Research Update

Since starting my research I have learned a lot. My research at this time is consisting of biographic information of Aldus Manutius, history of the 15th century printing industry in Venice, and basic printing history of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The rest of my sources so far are about how the book was used in the 15th century which is where my reader response research will begin. I still need to do extensive research on reader response. I also need to start research on digital imaging and multispectral imaging of printed books. I will be reaching out to Roger Easton fairly soon so that we can image the hand-colored pages. I am hoping the results can tell us the material the pigments are made of and from that I am hoping we can get a date range. If anyone has suggestions on where to start please let me know! 

In other exciting news - Steven and I were able to determine the owner of the book before Melbert Cary acquired it in 1932 based off of a bookplate that was stuck on the inner board. 

Past Thesis Ideas

At this point I have my topic picked out but I wanted to share with you the other ideas I had in mind.

My first idea was to write a paper on Trauma Tourism. I had written a paper on it in Exhibition Design and wrote a similar paper in an anthropology class I took called, Genocide and Post Conflict Justice. I wanted to focus on memorials and museums in places that experienced turmoil (concentrating on genocide) and how the museum / memorial worked in the grieving process. I wanted to focus on the memorials and memorial museums in Rwanda and the Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia.

Other topic ideas I had included cultural patrimony issues, conversation of mummies / where should the mummies be exhibited / ethics of displaying human corpses, and social media within cultural institutions with a case study of creating the Pinterest page for the Archives.

I am very excited to get to work on my thesis about the Hynerotomachia Poliphili  

Reader Response in Columbia University's 1499 copy of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili 

Rubrication is still present in the Newberry Library's 1499 copy of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili 

Hello, I'm Melissa.

Before I begin posting regularly, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Melissa Fanton, and I am a fourth-year museum studies student at RIT. Since becoming an intern at The Strong National Museum of Play, my interest in Collections Management has blossomed and I hope to pursue a thesis topic related to collections. The collections at The Strong are too interesting not to study in more depth, and their library and archives can provide many high quality sources. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more in the coming months.

A photograph of me during my internship at The Strong. The image depicts me playing Super Mario Bros. on the day of the World Video Game Hall of Fame induction ceremony. This photograph was taken by RIT alumni Lauren Petracca, staff photographer for the Democrat & Chronicle. From the Democrat & Chronicle, June 4, 2015. Article can be found online here.