15cBOOKTRADE on Italian national paper, Corriere della Sera 4 Dec. 2017

Posted on 07/12/2017 by Birgit

Corriere della Sera 2017-12-04 pag.23

15cBOOKTRADE – HEBRAICA – 3 RESEARCH GRANTS (ISRAEL, UK, ITALY)

Posted on 13/10/2017 by Cristina Dondi

15cBOOKTRADE (HEBRAICA): Research project – National Library of Israel, Jerusalem

University of Oxford, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages – ‘The 15th-century Book Trade: An Evidence-based Assessment and Visualization of the Distribution, Sale, and Reception of Books in the Renaissance’.

The Faculty are seeking to engage an independent consultant to undertake a discrete research project on Hebrew incunabula. It is anticipated that the consultant will be based in Jerusalem, Israel, and that the work will be completed between 1 December 2017 and 31 July 2018.

The full project will be paid at £18,000, which we envisage will be paid in regular instalments on production of invoices and a satisfactory progress update.

This project has been created as part of a grant received from the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe by the international project 15cBOOKTRADE, specifically to catalogue Hebrew incunabula into the database Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI). The 15cBOOKTRADE is a five-year project funded by the European Research Council (ERC), it is directed by Dr Cristina Dondi. The project team consists of the PI, the project administrator, 3 postdoctoral researchers (based in Oxford, the British Library, and Venice), and 1 Oxford doctoral student. The team is supported by IT units at the Bodleian Library, the University of Göttingen, and works with visual engineers and the e-research centre of the University of Oxford. The team also coordinates the contribution of several European and American libraries. The researcher will also work with the directors of the ‘Footprints: Jewish Books Through Time and Place’ Project which is tracking the movement of early Hebrew printed books.

The researcher will work closely with National Library of Israel staff. Responsibilities include cataloguing the collection of Hebrew incunabula into MEI with special attention to the copy specific elements (former ownership, decoration, binding, manuscript annotations, etc.), according to the standards of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project.

Under the supervision and with the support of an Advisory Board, the researcher will map the presence of Hebrew incunabula in other Israeli libraries using the conventional tools of 15th-century bibliography and specialist literature; will assess the existence, or otherwise, of copy specific information, whether in manuscript, print, or electronic; will prioritise a plan to examine books with no copy specific data attached; will plan the most efficient inclusion of existing copy specific data into the MEI database; finally the researcher will also plan for the ingest of provenance data gathered into the Footprints database.

Applicants must have completed a Humanities Doctoral degree or demonstrable equivalent experience. Excellent Hebrew language and Hebrew palaeographical and codicological expertise, expertise in early continental bibliography, knowledge of Jewish history and culture, and awareness of the concept of the transmission of knowledge from the Classical to the early modern period are essential, as well as fluency in English and a good knowledge of Latin. Knowledge of other classical and modern languages (Italian, German, Yiddish) will be an advantage, as well as some expertise in European continental Palaeography and Codicology and familiarity with IT and the digital humanities. Effective organisational and written and verbal communication skills are also essential.

Potential consultants should apply by sending a CV, a covering letter, and the name of a referee to Dr Birgit Mikus at birgit.mikus@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 30 October 2017

Latest time for the submission of applications: midday.

Interviews may be held. Date: 15 November 2017

15cBOOKTRADE (HEBRAICA): Research project – Weston Library, Oxford

The Faculty are seeking to engage an independent consultant to undertake a discrete research project on Hebrew incunabula. It is anticipated that the consultant will be based in Oxford, UK, but will be required to undertake travel which will be planned in advance and reimbursed.

It is anticipated that the work will be completed between 1 December 2017 and 31 July 2018.

The full project will be paid at £18,000, which we envisage will be paid in regular instalments on production of invoices and a satisfactory progress update.

The researcher will work closely with Weston Library staff. Responsibilities include cataloguing the collection of Hebrew incunabula into MEI with special attention to the copy specific elements (former ownership, decoration, binding, manuscript annotations, etc.), according to the standards of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project.

Under the supervision and with the support of an Advisory Board, the researcher will map the presence of Hebrew incunabula in other UK and possibly other northern European libraries using the conventional tools of 15th-century bibliography and specialist literature; will assess the existence, or otherwise, of copy specific information, whether in manuscript, print, or electronic; will prioritise a plan to examine books with no copy specific data attached; will plan the most efficient inclusion of existing copy specific data into the MEI database; finally the researcher will also plan for the ingest of provenance data gathered into the Footprints database.

Potential consultants should apply by sending a CV, a covering letter, and the name of a referee to Dr Birgit Mikus at birgit.mikus@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 30 October 2017

Latest time for the submission of applications: midday.

Interviews may be held. Date: 15 November 2017

15cBOOKTRADE (HEBRAICA): Research project – National Library of Rome, Italy

The Faculty are seeking to engage an independent consultant to undertake a discrete research project on Hebrew incunabula. It is anticipated that the consultant will be based in Rome, National Library, Italy, but will be required to undertake travel which will be planned in advance and reimbursed.

It is anticipated that the work will be completed between 1 December 2017 and 31 July 2018.

The full project will be paid at £18,000, which we envisage will be paid in regular instalments on production of invoices and a satisfactory progress update.

The researcher will work closely with National Library of Rome staff. Responsibilities include cataloguing the collection of Hebrew incunabula into MEI with special attention to the copy specific elements (former ownership, decoration, binding, manuscript annotations, etc.), according to the standards of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project.

