IN DEPTH


Experiencing political texts


A project to explore political texts from the 1500s to 1800s, and a sub- sequent exhibition running at Newcastle University’s Philip Robinson Library has revealed insights into the interaction of readers with the texts in different formats. Here Melanie Wood, Katie East, and Rachel Hammersley look at what has been learnt.


WHAT makes a person love a book? Not just the content of the book, the words and the journey they produce, but the physical object itself. Is it the tangible experience produced, the feel of the pages, the smell which immediately com- municates its age and experience, or the tears and creases which indicate a book well read?


Is it the physical experience of reading it produces, whether the ease with which it may lay flat on a table or the way in which we might curl up in a chair with it? Or is it entirely aes- thetic, a beautiful object to be admired for the care of its design or the image with which it is adorned?


These were the questions raised in a session


on Books as Physical Objects at the reading group we ran at the Literary & Philosophical Society in Newcastle as part of our Experienc- ing Political Texts project (https://experiencingpoliti- caltexts.wordpress.com).


Participants were invited to bring along their favourite books, with a view to prompting a discussion about the experience of books as material objects. What ultimately became apparent across this discussion was that there is no “ideal” format for a book; it is entirely sub- jective, dictated by each individual’s experience and needs (accessibility being a point which proved important when considering the benefits of the digital format, a format otherwise rejected by members of the reading group in favour of the physical book). How far, then, are such experiences of the phys- ical book echoed in early modern political texts?


January-February 2024


Katie East is a Senior Lecturer in the History of Radical Ideas in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, Newcastle University.


Rachel Hammersley is Professor of Intellectual History at Newcastle Uni- versity in the UK (Rachel. Hammersley@ncl.ac.uk, @ rhammersley99)


Melanie Wood is Special Collections Librarian, res- ponsible for the rare book collections at Newcastle University Library (Melanie. Wood@newcastle.ac.uk)


Early modern works, of the kind discussed in the Experiencing Political Texts project, can be read in different formats, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Original editions might seem the most appealing to students of history keen to understand how the text was read and understood at the time. The original features including size, format,


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 39


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