Diagrams, Charts and Tables: Visualising Information in Early Modern Lines

Diagrams, tables and charts pervade a diverse range of early modern texts from almanacs to architectural treatises, from military to meditational manuals, and from scientific discourses to the household 'how-to'. Moreover, as Katherine Acheson has recently demonstrated in Visual Rhetoric and Early Modern English Literature (2013), an even broader range of texts were shaped by the systems of thought formed by these technical and schematic lines.

This workshop aims to explore how lines were used to visualise, organise, create and disrupt information and knowledge in early modern Europe. Held at York Minster Library, the workshop will include an introductory talk by the Minster’s librarians and will allow participants to examine a selection of items from the library’s extensive collections of early modern printed material. We warmly invite scholars working in all disciplines to join us at this inaugural meeting of the Early Modern Lines Research Network.

If you would like to attend, please email earlymodernlines@york.ac.uk by Friday 23rd January.