Under the supervision and with the support of an Advisory Board, the researcher will map the presence of Hebrew incunabula in other Italian and possibly other southern European libraries using the conventional tools of 15th-century bibliography and specialist literature; will assess the existence, or otherwise, of copy specific information, whether in manuscript, print, or electronic; will prioritise a plan to examine books with no copy specific data attached; will plan the most efficient inclusion of existing copy specific data into the MEI database; finally the researcher will also plan for the ingest of provenance data gathered into the Footprints database.

Potential consultants should apply by sending a CV, a covering letter, and the name of a referee to Dr Birgit Mikus at birgit.mikus@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 30 October 2017

Latest time for the submission of applications: midday.

Interviews may be held. Date: 15 November 2017

BBC World Service – The Forum – First Impressions: The Printing Press

Posted on 06/09/2017 by Cristina Dondi

BROADCASTING (2 Sept. 2017) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csv0rr

When the fifteenth century German entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg pioneered the printing press, he made an indelible mark on the history of communication. Here was a way to print pages in high quality and high quantities, using methods more efficient than had ever been seen before.

Rajan Datar and guests explore the story of how the printing press was born, and how it changed our world – from the birth of the modern book to the rise of the information society, and the transformation of fields including scholarship and religion.

Rajan Dattar is joined by art historian Hala Auji (American University of Beirut), publisher Michael Bhaskar, scholar Cristina Dondi and the writer John Man.

Printing and Misprinting: Typographical Mistakes and Publishers’ Corrections (1450-1600)

Posted on 16/06/2017 by Matilde Malaspina — No Comments ↓

Printing and Misprinting:

Typographical Mistakes and Publishers’ Corrections (1450-1600)

Lincoln College, Oxford, 20 April 2018

Convenors: Geri Della Rocca de Candal and Paolo Sachet

This one-day symposium – opening with a keynote lecture by Anthony Grafton (Princeton) – aims to explore the notions of typos and manuscript or stop-press emendations in early modern print shops. Building on Grafton’s seminal work, scholars are invited to present new evidence onwhat we can learn from misprints in relation to publishers’ practices, printing and pre-publication procedures, and editorial strategies between 1450 and 1600. The subjects of investigation may include texts, images or mise en page, of both incunabula and sixteenth-century books issued in and outside Europe, stretching from the output of humanist printers to wide-ranging vernacular publications.

Particularly welcomed are case studies and comparative analysis of:

– manuscripts, proof sheets or printed copies retaining publisher’s preparatory interventions for a new edition

– extant copies of a faulty edition which was corrected by the publisher more or less systematically

– different faulty editions by the same publisher and/or of the same text

– developments of printed errata

– contemporary sources (e.g. paratextual material, scholarly correspondence and treatises) discussing typographical mistakes and publisher’s corrections

This call is open to established and early career scholars as well as PhD candidates. Papers must be delivered in English, not exceeding 20 minutes in length. If you wish to take part in this conference, please send your CV and proposal (max 300 words) to printing.misprinting@gmail.com no later than 16^th October 2017.

Summer School: History of Libraries, 3-5 July 2017

Posted on 13/04/2017 by Birgit — No Comments ↓

Three days full immersion with the 15cBOOKTRADE’s digital tools

September 2018 will see the international Conference and Exhibition to mark the end of the 15cBOOKTRADE Project. Data and visualisations from MEI and TEXT-inc databases will inform the content of the two events.

The 2017 Summer School will offer libraries the opportunity to train a member of staff or a collaborating scholar in the use of the four digital tools to assure that material from their libraries will be represented in the Conference and Exhibition.

Databases

Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI)

An international database specifically designed to record and search the material evidence of 15th-century printed books: ownership, decoration, binding, manuscript annotations, stamps, prices, etc.

The collaborative enterprise of over 300 European and American libraries, it contains over 20,000 high quality records and the identification of 10,000 former owners. Locating and dating any material and documentary element enables the movement of books across Europe and the US to be tracked throughout the centuries, from place of production to the books’ present locations.

http://15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk/distribution-use/

TEXT-inc

Continuing the pioneering text descriptions of the Bodleian catalogue of incunabula, Bod-inc, this database is designed to host and make searchable the corpus of texts printed in the 15th century, including secondary works and paratext.

http://15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk/texts/

Image-matching and image annotation software

Oxford Visual Geometry Group engineers have created for the 15cBOOKTRADE a tool to systematically gather and research the illustration of the 15th century. Images and their metadata will be systematically searchable by text or by image, and linked to the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) and Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW).

http://15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk/illustration/

15cV

A visualisation suite created to visualise the circulation of 15th-century printed books over time and space and the formation and dispersal of libraries, using live data from MEI and TEXT-inc.

Training Team

Cristina Dondi – PI 15cBOOKTRADE, Oakeshott Senior Research Fellow in the Humanites, Lincoln College

Geri Della Rocca de Candal

Matilde Malaspina

Birgit Mikus

Sabrina Minuzzi

Alessandra Panzanelli Fratoni

Information

Cost: The school will charge student fees of 50 British Pounds, payable prior to the first day of classes. Students are individually responsible for their transportation and living expenses in Oxford.

Numbers: There are ten places available.

Accommodation: at participant’s expense. Lincoln College Rooms are available for booking at £66.60 per day.

Breakfast and Coffee Breaks: included in the School’s fee.

Lunches and Dinners: at participant’s expense.