Author: Norma Levarie

Foreword: Nicolas Barker

Publisher/Date: Oak Knoll Press/British Library (1995)

Format/Condition: NEW large softcover is in fine condition. 316 pages, measures 8 ½ x 11 inches; b/w illustrations.

Description: A well written and generously illustrated panorama of book design from the beginning of written manuscripts to the 1960s. Tracing the history of fine books against a background of changing patrons, improving technology, religious and social change, and the state of the arts throughout the world, this volume encompasses both illustrated and unillustrated books with a breadth of detail not found elsewhere. With 176 facsimile pages from books of unusual beauty or interest, many of them photographed especially for this volume, the book is more than a valuable reference source.

Chapters include the origins, Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Hiberno-Saxon Manuscripts, Carolingian and Romanesque Manuscripts, Gothic Manuscripts, Rennaissance Manuscripts, The Beginning of Printing, Block Books, Gutenberg, Fust and Schoffer, as well as individual chapters on 15-20th centuries and European countries.