Rare Book School at the University of Virginia is dedicated to studying the history of the book as a cultural artifact and all that goes into making books (even digital texts), including the printing process. The school offers a range of courses in Charlottesville during the summer, as well as in several other major cities, to spread the “knowledge and expertise essential to the responsible stewardship of the historical archive in all its richness and pluriformity,” as the mission statement says.
Of Rare Book School’s 24 intensive, hands-on seminars taught on Grounds a couple of weeks ago, one covered “The History of 19th- & 20th-Century Typography & Printing.” The students had a chance to try for themselves the laborious process of setting each piece of metal type to make and print a paragraph about typesetting.