Pforzheimer Lecture: Dr. Ann Blair

Printing in early modern Europe made few technical constraints on the size of books which could range from very large to small in format and in length. Commercial and cultural factors were the crucial factors in determining the size for books in various genres. In particular, strong partnerships between learned authors and printers in the sixteenth century helped establish norms for the publication of books in Latin. Examples will include the publication patterns of the famous humanist Erasmus (d. 1536) with his Basel printers, and of the naturalist Conrad Gessner (d. 1565) in Zurich.

Ann Blair is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor in the Department of History at Harvard University where she teaches book history and early modern European cultural and intellectual history. Her research focuses on the working methods of scholars and authors ca. 1500-1700. She has studied for example practices of reading and note-taking, of composing and using reference works and finding devices, paratexts, and, in her book currently in production, the role of amanuenses. Her publications include: Too Much To Know : managing scholarly information before the modern age, 2010 ; Information: A Historical Companion (2021) co-edited with Paul Duguid, Anja Goeing, and Anthony Grafton; and, due out in summer 2026, In the Scholar’s Workshop: Hidden Histories of Collaboration and Authorship.

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