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This article argues that "although the change of cognitive paradigm that supposes the irruption of the digital thing in the daily life is unprecedented, the way in which the users appropriate the Internet and the representations that awaken certain virtual novelties have deep roots in the past, and in this sense, revising the History of the Book and the Reading contributes to tempering some preoccupations" (Ravettino Destefanis 2016). Therefore, this article suggests a retrospective look at the progress of book support and the successive changes in reading habits to show how the digital era embraces a more technological than cultural revolution-precisely because, as we will see, several customs are reproductions of the past-. As evidence, some hypertext narratives develop experimental writings in accordance with literary heritage - even though it uses the technological and digital resources of the present. Then, will it be possible to speak of a resounding change in the modes of literary production and consumption? Or is it rather the deepening of old literacy practices? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reading of the book of Wisdom leaves one with the impression of having listened to a splendid oratorio. The musical image of chapter 19, with some technical precision, confirms this impression. In fact, this poetic work of 502 verses, enveloped in mystery about its authorship and debate about its date of composition, is replete with sentiments of wonder before the harmony of the works of God. This paper is part of a broader study that seeks to describe the evolution of the author's discourse with regard to the composition history of the sections making up the book. For each section there is an attempt to grasp the interpretative implications of the literary analysis. The current article concentrates on the third part of the book, the sunkrisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reading of the book of Wisdom leaves one with the impression of having listened to a splendid oratorio. The musical image of chapter 19, with some technical precision, confirms this impression. In fact, this poetic work of 502 verses, enveloped in mystery about its authorship and debate about its date of composition, is replete with sentiments of wonder before the harmony of the works of God. This paper is part of a broader study that seeks to describe the evolution of the author's discourse with regard to the composition history of the sections making up the book. For each section there is an attempt to grasp the interpretative implications of the literary analysis. The current article concentrates on the third part of the book, the sunkrisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers criticism of the royalist book "Faerie Leveller" by Samuel Sheppard. It outlines the history and prophecy of the book. The author discusses the depiction of the poems of poet Edmund Spencer. The highlight of the Second Civil War and the besieged royal army during the war are also noted.

This paper studies professionals, a group particularly relevant to Scottish reading culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A variety of case studies are used, drawing on evidence such as library borrowing records, evidence of book ownership, and readers' diaries and lists of books read. Issues explored include the private libraries that professionals built, the balance between work-related reading and their wider recreational reading interests, how professionals compared to other readers in Scotland and further afield, and change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to create viable bookblocks, binders presented with problematic textblocks resorted to a number of strategies to create out of what they were given the gatherings they needed in order to sew the books and allow boards and/or covers to be attached to them. These are what might be called “binders' gatherings” as they are quite distinct from the gatherings envisaged by the writers or printers of books, and often cut across them in ways that can confuse those who try to work out how the books were first printed or written. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A biography of literary historian Amy Annie Cruse is presented, with focus given to her importance to the development of the field of book and reading history. The author argues that Cruse's reputation has suffered among reading historians due to the lack of adequate referencing employed in her works, which he attributes to Cruse's wish to allow readers of her work to appreciate historic English literature in the way that past readers had.

