The Oxford Companion to the Book

First Edition

Hardcover
08 February 2010
1,408 Pages | 150 engravings & black and white photographs; 30 line drawings; plus examples of typographical features
10.9 x 8.6 inches
ISBN: 9780198606536

General editors: Michael Suarez SJ and H. R. Woudhuysen

The authoritative resource on all aspects of the book throughout the world from ancient to modern times
A unique combination of essays and alphabetically-arranged entries, interlinked to provide both depth of analysis and swift access to information
Written by over 400 of the world>'s best scholars, making this the authoritative resource on the subject
Imaginatively illustrated with many unique and rarely seen images

Description

The Oxford Companion to the Book is the first reference work of its kind covering the broad concept of the book throughout the world from ancient to modern times. Along with such subjects as bibliography, the history of printing, editorial theory and practice, and textual criticism, it also engages with newer disciplines such as the history of the book and the electronic book. Additionally, the companion provides an engaging analysis of how books and societies have shaped one another. Written by the world's top scholars in bibliography and book history, the companion is an authoritative and highly informative work of reference for an international readership across a vast range of disciplines.

This unique two-volume work is organized into two parts. Part I is a substantial series of introductory essays-over forty essays offer generic histories of the subject as well as surveys of the history of the book around the world, including the Muslim world, Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Part II of the companion comprises an
A-Z section of over 5,000 entries on every aspect of this exceptionally rich and diverse subject, ranging from brief definitions and biographical entries to more extensive treatments. Both parts of the text are richly illustrated with reproductions, diagrams, maps, and examples of various typographical features.

List of Associate Editors
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Editors and Contributors
Thematic Index of Entries
Notes to the Reader
Abbreviations
Essays
A-Z entries
General Index

Picture credits

Author Information

Michael F. Suarez, S.J. is University Professor, Director of the Rare Book School, and Hon. Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia. He is co-editor of The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume 5, 1695-1830 (2008) and co-general editor of The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, (OUP, 2006).

H. R. Woudhuysen is Professor of English at University College London. He has edited The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse (1992), with David Norbrook, Love's Labour's Lost (1998) and, with Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare's Poems (2007) for the Arden Shakespeare third series.

A history of the book

By Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen 'And yet the books' by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz's great poemÂ (1986) brilliantly captures the relationship 'between the book as a universal, world-wide object, a thing that exists by the millions and yet is so 'individual,