University of East Anglia
11-12 May 2019
From the creation of almanacs, gazettes, and paperbooks – whose ephemeral life span led to their repurposing in manifold ways – to the circulation of sermon collections, commonplace books, and annotated printed volumes, the materiality of the early modern world is unavoidable. By studying archival material texts, not only as vessels for words, but as objects created and put to use in everyday life, we can shed light both on the ‘text’ itself – written, drawn, or otherwise – and on the culture in which it was embedded.
The ‘Early Modern Matters: Materiality and the Archive’ conference will bring together scholars of all fields whose research engages with the material textual culture of the early modern period (c. 1500-1700). These disciplines include, but are not limited to: the history of the book, art history, literature, the history of medicine, the history of science, and the history of law. By drawing together these strands of early modern scholarship we hope to expand our understanding of how early modern people interacted with texts as physical objects.
Registration deadline: 11 April 2019
The deadline to register for accommodation has now passed
We welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers on any aspect of early modern textual materiality from PhD students based in institutions within the CHASE network. Proposals might offer an analysis of the composition of a text through its material history, an exploration of texts as artistic objects, or a case study of how one book was used across multiple years. Proposals might ask questions about an individual material text, or address broader concerns across your field, but should have firm foundations in the use of archival books and manuscripts as material objects.
If you wish to share your research without presenting a paper, we will also be hosting a poster session for all attendees, where scholars will have the opportunity to present their work on a more informal basis.
If you are interested in contributing to the conference, please submit an abstract of c. 300 words (specifying whether you wish to present a paper or poster), together with a short biography, to a.wyatt@uea.ac.uk by 25 February 2019.