Why study the material text? The case of Jewish books

Speaker: Prof. David Stern

Venue: Room 201, East No.5 Building, Zijingang Campus

Abstract: As the field of the History of the Book has grown, a sub-set of the field has developed that might be called “The Material Text,” which is devoted to inspecting the relationship of text to its material inscription, the impact of one upon the other, their connection to reading practice, and the changes that both text and material inscriptions undergo historically. Examples will be drawn from the history of the Jewish book, the speaker’s field of specialization.