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Late 19th-century Singapore is considered the centre for the printing and distribution of Muslim-Malay lithographed texts in the Malay archipelago. In 1890, the island's print output was approximately six million pages, with many of these printed from lithography. Thus informed, our recent readings of Singapore's role in regional histories of the printed book tend to locate its prominence along contemporary, national lines – this is anachronistic. The island, historically, was neither nation nor state, but a British colonial settlement. Singapore's advantageous geographical position certainly established it as a prominent site for book production and distribution. However, the existing corpus of lithographed publications, printed at multiple localities, indicate a broader range of regional locations involved in Muslim printing. These texts, from mushaf to syair, often feature printed defects and paratextual marks on their pages. Informed by approaches from analytical bibliography and printing history, the materiality of these marks and defects can be 'read' to identify specific print production techniques. These, in turn, suggest printing methods that were common in British and Dutch territories, and beyond – an indication of the mobility of techniques, materials, and practitioners within the lithographic trade, and the collaborative nature of print enterprises in the Malay world. By discussing these printed marks, this article will (a) re-situate and revise our understanding of interactions and practices within the Muslim-Malay lithographic printing trade; and (b) posit the notion that late 19th-century Singapore is not the locus, but one of several sites of significance within a regional 'constellation' of printing activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable theatrical history of Joseph Addison's 1713 tragedy Cato is well known, but the play is also an exceptional case in book history. This essay looks in detail at its two entirely distinct "first" editions. It resolves the relationship between these two editions and considers the quite different problems they raise for the bibliographer: the one of how we distinguish between edition and issue in a context of frenzied publication, standing type, and incremental resetting; the other, of how a manifestly substandard and suspicious edition came to carry the self-proclaimed hallmark of the play's true publisher, Jacob Tonson. The early print history of Addison's Cato , this essay shows, both puts pressure on the language of bibliography and also marks an important and revealing episode in a number of larger histories: those of the Tonson house, of book piracy and copyright protection, and of the bestseller. Appendices provide bibliographical descriptions of the 1713 Qα and Qβ editions, press variants of the earliest three issues of Qα, and uncorrected errors in Qβ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Oxford History of the Book" is a collection of essays edited by James Raven that challenges the idea of a singular history of the book. The essays explore various aspects of book production, including ancient forms of record-keeping, the impact of printing technologies, and the role of publishers and booksellers. The collection also considers the influence of digital culture on the book industry. With its diverse perspectives and global scope, this volume offers a thought-provoking exploration of the history and future of the book. [Extracted from the article]

