Actualités
More Summer Schools! Rare Book School Virginia announces summer 2026 courses
This year’s schedule, which includes nine new courses, features a wide range of online offerings as well as in-person classes in Charlottesville and at partner institutions, including new partnerships in York (UK), at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, and at the University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center.
Rare Book School Virginia is renowned for the exceptional quality of its teaching. Lecturers are internationally recognised scholars, curators, and leading figures in the rare book trade. Learning directly from such experts offers a wonderful opportunity to deepen professional knowledge and also build valuable networks during the course.
For those unable to travel, the programme also includes an extensive selection of online courses, making this high-level instruction accessible worldwide.
To apply and learn more, please visit the summer course schedule on our website. For the best chance of being admitted, the school recommends submitting application(s) by the first-round deadline of 17 February. Applications received after that date will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all available places are filled, although many courses are typically full after the first round. Scholarship applications are currently under review, and decisions will be communicated by the end of January.

31 May – 5 June (Charlottesville, VA)
- Provenance: Tracing Owners & Collections – David Pearson
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Printed Books to 1800: Description & Analysis – David R. Whitesell
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Scholarly Editing: Principles & Practice – David Vander Meulen
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Identification of Photographic & Digital Print Processes – Ryan Boatright
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Introduction to Paleography, 800–1500 – Lisa Fagin Davis
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
1 – 5 June (Online)
- Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books – Joel Silver
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Institutional Book Arts Collections: Evaluating & Describing – Robert Riter
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
7 – 12 June (Charlottesville, VA)
- Identifying and Understanding Twentieth-Century Duplicating Technologies – Brian Cassidy
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Material Foundations of Map History, 1450–1900 – Matthew Edney
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching – Michael F. Suarez, S.J.
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The History of Printed Book Illustration in the West – Erin C. Blake
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Rare Book Cataloging – Deborah J. Leslie
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
7 – 12 June (Ann Arbor, MI)
- Paper as Bibliographical Evidence – Cathleen A. Baker
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
7 – 12 June (Austin, TX)
- Evidence in Handpress-Era Books, 1450–1830 – Aaron T. Pratt
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Literary Manuscripts – Stephen Enniss & Megan Barnard
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
5 – 10 July (Charlottesville, VA)
- The Printed Book in the West to 1800 – Martin Antonetti
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Printed Book in the West since 1800 – Eric Holzenberg
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Illustrated Scientific Book to 1800 – Caroline Duroselle-Melish & Roger Gaskell
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Rare Book Cataloging – Deborah J. Leslie
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The History of 19th- & 20th-Century Typography & Printing – John Kristensen, Katherine M. Ruffin, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...

5 – 10 July (Oxford, UK)
- Transmission of the Bible from the Beginnings to 1500 – Peter Toth
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Researching Medieval Manuscripts: From Cataloging to Cultural History – David Rundle
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
6 – 10 July (Online)
- Indigenous North American Cartographies – Caroline Wigginton
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Care of Photographic Prints & Negatives in Collections – Bryanna Knotts & Katherine Mintie
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - From Poggio to Mabillon: The Study of Latin Manuscripts in the First Age of Print – Anthony Grafton
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
12 – 17 July (Boston, MA)
- Bookbinding for Book Historians – Jeff Altepeter & Todd Pattison
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
12 – 17 July (New York City, NY)
- Histories of the Book, 200–2000 – Michael Inman & Charlotte Priddle
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The History of Artists’ Books since 1950 – Tony White
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
12 – 17 July (York, UK)
- The Rise of Periodical Print Culture, 1700–1830 – Jennie Batchelor
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Culture & Craft of Wood Type – Nick Gill & Helen Smith
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
13 – 17 July (Online)
- Indigenous Agency & Intervention in the Bibliographical Record – Brandon Castle & Michael Kelly
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
19 – 24 July (Charlottesville, VA)
- The History of the Book in America – Scott E. Casper & Jeffrey D. Groves
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The History of the Book in China – Yuzhou Bai & Soren Edgren
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Book Illustration Processes to 1900 – Terry Belanger
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Modern Special Collections Cataloging – Brenna Bychowski
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Handwriting & Culture of Early Modern English Manuscripts – Heather Wolfe
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
20 – 24 July (Upperville, VA)
- Six Hundred Years of Botanical Illustration – Peter Crane & Roger Gaskell
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
20 – 24 July (Online)
- The Printing Press in Spanish America, 1500–1830 – Albert A. Palacios
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - The Photographic Book since 1843 – Richard Ovenden
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
26 – 31 July (Charlottesville, VA)
- Introduction to the History of Bookbinding – Karen Limper-Herz
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Introduction to the Principles of Bibliographical Description – David R. Whitesell
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Seminar in Western Codicology – M. Michèle Mulchahey
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
26 – 31 July (Princeton, NJ)
- Fifteenth-Century Books in Print & Manuscript – Paul Needham & Eric White
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
9 – 14 August (Chicago, IL)
- A History of the Indigenous Book in the Americas – Will Hansen & Robert Warrior
https://rarebookschool.org/cou... - Censorship from the Inquisition to the Present – Ada Palmer
https://rarebookschool.org/cou...
All images and information from: https://rarebookschool.org/