European culture profoundly changed during the three centuries between the devastation of the Black Death and the disruptions of the Reformation. The most important “agent of change” during this period was the printing press. Invented in the 1440s, the printing press secured the intellectual developments that began in the late Middle Ages: renewed interest in the works of pagan antiquity, criticism of scholasticism, and interest in vernacular writing. This course will study these intellectual developments through books, manuscript and printed, from c.1300-1600.

Books are key cultural artifacts that have much to tell us about the culture in which they were created and preserved. This class will use manuscript and early printed books at Rauner Special Collections Library, prints at the Hood Museum, and online facsimiles as a key into each theme or topic. We will also work hands-on with parchment, paper, and the hand-press at the Book Arts Workshop (if possible) to understand the physical processes involved in manuscript and book production.