American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studes
2013 Conference

4 - 7 2013
Cleveland, Ohio

SHARP-sponsored ASECS session:

Continuity and Change in Religious Readerships:

Religious books—devotional, doctrinal, and controversial—constituted the largest segment of the printed book market during the long eighteenth century and supported a large variety of religious communities. New pressures on reading were accompanied by shared points of contact between different denominations, particularly as older devotional practices were recycled into new ones. Catholic devotional texts were recycled into Protestant devotional texts, and a bestseller like Pilgrim’s Progress was adapted for a variety of readerships. This panel explores continuity and change between older and newer devotional reading practices as documented in devotional books, religious trade practices, purchasing habits, catechisms, catalogues, biblical commentaries, inscriptions and marginalia, charitable organizations, and other aspects of the religious book trade.

See the ASECS site for information about other sessions.