History of the Book in the West: 400AD–1455

Jane Roberts and Pamela Robinson are both Senior Research Fellows, Institute of English Studies, University of London, UK

• Contents: The history of the manuscript book, 400AD-1455: an overview; Part I Introductory: Aspects of palaeography, T. Julian Brown; The bibliography of the manuscript-book, G.S. Ivy. Part II The Look of the Book: From 'above top line' to 'below top line': a change in scribal practice, N.R. Ker; The circulation of glossed books of the Bible, Christopher de Hamel; The influence of the concepts of ordinatio and compilatio on the development of the book, M.B. Parkes; The 'booklet': a self-contained unit in composite manuscripts, P.R. Robinson; Describing medieval bookbindings, Graham Pollard. Part III Copying, Dissemination and Readership: The preconditions for Caroline minuscule, David Ganz; How fast did scribes write? Evidence from Romanesque manuscripts, Michael Gullick; French Bibles c. 1200-30: a new look at the origin of the Paris Bible, Laura Light; University jurisdiction over the booktrade: the family of Guillaume de Sens, R.H. and M.A. Rouse; Printing, mass communication, and religious reformation: the Middle Ages and after, David d'Avray; The Book of Hours, Roger S. Wieck; The production of copies of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the early fifteenth century, A.I. Doyle and M.B. Parkes; A new type of book for a new type of reader: the emergence of paper in vernacular book production, Erik Kwakkel; Vespasiano da Bisticci as producer of classical manuscripts in fifteenth-century Florence, Albinia C. de la Mare; Literacy, reading and writing in the medieval West, Charles F. Briggs; Regulations for the operation of a medieval library, Robert D. Taylor-Vaisey; Name Index.

'...a representative sample of the many different approaches to book history scholars have undertaken over the past several decades...The editor is to be praised for executing well a very difficult job.' College & Research Libraries