Week 1: September 13
Introduction to the professor, course, syllabus, and books
Some basic terms
Writing in the classroom
The Swerve
Writing, Book, and Print Culture

Reading for September 20: Robert Darnton, “What is the History of Books?” (Reader 9-26).
If you haven’t bought the textbook yet, see: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3403038/darnton_historybooks.pdf?sequence=2.
Writing for September 20: Personal statement

Week 2: September 20
Personal statement due
Collage on Reading and Writing
The History of the Book as an academic discipline
The Principles of New Historicism
Darnton’s Communication Circuit

Reading for September 27
Thomas R. Adams & Nicolas Barker, “A New Model for the Study of the Book” (Reader 47-64).
The second map is missing in our book, but you will find it on page 503 of http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3403039/darnton_revisited.pdf?sequence=2
Adams & Barker guide

Week 3: September 27
Feedback on personal statements
Two bibliographers’ model
Rigaud’s travails (case study)

Readings for October 4
T.H. Howard-Hill, “Why Bibliography Matters” (Companion 9-20) and D.H. McKenzie, “The Book as an Expressive Form” (Reader, 38-46).

Week 4: October 4
Bibliographers & History of the Book scholars
Sir Walter Wilson Greg, Fredson Bowers, and D.H. McKenzie
Shakespeare’s First Folio
William Congreve’s woes (case study)

Reading for October 11: Martin Andrews, “The Importance of Ephemera” (Companion 434-450)
Bring interesting samples! (2 participation points!)

Week 5: October 11
Finding Evidence: Bibliometrics and Ephemera
Ephemera quotes
John Orlando Parry’s London Street Scene (1835)
Ephemera round table
New models for the contemporary book publication circuit

Readings for October 18: Walter Ong, “Orality and Literacy: Writing restructures consciousness” (Reader 134-146) and Ong’s missing section “Many Scripts but only One Alphabet”
Plato’s Phaedrus
Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (1902):  “How the First Letter Was Written” & “How The Alphabet Was Made”

Week 6: October 18
Orality and oral culture
Proto-writing and cave painting
The Pictograph, Phonogram and the Rebus
From Homo loquens to Homo scriptor
Ancient Scripts

Readings for October 25: Scott B. Noegel, “Text, Script, and Media” (Reader 125-133) and your chosen text on early writing (Companion 67-176)

Week 7: October 25
Round-table on early writing
1) “The Clay Tablet Book in Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia” (67-83)
Participants: Sharmila, Carlyn and Jillian
2) “The Papyrus Roll in Egypt, Greece, and Rome” (84-94)
Participants: Janae, Juan and Serena
3) “China” (97-110)
Participants: Chanee, Alana and Marianna
4) “Japan, Korea, and Vietnam” (111-1250
Participants: Amber, Julie and Kelsie

Week 8: November 1
Proposal for quest due
Round-table on early writing
5) “South Asia” (126-137)
Participants: Simran, Olivia, Carolina
6) “Latin America” (138-152)
Participants: Eilish, Mary and Michael
7) “The Hebraic Book” (153-164)
Participants: Julia, Marti and Donna
8) “The Islamic Book” (165-176)
Participants: Cole, Luke and Elijah

Reading for November 8: Rowan Watson, “Some Non-textual Uses of Books” (Companion 480-492)

Week 9: November 8
Early civilizations
Early-settlements
The sociology of religion
Early Civilizations hand-out

Reading for November 15: Marcel Thomas, “Manuscripts” (Reader 147-156)

Week 10: November 15
The Middle Ages
The Codex
Europe and the Middle Ages hand-out
Why we love the History of the Book (HotB!)

Week 11: November 22
Visit to Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
Medieval manuscripts

Week 12: November 29
In-class test

Reading for January 10: Robert Darnton, “Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose,” in The Great Cat Massacre (Google book or library e-book 9-29).