Learning objectives
This course provides students with the skills to navigate consciously in the contemporary book publishing.
The first part of the course will be devoted to the knowledge of the book as a cultural, industrial, physical, commercial product. The fundamentals that underpin the modern book publishing will be described operationally following the different steps of a book’s creation, from its inclusion in the publishing program to the realization of the finished book.
This work on the editorial process will be set in a historical frame, that will be the subject of the second part of the Course, dedicated to the transformation of the book during the time; the “three histories” of the book (the manuscript book, the printed book, the electronic book) will be examined as a coherent and continuous flow of the same process: the transformation of the content in an editorial product.
Prerequisites
- - -
Course unit content
The course is divided into two units.
1-Introduction to the Publishing
The first section of the course is devoted to the knowledge of the book as a cultural, industrial, physical, commercial product.
The fundamentals of book publishing will be presented by following the process of creation of a book: drafting of the editorial program, acquisition and contractualization of the authorial content, the editing, industrial production of books, economic aspects of publishing business, commercial promotion and marketing. We will conclude with an overview of the organization of a publishing house and the skills needed to work in this field.
2-Outlines of the History of Printing and publishing
The second unit of the course will trace in broad outline a history of book, printing and publishing in its three phases:
- The book manuscript (from the origins to the invention of printing)
- The printed book (from Gutenberg to the twentieth century).
- The electronic book
The first phase, about the manuscript, will give a very brief overview, especially aimed at describing a panorama of the era immediately before the invention of modern printing.
The most part of the course will be dedicated to the second phase, the history of modern printing.
The third phase, the electronic book era, is still in the making. It will be outlined in its conceptual, economical and technological aspects, in reference to the impact they are producing in the market of the “traditional” book.
Full programme
The course is divided into two units.
1-Introduction to the Publishing
The first section of the course is devoted to the knowledge of the book as a cultural, industrial, physical, commercial product.
The fundamentals of book publishing will be presented by following the process of creation of a book: drafting of the editorial program, acquisition and contractualization of the authorial content, the editing, industrial production of books, economic aspects of publishing business, commercial promotion and marketing. We will conclude with an overview of the organization of a publishing house and the skills needed to work in this field.
Program guidelines:
- The book publishing:
The book - Physical object and content. The different ways of thinking, project, produce books.
Publishing - The industry that processes the content and turns them into books.
- The publishing (I): Acquisition / design
- The publishing (II): The Editing
- Technology and production of the book
- The market (Italian and International)
- The income statement in publishing
- The organization of the publishing companies
2-Outlines of the History of Printing and publishing
The second unit of the course will trace in broad outline a history of book, printing and publishing in its three phases:
- The book manuscript (from the origins to the invention of printing)
- The printed book (from Gutenberg to the twentieth century).
- The electronic book
The first phase, about the manuscript, will give a very brief overview, especially aimed at describing a panorama of the era immediately before the invention of modern printing.
The most part of the course will be dedicated to the second phase, the history of modern printing.
The third phase, the electronic book era, is still in the making. It will be outlined in its conceptual, economical and technological aspects, in reference to the impact they are producing in the market of the “traditional” book.
Program guidelines:
- Before the printed book.
- The invention of Gutenberg and the age of the incunabula.
- The sixteenth century: the spread of the new technology of production in Europe and the affirmation of the first publishing companies; the model of the “printer-publisher”.
- The seventeenth century: development of local publishing traditions in different European countries; the eighteenth century, until the invention of lithography.
- From the case of the Encyclopedie till the second half of the nineteenth century: technological changes, systematic industrialization and new distribution models. The model of the “bookseller-publisher”.
- From the second half of the nineteenth century till the first half of the twentieth century: the modern publishing company; the model of the “publisher-publisher”.
- The Twentieth Century (II): technological revolutions and paradigm shifts: from the old technologies to the desktop publishing and the e-book.
Bibliography
Books required
Unit 1:
Lecture notes, provided by the professor in electronic format
Or:
AaVv, Piccolo dizionario dell’editoria, Milano, Modern Publishing House, 2008
Unit 2:
Ferrari, G.A., Libro, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2014
Braida, L., Stampa e cultura in Europa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2000
Students not attending the course will also read:
Moretti, D., Il lavoro editoriale, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005
Teaching methods
Frontal lectures. The final evaluation takes into account, as well as the oral exam on the main course, the results of a short assignment produced by the student, previously correct and discussed in the oral examination. The exam will focus on the topics covered and discussed in the two sections of the course.
Assessment methods and criteria
Assignment
All students, attending and not attending the course, will be required to submit a short essay (length between 5 and 8 pages - sheets of 2000 characters, so between 10,000 and 16,000 characters, including spaces), complete with brief bibliography and sources .
The work will focus on a very circumscribed and specific subject, taken by the history of printing and publishing from the mid-fifteenth century to the twentieth century. It can concern one of the themes treated in the two units of the course (e.g: publishing case-histories, technological innovations, history of publishing companies - even local ones, leading figures or important moments in the publishing history, “specialized publishing”, ...)
The topic of the assignment will be proposed by the candidate or suggested by the professor basing on the curriculum of the student, its specific interests, its previous studies.
In any case the subject of the work must be discussed with the professor. It should be written with a word processor (Word or similar) and a printed copy will be provided to the processor at least 15 days before the date chosen for the exam.
The evaluation of the paper will be part of the overall examination.
Other information
The frontal lectures will be completed by some supplementary activities related to the following areas: book publishing, the history of printing, the distribution and marketing of books.
By mere way of example:
Unit 1 of the Course:
- Publishing houses
- Resellers
- Book fairs
- Printers in offset and digital technologies (production of illustrated books and illustrated magazines)
- Printers in Flexographic technologies (industrial production of fiction b/w books)
- Printers in rotary press technologies (newspaper production)
Unit 2 of the course:
- Museo Bodoni and other museums about the history of printing
- Fondazione Mondadori
- Csac, Communication departement
...
