Rare Book School

This NEH-SHARP Living American History in Primary Documents Lecture by E. M. Rose was part of Rare Book School's 2025 Summer Lecture Series. You can watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube at https://youtu.be/VaN2qqFnPto?feature=shared.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸:

What did American colonists need to know? What should they believe? The Virginia Company had clear ideas about such things as demonstrated by the significant sums spent on books for the use of the colonists. A recently unearthed list details 50 titles the Company purchased in December 1620 for shipment to America, most likely for a public library. E. M. Rose has been able to identify the author, title, edition, number of copies purchased, and cost per copy for most of the titles acquired for the benefit of the newest Americans. In this talk, Rose will review the assortment of religious texts for what they indicate about conventional Anglican orthodoxy in this period and will examine the agricultural and scientific texts intended for use in the colonies to get a sense of the technological interests and capabilities of the new Americans. Additionally, she will consider the books as a collection and library in contrast with other such collections and donations, discussing the medium of the printed book as an object for the light it throws on contemporary readers, book history, and the book trade. This lecture will further consider the role of the Virginia Company as an important publisher as well as a consumer of books and other printed ephemera.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿:

E. M. Rose is a scholar of medieval and early modern Europe, whose work has been hailed as “a model of thoroughgoing historical scholarship presented to a general audience and should be studied by scholars who wish to bring the humanities to the public square." Rose has taught at five universities in America and is currently Visiting Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University. For the past three years, she was a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University. Her previous work in book history, “Books owned by a Renaissance Queen,” an essay on 80 books sent by James I to his daughter, appeared in 𝘋𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘳 (2020). Rose’s articles have appeared in 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, the 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺, the 𝘝𝘪𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘳, the 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯. Her most recent essay on America’s first chart maker will appear in 𝘔𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 this summer. Rose’s first book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘩 (2015) was named one of the “Ten Best History Books of the Year” by the 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 of London and described by the 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 as “a landmark of historical research.” The 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 called it “a significant achievement” and the 𝘈𝘑𝘚 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 described it as “a truly excellent book. It deserves to be read and studied by scholars in many if not all fields of medieval studies.”

Rare Book School's 2025 Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Lecture on the History of the Book Trades featured a talk by Mark McConnell on “Publishing in the Renaissance: Christophe Plantin’s Business Strategy." The event took place on 9 July 2025. You can watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube at https://youtu.be/QFmRSz-laUE?feature=shared.

About the Talk:

Printing technology accelerated the forces of the Renaissance and the Reformation. But it also created a major new business problem: publishing risk. A publisher had to spend large sums of money to print a book before knowing how well it would sell. The publisher’s decision whether to accept this risk was a gateway through which all printed books had to pass. Mark McConnell has been investigating Christophe Plantin’s business records from the 1560s, still intact after 460 years. These records document in remarkable detail the activities of Europe’s largest printer at the time and make it possible to quantify the cost of individual books and the risk taken in publishing them. Applying modern business concepts to the data, McConnell will offer insights on key issues in publishing strategy: what types of books were printed, why books were produced in the forms we now see, how production costs shaped competition in the marketplace, and the steps that publishers took to control and reduce risk.

About the Speaker:

Mark McConnell comes to his historical research from his legal career, which he spent as a partner with the global law firm Hogan Lovells. McConnell specialized in international trade disputes, where he litigated questions like the competitive dynamics of industries and the efficiency of industrial processes. He applies the tools he developed in legal disputes to Christophe Plantin’s business records, examining Plantin’s operations from the perspective of modern business strategy. McConnell holds both a law degree and a master’s in business administration from Stanford University and did his undergraduate work in economics at Johns Hopkins University. He is now affiliated with Johns Hopkins again, where he is Associate Research Fellow at the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Renaissance Book.

