Professor: Tim Smit
4 credits
This course is an introduction to the field of book history in Europe. We will think broadly about developments in books and reading, with a focus on the introduction of printing from Gutenberg on. Major themes will include the economic and technical conditions governing book production and trade; the political and religious forces behind censorship and regulation; and the social and intellectual contexts and forms of reading, in learned as well as more popular circles. To explore these themes, we will examine a variety of books and think about how they were made, what they were made for, and how they were used, moved, and organized.
The course will involve a research project working with Special Collections and University Archives in the University of Oregon libraries. For the project, you will identify a specific book in their collections for research, uncovering its production, use, and history and culminating in either a research paper or a creative project.