A Guide to Early Printed Books and Manuscripts

A Guide to Early Printed Books and Manuscripts provides an introduction to the language and concepts employed in bibliographical studies and textual scholarship as they pertain to early modern manuscripts and printed texts  Winner, Honourable Mention for Literature, Language and Linguistics, American Publishers Prose Awards, 2010 Based almost exclusively on new primary research Explains the complex process of viewing documents as artefacts, showing readers how to describe documents properly and how to read their physical properties Demonstrates how to use the information gleaned as a tool for studying the transmission of literary documents Makes clear why such matters are important and the purposes to which such information is put Features illustrations that are carefully chosen for their unfamiliarity in order to keep the discussion fresh

Illustrative Materials viii Acknowledgments ix 1 A Guide for the Perplexed 1 2 Paper and Related Materials 22 3 The Structure of Documents 49 4 Producing Texts 83 5 Analysis and Evidence 122 6 Making Variants 149 7 Setting Conditions 183 8 Last Words 211 Selected Further Reading 219 Index 230