Studying Early Printed Books, 1450–1800: A Practical Guide. By Sarah Werner

Abstract

‘For more than forty years,’ wrote Philip Gaskell on the first page of his A New Introduction to Bibliography (1973), ‘R. B. McKerrow's An introduction to bibliography for literary students has been the only adequate exposition of its subject.’ Another forty or more years has passed and now it is time for Gaskell to cede the floor in turn. Sarah Werner's readable, usable, teachable book is now the go-to volume for the resurgent academic and, especially, pedagogical interest in old books. This new appeal has been encouraged by the availability of digitized surrogates online, by exciting new scholarship connecting the material and the literary, and by the heroic efforts of special collections librarians and faculty to bring early printed books into the literature classroom. Werner's is the indispensable practical guide to this reshaped discipline. While she does not ignore the technical aspects of book production, it is her attentiveness...