iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There is no joy like getting excited, engaged students into the weeds of queer historiography in the very first class, this one hits every single time (Trans Care by Hil Malatino, p. 57)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Very profound how archival records can reflect your own feelings reading them...

A page of a 17th century manuscript with 'nihil‘ (nothing) scribbled in large letters all over it

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

#earlymodern #bookhistory Workshop Call for Papers: Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade, University of Edinburgh 6-7 May 2027 Please feel free to share with anyone who might be interested!

Call for Papers
Women’s Professional Networks in the Early Modern Book Trade
University of Edinburgh
6-7 May 2027

Over the past two decades, women’s book history and feminist bibliography have exploded with renewed interest. Even so, women’s work is still to an extent seen as an exception or curiosity. It examines them from a gender history perspective, asking to what extent their relationships were influenced or determined by constructions of femininity. Proposals should therefore involve a dimension of gender analysis beyond simply the inclusion of female subjects.

This conference will seek to explore (but is not limited to) to the following themes and questions:

*Gendered Networks. To what extent were professional book trade networks gendered? How did these networks intersect with other types of women’s networks, whether they be familial, friendly, religious, political, or intellectual?
*Identity and Representation. Did women express professional solidarity with other women, and how did this manifest? How did women’s self-representation in imprints and paratext differ from men’s?
*Legal and Structural Considerations. In what ways were women’s professional networks dependent on legal structures of inheritance in their region, or participation in guilds? How did these networks stretch across economic and class divisions?
*Digital Approaches. Can digital humanities tools such as network visualisation effectively help document these relationships?

The conference will also host the launch of a new collaborative database sourcing biographical information about women in the early modern book trade.

Contributions will be published in a volume of conference proceedings, to be submitted by the end of 2027.

Proposals for papers of maximum 20 minutes, including title, an abstract of up to 300 words, and a biography of up to 150 words should be sent to Dr Elise Watson, elise.watson@ed.ac.uk, by 20 December 2026. While all papers will be delivered in person, virtual attendance will be available as well.

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Ledger stone of Antwerp almanac publisher Godtgaf Verhulst in Our Lady Cathedral, Antwerp, with his first, second AND third wives. Pretty crowded 😬

Ledger stone from Our Lady cathedral in Antwerp of Godtgaf Verhulst, who died 13 September 1700. Below Verhulst, the stone lists three successive women who died in 1669, 1692 and 1700, described as his wife, second wife and third wife.

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Yet another example of daughters‘ essential roles in bookselling families: In 1581-2, Middelburg bookseller Dierick van Helmondt repeatedly sent his daughter Janne to buy books from Plantin in Antwerp and settle his accounts (his son worked in the business too) (Museum Plantin-Moretus Arch. 60 f. 2)

Text of a ledger describing the client as 'Dierick van Helmont, libraire a Middelborch, par sa fille Janne‘

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

I'm working on a chapter about fictitious women in early modern paratexts and here's something I thought I'd never see: the widow of Susanna Soldaten-crans bravely carrying on her late wife's business in 1662? I love false imprints (USTC 1844238)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Very excited to be giving the first talk of my new research project this Thursday on the Edinburgh printress Agnes Campbell and her international networks of bookwomen! Come by if you're in Edinburgh or hit me up for the Teams link 👀 (ESTC R183059 & T507272) hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

RIP David Lynch :( the best ever to do it

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

In Part 8: Towards Inclusive Histories, Kirk Melnikoff examines London women's book-trade wills, @grubstreetwomen.bsky.social and @kandicedarcia.bsky.social explore gendered marketing and authorship, and @malcolmjnoble.bsky.social pioneers queer ways to interact with books (pp. 430, 450, 476)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Part 7: Gendered Perception and Reality flies through the 16-20c, with the collections in the Hispanic monarchy (Laura Guinot Ferri), the works of Esther Inglis (Georgianna Ziegler), Wilfrid Voynich and Belle da Costa Greene (Natalia Fantetti), and bookbinders’ unions (Susan McElrath). p. 352:

