Bibliography Week 2022

POSTPONED – Materialities of Tibetan Buddhist Texts

Sponsored by CABS-Minnesota

Held online August 26, 2022 – Recording Available on YouTube

Within the diverse traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the power of books—both printed and hand-written—lies not only in their contents, but also in their materiality as objects. While these texts primarily transmit the words of the Buddha(s), the teachings of Buddhist masters, and the commands of Buddhist leaders, they can also function as ritual objects, protective talismans, and instruments of political authority. The three scholars on this panel will share bibliographical studies of Tibetan texts that highlight how text production, circulation, and replication within architectural spaces has been utilized by Tibetan religious and political leaders to assert and solidify their power. Rebecca Bloom will discuss an illustrated commentary on the Buddhist monastic code and the series of murals inspired by it, which were initially composed and commissioned by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama in the 1920s in order to purify the monastic community and protect the state he led. Focusing on a proclamation carved into a stele in both Mongolian and Tibetan, Sangseraima Ujeed will utilize this monumental, 17th-century text to disrupt mainstream historical narratives about its author, the infamous Mongolian lord Chogthu Taiji, who is otherwise depicted as an enemy of the Dharma. On a search for the true location of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s 17th-century printing house, Ben Nourse will examine evidence from the autobiography of the Fifth Dalai Lama, the continuation of that biography by his last regent, and from colophons and stylistic elements of editions produced at this location, where the largest catalog of printing blocks in Tibet up to that time were created.

Panelists:

• Rebecca Bloom, Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs and Interpretation at the Southern Utah Museum of Art at Southern Utah University
• Jue Liang, Assistant Professor of Religion, Denison University
• Benjamin Nourse, Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Denver

4-5pm Eastern – Meet the Editors of PBSA

Sponsored by James Gray Booksellers

Please join Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (PBSA) co-editors Dr. Sarah Werner and Dr. Jesse Erickson for an online Q&A session on January 26. Drs. Werner and Erickson will discuss their vision for the journal and how it can be part of an expanded field of bibliographical scholarship. They will also answer questions that you might have about practical matters of publishing in PBSA, such as the submission and review process, image permissions, special issues, and open access. You will have the opportunity to ask questions about their new role as editors as well as other questions related to the journal, so please get your queries ready!

11-12pm Eastern – In-Person, Center for Book Arts Tour

2-3pm Eastern – Bound Images: Maps and Books

Co-sponsored by Blue Mango Books and Manuscripts and Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

The dominant practice in Western map studies has been to consider maps as “sovereign,” that is, as individual images separated from the material context of their production, circulation, and consumption. Book studies also have generally overlooked maps when considering graphic elements such as engravings and photographs.  Yet many maps are located within, and contribute to the larger arguments of, books of all kinds, including histories, geographies, travel accounts, and novels. This panel offers three case studies to explore what changes theoretically and in practice when we dethrone the ‘sovereign map’ and engage with the production, circulation and reading of maps as bound images, a hybrid graphic and textual part of the stories told by authors and publishers which is experienced by readers through materiality, context, and significance: Giuseppe Rosaccio’s Il mondo e sue parti (Florence, 1595), Johann Jakob Scheuchzer’s Physica Sacra (Augsburg and Ulm, 1731), and Jorge Juan and Antonio Ulloa’s Relación Histórica del viage a la América meridional (Madrid, 1748).  Putting these examples in conversation, we suggest the importance of analytical bibliography to make cartographic materials accessible to and to connect map and book history.

Panelists:

• Carla Lois, Professor of Geography, Universidad de Buenos Aires
• Jordana Dym, Professor of History, Skidmore College
• Stephanie Stillo, Curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection and Aramont Library, Library of Congress

The 2022 New Scholars Program, 12pm Eastern

Sponsored by Les Enluminures
with additional support from George Ong and an anonymous donor

The 2022 New Scholars are:

• Christopher Adams, Malkin New Scholar – ‘Could you make it rather more of a He and She picture?’: The Queer Dust-Jacket and Postwar British Fiction
• Eve Houghton, Pantzer New Scholar – ‘I am always sorry to antagonize collectors’: Henrietta Bartlett and the 1916 Census of Shakespeare Quartos
• Liza Mardoyan, BSA New Scholar – Decorative Bird Initials in the Medieval Armenian Manuscript Culture

Learn more about the 2022 New Scholars and read their talk abstracts here.