This recording of the 2025 Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture by Janine Barchas was part of Rare Book School's 2025 Summer Lecture Series. You can watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube at https://youtu.be/BQNQuKHBdD4?feature=shared.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸:

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, cheap and shoddy reprintings of Jane Austen’s novels performed the heavy lifting of bringing her work and reputation before the general public. Inexpensive reprints and early paperbacks of Austen were sold at Victorian railway stations for one or two shillings, traded for soap wrappers, awarded as book prizes in schools, and targeted to Britain’s working classes. At just pennies a copy, Austen’s novels were also squeezed into tight columns on thin paper. Few of these hard-lived books survive. Yet such scrappy everyday versions of her novels made a substantial difference to Austen’s early readership. These were the books bought and read by ordinary people. And these are the books that, owing to their low status and production values, remain uncollected by academic libraries and largely unremarked by scholars. About 15 years ago, Janine Barchas began hunting for these lost books of Jane Austen. This is the story of how private collectors, eBay, and some lucky breaks came to the rescue.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿:

Janine Barchas is Chancellor's Council Centennial Professor in the Book Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. In 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 (2019), she championed the importance of humble and error-filled reprintings to reception history. What a 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 reviewer termed her “smart detective work” owes much, Barchas admits, to her student days at Rare Book School. In addition to curating public exhibitions for the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Harry Ransom Center, and Jane Austen’s House Museum, Barchas is also the creator of the e-gallery, “What Jane Saw” (www.whatjanesaw.org), a digital heritage project that reconstructs two popular art spectacles witnessed by Austen in 1796 and 1813. Barchas’s most recent book is a graphic novel, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯, 𝘈 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤 𝘉𝘪𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺 (2025), with London-based illustrator Isabel Greenberg.

This talk by Mindell Dubansky was part of Rare Book School's 2025 Summer Lecture Series. You can watch the full recording of the lecture on YouTube at https://youtu.be/SsTUbRhUYDs?feature=shared.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸:

Throughout the world, for hundreds of years, people have expressed themselves by making plain and decorated objects in imitation of specific titles and types of books. No genre of book or bookbinding has been ignored. Mindell Dubansky calls these objects 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, a contraction of book-look. History has shown that infusing an object with bookish characteristics creates an emotional attachment to the object analogous to our feelings for a beloved or important book. This, in turn, increases our desire to own, share, and treasure our book-shaped objects. Love, friendship, humor, play, faith, enlightenment, and commemoration are all common and abiding themes of blooks. Dubansky’s lecture will touch on some of the areas in which real books and book-like objects most closely intersect. These include how the bookbinding trade was involved in making blooks, how blook-making followed publishing trends and popular titles, how disused books have historically been repurposed as blooks, and how the idea of the book has been translated into a myriad of unexpected objects by artists and inventors. Dubansky’s curated show on blooks for the Center for Book Arts in New York was profiled earlier this year by 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴: https://www.nytimes.com/.../review/bo....

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿:

Mindell Dubansky is Conservator at Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the author of numerous books and exhibition catalogs on the book and paper arts. These include 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘒𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵: 200 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 (2025); 𝘌𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴: 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘖𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘺𝘯𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘪𝘧𝘵 (online catalog); 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘦: 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (2024); 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘭𝘰𝘸: 𝘈 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘈𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳 (2023); 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 (2016); and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘊. 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 (2008). Dubansky's personal collection of book objects and her groundbreaking research on the subject have previously featured in exhibitions at the Grolier Club and Metropolitan Museum of Art, in publications including 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴, and on television shows such as CBS' 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. To facilitate research in the study of book objects, she has established the Blook Institute, a series of activities designed to promote the study of book objects, and their relation to book history, the book arts, material culture, and art history.

Ashley Cataldo, “Collecting Daily Life in Early American Manuscripts," NEH-SHARP Lecture, 31 July 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures

Stephen Karian, "Scholarly Editing and the Challenges of Attribution," 10 June 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures

Richard B. Sher, “New Light on the Early Publication History of Boswell's Life of Johnson," Karmiole Lecture, 10 July 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures

G. Scott Clemons, "De Motu Librorum: On the Movement of Books," Rendell Lecture, 8 July 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures

Deborah Parker, "A Librarian Like No Other: Belle da Costa Greene and Self-Invention," 12 June 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures

Li Wei Yang, “Yongle Dadian: An Emperors' Encyclopedia,” Malkin Lecture, 29 July 2024 by Rare Book School Lectures