"This volume seeks to delineate the history of the production, dissemination, and reception of texts from the earliest pictograms of the mid-4th millennium to recent developments in electronic books."--Page xi.

Includes articles previously published as part of The Oxford companion to the book, 2010, plus three new articles--Title page verso and dust jacket front flap.

Thematic studies : Writing systems -- The sacred book -- The ancient book -- The history of the book in Byzantium -- The European medieval book -- The European printing revolution -- The book as symbol -- The transmission of Jewish knowledge through MSS and printed books -- Missionary printing -- Paper -- The technologies of print-- The economics of print -- Censorship -- Concepts of intellectual property and copyright -- The manuscript after the coming of print -- Printed ephemera -- Children's books -- The history of illustration and its technologies -- Bookbinding -- Theories of text, editorial theory, and textual criticism -- The electronic book ; Regional and national histories of the book : Britain, c.1475-1800 -- Britain from 1914 -- Ireland -- France -- The Low countries -- Germany -- Switzerland -- The Nordic countries -- The Iberian Peninsula -- Italy -- Modern Greece, c.1453-2000 -- Austria -- Hungary -- The Czech Republic and Slovakia -- Poland -- The Baltic states -- The Slavonic book in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus -- The Balkans -- Sub-Saharan Africa -- The Muslim world -- The Indian Subcontinent -- China -- Korea -- Japan -- Southeast Asia. 1, The islands -- Southeast Asia. 2, The mainland -- Australia -- New Zealand -- Latin America (including Incas and Aztecs) -- Canada -- America -- The Caribbean and Bermuda.