---
# System prepended metadata

title: CSI Underground Books and Printing F2019
tags: [' christopher warren', syllabus, ' carnegie mellon']

---

---
title: CSI Underground Books and Printing F2019
image:
tags: syllabus, carnegie mellon, christopher warren
---


![Sherlock Holmes image](https://i.imgur.com/T7qS6Bx.png)


# CSI Underground Books and Printing F2019


ENGL 76-120
Prof. Christopher Warren
cnwarren@cmu.edu
Carnegie Mellon University
Literary and Cultural Studies
M, W 1:30-2:50
Porter Hall 226A and, on accasion, Hunt Library Rare Books Room
Fall 2019
Office Hours: Thursdays 1:30-3:30 (Baker 245M)
Digital Humanities Office Hours: Wednesdays 1-4 (Sorrels Den, 4400 Wean)


TABLE OF CONTENTS
-
[TOC]


![](https://i.imgur.com/EngDWLi.png)

![](https://i.imgur.com/8kn4WjS.png)




## COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a course devoted to solving unsolved crimes. We’ll take on puzzling cases of illegal printing that have stymied investigators for hundreds of years. In working together to determine who may have been responsible for scandalous and illicit books, we’ll learn about the history of censorship, the history of printing and typography, copyright and its discontents, crime syndicates, piracy, document forensics, and more. We’ll get our hands dirty with rare books from the 16th and 17th centuries and also see what we can discover using modern technology and data analysis. This is a course for students who’ll enjoy the thrills of creatively aggregating and assessing evidence and the challenges of real-world humanities problems that span history, literature, and technology. Students should expect to work in teams and also to expect the unexpected. Who knows what we’ll find? With any luck, we’ll be able to crack a few cases!

## WHAT STUDENTS CAN EXPECT FROM THE COURSE
A key assumption for this course is that learning happens best in real-world contexts.  The questions and problems we'll be considering are "real-world" humanities problems.  
In the first part of the course, we'll be amassing a shared set of terms and skills, but for a very practical purpose. In the second part of the course, we'll be guided by the mysteries we encounter and check in regularly to ask collectively what we need to learn more about to accomplish our goals.   

Students at the end of the course should be able to:

- Recognize and describe interesting features of letterpress-era books
- Research the printing and contexts of underground and clandestine books  
- Communicate and disseminate findings



## HOW WILL WE KNOW IF WE'VE SUCCEEDED?
Ultimately, the course will be a success if we discover and communicate who printed one or more old books!  

## BOOKS, TOOLS, AND SOFTWARE
* Book
    * Werner, Sarah. *Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800: A Practical Guide*, London: Wiley Blackwell, 2019.
* Suggested Tools
    * Metric ruler
    * Magnifying glass
    * Camera (phone)
    * Light (phone)
* Optional Software
    * Tropy (research photo management software) - https://tropy.org/
     * Fleuron (Python-based Ornament extactor) - https://github.com/StarCaptain1/fleuron
     * Jupyter Notebooks (ideal for sharing and presenting code + images) - https://jupyter.org/install.html

MAJOR DUE DATES & PERCENTAGES OF GRADE
-
- [x] Canvas Discussion Posts- 20%
- [x] [Presentation 1](#Presentation-1)  - 15%
- [x] [Presentation 2](#Presentation-2)  - 20%
- [x] [Final Research Memo](#Final-Memo)  - 30%
- [x]ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION - 15%

## YOUR GOALS

You have personal goals for this class.  Use this space to remind yourself what success means for you in this course.  

## POLICIES
1.	Although expectations are high for students in this course, the coarse goals are achievable with consistent focus and work.    
2.	Students must complete the assigned reading for each class period.
3.	Students must complete all assignments in order to pass the course. 
4.	For Canvas posts, only posts submitted by 1 pm on the day of class will count as completed.  These responses perform vital intellectual labor because they will often provide the framework for discussion in class.  
5.	Attendance is critical.
6.	Your default participation grade is a C.  Only by attending regularly and participating actively in class will you be able to raise it.
7.	Laptops and mobile phones may only be used for course-related purposes during class time.
8.	Readings distributed electronically must be printed out and brought to class in hard copy, not read on screen, except with permission from the instructor.
9.	You must receive prior permission in order to turn in a paper or memo late. 
10.	Late papers or memos will be penalized and will not receive comments.



## PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

### Terms and Background


**MONDAY 8/26/19 (MEETING 1)**  

Introductions

Case: Eleanor Douglas, *I Am the First and the Last* (1645), ESTC R16352

Class exercise

**WEDNESDAY 8/28/19 (MEETING 2)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

Joseph Dane, "Terminology" from *What Is a Book?: The Study of Early Printed Books*
Achinstein, Sharon, and Benjamin Burton. “Who Printed Milton’s Tetrachordon (1645)?” The Library 14, no. 1 (March 1, 2013): 18–44.  [Canvas] 

Canvas Discussion Post:

1.) What are some strategies Achinstein and Burton employ for investigating clandestine printing in “Who Printed Milton’s Tetrachordon (1645)?”  
2.) What questions do you have about these strategies?  
3.) As you imagine conducting similar research, what (if anything) can you imagine impeding your research?  
4.) What strategies might be used that *aren't* used in the article?  

IN CLASS: Intro to EEBO, ESTC, Thomason Tracts

**WEDNESDAY 9/4/19 (MEETING 3)**  

ASSIGNMENT DUE:

* Werner, "Overview", pp.8-25
* Stephen Fry. The Machine That Made Us. Accessed June 6, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdcgwunbDEE.
* Ullyot, Michael. “EEBO Tutorial: Books by Printer + Publisher.” Michael Ullyot, March 2, 2012. http://ullyot.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2012/03/02/booksbyprinter/.

