The Gathered Text:
a one-day symposium

Friday 3 September 2010
Seminar Room, New Bodleian Library, Oxford
http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/380-gathered-text-conference.html

Keynote speaker: Randall McLeod

Confirmed speakers: John Barnard, Mark Bland, Ian Gadd, Andrew Honey, Peter McCullough, Jason McElligott, David McKitterick, Ian Maclean, Nicholas Pickwoad, Peter Stallybrass, Kathryn Sutherland, Henry Woudhuysen.

The gathering is one of the fundamental units of textual construction during the hand-press book period (c. 1475-1830). So basic is it to the design of early printed texts that it has rarely been considered as a topic for independent enquiry. Gatherings can, however, tell us much about the ways in which early modern texts were constructed and presented to their first readers. The size and format of gatherings, disruptions in numeration or signatures, insertions and cancellations, and the re-use of gatherings in later publications yield crucial information about the cultures of writing, publication and reading during the early modern period. Gatherings can illuminate technical practices such as shared printing, the construction of texts out of pre-existing printed material and the dispersal and re-sale of commercially unsuccessful or contraband texts. They can also help us to gain insight into a range of cultural practices, from censorship to book collecting to literary marketing. Gatherings might even serve a rhetorical function, embodying in material form thematic concerns of the texts that they contain. They offered early modern authors a textual unit that could act as a tool to think with. ‘The Gathered Text’ is a one-day symposium dedicated to exploring all aspects of the gathering in manuscript and print.

Cost: £25 (£15 students) to include tea, coffee, a sandwich lunch and an evening reception.

The Bibliographical Society has generously offered bursaries to assist postgraduate students with the cost of attending this event. If you would like to apply for one of these bursaries, please send i) a description of the ways in which attending the symposium would assist your research; ii) a brief note from your supervisor endorsing your application, to rebecca.bullard@ell.ox.ac.uk

This symposium has been made possible through the support of:
The John Fell OUP Research Fund
The Centre for the Study of the Book (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
The English Faculty, Oxford University
Merton College, Oxford.

It takes place in association with the Centre for Early Modern Studies, Oxford.

To register for this event, please use the symposium website: http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/380-gathered-text-conference.html
or go direct to Oxford University Stores: https://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/catalogue/products.asp?compid=1&deptid=110&catID=707&hasClicked=1

Those attending The Gathered Text may also be interested in the Rare Books Masterclass, featuring a demonstration of the McLeod portable collator, which takes place on Thursday 2 September in the Seminar Room of the New Bodleian Library. This masterclass is free of charge, but registration is required. More information is available at http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/385-rare-books-masterclass-.html.

For any further information about ‘The Gathered Text’, please contact Rebecca Bullard, rebecca.bullard@ell.ox.ac.uk