MA | MRes in the History of the Book

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London brings together eight internationally renowned research institutes to form the UK's national centre for the support of researchers and the promotion of research in the humanities. Among them, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies sits at the crossroads of research, policy, human rights practice and international relations.

Among them, the Institute of English Studies is an internationally renowned research centre specialising in the history of the book, manuscript and print studies, and textual scholarship. Our activities include providing postgraduate studies, hosting major collaborative research projects, providing essential research training in book history and palaeography, and facilitating scholarly communities in all areas of English studies.

The History of the Book studies the making, manufacturing, distribution and reading of books, and thus offers a unique way of understanding different literary, cultural, social, intellectual and technological processes in history. The subject extends to include newspapers, magazines, chapbooks, ephemera, digital text and all kinds of printed or written media. It also includes the manuscript book in all its forms from the pre-classical, classical and medieval periods.

The MA degree in the History of the Book is the oldest postgraduate programme in this growing area in the humanities. You'll study six taught modules and complete a dissertation of 15,000 words.

If you're interested in undertaking a larger independent research project, you can consider the MRes, which leads to an equivalent master’s qualification. You'll study three taught modules and complete a 30,000-word dissertation. 

In this programme we explore the different material forms the book has taken over time, from clay tablets to computer screens. A research methodologies module introduces you to different approaches to the subject and the range of resources in the field.

Core modules provide a comprehensive overview of the book from the medieval period to the present day. Optional modules studied during the course of the year, or on the London Rare Books School, allow for in-depth analysis of the history of specific components of the book, such as bindings and book illustration, as well as focused modules on key topics, including textual editing, provenance in books and the history of reading.

There is an exciting opportunity to work as an intern in a special collections library or the London rare book trade. There are also a number of opportunities to experience the wider book world in London and beyond with visits to libraries, antiquarian bookshops and auction houses.

To find out more about the MA in History of the Book course, download our programme specification.

To find out more about the MRes in History of the Book course, download our programme specification.

You're encouraged to participate in the wider activities of the University and are able to use the libraries of other colleges in addition to the internationally renowned Senate House Library. With more than two million books and 1,200 archival collections, Senate House is one of the UK’s largest academic libraries focused on the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

You'll have the opportunity to substitute one of your option modules with an internship at a London bookselling firm or a special collections library or archive. The internship offers the chance to experience working life in the book world and to undertake projects for a company or institution. 

In the past, students have been placed in Maggs Bros., Jarndyce Booksellers, Robert Frew Ltd., the Foundling Museum, and many others. Several students undertaking the internship have gone on to secure successful careers in the book trade or the libraries and archives sector.

Located steps away from worldrenowned research resources such as the British Library, and British Museum, the Institute of English Studies is at the centre of academic and intellectual life in London. London is regularly named the best university city in the world for its welcoming attitude, diversity and vibrant, student-friendly culture.

The degree can be taken full-time over one year, or part-time over two or three years, with entry in October only. 

Part-time students normally complete at least four taught modules before embarking on the dissertation which is taken in the final year. 

In order to accommodate part-time study for students on day-release we try to arrange for most modules to be taught on one day in the week (usually Wednesday).

Students who cannot commit to a full MA can take modules from this course to gain either a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma in the History of the Book.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment 

The MA consists of six taught modules (including one compulsory module and two or three core modules) plus a dissertation of 15,000 words.

The MRes consists of three taught modules and a 30,000- word dissertation.

Core and option modules will be examined by one 5,000-word essay or project on a topic to be agreed with the tutor.

The compulsory research methodology module is examined by a series of shorter exercises.

You also have the opportunity choose courses from the wide range of options on the London Rare Books School. Distance or blended learning options are available. For more information visit: ies.sas.ac.uk/study-training

Modules

The availability of a module is subject to change.

HBM010-01    The Medieval Book

Aims and Objectives
This course will provide an introduction to manuscript culture during the Middle Ages as well as the modern afterlife of the medieval book. The historical contexts for manuscript production will be explored and the landscape populated with some of those who commissioned and made these remarkable works. Techniques of production, terminology and methods of description and cataloguing will be examined and a brief survey of palaeography and codicology will be provided. Styles and principal trends will be studied with valuable opportunities to examine manuscripts in major London collections.

