Understanding the Medieval Book, seminar with Erik Kwakkel (University of British Columbia), University of South Carolina, April 6–7, 2020

“Understanding the Medieval Book” explores the layout and function of important medieval book-types. The 2020 seminar emphasizes the wide range of book genres as exemplified by manuscripts from the University of South Carolina collection. During this two-day event dubbed “Understanding the MaterialBook,” Dr. Erik Kwakkel will explore these manuscripts as artifacts. He explains, “I intend to highlight what you can deduce from a manuscript by looking at its design—the material features of its production and use—instead of the texts it conveys. What choices did the scribe make, in other words, and what does this tell us about the book as a cultural object? In presenting various case studies, I will demonstrate how such observations can be turned into useful cultural-historical information which can be deployed in other disciplines, such as History, English, and language study.”

Students, scholars and librarians are invited to attend. Because this free seminar is a hands-on experience, space is limited to 25 participants.

Erik Kwakkel is the former Scaliger Chair at Leiden University in the Netherlands and has recently been appointed Professor of Book History at the iSchool, University of British Columbia. An international authority on medieval manuscripts and celebrated author of five books, most recently Books Before Print (2019), he specializes in early books as cultural media, the paleography, codicology and socio-historical context of medieval manuscripts, and the material culture of pre-modern Europe.