Masterclass 43rd Erasmus Birthday Lecture - Ann Blair: Learned book culture in the 16th-century

Masterclass: Learned book culture in the 16th-century

Ann Blair: 'My aim in this session with rare materials is to discuss the benefits of working directly from surviving copies in order to learn about the production and use of books in the sixteenth century and to compare these sources with two kinds of surrogates available today: modern editions and digitizations of early modern imprints. I plan to discuss printed paratexts, especially the less studied ones such as liminary poems, indexes, tables of contents, errata lists, and others which do not fit neatly into a category, since they are often rearranged in or omitted from modern editions. We will also pay attention to features such as manuscript annotations and binding practices which are specific to a given copy. Items selected will comprise Erasmiana and other interesting examples of humanist book culture. I also look forward to hearing about the research questions that participants are each pursuing. '

Apply before 27 September 2024

Fifteen promising young students at graduate level (MA students and PhD candidates) will be selected to participate in this Masterclass. In case you are interested, please apply before 27 september via the blue 'sign up' button above or via this link.

We will inform you by 4 October whether you are invited to join the Masterclass. The public lecture by Ann Blair, Erasmus from the perspective of an amanuensis - Gilbert Cousin, will take place later in the afternoon in the Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, Amsterdam. If you want to join this lecture, please make sure to register here. 

For more information, please contact Linda Groen at linda.groen@knaw.nl.

About Ann Blair 

Ann Blair is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor in the Department of History at Harvard University where she teaches book history and early modern European cultural and intellectual history to undergraduates and graduate students. Her research focuses on the working methods of scholars and authors ca. 1500-1700. She has studied for example: practices of reading and note-taking, of composing and using reference works and finding devices, and, in her project currently underway, the role of amanuenses. Her publications include: The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (1997); Too Much To Know: managing scholarly information before the modern age, 2010; L’Entour du texte: la publication du livre savant à la Renaissance (2021) focused on paratexts in learned books; and two recent co-edited volumes: New Horizons for Early Modern Scholarship (2021) with Nicholas Popper, and Information: a historical companion (2021) with Paul Duguid, Anja Goeing, and Anthony Grafton. See: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/ablair