From Papyrus to Print: The History of the Book

SALC72110 From Papyrus to Print: The History of the Book 15 Full year Postgraduate Taught Level 7 Fred Schurink Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 This module aims to examine the history of the object we now know as the book, in the medieval west between the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of modernity. Starting with the scroll, we move on to the early history of the codex and examine manuscript books. Without following a strictly chronological line, we move on to the printed book. At all points we examine the implications of the material of which the book is made for the form and content of the written matter. The module is taught in the surrounds of the John Rylands library (subject to UK Government guidance) with hands-on sessions using original materials.  This module aims to examine the history of the object we now know as the book, in the medieval west between the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of modernity. Starting with the scroll, we move on to the early history of the codex and examine manuscript books. Without following a strictly chronological line, we move on to the printed book. At all points we examine the implications of the material of which the book is made for the form and content of the written matter. The module is taught in the surrounds of the John Rylands library (subject to UK Government guidance) with hands-on sessions using original materials.  The unit aims to:- Permit students to acquire a broad knowledge of the history of the book;- Query the methodologies traditionally associated with specific disciplines of study;- Deepen students' knowledge of the key thematic issues in the history of the book in the crucial formative phase of the medieval and early modern periods;- Problematise questions of periodisation, continuity, and transformation in the pre-modern world. - Demonstrate a critical understanding of past and current scholarly debates relevant to the period;- Engage critically with the themes discussed, and the sources and scholarship relevant to case studies used;- Understand interpretative problems specific to particular issues, genres of evidence, and sources;- Articulate comparative assessments of methodologies in book history; - Conceptualise an intellectual framework for the study of specific aspects of book history in the medieval and early-modern periods;- Evaluate existing scholarship critically, and build upon it. - Develop writing techniques, appropriate to the assessment;- Synthesise large volumes of factual and theoretical perspectives in a critical manner;- Retrieve and use relevant primary and secondary sources in a critical fashion;- Identify appropriate source material, and compile specialist bibliographies.  - Develop oral presentation skills through participation in class discussions;- Manage time through preparation of assignments;- Use ICT resources for programme support;- Write fluent prose  Other Students will develop skills in oral communication through class participation, in written communication, through the submission of the course assignments, and in time-management skills through effective completion of the formative, and summative coursework required. As the course encourages students to interrogate disciplinary divides and conceptualise methodologies, it will serve to hone critical thinking skills. All these skills can be applied in the context of future employment. 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 100% Students will receive formative feedback on an essay outline submitted in advance of the principal assignment. Written feedback on submitted assessed work shall be delivered within the time-frame recommended by SALC.  N Below is an indicative guide to works on manuscripts and printed books. A fuller bibliography will be provided in a course handbook. The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination, 1450-1550, ed. Jonathan J. G. Alexander (Munich, 1994)           Mark Bland, A Guide to Early Printed Books and Manuscripts (Chichester, 2010)David Carlson, English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscript and Print, 1475-1525 (Toronto, 1993)Incunabula: Studies in Fifteenth-Century Books presented to Lotte Hellinga, ed. Martin Davies (London, 1999)            Lotte Hellinga, Caxton in Focus: the beginning of printing in England (London, 1982) Translation and the Transmission of Culture Between 1300 and 1600, ed. Jeanette Beer and Kenneth Lloyd-Jones (Kalamazoo MI, 1995) The Culture of Print: Power and the Uses of Print in Early Modern Europe, ed. Alain Boureau and Roger Chartier, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Oxford and Cambridge, 1989) J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven CT and London, 1992) Bernard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and David Ganz (Cambridge and New York, 1992)           Leonard E. Boyle, Medieval Latin Palaeography: A Bibliographical Introduction (Toronto, 1984)           Michelle P. Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms (London, 1994)  Seminars 16.5 0 133.5