Manuscripts after Print c.1450-1550 (MaP): Producing and Reading Books during Technological Change

The way we read is in flux. We are in the midst of the 'digital revolution' which challenges the way in which books are available to their readers and how they are produced, sold, and read. Yet printed books and handwriting continue to flourish, with printed books in the UK last year increasing in sales to their highest level since 2012 while eBook sales dropped (The Publishers Association Press Release, 2017) and pleas made for handwriting's continuing educational and social value (Professor Dominic Wise, UCL, Guardian, March 2018). This Early Career Leadership Fellow project takes advantage of the current, crucial moment in the history of book technology to ask: what happens to the production and the readership of old books when new book technology is invented?

The introduction of print in Europe in the fifteenth century had a marked effect on the perception of manuscripts, the handwritten book trade, and changed reading practices. Johannes Trithemius, a German Benedictine abbot who lived through this technological change, lamented the introduction of print, famously stating, 'He who ceases from zeal of writing because of printing is no true lover of the scriptures' (De Laude Scriptorium, 1492-4). What Trithemius feared was the fall of the handwritten book - the manuscripts that, after print, could have seemed old technology. But the reality was not a linear transition from manuscript to print but something far messier. Manuscripts produced after print start to exhibit features of print technology and hybrid print-manuscript books are produced.

The limited critical engagement with this important question so far has rejected the earlier notion that the rise of 'print culture' meant the decline of 'scribal culture'; yet the terms 'scribal culture' and 'print culture' are still used in binary opposition. These terms reduce the nuanced development of book technology into ordered, chronological categories, meaning that the complex interactions between manuscript and print are lost. In analysing the first hundred years after print in Europe, c.1450-1550, this project challenges the supersession model of book production, that manuscripts were supplanted by print, and goes beyond the more recent claims that manuscript and print simply coexisted, to demonstrate how manuscript production adapted and changed after print and how handwriting revived and flourished as a result. It examines the lasting significance of handwriting and so analyses the non-linear development of book production that continues into the digital age. In doing so, the project has excellent potential to reach book producers and readers beyond academia. At this critical moment in the history of the book, the growth of the digital book, it is vital to examine how readers access texts, how books are marketed, bought and sold, and why old book technology is of continuing importance. In particular, it is crucial to examine the impact of digital books on print and on handwriting.

The findings of this project will both indicate the impact of technological change on reading practice and have the potential to inform the way in which book technology might develop in the future. Engaging with artists, creative practitioners, and the wider reading public, the open access digital outputs of this project, especially the Hands-on Reading app which combines handwriting with digital books, are innovative ways of examining how we read now and the way in which we may wish to read in the future.

One of the two overarching aims of the project is to collaborate with non-academic groups and the wider public in scholarly investigations into the impact of digital books on older book forms. There are a number of non-academic collaborators that are interested in the way in which book production and reading habits have changed in recent years. The proposed project therefore has strong potential to achieve wide-reaching impact beyond its academic beneficiaries and to offer the opportunity of further future collaborations. The following groups will benefit from the leadership activities of the proposed project:

Commercial/private sector
Book producers and professional creative practitioners (independent commercial artists, calligraphers, and print makers targeted via the PI's open call and her links with a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, Sue Hufton) will benefit from the research because the project asks questions pertinent to their fields - why their work is relevant and increasingly sought after in a digital age. It provides a platform for discussing how they might capitalise on the momentum created by renewed interests in hybrid books and in handwriting (Script Print Code Hackathon and Public event, postgraduate workshop, academic conference). It brings together book producers and creative practitioners with established book sellers Forum Books, an independent bookshop with a national public reach, in order to facilitate the creation of future networks, offering potential future economic and creative benefits. Beyond the project, there is potential to increase the sustainability of the Hands-on Reading app by developing further research with digital book producers, ensuring the project's enduring impact.

Voluntary/Third sector
The changes in the way in which books are produced and read has inspired a renewed interest in handwriting as a craft. The project offers the opportunity for voluntary groups of artists and creative practitioners, The Letter Exchange, The Typographic Circle, The Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Circle, The Society of Scribes and Illuminators, and Northern Print to display their work (Script Print Code Public event, online exhibition) to academic, non-academic, and public audiences. This has the benefit of offering new networks which will lead to further artistic and funding opportunities, such as the Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants (which require project partners and networks).

Wider Public
Most readers have a preference between paper books and digital books, and between handwriting and digital writing, which sparks strong feeling and debate. Two articles published in quick succession in The Guardian, 'EBooks are stupid' (20 Feb 2018) and 'Ebooks are not stupid' (21 Feb 2018), demonstrates this strength of feeling. Taking advantage of this awareness of book forms and book technologies, the project benefits readers interested in the way they process information, the way books are changing, and the way reading is changing as a result. It has the potential to enable new collaborations beyond academia with the reading public, offering the wider public the chance to engage meaningfully with the shape of book technology now and in the future.

Education/Public sector
The relationship between handwriting, reading, and learning is of increasing importance to teachers and education providers, with paediatricians warning that a loss of handwriting due to technology results in a loss of cognitive skills. Following the project end date, the PI will seek ways of enhancing the legacy of the Hands-on Reading app by collaborating with teachers in order to develop the app for use in the classroom.