Edition Spring Lecture: Katherine Halsey and Matthew Sangster In brief Date - 21 March 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square (lecture); Centre for Research Collections (optional preceding workshop)Speakers - Professor Katherine Halsey (University of Stirling) and Professor Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow)Title - Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837 Book your free ticket on Eventbrite About the eventThe Edition Spring Lecture will be given jointly by Katherine Halsey, Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling, and Matthew Sangster, Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History at the University of Glasgow. It is titled 'Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837', and will include a discussion chaired by Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh). It will be held in the Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square at 4pm to 5:30pm.The lecture will be preceded from 2pm until 3pm by an optional workshop at the Centre for Research Collections. This workshop is titled 'Edinburgh University Library’s Borrowing Registers'.Capacity for this workshop is limited, so please book separately for it and the Autumn lecture below.About the lectureHistories of reading have often relied by necessity on anecdotal accounts by relatively elite readers. However, the affordances of digital technologies allow us to interpret previously intractable institutional manuscripts to provide a far richer evidentiary basis.Structuring their lecture around two key reading concepts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ‘instruction’ and ‘amusement’, Professors Halsey and Sangster will explore how readers in Scotland engaged with library books as pupils, students, professionals, members of communities and leisure readers. They will demonstrate how library borrowing records reveal rich, complex, idiosyncratic readers, liberated rather than bound by the libraries with which they interacted, ranging far beyond the ostensible purposes of their institutions in their diverse engagements with print.About the workshopThis workshop will introduce participants to the borrowing registers of Edinburgh University Library, one of the largest surviving collections of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century borrowing records in Scotland. It will explore the borrowings of the students, professors and townspeople who used the library for a wide range of intellectual (and less intellectual) purposes.During the workshop, attendees will examine the content and material form of the registers, discussing the ways in which ideological assumptions are encoded in the institutional practices represented. They will also trace some of the rich reading lives revealed in the registers’ pages.About EditionEdition (formerly the Centre for the History of the Book) is a collaborative initiative at the University of Edinburgh supporting new research in all aspects of the history of the book, from traditional forms of bibliography, codicology and textual editing to the latest theoretical and digital innovations.How to attendThis event is open to all, and free to attend. You can book your place for the Spring lecture and the optional preceding workshop separately via Eventbrite. Book your free ticket on Eventbrite Access and recordingPlease note that this lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It will not be live streamed - tickets are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem.After the eventWe may like to contact you in the future to hear what you thought of the lecture and invite you to other Edition events. Please mention at the time of booking if you are happy for us to do that.Are you interested in studying English Literature at LLC?Based in the first UNESCO City of Literature, we are home to the oldest department of English Literature in the UK, one of the longest established in the world. Study with us and you'll explore the varying and vital roles that literary writing plays in our lives and societies.We offer a range of single and joint honours undergraduate degrees, taught postgraduate degrees, and research-led pathways, including MSc by Research degrees and PhDs. Find out more about English Literature at Edinburgh Tags English and Scottish Literature Mar 21 2025 16.00 - 17.30 Edition Spring Lecture: Katherine Halsey and Matthew Sangster An in-person lecture (and optional preceding workshop) by Professor Katherine Halsey (University of Stirling) and Professor Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow) entitled 'Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837'. The lecture will be followed by a discussion chaired by Professor Penny Fielding (English Literature). Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square Book your free ticket on Eventbrite
Edition Spring Lecture: Katherine Halsey and Matthew Sangster In brief Date - 21 March 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square (lecture); Centre for Research Collections (optional preceding workshop)Speakers - Professor Katherine Halsey (University of Stirling) and Professor Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow)Title - Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837 Book your free ticket on Eventbrite About the eventThe Edition Spring Lecture will be given jointly by Katherine Halsey, Professor of English Studies at the University of Stirling, and Matthew Sangster, Professor of Romantic Studies, Fantasy and Cultural History at the University of Glasgow. It is titled 'Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837', and will include a discussion chaired by Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh). It will be held in the Project Room 1.06, 50 George Square at 4pm to 5:30pm.The lecture will be preceded from 2pm until 3pm by an optional workshop at the Centre for Research Collections. This workshop is titled 'Edinburgh University Library’s Borrowing Registers'.Capacity for this workshop is limited, so please book separately for it and the Autumn lecture below.About the lectureHistories of reading have often relied by necessity on anecdotal accounts by relatively elite readers. However, the affordances of digital technologies allow us to interpret previously intractable institutional manuscripts to provide a far richer evidentiary basis.Structuring their lecture around two key reading concepts from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, ‘instruction’ and ‘amusement’, Professors Halsey and Sangster will explore how readers in Scotland engaged with library books as pupils, students, professionals, members of communities and leisure readers. They will demonstrate how library borrowing records reveal rich, complex, idiosyncratic readers, liberated rather than bound by the libraries with which they interacted, ranging far beyond the ostensible purposes of their institutions in their diverse engagements with print.About the workshopThis workshop will introduce participants to the borrowing registers of Edinburgh University Library, one of the largest surviving collections of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century borrowing records in Scotland. It will explore the borrowings of the students, professors and townspeople who used the library for a wide range of intellectual (and less intellectual) purposes.During the workshop, attendees will examine the content and material form of the registers, discussing the ways in which ideological assumptions are encoded in the institutional practices represented. They will also trace some of the rich reading lives revealed in the registers’ pages.About EditionEdition (formerly the Centre for the History of the Book) is a collaborative initiative at the University of Edinburgh supporting new research in all aspects of the history of the book, from traditional forms of bibliography, codicology and textual editing to the latest theoretical and digital innovations.How to attendThis event is open to all, and free to attend. You can book your place for the Spring lecture and the optional preceding workshop separately via Eventbrite. Book your free ticket on Eventbrite Access and recordingPlease note that this lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It will not be live streamed - tickets are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem.After the eventWe may like to contact you in the future to hear what you thought of the lecture and invite you to other Edition events. Please mention at the time of booking if you are happy for us to do that.Are you interested in studying English Literature at LLC?Based in the first UNESCO City of Literature, we are home to the oldest department of English Literature in the UK, one of the longest established in the world. Study with us and you'll explore the varying and vital roles that literary writing plays in our lives and societies.We offer a range of single and joint honours undergraduate degrees, taught postgraduate degrees, and research-led pathways, including MSc by Research degrees and PhDs. Find out more about English Literature at Edinburgh Tags English and Scottish Literature Mar 21 2025 16.00 - 17.30 Edition Spring Lecture: Katherine Halsey and Matthew Sangster An in-person lecture (and optional preceding workshop) by Professor Katherine Halsey (University of Stirling) and Professor Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow) entitled 'Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837'. The lecture will be followed by a discussion chaired by Professor Penny Fielding (English Literature). Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square Book your free ticket on Eventbrite
Mar 21 2025 16.00 - 17.30 Edition Spring Lecture: Katherine Halsey and Matthew Sangster An in-person lecture (and optional preceding workshop) by Professor Katherine Halsey (University of Stirling) and Professor Matthew Sangster (University of Glasgow) entitled 'Towards a True History of Reading Lives: Borrowing in Scotland, 1747-1837'. The lecture will be followed by a discussion chaired by Professor Penny Fielding (English Literature).
