Call for Papers

Call for Papers
All the world's a page
"Read not to contradict and confute; or to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk or discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention." Thus, in his Essays, Francis Bacon gives us a startling insight into the early modern regard for books and the new attention given to the written page in the long and delicate shift from manuscript to print.
Following these suggestions, the aim of the conference is to explore the liminal space between reading and writing, between the book as material artefact and the act of reading, and reflect on the relationships between texts and the material embodiments. We welcome papers addressing (but not necesserily restricted to) the following topics:

• The act of writing and its representations
• The act of reading and its representations
• The materiality of texts
• The book as a material artefact
• The mutability and flexibility of the printed text
• The page on stage: letters, coded messages and books in early modern drama
• Books and their circulation
• Manuscripts and scribal publication
• Manuscript writings and printed texts
• The "order of books"
• The book as metaphor
• The symbolic power of the book

Papers should be twenty minutes long. Please send a 500-word abstract and a brief curriculum vitae by 12 January 2016 to:
Mariacristina Cavecchi: cristina.cavecchi@unimi.it
Alessandra Petrina: alessandra.petrina@unipd.it