Invention and Discovery: Printed Books from Fifteenth-Century Europe
An exhibit of books and broadsides printed between 1455 and 1500 opens at SMU's Bridwell Library.
Invention and Discovery: Printed Books from Fifteenth-Century Europe, an exhibition in the Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Galleries of SMU's Bridwell Library, will be on display through May 3, 2010.
The exhibition, which opened Feb. 1, is free and open to the public during library hours.
The exhibition presents 60 books and broadsides printed between c. 1455 and 1500 from the library's collection. The selections highlight unique copy-specific characteristics that focus attention on the various ways in which Europeans in past centuries discovered the power and potential of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.
Early readers were not content to leave their books exactly as they came off the presses, but were inclined to engage in their contents. Employing local artisans to provide rubrication, illumination and bindings, readers added their own annotations, inscriptions and other signs of ownership and use.
As a group, the exhibited items reflect the active participation of countless individuals in the initial spread of print culture across Europe.
For further information about Bridwell Library, please call 214-768-3483 or visit the website.
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