SHARP Conference 'Religions of the Book', Antwerp, 17-20 September 2014
The annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) was held in Antwerp in September 2014. The Plantin-Moretus Museum was closely involved as a partner in organising this major conference on book history. Nearly 250 speakers from 29 different countries spoke on the topic of ‘religions of the book’. Seven speakers presented their research based on the Plantin archive, including curator Dirk Imhof, and there was even an entire session devoted to the theme ‘Plantin and Religion’. On Saturday 20 September, the conference was closed in style by the participants with a Closing Reception at the Museum Plantin-Moretus.
Summer school
Just before the conference, the Museum organised the ‘Antwerp Summer School: Books and Culture - Religions of the Book’ together with other partners from Antwerp. The second day of the Summer School took place entirely in the Museum Plantin-Moretus. The 25 or so participants heard lectures by Dr Karen Bowen on ‘The illustration of religious texts at the Plantin-Moretus Press’ and Dr Dirk Imhof on ‘The Plantin Press: the case of Johannes David’. François Gyselinck gave printing and letter casting demonstrations. The programme also included a guided tour of the exhibition on the Biblia regia of Balthasar Moretus.