Structure
Ten two-hour seminars.

Assessment
One 5000-word piece of written coursework.

HBM150-01    The Historical Reader

The course aims to introduce students to the broad field of the history of reading from c.1400 through the present day through a series of 10 two-hour seminars. We will be using a course reader, The History of Reading (Routledge, 2010) edited by Shafquat Towheed, Rosalind Crone and Katie Halsey, to pace the seminars series discussion. Students will be introduced to the sources and methodologies that book historians use to recover the historical reader. Through a number of case studies, students will be encouraged to trace major changes in reading practices from the development of ‘literary mentality’ by the end of the thirteenth century, to the emergence of a mass audience by the late nineteenth century, to the rise of digital reading in the twenty-first century. This course is primarily concerned with what happens to the text when it reaches the reader, but it also considers the ways in which readers acquired reading skills, and the influence of new modes of reproduction and distribution upon reading practices. Throughout, attention will be paid to changes in the environment in which texts were read, the oral transmission of texts, and to various institutions of reading that mediated reading experience. The course is mainly concerned with reading in the British Isles but reference will be made to reading in other countries and students may choose to work on texts or readers from these countries. 

HBM260-01    Research Methodologies and Resources for the History of the Book

Aims and Objectives
This course will introduce students to a range of research methodologies used in the study of the history of the book and familiarise them with some of the resources available for the subject. It will also work to develop writing and referencing skills and the handling of research data. Topics to be covered will include: theoretical models for the history of the book; locating and using manuscript, print and digital resources; digital approaches to research and its presentation; practical work in the history of printing; using book trade archives; understanding copyright.

Structure
Ten two-hour seminars supplemented by individual feedback sessions.

Assessment
A bibliographical exercise accompanied by a research-based commentary totalling 4,000 words. 

HBM280-01    The Book in the Industrial Age

Aims and Objectives
This module will explore the transformation in print production from the copyright acts of the eighteenth century to the emergence of the digital book. Focusing on Britain and the wider world, it will examine the book in its technological, legal, social, and economic contexts. Through examining different material forms of the book, students will learn about the various changes in the printing, publishing, and distribution of texts, as well as the social, cultural, and legal pressures on reading. The module will also explore the changing material form of key genres such as the novel, the growth of serial and part publication, and the importance of copyright and intellectual property.

Structure
Ten two-hour seminars.

Assessment
One 5000-word piece of written coursework. 

HBM360-01    London Book Trade/Library Internship

Aims and Objectives
Internships normally take place during the summer term and require c.150 hours of internship contact time in addition to an essay or project if the module is taken for credit. The internships offer a key opportunity for students to experience life in a bookselling firm, or a library or museum environment, to undertake projects for the company (everything from stocktaking to cataloguing to running a book stall at a fair), and to make connections in the book trade or the library/museum sector. Students should indicate their interest in the internship programme to the Course Director by early January.

Structure
150 hours of supervised work experience.

Assessment
One 5000-word piece of written coursework or a project agreed with the Course Director.

In practice, for those students pursuing the internship in a bookselling firm, the assessment often takes the form of a catalogue produced during the student's period of work, plus an essay reflecting on the student's experience.

HBM380-01    Technologies of the Book

This module aims to provide students with a historical knowledge of some of the different technologies that have been used to produce and reproduce text and illustration from the invention of printing to the digital age. Students will acquire a critical understanding of the main phases of development and change, exploring manuscript production in late medieval Europe (late 1400s), intaglio printing during the handpress period (1500-1830), relief printing during the handpress period (1450-1830), the machine age of printing (1800-1920), lithography (especially 1800-1920), the electrification of printing (1900-1970), and digital production (1970-present). Students will critically evaluate the historical and cultural contexts that gave rise to different technologies and assess the impact of technological change on authors and readers and consumers. The module promotes both theoretical and practical learning through a combination of object-based teaching and research-led historical reconstructions of historical workshop practices. It seeks to provide students with a base of knowledge which can be applied in a critical and historically-informed way to related fields in the history of the book, including the history of authorship, publishing and reading.  