Why should designers of digital reading environments study the history of the book? What can the continuities and discontinuities—the successes and failures—of new developments in the book's long history teach us about its possible futures! Questions such as these often go unasked in commercial e-book design and other domains that emphasize technical innovation as their only criterion for evaluating the past. However, new reading environments challenge us to understand the role of material forms in meaning-making, and to situate e-books and digital reading devices within the changing history of books and reading. This article explores that rationale as embodied by the Architectures of the Book (ArchBook) project, an online, open-access, and peer-reviewed collection of richly illustrated essays about specific design features in the history of the book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anachronism is a particularly useful conceptual mechanism for unpacking the ways in which the work of a writer such as Carroll exemplifies the paradoxical temporality of representation at a transformative moment in media history. Retracing the late nineteenth-century circulatory networks in which images of Carroll's Alice moved from illustrated printed book, through the extractive distortions of a voracious reviewing system encompassing periodicals, magazines and newspapers, into the visual sphere of theatrical, magic lantern and early cinematic mediation, this article reveals the contours of a distinctively modern literary system at work. All these various media formations were governed to a greater or lesser extent by the logic of immediacy, of drawing the reader/viewer up close or projecting them into the same space as Alice, or alternatively, of projecting Alice backwards and forwards across time and space at the will of the reader. This article argues that the tantalizing prospect of bringing Alice to life that these various media promise, of literally being able to reach out and touch her as if she was there, is inherently anachronistic in it technological utopianism, that is, if we accept Gillian Rose's suggestive concept of anachronism as “the time in which we may not be, and yet we must imagine we will have been.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study of book history is in its infancy in South Africa, with a small group of scholars working in the area and little sense of a shared body of literature, which could be used as foundational texts for those wishing to conduct research in this field. This article describes an attempt to map the terrain of book and print culture studies in South Africa to date. Although it is only in recent years that writings have come to be grouped under a broader heading of book history (whether at conferences or in special issues of journals), work has been done in this field since the early twentieth century. This is similar to the situation in other countries, where the 'accidental' growth of book history has meant that a great deal of work has been done on a wide variety of relevant topics. The article describes key strands in the literature, including print history, publishing history, the overlap with literary history, and studies of readership and reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses reading and contextualism. The author describes contextualist doctrine in relation to reading, the history of the book, and the cognitive science of reading. The author discusses the role of reading in analysis of issues. Other topics include the relationship between context and meaning, historicism and historical interpretation in reading, the role of Marxism aesthetics in reading, and the book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad.

The article reports on a June 2010 conference of the History Seminar at the University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland, and the Art History Institute of the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, on the theme "Book Practices and Book Lore 1450 -1757." The focus of the meeting was on the contents of books in the pre-modern and early modern eras and how to deal with the flood of books and information from the 17th century forward.

The article discusses the history of the book in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Three periods are discussed: early settlement through early 19th century; the 19th century up to the time Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949; and, briefly, contemporary history. Topics discussed include books brought into the colony from the late 16th century, the predominantly religious nature of early reading habits, the establishment of the first printing operations in 1807, and developments in the 20th century.

Historical and literary studies of the history of the book and of reading habits in modern Anglo-American history tend to approach their subject either from the perspective of readers and publishers or from that of authors. The former works constitute a nascent historiography, addressing the problem of how the material book was used to create and replicate culture; the latter studies are more concerned with how literary authors used texts to influence and negotiate culture. This article critically reviews the two bodies of scholarship and identifies the importance of copyright and reprinting; it comments on the value of transnational or other broad studies as opposed to specific investigations of a particular canonical text or local publishing/reading community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo presenta un estudio del editor de la revista "istor" sobre la historia del libro. El autor hace referencias a los libros "La Breve historia del libro en México," escrito por Ernesto de la Torre Villar y "Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España (1492-1914)," colaborado por Víctor Infantes, François Lopez y Jean-François Botrel. El artículo discute la historia de los precios de libros y la bibliografía.

This paper analyzes the availability of books and other reading materials in Monroe County, Indiana, through 1850. It examines both unpublished and published primary sources as well as secondary sources to reveal that books and reading were part of life on the western frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents author's description, evaluation and speculative trend-setting of some recent books of the Nineteenth Century. Some of these include Zastrozzi: A Romance by Percy Bysshe Shelley and edited by Stephen C. Behrendt, Life in the Sick-Room by Harriet Martineau and edited by Maria H. Frawley and The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The time of presentation of these books is marked by downward swing in monograph publication. However, there were a variety of primary texts in the market. The author gives a brief outline of different books of the time.

Analyzes how social, economic and cultural factors converge to influence the creation and uses of print in the U.S. Influence of political climate on the history of books; Notions about the distribution of books; Overview of studies on the role of print in the lives of readers.