From The Clay Tablet to the iPad: A History of the Book in INtercultural Perspective
We are living through what some have dubbed "an information revolution";
technological advances have provided new ways in which we can communicate. Yet,
the information revolution through electronic media has been seen as a threat to
the book and newspaper/journal industry. As this course will show, the book, as
we know it, is a historical artifact that changed over long centuries in format
and content. Technological advancements and local contexts have influenced the
way information was preserved and accessed, from stone to clay tablets, to
papyrus, to parchment, to paper, to print and now to e-book. This course will
look at the historical changes in the way knowledge was transmitted, and ask
questions about how culture and technology influence each other. We will look at
the book as an object and examine the influence of the material aspect of the
book for the transmission and access to information. We will look at the
historical process of invention of the author and examine the question of
audiences and readers in a cross-cultural perspective by focusing on Christian
and Jewish books, their readers and other users.
Course Requirements Course Readings
Week 1:
1. Tuesday 09/06 Introduction: What is a Book and Its History?
- Robert Darnton, The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future, ch. 1 "The Information Landscape", ch. 4 "E-Books and Old Books", ch. 11 "What is the History of Books?"
Week 2:
2.Tuesday 09/13: The material:
- Eleanor Robson, "The Clay Tablet Book in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia" in A Companion to the History of the Book, eds. Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, pp. 67-83 (E-RES)
- Cornelia Roemer, "The Papyrus Roll in Egypt, Greece, and Rome" in A Companion to the History of the Book, pp. 84-94 (E-RES)
- Guiglierlmo Cavallo, "Between Volumen and Codex: Reading in the Roman World" in A History of Reading in the West, eds. Guiglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier, pp. 64-89
- Jonathan M. Bloom, "Revolution by the Ream: A History of Paper" in Saudi Aramco World, 50 (3) May-June 1999, 26-39 (MOODLE)
- M. T. Clanchy, "Parchment and Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100-1500" in A Companion to the History of the Book, pp. 194-206 (E-RES)
- VISIT TO SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES
Week 3
3. Tuesday 09/20: Medieval books and their users.
- M.B. Parkes, "Reading, Copying, and Interpreting a Text in Early Middle Ages" in in A History of Reading in the West, eds. Guiglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier, pp. 90-102
- Jacqueline Hamesse, "The Scholastic Model of Reading," in A History of Reading in the West, pp.103-119
- Paul Saenger, "Reading in the Later Middle Ages" in A History of Reading in the West, pp. 120-148
- Robert Bonfil, "Reading in the Jewish Communities of Western Europe in the Middle Ages" in A History of Reading in the West, pp.149-178
- Malachi Beit-Ari?"How Hebrew Manuscripts Are Made" in Leonard Singer Gold, ed., A Sign and a Witness: 2000 Years of Hebrew Books and Illuminated Manuscripts, 35-46 (E-RES)
- Robert Darnton, The Case for Books, ch. 9 "The Importance of Being Bibliographical," 131-148
- PRIMARY SOURCES
- Bibliographic and Book as an Object Assignment Announced
Endnote training
Week 4
4. Tuesday 09/27: Introduction of new technology: the Printing Press
- Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book, chapters 2-3 (E-RES)
- David Areford, The Viewer and the Printed Image in Late Medieval Europe, chapter 2 "The Materiality of the Printed Image" (E-RES)
- Mordechai Glatzer "Early Hebrew Printing" in Leonard Singer Gold, ed., A Sign and a Witness, 80-91. (E-RES)
- PRIMARY SOURCES:
By NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED YOUR PAPER TOPIC WITH ME
DRAFT of the LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE MONDAY, 10/03 at 4:30 pm.
Week 5
5. Tuesday 10/04: Printed Book: Continuity and Change
- Ann Blair, Too Much To Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Era (Yale University Press, 2010) chapter I, pp. 11-61 (E-RES)
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Books and Controversies
- PAPER TOPIC and PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE FRIDAY 10/06
Week 6:
6. Tuesday 10/11: Innovations: Formats and Genres
- Rudolph Bell, How To Do It, p. 1-71
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Early Hebrew Books and Their Printers; "Putting Books in Order"; The Order of Women's Commandments
- VISIT TO SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES
- REVISED VERSIONS OF YOUR BOOK AS AN OBJECT ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY 10/15
Week 7:
7. Tuesday 10/18: Readers I: Readers of Old and New Books
- Roger Chartier, The Order of Books, pp. 1-23
- William Sherman, Used Books, pp. 3-52, 71-109, 151-182
- PRIMARY SOURCES: A Library of A Christian Hebraist; Leon Modena and the Kabbalah
Week 8:
Tuesday 10/25 NO CLASS: BREAK
Notes from your research due and paper outline DUE Monday 10/31 9am.
Week 9:
8. Tuesday 11/01: Readers II: New Readers
- Carlo Ginzburg, Cheese and Worms
- William Sherman, Used Books, pp.53-67
- PRIMARY SOURCES
- VISIT TO SC&A
Week 10:
9: Tuesday 11/08: Market and Trade
- Roger Chartier, The Order of Books, 25-60
- Edward Fram and Magda Teter, "Apostasy, Fraud and the Beginnings of Hebrew Printing in Cracow," AJS Review 30 no. 1 (2006): 31-66 (available on JSTOR)
- Joseph Gutmann, "Forming the Great Collections" in Leonard Singer Gold, ed., A Sign and a Witness, 71-79
- The Statute of Anne, 1710
- discussion of your topics.
- FIRST DRAFT DUE on FRIDAY 11/11 at 4pm
Week 11:
10. Tuesday 11/15: The Book and Scholarship
- Roger Chartier, Order of Books, pp. 25-88
- Anthony Grafton, The Footnote, pp. chapters 1, 4-7, Epilogue
- VISIT TO SC&A
Week 12:
11. Tuesday 11/22: Calendars and Almanacs--Politics of Time and Book History
- Elisheva Carlebach, Palaces of Time, chapters 1-5, 8, Epilogue
- VISIT TO SC&A
Week 13
12. Tuesday 11/28: Modern Book--Religion and Politics
- Jeremy Stolow, Orthodox by Design: Judaism, Print Politics and the ArtScroll Revolution
Week 14
13.Tuesday 12/05: The Future of the Book: The Book in an Electronic Age
- Robert Darnton, The Case for Books, ch. 3 "The Future of Libraries," 43-58.58.
- FINAL LIBRARY SESSION
FINAL DRAFT DUE ON THE LAST DAY OF CLASSES