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.
Many RBS courses are offered annually or bi-annually; others are offered on a less regular schedule. A list of the courses offered during the current calendar year is given on the Course Schedule page.
A description of the RBS experience generally may be found on the About RBS page.
Have an idea for a course that RBS should run? Have a suggestion for an instructor that would be a great addition to the RBS faculty? Other thoughts about the future of RBS? We want to hear from you! Please use this online form to submit your suggestions!
Former students’ evaluations of all RBS courses offered since 1995 are available via each course description page; 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. The Advance Reading Lists for most RBS courses are also available.
The “Courses Not Currently Offered” section below includes courses offered at least once since 2001, when the current course-numbering system was introduced. For a list of pre-2001 courses not currently offered, see this page.
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Bookbinding
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Collecting and Collection Management
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General: Descriptive and Textual Bibliography
- G-10. Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description
- G-15v. Introduction to Bibliographical Research Methods for the Hand-Press Period (Online)
- G-20. Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis
- G-40. Physical Bibliography for Book Conservators
- G-45. Analytical Bibliography
- G-50. Advanced Descriptive Bibliography
- G-55. Scholarly Editing: Principles & Practice
- G-65. Forgeries, Facsimiles & Sophisticated Copies
- G-65v. Forgeries, Facsimiles & Sophisticated Copies (Online)
- G-70. Advanced Seminar in Critical Bibliography
- G-75. Paper as Bibliographical Evidence
- G-80. Identifying and Understanding Twentieth-Century Duplicating Technologies
- G-85. Why Black Bibliography Matters
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History
- H-10. Histories 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. 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-50. The American Book in the Industrial Era, 1820–1940
- H-65. Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900
- H-70. The History of the Book in America, c.1700–1830
- 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-95. Reading Publishers’ Archives for the Study of the American Book
- H-105. The Bible and Histories of Reading
- H-115. Book Production and Social Practice in Early Modern Europe and America
- 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
- H-155. The History of Artists’ Books since 1950
- H-160. The History of Books and Printing in Korea
- 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. Six Degrees of Phillis Wheatley
- H-185. African American Print Cultures in the Nineteenth Century
- H-190. An Environmental History of the Book
- H-195. Transmission of the Bible from the Beginnings to 1500
- H-200. Print for Children
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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 & 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
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Libraries, Archives, and Electronic Resources
- 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
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Manuscripts
- M-10. Introduction to Paleography, 800–1500
- M-20. Seminar in Western Codicology
- M-50. Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts
- M-55. The Book of Hours, 1250–1550
- 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 (Online)
- 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
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Typography and Book Design
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Courses Not Currently Offered
- T-70. Printing Design and Publication
- 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-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-60. Introduction to 15th-Century Printing
- H-35. Modern Art of the Book
- H-45. Printing, Publishing, and Consuming Texts in Britain, 1770–1919
- H-55. The History of American Music Printing & Publishing
- H-60. The History of European & American Papermaking
- H-75. Printed Ephemera
- H-100. The Eighteenth-Century Book
- H-110. The Art & Science of Cartography, 200–1550
- 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-170v. Spanish American Textual Technologies to 1700
- H-185v. African American Print Cultures in the Nineteenth-Century United States
- 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-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