Second draft: Proposal for research into ownership marks and marginalia in 500 books printed in Lyon 1487-1600 at Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam.

Introduction and theoretical framework
Why books printed in Lyon? Why marginalia?
Definition of ownership marks and marginalia, their historical function in manuscripts and books. The significance of ownership and marginalia research within the field of Book History.
What methodological problems are confronted when studying ownership marks and marginalia? The focus will be on Renaissance ownership marks and marginalia in the historical context of printers and printing in Lyon 1487-1600.

Statement of the problem
What can/do ownership marks and marginalia tell us about the reader/user history of 500 books printed in Lyon 1487-1600.

Purpose of the study 
The purpose of the study is to make an inventory and analysis of ownership marks, marginalia and other traces of use found in the corpus in order to interpret their meaning and to define their significance regarding research into the provenance and (contemporary) reading of individual copies of a title.

Review of literature 
What literary theory is applicable to marginalia? What adaptions are relevant?

Hypotheses
Due to traces of use, every copy of a title is unique. Traces of use disclose information about the readers/owners of the books and their reading habits. The information gathered through studying traces of use can be applied toward a history of an individual copy of a title.

Questions
Quantity of books with marginalia in relation to those without? What possible conclusions?
Interpretation of the ownership marks and marginalia:
Questions: can the (contemporary) owners be identified and/or placed? Are the marginalia contemporary or later? What systems are used for annotating? What is the relevance of the marginalia to the text they accompany? What other manuscript texts besides annotations are found in the books?
Provenance and reception: what conclusions can be drawn from the corpus at Amsterdam 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 design -  methods and procedures - instrumentation, data collection and data analysis
The research corpus: circa 500 books printed in Lyon, France 1487-1600 at Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam. Inventory of marginalia and ownership marks in the corpus: survey and pictures.
Spreadsheet categories a.o.: U.v.A. call number; author; title; publisher; year when published; genre; ownership; manuscript date of ownership on front endpaper or elsewhere; various types of marginalia; language used in marginalia; legibility; when acquired by the U.v.A.; binding; date of binding.

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

Sampling
Case studies: confirmation and exception.

Limitation
Is a corpus of 500 books large enough to permit the drawing of conclusions?

Delimitation
Illegible annotations will be noted as 'illegible'. Their content will not be analysed.

Significance of the study
The significance of the study lies in what meaningfull traces of use will be found in the corpus and what conclusions may be drawn upon these findings. Many titles have minimal descriptions in the U.v.A. library database, a more complete description could benefit further research.  

References
Van Holthe tot Echten, P.H., Ten Packages of Sheets of Paper Printed in Lyon. Where did they go? Essay for a master course in 'Book History'. U.v.A. 2010. Online.

Pajares, F., Elements of a Proposal. Atlanta: Emory University, 2007. Online.