A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Examining the Early Modern Canon: The English Short Title Catalogue and Large-Scale Patterns of Cultural Production
Authors: Tolonen Mikko, Hill Mark J., Ijaz Ali Z., Vaara Ville, Lahti Leo
Editors: Ileana Baird
Publication year: 2021
Book title : Data Visualization in Enlightenment Literature and Culture
First page : 63
Last page: 119
ISBN: 978-3-030-54912-1
eISBN: 978-3-030-54913-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54913-8_3
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/68536409
This chapter presents the findings of an ongoing digital project of the Helsinki Computational History Group at Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities (HELDIG) focused on the history of eighteenth-century book publication. The authors have created a historical-biographical database based on The English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC), a standard source for analytical bibliographic research, and extracted a data-driven canon which considers changes over time, subject-topics, top-works, authors, publishers, publication place, and materiality. This chapter provides both methodological and historical insights into the development of print and demonstrates the huge analytical potential of harmonized metadata catalogs. While quantitative analyses of the book trade were attempted before, they did not engage with the complex process of canon formation at such a large scale. The authors’ work highlights the formative role played by publishers in this process and the epistemological shift started at the end of the seventeenth century, when religious works were increasingly replaced by literary works. As the authors argue, this shift in the production and consumption of print allowed for a reinvention of the canon during the eighteenth century.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |