Course Catalog

Rare Book School offers intensive non-credit courses in the following categories: Bookbinding; Collecting and Collection Management; General: Descriptive and Textual Bibliography; History; Illustration and Printing Processes; Libraries, Archives, and Electronic Resources; Manuscripts; and Typography and Book Design.

Active Courses

Browse the list below to view our active courses. Some active courses are offered on an annual basis, while others may be on a rotating schedule. Entries with a “V” in their ID number indicate online-only course offerings. A list of formerly offered classes can be found at the bottom of the page.

Click here to view the current Course Schedule


Bookbinding (B)

B-10
Introduction to the History of Bookbinding
B-65
English Bookbindings, 1450–1850: Identification & Interpretation
B-75
American Publishers’ Bookbindings, 1800–1900
B-75v
American Publishers’ Bookbindings, 1800–1900
B-95
Bookbinding for Book Historians

Collecting and Collection Management (C)

C-85
Law Books: History & Connoisseurship
C-90
Provenance: Tracing Owners & Collections

General: Descriptive and Textual Bibliography (G)

G-10
Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description
G-15v
A Bibliographical Introduction to the Hand-Press Period (Online)
G-20
Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis
G-45
Analytical Bibliography
G-55
Scholarly Editing: Principles & Practice
G-60
Evidence in Handpress-Era Books, 1450–1830
G-65
Forgeries, Facsimiles & Sophisticated Copies
G-65v
Forgeries, Facsimiles & Sophisticated Copies (Online)
G-75
Paper as Bibliographical Evidence
G-80
Identifying and Understanding Twentieth-Century Duplicating Technologies
G-85
Why Black Bibliography Matters
G-90v
Indigenous Agency & Intervention in the Bibliographical Record

History (H)

H-10
Histories of the Book, 200–2000
H-15
The History of the Book in America: A Survey from Colonial to Modern
H-20v
The Book in the Manuscript Era
H-25
Fifteenth-Century Books in Print & Manuscript
H-30
The Printed Book in the West to 1800
H-40
The Printed Book in the West since 1800
H-65
Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900
H-80v
The Stationers’ Company to 1775
H-85
The History of the Book in China
H-90v
Teaching the History of the Book
H-95v
Reading Publishers’ Archives for the Study of the American Book (v)
H-105
The Bible and Histories of Reading
H-120
Textual Mobilities: Works, Books & Reading Across Early Modern Europe
H-135
The History of the Book in Antebellum America
H-140
The History & Culture of the Tibetan Book
H-145
The Book in Ming China: History & Analysis
H-150
A History of the Indigenous Book in the Americas: North of the Rio Grande
H-155
The History of Artists’ Books since 1950
H-165
Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching
H-170
Spanish American Textualities to c.1820
H-175v
The Printing Press in Spanish America, 1500–1830
H-180v
Phillis Wheatley and Friends at America’s 250th
H-185
African American Print Cultures in the Nineteenth Century
H-195
Transmission of the Bible from the Beginnings to 1500
H-200
Print for Children
H-205
Censorship from the Inquisition to the Present
H-210
The Rise of Periodical Print Culture, 1700–1830
H-215v
Indigenous North American Cartographies
H-220
The Materiality of Jewish and Christian Books
H-225
Histories of the Book in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions
H-230v
Papermaking Processes in the Global East

Illustration and Printing Processes (I)

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 & Digital Print Processes
I-40
The Illustrated Scientific Book to 1800
I-40v
Making the Early Modern Illustrated Scientific Book
I-45
The Photographic Book since 1843
I-45v
The Photographic Book since 1843
I-50
Six Hundred Years of Botanical Illustration
I-85
Japanese Prints and Illustrated Books in Context

Libraries, Archives, and Electronic Resources (L)

L-10
Special Collections Curatorship
L-25v
Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books
L-30
Rare Book Cataloging
L-35
Advanced Rare Book Cataloging Workshop
L-45
Reference Sources for Researching Printed Americana
L-50
Special Collections Leadership Seminar
L-60
Introduction to Archives for Special Collections Librarians, Booksellers & Collectors
L-100
Digital Approaches to Bibliography & Book History
L-105
Preservation Imaging: Science, Scholarship, and the Artifact
L-115
Community Archives and Digital Cultural Memory
L-120
Introduction to Audiovisual Archives Management
L-125
Scientific Analysis of the Book
L-130v
Digital Sustainability for Cultural Collections
L-135
Reference Sources for Researching Printed Western Americana
L-140v
Building a BookLab (Online)
L-145
Medieval Manuscript Fragments: Cataloging & Discoverability
L-150
Modern Special Collections Cataloging
L-155v
Institutional Book Arts Collections: Evaluating & Describing
L-160
Digital Codicology & Book History
L-165
Literary Manuscripts
L-170v
The Care of Photographic Prints & Negatives in Collections

