Texts in Transit: Manuscript to Proof and Print in the Fifteenth Century: 38 (Library of the Written Word - The Handpress World, 38) - Hardcover

Hellinga, Lotte

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004277161 ISBN 13: 9789004277168

Publisher: Brill, 2014

Synopsis

After Gutenberg’s Bible had appeared in print in 1455, other early printers found different ways to solve problems set by the new technique. Survival of printer’s copy or proofs permits rare views of compositors and printers manipulating a text before it emerged in its new form. Versions were corrected to be fit for purpose, and might be adapted for a much enlarged readership, especially if the language was vernacular. The printing press itself required careful measuring and fitting of texts. In twelve case-studies Lotte Hellinga explores what is revealed in printer’s copy and proofs used in diverse printing houses, covering the period from 1459 to the 1490s, and ranging from Rome and Venice to Mainz and Westminster.

See also the companion volume by the same author, Incunabula in Transit (Brill, 2017).

About this title

About the Author

Lotte Hellinga, Litt. D. (1974) University of Amsterdam, was Curator (later Deputy Keeper) at the British Library, 1976-1995. Recent publications include The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (co-editor and author, 1999), the catalogue of English incunabula in the BL (‘BMC xi’, 2007) and William Caxton and early printing in England (2010).

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004277161
• ISBN 13: 9789004277168
• Binding: Leather Bound
• Number of pages: 466