HBM500-01    Dissertation (MA)

HBM600-01    Dissertation (MRes)

The London Rare Books School (LRBS) offers a range of individual week-long postgraduate courses in book history and related subjects taught by distinguished international scholars during the summer.

Accumulated-learning

If you're not an MA/MRes student, but you're interested in potentially pursuing a postgraduate programme with a phased-approach or accumulating credits, the Institute offers credit for LRBS courses.

In order to earn credit, a student will have to complete the course successfully, and pass a 5,000 word essay which must be submitted within three months of the end of the course. An extra fee per course to cover marking will be charged.

A full LRBS five-day course will attract 20 CATS M points. Students earning credit in LRBS should be able to transfer it to Masters programmes that they may be following elsewhere in the UK, Europe or the USA.

Alternatively, students will be able to take further LRBS courses and build up enough credit to take a Postgraduate Certificate in the History of the Book (60 CATS point required) or a  Postgraduate Diploma in the History of the Book (120 CATS points required) from the University of London.

Credits from LRBS courses can also be transferred to the MA/MRes in the History of the Book run at the Institute.

Module options with the LRBS

As an MA/MRes student you can also, with the approval of the Course Director and Course Tutor, take an LRBS module for credit by submitting a pass-quality 5,000-word essay.

Sample list of courses (not all courses will be offered in any one year)

• The Book in the Ancient World
• The Book in the Renaissance
• Colour Printing: 1400–1800
• Digital Scholarly Editing: An Introduction
• Digital Scholarly Editing: Advanced Methods
• English Bookbinding Styles 1450–1850
• European Bookbinding 1450–1820
• History of Book Illustration (held at the Victoria and Albert Museum)
• History of Maps and Mapping
• Incunabula: Medieval Printed Material
• Introduction to Bibliography
• The Medical Book: 1300–1900
• The Medieval Book
• Medieval Women and the Book
• The Modern Rare Book Trade
• Provenance in Books
• A Publishing History of the Novel
• The Queer Book
• Using Publishers’ Archives
• The Woman Reader

The normal minimum entrance requirement would be a First or Upper Second Class Honours degree from a university in the UK, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

We will consider applications from candidates who do not meet the formal academic requirements but who offer alternative qualifications and/or relevant experience. 

English is the language of instruction and applicants are required to demonstrate an appropriate level of proficiency. 

Find out more about our entry requirements here. 

For more information on how to apply, including deadlines and the documentation you will need to provide on the application form, click here.

Fees are set annually and cover registration, tuition, and (in the case of research students) supervision.

Fees are quoted per annum -- that is, you will need to pay at least the fee quoted below for each year of your studies. Please note that tuition fees are subject to annual uplift. The University of London reserves the right to alter or withdraw courses and amend other details without prior notice.

See the Tuition Fees for 2024-25 - listed by Institute.

Our students fund their studies in a variety of ways including scholarships, bursaries and fellowships, as well as government loans and postgraduate loans. 

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries that you don't need to pay back and are awarded based on personal circumstances or academic achievement. Funding at postgraduate level is competitive so it’s a good idea to plan financially before starting your course. 

For information about fees and funding from the School of Advanced Study, please visit the SAS Fees and Funding page.

Many of our alumni go on to establish successful careers in related fields, including academic librarianship, museum curatorship, publishing, art, and the print and antiquarian book trade. Some students aim to progress to study at PhD level for a career in academia. Our programmes provide outstanding training in research skills and equip you with the intellectual framework and language proficiency to undertake independent research with confidence and success. Former students have progressed to PhD study at the Institute and elsewhere.

The SAS Careers Service works with students and graduates of all ages and at all stages of career development across all the institutes. Our mission is to provide high-quality information about careers and skills, and professional advice and guidance. We help students with their career development, either within their current field of work or in something completely new. 

SAS students can access 1-2-1 guidance appointments throughout their studies and for up to 2 years after graduating, to help them plan their next steps, whatever they might be. We also offer CV, cover letter, and application advice as well as mock interviews with the SAS Careers Consultant who will empower you to feel more confident in your interview performance.