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Part 6: Crafting Identity explores facets of religion and gender through nonconformist stationers in London (Verônica Calsoni Lima), incunabular Germanic prayer manuals (Rabia Gregory), and rulebreaking Catholic women in the Dutch Republic (my own chapter). From Bruder Klaus (1487), p. 314:

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

In Part 3: Editorial Interventions, the inimitable combination of Charley Matthews and @drwilliams.bsky.social tackles the legacies of women’s labour as editors, anthologisers, and polymaths by looking at Mary Hays and Constantia Grierson.

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Part 2: Publishing Gender, examines the role of gender in publishing in very different contexts: in South Africa (Elizabeth Le Roux), in 20c paperback publishing (@arkhamlibrarian.bsky.social), and 19c/20c Britain (Sarah Lubelski). Gendered expectations manifested in the workplace (p. 100):

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

In our introduction, Jessica Farrell-Jobst, @noraepstein.bsky.social and I argue that it is time to take gender seriously as a methodology in book history. You can read the chapter here (or ask any of us for a PDF): www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfil...

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Had the most magical week pre-holidays at the #NewberryLibrary: huge thanks to @noraepstein.bsky.social @drkarrschmidt.bsky.social and all the staff for such a warm welcome! Check out that double volvelle 👀 (Newberry Wing ZP 646 .R57 & Case NE 1070 .S33 1648)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Trying to get any work done the Friday before Christmas (Het Wonder Leven van de H. Rosa de S. Maria van Lima, 1678, USTC 1537320)

St Rose of Lima being set upon by an extremely chaotic set of demons and random household animals

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 04/11/2024

Curious what anyone else thinks of this: these are editions of the same text by the same firm in the same year, one with an imprint ascribing it to the widow and heirs of Jan Cnobbaert, one just to the widow. Why might this be? Inheritance drama? (USTC 1835465 & 1536702)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 15/10/2024

A rare and remarkable occurrence of two female printer-publishers not only working together but using their given names: Yolande Bonhomme's imprint and Charlotte Guillard's colophon in an edition of Augustine published in Paris in 1541 (USTC 204524)! hdl.handle.net/10481/10736

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

You know, I usually appreciate someone coming out of the gate swinging with an article opener, but I'm not so sure about this one...

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 01/10/2024

Today marks the beginning of my British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship studying female collaboration in the early modern book trade- unbelievably excited to get started! I'm going to be better about posting highlights here, watch this space 👀 (USTC 6110476)

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 05/06/2024

As someone who does (and teaches) bibliography, I care about whose labour is credited in the process of making and describing a book. We can use queer approaches to do this more accurately and inclusively, and you can read my piece in PBSA about it now! t.co/hA3oYKtWDB

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 23/04/2024

Calling all #bookhistory enthusiasts: I'm intrigued by this 18c imprint that identifies the 'De Goesin sisters' as printers/publishers. In my experience sisters who worked in the family biz usually used the conveniently genderless 'heirs of' in imprints: anyone seen this before?

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 29/09/2023

Is this the best false imprint ever!? 'On the teaching of women', printed in *Gynaecocratopoli* (USTC 2022138) digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/...

Title page of 'Disputatio Physico Historica, De Magisterio Mulierum'. The imprint reads: 'Prostat apud Josephum Surdum, Gynaecocratopoli, Anno Magno Hortensiano'

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Elise Watson @ewatson.bsky.social · 26/09/2023

Like my folk hero St Wilgefortis, patron of unhappy relationships, I've made it to greener (bluer?) pastures! Hello again, I've missed so many of you who jumped ship early!

Eighteenth-century statue of St Wilgefortis, an individual with a female-presenting body and a luscious beard crucified in the manner of Christ. From the Ursulinenkloster in Graz, Austria

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