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The Resource Used books : marking readers in Renaissance England, William H. Sherman

Used books : marking readers in Renaissance England, William H. Sherman

Creator
Summary
From the Publisher: In a recent sale catalog, one bookseller apologized for the condition of a sixteenth-century volume as "rather soiled by use." When the book was displayed the next year, the exhibition catalogue described it as "well and piously used [with] marginal notations in an Elizabethan hand [that] bring to life an early and earnest owner"; and the book's buyer, for his part, considered it to be "enlivened by the marginal notes and comments." For this collector, as for an increasing number of cultural historians and historians of the book, a marked-up copy was more interesting than one in pristine condition. William H. Sherman recovers a culture that took the phrase "mark my words" quite literally. Books from the first two centuries of printing are full of marginalia and other signs of engagement and use, such as customized bindings, traces of food and drink, penmanship exercises, and doodles. These marks offer a vast archive of information about the lives of books and their place in the lives of their readers. Based on a survey of thousands of early printed books, Used Books describes what readers wrote in and around their books and what we can learn from these marks by using the tools of archaeologists as well as historians and literary critics. The chapters address the place of book-marking in schools and churches, the use of the "manicule" (the ubiquitous hand-with-pointing-finger symbol), the role played by women in information management, the extraordinary commonplace book used for nearly sixty years by Renaissance England's greatest lawyer-statesman, and the attitudes toward annotated books among collectors and librarians from the Middle Ages to the present. This wide-ranging, learned, and often surprising book will make the marks of Renaissance readers more visible and legible to scholars, collectors, and bibliophiles
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First paperback edition.
Extent
xx, 259 pages
Contents
  • List of ilustrations
  • Preface
  • Part 1: Of Marks And Methods
  • 1: Introduction: Used books
  • 2: Toward a history of the manicule
  • 3: Reading the matriarchive
  • Part 2: Reading And Religion
  • 4: Book thus put in every vulgar hand: marking the Bible
  • 5: Uncommon book of common prayer
  • Part 3: Remarkable Readers
  • 6: John Dee's Columbian encounter
  • 7: Sir Julius Caesar's search engine
  • Part 4: Renaissance Readers And Modern Collectors
  • 8: Dirty books? attitudes toward readers' marks
  • Afterword: Future of past readers
  • List of abbreviations
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index --Acknowledgments
Isbn
9780812220841
Instance
Label
Used books : marking readers in Renaissance England
Title
Used books
Title remainder
marking readers in Renaissance England
Statement of responsibility
William H. Sherman
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
From the Publisher: In a recent sale catalog, one bookseller apologized for the condition of a sixteenth-century volume as "rather soiled by use." When the book was displayed the next year, the exhibition catalogue described it as "well and piously used [with] marginal notations in an Elizabethan hand [that] bring to life an early and earnest owner"; and the book's buyer, for his part, considered it to be "enlivened by the marginal notes and comments." For this collector, as for an increasing number of cultural historians and historians of the book, a marked-up copy was more interesting than one in pristine condition. William H. Sherman recovers a culture that took the phrase "mark my words" quite literally. Books from the first two centuries of printing are full of marginalia and other signs of engagement and use, such as customized bindings, traces of food and drink, penmanship exercises, and doodles. These marks offer a vast archive of information about the lives of books and their place in the lives of their readers. Based on a survey of thousands of early printed books, Used Books describes what readers wrote in and around their books and what we can learn from these marks by using the tools of archaeologists as well as historians and literary critics. The chapters address the place of book-marking in schools and churches, the use of the "manicule" (the ubiquitous hand-with-pointing-finger symbol), the role played by women in information management, the extraordinary commonplace book used for nearly sixty years by Renaissance England's greatest lawyer-statesman, and the attitudes toward annotated books among collectors and librarians from the Middle Ages to the present. This wide-ranging, learned, and often surprising book will make the marks of Renaissance readers more visible and legible to scholars, collectors, and bibliophiles
Member of
Cataloging source
IT-FiEUI
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Sherman, William H.
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Material texts
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Books and reading
  • Marginalia
  • Renaissance
Label
Used books : marking readers in Renaissance England, William H. Sherman
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [232]-249) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
List of ilustrations -- Preface -- Part 1: Of Marks And Methods -- 1: Introduction: Used books -- 2: Toward a history of the manicule -- 3: Reading the matriarchive -- Part 2: Reading And Religion -- 4: Book thus put in every vulgar hand: marking the Bible -- 5: Uncommon book of common prayer -- Part 3: Remarkable Readers -- 6: John Dee's Columbian encounter -- 7: Sir Julius Caesar's search engine -- Part 4: Renaissance Readers And Modern Collectors -- 8: Dirty books? attitudes toward readers' marks -- Afterword: Future of past readers -- List of abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index --Acknowledgments
Control code
FIEB16672483
Dimensions
23 cm.
Edition
First paperback edition.
Extent
xx, 259 pages
Isbn
9780812220841
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)458285042
Label
Used books : marking readers in Renaissance England, William H. Sherman
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages [232]-249) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
List of ilustrations -- Preface -- Part 1: Of Marks And Methods -- 1: Introduction: Used books -- 2: Toward a history of the manicule -- 3: Reading the matriarchive -- Part 2: Reading And Religion -- 4: Book thus put in every vulgar hand: marking the Bible -- 5: Uncommon book of common prayer -- Part 3: Remarkable Readers -- 6: John Dee's Columbian encounter -- 7: Sir Julius Caesar's search engine -- Part 4: Renaissance Readers And Modern Collectors -- 8: Dirty books? attitudes toward readers' marks -- Afterword: Future of past readers -- List of abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index --Acknowledgments
Control code
FIEB16672483
Dimensions
23 cm.
Edition
First paperback edition.
Extent
xx, 259 pages
Isbn
9780812220841
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
(OCoLC)458285042

Subject

Member of

Library Locations

    • Badia FiesolanaBorrow it
      Via dei Roccettini 9, San Domenico di Fiesole, 50014, IT
      43.803074 11.283055

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