Studies in Bibliography

Studies in Bibliography

Contributed by G. Thomas Tanselle

Studies in Bibliography is a scholarly journal founded in 1948 by Fredson Bowers, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, and published by the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia. Its aim is to contribute to bibliographical scholarship by publishing articles in any of the areas of study that deal with printed books and manuscripts as physical objects: the history of paper, type, letterforms, book illustration, and binding; printing and publishing history; the description and analysis of the physical features of books and manuscripts; textual criticism and scholarly editing; and the history of bibliography itself. The journal, which appears in the form of substantial volumes, usually at intervals of about a year, established an international reputation quickly and has long been regarded as one of the major journals in its field, having repeatedly brought out groundbreaking articles that have achieved the status of classics. MORE...

 

When Bowers started the journal, he had only recently returned to Virginia from wartime service but was already well embarked on the writing that was to make him the dominant figure in bibliographical and textual studies during the next four decades. The attention that the first volume of Studies received was owing in part to Bowers's growing recognition, but also to the journal's handsome typography and to its striking roster of wide-ranging contributors, including graduate students as well as established scholars. One area well represented in that volume—the analysis of physical evidence as clues to printing-shop processes—was of particular interest to Bowers; and in the following decades the journal played a central role in the flowering of this kind of research (especially as a prerequisite to the scholarly editing of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English drama), publishing work by scholars who became leaders in this field, such as (besides Bowers himself) Charlton Hinman, Allan H. Stevenson, and William B. Todd. Among the many landmark essays that have appeared over the years, two particularly famous ones are W. W. Greg's "The Rationale of Copy-Text" (1950-51) and D. F. McKenzie's "Printers of the Mind" (1969).

After Bowers's death in 1991, the editorship passed to another member of the Virginia English department and a prominent bibliographical scholar, David L. Vander Meulen, who had helped Bowers edit the journal beginning with the 1985 volume. Under Vander Meulen, Studies has continued to flourish and to display the characteristics that have always made it distinguished. Some new interests have also appeared, such as greater attention to the history of bibliography and to the study of books in society. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the journal, the text of its entire run was placed on the World Wide Web by the University of Virginia Library's Electronic Text Center making it the first scholarly journal with an extensive back file to become fully available on the Internet free of charge. The permanent value of the entire contents is now evident to a wide audience, as are the reasons that make the appearance of each new volume a signal event in the bibliographical world.

Time Line

  • 1948 - University of Virginia professor Fredson Bowers founds Studies in Bibliography, a journal dedicated to the study of books as physical objects and to textual criticism and scholarly editing; Bowers serves as the journal's editor until his death in 1991.
  • 1991 - The editorship of Studies in Bibliography passes to David L. Vander Meulen, a professor of English at the University of Virginia.
  • 1997 - The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia celebrates its fiftieth anniversary by placing the full run of Studies in Bibliography on the Internet, thereby making Studies the first scholarly journal there that is completely searchable and available free of charge.
Further Reading
Gants, David L., and Elizabeth K. Lynch. "Author Index to Studies in Bibliography, Volumes 1-50," Studies in Bibliography 50 (1997): 171-212. Reprinted in The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia: The First Fifty Years, ed. David L. Vander Meulen (Charlottesville: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1998), pp. 171-212.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. "A History of Studies in Bibliography: The First Fifty Volumes," Studies in Bibliography 50 (1997): 125-170. Reprinted in Vander Meulen (as above), pp. 125-170.
Cite This Entry
APA Citation:
Tanselle, G. T. Studies in Bibliography. (2009, June 17). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Studies_in_Bibliography.

MLA Citation:
Tanselle, G. T. "Studies in Bibliography." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 17 Jun. 2009. Web. READ_DATE.

First published: June 24, 2008 | Last modified: June 17, 2009


Contributed by G. Thomas Tanselle, president of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, formerly adjunct professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and formerly vice president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.