History of Books & Bookmaking
writing and writing systems, reading, bookbinding & form, printing
For layout, book design, and type design as they relate to reading, see the section on Typography. For something about what's next, see Future of Books.
Readers wishing for a discussion of the topics detailed below should consult Barbara's essay on the History of books. A few very fascinated readers may also wish to turn to our section on the Future of books, by Emily-Jane and Karen.
- Arvin, Leila. Scribes, script and books : the book arts from antiquity to the Renaissance. Chicago : American Library Association, 1991.
- Brown, Michelle P. The British Library guide to writing and scripts : history and techniques. London ; Toronto : British Library ; University of Toronto Press, 1998.
- Chartier, Roger. The order of books. Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, 1994.
- Coe, Michael D. Breaking the Maya code, revised edition. New York : Thames & Hudson, 1999.
- Coulmas, Florian. The Blackwell encyclopedia of writing systems. Oxford : Cambridge, MA : Blackwell Publishers, 1999.
- Coulmas, Florian. The writing systems of the world. Oxford ; Cambridge, MA : Blackwell, 1991.
- Dahl, Svend. History of the book. Metechun, NJ : Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1968.
- Daniels, Peter T., and William Bright. The world's writing systems. New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Diringer, David. The alphabet. New York : Funk and Wagnalls, 1948, revised edition published 1968.
- Drucker, Johanna. The alphabetic labyrinth : letters in the history and imagination. New York : Thames and Hudson, 1995, 1999.
- Firmage, Richard A. The alphabet abecedarium : some notes on letters. Boston ; London : D.A. Godine ; Bloomsbury, 1993, 2000.
- Gaur, Albertine. A history of writing. London ; New York : British Library ; Cross River Press, 1992.
also published in Spanish as Historia de la escritura (Madrid : Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruipéfrez : Pirámide, 1990), and in Japanese as Moji no rekishi (Tokyo : Hara Shobo, 1987).
A clear, richly illustrated account of the roots and application of writing systems.
- Gaur, Albertine. Literacy and the politics of writing. Oxford ; Bristol UK ; Portland OR : Intellect, 2000.
Gaur discusses the primary purposes of writing, the impact of writing on literacy, and considers the two concepts within the infrastructure of societies. Clearly written, this book provides a great deal of information on ancient systems of writing, including their use as systems for storing and communicating pictures, numbers and numerical concepts. See particularly chapter 11, "What is a book?."
- Goudy, Frederic W. The alphabet and Elements of lettering. New York : Dover, 1963.
- A history of reading in the West, edited by Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier. Oxford : Polity Press, 1999.
- Lundmark, Torbjörn. Quirky qwerty : the story of the keyboard @ your fingertips. Sydney, NSW : UNSW Press, 2002.
- Man, John. Alpha beta : how 26 letters shaped the Western world. New York ; London : John Wiley & Sons ; Headline, 2000, 2001.
Includes a detailed bibliography and appendices with a genealogical chart of alphabets and charts of the letters of some major alphabets with their commonly accepted transliterations.
- Manguel, Alberto. A history of reading. New York : Viking, 1996.
- Martin, Henri Jean. The history and power of writing. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1994.
- Nakanishi, Akira. Writing systems of the world : alphabets, syllabaries, pictograms. Rutland, VT; Tokyo : C.E. Tuttle Co., 1980, 1990.
- Nesbitt, Alexander. The history and technique of lettering. New York : Dover, 1957, 1998.
Also published under the title Lettering : the history and technique of lettering as design. New York : Prentice-Hall, 1950.
- The origins of writing, edited by Wayne Senner. Missoula, MT ; London : University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
- Ouaknin, Marc-Alain. Mysteries of the alphabet : the origins of writing. New York : Abbeville Press, 1999.
- Parkinson, R.B., et al. Cracking codes : the Rosetta stone and decipherment. Berkeley ; London : University of California Press, British Museum Press, 1999.
- Pope, Maurice. The story of decipherment : from Egyptian hieroglyphs to Maya script, revised edition. New York : Thames & Hudson, 1999.
- Posner, Ernst. Archives in the ancient world. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1972.
- Robinson, Andrew. Lost languages : the enigma of the world's great undeciphered scripts. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2002.
- Robinson, Andrew. The story of writing. London ; New York : Thames & Hudson, 1995, 1999.
- Sassoon, Rosemary, and Albertine Gaur. Signs, symbols and icons : pre-history to the computer age. Exeter : Intellect, 1997.
- Steinberg, S.H. Five hundred years of printing. London : The British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 1996.
- Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin. Written on bamboo and silk : the beginnings of Chinese books and inscriptions. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1962.
- Ancient Scripts.com.
Lawrence K. Lo, 11 May 2002.
- Art and books web site.
Sue Wood. Charles Sturt University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (New South Wales, Australia), February 2000 - February 2003.
A general overview of art in the book format, from medieval Europe to the computer age, with extensive links to related websites.
- Book history online.
Koninklijke Bibliotheek/ National Library of The Netherlands.
A database of titles of books and articles on the history of the printed book worldwide, based on the Annual bibliography of the history of the printed book and libraries. Contains citations published from 1990 onwards.
- Duke papyrus archive.
Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University, 2000.
- History of books and printing : a research guide.
Humanities and Social Science Library, The Research Libraries, New York Public Library.
This guide to books and other printed materials is intended for users of the New York Public Library, and is somewhat tailored to its collection; but many of the resources described here are widely available and the guide should prove useful to anyone interested in book history.
- The illustrated book : a survey of genres.
Richard Minsky, Colophon Gallery.
- Images of manuscripts.
Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, 1999-2003.
Images of Western manuscripts dated 1500 and earlier, from the library's collection.
- Information about the efforts to decipher the Phaistos disk.
Anthony P. Svoronos, 1998.
- Lindisfarne gospels.
British Library, 1997-2001.
- Literaryresources -- bibliography and history of the book.
Jack Lynch, Rutgers University (Newark Campus).
A selective bibliography of the history of the book.
- Resources for the history of books and printing.
Daniel Traister, 2001.
- SHARP web.
Patrick Leary, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing, 22 July 2004.
* Asterisks mark items Emily-Jane considers to be especially interesting, useful, or well-written.