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COMPLIT 119X/ NEC 107 – History of the Book: Using Harvard’s Treasures to Study the Material Text

Fall views of Autumn foliage and ivy framing a window and a lion statue in the courtyard of The Center for European Studies

COMPLIT 119X/ NEC 107 – History of the Book: Using Harvard’s Treasures to Study the Material Text

Semester: Fall
Offered: 2022
Instructor: David Stern
Meeting Time: Th 3:00pm-5:45pm

You have been reading books since first grade if not earlier, but how much do you actually know about the physical object you’ve been reading—the book, the material artifact?  Drawing on a great deal of recent scholarship and the incredible treasures in Houghton Library’s Special Collections, this course will study the history of the book in Western culture from its earliest stages in cuneiform tablets through ancient scrolls, hand-written medieval manuscripts of all types, early and late printed books down through children’s books of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and modernist artists’ books of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries including recent ones utilizing digital technology. The heart of the course will be weekly assignments in which students in groups of three each will be asked to intensively examine books in Houghton’s reading room and then report on them in the weekly seminar. Books studied in class will include papyrus fragments of Homer and the Old and New Testaments; Hebrew scrolls; early Qur’an leafs; Greek and Latin codices; Books of Hours and many other illuminated and decorated medieval manuscripts; the Gutenberg Bible; Copernicus, Galileo’s and Vesalius’ scientific works; censored books; the First Folio edition of Shakespeare; Alice in Wonderland; and Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés. For the final paper, each student will choose a book from Houghton’s collection and write a biographical study of its “life.” All readings for the course are on the Modules section of the Canvas site, which is organized by the weekly sessions. Each module includes an Assignment sheet with the specific readings and books to be studied for the session. For a full description of each session of the course, see the Course Plan posted under the first module, or click here. No previous background in book history is required for this course.

Note: Because of space requirements in Houghton, the class has to be capped at twelve students. The course is primarily intended for undergraduates but depending on enrollment, graduate students may be admitted if there is room; if they are interested, they should contact the instructor. All students wishing to take the course should write a short (one paragraph) statement explaining their interest in the history of the book and the course and send it to the instructor BEFORE NOON (WEDNESDAY) AUGUST 24 at dstern@fas.harvard.edu

Offered jointly with: Faculty of Arts & Sciences as NEC 107                                  

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.