The editors illustrate how book history studies have evolved into a broad approach which incorporates social and cultural considerations governing the production, dissemination and reception of print and texts.

Literature has not always been written in the same ways, nor has it been received or read in the same ways over the course of Western civilization. Cavallo (Greek palaeography, U. of Rome La Sapienza), Chartier (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) and a number of other international contributors, address themes that highlight the transformation of reading methods and materials over the ages, such as the way texts in the Middle Ages were often written with the voice in mind, as they would have been read aloud, or even sung. Articles explore the innovations in the physical evolution of the book, as well as the growth and development of a broad-based reading public.

Book history has emerged in the last twenty years as one of the most important new fields of interdisciplinary study. It has produced new interpretations of major historical events, has made possible new approaches to history, literature, media, and culture, and presents a distinctive historical perspective on current debates about the future of the book. The Broadview Introduction to Book History provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to this field. Written in a lively, accessible style, chapters on materiality, textuality, printing and reading, intermediality, and remediation guide readers through numerous key concepts, illustrated with examples from literary texts and historical documents produced across a wide historical range. An ideal text for undergraduate and graduate courses in book history, it offers a road map to this dynamic inter-disciplinary field.

On history of reading

The question of what the nature of history is, is a key issue for all students of history. It is recognized by many that the past and history are different phenomena and that the way the past is actively historicized can be highly problematic and contested.

Excerpt from The Historical Reader The object of this Volume is to enable young persons, when learning to read at school, to acquire a knowledge of some of the most interesting and useful portions of history. A book consisting chiefly of extracts filled with real incidents, which equal, if not surpass, the most successful efforts of imagination in romance, cannot fail to captivate the attention of youth; and it is moreover believed, that few thus made acquainted with the extraordinary events described in the Historical Reader, will have so little curiosity, were there no other motive to influence them, as not to be inspired with a strong desire for further reading on this important subject - that few, at least, will have so little curiosity as not to fill up the chasms, connecting together the prominent parts here given. It may possibly be apprehended by some, that a book, like the Historical Reader, which contains accounts of battles, massacres, and other tragical scenes, will cause young persons, especially, to place a false estimate on human conduct - that, in the same degree as they thence fail duly to appreciate real goodness, they will become the less inclined to it; and in tho same degree as they become familiarized with vice, they will view it with less abhorrence, and will consequently be the less secured against temptations to it. The Author would not deny that this may sometimes be the case; but ho does maintain, that there is no necessary tendency in history, to produce these deleterious effects in tho human character. Those who read history, must blame themselves or their teachers, if suitable moral reflections are not made as they pass along. If history were studied a it ought, the most tragical relations which disfigure its ensanguined pages might be made conducive to our instruction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.