Week One
Monday 14 July - Friday 18 July


11 History of the Printed Book in the West (Session I). Early printed books; printing processes; bookbinding; typography and book design; publishing, reading, and the book trade; the book in America and American books; book illustration; C19 mechanization of the printing trades; C20 fine printing. Intended for those with no prior coursework or extensive reading in the field. Offered again in Week 2 (see no. 22). Instructor: Martin Antonetti. See the Expanded Course Description.

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12 History of European and American Papermaking. Papermaking from its introduction in Europe to the Industrial Revolution, emphasizing changes in technology and the economics of the trade. Labor and management, the identification and description of paper in early books and manuscripts, the revival of hand-papermaking in the C20. The course includes several laboratory sessions in which students will produce a series of oriental and western paper specimens related to lecture sessions. Instructors: Timothy D. Barrett and John Bidwell. See the Expanded Course Description.

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13 Lithography in the Age of the Hand Press. This course, which explores a wide range of applications of lithography in Europe, is aimed at those concerned with books, prints, and ephemera especially of the first half of the C19. Topics: Senefelder and the discovery of lithography; lithographic stones and presses; the work of the lithographic draftsman, letterer, and printer; early lithographed books and other printing; the development of particular genres, including music printing; chromolithography. Instructor: Michael Twyman. See the Expanded Course Description.

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14 Publishers' Bookbindings, 1830-1910. The study of publishers' bookbindings, chiefly in the US, but with frequent reference to England, and occasional reference to Continental developments. Topics: the rise of the edition binder; design styles and how they developed; new techniques, machines, and materials introduced in the C19; the identification of rarities; the physical description of bindings; the preservation of publishers' bindings. The course will make extensive use of the Book Arts Press's notable collection of C19 and early C20 binding exemplars. Instructor: Sue Allen. See the Expanded Course Description.

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15 Printing Design and Publication. In today's museums and libraries, the texts for instructions, announcements, newsletter seven full-dress catalogs are composed on microcomputers, often by staff members with scant graphic design background. This course stresses the creation of appropriate design using readily-available software, covering products generated via laserprinter and photocopier through complex work involving commercial printers. Prime concerns are institutional authority and clients' expectations. Instructor: Greer Allen. See the Expanded Course Description.

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16 Teaching the History of Books and Printing. Aimed at academics and librarians who are currently teaching undergraduate or graduate courses dealing with the history of books and printing, this course will emphasize not history but pedagogy. It will compare a number of different approaches, including (but not only) printing history as the history of technology, history of art, intellectual history, business history, descriptive and historical bibliography, the dissemination of texts and their reception. The course will consider the varieties of currently available print and (and especially) non-print resources available to instructors and students in the field. Instructors: Michael T. Ryan and Daniel Traister. See the Expanded Course Description.

Week Two
Monday 21 July - Friday 25 July


21 Introduction to Codicology. The principles, bibliography and methodology of the analysis and description of Western medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. Survey of the development of the physical features of manuscript books from the C5 to the C15. This is a course for non-specialists, but applicants must have considerable background in the historical humanities; an introductory knowledge of Latin and some previous exposure to paleography will be a recommendation. Instructor: Albert Derolez. See the Expanded Course Description.

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22 History of the Printed Book in the West (Session II). This course will be offered twice in RBS 1997; for a description of the course, see no. 11. In both sections, the instructor welcomes students from a broad range of academic disciplines, collectors, dealers, and librarians. Instructor: Martin Antonetti. See the Expanded Course Description.

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23 Book Illustration to 1890. The identification of illustration processes and techniques, including (but not only) woodcut, etching, engraving, stipple, aquatint, mezzotint, lithography, wood engraving, steel engraving, process relief, collotype, photogravure, and color printing. The course will be taught entirely from the extensive Book Arts Press files of examples of illustration processes. As part of the course, students will make their own etchings, drypoints, and relief cuts in supervised laboratory sessions. Instructor: Terry Belanger. See the Expanded Course Description.

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24 Making a Good Impression: Letterpress Printing for Historians and Bibliographers. A practical introduction to the techniques needed in a c18 printing shop: paper dampening, the construction and use of ink balls, making ready, and working the press in pairs and one-on. Half of each day will be spent in laboratory sessions using the Alderman Library's full-size reproduction of a common press. Students will set and proof type, but the focus of the labs will be more on press-work than composition. Topics include: the daily life of printers and their apprentices; the trades that supported printing during the handpress period; implications for descriptive bibliography and modern pedagogy. Instructor: Brett Charbeneau. See the Expanded Course Description.

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25 Introduction to Rare Book Librarianship. Overview of the theory and practice of rare book librarianship. Topics include: the function of rare books in libraries; the interpretation of rare book collections to their publics; patterns of use; special collections reference materials; security; environmental desiderata; exhibitions and publications; friends' groups. Instructor: Daniel Traister. See the Expanded Course Description.

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26 Introduction to Electronic Texts and Images (Session I). An exploration of the research, preservation, and pedagogical uses of electronic texts in the humanities. The course will center around the creation of a set of archival-quality etexts and digital images. Topics include: finding and evaluating existing etexts; SGML tagging and conversion (especially the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines and HTML); publishing on the WWW; text analysis tools; creating an electronic text center; the management and use of on-line texts. See information about last year's course. Offered again in Week 4. Instructor: David Seaman. See the Expanded Course Description.

