The Art and the History of the Book

Shapiro Library will be hosting a brown bag lunch presentation, The Art and the History of the Book” by Amanda Reynolds Cooper. 
This will be a visual presentation covering the functional changes in book design from the 3rd century BCE to the present as well as the societal and cultural impacts of those changes. The presentation will begin with the simple yet durable book format that we take for granted today, the codex,and continue through the rigid and formal creation of manuscripts by monks and the “heyday” of printing during the Renaissance. The presentation will be heavily populated with slides of books from various time periods as well as the materials used to create them.

Amanda Reynolds Cooper is the Director of the Harvey-Mitchell Memorial Library in Epping, NH. Though public librarianship seems to be her calling, rare books are her passion. She studied the art and history of the book with Martin Antonetti in the Mortimer Rare Book Room at Smith College, interned in the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives at Bowdoin College and hopes one day to return to rare book work.

This presentation will be on Thursday, April 10th in Shapiro Library’s ERC Conference Room from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm.

Contact Kathy Growney, Dean of the University Library, if you have any questions