English Literature Research Areas
The World's Earliest Dated Printed Book
The Diamond Sutra is the earliest dated printed book from 868 AD. The Diamond Sutra is a central text in Indian Buddhism, featuring a sermon given by Buddha and his elderly disciple Subhuti on the perfection of wisdom. This Sutra features a historic Buddha in the center and shows Subhuti praying on a mat in the lower left-hand corner in woodblock print. The text is Chinese, arranged in columns to be read top to bottom and right to left (Hotson, 2018)
The Diamond Sutra, 868, Shelf mark Or. 8210/P.2, frontispiece and text, with scroll ends. Image courtesy the British Library.
Book Studies
From the English Department:
Book studies specialists in the English department provide an exciting, interdisciplinary approach to literary and cultural history. Focusing on the production, transmission, and circulation of texts in their scribal, print, and digital media, we are interested in the physical properties of word and image in the book format. We examine a welter of cultural records—scrolls, codices, broadsides, pamphlets, periodicals, collages, websites—in order to measure the shifting historical meanings of authorship, publication, and reception. Book specialists further assess the impact of a text's materiality on audiences and publics; on constructions of gender, race, and class; and on theories of art, information, and collection. Students benefit from the University of Iowa Center for the Book, a distinctive multidisciplinary unit with expertise in the craft and history of books.
Collections and Companions
Click on the "i" info icon after each book title to view a brief description about the following books from the University of Iowa Libraries' catalog:
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Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500-1800
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Bringing together diverse scholars to represent the full historical breadth of the early modern period, and a wide range of disciplines (literature, women's studies, folklore, ethnomusicology, art history, media studies, the history of science, and history), Ballads and Broadsides in Britain, 1500-1800 offers an unprecedented perspective on the development and cultural practice of popular print in early modern Britain. Fifteen essays explore major issues raised by the broadside genre in the early modern period: the different methods by which contemporaries of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries collected and "appreciated" such early modern popular forms; the preoccupation in the early modern period with news and especially monsters; the concomitant fascination with and representation of crime and the criminal subject; the technology and formal features of early modern broadside print together with its bearing on gender, class, and authority/authorship; and, finally, the nationalizing and internationalizing of popular culture through crossings against (and sometimes with) cultural Others in ballads and broadsides of the time.
ISBN: 9780754662488Publication Date: 2016-04-07 -
Books As History
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People usually think of books in terms of their contents, their texts, with less thought for books as artifacts. In fact, books may possess all kinds of potentially interesting qualities beyond their texts, as designed or artistic objects, or because they have unique properties deriving from the ways they have been printed, bound, annotated, beautified, or defaced. This text explores books from the Middle Ages to the present day to show why books may be interesting beyond their texts. Books can develop their own individual histories, which provide important evidence about the way they were used and regarded in the past, and which make them an indispensable part of the fabric of our cultural heritage. This book will raise awareness of an important aspect of the life of books in the context of the ongoing debate about their future. Extensively illustrated with a wide range of images, this book is not only approachable but also thought-provoking.
ISBN: 9780712358880Publication Date: 2013-01-01 -
The Case for Books
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The invention of writing was one of the most important technological, cultural, and sociological breakthroughs in human history. With the printed book, information and ideas could disseminate more widely and effectively than ever before--and in some cases, affect and redirect the sway of history. Today, nearly one million books are published each year. But is the era of the book as we know it--a codex of bound pages--coming to an end? And if it is, should we celebrate its demise and the creation of a democratic digital future, or mourn an irreplaceable loss? The digital age is revolutionizing the information landscape. Already, more books have been scanned and digitized than were housed in the great library in Alexandria, making available millions of texts for a curious reader at the click of a button, and electronic book sales are growing exponentially. Will this revolution in the delivery of information and entertainment make for more transparent and far-reachingdissemination or create a monopolistic stranglehold? InThe Case for Books, Robert Darnton, an intellectual pioneer in the field of the history of the book and director of Harvard University's Library, offers an in-depth examination of the book from its earliest beginnings to its shifting role today in popular culture, commerce, and the academy. As an author, editorial advisor, and publishing entrepreneur, Darnton is a unique authority on the life and role of the book in society. This book is a wise work of scholarship--one that requires readers to carefullyconsider how the digital revolution will broadly affect the marketplace of ideas.
