Two members of the project team, Andrew Pettegree and Graeme Kemp, recently undertook a week long field trip to the Royal Library, Copenhagen.

The Royal Library is one of the greatest collections of early printed books in Europe.  In addition to the largest patrimonial collection of early Danish imprints, the library also has an outstanding collection of early material from other parts of Western Europe, assembled over four centuries.  Pursuing a priority list of items identified by preliminary on-line searches, the project was able to make significant progress with two separate strands of work.

Andrew Pettegree examined around 150 items published in the Netherlands, identifying at least 50 editions unknown to the standard bibliographies of the 16^th century Low Countries.  meanwhile Graeme Kemp described a variety of medical texts published in Basle and Lyon which will form  part of the new Wellcome Medical Database.

The project visit to the spectacular Black Diamond building of the new KB also coincided with work by project partners Proquest, who are filming the Danish patrimonial collection as part of their digital survey of European print, Early European Books.

The Universal Short Title catalogue Project team is seeking to recruit a new Fellow for this popular scheme.

The two first holders of this award, Gergely Fazakas (Debrezen) and Katalin Toth (Pázmány Péter Catholic University), visited St Andrews in the academic year 2008-2009.  During a period of eight weeks residence in St Andrews they helped push forward the work of the project, and shared in the life of the community of scholars in the School of History and the Reformation Studies Institute.  Their work will contribute materially to the survey of books printed in Eastern Europe that will form part of the USTC from its publication in 2011.

On this occasion the project is looking specifically to recruit a scholar with expertise in the Czech language.

The successful candidate will be provided with living costs and office space.  Travel costs to and from St Andrews will also be met.  They will be expected to give half their time to assisting data gathering and analysis for the Universal Short Title Catalogue.  The rest of the week will be available for them to spend on their own research.  Candidates must also be specialists in some branch of the history of the period 1300-1800.  Knowledge of technical bibliography is not required: the necessary training will be provided in St Andrews.  It will be expected that the student will be of postgraduate status: that is, that they should have completed their first undergraduate degree.

Applications should be made in writing (or electronically) to the USTC project manager Dr Malcolm Walsby, School of History, St Andrews, GB- KY16 9AL by 31 January 2010.  There is no application form.  Candidates should provide a CV, a description of their current research project, and the names of two academic referees.  They should also specify clearly when they will be available to work in St Andrews.  Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Walsby at mnw@st-andrews.ac.uk.

The University of St Andrews invites applications for the St Andrews Renaissance Postgraduate Studentship.  This is a new award, made possible by a generous gift to the university.  The Studentship is intended to promote advanced work in any field of Renaissance History, Literature, or the history of the Book.

The studentship will be offered in the first instance in the academic year 2010-2011 to enable the successful candidate to undertake one of our M. Litt. training degrees.  It will be followed, for the academic years 2011-2014, with a full scholarship to undertake doctoral work.  It is expected that the holder of the M. Litt. award will be strongly placed to succeed in the later competition, though other candidates may also present themselves for the doctoral award in twelve months time.

The scholarship will cover full fees (home or overseas) together with a stipend set at the level of the AHRC studentships.  The scholarship will also include relocation costs equivalent to the cost of one fare to and from St Andrews from the student’s normal home.  In St Andrews the holder will be eligible for the normal support provided for postgraduate students for underwriting research costs.

The closing date for applications is 31 March 2010.  Further enquiries, and requests for an application form, should be directed in the first instance to Professor Andrew Pettegree, Head of the School of History (admp@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Director Andrew Pettegree and Project Manager Malcolm Walsby have just completed a highly successful field trip to libraries in Belgium. In a week divided between the Royal Library in Brussels and the Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp they gathered data for the next phase of the USTC publication programme: NB, a survey of books published in the Low Countries, and FBL, Latin books published in France. Dr Walsby also explored the extraordinary series of manuscript account books in the Museum Plantin Moretus. This is the first of several field trips planned for this year, which will take members of the enhanced project group to London, Oxford, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Paris and Dublin, as well as libraries around Scotland and back to Belgium. It is also planned to incorporate visits to the Museum Plantin Moretus into the new M. Litt. in Book history, which will run for the first time in academic year 2010-2011.

Part of the Fonds Ancien of the library of Troyes has been added to Unesco’s “Memory of the World” programme. The nomination recognises the importance of the library of the Cistercian abbey of Clairvaux. The catalogue of the collection was drawn up in 1472 by Pierre de Virey. It listed some 1,790 manuscripts of which 1,018 survive today in Troyes municipal library. The coveted international programme recognises valuable archive and library holdings.

