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From March to June 2022, Cristina Dondi has been teaching a course in the History of the Book for the University of Rome La Sapienza, part of a Global Humanities course, in English. There are some 45 students, interested and motivated, from around the world: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Korea, Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Argentina, Columbia, New Zealand, as well as Italians, and Erasmus students from Romania and Germany.From March to June 2022, Cristina Dondi has been teaching a course in the History of the Book for the University of Rome La Sapienza, part of a Global Humanities course, in English. There are some 45 students, interested and motivated, from around the world: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, Korea, Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Argentina, Columbia, New Zealand, as well as Italians, and Erasmus students from Romania and Germany.

Thanks to the generous support of the Polonsky Foundation and of Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano, the students were able to experience hand-printing at the Tipoteca, a working Type and Printing Museum, located in Cornuda, 58 km from Venice, and to look at 15th-century printed books at the library of Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice.

The course contextualizes the European printing revolution with sessions on printing in South, Southeast, and Inner (Tibet and Uyghur) Asia, East Asia, South and North America, then printing in Greek, Hebrew, Glagolitic, Armenian, Gee’z and Arabic. Specialists have been invited to present non-European topics, mostly Bodleian curators and former members of the 15cBOOKTRADE and 15cHEBRAICA Projects. The full programme is here.

CERL (Cristina Dondi, Course leader); University of Rome La Sapienza, Global Humanities; Tipoteca of Cornuda; Fondazione Giorgio Cini; Polonsky Foundation; Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano.

Our warmest thanks go to Silvio Antiga, Sandro Berra, Leonardo Facchin, and Daniele (Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione); Riccardo Olocco (Bolzano, professional type designer); Ilenia Maschietto (Fondazione Cini); Geri Della Rocca de Candal (Milan); Sabrina Minuzzi (Univ. Venice); Maria Alessandra Panzanelli Fratoni (Univ. Turin); Marco Bertagna (15cHEBRAICA); Augusto Cherchi (Alicubi). And, especially, to the Polonsky Foundation and Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano for making this very special trip possible.

The following powerpoint with memorable images of the trip was created by Noelia Barbero.