IMC 2026: Sessions

Historians of the book have been at the forefront of the ‘material turn’ in medieval studies. The papers in this three-session strand foreground the book as a material artefact – not simply as a vehicle for text or image, but as an object with a complex history of production and use. The period that provides our chronological parameters, the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, adds further complexity and speaks directly to the conference theme of temporalities. The invention of printing with movable type has often been thought of as ushering in a new era. Our speakers reframe the ‘Gutenberg Revolution’ as a process of evolution, with mutual adaptation of manuscript and print technologies. To address these topics, this strand combines speakers from academic institutions with librarians and archivists whose daily work involves the curation of early books. Topics to be discussed include methodological challenges raised by the late medieval book (Session I), reconstructing forms of production (Session II), and the codicology of non-European books (Session III).