Prof. Schell was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, for two years from September 2022, for her project 'Carreño's Manual: Manners, Society, History'
This project examines the radically under-studied Manual de urbanidad y buenas maneras (Manual of Courtesy and Good Manners), which is among the, if not the, best-selling and longest-selling book(s) ever published in Spanish. The Manual, published in Caracas (1853), by Manuel Antonio Carreño, became and continues to be a trans-continental hit. The text has been updated for mobile phone etiquette and the gym (2018), parodied for Chilean Patagonians (2010 and 2014) and used in an award-winning Colombian PR campaign to sell Redd’s hard cider (2018). The 190 existing editions are the iceberg’s tip; editions have been lost, plagiarised and parodied. The full scale of this publishing phenomenon remains unknown, even as ‘Carreño’ has become a cultural signifier for good manners and smooth coexistence. The book’s ubiquity has allowed it to fade from historical view: it is the salt and pepper on the table, so common as to have escaped notice. The project will analyse this text’s rich history, tracing its circulation, republication, updating, adaptation and plagiarised travels in the Spanish-speaking world. This project will present the first historical analysis of the Manual de Carreño, uncovering its meanings and influence over 170 years.