The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography, Rare Book School, University of Virginia,
and the University of Pennsylvania South Asia Center, the Department of Religious Studies, and Department of South Asia Studies present:
Symposium Keynote Lecture
From the Cover Inwards: A Conservator’s Approach to Reading Bound Manuscripts
by
Yasmeen Khan,
Head of the Paper Conservation Section in the Conservation Division of the Library of Congress
Thursday, October 21, 2021 @ 4 PM CST/5 PM EST
Registration Link for the Lecture: https://upenn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-01fqS91TCqPheKmfw44kQ
and the University of Pennsylvania South Asia Center, the Department of Religious Studies, and Department of South Asia Studies present:
Symposium Keynote Lecture
From the Cover Inwards: A Conservator’s Approach to Reading Bound Manuscripts
by
Yasmeen Khan,
Head of the Paper Conservation Section in the Conservation Division of the Library of Congress
Thursday, October 21, 2021 @ 4 PM CST/5 PM EST
Registration Link for the Lecture: https://upenn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-01fqS91TCqPheKmfw44kQ
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Having the tools to deconstruct the history of a manuscript prior to treatment is vital for a conservator. An assessment of the condition of a binding starts from the cover inwards to the pages, text, and thread, and yet, simultaneously, the conservator reverses those steps to understand the creative process that resulted in the bound volume. “How and where was the paper manufactured, prepared for writing, inscribed or printed, sewn, bound, used, repaired, resewn and rebound?” are questions that should be answered in order to provide a rationale for a treatment approach. I will delve into the structure and material characteristics of four bound copies of Mīr Ḥasan’s Siḥr al-Bayān at the Library of Congress asevidence of changes in bookbinding, taste, readership, markets and use in 19th century Northern India.
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The Keynote Lecture is open to the public. It is also a hybrid event, which you can attend either on Zoom or in person. The in-Person Viewing Party is at the University of Pennsylvania in Lippincott 242 Seminar Room, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. To register for the webinar and attend virtually please click here. This lecture is open to the public in both in-person and virtual formats. Attendees are also warmly welcomed to dinner following the keynote - reserve your place at dinner by emailing robbme@upenn.edu.
Symposium Description
While scholarship has established that material cultures of texts in South Asia were radically altered by the rise of European-styled printing presses in South Asia, there has been less attention given to the interplay between manuscript and printing press text production. To the extent that the impact of print has been studied in South Asia, there has been a tendency to study it synchronically, resulting in studies that look at manuscript cultures and printing cultures separately. This workshop aims to approach the history of material texts diachronically, paying attention not only to the irruptive impact of typeset and lithographic print technologies but also to the possible overlaps between print technologies and manuscript cultures of textual production.
The advent of the printing press to the subcontinent is of crucial importance to the workshop, forming as it did a key fulcrum in transformations in knowledge transmission and material text production. This workshop has purposefully left the period for the workshop open, allowing for studies focusing on the contemporary period as well as historical contexts. Conversations in traditional “history of the book” have tended to prioritize chronologies, in which the decline of manuscript production technologies give way to European-styled printing presses. Focusing on periodization implies clear beginnings and endings, whereas in South Asia multiple technologies of textual production existed simultaneously, rather than one set of technologies giving way to another set. In lieu of papers that adopt a narrative of straightforward transition from stone slabs to paper, we welcome papers that reflect on how textual production technologies simultaneously circulated and informed each other after the emergence of the printing press. By exploring how textual technologies confound traditional chronological accounts of the “arrival” of print to South Asia, we will redirect attention to the complicated paths of material texts themselves.
While the symposium will happen digitally and can be attended as part of the annual conference on South Asia hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there will be an in-person projection of the keynote lecture on campus at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
The advent of the printing press to the subcontinent is of crucial importance to the workshop, forming as it did a key fulcrum in transformations in knowledge transmission and material text production. This workshop has purposefully left the period for the workshop open, allowing for studies focusing on the contemporary period as well as historical contexts. Conversations in traditional “history of the book” have tended to prioritize chronologies, in which the decline of manuscript production technologies give way to European-styled printing presses. Focusing on periodization implies clear beginnings and endings, whereas in South Asia multiple technologies of textual production existed simultaneously, rather than one set of technologies giving way to another set. In lieu of papers that adopt a narrative of straightforward transition from stone slabs to paper, we welcome papers that reflect on how textual production technologies simultaneously circulated and informed each other after the emergence of the printing press. By exploring how textual technologies confound traditional chronological accounts of the “arrival” of print to South Asia, we will redirect attention to the complicated paths of material texts themselves.
While the symposium will happen digitally and can be attended as part of the annual conference on South Asia hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there will be an in-person projection of the keynote lecture on campus at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.