Teaching with Ephemera

Abstract

In the Fall 2006 issue of RBM, Pablo Alvarez presented us with three case studies to demonstrate his efforts at “introducing rare books into the undergraduate curriculum.” His fascinating examples included teaching an Italian Literature class by looking at various illustrations of Dante’s Commedia; a thought-provoking investigation of censorship in the history of science, making use of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus; and the dissection of an especially loaded edition of Cervantes’ Don Quixote for a course on that novel.Near the end of his article, Alvarez noted that, “Perhaps the distinguishing feature of my own work that I have highlighted in ...