ARCHIVE EVENING 2017-PRINTING AND THE MIND

Today we talk of the digital revolution, but our seventeenth-century forebears faced a similar
period of bewildering change. After a slow start, printing technology was rapidly developing,
woodcut illustrations were giving way to metal engraving and sophisticated typefaces were being created. John Evelyn, writing to his fellow diarist and friend, Samuel Pepys, referred to ‘prodigious revolutions'. Although he was talking about political turbulence, he could equally have described the revolutions in culture and thinking.

The archive evening for 2017 will look at how those involved in printing and publishing in the
second half of the seventeenth century coped with these revolutions, with the universities of
Oxford and Cambridge wishing to publish the research of their scholars, while the Stationers' Company sought to preserve its privileged position. Into this arena, too, came the Royal Society, given its first charter by the newly restored King Charles II in 1662.

Liverymen Gordon Johnson and Margaret Willes have been able to draw upon material from both the Company's archives and the treasures of Cambridge University Library, to provide a
fascinating insight into printing and publishing in Restoration England.

The formal part of the evening will be chaired by Professor Ian Gadd, with Mr Scott Mandelbrote and Dr Freyja Cox Jensen speaking at the event.

Schedule:
5.30 pm Exhibition opens
6.30 pm Drinks Reception
7.00 pm Presentation begins
8.30 pm Drinks & Buffet
9.30 pm Exhibition closes
Dress Code: Smart Casual

Tickets are £28 each