Out of Sorts: On Typography and Print Culture. By JOSEPH A. DANE.

Abstract

Joseph Dane continues his sceptical evaluation of the philosophical nature of ‘facts’ and ‘evidence’ that he previously discussed in detail in The Myth of Print Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003) and Abstractions of Evidence (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009). Criticizing David Bradshaw's assertion that facts tell their own story, without the need for rigorous and detailed interpretation, Dane here offers an exposition of so-called bibliographical ‘grand narratives’, or models of thinking about bibliography that, Dane argues, obscure what the actual evidence might tell us. Sometimes, as Dane shows, the comparison between repeated grand narratives and looking hard at the evidence can produce some startling differences. Such post-structuralist viewpoints are often criticised for maligning what we have come to accept as a given; yet such studies can and will serve as important reminders to bibliographers and book historians alike that evidence should be prioritized over predefined assumptions of critical interpretation. The trick, perhaps, is to report these new readings in ways that are meaningful and incontrovertible.