Unlocking the history of the book

Books and manuscripts of any period can have unique and complicated personal histories. ‘From the moment of inception, a text becomes a material object that can be subjected to a whole host of life events, which might encompass how it is copied, edited, published, disseminated, reviewed, revised or preserved,’ explained Dr Jason Scott-Warren, Director of the new Centre for Material Texts in the Faculty of English. ‘Whether the text is a medieval manuscript copied by monks, a commonplace book passed from one owner to another, or a bestseller converted into a screenplay, each has an embodied history.’

The recently launched Centre will foster teaching and research in the study of material texts across Cambridge. It will offer intellectual and practical support, as well as opportunities for collaboration through sharing of ideas and expertise. ‘Our aspiration is to draw in researchers working in different disciplines, different historical periods and different manifestations of text,’ said Dr Scott-Warren.

One aim of the Centre will be to coordinate web custodianship of digitisation projects such as the recently completed Scriptorium project, which provides rich and varied resources for manuscript research and teaching.

‘The Faculty has a strong track record in bibliographical scholarship, manuscript studies and textual research of various kinds,’ explained Professor Adrian Poole, Head of the Faculty of English. ‘The Centre will help us to coordinate and enhance this research, and to reach out to other disciplines, united by a common fascination with the materiality of the sources we work with.’

For more information, please contact Dr Jason Scott-Warren (jes1003@cam.ac.uk) or visit www.english.cam.ac.uk/cmt/