SoFCB Orientation and Annual Meeting

We are excited to welcome you to Charlottesville, Virginia for the annual meeting of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB), hosted on campus at The University of Virginia on the 24th and 25th of May, 2023. We look forward to welcoming the new class of junior fellows at this meeting.

This year’s theme is “Collaboration.” Book objects are products of collaboration between individuals, communities, artistic traditions, and industries. Depending on whether we are considering manuscripts, printed books, or both, studying material texts pushes us to consider the role of a vast range of artists and technicians – papermakers, printers, calligraphers, compositors, visual artists, bookbinders, librarians, archivists, administrators, and scholars of the book – who collaborate in the social history of the book. Since a book is a social object as well as one with material form, how can we bring to light hidden histories of collaboration in the formation and social interpretation of book objects? While in Charlottesville, we will reflect on the meaning and impact of collaboration in the history of the book. We hope you will join us.