Bokhistoria

In Early Modern Europe the first readers of a book were not those who bought it. They were the scribes who copied the author’s or translator’s manuscript, the censors who licensed it, the publisher who decided to put this title in his catalogue, the copy editor who prepared the text for the press, divided it and added punctuation, the typesetters who composed the pages of the book, and the proof reader who corrected them. The author’s hand cannot be separated from the printers’ mind. This book is devoted to the process of publication of the works that framed their readers’ representations of the past or of the world. Linking cultural history, textual criticism and bibliographical studies, dealing with canonical works - like Cervantes’ Don Quixote or Shakespeare’s plays - as well as lesser known texts, Roger Chartier identifies the fundamental discontinuities that transformed the circulation of the written word between the invention of printing and the definition, three centuries later, of what we call 'literature'.

This stimulating and richly illustrated volume addresses the changes brought about by lithography in the design and production of a wide range of graphic material: books, prints, music, maps, and ephemera. Underpinning the text is the view that lithographic printers and their co-workers revealed limitations in the capabilities of earlier methods of print production by exploring the range of opportunities offered by the new process. Professor Twyman suggests that research into lithography across artefactual boundaries can provide guidance for anyone studying the integration of graphic communication brought about by the electronic revolution.

The book itself is not a typical monograph--rather, it is a "multigraph," the collective work of twenty-two scholars who together have assembled an alphabetically arranged tour of key concepts for the study of print culture, from Anthologies and Binding to Publicity and Taste. Each entry builds on its term in order to resituate print and book history within a broader media ecology throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The central theme is interactivity, in three senses: people interacting with print; print interacting with the non-print media that it has long been thought, erroneously, to have displaced; and people interacting with each other through print. The resulting book will introduce new energy to the field of print studies and lead to considerable new avenues of investigation.

Newly revised and updated with luscious and inspiring images of contemporary work, this book allows today's graphic designer to rediscover the creative potential of letterpress. Thanks to its physical presence on the page, letterpress has a unique and visual impact, and offers a powerful means of expressing ideas through a more intelligent use of type. Despite the dominance of computer typesetting and printing in trade publishing, private letterpress publishers are on the increase. This timely book celebrates the diversity of the original work being produced by graphic designers and typographers using letterpress around the world. It examines US and European private presses, top international graphic designers working with letterpress, the use of letterpress as a commercial medium in developing countries, and new developments in technology. A celebration of the handmade design aesthetic currently enjoying a period of revival, Letterpress is an indispensable reference for both professional and amateur creatives, and all letterpress enthusiasts.