Modern humanities

ENRICO PIO ARDOLINO

The course will deal with the history of the book and the document in a time of substantial innovations in technologies (from the invention of movable-type, to the new technologies in paper manufacturing, to the development of computer technology and the Internet), contents (scientific-academic and university publishing, entertainment literature, newspapers and periodicals), and in the social context (spread of literacy, improvement of economic and social conditions, strong demand for the protection of rights, including political ones). These innovations involve a radical transformation in the physiognomy and use of books, documents, and the institutions that produce, collect and manage them for various reasons.

The course deals with the history of the book and of the document in a period of substantial technological innovations (from the invention of movable type printing, to new paper-making technologies, up to the affirmation of information technology and the Internet), of content (scientific-academic and university publishing, entertainment literature, newspapers and periodicals), and the social context (dissemination of literacy, improvement of economic and social conditions, strong demand for the protection of rights, including political ones). These innovations involve a radical transformation in the physiognomy and use of books, documents, and the institutions that produce, collect and manage them for various reasons.

Even an elementary knowledge of modern and contemporary history can facilitate a better understanding of the topics covered.

The course provides an introduction to the history of the book, of documents and readers from the invention of printing to the contemporary age. The topics addressed will focus on the birth of the document and printed book, on the book trade, on the emergence of new readers from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, on censorship and publishing, on the figure of the publisher in the nineteenth century, on Italian publishing in the twentieth century

1) Angela Nuovo, L'avvento della stampa in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI, in Angela Nuovo - Ennio Sandal, Il libro nell'Italia del Rinascimento, Brescia, Grafo, 1998, pp. 31-101.
2) Martyn Lyons, I nuovi lettori nel XIX secolo: donne, fanciulli, operai, in Storia della lettura nel mondo occidentale, a cura di Guglielmo Cavallo e Roger Chartier, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009, pp. 371-409.
3) Reinhard Wittmann, Una “rivoluzione della lettura” alla fine del XVIII secolo?, in Storia della lettura nel mondo occidentale, a cura di Guglielmo Cavallo e Roger Chartier, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009, pp. 337-369.
4) Fausto Colombo, La cultura sottile. Media e industria culturale in Italia dall’Ottocento agli anni Novanta, Milano, Bompiani, 1998, pp. 37-90 e 141-180.
5) Alberto Cadioli - Giuliano Vigini, Storia dell’editoria in Italia: dall’Unità a oggi, Milano, Editrice bibliografica, 2018.

The lessons will be held through frontal teaching.

Optional.

The exam will consist of exposing one or more topics covered in the course. The evaluation will take into account not only the knowledge and skills acquired, but also the autonomy in establishing links between the different topics, the critical and interpretative capacity manifested in the presentation, the property of language.

We will calibrate the questions on the topics covered during the lessons and / or in the bibliography studied for the exam.