Fisher Events

Join us for a special evening where four contemporary artists discuss their collaborations with Fisher librarians on creating artist books utilizing collections from the library's collections.

Participants to this workshop will learn key elements to define special collections today and how to integrate these ideas into research, academic or creative projects, and other interests.

Join us for a workshop at the Fisher Library on the classical Islamic arts of "hüsn-i hat" (calligraphy) and "tezhip" (illumination) in the Turkish tradition.

This workshop will engage participants with examples across a range of eras and formats – from the unusual to the everyday – to learn about Canada’s unique history in print.

This talk employs the lens of Afrofuturism to address new dimensions of the Underground Railroad, detailing what imagination, tact, and technology, it took for fugitive Blacks to flee to the "outer spaces of slavery."

This workshop will explore the methods that early printers used to illustrate scientific books and how they were used to illustrate a range of complex scientific concepts, from Euclid’s geometry to Copernican heliocentrism to the minute details of human blood vessels.

Join us at the Fisher when we celebrate Latin American Heritage Month with an Open House. Come to see a selection of posters, ephemera, pamphlets, and books as examples of protest print culture in Latin America.

Scholar David Sclar will explore aspects of Moses Maimonides' impact and influence through a study of materiality, specifically the production and dissemination of textual objects.

Massimo Riva, Professor of Italian Studies and Modern Media at Brown University, will be speaking on eighteen- and nineteen-century optical devices.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to visit with the Fisher's Ethiopic books and scrolls between noon and 5pm, followed by a lecture by Eyob Derillo, Former Curator, Ethiopic and Ethiopian Collections, British Library. This free event is on a drop-in basis. All are welcome to attend.

Participants will learn key elements to define rare books today and how to integrate these ideas into research, academic or creative projects, and other bibliographical interests.

We are once again presenting a unique opportunity to view some of the most important scientific books ever printed. Visit the library on the afternoon of September 19th to a see a range of scientific works up-close: from a 14th century Latin manuscript of Euclid's Elements, through to Copernicus' revolutionary 16th century work on planetary motion, to a milestone work of anatomical illustration by Andreas Vesalius - along with more of the earliest works on chemistry, physics, biology and medicine.

Date and Time: Tuesday, September 19th, 1:00-6:00PM

This is a drop-in event and open to the public.

This seminar explored the field of bibliographical studies in Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present.

In this seminar, participants were introduced to the many genres of material that are part of culinary collections held at the Fisher Library. They learned about the flow of culinary information through the international book trade and the first cookbooks published in Canada.

Rebecca Romney, rare book dealer, appraiser and author, on "Putting Together a Collection of Popular Romance Novels."

Professor Andrew Pettegree, Bishop Wardlaw Professor at University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, on "The Book at War: Libraries and Reading in a Time of Conflict."

Shawn Micallef, Toronto author and editor on "Understand Toronto: Trying to Figure Out a Confounding City."

Dr Alexandra Gillespie, Vice-President and Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga, on "The Silk Roads Project."

Garrett Herman, Toronto book collector, on "Collecting Darwin."

Michelle Brown, Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London on "The Luttrell Psalter: Incestuous Knights, Abducted Heiresses and Other Everyday Folk in Early 14th-century England."

Colette Fu, photographer, book artist and paper engineer, on "We Are Tiger Dragon People: The Magical Pop-up Books of Paper Engineer and Artist Colette Fu."

Dr Margaret Schotte, Associate Professor of Early Modern, History, York University on "For Merchants and Mariners - The Business of Nautical Manuals."

Dr Thomas Keymer, University Professor, Chancellor Jackman, Professor, University of Toronto on "Authorship, Print, and Sedition in Eighteenth-Century England."

This course, the Fisher's third summer seminar, provided an intensive introduction to manuscript culture during Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, as well as the methods and terminology used in the description and cataloguing of manuscripts.