Books as History
by David Pearson
(2008: Oak Knoll Press)
The threat, or promise, of the e-book is that it will replace the physical format of the book by becoming a completely acceptable, or improved, surrogate, without changing the communicative experience in any significant way.
Page 15.
Most people still find a book a far more comfortable option for reading a text than a desktop or handheld computer screen, and we typically print our electronically-transmitted texts out onto paper to read them. We are still waiting for e the e-book, with its e-paper, which is genuinely as convenient to red as the paperback we read on our lap, on the train, or in the bath.
Page 19.
Much of the veneration with which books have been surrounded for so long is to do with texts and ideas, and their transmission, rather than with the books as objects.
Page 22.
Books have, in their three-dimensional formats, physical characteristics which have both affected the ways in which their contents have been received, and been exploited for their artefactual potential.
Page 22.
The book as a text is something which is open to various kinds of surrogacy, but the book as an object is something for which there is no complete substitute. The qualities they have as objects are not only part of the history of communication, but also of the history of art and design.
Page 22.
Books, down the ages, have not been lifeless intermediaries in between authors and readers; their physical reality has been fully exploited for the opportunity for interaction between texts and their recipients. … A book can be written in, defaced, altered, beautified or cherished, to produce a preservable object with an individual history.
Page 22.
Books develop their own individual histories which become part of our wider historical heritage.
Page 23.
If we wish to truly understand their influence and standing among their contemporaries, we should look at the ways in which books were treated at the time.
Pages 23-24.
People like to be represented in association with books; it lends them an air of seriousness and knowledge.
Page 27.
The meaning or interpretation of a text is not something absolute, but is endlessly recreated through the experience of successive readers; typography, layout, physical format and everything surrounding the words themselves all contribute to the framework within which meaning is constructed.
Page 34.
Books are effective, as well as satisfying, objects.
Page 39.
Understanding the history of books, and the communication of ides through books, needs to take into account the impact of their physical forms and of the ways in which these may have influenced the perceptions and expectations of the readers.
Page 39.
The way in which a text is physically presented to its readers preconditions them, to some extent, before a word is read; someone opening a handsomely produced book is likely to have some innate expectations about its content influenced by the form and design, which will be subtly different from the expectations generated by opening a cheap, unattractively produced one.
Page 39.
Relatively cheap and humble books have had more impact on more people, through their accessibility and effectiveness in communicating, than grand and imposing ones.
Page 40.
Books become part of, and testify to, the aesthetics and values of their time.
Page 41.
A chronological succession of the book cover used for a particular test can similarly provide a snapshot of changing cultural values of attitudes towards authors and their works.
Page 43.
The typefaces in widespread use today in the English-speaking world are much influenced by the work of Stanley Morrison (1889-1967), who … designed the Times New Roman face for The Times newspaper in 1932 ….
Pages 47-49.
People have sought to apply a creative vision to all the various elements that make up a book, to achieve a genuine fusion of words, images and design in a synthesis that relies partly on the physical format of the book for its effectiveness.
Page 65.
Can a book be a book without words?
Page 71.
An edition is defined as all the copies of a book printed from one particular setting of type, without distributing it and putting it back together again, or significantly altering it. It is common for texts to change and develop between editions, through authorial intention or otherwise, and the charting of editions and the variations between the is a key part of textual bibliography.
Page 81.
The first printed book, the Gutenberg Bible, was issued on vellum as well as on paper.
Page 88.
Fashion in book collecting in generations gone by tended to prefer books to be clean and unsullied by the scribbles of previous owners, and markings were sometimes deliberately removed by washing out inscriptions and taking out bookplates.
Page 94.
Books offer window onto intellectual influences and developing thought processes.
Page 101.
Books today are issued in uniform bindings, mass produced according to publishers’ specifications, with little or no choice available to the purchaser at point of sale apart perhaps from the option to have a paperback rather than a hardback if these are simultaneously on offer. The roots of this way of doing things lie in the 1830s, when a breakthrough was made in creating a cloth-covered binding which could be mechanically decorated and lettered. This new technique hastened the move away from leather, which had been the standard outer covering of books since the Middle Ages, to the cheaper alternatives of cloth and paper, while also making it possible to issue whole editions of books in genuinely identical bindings.
Page 141.
Books have often been bound and rebound, or repaired, more than once during their history and those staging posts can indicate the changing regard for the texts inside. A book which has survived several centuries in pristine condition suggests a text which has not exactly been eagerly sought out.
Pages 145-146.
Bookbindings are visually distinctive from one generation to another.
Page 147.
If you gather together twenty copies of a sixteenth-century book, or an eighteenth-century one, from different libraries and collections, the chances are that every one will have a different binding, with its own set of historical messages.
Page 152.
A library is more than the sum of the words it contains.
Page 163.
Universities and public authorities continue to build libraries and extensions to libraries, despite the growing impact of offsite digital access, not only because bookstock continues to expand but also because people express a desire for libraries as workspaces and places to meet. Libraries offer a sense of connection with the past, and a connection with accumulated knowledge.
Page 163.
Books have survived today in very uneven ways, and ones which are very rare today may once have been much more widely read than ones which have survived in relatively large quantities.
Pages 166-167.
Discarding original bindings, replacing endleaves, removing fragments, washing away or cropping off inscriptions and marginal notes are all processes which have been carried out with ruthless efficiency (and the best of intentions) by previous generations of library custodians, whose primary concern has been to keep the books in a fit state to be read.
Pages 172-173.
It is easy to foresee a future in which books have ceased to be the primary medium for transmitting ideas and information; in some areas, that time is already here. To take a negative view of these developments is not only ostrich-like but also quite wrong-headed in failing to g rasp the opportunities and benefits which electronic communication can bring. The coming changes will affect not only the way s in which we transmit and read the kind of information which was traditionally contained in books, but also our whole framework of values around them.
Page 175.
Many libraries exist not only to provide access to content, but also to look after that content for the future.
Page 175.
Books, in the popular imagination, and in the minds of those who fund libraries, will be in danger of being regarded merely as an obsolete technology of questionable long-term value.
Page 178.
Countless medieval manuscripts were destroyed in the sixteenth century once the new process was established and accepted, and older books came to be perceived as textually, philosophically and physically superseded. The Reformation was a period of well attested activity in the winnowing of libraries but it is actually only a peak in a graph which has always registered activity; there is nothing unusual about libraries or private owners discarding books, and they have been doing so for centuries. Most libraries need to have some kind of collection management policy in place to allow for the deaccessioning of books which have become superseded, like out-of-date textbooks or reference books, or books which no longer fit with their mission and purpose.
Page 178.
One of the trends in library history during the last hundred years or so has been a great shift of books from private to institutional ownership, as academic and major publicly0-funded libraries have actively developed broad and deep collections, and the prospect of undoing all that has typically rung alarm bells.
Page 178.
In assessing the value of a book, we should focus not solely on its text but also on the other things it has to offer researchers.
Pages 182-183.