Involving Readers

Practices of Reading, Use, and Interaction in Early Modern Dutch Bibles (1522-1546)
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-69651-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 129, 334 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Library of the Written Word / Library of the Written Word - The Handpress World

This volume explores how and by whom early modern Dutch Bibles were used. Through a detailed analysis of paratextual features and readers’ traces in over 180 surviving Bible copies, Renske Hoff displays how individuals manifested their faith in owning, reading, and personalising the Bible, in a period characterised by religious turmoil.

From nuns and countesses to tailors and merchants: Bibles were read by a diverse public. Printer-publishers shaped the contents and paratextual features of their Bible editions to suit the varied wishes of the reading public. Readers themselves added marginalia, corrected the text, or pasted texts and images in their books, displaying their creativity as users as well as stressing the malleability of the material Bible.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hoff, Renske A

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Medien-, Informations und Kommunikationswirtschaft Verlagswesen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

Note on Translations and Quotations

1 Introduction

1 Bible Production in Antwerp, ca. 1500–1550

2 Jacob van Liesvelt and Henrick Peetersen van Middelburch

3 A History of Reading: Developments and Approaches

4 Research Corpus and Scope

5 Formative Spaces and Transformative Practices: Structure of the Study

Part 1: Formative Spaces: Paratext and the Construction of Meaning and Reading Practice

Introduction to Part 1

2 Constructive Paratext: Shaping an Active Reader and Framing the Text

1 Blank Space: Flyleaves, Margins, and Indentations

2 Title Pages

3 Prologues

4 Calendars and Almanacs

5 Terminal Paratext

6 Conclusion

3 Directive Paratext: Shaping Understandings and Facilitating Discontinuous Practices

1 Printed Marginalia: Letters, Manicules, Cross-references, and Glosses

2 Intertitles and Summaries

3 Woodcuts and Maps

4 Table of Contents

5 Liturgical Reading Aids

6 Topical Register

7 Conclusion

Part 2: Transformative Practices: Readers’ Responses, Adjustments, and Traces

Introduction to Part 2

4 The Life of the Book: an Overview of Traces, Readers, and Owners

1 A Categorisation of Traces of Reading, Use, and Ownership

2 The Omnipresence of Traces

3 A Sociography of Book Owners

4 Conclusion

5 Dynamic Interactions with Text and Paratext

1 Reflecting on Textual and Paratextual Content

2 Accommodating Reading Practices

3 Conclusion

6 Interacting with the Book as Object

1 Assessing Identity

2 Leaving Material Traces

3 Conclusion

7 Conclusions

Appendix: Overview of Owners and Traces

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Renske A. Hoff, PhD (2022, University of Groningen and KU Leuven) is Assistant Professor of Middle Dutch Literature at Utrecht University. She specialises in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century book history, with a particular focus on the use of religious manuscripts and early printed books.