ISBN: 9781586488260Publication Date: 2009-10-27 -
A Companion to the Early Printed Book in Britain, 1476-1558
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First full-scale guide to the origins and development of the early printed book, and the issues associated with it. The history of the book is now recognized as a field of central importance for understanding the cultural changes that swept through Tudor England. This companion aims to provide a comprehensive guide to the issues relevant to theearly printed book, covering the significant cultural, social and technological developments from 1476 (the introduction of printing to England) to 1558 (the death of Mary Tudor). Divided into thematic sections (the printed booktrade; the book as artefact; patrons, purchasers and producers; and the cultural capital of print), it considers the social, historical, and cultural context of the rise of print, with the problems as well as advantages of the transmission from manuscript to print. the printers of the period; the significant Latin trade and its effect on the English market; paper, types, bindings, and woodcuts and other decorative features which create the packaged book; and the main sponsors and consumers of the printed book: merchants, the lay clientele, secular and religious clergy, and the two Universities, as well as secular colleges and chantries. Further topics addressed include humanism, women translators, and the role of censorship and the continuity of Catholic publishing from that time. The book is completed with a chronology and detailed indices. Vincent Gillespie is J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford; Susan Powell held a Chair in Medieval Texts and Culture at the University of Salford, and is currently affiliated to the Universities of London and York. Contributors: Tamara Atkin, Alan Coates, Thomas Betteridge, Julia Boffey, James Clark, A.S.G. Edwards, Martha W. Driver, Mary Erler, Alexandra Gillespie, Vincent Gillespie, Andrew Hope, Brenda Hosington, Susan Powell, Pamela Robinson, AnneF. Sutton, Daniel Wakelin, James Willoughby, Lucy Wooding
ISBN: 9781782042099Publication Date: 2014-01-16 -
A History of Reading and Writing
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Martyn Lyons surveys the changing relationships enjoyed by men and women with the written word, from early times to the present day. He provides a highly-readable account of the social history of reading and writing, relating it to key historical moments such as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. Offering a fresh history centred on the reactions and experiences of ordinary readers and writers, Lyons deals with key turning points that occurred throughout the centuries, such as the invention of the codex, the transition from scribal to print culture, the reading revolution and the industrialisation of the book. Tracing the major historical developments across Europe and North America which revolutionised our relationship with texts, this book provides an engaging and invaluable overview of the history of scribal and print culture.
ISBN: 9780230001619Publication Date: 2009-11-01 -
The History of the Book in the Middle East
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This selection of papers by scholarly specialists offers an introduction to the history of the book and book culture in West Asia and North Africa from antiquity to the 20th century. The flourishing and long-lived manuscript tradition is discussed in its various aspects - social and economic as well as technical and aesthetic. The very early but abortive introduction of printing - long before Gutenberg - and the eventual, belated acceptance of the printed book and the development of print culture are explored in further groups of papers. Cultural, aesthetic, technological, religious, social, political and economic factors are all considered throughout the volume. Although the articles reflect the predominance in the area of Muslim books - Arabic, Persian and Turkish - the Hebrew, Syriac and Armenian contributions are also discussed. The editor's introduction provides a survey of the field from the origins of writing to the modern literary and intellectual revivals.
ISBN: 9781409433101Publication Date: 2013-08-21 -
Interacting with Print
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A thorough rethinking of a field deserves to take a shape that is in itself new. Interacting with Print delivers on this premise, reworking the history of print through a unique effort in authorial collaboration. The book itself is not a typical monograph--rather, it is a "multigraph," the collective work of twenty-two scholars who together have assembled an alphabetically arranged tour of key concepts for the study of print culture, from Anthologies and Binding to Publicity and Taste. Each entry builds on its term in order to resituate print and book history within a broader media ecology throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The central theme is interactivity, in three senses: people interacting with print; print interacting with the non-print media that it has long been thought, erroneously, to have displaced; and people interacting with each other through print. The resulting book will introduce new energy to the field of print studies and lead to considerable new avenues of investigation.
