Focus of this section
The term ‘early modern’ is commonly used for the period following the Middle Ages and preceding the full-scale emergence of modern industrial society, a period marked all over Europe by religious, political, and social conflicts. The printed word plays a vital role in these developments and hence the section is concerned both with the history of the book and with literature in a broad sense of the term, including not only poetry, drama, and fiction, but philosophical and religious writing, in English and in other European languages (including Latin).
Section chair
