*apologies for cross-posting*

Reading Copy-Specific Features: Producers, Readers and Owners of Incunabula

Conference on 30 June-1 July 2015 at the CTS, De Montfort University, Leicester

Call for Papers

Printing technology spread all over Europe shortly after its invention in the 1450s, and yet manuscript culture continued to thrive in the incunabula period and beyond. Scribes and printers both used manuscripts and printed books in order to produce new copies, while early book owners often assembled and bound manuscript and print material together, resulting in the production of hybrid books. The incunabulum was a product of hand-craftsmen at various stages, and each copy, even of the same edition, has its own unique history of over 500 years. Recent studies of copy-specific information in incunabula have revealed the close relationship among producers, readers and owners.

The objective of this conference is two-fold: to disseminate advanced research of copy-specific features and to facilitate further collaboration of scholarship and integration of data. In this conference, copy specifics are broadly defined as all the 'marks' found in individual copies: the collation, the distribution of paper-stock, stop-press correction variants, hand-decorations, binding, unintentional damages such as worm-holes, traces of censorship, and intentional marks left by readers and both individual and institutional owners.

We invite proposals for short papers (15 minutes) on any aspect of copy-specific features of incunabula. Papers from postgraduate students and early career researchers are particularly welcome, and there will be bursaries available for postgraduate students and early career researches to present their papers.

Please send proposal abstracts of 300-500 words with contact details and affiliation to Takako Kato <tkato@dmu.ac.uk> by 30 April 2015.

Conference programme

Plenary speakers: Lotte Hellinga (Former Deputy Keeper, the British Library) and David Pearson (Director, Culture, Heritage and Libraries at City of London).

Invited speakers: Cristina Dondi, Kate Loveman, Laura Nuvoloni, Ed Potten and Satoko Tokunaga.

Round Table discussion led by Kristian Jensen (Head of Arts and Humanities, the British Library).

Launch of 'Caxton and Beyond: Copy-Specific Material of English Incunabula', an online interface created by Takako Kato and Satoko Tokunaga.

Visit to the Special Collections in the University of Leicester Library to consult incunabula (optional).

The Conference is supported by Modern Humanities Research Association, Research Investment Fund at DMU.

The Caxton and Beyond is funded by the Bibliographical Society’s Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Research Fellowship.

More information: http://cts.dmu.ac.uk/reading/index.html


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Dr Takako Kato
TakakoKato123@gmail.com
TKato@dmu.ac.uk
School of Humanities
Clephan Building
De Montfort University
Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
+44 (0)116 207 8265