Revolution and the Antiquarian Book
Summary
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Revolution and the Antiquarian Book by Kristian Jensen
At the end of the eighteenth century, noblemen and revolutionaries spent extravagant sums of money or precious military resources competing to acquire old books, which until then had often been regarded as worthless. These books, called incunabula, achieved cultural and political importance as luxury commodities and as tools for mastering a controversial past. Men of different classes met in a new, shared marketplace, creating a competition for social authority, as books were no longer seen merely as sources of textual information but as a way of controlling the past in the service of contemporary concerns. The old books themselves were often changed to meet new expectations of what important historic objects should be. Focusing on Paris and London, but taking a resolutely pan-European view, this book examines the emergence of this commodity and of a new historical discipline created by traders and craftsmen.
'[This] book provokes thought: why do we value incunabula? And one is left wanting more: an extension of the collecting period covered, and an extension into the sixteenth century of the books covered (did collectors treat their post-incunabula as they did their incunabula?)Whoever undertakes these labours will have both a good basis for comparison and a demanding benchmark against which to work.' Karen Attar, Rare Books Newsletter
Kristian Jensen is currently Head of British Collections at the British Library. He is also the author of Incunabula and their Readers: Printing, Selling and Using Books in the Fifteenth Century (2003). He was elected Lyell Reader at the University of Oxford for 2008, and this book is based on his Lyell Lectures.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781107000513 |
| ISBN 10 | 1107000513 |
| Title | Revolution and the Antiquarian Book |
| Author | Kristian Jensen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2011-01-06 |
| Number of pages | 330 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |