-1800. Printing and allied arts: type.
|
SBB - p. 163-177, 125-131
*Gaskell - pp. 43-54; 78-84, 118-133.
[Review"Heavenly
Craft" (woodcut exhibit)] |
Guest speaker: Peggy Parker
on woodcuts
- In-class lab:
Printing and typography
|
|
July 21
|
Book manufacture, part 2
The book & library: Renaissance to the
present
The impact of printing. Libraries and the rise of
nationalism. Libraries and democracy: community, national, university,
public. Printing and allied arts: ink, paper, binding, illustration
The impact of print and the
spread of the book trade
|
SBB - p.140-153,
235-253
HR - p. 187-199; 270-277
|
Visit to LC Collection Mgt. (Meet LJG07)
- Video:
"Anatomy of a Book"
- In-class lab:
Format and binding
Due: Questions for A. Greco
|
UNIT III:
Books, Readers, Writers
|
| July 26 |
Books, Writers, & Readers I
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?
|
Johns
(Web)
HR - p.291-306; 237-245
*Febvre - 159-166.
|
QUIZ on Unit II
|
| July 28 |
Books, Writers, & Readers II
The book trade in the 21st century. The market for
books in the US.
|
HR - p. 247-252
Bandler (Web)
McGinley (Web)
|
Guest: Prof.
Albert Greco, Fordham University , Market
for Books in the US
Due: Questions for J. Cole
|
|
August 2
|
Books, Writers, & Readers III
The book & library: present and future
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.
|
HR - p.279-289;
252-259; 225- 235
*Tanselle
NEA (exec. summary only) & Responding;
Roush (Web)
|
Guest Speaker: John Cole, Director, Center for the Book at the
Library of Congress
|
August 4
|
Final presentations
|
|
|
istory
of the 
ook