The library of Troyes is well-known for its marvellous collection of early printed books and manuscripts. It is one of the largest collections of French vernacular books in provincial France. The St Andrews project team identified almost 2,000 items during three separate trips to the library in 2000, 2003 and 2004. The library will be particularly pleased with this international recognition as a fire at the start of July has forced the institution to close temporarily. As a result of the damaged caused by the fire, it will not be possible to consult any of the holdings of the Fonds Ancien for a number of months.

The Universal Short Title Project has received a new grant from the Wellcome Trust.

The Wellcome grant will underwrite a pilot project to analyse all medical texts published in northern Europe before 1601: a corpus of around 5,000 items. In addition the grant will permit members of the project team to examine surviving collections of early medical texts in major British collections.

The printing of medical texts, both for professional users and lay readers, was one of the most buoyant markets in the early print world. The project is delighted to have the partnership of the Wellcome Trust to push forward this important work. The grant (£30,000) will permit the appointment of a research analyst, who will have primary responsibility for the examination of copies and the creation of a public access database. We are also delighted to be able to call on the expertise of our collaborator, Professor Emeritus Iain Donaldson of the University of Edinburgh, who will work with the project team in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians, one of the most important of the collections to be investigated.

The project team continues to integrate new libraries to the French Vernacular Books database.  Over recent months the holdings of a number of new libraires have been added:

Annecy (Fr) Archives départementales de Haute-Savoie;
Brest (Fr), Fonds de la Marine;
Chambéry (Fr), Bibliothèque du Palais de Justice;
Chambéry (Fr), Archives départementales de Savoie;
Clermont-Ferrand (Fr), Archives départementales du Puy-de-Dôme;
Grignon (Fr), Bibliothèque AgroParisTech;
Guelph (Cn), Guelph McLaughlin University Library;
Lyon (Fr), Bibliothèque de l’Institut de Recherches Pédagogiques;
Paris (Fr), Bibliothèque AgroParisTech Claude Bernard;
Paris (Fr), Bibliothèque du Séminaire israélite de France;
Soissons (Fr), Bibliothèque de la Société Historique de Soissons;
Toulouse (Fr), Bibliothèque Universitaire de l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse;
Wassy (Fr) Médiathèque Intercommunale;
Waterloo (Cn), Dana Porter Library;
Waterloo (Cn), Wilfrid Laurier University Library;
Yale Law School Library, New Haven, CT (USA).

Congratulations to project consultant Dr S.K. Barker on the publication of Protestantism, Poetry and Protest in the St Andrews Studies in Reformation History series published by Ashgate

The publication of Protestantism, Poetry and Protest represents a significant milestone for the St Andrews Studies in Reformation History.  This is the 84^th volume in the series since it was inaugurated in 1995.  It is also the tenth monograph published by a graduated Ph.D student of the Institute.

The St Andrews Studies series offers PhD students enrolled in the Institute the opportunity to place their work in an outstanding series that has now published many of the leading scholars in the field.  All dissertations successfully completed in the Institute are automatically considered for inclusion.  For further information on graduate work in the Institute and for scholarships offered contact bmh6@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Dr Barker was a member of the project team which completed French Vernacular Books and currently acts a consultant to the USTC project.

Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century will be the first major exhibition to explore the central role played by printed illustrations of subjects from both the Old and New Testaments in one of the most dramatic artistic and religious transformations in European history. Prints are often viewed as merely mimicking or following artistic developments in the more prestigious medium of painting, and, more generally, the visual arts are seen as mirroring societal change.

View The Slideshow

The USTC project group has appointed a new staff member to join the team working in St Andrews.  Dr Natasha Constantinidou was appointed from a strong application list to work with the project team for a year from September 2009.  She will assist the Project Director, Professor Pettegree, and the Project Manager, Dr Walsby, in preparing for publication the next generation of bibliographies: NB (Books published in the Low Countries before 1601) and FB vols 3-4 (Latin Books published in France, and index).

Dr Constantinidou is a graduate of the University of Athens and Edinburgh University, where she completed her Ph.D in 2006.  Her Ph.D was a study of the reactions of four intellectuals, Pierre Charron, Justus Lipsius, Paolo Sarpi and King James VI & I, to the religious upheavals of the sixteenth century.  She brings to the project extensive language competence and an established expertise in the international circulation of printed texts.

We look forward to Dr Constantinidou joining us in September.