Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800: A Practical Guide

by Sarah Werner

A comprehensive resource to understanding the hand-press printing of early books

Studying Early Printed Books, 1450 - 1800 offers a guide to the fascinating process of how books were printed in the first centuries of the press and shows how the mechanics of making books shapes how we read and understand them. The author offers an insightful overview of how books were made in the hand-press period and then includes an in-depth review of the specific aspects of the printing process. She addresses questions such as: How was paper made? What were different book formats? How did the press work? In addition, the text is filled with illustrative examples that demonstrate how understanding the early processes can be helpful to today's researchers.

Studying Early Printed Books shows the connections between the material form of a book (what it looks like and how it was made), how a book conveys its meaning and how it is used by readers. The author helps readers navigate books by explaining how to tell which parts of a book are the result of early printing practices and which are a result of later changes. The text also offers guidance on: how to approach a book; how to read a catalog record; the difference between using digital facsimiles and books in-hand. This important guide:

Reveals how books were made with the advent of the printing press and how they are understood today Offers information on how to use digital reproductions of early printed books as well as how to work in a rare books library Contains a useful glossary and a detailed list of recommended readings Includes a companion website for further research Written for students of book history, materiality of text and history of information, Studying Early Printed Books explores the many aspects of the early printing process of books and explains how their form is understood today.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Books About Books

208 pages, Hardcover

First published February 26, 2019

Reviews

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for any courses I teach on rare books librarianship

Clear and concise, Werner has created an introductory guide to working with early printed books that will now appear on the syllabus for every course I will teach in the future. This is well organized, full of examples, and points to dozens of further resources. I wish this had existed when I was entering the field 20 years ago.

[kenzie westrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for my history of the book class, but I really enjoyed this! Werner has an incredibly accessible narrative voice that makes historical and informative reading, such as this one, fun to read. I appreciated the sections at the end of each chapter talking about why each topic matters and why we care about it, a question I find myself asking often when reading for class (specifically history classes where if I'm not already interested, it's hard for me to care). Illustrations were great as well. yippee books!!

[Becs]

Read for professional purposes but also printing history nerd that I am. An enjoyable, accessible, practical resource to understanding the hand-press printing of early books. Will happily talk about paper making and rag picking if asked. And honestly, even when I'm not asked.

[Gui Nabais Freitas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must confess, when I started reading this book I thought I might find palaeography/history of the book stuff a bit dull. But how wrong I was!

Sarah Werner writes in a persuasive and, most importantly, passionate way about why we should care about the condition of Early Modern books and what they have to tell us. Wonder what typefaces, signature marks, stop-press changes have to do with interpreting an old book? Have you always wondered why early printed books had an f like character for words that begin in 's'. Werner covers this and so much more, as you become a detective equipped to learn from the evidence which these books have left behind.

Of course, this book occupies something of a niche (though an interdisciplinary one, to be sure) but this book is accessible to anyone from the independent scholar through to the tenured researcher.

[Taylor Zartman]

Clear, coherent, and truly enjoyable to read! As rare books become a larger part of my career, I know I will be turning to this text again and again.

[Debbie Reads]

Not sure how to rate this. Read for my Print Culture and Book History Class.

[Liz Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this sounds like it might be useful to you, it will probably be useful to you. If it doesn't, then it probably won't.

I'm annoyed I didn't read this two years ago.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. A textbook for one of my favourite classes in my degree so far. Talking about the steps of the earliest print books and smaller tidbit about the culture surrounding them. A fact-packed quick read.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of references here. I will probably, explore, some of these. The idea, of a book, the method of construction, historically, makes for interesting study. This evolution, is continuing. Recommended.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I also read this for my Book as a Human Artifact class, and compared to Houston, it was a lot more digestible. I appreciate how straightforward Werner was. This gave me lots of tools and tips for examining books as material artifacts. It was also far more interesting.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific accessible guide to the subject

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible introduction to print culture, especially regarding the process to produce hand-press books.

[Sam]

Read for school. Only read up to pg 101. Very informative

[meg (the.hidden.colophon) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Book History course in the Spring of ‘24.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for Rare Books class