Office: CGIS South Building S437 (One of the Pair of New Orange Buildings, at 1730 Cambridge St)

Spring 2006 MW(F) 11, Sever 213

Ann Blair Dept of History Office: CGIS South Building S437 (one of the pair of new orange buildings, at 1730 Cambridge St) Office hours: M 2-4 Phone: 5-0752 E-mail: amblair@fas

TF: Amy Houston Office hours: Fri 2-4pm Office: Robinson Hall L-18 Email: ahouston@fas

History 1318 History of the book and of reading

This course is an introduction to the new and growing field in cultural history known as the history of the book. We will consider major developments from scroll to web, but focus more in depth on early modern Europe, 15th-18th centuries. Major themes include the economic and technical conditions governing book production and trade; the political and religious forces behind censorship and regulation; and the social and intellectual contexts and forms of reading, in learned as well as more popular circles. Assignments will include recent secondary sources and selected primary texts used as case studies. No prerequisites; all readings in English.

Requirements: -regular attendance and participation in section (10%); in general the Friday meeting will be devoted to a discussion in section focused mostly on the primary source reading -short paper (3-5pp) due in Week IV (topics to be assigned, 15%) -midterm (20%) and final exam (25%) -10-12pp paper, due at the end of reading period, Friday May 12 at noon (30%)

Available at the COOP (prices are from Amazon.com): A History of Reading in the West, ed. Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier (U Mass Press, 1999) 1-55849-213-5; $40 Book History Reader, ed. David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery (Routledge, 2001) 0-415-22658- 9; $28.95 Plato, Phaedrus (Hackett); ISBN 0872202208 [any edition OK] Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, Two Renaissance Book Hunters (Columbia Univ Press, 1974); $28; ISBN 023109633X George Gissing, New Grub Street (Everyman Paperback Classics, 2002) 0460077240; $9.95 David M. Levy, Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (Arcade Publishing, 2001) 1559705531; $18 Montaigne, Essays, tr. Michael Screech (Penguin, 1993) 0140446044; $23.95 Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (Norton critical edition, 1986) 0393952940; $14.95 Syllabus

Week I (WED Feb 1): what is the history of the book? W lecture 1: the origins and development of the field F: no class Reading: Darnton, "What is the History of Books?" and D.F. McKenzie, "The Book as an Expressive Form," in Book History Reader History of Reading, introduction

Part I: before Gutenberg

Week II (Feb 6): orality and the book in Antiquity M lecture 2: orality and literacy in Antiquity W lecture 3: the papyrus roll and the origins of the codex in early Christian culture F: discussion section Reading: History of Reading, chs. 1-2 Ong, "Orality and Literacy," in Book History Reader Plato, Phaedrus, beginning to 230, 234b-237a, 242-243, 257-end (esp. 274-end) [these are not page numbers but section numbers stnadard in all editions of Plato]

Week III (Feb 13): the world of the medieval manuscript M lecture 4: the evolution of the book in the middle ages W lecture 5: medieval manuscript culture F: discussion section Reading: History of Reading, chs. 3-5. Richard de Bury, Philobiblon, available on-line from course website and as part of the Gutenberg project: ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext96/phlbb10.txt

Of related interest (not part of the course): Humanities Center Seminar, Mon Feb 13, 6pm: Frank Kafker (Emeritus, University of Cincinnati) and Jeffrey Loveland (University of Cincinnati), "The Elusive Laurent Durand, Leading Publisher of the French Enlightenment" Barker Ctr Room 133.

Week IV (Feb 20): the origins of printing in China M: HOLIDAY W lecture 6: printing in China; SHORT PAPER DUE in class (on your choice of course- related theme in Plato or Richard de Bury) F: discussion section Reading: Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt I Printing and Paper by Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin, pp. 1-17, 360-83 Achilles Fang, "Bookman's Decalogue," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 13 (1950), pp. 132-73 (on-line through HOLLIS) Part II: Early modern Europe

Week V (Feb 27): humanism and printing M lecture 7: Gutenberg W lecture 8: spread and development of printing in the first 100 years F: discussion section FRIDAY 3/3: special session at Houghton Library (a 1-1/2 hour slot between 1:00 and 4:30)**this session is required as an integral (and especially fun!) part of the course** Reading: Adrian Johns, "The Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book," Jan-Dirk Müller, "The Body of the Book," and Elizabeth Eisenstein, "Defining the Initial Shift," in Book History Reader 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) pp 265- 286 (on-line through HOLLIS)

Week VI (March 6): censorship M lecture 9: censorship W discussion and review for midterm F: MIDTERM Reading: History of Reading chs. 8-9 H-J Martin, The History and Power of Writing, on censorship, pp. 266-82.