ISBN: 9780226469140Publication Date: 2018-01-26 -
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book
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In 14 original essays, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present. Leading international scholars offer an original and richly illustrated narrative that is global in scope. The history of the book is the history of millions of written, printed, and illustrated texts, their manufacture, distribution, and reception. Here are different types of production, from clay tablets to scrolls, from inscribed codices to printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, from written parchment to digital texts. The history of the book is a history of different methods of circulation and dissemination, all dependent on innovations in transport, from coastal and transoceanic shipping to roads, trains, planes and the internet. It is a history of different modes of reading and reception, from learned debate and individual study to public instruction and entertainment. It is a history of manufacture, craftsmanship, dissemination, reading and debate.Yet the history of books is not simply a question of material form, nor indeed of the history of reading and reception. The larger question is of the effect of textual production, distribution and reception - of how books themselves made history. To this end, each chapter of this volume, succinctly bounded by period and geography, offers incisive and stimulating insights into the relationship between books and the story of their times.
ISBN: 9780198702986Publication Date: 2020-09-01 -
Papyrus : the Invention of Books in the Ancient World
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Long before books were mass-produced, hand-copied scrolls made from Nile River reeds were the treasures of the ancient world. Emperors and pharaohs, determined to possess them, dispatched emissaries to the edges of the known world to bring them back. Exploring the deep and fascinating history of the written word, from the oral tradition to scrolls to codices, internationally bestselling author Irene Vallejo shows that books have always been a precious and precarious vehicle for civilization. Through fascinating stories from history, insightful readings of the classics, and poignant personal reflection, Vallejo traces the dramatic history of the book and the fight for its survival. At its heart a spirited love letter to language itself, Papyrus takes readers on a journey across the centuries to discover how a simple reed grown along the banks of the Nile would give birth to a rich and cherished culture.
ISBN: 0593318900Publication Date: 2022 -
Portable Magic
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A history of one of humankind's most resilient and influential technologies over the past millennium--the book. Revelatory and entertaining in equal measure, Portable Magic will charm and challenge literature lovers of all kinds as it illuminates the transformative power and eternal appeal of the written word. Stephen King once said that books are "a uniquely portable magic." Here, Emma Smith takes readers on a literary adventure that spans centuries and circles the globe to uncover the reasons behind our obsession with this captivating object. From disrupting the Western myth that the Gutenberg Press was the original printing project, to the decorative gift books that radicalized women to join the anti-slavery movement, to paperbacks being weaponized during World War II, to a book made entirely of plastic-wrapped slices of American cheese, Portable Magic explores how, when, and why books became so iconic. It's not just the content within a book that compels; it's the physical material itself, what Smith calls "bookhood": the smell, the feel of the pages, the margins to scribble in, the illustrations on the jacket, its solid heft. Every book is designed to influence our reading experience--to enchant, enrage, delight, and disturb us--and our longstanding love affair with books in turn has had direct, momentous consequences across time.
ISBN: 9781524749095Publication Date: 2022-11-15 -
Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800
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A comprehensive resource to understanding the hand-press printing of early books Studying Early Printed Books, 1450 - 1800 offers a guide to the fascinating process of how books were printed in the first centuries of the press and shows how the mechanics of making books shapes how we read and understand them. The author offers an insightful overview of how books were made in the hand-press period and then includes an in-depth review of the specific aspects of the printing process. She addresses questions such as: How was paper made? What were different book formats? How did the press work? In addition, the text is filled with illustrative examples that demonstrate how understanding the early processes can be helpful to today's researchers. Studying Early Printed Books shows the connections between the material form of a book (what it looks like and how it was made), how a book conveys its meaning and how it is used by readers. The author helps readers navigate books by explaining how to tell which parts of a book are the result of early printing practices and which are a result of later changes. The text also offers guidance on: how to approach a book; how to read a catalog record; the difference between using digital facsimiles and books in-hand. This important guide: Reveals how books were made with the advent of the printing press and how they are understood today Offers information on how to use digital reproductions of early printed books as well as how to work in a rare books library Contains a useful glossary and a detailed list of recommended readings Includes a companion website for further research Written for students of book history, materiality of text and history of information, Studying Early Printed Books explores the many aspects of the early printing process of books and explains how their form is understood today.
