| Edition |
First edition. |
| Physical Description |
xii, 428 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 22 cm. |
| Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-401) and index. |
| Contents |
Part 1. The page -- A clean sheet: the invention of papyrus -- Hidebound: the grisly invention of parchment -- Pulp fictions: the ambiguous origins of paper in China -- From Silk Road to paper trail: paper goes global -- Part 2. The text -- Stroke of genius: the arrival of writing -- The prints and the pauper: Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of movable type -- Out of sorts: typesetting meets the Industrial Revolution -- Part 3. Illustrations -- Saints and scriveners: the rise of the illuminated manuscript -- Ex oriente lux: woodcut comes to the West -- Etching a sketch: copperplate printing and the Renaissance -- Better imaging through chemistry: lithography, photography, and modern book printing -- Part 4. Form -- Books before the book: papyrus scrolls and wax tablets -- Joining the folds: the invention of the codex -- Ties that bind: binding the paged book -- Size matters: the invention of the modern book -- Colophon. |
| Summary |
Reveals how books and the materials that make them reflect the history of human civilization, tracing the development of writing, printing, illustrating, and binding to demonstrate the transition from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the mass-distributed books of today. |
| Subject |
Books -- History.
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Printing -- History.
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Books and reading -- History.
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