Partus Primus

Dates

Wednesday, September 3 - Wednesday, September 24

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Content

Bibliography

In the first part of the course we will investigate the general state of knowledge of bibliography amongst the participants in the class. Once a baseline is established we will delve as deeply as necessity dictates and time allows into the science of enumerative, descriptive, and analytical bibliography.

The first part of every class is set aside for your questions on the reading you will be expected to have done for that class. If there there is any aspect of what you've read that confuses you or that you think warrants clarification, you should ask, because you are going to be examined on the reading at the end of this module.

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An enumerative bibliography is a complete list of all items in a defined category such as 'those books held at a particular library,' 'those items published by a particular press,' 'those items published in a particular country,' 'those items published during a particular time span,' etc. (See Greetham, pp. 13 - 46.) Obviously, most such bibliographies are more fine-grained than any of the foregoing: for example, 'those items in Acadia's library on the subject of bibliography,' or 'those items in Acadia's library dealing with your thesis topic,' or 'those items in or accessible electronically through Acadia's library dealing with your thesis topic and published within the past ten years.

Descriptive bibliography is, simply put, the complete physical description of a book or manuscript. (See Greetham, pp. 153 - 68).

Analytic bibliography is concerned with the means of production of a given physical text. "How was it printed? Who printed it? Where was it printed? On to what medium was it printed? What typefaces were used?" are examples of the kind of questions we will consider when we prepare an analytical bibliography. (See Greetham, pp. 112 - 51.)

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Schedule

  Wed., Sept. 3: Introductions, course outline, discussion, & thought experiments. For Sept. 8, read W.W. Greg's Rationale of Copy-text; and Greetham's Introduction (1-12), and "Bibliography of Printed Books," 77 - 91..
Mon., September 8: Questions on the reading. An introduction to Textual Studies.
Prior to Wednesday's class read Greetham pp. 153 - 68.
Wed., September 10: Rare Books Room visit.
For class on Sept. 15, read Greetham pp. 112 - 51.
Mon., September 15: Analytical bibliography.
In preparation for presenting your thesis list, read Greetham pp 13 - 46.
Wed., September 17: Student thesis reference lists: toward developing enumerative bibliographies.
Mon., September 22: A discussion of bibliography as exam preparation. Wed., September 24: First Module Exam

 

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Texts

Greetham, D. C. Textual Scholarship: An Introduction.

Greg, W. W. "The Rationale of Copy-text." Studies in Bibliography 3: 19 - 36.

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Exam

Students will be responsible for pp. 1 - 168 of Greetham's Textual Scholarship for the First Module exam. This will be an in-class, closed book, 1 1/2 hour exam, on Wednesday, September 24.