The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Book in Early Modern England

The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Book in Early Modern England provides a rich, imaginative and also accessible guide to the latest research in one of the most exciting areas of early modern studies. Written by scholars working at the cutting-edge of the subject, from the UK and North America, the volume considers the production, reception, circulation, consumption, destruction, loss, modification, recycling, and conservation of books from different disciplinary perspectives.

Each chapter discusses in a lively manner the nature and role of the book in early modern England, as well as offering critical insights on how we talk about the history of the book. On finishing the Handbook, the reader will not only know much more about the early modern book, but will also have a strong sense of how and why the book as an object has been studied, and the scope for the development of the field.

Adam Smyth, Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book, Balliol College, University of Oxford

Adam Smyth is Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, Oxford. He works on the connections between literature and material texts, particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries. He is the author of four books, including Material Texts in Early Modern England (2019), and the editor and co-editor of four collections of essays (including Book Parts (2019) with Dennis Duncan). He writes regularly for the London Review of Books.

1. An Introduction: Thinking about the history of the book, Adam Smyth
2. The Handmaids' Tale: Book History, Shakespeare, and Women's Textual Labour, Claire M.L. Bourne
3. Cataloguing the Past: Periodisation and the Historiography of Print, Megan Heffernan
4. The Scale of Book History: Data, Distance, Description, Jeffrey Todd Knight
5. 'Inlaid with inkie spots of jet': Early modern book history and premodern critical race studies, Brandi K. Adams
6. Religion and the history of the book, Brian Cummings
7. Printing and book history: Insights from practice, Alexandra Franklin and Richard Lawrence
8. Monuments and trifles: which books do we use to tell the history of the book?, Jason Scott-Warren
9. What was a print shop, and what happened there?, Paul Nash
10. Scribes, Compositors, Correctors, Tamara Atkin
11. Authors, Stephen B. Dobranski
12. Publishing Virginia (1608-15): Specialization, Commissioning, Networks, Kirk Melnikoff
13. Regional book and print trades, Rachel Stenner
14. Representing the labour of printing in image and text, Katherine Hunt
15. Printing and the Universities, Jason Peacey
16. Illustrated books, Michael Hunter
17. Typography, James Misson
18. Beyond the book: non-codex texts, Harriet Philips
19. Science and the book in early modern England, Adrian Johns
20. Waste, offcuts, remains, reuse, Anna Reynolds
21. 'The Book-sellars Shop': Browsing, Reading, and Buying in Early Modern England, Ben Higgins
22. Internationalism and the English book trade, Hanna de Lange and Andrew Pettegree
23. 'A Gifte of good Moment': A New History of the Stationers' Benevolence to the Bodleian Library, 1610 to 1616, Tara L. Lyons
24. Multi-lingual print, A.E.B. Coldiron
25. Contexts for Circulation: Households, University, Inns of Court, and Professional Circles, Michelle O'Callaghan
26. From Duck Lane to Lazarus Seaman: Buying and Selling Old Books in England during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, H.R. Woudhuysen
27. Conversations about Time and Space: Early Modern Books and Contemporary Artists' Books, Sujata Iyengar
28. The Early Modern Book as Metaphor, Jeff Dolven
29. Past, Present, and Future: Early Modern Collections and the Work of a Curator, Caroline Duroselle-Melish
30. Self-reading books: marginalia, prosopopoeia and book history, Emma Smith
31. Book modification, Georgina Wilson
32. Early Modern Books and Phonography, Bruce R. Smith
33. Transience and loss, Alexandra Hill