The COST Action 23137 has announced its 2025 Young Researchers and Innovators Summer School, “Turning a New Leaf: Unexplored Central-European Bookscapes (1500-1800),” to be held at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania from July 21-25, 2025.
This five-day intensive program will bring together approximately 30 participants to explore the vibrant world of early modern print culture in Central Europe. The summer school will feature morning training sessions led by experts in book history, afternoon practical exercises, lectures, and participant presentations, along with guided visits to significant heritage libraries and collections in Cluj-Napoca and surrounding areas.
The program welcomes applications from young researchers including MA students, PhD candidates, and early postdocs, as well as established scholars working in book history, historical communication, textual scholarship, and related fields. Training sessions will cover diverse topics such as paper history, bookbinding, typographic technologies, provenance research, the coexistence of manuscript and print cultures, and the role of printed books in educational contexts. Applications are due by May 23, 2025, with successful applicants to be notified by June 6, 2025.
This summer school offers a unique opportunity to engage with the material and textual culture of early modern books in a region central to the development of European literacies, while forming new scholarly networks in the historically rich setting of Transylvania.