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Bibliophile? Well then there is nothing as transcendent as reading books about books! From the history of libraries to early medieval manuscripts and how they were painstakingly copied, the history of the book is a fascinating topic for any avid reader. Here are a few couture recommendations from my library and beyond, from one book nerd to another.
Books about books is definitely a meta-subject. Just know this post is not some sort of über-comprehensive list trying to squeeze every single title in that genre (if indeed it is one) into some freak-bazaar showcase just for the sake of doing it, that would just be silly. Besides, I’ve already created a few book list posts here on the Family History Foundation if you’d like to nerd out on those in addition to the books recommended below.
Featured Books About Books Posts
- Books About Charlemagne
- Books About the Sultana Disaster
- Books About Eleanor of Aquitaine
- An Anglo-Saxon History Reading List
- A Norman Dynasty Reading List
- A Plantagenet Dynasty Reading List
Enjoy my Books About Books list, I’ll add new ones as I come across them and feel free to drop any recommendations of your own in the comments section at the end of this post! But make ’em good, won’t you?
The Gilded Page
Beginning her book with a riveting quote from an echo of the 16th century, “The Gilded Page” is a truly compelling look into the life of the book and its inevitable complexity during the middle ages, in an age when technology was basically nonexistent compared to today’s standards. Mary Wellesley has researched the story of the medieval manuscript with great alacrity and imagination. From manuscripts to scriptoriums, this is any book nerd’s dream read!
TITLE: The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts
AUTHOR: Mary Wellesley
PUBLISHER: Basic Books
PLACE: London
YEAR: 2021
PAGES: 352
ISBN: 9781541675094
LINK: Amazon Link
Bookshop of the World
I am blown away by just how much I learned from reading this book. Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen weave a superlative narrative of the hustle and bustle of trade as it relates to the Dutch control of printing and manufacturing books for the wealthy of Europe. They were certainly an enterprising lot! Not only were these books for print outside of the Netherlands, but also collected by bookish citizens, a few who were noted to have owned on the order of 1,500 titles in the year 1680. This is not necessarily a casual read, it is a very detailed account of accounts and ledgers and every last scrap of information on the Dutch and their contribution to booknerdiness.
TITLE: The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in the Dutch Golden Age
AUTHOR: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
PUBLISHER: Yale University Press
PLACE: New Haven, CT
YEAR: 2019
PAGES: 485
ISBN: 9780300230079
LINK: Amazon Link
The Bookseller of Florence
This is the story of Italy’s contribution to bookmaking in the person of Vespaisano da Bisticci. As a person who owned a bookshop in the 1400s, all manuscripts that he dealt with had to be painstakingly copied by hand. His was the inevitable task of care and ardor for all of the bookishness that prospered throughout the city of Florence and broader Italy by nature. This is a wonderfully written book about manuscripts in the Renaissance era.
TITLE: The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
AUTHOR: Ross King
PUBLISHER: Grove Atlantic
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 2021
PAGES: 481
ISBN: 9780802158529
LINK: Amazon Link
Remarkable Manuscripts
I’ve mentioned this particular read several times on this site as it has definitely paved the way in the publishing industry as to how booknerdy publications should be treated. That is, with a lot of cool, glossy images! Christopher De Hamel’s publication is simply a masterpiece to me because not only does it touch on all of the most wonderful ancient manuscripts that have been handed down to us, he does it in a way that draws on our sense of awe at the beauty of these delicate links to our bibliographic past.
TITLE: Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World
AUTHOR: Christopher De Hamel
PUBLISHER: Penguin Press
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 2017
PAGES: 640
ISBN: 9780241003046
LINK: Amazon Link
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books
You couldn’t make up a book like this, but apparently the story is true! Apparently Hernando Colón was the son of Christopher Columbus and had a vision to amass a library that contained every book ever printed, and he attempted this in the 1500s! Intertwined in this narrative are tales of adventures on the high seas, the new world, mutinies, kings and queens. It is an amazing tale of the effort and sophistication of Hernando’s dream, also the logistics of undertaking a project that spanned continents, politics, and the heretical nature of some of Hernado’s acquisitions.
TITLE: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library
AUTHOR: Edward Wilson-Lee
PUBLISHER: Scribner Book Company
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 2018
PAGES: 416
ISBN: 9781982111403
LINK: Amazon Link
The Library: A Fragile History
Although more of a “library” book than one about books and manuscripts per se, it is written by the same authors of “The Bookshop of the World” and so gets a spot on this list. The reason is that this publication inevitably delves into the careful nature of how the manuscript was cared for, catalogued, and eventually turned into the book that we all know and pine for as it relates to the modern academic discipline of Library Science. It’s a very cool booknerdy read.
TITLE: The Library: A Fragile History
AUTHOR: Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen
PUBLISHER: Basic Books
PLACE: London
YEAR: 2021
PAGES: 528
ISBN: 9781541600775
LINK: Amazon Link
Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age
TITLE: Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age
AUTHOR: Dennis Duncan
PUBLISHER: W. W. Norton & Co.
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 2022
PAGES: 352
ISBN: 9781324002543
LINK: Amazon Link
Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade
TITLE: Book Row: An Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade
AUTHOR: Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador
PUBLISHER: Skyhorse
PLACE: New York
YEAR: 2019
PAGES: 456
ISBN: 9781510752559
LINK: Amazon Link
This Books About Books list will be updated as I find new titles worthy to appear on a “books about books” list! If you know of any titles that you would like to recommend, kindly drop a link in the comments section below. Cheers.
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