Introduction: The materiality of printed words and images

Abstract

The papers in this special issue of Word & Image originated at the conference ‘Printing Matters: The Materiality of Print in Early Modern Europe’ at the Harvard University Art Museums. I The purpose of the conference was to encourage historians of the printed word and image to reflect on the relationship between medium and message, considering such issues as transitions between hand production and mechanical production, the ways in which typographic and layout conventions are invested with meaning, and the relationship between visual and textual content. We have maintained the format of the original encounter, where the papers were grouped into three sessions, followed by the responses of Stephen Greenblatt, Henri Zerner and Joseph Koerner respectively. By way of introduction we will investigate the notion of materiality and consider its implications for a number of disciplines relating to graphic forms.