This research note offers a contextual overview of the printing history of Johann Blaeu's 1646 octavo edition of Hugo Grotius's De iure belli ac pacis (IBP). The note examines the printing process of the last edition that was prepared while Grotius was still alive, though it was published after his death. The note also sheds light on the theological dimension of some readers' annotations, and concludes by discussing the impact this edition had on the modern versions of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the circumstances in which the Declaration of Arbroath was first printed in 1680 by Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh and the original manuscript on which Mackenzie's text was based (NRS SP13/7). It then traces its subsequent print history between the Revolution of 1689–90 and the Union of Parliaments in 1707 both in Latin and in an English translation that first appeared in 1689. It locates the Declaration within the broader context of whig propaganda that encompassed a defence not just of the Revolution Settlement but of Scottish sovereignty at the time of the Union, culminating in James Anderson's new edition and translation of the text of 1705. An appendix further examines the earliest reference to the Declaration in print – in Archbishop John Spottiswoode's History of the Church in Scotland (1655) – and Spottiswoode's use of a manuscript copy of Walter Bower's Scotichronicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how digital methodologies expand the capabilities of book history scholarship through a case study of the Women's Print History Project. The WPHP is a database of thousands of bibliographical records about printed books linked to records about the persons and business firms that created them. Using what we call "radical descriptivism" tempered with "radical skepticism," we explore how traces of women's labor exist in plain sight and how books can obscure and reveal gendered norms. We conclude that incorporating gender studies and digital methodologies into the history of print moves us closer to the capacious potential of the sociology of the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyse the second volume of Pérez Goyena's Ensayo de bibliografía navarra, a compendium of prints published between 1601 and 1700. The work is not without erratas and other shortcomings, and so it needs to be updated with the introduction of new findings. Methodology: This work explores the bibliographer's method and techniques for studying prints and books in the kingdom of Navarre during the seventeenth century. To do so, a variety of approaches have been applied: for instance, the location and consultation of exemplars in local, provincial and national libraries and digital resources (for foreign libraries), and the study of documents such as trials, notarial protocols and administrative documentation, mostly from the General Archive of Navarre. Results: Along with new testimonies located in libraries and archives, the study highlights the problems facing the attempts to update the history of books and printing in Navarre in the seventeenth century and prepares the way for future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two recent monographs address distinct but interrelated aspects of China's modern publishing industry. The interplay between intellectuals and the state, the transformation of the publishing industry via foreign knowledge, and the modification of Chinese social, cultural, and legal practices by evolving approaches to the production and distribution of knowledge are among the themes of modern Chinese history common to both studies. Researchers of book culture, publishing and printing history, cultural history, the history of media and popular culture, or intellectual history will find these books valuable. This essay discusses the following works. Robert Culp. The Power of Print in Modern China: Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019. 371 pp. $65.00 (cloth). | Fei-Hsien Wang. Pirates and Publishers: A Social History of Copyright in Modern China. Histories of Economic Life Series. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. 350 pp. $39.95 (cloth). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of printing and print culture is a dynamic and wide-ranging field of study, as the articles in this special issue demonstrate. By way of background, this introductory article briefly outlines the development of the field and highlights a number of controversial issues that have arisen within it. Although often considered part of 'the history of the book' (or 'book history'), much of the history of printing is concerned with the quotidian production of non-book material including a vast variety of ephemeral printed items known as 'jobbing printing'. Printed items, both books and ephemera, have made a significant contribution to the history of the Midlands. In particular, printing played a key role in the industrial development of the region and in the 'Midlands Enlightenment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Istros Publishing House of the “Carol I” Museum of Brăila has made available to readers interested in the field of book history an imposing “comprehensive volume” (848 pages), bearing the signature of historian and bibliologist Doru Bădără, on the occasion of reaching the age of 70. Renowned specialist in the field of old books and the history of Romanian printing, PhD in the Middle History of Romania, Mr. Doru Bădără has a rich publishing activity. The Foreword and the Word from the Publishing House belong to the friend and former schoolmate, the university professor PhD Ionel Cândea. In the volume edited by Niculae Ravici-Tătăranu, 80 articles and studies published between 1980-1919 are reproduced, mostly representing the texts of the papers presented at various scientific events which were initially printed in well-known scientific periodicals. In general, his subjects were inspired by the rich old book collection of the Central University Library in Bucharest, where Mr. Bădără has worked without interruption since 1972 and until now; since 2001, as head of the Bibliophilia Department. Manuscripts and Restoration. Created with his well-known scientific meticulousness, the articles and studies were grouped in ten thematic chapters: The History of the Romanian Book and Printing; Bibliophily; Manuscripts; Bibliology; Brăila Studies; Vary; Notes; Reviews; Prefaces; In Memoriam. The publisher’s care to print the volume in the best graphic conditions is noticeable. Due to the diversity of topics approached with a lot of professionalism, given that we do not have access to many periodicals, the anniversary volume is welcome in the Romanian publishing landscape and can be a good model to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is a seminal essay in the study of media history, the work itself gives a surprisingly brief account of one of field’s core subjects: the printing press. Books and literature present only a special case of mechanical reproduction, according to Benjamin, but the implications of this point remain largely unexplored by scholars. The purpose of this essay is to ask why Benjamin would have considered print to be different or less historically consequential compared to photography and cinema when the revolutionary potential he ascribes to these more recent technologies is also prefigured in his other writings on books and literature. Answering this question helps to create a sharper picture of what matters to Benjamin about new media and also points to figures like Georg Lukács who influenced Benjamin’s account of technology and art. Ultimately, this line of questioning also raises concerns about the place of the “Work of Art” essay in the study of media history, a field in which the signal error is to treat new media as unprecedented developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Writing, books and libraries have been around since antiquity, but their millennia-long evolution has seen difficult periods of transition. In the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic area, archaeological discoveries have uncovered evidence of writing dating back to the Palaeolithic. These include the first cave paintings in Romania, discovered in the Cuciulat Cave (Sălaj County), the Coliboaia Cave (Bihor County) and the Gaura Chindiei Cave (Caraș-Severin County). The typography appeared after long researches and multiple attempts, with the aim of eliminating all the shortcomings encountered by writing throughout its history, each stage in the history of writing entering our country shortly after it made its presence felt at European level. Subsequently, the interest in grouping and preserving these writings arose, and it was in this context that libraries appeared. In Romania, the history of libraries and books was connected both to the socio-cultural situation of the time and to the specific characteristics of this territory, characterized at the same time by a certain openness to Western culture. The fact that contemporary libraries preserve and supply a wide variety of documents indicates that the written text, in whatever form it has appeared throughout history, can endure through these millennia-old cultural institutions. By welcoming the public with unusual, rare collections of documents, these institutions are transforming their traditional role as repositories of information and becoming providers and creators of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay talks about the Book History Workshop at the Texas A&M University. It states that the Workshop has proved useful for students of bibliography, printing history, and textual studies. According to bibliographer Ronald B. McKerrow, for understanding books, a student needs to understand all the processes of starting a book to finishing the book. Prominent bibliographer Philip Gaskell is mentioned.

