Mowry’s Milton Seminar Participates in NYPL Workshop on Early Modern Book History and Printing

On March 28, students in Dr. Mowry’s Milton Seminar met at the New York Public Library to participate in an exciting workshop conducted by Michael Inman, Curator of Rare Books and Faculty Member at the prestigious Rare Book School.  Mr. Inman offered students an overview of the rise of printing from Johannes Gutenberg through the English civil wars (1642-1646, 1648) that included information about what an early modern print shop looked like, how type was set, how paper was made, and how letters were forged.  Additionally, students were treated to a copy of the Catholicon (1460), the only work after the Gutenberg Bible with which Gutenberg himself was verifiably involved, the stunning beauty of several hand-illuminated early printed books, a first folio of Mr. William Shakespeares Histories, Commedies and Tragedies (1623), a first printing of John Milton’s Areopagitica (1644), as well as several works by other dissident writers from the 1640s.  

View brief gallery of the adventure below.