From Incunabula to Digital Texts - Presentation at Southwest Popular/American Culture Association 2014

1. From Incunabula to
Digital Texts: Teaching the History
of Printing to Undergraduates
David Oberhelman
Oklahoma State University Library
Stillwater, OK

2. Renaissance Print History
• 2011 – New Shakespeare/Renaissance literature professor Dr.
Wadoski wanted to include history of the book and print
culture
• Approached OSU library to collaborate on assignments using
digital text collections (Early English Books Online/EEBO)
and other databases (esp. biographical databases)
• Discussed library’s collection of rare books and Otto M.
Forkert typography collection with examples of printed
sheets from 1400s to 1800s
• English librarian and Special Collections technician Sarah
Coates partnered with professor to introduce students to
early books, bookbinding, printers, and the cultural aspects of
the early book trade in 1500s-1600s England

3. Goals and Objectives
• Introduce students to the material culture of
the book trade in the Renaissance and how it
affected the production of literature
– Increase exposure to the books in print during
that era/ideas in circulation
– Learn about printers, technology, and how
books were published and distributed
– Use digital and archival library materials to help
modern students learn about the world of
Renaissance book making and transition from
manuscript to print culture

4. Courses with Print History
Components
• Fall 2011, Spring 2012, & Fall 2013 taught print
culture in 3000- & 4000-level Shakespeare
courses, first with EEBO
– Keywords assignment
– Printer biography assignment
– Rare books demo
• Fall 2012 4000-level Renaissance Literature &
Protestantism Course
– Tie-in with NEH traveling exhibit on the 400th
anniversary of the King James Bible
– Keywords assignment
– Protestantism, Bible translation, and the book trade

5. Early English Books Online
(EEBO)

6. Short Title Catalogue Works 1475-1700
126,000 Page Images and Text Creation Partnership
Hand-Keyed Text (for ~25,000 Titles)

7. History of Print & the Book
Introduction
• History of Renaissance Print in Classroom
–
–
–
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Manuscript Culture to Gutenberg
Caxton and early printing in England
English printing trade (printers and apprentices)
Stationers' Company and royal censorship
• Printing of Shakespeare's plays
– MSS and “fair”/“foul” papers
– Quartos (“bad” and “good”)
– First Folio (1623)

8. Library Research Guide on Print History /
Printing Shakespeare’s Plays

9. “Words, Words, Words”:
Shakespearean Keywords Assignment
Your presentation should focus on telling the class what your EEBO search shows about
Early Modern perceptions of one particular concern reflected in the Shakespeare play you
are researching. You and your classmates my present a concentrated look at any one text
you discover, or you may decide to survey the works you find, pulling up materials on the
computer in front of the room.
Recommended Keywords:
•
Troilus and Cressida
–
•
Epiphany
Melancholy
Hermaphrodite
Puritan
Macbeth
–
–
Fancy, fantasy
Witch
Winter’s Tale
–
–
–
–
King Lear (to find original texts)
Nature
Bastard
Twelfth Night
–
–
–
–
•
•
King Lear
–
–
–
•
Pander
•
Othello
–
–
–
•
Statues
Bearbaiting
Shepherds
Garden
Moor
Antipodes
Jealousy
Tempest
–
–
–
–
Algiers
Africa
Alchemy
Magic

10. Subject Keyword Search

11. Keyword Search Results

12. Printers’ Biographies
Assignment
This assignment is intended to give you a sense of the print history of Shakespeare's plays; a
better understanding of the Renaissance English book trade and period print culture; and the
chance to hone your research skills as you navigate and synthesize a variety of online
resources. It will also give the chance to see (at least in online scans) what printed texts
looked like in Shakespeare's time.
1. Using EEBO, compile a bibliography of the printed editions of Shakespeare's Titus
Andronicus, Richard III , or Hamlet up to and including the 1623 Folio.
2. Using the Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of Literary
Biography, find out information about the PRINTER of one of these editions and write a
short (-1 page) synthesis and summary of the DNB/DLB articles that focuses on the most
relevant, pertinent, and interesting information. If your first choice of printer does not yield
results in these two works, find another printer to write about. Be careful- there may be a
number of people in these dictionaries with the same name. Just because you are writing
about John Q Smith, do not assume that the first John Q Smith you come across in the DNB
is the one you are looking for. Pay attention to dates and details (i.e. doe the bio mention that
this individual was, in fact, a printer? Was this person alive at the time these works were being
printed? Etc.) Be especially careful about fathers and sons, who often shared both names and
professions.

13. EEBO Records w/ Printers

14. Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography

15. JSTOR (Articles)

16. Dictionary of Literary Biography

17. Hamlet Quarto
EEBO and Photograph Comparison

18. Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles [History
of England, etc.] (1587) – EEBO

19. Holinshed in Print

20. Rare Book Demonstrations
• After working with the EEBO texts, students
have opportunity to view incunabula and
books up to 17th-century in Special
Collections in original format (vs.
microfilm/digital copies)
• Learn immediacy of primary
sources, discover errors in
translation, copying
• Learn about printing and see how books were
bound, paper/parchment used, typeface and
fonts, etc.
• Tie in with assignments on the history of
print culture

21. Renaissance Literature &
Protestantism Course
• Focus on the politics of Bible translation
in Tudor and early Stuart England:
–
–
–
–
–
William Tyndale
Desiderius Erasmus
Thomas More
Geneva Bible
King James Bible (1611)
• Tied in with the King James Bible
Exhibit with lectures on religious and
book history

22. Renaissance Literature
EEBO and Rare Books
• Keywords assignment with EEBO
modified to focus on religious
terminology
– Heretics
– Martyr
– Incarnation, etc.
• Librarians led tour of exhibit and rare
books/examples of early printing
highlighting Protestantism and the Bible

23. King James Bible Exhibit

24. King James Bible Panels

25. “Wicked” Bible (1631)

26. Sarah Coates’s Presentation –
http://prezi.com/ti3azrlyab8h/thehistory-of-printing/

27. King James Bible Page
(Proverbs)

28. Rare Books Display in Gallery

29. Rare Books in Special
Collections

30. Gutenberg 42-Line Bible
Facsimile

31. Caxton Facsimile

32. First Folio Facsimile to Show
Binding (Cords)

33. Facsimile First Folio –
Clasps

34. Epistole Sancti Hieronymi (ca. 1496-1599) –
Boards & Clasps

35. Erasmus, In Praise of Folly
[Moriæ Encomium] (1629 ed.)

36. Erasmus – Marginalia, Vellum
Binding

37. 1684 Volume with
Virgil, Ovid, Dryden

38. Nuremberg Chronicle
Liber Chronicarum (1497) –
Tooled Leather Cover

39. Map of Winds, Venice (ca. 1500) –
Forkert Typography Collection

40. School Primer MS, Colonial
America (1777)

41. Possible Future Projects Using Digital
Library/Archival Materials
• Graduate student internship/project to do
descriptive/analytical bibliographic studies of rare
books or MSS in Special Collections
• Supervised undergraduate group projects with rare
books and Forkert typographical examples – group
presentations on books or printing with digital
photos, etc., in PPT or Prezi
• Tie in EEBO assignment with the actual books in
Special Collections (as with Holinshed or Erasmus) –
what they learn from the “real thing” vs. digital
surrogate
• Embedded librarian or co-instructor in courses on
Early Modern Literature & the History of the Book

42. Contact Details
David Oberhelman
d.oberhelman@okstate.edu