Nelson receives 2019 ACRL ESS De Gruyter Grant

CHICAGO – Jennifer K. Nelson, reference librarian at the Robbins Collection, University of California-Berkeley School of Law, has been selected to receive the 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) European Studies Section (ESS) De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant for her project “Iucundum mihi est reperiri typographum: A Case Study of an Early Modern Publishing Success Story.”

Sponsored by the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for Scholarship and Research, the grant provides €2,500 to support a trip to Europe. The primary criterion for awarding the grant is the significance and utility of the proposed project as a contribution to the study of the acquisition, organization, or use of library resources from or relating to Europe.

Nelson will receive the award check during the 2019 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Nelson’s project will focus on archival research of letters by the humanist Gian Vittorio Rossi (1577-1647) to Roman publishers and booksellers, which reveals the publishing landscape in the 17th century Europe encompassing authors, publishers, sellers, and readers. This research also aims to shed light on the publication history of Rossi’s works, his pseudonyms, and his late-in-life, partly posthumous, publishing success as a satirist.

“The committee thought Nelson’s proposal stood out both for its depth and interdisciplinary scope,” said award co-chairs Lana Soglasnova of the University of Toronto and Kristen Totleben of the University of Rochester. “She links the little-known unpublished primary sources in the Italian and Latin languages to current topics in history of books, literary taste, ideas, and culture. Nelson will examine Rossi’s correspondence held at the Vatican Library and at the Archivio della Congregazione dell’Oratorio di San Filippo Neri in Rome, Italy.”

Nelson received her B.A. in Italian from the University of California-Santa Cruz, her M.A. in Italian from the University of California-Los Angeles, her M.A. in Classics and M.L.I.S. from the University of Kentucky, and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

For more information regarding the ACRL ESS De Gruyter European Librarianship Study Grant, or a complete list of past recipients, please visit the awards section of the ACRL website.

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