The Medici Archive Project (MAP) and ISI Florence will offer a pilot six-day seminar to explore the vast archival territory relating to printers and bookshops in Grand Ducal Tuscany (including Jewish, women and Protestant printers); the costs of printing and distributing books; the transition from draft to printed text; the timing of distribution; the construction of public and private libraries; the patronage and reception of books; second-hand book shops; books in Italian and European news networks; translations of texts; political and religious censorship; copyright issues; books as diplomatic gifts; university manuals; medical as well as scientific treatises.

The seminar sessions will be taught at the MAP and ISI Florence headquarters. Participants will also be working with letters, inventories, account books, recipe books, permits, patents, contracts, diaries, court verdicts, papal bulls and briefs at the Archivio di Stato and Archivio della Curia Arcivescovile as well as literary manuscripts, memoirs, and printed texts at the Biblioteca Nazionale and Biblioteca Riccardiana.

The seminar week consists of 3/4 lectures and transcription sessions per day, each lasting between 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours.

Seminar instructors include Alessio Assonitis, Stefano U. Baldassarri, Sheila Barker, Stefano Dall’Aglio, Brendan Dooley, Paul Gwynne, Lisa Kaborycha, Piergabriele Mancuso, Marcello Simonetta, and David Speranzi.

Prospective applicants should send the following materials to [email protected]:

• One-page CV.
• A brief statement explaining how this course will help their current research.

Tuition fee: US $ 600.
Submission deadline: June 1, 2019.
For queries on administrative details, course tuition, and general information, email [email protected].