Manual Antonio Carreño’s Manual de urbanidad y buenas maneras (Manual of Courtesy and Good Manners), published in 1853 in Caracas, became an instant hit that has continued to be republished to this day; the approximately 200 known existing editions are just the tip of the iceberg, as editions have been lost, plagiarised and parodied. The full scale of this publishing phenomenon is yet to be understood.
This project builds on Patience Schell’s ground-breaking interdisciplinary work on the Manual de Carreño to redesign the pilot website as a dual-lingual, research and impact-oriented portal. Using a citizen science model, the website (in Spanish and English) will allow visitor contributions, documenting editions, forms of circulation and personal engagement with the text, thus creating a public, dynamic archive.
Displaying information on the publication and movement of the Manuales, through a timeline and map of the Spanish-speaking world, the website will allow detailed research on circulation and reception, while tapping into public feeling about this book; it will create impact and gather evidence for impact at the same time.