Course Descriptions

Reading right through these descriptions may be useful for those unacquainted with Rare Book School, the more so in that the courses are arranged in subject order rather than by level of complexity.

A good many RBS courses are offered annually; others are offered on a less regular schedule. A list of the courses offered over the next year or so is given on the current RBS Course Schedule page.

A description of the RBS experience generally may be found on the About Rare Book School page.

Electronic copies of many other RBS documents past and present are available from this website, including former students' evaluations of all RBS courses offered since 1995; in the past, prospective students have found these frank discussions particularly useful in deciding whether or not to apply for admission to a particular RBS course. For similar reasons, copies of the Advance Reading Lists for most RBS courses are available online.

Binding
B-10	Introduction to the History of Bookbinding
B-40	Medieval & Early Renaissance Bookbinding Structures
B-50	Advanced Seminar in the History of Bookbinding
B-75	American Publishers' Bookbindings, 1800–1900

Collecting and Collection Management
C-30	Developing Collections: Donors, Libraries & Booksellers
C-60	Examining the Medical Book: History & Connoisseurship
C-85	Law Books: History & Connoisseurship
C-90	Provenance: Tracing Owners & Collections

General: Descriptive and Textual Bibliography
G-10	Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description
G-20	Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis
G-30	Printed Books since 1800: Description & Analysis
G-45	Analytical Bibliography
G-50	Advanced Descriptive Bibliography
G-55	Scholarly Editing: Principles & Practice
G-70	Advanced Seminar in Critical Bibliography

History
H-10	The History of the Book, 200–2000
H-15	The History of the Book in America: A Survey from Colonial to Modern
H-20	The Book in the Manuscript Era
H-25	15th-Century Books in Print and Manuscript
H-30	The Printed Book in the West to 1800
H-35	Modern Art of the Book
H-40	The Printed Book in the West since 1800
H-50	The American Book in the Industrial Era, 1820–1940
H-60	The History of European & American Papermaking
H-70	The History of the Book in America, c.1700–1830
H-80	The Stationers' Company to 1775
H-85	The History of the Book in China
H-90	Teaching the History of the Book
H-95	Reading Publishers’ Archives for the Study of the American Book
H-100	The Eighteenth-Century Book
H-105	The Bible and Histories of Reading
H-110	The Art & Science of Cartography, 200–1550

Illustration and Printing Processes
I-10	The History of Printed Book Illustration in the West
I-20	Book Illustration Processes to 1900
I-30	Advanced Seminar in Book Illustration Processes
I-35	The Identification of Photographic Print Processes
I-40	The Illustrated Scientific Book to 1800
I-85	Japanese Illustrated Books, 1615–1868
I-90	The Art of the Book in Edo and Meiji Japan, 1615–1912
I-95	Hokusai & Book Illustration

Libraries, Archives, and Electronic Resources
L-10	Special Collections Librarianship
L-25	Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books
L-30	Rare Book Cataloging
L-35	Advanced Rare Book Cataloging Workshop
L-40	Visual Materials Cataloging
L-45	Reference Sources for Researching Printed Americana
L-60	Intro to Archives for Special Collections Librarians
L-65	Digitizing the Historical Record
L-70	XML in Action: Creating Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Texts
L-95	Born-Digital Materials: Theory & Practice
L-100	Digital Approaches to Bibliography & Book History
L-105	Preservation Imaging: Science, Scholarship, and the Artifact

Manuscripts
M-10	Introduction to Paleography, 800–1500
M-20	Introduction to Western Codicology
M-50	Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts
M-70	The Handwriting & Culture of Early Modern English Manuscripts
M-90	Advanced Seminar in Medieval Manuscript Studies
M-95	The Medieval Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century

Typography and Book Design
T-10	Introduction to the History of Typography
T-50	Type, Lettering and Calligraphy, 1450–1830
T-55	Type, Lettering and Calligraphy, 1830–2000
T-60	The History of 19th- and 20th-Century Typography & Printing

Courses not currently offered