Fisher Audio Lectures

Nick Wilding, Professor of History at Georgia State University, delivered this year's John Seltzer and Mark Seltzer Memorial Lecture on his work detecting Galileo forgeries. Held on Wednesday September 19, 2018, it was the first Friends of Fisher lecture of the 2018/19 season.

This year's George Kiddell Lecture on the History of the Book was delivered on March 21, 2018, by Dr. Peter Blayney, University of Toronto Department of English, Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, and authority on the early London Book Trade.

The 2017 Alexander C. Pathy lecture on the book arts 'Written in Wood: Visual Narratives with a Canadian cut' was given by George A. Walker, wood engraver, artist, author, illustrator, a maker of books on his private press and associate professor of book arts and printmaking at the OCAD.

A lecture by Dr. Piet Visser, Professor Emeritus, Free University of Amsterdam. This is the Friends of the Fisher Library 2017 Seltzer Memorial Lecture, held September 27, 2017 in Toronto in conjunction with the Fisher Library's Exhibition 'Flickering of the Flame: The Book and the Reformation'

Linda LeGeyt, a botanical illustrator from Alberta, discussed Canadian Wildflowers and traditions in Canadian botanical art.

In conjunction with the recent exhibition “So Long Lives This”: Celebrating Shakespeare, 1616–2016, Alan Galey discusses how Shakespeare’s works have inspired creativity and innovation in the book arts, from the earliest editions to the present. Drawing on the sometimes vexed relationship between print and performance, this talk considers how the Shakespearean book arts have negotiated the divide between page and stage.

Alan Galey teaches book history, bibliography, and digital humanities at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information. Along with co-curating the Fisher’s recent Shakespeare exhibition, he is also the author of The Shakespearean Archive: Experiments in New Media from the Renaissance to Postmodernity (Cambridge, 2014).

Antiquarian book dealer Justin G. Schiller delivers the John Seltzer and Mark Seltzer Memorial Lecture on September 28, 2016. He discusses his collecting of Mao-era propoganda of the 2016 and how he amassed this large collection.

This lecture, delivered by Erik Kwakkel, book historian at Leiden University, the Netherlands, shows what the medieval world of the commercial book looked like prior to the printed press era.

Michael Torosian, photographer and proprietor of Lumiere Press, delivered the 2016 Johanna and Leon Katz Memorial Lecture, February 17. He traced the history of his press from its beginnings when he learned fine press printing largely by trial and error. Today, his finely crafted books are collector's items.

New York antiquarian bookseller Jonathan Hill delivered the 2015 the John Seltzer and Mark Seltzer Memorial Lecture titled How did I get into this racket? (A Bookseller's Progress). 

David Pearson, Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London Corporation and a leading scholar of book history delivered the 2015 Kiddell Lecture on March 30 that was a vivid tribute to the role of books in the digital age. Pearson’s particular interest in book provenance came to light in a revealing discussion of the value of books and libraries in the 21st century.

Eli MacLaren, Assistant Professor of Canadian Literature and Book History in the English department at McGill University, began the 2015 Katz Memorial Lecture with two questions: what constitutes Canadian literature, and at what point did Canadian literature truly establish itself? He examined the works and lives of Samuel de Champlain, Nathaniel A. Benson and Alice Munro, and how they related to principal developments of the book in Canada. This lecture was delivered on March 9, 2015.

David Stern, the Moritz and Josephine Berg Professor of Classical Hebrew Literature at the University of Pennsylvania spoke on The Lives of Jewish Books, describing the afterlife of two important Hebrew manuscripts, The Free Library Pentateuch and the Worms Mahzor. The lecture was delivered at the opening reception for the Fisher exhibition "As it is Written": Judaic Treasures from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.

Sophie Schneideman delivered the 2014 Seltzer Memorial Lecture. The international rare book and print dealer and proprietor of Sophie Schneideman Rare Books, delivered a lecture on the topic of ‘Collecting Private Press Books’. The talk reviewed the presses at the core of the movement to reveal not only beautiful works of art in the form of books, but also the commitment to books and art by pioneers of the movement such as William Morris (1834–1896), Emery Walker (1851–1933), Eric Gill (1882–1940) and Robert Gibbings (1889–1958).

Andrew Steeves, co-founder of Gaspeareau Press, one of the country's foremost literary presses, delivered the 2013 Leon Katz Memorial Lecture at the Fisher Library on March 5, 2013. His talk, entitled "The Stacks School of Typography: The Role of Libraries and Archives in the Development of the Gaspereau Press," focused on the way in which knowledge of book history and print culture has impacted his work at Gaspereau.