Manuscripts (M)

M-10
Introduction to Paleography, 800–1500
M-20
Seminar in Western Codicology
M-60
Researching Medieval Manuscripts: From Cataloging to Cultural History
M-65v
From Poggio to Mabillon: The Study of Latin Manuscripts in the First Age of Print
M-70
The Handwriting & Culture of Early Modern English Manuscripts
M-85
Introduction to Islamicate Manuscripts
M-90
Advanced Seminar in Medieval Manuscript Studies
M-100v
Fragmentology
M-105v
Using Digitized Manuscripts

Typography and Book Design (T)

T-10
The History of Typography
T-60
The History of 19th- & 20th-Century Typography & Printing
T-60v
The History of 19th- & 20th-Century Typography & Printing
T-65
The Culture & Craft of Wood Type

Courses Not Currently Offered (click to expand)

The courses listed below are currently inactive

B-40
Medieval & Early Renaissance Bookbinding Structures
B-50
Advanced Seminar in the History of Bookbinding
B-60
European Bookbinding, 1500–1800
B-70
European Decorative Bookbinding
B-80
The Description of Bookbindings
B-90
Publishers’ Bookbindings, 1830–1910
C-20
Book Collecting
C-30
Developing Collections: Donors, Libraries & Booksellers
C-50
Managing the Past
C-60
Examining the Medical Book: History & Connoisseurship
C-70
Collecting the History of Anglo-American Law
C-75v
Introduction to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
C-80
Artists’ Books: Strategies for Collecting
G-10v
Descriptive Bibliography: The Fundamentals
G-30
Printed Books since 1800: Description & Analysis
G-40
Physical Bibliography for Book Conservators
G-50
Advanced Descriptive Bibliography
G-70
Advanced Seminar in Critical Bibliography
H-35
Modern Art of the Book
H-45
Printing, Publishing, and Consuming Texts in Britain, 1770–1919
H-50
The American Book in the Industrial Era, 1820–1940
H-55
The History of American Music Printing & Publishing
H-60
The History of European & American Papermaking
H-70
The History of the Book in America, c.1700–1830
H-75
Printed Ephemera
H-95
Reading Publishers Archives for the Study of the American Book
H-100
The Eighteenth-Century Book
H-110
The Art & Science of Cartography, 200–1550
H-115
Book Production and Social Practice in Early Modern Europe and America
H-120v
Textual Connected Histories: Books and Reading in the Early Modern European World
H-125
The Books of the Plays: Shakespeare & Print
H-130
The History & Construction of the Mesoamerican Codex, 600–1550
H-135v
Key Moments in the History of the Book in the Antebellum United States
H-150v
Indigenous Book History in Virtual Space
H-160
The History of Books and Printing in Korea
H-170v
Spanish American Textual Technologies to 1700
H-185v
African American Print Cultures in the Nineteenth-Century United States
H-190
An Environmental History of the Book
I-35v
The Identification of Photographic Print Processes
I-70
Lithography: The Popularization of Printing in the 19th Century
I-80
Japanese Printmaking, 1615–1868
I-90
The Art of the Book in Edo & Meiji Japan, 1615–1912
I-95
Hokusai & Book Illustration
L-20
How to Research a Rare Book
L-40
Visual Materials Cataloging
L-55
Donors and Libraries
L-65
Digitizing the Cultural Record
L-70
XML in Action: Creating Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Texts
L-75
Electronic Texts in XML
L-80
Implementing Encoded Archival Description
L-85
Publishing EAD Finding Aids
L-90
Designing Archival Description Systems
L-95
Born-Digital Materials in Special Collections
L-110
Integrating Born-Digital Materials: Archival Standards & Approaches
M-40
Latin Paleography, 1100–1500
M-50
Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts
M-55
The Book of Hours, 1250–1550
M-75
Indian Manuscript Illustration, 1450–1800
M-80
Western Manuscripts & Documents, 1500–2000
M-85v
Introduction to Islamicate Manuscripts
M-95
The Medieval Manuscript in the Twenty-First Century
T-50
Type, Lettering & Calligraphy, 1450–1830
T-55
Type, Lettering & Calligraphy, 1830–2000
T-70
Printing Design and Publication

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