ISBN: 9781119049968Publication Date: 2019-02-26
Contextual Resources
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Early European Books: Printed Sources to 1700A diverse array of printed sources from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, opening the door to some of the world’s most significant collections of early printed books. All works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, fall within the scope of the project, together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield. Builds upon and complements Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Searching InfoHawk+ and Locating Materials in the Library
Suggested search terms:
- Books -- History
- Book industries and trade -- History
- Printing -- History
- Early printed books
- Incunabula
- Printing -- England -- History -- 16th century
- Printing -- Middle East
Call numbers beginning with PQ (French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Literature and PR (English Literature) are located on the West side of the fourth floor of the Main Library.
Call numbers beginning with Z (Bibliography, Library Science, and General Information Resources) are located on the West side of the second floor of the Main Library, ahead of the East Asian Collection.
Databases
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Oxford Companion to the Book This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford Companion to the Book covers the book, broadly conceived, throughout the world from ancient to modern times. It includes traditional subjects such as bibliography, palaeography, the history of printing, editorial theory and practice, textual criticism, book collecting, and libraries, but it also engages with newer disciplines such as the history of the book and the electronic book. It pays particular attention to how different societies shape books and how books shape societies.
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Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive This link opens in a new windowThe Stationers’ Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding. Explore extremely rare documents dating from 1554 to the 21st century in this invaluable resource of research material for historians and literary scholars.
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Early European Books: printed sources to 1700 (EEB) This link opens in a new windowA diverse array of printed sources from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, opening the door to some of the world’s most significant collections of early printed books. All works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, fall within the scope of the project, together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield. Builds upon and complements Early English Books Online (EEBO).
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EEBO: Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowFrom the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare this collection contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and Thomason Tracts and their revised edition.
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British Literary Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new windowBritish Literary Manuscripts Online
presents facsimile images of literary manuscripts, including letters and diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels, and other literary works, and similar materials. Searching is based on tags and descriptive text associated with each manuscript. Includes: Medieval and Renaissance, 1600-1900. -
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive This link opens in a new windowThe Stationers’ Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding. Explore extremely rare documents dating from 1554 to the 21st century in this invaluable resource of research material for historians and literary scholars.
Journals
Click on the "i" info icon after the title to view a brief description about the following literary journals:
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Book History Book History is devoted to every aspect of the history of the book, broadly defined as the history of the creation, dissemination, and reception of script and print. It publishes research on the social, economic, and cultural history of author-ship, editing, printing, the book arts, publishing, the book trade, periodicals, newspapers, ephemera, copyright, censorship, literary agents, libraries, literary criticism, canon formation, literacy, literary education, reading habits, and reader response. Published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. The official publication of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing (SHARP).
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Book 2.0 Covers developments in book creation and design, including the progressions in technology and software affecting illustration, design and book production.
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Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing HIstory Focuses on English and Continental works produced from 1350 to 1550 and also contains notes on manuscripts and early printed books, descriptive reviews of recent works in the field, and notes on libraries and collections.
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The History of the Works of the Learned, or an Impartial Account of the Books Lately Printed in All Parts of Europe (1699-1712) A historical periodical published by H. Rhodes to document the books lately printed in Europe featuring a "particular relation of the state of learning in each country."
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Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History Reception is the official journal of the Reception Study Society. It seeks to promote dialogue and discussion among scholars engaged in theoretical and practical analyses in several related fields: reader-response criticism and pedagogy, reception study, history of reading and the book, audience and communication studies, and institutional studies and histories, as well as interpretive strategies related to feminism, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and postcolonial studies. It focuses mainly (but not exclusively) on the literature, culture, and media of England and the United States.
