Edited with introduction and notes. With notes on the manuscripts by A.S. Korteweg.

Edited with introduction and notes. With notes on the manuscripts by A.S. Korteweg.

The Annual Bibliography of the History of the Printed Book and Libraries records articles of scholarly value that relate to the history of the printed book, to the history of arts, crafts, techniques and equipment, and of the economic, social and cultural environment involved in their production, distribution, conservation and description.

An important part of the Dutch national treasure of early printed books from before 1801 on military and related subjects is kept in military libraries and collections. This catalogue contains 10,000 books in twelve different languages dated 1500–1800 from nine different Defence institutions/collections, representing both Army and Navy. By far the largest collections are the property of the Royal Netherlands Army Museum in Delft and the Royal Netherlands Military Academy in Breda. A great if not substantial part of these books is especially of international significance because of the contents, the intrinsic value or as historical objects. It took eight years to trace and describe these books, all of which have been given extensive analytical bibliographic descriptions. The book includes over 2000 illustrations. The book is a project of the Royal Netherlands Army Museum, Delft

Books printed in the fifteenth century have been the subject of much in-depth research. In contrast, the beginning of the sixteenth century has not attracted the same scholarly interest. This volume brings together studies that charter the development of printing and bookselling throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It presents new research and analysis on the impact of the Reformation, on how texts were transmitted and on the complex relationships that affected the production and sale of books. The result is a wide-ranging reappraisal of a vital period in the history of the printed book. Contributors include Zsuzsa Barbarics-Hermanik, Jürgen Beyer, Amy Nelson Burnett, Neil Harris, Brenda M. Hosington, Johannes Hund, Henning P. Jürgens, Justyna Kiliańczyk-Zięba, Hans-Jörg Künast, Urs Bernhard Leu, Matthew McLean, Andrew Pettegree, David Shaw, Christoph Volkmar, Hanno Wijsman and Alexander Wilkinson.

Machiavelli’s experience in organizing a Florentine militia shaped the composition of his Art of War (1521), a book that is now less well known than The Prince, but that had a huge impact on sixteenth-century cultures of warfare.

Thomas Anthony Birrell (1924-2011) was a man of many parts. For most of his working life he was Professor of English Literature in the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, where he was famous for his lively, humoristic and thought-provoking lectures. He was the author of some very popular literary surveys in Dutch, one of which - a history of English literature - has had seven editions so far. However, first and foremost he was a bibliographer and a book historian. The present collection contains fifteen of his book-historical articles, two reviews and one published version of a lecture for the illustrious ’Association Internationale de Bibliophilie’. The lecture - with a wealth of illustrations - about the British Library as the ’Custodian of the Unique’ gives one a sense of Birrell’s ability to present an audience with a complicated topic in comprehensible, but not simplified, terms. The reviews serve as a statement of principle of how to tackle the subject of ’English readers and books’ and the standards that ought to apply. The articles demonstrate Tom Birrell’s in-depth knowledge, dedication and scholarship. He once said that he felt that he could have talked to the 17th-century London booksellers on an equal footing and his work convinces one that they would have enjoyed these conversations. Aspects of Book Culture was edited by Birrell’s former pupil, colleague, friend and fellow-bibliographer Jos Blom.