Learning objectives
The course aims to provide the historical-critical tools to understand the development of Western publishing in its general lines, with particular reference to the history of the book, from the invention of movable type printing to today. The general part will be accompanied by two in-depth monographic moments.
Prerequisites
Nothing
Course unit content
MAIN PART
Outlines of the history of printing techniques and the publishing industry
The first part of the course will be devoted to a brief journey in the history of manuscript book, which will be given a summary description, finalized to outline the panorama of European publishing in the era immediately preceding the invention of modern movable type printing. To the history of modern printing will be dedicated the most part of the course; we will follow the development of the enterprises (the publishing), the technologies (way to print and produce books) and the trading of books (the market and the distribution of books in the past and in the present).
The evolution of ways of doing books during the centuries, the production techniques, the organization of publishing companies will constantly related with contemporary publishing to put in evidence how the modern editorial professions result from those historical processes.
MONOGRAPHIC SECTION
The main part of the course will be accompanied by two short monographic sections:
I. Aldo Manuzio, modern publisher: a re-examination.
II. The image of nature: The birth of the illustrated book in naturalistic publishing between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Full programme
EXTENDED PROGRAM
MAIN PART
Outlines of the history of printing techniques and the publishing industry
1. The book: definitions, morphology, evolution.
2. Before the printed book: manuscript book and new needs of the cultural world.
3. Before the printed book: from the roll to the “code”; the new writing supports
4. The printing is born: the Gutenberg’s invention and the paradigm shift in books’ production.
5. The age of “incunabula”: the first maturity of the book and the birth of the modern publisher
6. The Sixteenth century: the spread of the new printing technology in Europe and the rise of the first publishing companies. Censorship and decline of south European publishing.
7. The Seventeenth century: panorama of European publishing; importance and effect of religious censorship. The rise of north European publishing: Holland, Flanders, England.
8. Stylistic research on fonts during Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries.
9. The Eighteenth century: debate on freedom of the press and the case of the century: the Encyclopédie
10. Protagonists of the typography between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: Didot and Bodoni. The preponderance of formal research and the neoclassical aesthetics applied to publishing.
11. The first half of Nineteenth century: the age of great technological changes, the industrialization in the publishing production of the books and newspaper; new marketing models.
12. The second half of Nineteenth century: modern publishing companies and the mass-market publishing.
13. The first half of Twentieth century: publishers, societies and the power.
14, Technological revolutions and changes in the industrial production system: from lead technology to desk-top-publishing to e-book.
15. Conclusions and summary map of the subjects presented in the course.
MONOGRAPIC SECTION
I - Aldo Manuzio, modern publisher: a re-examination.
Five centuries after his death Aldus Manutius stand out in the panorama of book production as the prototype of a modern publisher. If this primacy is historically founded, about Aldus a sort of mythology as seattled; this “mythology” has schematized and oversimplified the reality and historical significance of his innovations. This monographic section of the course aims to retrace the professional affair of Manutius as publisher in its actual reality, highlighting his extraordinary merits, contextualizing them in the reality of his time.
II – The image of nature: the birth of illustrated book in naturalistic publishing between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries.
This section of the course will investigate a key moment in the history of modern publishing: the birth of printed illustrated book. That is a story that originates and develops as a result of an interest, until then unexplored, for the natural sciences (botany, zoology, anatomy.) thanks to which publishing found new subjects to explore. The newly born science, , the new way of looking at the world, the rational approach to the observation of natural phenomena, offered to the publishing world publishing areas of intervention that, until that moment, had been neglected by the newborn movable type printing. New publishing areas, new needs, which forced the makers of the time to create new ways of making books; books that had the use of the image as a central element.
Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY
For the main part:
- Storia della stampa e dell’editoria (Lecture notes by the teacher, 2020 edition).
- Gian Arturo Ferrari, Libro, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2014, limited to pages 61-208.
- Alberto Cadioli, Giuliano Vigini, Storia dell'editoria italiana dall'Unità ad oggi. Un profilo introduttivo, Milano, Editrice Bibliografica, 2013, limited to pages 13-86 (Parts I and II).
- Robert Darnton, I filosofi potano l’albero della conoscenza: la strategia epistemologica dell’«Encyclopédie», in: Il grande massacro dei gatti e altri episodi della storia culturale francese, Milano, Adelphi, 1988, pp. 233-256 (and a look at the appendix, “Tre alberi della conoscenza”).
For the monographic parts:
On Aldo Manuzio:
- Martin Davies, Neil Harris, Aldo Manuzio, Roma, Carocci, 2019, limited to pages 13-99.
For the history of illustrated publishing between the 16th and 17th centuries:
- L’immagine della natura (Lecture notes by the teacher).
The lecture notes Storia della stampa e dell’editoria and L’immagine della natura will be made available on the Elly platform starting from the start date of the course. Additional materials will be distributed during the lessons and uploaded on the course website.
Teaching methods
- - -
Assessment methods and criteria
Oral
Other information
STUDENT CONSULTATION HOURS
On Tuesdays, from 3.00 pm, in studio 43, via d'Azeglio, 2nd floor, by appointment via email at: alberto.conforti@unipr.it