Week VII (March 13): authorship M lecture 10: legal and economic status of the author W lecture 11: Montaigne F: discussion Reading: Barthes, "The Death of the Author," Foucault, "What is an Author?" and Rose, "Literary Property Determined," in Book History Reader Montaigne, Essays I, 25 (of pedantry); II, 10 (of books); II, 33 (story of Spurina); III, 3 (three kinds of association); III, 13 (only until mention of China, 4-5 pp into the essay) George Hoffmann, "The Montaigne Monopoly: Revising the Essais under the French privilege System," PMLA (1993): 308-19 (available on-line through HOLLIS)

Of related interest (not part of the course): Humanities Center Seminar/Houghton Library Winship lecture, Tuesday March 14, 5:30pm, Ian Maclean (All Souls College, Oxford), "Murder, Debt and Retribution: the Italico-Franco-Spanish book trade and the Beraud-Michel-Ruiz Affair," Houghton Library Exhibition Room.

Week VIII (March 20): reading M lecture 12: "popular" reading W lecture 13: learned reading F: discussion section Reading: History of Reading, chs. 7 and 10 Chartier, "Labourers and Voyagers" and "The Practical Impact of Writing," in Book History Reader William Sherman, "What Renaissance Readers Wrote in their Books" in Jennifer Andersen and Elizabeth Sauer eds., Books and Readers in Early Modern England, pp. 119-37.

Week of March 27: SPRING BREAK

Week IX (April 3): book collecting M lecture 14: librairies STATEMENT OF FINAL PAPER TOPICS DUE IN CLASS W lecture 15: the continued uses of manuscript F: discussion section Reading: Harold Love, "Early modern print culture: assessing the models." Parergon. Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies 20 (2003): 45-64. Gabriel Naudé, Instructions concerning erecting of a library, tr. John Evelyn (pdf file available from course website)

Week X (April 10): books and the public sphere in the Enlightenment M lecture 16: the book in the American colonies W lecture 17: do books make revolutions? F: discussion Reading: History of Reading, ch. 11. Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, parts I and II.

Of related interest (not part of the course) Humanities Center Seminar/Warren Center talk, Tues April 11, 4-6pm, Alexandra Walsham (University of Exeter), "Recording Superstition in Early Modern Britain: The Origins of Folklore Revisited," Robinson Hall Basement Seminar Room.

Part III: modernity and beyond

Week XI (April 17): the modern world of print M lecture 18: the industrialization of book production W lecture 19: the book as a commodity in 19th ct England F: discussion section Reading: History of Reading, ch. 12. George Gissing, New Grub Street (first published 1891), "the first volume"

Week XII (Apr 24): perspectives on rea M lecture 20: from periodical to newspaper W lecture 21: coping with information overload F: discussion section Reading: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, pp. 26-46. Kate Flint, "Reading Practices" in Book History Reader William St Clair, "The Political Economy of Reading" John Coffin Memorial Lecture (2005) (on-line from the course website) Peter McDonald, "Implicit Structures and Explicit Interactions: Pierre Bourdieu and the History of the Book," The Library 6 19.2 (June 1997), 105-21 Paul Duguid, "Material Matters," in The Future of the Book, ed. Geoffrey Nunberg (1996) Week XIII (May 1): a post-modern world? M lecture 22: the book in the electronic age W lecture 23: conclusions F: discussion section Reading: David Levy, Scrolling Forward.

FINAL PAPER DUE FRIDAY MAY 12--this is a FIRM deadline!

FINAL EXAM: Sat May 20 (note that date is subject to change by the registrar)