In the virtual setting, attendees will choose to join one of our three New Scholars for a presentation of their 15-minute paper, followed by a focused Q&A with that Scholar in an individual breakout room. After the individual presentations, all attendees and Scholars will reconvene for a general Q&A and a discussion of what it’s like to be an emerging scholar working on bibliography in the present moment.

We can accommodate 1,000 virtual attendees, and we hope that all those who wish to join will be able to do so. By registering early, you will receive reminders about the event and login instructions delivered to your inbox.

The 2022 Annual Meeting, 1:30 pm Eastern

Keynote Lecture Sponsored by The Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA)

Folio Sponsors of the Annual Meeting
The Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America • Type Punch Matrix • W. S. Cotter Rare Books

Quarto Sponsors of the Annual Meeting
Austin Abbey Rare Books • Kate Mitas, Bookseller • Musinsky Rare Books, Inc. • Northeast Document Conservation Center • Rabelais, Inc. • Rare Book School • Richard C. Ramer, Old & Rare Books • Rodger Friedman Rare Book Studio • Royal Books, Inc. • Seminario Interdisciplinario de Bibliología • The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography • The University of Chicago Journals Division • University of Minnesota Press • University of Pennsylvania Press

Agenda

• Welcome, BSA President Barbara A. Shailor
• Keynote Lecture: Dr. Elizaveta Strakhov, What Makes Bibliography Critical? A Medievalist’s Response

What makes bibliography critical for a Western manuscripts scholar? Medievalists have, after all, enshrined bibliography to the point of developing the specialized subdisciplines of paleography and codicology. How does a Western medievalist breathe new life into bibliography, that bread-and-butter of their scholarly pursuits? This talk offers a case study of two manuscripts of bilingual Anglo-French poet Charles d’Orléans’ work: not the two collections notoriously supervised by him, but two later fifteenth-century, largely neglected manuscripts of his work, one made for European humanist circles and the other circulating with English Tudor royal audiences. These collections’ scribal layout, textual organization, and codicological arrangement can help us glean contemporary attitudes regarding authorship and authorial collaboration; the distinction between authors and translators; bilingualism and multilingualism; and the relationship between the agency of the compiler and the exigencies of material and textual form. In the process, these manuscripts further problematize our sense of the scope of early humanism and its relationship to fifteenth-century England; the reading tastes of Tudor circles; and our understanding of late medieval England’s relationship to Europe.

• The 2021 Annual Meeting: Call to Order
• Brief reports from the Secretary, Treasurer, & Audit Committee
• Awards Presentation: BSA Fellowships, The 2022 Justin G. Schiller Prize
• Closing toast & adjourment

Annual Meeting Reception – In Person! at 5pm Eastern

Convene, 530 Fifth Avenue at 44th Street

Join us to celebrate the 2022 Annual Meeting at Convene, 530 Fifth Avenue at 44th Street! Come raise a glass and celebrate the 2022 New Scholars, the Council Classes of 2022 and 2025, and enjoy the bibliographical camaraderie that so many of us have missed so dearly.

Space is limited to 72 attendees, so don’t wait! Register today. Should you need to cancel your registration, we ask that you do so at your earliest convenience by emailing bsa@bibsocamer.org.

In compliance with our host’s policy, all attendees must provide proof of having received at least two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer Covid vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine. Acceptable forms of vaccination proof in addition to the Excelsior Pass and NYC Covid Safe app include:

• CDC vaccination card, along with personal ID
• A photocopy of your CDC vaccination card, along with personal ID
• A digital photograph of your CDC vaccination card, along with personal ID
• An official vaccination record, along with personal ID