The Universal Short Title Catalogue Project is the proud host of a series of scholarly colloquia.
November 2011: The Early Modern Book World. The Launch of the Universal Short Title Catalogue
Colloquium to celebrate the launch of the Universal Short Title Catalogue
The St Andrews project group is pleased to announce a scholarly colloquium to coincide with the launch of the Universal Short Title Catalogue: a bibliography of books published in Europe and colonial America before 1601.
The colloquium will hear presentations from the Director and Project Manager of the USTC, Andrew Pettegree and Malcolm Walsby, and from four other distinguished experts of early print: Ann Blair (Harvard), Alexander Wilkinson (Dublin), Angela Nuovo (Udine) and Ian Maclean (Oxford). All speakers will have had advance access to the USTC database.
The event begins with a launch reception at Lyon and Turnbull, Broughton Place, Edinburgh on Tuesday 22 November, in the presence of representatives of the national book communities represented in the USTC.
The colloquium will be accompanied by exhibitions by conference sponsors Proquest, Brill and Antiquarian Bookseller Christopher Sokol. Music at the launch event will be provided by the Renaissance Band.
The cost of attendance is £70 (£40 to registered graduate students). The cost covers the colloquium with coffee and a buffet lunch. All participants will also receive an invitation to the reception at Lyon and Turnbull.
The colloquium will take place on Wednesday 23 November at the New Club, Prince’s Street, Edinburgh.
Andrew Pettegree (University of St Andrews)
“The Universal Short Title Catalogue.”
Alexander Wilkinson (University College, Dublin)
“Peripheral print cultures in the sixteenth century: Scotland, Ireland, Portugal and Eastern Europe.”
Ian Maclean (All Souls College, Oxford)
“The learned book market and its zones: evidence from the USTC.”
Angela Nuovo (University of Udine)
“The 16th century Book Market in Italy.”
Ann Blair (Harvard)
“Reference books and finding devices in the 16th century.”
Dr Malcolm Walsby (University of St Andrews)
“The way ahead for the Universal Short Title Catalogue.”
Registration is now open, and closes on 31 October 2011.
January 2011: MD1516: A database of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century medical texts.
Colloquium to celebrate the launch of MD15-16
The development of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries led to a vast increase in the number of medical texts in circulation. Nevertheless, the consequences for the dissemination of medical knowledge were complex. In the field of academic medicine print undoubtedly enhanced the prestige of classical medicine, with a vast increase in publication of the works of Galen, many of them previously unknown in the West and now newly translated into Latin. Yet academic medicine was forced to compete in the marketplace with a diverse vernacular literature of very varied quality, offering nostrums and treatments for a range of pains and intractable conditions. The MD 15-16 project aims to probe the importance of printed books in this medical marketplace and the development of medical thought and practice by examining together the whole corpus of medical publishing: Scholarly texts, vernacular handbooks, pamphlets and broadsheet public health orders. Sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, this project will study the production of medical literature in north-western Europe: England, The Low Countries, France and the Swiss Confederation, together with a more focused case study of ownership in 16th century England and Scotland. Together these countries made up one of the three main zones of book production in Europe and served three distinct vernacular communities.
A key result of this project will be a searchable database of over 6,000 medical texts. It will house technical bibliographic information on each text as well as information on provenance and ownership of editions. Freely available to scholars by the end of January 2011, this database will be a valuable resource for historians and scholars of early modern medicine.
The project nears completion and to celebrate its launch a small symposium will be hosted at St Andrews on the 29th of January.
November 2010: The Book in the Low Countries
Colloquium to celebrate the launch of Netherlandish Books
The next volumes in the USTC catalogue series Netherlandish Books, were launched at a reception in the Museum Plantin Moretus on Monday 15 November. NB. Netherlandish Books. Books published in the Low Countries and in Dutch abroad before 1601, edited by Andrew Pettegree and Malcolm Walsby, is a two volume short title catalogue that draws together information on all editions published in the fifteenth and sixteenth century Low Countries: a total of over 32,000 separate printings. This research establishes the 16th century Low Countries as one of the principal production centres of high quality publishing, destined both for the highly literate local population and for export. The launch event was preceded by a short scholarly colloquium where the findings of the research project will be explored and explained.. Delegates to the colloquium were also be guests at the subsequent reception and had the opportunity to visit the Museum Plantin Moretus on the following day. Speakers: Andrew Pettegree (Director, USTC), Malcolm Walsby (Project Manager), Anton van der Lem (University Library, Leiden), Guido Marnef (University of Antwerp).