Web Resources
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The Art of the Marbler: The Cockerell WorkshopThe British firm of Cockerell and Sons produces marbled paper using traditional European techniques. Of particular interest is the use of combs to produce repeatable patterns, captured in a YouTube video.
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The Book Arts Research Database (BARD) from The University of Iowa Special CollectionsThe Book Arts Research Database (BARD) is designed to make the large collection of book arts materials held at the University of Iowa’s Special Collections more accessible to faculty, students, makers, and researchers by providing them with a multi-pronged search function.
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Book History ResourcesA brief list of open-access resources for studying early modern book history, with a preference for British history.
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The British Library's Digitised Manuscripts and ArchiveA list of more than 3,000 digitised manuscripts and archival documents provides direct links so you can explore the items online in detail.
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The Early Novels Database (END)The Early Novels Database (END) project generates high-quality metadata about novels published between 1660 and 1850 in order to make early works of fiction more available to both traditional and computational modes of humanistic study. By uniting twenty-first-century database and search technologies with the sensibility of eighteenth-century indexing practices, END creates several innovative access points to a dataset that currently includes over two thousand richly detailed records.
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Early Printed BooksEarly Printed Books was developed by Sarah Werner as a companion to her book, Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800: A Practical Guide, and released in beta in the spring of 2018 and officially launched in the spring of 2019. Intended to be able to be used both alongside and separately from the book, the website is an open-access, freely available resource that can supplement anyone’s explorations of early printed books.
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John Carter's "ABCs for Book Collectors"Available for download with this link
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The Newberry: The History of the Book CollectionCollections related to the history of the book document innovations in the design and production of books over the course of 500 years, from the invention of the printing press in Europe to the present day.
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Online Resources for Book History and Print Culture (Williams College)An extensive guide that compiles growing selection of websites, articles, and videos which help explain aspects of book culture and material history.
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Paper Through Time: Non-destructive Analysis of 14th- through 19th-Century European-style Papers (The University of Iowa)This website shares the results of research on 1,578 paper specimens made in Europe and America between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The papers tested were selected from collections at the Newberry Library and The University of Iowa, and were analyzed using nondestructive instrumentation. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Kress Foundation, and The University of Iowa provided funding support.
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Suminagashi: Japanese Marbling TechniqueA YouTube video capturing Suminagashi, or water marbling. A paper decorating technique that has been practiced in Japan since the 12th century.
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UK National Archives' Tutorial on PalaeographyA thorough introduction to early modern English scripts. The quick reference guide to dating, numbers, and other abbreviations is particularly helpful. Extensive exercises allow students to practice skills: each of 10 documents includes historical background notes ;a glossary; notes on the palaeography; a sample alphabet taken from each document, and a full transcript.
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UK Reading Experience DatabaseUK RED captures the reading tastes and habits of the famous and the ordinary, the young and the old, men and women. The texts range from books and newspapers to ephemera such as playbills and tickets, and from illuminated manuscripts, novels and poetry to tombstone inscriptions and graffiti. Entries in UK RED illustrate the diversity of reading experience and practice as well as patterns within particular periods and across time. The evidence of reading is drawn from a multitude of sources, including diaries, memoirs, commonplace books, marginalia, sociological surveys, and criminal court and prison records, with accounts ranging from 1400 to 1945.
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Unlocking the Archive: Discover Historic BooksYou can page through a selection of Renaissance and early modern books in British libraries. In-depth interactive captions provide context and identify key material and textual features.
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Unseen Hands: Women Printers, Binders and Book Designers (Princeton)Women have been involved in printing and the making of books ever since these crafts were first developed. Even before the advent of movable type, there was a strong tradition of women producing manuscripts in western European religious houses. This archived digital exhibition curated by Rebecca W. Davidson (Princeton University) features accounts of women printers in the west from the 15th through the 20th centuries.