HIST 111: Ruin and Renewal: Europe to 1500 (HC)

Throughout human history, the world's knowledge and fruits of the creative imagination have been produced, circulated and received through the medium of the material text. This Companion provides a wide-ranging account of the history of the book and its ways of thinking about works from ancient inscription to contemporary e-books, discussing thematic, chronological and methodological aspects of this interdisciplinary field. See in particular "Handwriting and the Book" and "The Coming of Print to Europe."
Also available in print in Tripod.

This multivolume history presents an overview of the social, political and cultural developments in Britain involved in the dissemination and reception of the written word. The emphasis in these collections of essays is on the demand and use of books and the book trade.
Volume 3, 1400-1557
Volume 4, 1557-1695

Each of the 100 sections focuses on one book that represents a particular development in the evolution of books and in turn, world history and society. Titles include the first book of astronomy and the first book of anatomy as well as the first printed blockbuster and the first joke book.

Covers book history broadly. Note the treatment of paleography and the history of printing. The second part of the Companion offers brief entries on every aspect of the history of the book.

This bibliographic essay from Oxford Bibliographies Online Renaissance and Reformation summarizes scholarly discussions around the development of printing. It also identifies individual books and articles that are most important for a current understanding of the questions.