Enfilade

From USTC, as hosted by St Andrews:

St Andrews Book Conference: Newspapers and Periodicals
Universal Short Title Catalogue Conference
St Andrews, 19–21 June 2025

Organized by Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, and Zachary Brookman

Proposal due by 13 December 2024

Job Adriaensz Berckheyde, A Man Reading a Newspaper, ca. 1670s, oil on panel, 17 × 14 cm.

While the basic technological underpinnings of print were unaltered from the days of Johannes Gutenberg to the invention of the steam press in the nineteenth century, one type of early modern publishing, pioneered in the early seventeenth century, would alter the printscape decisively. The rise of newspapers and other types of periodical publishing was beset by many failures and missteps, but by 1700, the genre had taken Europe by storm.

In the eighteenth century, newspapers would be at the heart of the expansion of printing presses in provincial Europe and its colonies overseas. At the same time, the range of periodical publishing on offer in Europe’s major cities would expand into every realm of printed information. While periodicals have long been the poor relation of short title catalogues and bibliographical investigations, this conference will seek to place periodical publishing where it belongs, at the heart of early modern print culture.

The conference will engage with the full diversity of periodical literature that appeared in the early modern period, from newspapers and monthly digests of current affairs to periodicals covering science, the book trade, literature, arts, husbandry, philosophy, and more. We welcome proposals for papers on research methodologies and the reconstruction of periodical ventures, key categories of periodical genres, individual titles, or prominent publishers, and other subjects.

Proposals—with a title, an abstract of up to 300 words, and a short biography of up to 150 words—should be addressed to the organisers, Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen and Zachary Brookman, by 13 December 2024. The organisers can be reached at admp@st-andrews.ac.uk, adw7@st-andrews.ac.uk, and zb28@st-andrews.ac.uk.