Time and place: Dec. 5, 2024 – Dec. 6, 2024, Norwegian Institute in Rome
3rd International Conference Circulation of Written Heritage
Networks, policies, and promotion (15th-18th centuries)
Since the advent of the printing press, the circulation of written cultural heritage has been shaped by the policies and regulations dictated by various powers throughout history. These regulations sought to strike a balance between control and promotion.
Numerous institutional mechanisms were put in place to control the production, circulation, and consumption of books, with far-reaching consequences. Examples include printing privileges and state or religious censorship.
These norms and regulations interacted with the reality of the actors involved in the production and distribution of books. As a result, networks operating in the book markets developed various strategies, including the creation of lobbies to influence decision-making processes, the use of alternative institutions, or simply not complying with the rules.
The aim of the conference
The aim of this conference is to examine how these mechanisms of control and promotion have influenced the production and circulation of written cultural heritage, as well as their interplay with commercial, political, financial, and legal networks.
Topics to be addressed include:
- Rules and regulations for the circulation of written knowledge.
- Printing privileges: balancing private interests and knowledge control.
- The control of production: censorship, promotion, and lobbies.
- Commercial networks, agents, and logistics in the circulation of written knowledge.
- The financial architecture of book markets.
- Materials and authorship.
This conference particularly encourages incorporating a gender perspective in discussing these themes.
Programme:
Thursday 5 December
9:00–10:00: Coffee and welcome
10:00–12:00: First panel: Circulation and dissemination of books
- Communication as a factor in the dissemination of book knowledge: Agents and Transports in the Connected Networks of Anton Koberger and Johann Amerbach (1471/1478-1513). Martina Hacke, University of Dusseldorf.
- The financial architecture of the Atlantic book market in the 16th century: an insight from Seville. Montserrat Cachero and Natalia Maillard, Universidad Pablo de Olavide.
- Riverases and Agundezes. Two family strategy models in the emerging book market in New Spain. Nora Jimenez, Colegio de Michoacán.
- The circulation of the clandestine manuscript in 17th-century scholarly Italy. Francesca Nepori, Archivio di Stato di Massa e Sezione di Pontremoli.
12:00–14:00: Lunch
14:00–15:30: Second panel: The Escorial Monastery and the book world in Early Modern Spain
- «That most famous library, well-known throughout Europe»: The Escorial library in the Republic of Letters (XVIth-XVIIth century). Guy Lazure, University of Windsor.
- Beyond the Escorial Monastery: Secondary Actors and Unofficial Agents in the Networks of Liturgical Control during the late 16th Century in Spain. Jorge Fragua, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
- The limits of printing privileges: the relationship between the Royal Company of Printers and the Monastery of El Escorial for printing liturgical books (1764-1825). Alberto José Campillo Pardo, Be4Copy/University of Oslo.
Friday 6 December
9:30–10:30: Coffee and welcome
10:30–12:00: Third panel: Production and materials
- The mechanism of typographical vignettes in the Venetian Interdict (1606-1607). Strategies and circulation in Roberto Meietti’s printed products. Simone Lonati, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
- ‘We are currently printing a new book’: The advertisement of books and the establishment of international book networks in the 17th century Huguenot gazettes. Panagiotis Georgakakis, St. Andrews University.
- De la Roma clásica a las aulas jesuíticas. Microhistoria editorial de las «Cartas» de Cicerón y de las «Fabulas» de Fedro (Burgos, 1755). Alberto Gamarra, Bibliopegia/Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
12:00–14:00: Lunch
14:00–16:00: Fourth panel: Digital Humanities for book history
- The Be4Copy Nodegoat Database for the study of the system of book privilege in early modern Europe. Andrea Ottone, Be4Copy/University of Oslo.
- Red_Libros2: a Database for the study of early modern book market
Montserrat Cachero and Natalia Maillard, Universidad Pablo de Olavide. - Los libros de los clerigos en la Nueva Galicia (1711-1814). Marina Mantilla Trolle and Claudia Alejandra Benítez Palacios, Universidad de Guadalajara.
- Confección de la base de Datos LAI (Libros a Indias) 1584-1660″ de mi autoría, Nora Edith Jiménez, El Colegio de Michoacán
For more information, please contact ajcpardo@iakh.uio.no .
Scientific committee
- Alberto José Campillo Pardo – University of Oslo
- Marius Buning – University of Oslo
- Natalia Maillard – Universidad Pablo de Olavide
- Montserrat Cachero – Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Secretary
- Rocío Molina – Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Funding
The conference is funded by the ERC Before Copyright project (ERC, BE4COPY, 101042034) of the University of Oslo (Norway) and the I+D project Las redes del comercio de libros en la Monarquía Hispánica: mercados, agentes y arquitectura financiera. 1501-1648 (PID2022-137793NB-I00) of the Pablo de Olavide University (Spain).
Organizers