This article presents four detailed case studies of sixteenth-century vernacular translations of Sacrobosco’s De sphaera. Previous scholarship has highlighted the important role of Sacrobosco’s Sphere in medieval and early modern universities, where it served as an introductory astronomy text. We argue that the Sphere was more than a university teaching text. It was translated many times and was accessible to a wide range of people. The popularity of the Sphere suggests widespread interest in cosmological questions. We suggest that the text was a profitable one for early modern printers, who strove to identify books that would be reliable sellers. We also argue that the Sphere was not a static text. Rather, translators and editors added commentaries and other supplemental material that corrected and updated Sacrobosco’s original text and demonstrated the practical utility of this information. We contend that the Sphere was actually an important vehicle for disseminating new information about the cosmos. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the history of the book in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Three periods are discussed: early settlement through early 19th century; the 19th century up to the time Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949; and, briefly, contemporary history. Topics discussed include books brought into the colony from the late 16th century, the predominantly religious nature of early reading habits, the establishment of the first printing operations in 1807, and developments in the 20th century.

The article presents information about papers presented at the conference "The Book Triumphant: The Book in the Second Century of Print, 1540-1640" held in September 2009 at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Topics discussed include the Universal Short Title Catalogue project at the university and other databases of early books, and topics in early European printing history.

The article discusses the publishing history of the book "Black Reconstruction in America," by W.E.B. Du Bois, illustrating how Du Bois' struggle to fin d a publisher mirrored the socio-political struggles of the early 20th century. It describes the historiographical debate among scholars regarding the Reconstruction era in the U.S., the policies and characteristics of publishing houses in the early 20th century, and the popular reception of Du Bois' book after it was published. Other subjects under discussion include the publishing company Harcourt, Brace, & Co., the African American perspective on the history of the U.S. Civil War, and the sales figures of Du Bois' book.

The article looks at the book "The Actions & Doctine & Other Passages touching Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," edited by the community of Little Gidding, England for King Charles I in 1635. The book was created by cutting and pasting sections from other existing books. The history of Little Gidding is reviewed, including the appearance of the Ferrar family. The importance of the Church of England among residents of Little Gidding is discussed. Controversies related to the inclusion of images within a religious text are mentioned.

This article aims to introduce research on book and library history in the Nordic and Baltic countries during the last ten to fifteen years. The role of historical subjects in library and information science (LIS) curricula has diminished in all curricula in Europe. As a result, a threat to the continuity of academic research can be observed. The books and articles on book and library history published in the Nordic and Baltic countries are difficult to access for the international community of researchers, as a majority of them have been published only in local languages. This article presents the main achievements in the history of the book, printing, publishing and the book trade, and library history. The publications presented in the article reflect the personal choice of the author. In 2006 Nordic and Baltic researchers joined the scholarly network HIBOLIRE (History of Books, Libraries and Reading). The activities of the network are financed by the Nordforsk Foundation. The aim of the network is to enhance collaboration between individual researchers and their home institutions, as well as to intensify doctoral studies and contacts between doctoral students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the early modern practice by book publishers and printers of post-dating works published at the end of a year. Several works detailing the purchase of post-dated pamphlets and books are considered including "Catlogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts Relating to the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Restoration, Collected by George Thomason, 1640-1661," and "The Luttrell File: Narcissus Luttrell’s Dates on Contemporary Pamphlets 1678-1730," by Stephen Parks.