East Asian and Western Pre-modern Books Reconsidered: The Concept of 'Edition' and the Importance of Comparative Bibliography

The Center for East Asian Studies and the University of Chicago Library invite you to a lecture entitled East Asian and Western Pre-modern Books Reconsidered: The Concept of 'Edition' and the Importance of Comparative Bibliography at the Joseph Regenstein Library, Room 122 (1100 E. 57th St) on Thursday, October 5, at 5 PM US Central Time featuring Dr. Devin Fitzgerald, Ph.D. (Harvard University), a lecturer in the Department of History at Yale University and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Critical Bibliography.

Pre-modern printed East Asian and Western books seem to be comparable objects. Both Chinese and Western books were frequently codices; both are often printed on paper; and the similarities even extend into features of paratexts (such as prefaces) and page layout. But appearances can be deceiving. Histories of the book written in both English and Chinese frequently discuss pre-modern 'Editions,' but as this talk will demonstrate, the concept of 'edition' is a false analogy. By exploring both Western and East Asian bibliographical traditions, Dr. Devin Fitzgerald will demonstrate the importance of comparative bibliographical methods to resituate the position of East Asian print cultures within broader frameworks of book history.

This event is co-sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage at Rare Book School, the University of Chicago Library, and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago with support from a Title VI National Resource Center Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.