The Book. History and Techniques of Analysis MLitt

Each module typically comprises:

• fortnightly seminars or weekly two-hour seminars
• 100% coursework assessment

• Books and their Readers in Early Modern Europe: provides students with a good understanding of key issues and methods in book history from 1445 to 1830.

Students can choose either four optional modules or two optional modules along with the Directed Reading module.

Optional modules are subject to change each year, and some may only allow limited numbers of students

• Directed Reading in Modern History: designed to encourage the development of skills of historical analysis through concentrated study of a topic chosen by the student prior to the dissertation.
• Early Modern Documents and Sources: provides a wide-ranging introduction to the types of source material which researchers on the early modern period may encounter.
• Latin for Postgraduate Research: three tiers of teaching (beginners, intermediate, and translation) provide suitable levels of engagement with Latin for students with earlier or no experience.
• Material Bibliography: covers the use of the book as historical evidence and practical aspects of cataloguing and Special Collections work.
• Paleography and Manuscript Studies: provides a wide-ranging introduction to the reading and handling of original source material of all types which researchers of the early modern period may encounter.

Other modules which may be taken with the approval of the programme coordinator:

• Political Thought and Intellectual History: offers a rich and varied graduate-level introduction to the political theory and intellectual history of the early modern period.
• Religion and Identity in Early Modern Britain: examines the emergence of separate ecclesiastical structures and identities in the decades before the Anglo-Scottish union of 1603 and the religious conflicts that arose from the Stuart monarchy's subsequent attempts to impose a highly contested understanding of British ecclesiastical conformity on their Scottish and English kingdoms.
• The European Renaissance: compares and contrast the Italian and Northern Renaissances, examining their mediaeval origins and exploring themes such as religion, humanism, court and urban life, in order to test this traditional interpretation.

Student dissertations will be supervised by members of the teaching staff who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation of not more than 15,000 words must be submitted by a date specified in August.

If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for the MLitt, there is an exit award available that allows suitably qualified candidates to receive a Postgraduate Diploma. By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MLitt.