The deadline to apply has now passed. Please find preliminary reading for the seminar here.
In collaboration with the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, the Hidden Stories team will be hosting a summer seminar, June 5-7, 2024, titled Book Science. The purpose of this 3-day seminar is to train participants in low-barrier, non-invasive scientific imaging and analytic techniques appropriate for the study of manuscripts and printed books from a variety of global book traditions. Participants will gain a practical introduction to the current state of the field of what we can broadly call ‘book science’––a range of interdisciplinary collaborations and overlaps between specialists in book history, palaeography, conservation science, forensic chemistry, archaeometry, engineering, molecular biology, and other disciplines. Participants will learn about non-invasive approaches useful for damage assessments, materials analysis, provenance study, and the recovery of lost text, ranging from analyses that might safely be performed (with permission!) from the reading room of a rare book library, to those requiring the planning of larger collaborations. They will also learn how to plan a larger collaboration when needed in ways that minimise risk and maintain good relationships, including our relationships with the book we wish to study. Examples used in the seminar will be drawn from books in a variety of traditions represented in holdings of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Speakers will represent a variety of perspectives involved in these interdisciplinary collaborations.
