- Department: History
- Credit value: 10 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
This module offers an introduction to the technical analysis and interpretation of printed items made in the period 1500-1800. It is designed to provide students with the technical skills needed to begin research using early-modern printed sources. Students will learn about the historiography of print culture and associated concepts (such as reception and circulation). They will be able to see, first-hand, an early-modern printing-press and understand how it worked. They will handle a variety of early-modern sources – including but not limited to books, handbills, music, pamphlets, and plays – from the tens of thousands of printed items in the collections of York Minster Library.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2022-23 |
The module aims to:
At the end of this module students will be able to:
Teaching Programme:
Students will attend a 2-hour seminar, two 4-hour workshops and a mini-conference in the spring term.
The provisional programme is as follows:
Week 1: Briefing (1 hour)
Week 2: Context/theory seminar: The Historiography of Print (2 hours)
Week 3: Workshop I: The Printing Press (4 hours)
Week 4: Workshop II: York Minster Library (4 hours)
Weeks 5-8: Independent project work
Week 8: Project Mini-Conference (3 hours)
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
University - project | 100 |
None
Students will submit a project portfolio in week 10 of the spring term for summative assessment, comprising of a 300-word technical description and a 1000-word reflective essay.
Students will produce a short technical description of their chosen item, focusing on one (or more) of its technical attributes, including but not limited to its title, size, edition, printer, publisher, typeface, marginalia or provenance. They may include up to three photographs of their object alongside the description. They will also write a reflective essay explaining how they traced this attribute and its significance for how the item may have been used.
Prior to that in week 8, students will make a short presentation to the group at the mini-conference about their chosen project, the research they have undertaken, and their likely direction for the reflective essay.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
University - project | 100 |
Following their formative assessment task, students will receive constructive verbal feedback from the module convenor and their peers during the mini-conference, which they can then take forward into the completion of their final project portfolio.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Green, Ian. ‘Print’ in Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources eds. Laura Sangha and Jonathan Willis. London: Routledge, 2016.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Press as an agent of change: Communications and cultural transformations in early modern Europe. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Febvre, Lucien & Henri-Jean Martin. The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450-1800 (various editions).
Students should also explore the following online resources:
http://sarahwerner.net/FolgerBooks/index.php/resources/