Overview
- Charts the global diversity of colophons between 1400 and 1800
- Uncovers the fascinating cultural history of early modern scribes
- Offers a new conceptual framework that studies colophons as scribal practices
Part of the book series: New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800 (NETRANS)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
—Filippo de Vivo, University of Oxford, UK
“In its wide global range and rich variety of studies, this expertly edited volume provides an unprecedented view into the scribal practices of diverse cultural traditions in the early modern period.”
—Johanna Drucker, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
“This volume finally gives the colophon the place it deserves. We see scribes and printers at work in Thailand, the Deccan, Delhi, Damascus, Antwerp, and Timbuktu.”
—Konrad Hirschler, University of Hamburg, Germany
“In this cross-disciplinary endeavor, ten authors tell lively and exciting stories of historical scribal practices.”
—Verena Klemm, University of Leipzig, Germany
This book is the first to chart the global diversity of colophons between 1400 and 1800. The volume presents a new approach to scribal cultures that expands traditional definitions. Moving from the paradigm of codicological information towards a thorough interpretation of the wider social worlds of colophons in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, this volume uncovers the fascinating cultural history of early modern scribes. Chapters examine how those engaging in the composition and distribution of colophons shaped scribal identities, group cultures and bookish communities in a world in which manuscripts mattered. Authors build on approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, codicology, history, and philology to offer a new conceptual framework that studies colophons as scribal practices embedded in their changing social and cultural worlds. As a new contribution to the history of the book, this volume’s global approach pushes the boundaries of what constitutes a colophon.
Reviews
“Scribal practice is a welcome reminder that every part of a written text is potentially significant, and that even little-known texts can open unexpected windows on the past and present.” (Deborah Rudolph, EAPS, East Asian Publishing and Society, Vol. 13, 2023) “The essays collected in this volume argue for a broad definition of the colophon and demonstrate its significance as scribal practice and social act for authors as well as otherwise forgotten scribes and readers. Bahl and Hanß have done a wonderful job bringing together experts ranging from India to Germany and from the Americas to Sudan and Malaysia. This is a tour de force of sophisticated global erudition.” (Filippo de Vivo, Professor of Early Modern History, University of Oxford, UK)
“In its wide global range and rich variety of studies, this expertly edited volume provides an unprecedented view into the scribal practices of diverse cultural traditions in the early modern period. Focusing on colophons, broadly defined, the authors challenge the provincialism of western histories of the book, and demonstrate the benefits of global perspectives for revitalizing the field. The combination of expert scholarship and vivid examples makes for engaging reading for anyone with an interest in the history of literacy and writing.” (Johanna Drucker, Breslauer Professor of Bibliographical Studies and Distinguished Professor of Information Studies, UCLA, USA)
“This volume finally gives the colophon the place it deserves: as a topic in its own right, as a process mediating scribal agency and as a transcultural social practice. The book succeeds in putting the colophon on the research agenda by cutting across traditional regional and chronological boundaries of academic disciplines. We thus see scribes and printers at work in Thailand, the Deccan, Delhi, Damascus, Antwerp and Timbuktu. If you love books, read this book – simply fascinating and a pleasure to read.” (Konrad Hirschler, Professor in Islamic Studies, University of Hamburg, Germany)
“In this cross-disciplinary endeavor, eleven authors tell lively and exciting stories of historical scribal practices. Hereby, the colophon takes center stage, and we are invited to discover a broad range of its various functions in different social and political contexts. As authoritative textual elements in manuscript cultures, they can serve as stamps of individual agency, as powerful tools in hierarchical constellations as well as means for crafting scribal and archival communities.” (Verena Klemm, Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Christopher Bahl is Assistant Professor in South Asian History, Durham University, UK. He is interested in the social, cultural, and political histories of the early modern western Indian Ocean world and studies them through its surviving manuscript cultures.
Stefan Hanß is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Manchester, UK, and winner of a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award and a Philip Leverhulme Prize. Hanß has published widely on material culture and global history.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Scribal Practice and the Global Cultures of Colophons, 1400–1800
Editors: Christopher D. Bahl, Stefan Hanß
Series Title: New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90154-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-90153-0Published: 11 June 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-90156-1Published: 11 June 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-90154-7Published: 09 June 2022
Series ISSN: 2946-5338
Series E-ISSN: 2946-5346
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 303
Number of Illustrations: 111 b/w illustrations, 31 illustrations in colour
Topics: World History, Global and Transnational History, History of Early Modern Europe, History of the Book