Week Three
Monday 28 July - Friday 1 August


31 Introduction to Medieval and Early Renaissance Bookbinding Structures. An explanation of the diversities of European bookbinding structures, up to and including the early period of more generalized practice and divisions of labor. Topics include: identification (where possible) of the main types of binding structures; their dating and provenance; the recognition and recording of materials and techniques. Instructor: Christopher Clarkson. See the Expanded Course Description.

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32 Latin Paleography, 1100-1500. An introduction to this neglected field of paleography, including reading (and expanding abbreviations proper to various disciplines), identification, classification, dating and localization of the principal kinds of Gothic and humanistic script. Examples of Latin texts (and, exceptionally, French and English ones) will be studied from photographs, photocopies, and slides. Designed for all those who have to deal with late medieval MSS. Applicants should have a good basic knowledge of Latin and of paleography. Instructor: Albert Derolez. See the Expanded Course Description.

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33 Type, Lettering, and Calligraphy, 1450-1830. The development of the major formal and informal book hands, the dominant printing types of each period, and their interrelationship. Topics include: the Gothic hands; humanistic script; the Renaissance inscriptional capital; Garamond and the spread of the Aldine Roman; calligraphy from the chancery italic to the English round hand; the neo-classical book and its typography; and early commercial typography. The course presupposes a general knowledge of Western history and some awareness of the continuity of the Latin script but no special knowledge of typographical history. Instructor: James Mosley. See the Expanded Course Description.

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34 Book Collecting. This course is aimed at persons who spend a fairly substantial amount of time, energy, and money on collecting, but who feel rather isolated from the national (and international) antiquarian book communities. Topics include: the rationale of book collecting; developing relations with dealers; buying at auction; bibliophile and friends' groups; preservation and conservation options; tax and other financial implications; what finally to do with your books; the literature of book collecting. Instructors: Wm P. Barlow, Jr and Terry Belanger. See the Expanded Course Description.

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35 How to Research a Rare Book. Strategies for the efficient identification and interpretation of the bibliographies that are most useful for work with rare and early printed books; aimed at reference and collection management librarians, antiquarian booksellers, catalogers, and others who routinely research rare books. Sources primarily in English and in the major other Roman-alphabet languages; but some attention will be paid to non-Western sources as well. Instructor: D. W. Krummel. See the Expanded Course Description.

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36 Implementing Encoded Archival Description. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) provides standardized machine-readable access to primary resource materials. This course is aimed at archivists, librarians, and museum personnel who would like an introduction to EAD that includes an extensive supervised hands-on component. Students will learn SGML encoding techniques in part using examples selected from among their own institution's finding aids. Topics: the context out of which EAD emerged; introduction to the use of SGML authoring tools and browsers; the conversion of existing finding aids to EAD. Instructor: Daniel Pitti. See the Expanded Course Description.

Week Four
Monday 4 August - Friday 8 August


41 The Use of Physical Evidence in Early Printed Books. The use of a wide variety of evidence paper, type, rubrication and illumination, bindings, ownership marks, and annotations to shed light both on questions of analytical bibliography, and wider questions of book distribution, provenance and use. There will be a fairly detailed discussion and analysis of both good and bad features in existing reference works on early printing. The seminar assumes a basic knowledge of descriptive bibliography and some familiarity with Latin. Instructor: Paul Needham. See the Expanded Course Description.

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42 European Bookbinding, 1500-1800. How bookbinding in the post-medieval period developed to meet the demands placed on it by the growth of printing: techniques and materials employed to meet these demands; the development of temporary bindings (eg pamphlets and publishers' bindings); the emergence of structures usually associated with volume production in the C19; the development of decoration; the dating of undecorated bindings; the identification of national and local binding styles. Instructor: Nicholas Pickwoad. See the Expanded Course Description.

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43 The American Book in the Industrial Era: 1820-1940. This course will explore manufacturing methods, distribution networks, and publishing patterns introduced in the US during the industrial era. The course will include laboratory sessions in which students will examine, analyze, and describe books produced during the period and will allow students the opportunity to discuss their own research projects with the instructor. The course will also introduce students to bibliographical practice and conventions as they apply to these books. Instructor: Michael Winship. See the Expanded Course Description.

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44 Introduction to Descriptive Bibliography. An introduction to the physical examination and description of printed books especially of the period 1550-1875. Designed both for those with little previous formal exposure to this subject and for those with some general knowledge of the field who wish to be presented with a systematic discussion of the elements of physical description. A major part of the course will consist of small, closely-supervised laboratory sessions in which students will gain practice in determining format and collation and in writing standard descriptions of signings and pagination. The course is especially appropriate for those who are uncomfortable in reading detailed bibliographical descriptions, or who need guidance in the techniques of identifying bibliographical formats and collations. Instructors: Terry Belanger and Richard Noble. See the Expanded Course Description.

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45 Rare Book Cataloging. Aimed at catalog librarians who find that their present duties include (or shortly will include) the cataloging of rare books and/or special collections materials. Attention will be given both to cataloging books from the hand-press period and to c19 and c20 books in a special collections context. Topics include: comparison of rare book and general cataloging; application of codes and standards; uses of special files; problems in transcription, collation and physical description; setting cataloging policy within an institutional context. Instructor: Eric Holzenberg. See the Expanded Course Description.

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46 Introduction to Electronic Texts and Images (Session II). This course will be offered twice in RBS 1997; for a description of the course, see no. 26. Instructor: David Seaman. See the Expanded Course Description.