1 July 2011
Corsham Court Centre, Bath Spa University (deadline: unspecified, but ‘still open’)

Bath Spa University’s newly formed Book, Text and Place (1500-1750) Research Centre is pleased to announce its inaugural conference, ‘Book Encounters, 1500-1750’. In keeping with the Centre’s focus on early modern literary
culture, place, and the history of the book broadly defined, this conference invites exploration into early modern encounters with the book. The central theme of the conference will be the role that the book as material vehicle
played in the transmission of ideas. Possible topics of study include

• literary circles
• knowledge communities
• book ownership
• marks in books
• the destruction of books
• letterwriting
• scribal publication
• the intersection of book and manuscript cultures
• private and public libraries

The aim of this conference is to consider a wide variety of encounters with the book: not only from different cultural and geographical sites of production, circulation and reception but also from various periods within early
modernity. Different disciplinary perspectives are particularly encouraged. Proposals for papers (20-25 mins) are still welcome. Please send queries to Chris Ivic (c.ivic@bathspa.ac.uk).

Information on the Book, Text and Place (1500-1750) Research Centre is available at www.bathspa.ac.uk/schools/humanities-and-cultural-industries/research/book-text-and-place/

Plenary speakers:

David Pearson, Director, Libraries, Archives & Guildhall Art Gallery

Mark Towsey, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in History at the University of
Liverpool