Preface to From History of the Book to History of Reading: Theories and Methods for Historical Studies of Reading

Abstract

The history of the book has benefitted enormously from its growth far beyond the focus on the early modern European context which first inspired it. The historians who helped found the field were fascinated by the development of printing in mid-15th century Europe and its impacts, including Febvre and Martin in 1958 then Eisenstein and Darnton in 1979-80. 1979-80. In literature Shakespeare was at the center of the most sophistical bibliographical studies, including for example Charlton Hinman's comparison of each page of fifty surviving copies of Shakespeare's first folio, to track the way in which errors were corrected during printing.