Antwerp Chapters, 2: Exploring the design of early printed books.

The University of Antwerp research group 'Boek, Bibliotheek en Informatie' ('Book, Library and Information' organizes a research seminar on book history in collaboration with the Museum Plantin-Moretus on Friday 2 July 2010.

Dr Margaret M Smith, former lecturer at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communicaton at the University of Reading, and author of The title-page: its early development, 1460–1510 (The British Library & Oak Knoll, 2000) will present her paper entitled 'Exploring the design of early printed books: observation, speculation, research needs'

The abstract reads:
"This seminar will introduce various aspects of the design of printed books of the 15th and 16th centuries. It will draw upon the presenter’s long study of these books and it will focus on a number of case studies from the collection in the Museum’s extensive library. Direct observation of examples will be used to formulate questions about these books, including the reasons that lie behind their size, the types they use, the amount of colour they have, their illustrations, their page layout, their methods of opening and closing, their use of readers’ aids. Of particular focus will be questions of textual articulation and how the hand finishing that had been done by the rubricator at the beginning of the printed book era was gradually taken over by the printer.

It is hoped that the seminar will raise as many questions as it answers, because study of the history of book design is as yet only an under-researched sub-field of bibliography and book history.”

More information can be found at www.boeksgeschiedenis.be or email Pierre Delsaerdt at pierre.delsaerdt@ua.ac.be