Date/Time
Date(s) - 16 Feb 2015
5:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Location
Class of 1978 Pavilion, Special Collections Center
Category(ies) No Categories
Monday, 16 February, at 5.15pm in the Class of 1978 Pavilion in the Kislak Center on the 6th Floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library for the next meeting of the Workshop in the History of Material Texts.
STIJN VAN ROSSEM
Faking the books
The editorial strategies of early-modern printers
Stijn writes:
The crucial role of printers as knowledge intermediaries in early-modern Western society is by now an established idea in book history. These men and women, who at times also took on the roles of editors, designers and booksellers, created an artifact that is one of the most important symbols of modernity.
Most scholars of early-modern printers use the printed book as their main source material, mainly because relevant archival material of this period is rare to non-existant. Based on my research into the editorial strategies of the Verdussens, a seventeenth-century dynasty of printers from Antwerp, I argue that the information given by printers in books is frequently incomplete, misleading and even wrong. An important part of the business archive of this family is preserved, which makes it possible to examine the strategic use of (mis)information in their books. Illustrated by examples from the Van Pelt Library, I address the following strategies of the Verdussens: 1) the organisation of the printing workshop and bookshop, 2) the use of privileges in the local booktrade, 3) the use of business networks in the international booktrade.
Dr. Stijn Van Rossem is a book historian, graphic design professor, and exhibition curator. He graduated from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with Masters degrees in History and Education, and in 2014, he completed his PhD in History at the Universiteit Antwerpen with a dissertation on the publishing strategies of the Verdussen family of printers in Antwerp from 1589-1689. Dr. Van Rossem has been a Visiting Professor at the School of Arts, Gent, Belgium, for several years where he teaches courses on the history and theory of graphic design. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor at the Plantin Typographic Institute in Antwerp and in 2013 he was the Director of the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Brussels. In 2014, he chaired the international conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing held in Antwerp. Dr. Van Rossem was recently awarded a Fellowship at the John Carter Brown
All are welcome! Please forward this email widely to any who might be interested. Those who do not hold University of Pennsylvania ID cards should bring another form of photo identification in order to enter the library building.
We look forward to seeing you there,