COURSES: , The London Rare Books School (LRBS), Summer School 2011. Week 1: 27 June – 1 July; Week 2: 4 July – 8 July. Course Director: Professor Simon Eliot.
In 2011, the Institute of English Studies in the University of London will run the London Rare Books School (LRBS), a series of five-day, intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects to be taught in and around Senate House, which is the centre of the University of London’s federal system. The courses will be taught by internationally renowned scholars associated with the Institute’s Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, using the unrivalled library and museum resources of London, including the British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the University of London Research Library Services, and many more. All courses will stress the materiality of the book so you can expect to have close encounters with remarkable books and other artefacts from some of the world’s greatest collections.
Each course on offer will consist of thirteen seminars, amounting in all to twenty hours of teaching time spread between Monday afternoon and Friday afternoon. It is thereofore only possible to take one course per week. There will be timetabled ‘library time’ that will allow students to explore the rich resources of the University’s Senate House Library, one of the UK’s major research libraries. There will also be an evening programme with an opening reception and talk, a book history lecture, and receptions hosted by major London antiquarian booksellers.
Each class will be restricted to a maximum of twelve students in order to ensure that everyone has plenty of opportunity to talk to the teachers and to get very close to the books.
The courses planned are:
Week 1: 27 June – 1 July
1. The Book in the Ancient World
Course tutors: Dr Irving Finkel, Dr Matthew Nicholls, Dr Marigold Norbye, Dr. Kathryn E. Piquette and Alan Cole, Curator of the Museum of Writing
2. Children’s Books, 1450-1980
Course tutor: Jill Shefrin
3. European Bookbinding
Course tutor: Professor Nicholas Pickwoad
4. A History of Maps and Mapping
Course tutors: Dr Catherine Delano-Smith and Sarah Tyacke
5. An Introduction to Bibliography
Course tutor: Professor Anthony Edwards
6. The Medieval Book
Course tutor: Professor Michelle Brown
7. The Printed Book in Europe: 1450-2000
Course tutor: Professor John Feather.
Week 2: 4 – 8 July
1. The Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian Book, c.600-1050
Course tutors: Course Tutors: Professor Michelle Brown, Professor David Ganz, Professor Jane Roberts.
2. An Introduction to Illustration and its Technologies
Course tutors: Dr Rowan Watson and Paul Goldman. Some classes will be taken by invited experts
3. Modern First Editions; Dealing, Collecting and the Market
Course tutor: Mr Laurence Worms (Ash Rare Books)
4. Modern Literary Manuscripts
Course tutor: Dr Wim Van Mierlo
5. Reading, Writing and Sending Texts 1400-1919
Course tutors: Professor John Barnard, Alan Cole, Professor Simon Eliot and Professor Iain Stevenson
6. The History and Practice of Hand Press Printing 1450-1830
Course tutor: Nigel Roche.