ScholarlyCommons

Title

Hidden Hands: Amanuenses and Authorship in Early Modern Europe

Author(s)

Ann Blair, Harvard University

Document Type

Presentation

Date of this Version

3-2014

Comments

A series of three lectures presented March 17, 18, and 20, 2014 in the Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries.Citation:

Blair, Ann. Hidden Hands: Amanuenses and Authorship in Early Modern Europe [Lecture 1: Hidden Helpers. Lecture 2: Hands and Minds at Work. Lecture 3: Authors and Amanuenses.] A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia, PA, March 17, 18, 20, 2014.

Abstract

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures in Bibliography for 2014:

Monday, March 17, 2014: "Hidden Helpers." Total time: 1:18:23. Welcome: David N. McKnight (00:10); Introduction: Roger Chartier (03:58); Lecture: Ann Blair (11:40); Questions and answers (01:02:00).

Tuesday, March 18, 2014: "Hands and Minds at Work." Total time: 01:45:05. Welcome: David N. McKnight (00:04); Introduction: Peter Stallybrass (02:30); Lecture: Ann Blair (08:12); Questions and answers (01:22:35).

Thursday, March 20, 2014: "Authors and Amanuenses." Total time: 01:34:52. Welcome: David N. McKnight (00:10); Introduction: Lynne Farrington (05:55); Lecture: Ann Blair (14:19); Questions and answers (01:08:54).

Intellectual work in early Modern Europe was rarely performed alone, despite literary and iconographical representations to the contrary--scholars worked with others in many ways. In these lectures, Professor Blair focuses on the family members, students, and servants who served as amanuenses by helping an author or scholar in the process of composing and writing.

Ann Blair is Director of Undergraduate Studies, Harvard College Professor, and Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Harvard University. Her publications include Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age (Yale, 2010) and The Theater of Nature: Jean Bodin and Renaissance Science (Princeton, 1997).

To download a podcast of each lecture, choose one of the additional files below. To view the event announcement, select the Download button at upper right.