In conjunction with the 9th Annual Schoenberg Symposium of the same theme, Reactions: Medieval/Modern explores the many and varied ways that people have reacted to, and acted upon, manuscripts from the Middle Ages up to today. Reactions take many forms. They include the manipulation of physical objects through, for example, the marking up of texts, addition of illustrations, the disbinding books or rebinding fragments, as well as the manipulation of digital objects, thanks to new technologies involved in digitization, ink and parchment analysis, virtual reconstruction, among many other processes. Both the exhibition and symposium will also tackle how popular culture has reacted to manuscripts over time as witnessed by their use and appearance in books, games, and films.

A full-color illustrated companion volume exploring the themes of the exhibition will be available for purchase in late September. It includes and introduction by Dot Porter, exhibition curator, essays by Bruce Holsinger, Erik Kwakkel, Kathryn M. Rudy, Michael Livingston, Angela Bennett, and an exhibition checklist.

The exhibition will be on display in the Goldstein Family Gallery on the sixth floor of the Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, until December 16th. I hope you'll have a chance to come visit and take a look! The symposium will be November 17-19, and a separate announcement about that will come to the listserv soon.

Exhibit page on the Penn Libraries site: http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/reactions.html