Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Vol. 2 (The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain) (Volume 2)

This is the first history of the book in Britain from the Norman Conquest until the early fifteenth century. The twenty-six expert contributors to this volume discuss the manuscript book from a variety of angles: as physical object (manufacture, format, writing and decoration); its purpose and readership (books for monasteries, for the Church's liturgy, for elementary and advanced instruction, for courtly entertainment); and as the vehicle for particular types of text (history, sermons, medical treatises, law and administration, music). In all of this, the broader, changing social and cultural context is kept in mind, and so are the various connections with continental Europe. The volume includes a full bibliography and 80 black and white plates. "The history of the book offers a distinctive form of access to the ways in which human beings have sought to give meaning to their own and others' lives. Our knowledge of the past derives mainly from texts. Landscape, architecture, sculpture, painting and the decorative arts have their stories to tell and may themselves be construed as texts; but oral tradition, manuscripts, printed books, and those other forms of inscription and incision such as maps, music and graphic images have a power to report even more directly on human experience and the events and thoughts which shaped it. The seven volumes of the History of the Book in Britain will help explain how these texts were created, why they took the forms they did, their relations with other media, and what influence they had on the minds and actions of those who heard, read or viewed them. Its range, too - in time, place and the great diversity of the conditions of text production, including reception - challenges any attempt to define its limits and give an account adequate to its complexity. It addresses, whether by period, country, genre or technology, widely disparate fields of enquiry, each of which demands and attracts its own forms of scholarship. The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain seeks to represent much of that variety. The volumes investigate the creation, material production, dissemination and reception of texts, effectively plotting the intellectual history of Britain."-- Provided by publisher "The history of the book offers a distinctive form of access to the ways in which human beings have sought to give meaning to their own and others' lives. Our knowledge of the past derives mainly from texts. Landscape, architecture, sculpture, painting and the decorative arts have their stories to tell and may themselves be construed as texts; but oral tradition, manuscripts, printed books, and those other forms of inscription and incision such as maps, music and graphic images have a power to report even more directly on human experience and the events and thoughts which shaped it. The seven volumes of the History of the Book in Britain will help explain how these texts were created, why they took the forms they did, their relations with other media, and what influence they had on the minds and actions of those who heard, read or viewed them. Its range, too - in time, place and the great diversity of the conditions of text production, including reception - challenges any attempt to define its limits and give an account adequate to its complexity. It addresses, whether by period, country, genre or technology, widely disparate fields of enquiry, each of which demands and attracts its own forms of scholarship. The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain seeks to represent much of that variety. The volumes investigate the creation, material production, dissemination and reception of texts, effectively plotting the intellectual history of Britain."--Publisher description 0......Page 1 00......Page 16 1......Page 24 2......Page 45 3......Page 62 4......Page 78 5-I......Page 98 5-II......Page 108 5-III......Page 120 6......Page 135 7......Page 161 8......Page 193 9......Page 220 10-1......Page 244 10.2......Page 255 10.3......Page 271 11......Page 277 12......Page 318 13.1......Page 344 13.2......Page 357 14......Page 368 15.1......Page 395 15.2......Page 409 15.3......Page 420 16......Page 427 17......Page 446 18.1......Page 476 18.2......Page 484 19......Page 494 20......Page 505 end......Page 519 end3......Page 523 end4......Page 596 26 expert contributions to this volumes discuss the manuscript book from a variety of angles: as physical object (manufacture, format, writing, and decoration), its purpose and readership, and as a vehicle for particular types of text (history, sermons, medical treatises, law and administration, music)