Library of Congress AMED to host workshop on early printing, May 4-5
Within a century of the Gutenberg Bible, print technology had fundamentally transformed the production, circulation and consumption of books. From Fez to Rome to Istanbul, printers, editors and craftsmen adapted to expanding readerships and shifting intellectual currents, giving rise to vibrant and diverse print cultures that have yet to receive the sustained scholarly attention they deserve.
This two-day workshop, organized by the African and Middle Eastern Division, examines the emergence and development of printing in African, Hebraic and Middle Eastern languages during the 16th and 17th centuries. Drawing on textual and material evidence, speakers will investigate the full range of the printed book’s life cycle — from the physical properties of ink, paper and type design to the commercial networks that governed trade, distribution and readership. Attention will also be given to the social and intellectual conditions that shaped editorial practice, patronage and the dissemination of texts to diverse audiences.
In-person participants will have the opportunity to examine primary materials drawn directly from the Library of Congress’s collections, including early printed materials in Arabic, Armenian, Ge’ez, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian and other languages.
Participants may attend the workshop online via http://go.loc.gov/3ymC50YFe7O. Those wishing to participate on-site may attend in person via http://go.loc.gov/70WH50YEGTT.
Monday, May 4, 2026, 10:00 a.m. EST to 12:30 p.m. EST
- Why should we think materially about European hand-press books? (Sarah Werner)
- Between manuscript and print: Material practices of itinerant Middle Eastern printers (Kristina Richardson)
- From Portugal to Fez: The first Hebrew press in Africa (Yoram Bitton)
Monday, May 4, 2026, 1:30 p.m. EST to 3:30 p.m. EST
- The Typographia Medicea: A view from the south (Olga Verlato)
- Cultural contacts: Western Asia’s impact on European Renaissance bookbinding traditions (John McQuillen)
- Materiality and meaning in a 16th-century Ottoman Hebrew press (Noam Sienna)
Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 9:30 a.m. EST to 11:30 a.m. EST
- Navigating the Islamic manuscript landscape of the Ottoman Empire (Guy Burak)
- Marginalia as a tool for printing legal texts — the case of the Venetian Hebrew printing workshop (Yakov Z. Mayer)
- The rise of “Nouveau Literacy” in early modern Armenian History: Some notes on merchant authors and the confluence of confessionalism and commercialization (Sebouh David Aslanian)
For more information, contact amed@loc.gov
