Mon Oct 3, 4:30pm:  Shamil Jeppie (Historical Studies, University of Cape Town) "Book Collecting in Timbuktu." In person event, Barker Center 133. Sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in the History of the Book.

Abstract: This lecture surveys five centuries of collecting in Timbuktu, a town in the interior of West Africa, that has come to symbolize a larger world of learning and book culture in the region. This lecture follows citations in texts written in the town in the 16^th century, book borrowing and copying, through to a major...

Read more about Shamil Jeppie (Historical Studies, University of Cape Town): "Book Collecting in Timbuktu"

James Raven (University of Cambridge), “Monsters, Myths and Methods: A Global Book Biography and the Enlightenment Reception of Erik Pontoppidan’s  The Natural History of Norway (1752-5).” In person event: History Dept conference room (formerly the Lower Library) on the ground/first floor, Robinson Hall, Harvard Yard. Sponsored by the Early Modern Workshop and Scandinavian Studies, Harvard. 

Abstract : The publication of Erik Pontoppidan’s Natural History of Norway (1752-55 in different language editions) offers a unique, multi-...

Read more about Monsters, Myths and Methods: A Global Book Biography and the Enlightenment Reception of Erik Pontoppidan’s "The Natural History of Norway" (1752-5).

Tues Nov. 15 at 5 p.m., Camille Owens (Society of Fellows, Harvard), “Unbinding the Hand-Book of the Wonderful Boy: methods for reading black childhood in archives of 19th-century spectacle.” Event held in person,  Barker Center 133. Sponsored by the Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar in the History of the Book.