Canvas Discussion:
* Find any two books printed by one of the following printers within a few (about five) years. Compare and contrast the two books’ forms and contents. Consider how the contents of the two books are (or are not) similar, and talk about those similarities or differences. Some aspects you might consider: size (of pages), length, subjects, prefaces/dedications, illustrations, special ornaments, intended readership, typefaces, marginalia. (assignment adapted from [Michael Ullyot](http://ullyot.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2012/03/02/eebo/)).  

Jane Coe
John Darby
Joan Dover / Darby
Francis Neile
Thomas Payne (or Paine)
Ruth Raworth
Matthew Simmons
John Streater
Nicholas Tew
John Twyn (the younger)

**MONDAY 9/9/19 (MEETING 4)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

Read:
* Adams, David R. “The Secret Printing and Publishing Career of Richard Overton the Leveller, 1644–46.” The Library 11, no. 1 (March 1, 2010): 3–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/library/11.1.3.
* Como, David R. “Print, Censorship, and Ideological Escalation in the English Civil War.” Journal of British Studies 51, no. 4 (October 2012): 820–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/666848.

**SPECIAL EVENT: TUESDAY 9/10/19 4:30 pm**
Location: Baker Hall 255B (Swank Room)
* David Como, Professor of History, Stanford University, "Printing the Levellers: Clandestine Print and Radical Propaganda in the English Revolution."  

**WEDNESDAY 9/11/19 (MEETING 5)**  
**Class Visit by David Como, Professor of History, Stanford University**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

* from Como, David R. *Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War.* Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
* CANVAS DISCUSSION POST: Summarize either (a.) David Como's Tuesday presentation or (b.) the selection from *Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War.*

**MONDAY 9/16/19 (MEETING 6)**
Location: Rare Books Room? (TBD)
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651?)

ASSIGNMENT DUE:

READ:
* Werner, "Step-by-Step", pp. 26-78


**WEDNESDAY 9/18/19 (MEETING 7)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

### Presentation 1

Choose 1 of the following and tell us about the book and give as strong a case as you can for why it might (a.) be worthy of further investigation and (b.) reward further study.  

* Thomas White, The Middle State of Souls (1659), ESTC R10159
* Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651?), ESTC R13935
* John Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious (1702), ESTC T114605
* Roger Williams, Bloudy Tenet of Persecution (1644), ESTC R2405, ESTC R210620
* Eleanor Douglas, I Am the First and the Last (1645), ESTC R16352
* William Penn, The Sandy Foundation Shaken (1668), ESTC R38009
* John Milton, Areopagitica (1644), ESTC R210022
* [John Milton], Of Education (1644), ESTC R10430
* [Charles Blount], A just vindication of learning: or, an humble address to the high court of Parliament in behalf of the liberty of the press. By Philopatris, (1679), ESTC R16824

**MONDAY 9/23/19 (MEETING 8)**
**Class visit by Sarah Werner, author of Studying Early Modern Books**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

Peter Blayney, "The First Folio of Shakespeare"
Werner, "Looking at Books," pp. 102-117


**WEDNESDAY 9/25/19 (MEETING 9)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:  
### Presentation 2

DEEPER DIVE INTO SELECTION FROM PRESENTATION 1

### TBD

**MONDAY 9/30/19 (MEETING 10)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD




**WEDNESDAY 10/2/19 (MEETING 11)**  
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 10/7/19 (MEETING 12)**  
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**WEDNESDAY 10/9/19 (MEETING 13)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 10/14/19 (MEETING 14)**  
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD

**WEDNESDAY 10/16/19 (MEETING 15)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 10/21/19 (MEETING 16)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**WEDNESDAY 10/22/19 (MEETING 17)**   
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 10/28/19 (MEETING 18)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:


**WEDNESDAY 10/30/19 (MEETING 19)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 11/4/19 (MEETING 20)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD



**WEDNESDAY 11/6/19 (MEETING 21)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD



**MONDAY 11/11/19 (MEETING 22)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**WEDNESDAY 11/13/19 (MEETING 23)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**MONDAY 11/18/19 (MEETING 24)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD


**WEDNESDAY 11/20/19 (MEETING 25)**  
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD

**MONDAY 11/25/19 (MEETING 26)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD

**THURSDAY November 28, 2019  THANKSGIVING**  

**MONDAY 12/2/19 (MEETING 27)**
ASSIGNMENT DUE: TBD

**WEDNESDAY 12/4/19 (MEETING 28)**

### Final Memo

**FINAL MEMO DUE DATE: WEDNESDAY 12/11/19 5 pm**




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## RESOURCES

* ESTC - http://estc.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-estc
* EEBO - http://eebo.chadwyck.com.proxy.library.cmu.edu/home
* Six Degrees of Francis Bacon - http://www.sixdegreesoffrancisbacon.com/
* Thomason Catalogue - https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpamph01brituoft/page/n4
* Map of Early Modern London - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/map.htm
* Plomer, A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667 - https://archive.org/details/adictionarybook00plomgoog/page/n10
* Plomer, A dictionary of the printers and booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725 - https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofprin00plomiala/page/n8
* EBBA (English Broadside Ballad Archive) - https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/
* DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks - http://deep.sas.upenn.edu/
* Stationers' Register Online (up to 1640) - https://stationersregister.online/


