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book: The Book by Design
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The Book by Design

The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention
  • Edited by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2023

About this book

A richly illustrated look at some of the British Library’s most beautiful books from around the world.
 
For centuries across the world, books have been created as objects of beauty, with bookmakers lavishing great care on their paper, binding materials, illustrations, and lettering.
 
The Book by Design, featuring an array of books from the British Library's collection, focuses on the sensory experience of holding and reading these objects. Each selection represents a specific moment in the development of what we know today as the book—from scrolls and bound illuminated manuscripts to paperbacks and formatted digital information. These range from the seventh century to the present and include examples from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, in addition to a look at book traditions in Africa and Oceania. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, the works of Chaucer, Russian Futurist books, limited editions, historic copies of the Qur’an and the Bible, mass-market paperbacks, and more come together to tell the visual, tactile, artistic, and cultural history of books.
 
Expert curators and specialists explore these books from the perspective of design and manufacturing, original art photographs offer vivid representations of their textures and materials, and graphics detail the size and specifications of each book. Offering a wide-ranging look at the creation and use of books, illustrated with hundreds of color images, this volume is itself an object of beauty.
 

Author / Editor information

P.J.M Marks is a curator of bookbindings at the British Library. Stephen Parkin is a curator of the British Library’s printed heritage collections, 1450–1600.
 

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    Frontmatter

    1
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    Contents

    4
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    The Contributors

    8
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    Introduction

    10
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    I. THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS

    16
    Eleanor Jackson
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    Feature: ETHIOPIA, AFRICAN SCRIBES AND THE ILLUSTRATED APOCALYPSE

    26
    Eyob Derillo
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    II. THE DIAMOND SUTRA PRINTED IN 868

    28
    Mélodie Doumy
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    Feature: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAPER

    38
    Lucy Vinten
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    III. THE ARNSTEIN BIBLE

    40
    Kathleen Doyle
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    Feature: KING HENRY VIII’S COPY OF THE ‘GREAT BIBLE’

    48
    Karen Limper-Herz
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    IV. THE GOLDEN HAGGADAH

    50
    Ilana Tahan
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    V. THE QUEEN MARY PSALTER

    60
    Kathleen Doyle
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    Feature: THE HARMONIES OF LITTLE GIDDING

    70
    Felicity Myrone
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    VI. THE MAINZ PSALTER OF 1457

    74
    Adrian S. Edwards
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    VII. HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI

    84
    Stephen Parkin
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    Feature: BODONI’S MANUALE TIPOGRAFICO AND HIS FOLLOWERS

    94
    Valentina Mirabella
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    VIII. AKBAR’S KHAMSAH OF NIZAMI

    96
    Ursula Sims-Williams
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    IX. THE SHAKESPEARE FIRST FOLIO OF 1623

    106
    Adrian S. Edwards
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    Feature: THE TITLE PAGE AND OTHER PARATEXTS

    116
    Stephen Parkin
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    X. EXCERPTS FROM THE TALE OF GENJI

    118
    Hamish Todd
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    Feature: A MODERN MESOAMERICAN CODEX

    130
    Mercedes Aguirre
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    XI. WILLIAM LEIGHTON’S THE TEARES OR LAMENTACIONS OF A SORROWFULL SOULE

    132
    James Ritzema and Christopher Scobie
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    Feature: THE DESIGN OF HUMAN ATLASES

    142
    Sophie Defrance
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    XII. A DESCRIPTION OF THREE HUNDRED ANIMALS

    146
    Lucy Evans
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    Feature: MINIATURE BOOKS: THEIR CHARM AND PURPOSE

    154
    Helen Peden and Annalisa Ricciardi
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    XIII. A QUR’AN FROM ACEH

    158
    Annabel Teh Gallop
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    XIV. OWEN JONES’S THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT

    168
    Edmund M. B. King
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    Feature: AMERICAN PUBLISHERS’ BINDINGS, NINETEENTH CENTURY

    178
    Edmund M. B. King
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    XV. THE BUDDHA’S LAST BIRTH TALE

    180
    Jana Igunma
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    Feature: A MATERIAL IDENTITY IN OCEANIA BOOK DESIGN

    190
    Lucy Rowland
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    XVI. AUDUBON’S THE BIRDS OF AMERICA

    192
    Felicity Myrone
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    Feature: ‘AN ERROR OF TASTE’: SMITHERS, BEARDSLEY AND THE SAVOY

    202
    Alex Kither
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    XVII. THE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER

    204
    Helen Peden
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    Feature: TWENTIETH-CENTURY TYPEFACES

    214
    Philip Parker
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    XVIII. SADOK SUDEI AND OTHER FUTURIST BOOKS FROM RUSSIA

    216
    Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia
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    Feature: CARTONERA BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS

    226
    Iris Bachmann and Annalisa Ricciardi
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    XIX. CENTURY

    228
    Philip Parker
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    Feature: PENGUIN BOOKS AND THE PAPERBACK REVOLUTION

    236
    Philip Parker
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    XX. SEA AIR

    238
    Jeremy Jenkins
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    Feature: WOMEN PUBLISHERS AND DESIGNERS

    248
    Alexandra Pringle
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    XXI. EDITIONS AT PLAY

    250
    Giulia Carla Rossi
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    Feature: BOOK DESIGN AS AN AGENT OF CONSERVATION

    258
    Katie McElvanney
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    Epilogue

    260
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    Glossary

    262
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    Notes

    265
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    Further Reading

    275
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    Index

    281
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    Credits

    287
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    QR Codes

    288
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 19, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9780226824109
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226824109
eBook ISBN: 9780226824109
Keywords for this book
art; artist; curators; illustrations; bookmaker; lettering; binding materials; design; manuscripts; scrolls; paperbacks; library; digital; cultural history; photography; pictures; manufacture; Asia; Europe; North America; Russia; Bible
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
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