The COST Actions

• PRAYTICIPATE – Participation through Prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World (CA23143) &
• Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe (1500–1800) (PCPSce) (CA23137)

invite proposals for (a) shared session(s) during the conference “Recovering Book Histories: MSS and Printed Books from 1350-1550” – EARLY BOOK SOCIETY MEETING POITIERS, FRANCE, June 7–11, 2027 (see https://earlybooksociety.org/conferences-2/)

Shared Book Histories: Mobility, Exchange, Interaction and Co-habitation before 1550

A late medieval or early modern book is never a solitary object: its history is always entangled with that of other books. These may contain the same (or a similar version of a) text, be written by the same scribe or produced by the same printer, be printed using the same materials (such as the same woodblocks or type), or have been owned and read by the same person. When books belonged to the same library, whether private or institutional, they are inextricably linked in their history (or rather, their ‘histories’).

This session is initiated by two COST Actions that share an interest in the history of the early printed book as well as handwritten books. It focuses on shared book histories in all possible forms and formats, emphatically looking beyond the boundaries of a specific textual genre or production process. Submissions with a connection to the handpress world are especially welcome. Examples include print and manuscript that share a history because they are bound together and thus function as a unit; books containing adaptations of a specific text and thus sharing a part in the history of its European reception; and shared histories in the sense of exchange and interaction in book production and the book trade in Europe, through the circulation of texts, people, and materials.

The European dimension of the session reflects COST’s ambition to foster scientific collaboration across borders, bringing together researchers from different countries, disciplines, and career stages in open and inclusive networks. In that spirit, we welcome contributions that cut across national, linguistic, and disciplinary boundaries and that explore how books, and the people and materials behind them, connected Europe’s book cultures.

Practical Information

Please send an abstract of no more than 150 words with your name, affiliation and email address to Anna Dlabacova (a.dlabacova@hum.leidenuniv.nl; vice chair of COST-Action PRAYTICIPATE) before 30 November 2026. We aim to let you know whether we will include your proposal in our proposal for (a) session(s) by 10 December. We will then submit the session(s) for review by the conference organizers (deadline 15 December), and we will inform you as soon as we receive the outcome. The review committee consists of the (vice) chairs of the two COST Actions (Mona Garloff, Youri Desplenter, Marion Romberg & Anna Dlabacova).

Participants may be eligible for grants that will become available within the COST-Actions. Details will follow a.s.a.p. after acceptance.