Vigdis writes her PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. In her thesis she investigates book production in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, more specifically the printing and distribution of books about plague. Books written in this genre are apt for research on the history of knowledge, as the genre is quite stable over time. Vigdis says that what fascinates her about this project is that there is information available about the several agents involved in book production: the readers with their preferences, the publisher and printer, and of course the authors. She points out that the book printers often decided what kind of books were put into production. They wanted profit from their work, and prioritized books that would sell well. This meant that it was the more popular books that were printed and not necessarily the ones with the most academically inclined content. Vigdis finds a paradox in this situation: Even though more popular books were printed, their content was not very different from the texts circulating in academic circles. The printed books were not necessarily made more accessible for ordinary people, other than being translated from Latin to the vernaculars.
Vigdis also works with a side project about the Swedish humanist Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) and his work as a publisher and book printer in Rome. Who was his intended audience? This will be the topic of her presentation at the Director´s seminar 14th November.