Book Modification

Abstract

Abstract This chapter thinks through the generative and literary affordances of book modification, including manuscript additions, cutting, erasing, binding, the addition of paper inserts, conservation, and digitalization. The chapter uses a range of original case studies drawn from rare book collections to show that book modification is simultaneously a cognitive, textual, and material act. The intervention of readers, binders, printers, and book collectors from the early modern period to the present day raises the question of when, if ever, a book can be said to be ‘finished’. Book modification, in its broadest sense, provides the trace of the life of the book through time, resisting the restrictive periodization of ‘the early modern book’ as a category error. Overall this chapter demonstrates the instability of the text which always exists in a state of modification and mediation.