The research proposal. A first outline.

TRACES OF USE

Proposal for a research project concerning a collection of books owned by Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The corpus:
Circa 500 books printed in Lyon, France 1475-1600.

The focus:
Ownership marks and marginalia on the bindings and in the books. 

The proposal:
Inventory and analysis of ownership marks, marginalia and other traces of use found in the corpus mentioned above. Looking for generalisations and deviations.

Context:
Historical context, printers and printing in Lyon 1475-1600.

Theoretical issues:
Marginalia research, its place within the field of Book History. Focus on Renaissance ownership marks and marginalia. What existing literary theory is applicable to marginalia? What adaptions are neccessary?Definition of ownership marks. Identification possiblities and problems.
Definition of marginalia. What methodological problems are confronted when studying marginalia? What is required to uncover the meaning of marginalia? To what extent is interpretation of marginalia possible?

The research:
Inventory of marginalia and ownership marks in the corpus: survey and pictures.
Spread sheet categories: U.v.A. call number; author; title; publisher; year when published; genre; ownership; types of marginalia; language used in marginalia; manuscript date of ownership on front endpaper or elsewhere; when acquired by the U.v.A.; binding; date binding.
Quantity of books with marginalia in relation to the marginalia-less? Conclusions?
Interpretation of the ownership marks and marginalia. Questions to be asked: can the (contemporary) owners be identified and/or placed? Are the marginalia contemporary or later? What is the relevance of the marginalia to the book they are in? What systems are used for annotating. Other manuscript texts in the book besides annotations?
Provenance and reception: what conclusions can be drawn from the corpus at Special Collections related to 16th century printing in Lyon? To what countries did the books go to be bound and read? Country specific indications and/or deviations? In what way do the marginalia in the corpus reflect 16th century humanist enlightenment? And further questions which will arise as the research developes. Looking for the unexpected.

The case studies:
Confirmation and exception.

The temporary format:
A blog in which trains of thought and actual results concerning the research are recorded from the first activity on 9th March 2010, till conclusion, date unknown.
The purpose of the blog: notes to self, storage of thoughts and material. System to facilitate the picking up of thoughts sidelined at an earlier stage. Sharing thoughts and questions with peers.
http://tracesofuse.blogspot.com/