In this seminar we will concentrate on the changing conditions for reading in England from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period (14th-16th c.). In choosing a longer period of time of about four centuries marked by the arrival of the printing press and the transformation of a manuscript culture into a well-established print culture (‘media revolution’), a comparative approach in assessing continuities and innovations in reading conditions will be facilitated. Though the general approach is interdisciplinary in also including social, literary and educational studies, the book historian’s perspective will be predominant. Thus we will in particular investigate the forms of the production and the distribution of books as a prerequisite for reading in manuscript cultures and in early print cultures respectively, with a special focus on the changing structure of the book market from late medieval to early modern England. What did the scribal products look like in material terms, especially in comparison with those produced by the printing presses (legiblity, scripts/type, layout/mise en page, illustrations etc.)? How could readers have access to these books, either by buying or by borrowing them? What was the role of private collections and early institutional libraries? What was the role of class structure, age and gender? To what extent (and by whom?) was the access to reading material controlled or censored? While the main approach will be based on historical concepts and methods in book studies, it may finally lead to a discussion of later periods in the history of reading and also to current debates about reading in a rapidly changing book culture increasingly dependent on the digital media.
- Lehrende/r: Gabriele Müller-Oberhäuser