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The Dictionary of the Book
A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others
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The Dictionary of the Book
$25699
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for librarians, booksellers, book collectors, students and scholars of book history and the book arts, as well as anyone engaged in book cataloguing, description, acquisition, or conservation.
This edition adds more than 700 new entries and many new illustrations; corrects and brings up to date the entries of the work of others; and brings the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world, which has been forced to ...
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Description
Named a Library Journal Best Reference of 2023 - From Library Journal's Starred Review: "This ambitious and entertaining update solidifies Berger’s volume as a must-have title for librarians, booksellers, collectors, and students of the book arts and book history."
This new edition of The Dictionary of the Book adds more than 700 new entries and many new illustrations, bringing the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world, which has been forced to adjust to a new reality.
The definitive glossary of the book covers all the terms needed for a thorough understanding of how books are made, the materials they are made of, and how they are described in the bookselling, book collecting, and library worlds. Every key term—more than 2,000—that could be used in booksellers’ catalogues, library records, and collectors’ descriptions of their holdings is represented in this dictionary.
This authoritative source covers all areas of book knowledge, including:
- The book as a physical object
- Typeface terminology
- Paper terminology
- Printing
- Book collecting
- Cataloguing
- Book design
- Bibliography as a discipline, bibliographies, and bibliographical description
- Physical condition and how to describe it
- Calligraphy
- Language of manuscripts
- Writing implements
- Librarianship
- Legal issues
- Parts of a book
- Book condition terminology
- Pricing of books
- Buying and selling
- Auctions
- Items one will see at antiquarian book fairs
- Preservation and conservation issues, and the notion of restoration
- Key figures, presses/publishers, and libraries in the history of books
- Book collecting clubs and societies
- How to read and decipher new and old dealers’ catalogues
- And much more
The Dictionary also contains an extensive bibliography—more than 1,000 key readings in the book world—and it provides current (and past) definitions of terms whose meanings have shifted over the centuries.
More than 200 images accompany the entries, making the work even more valuable for understanding the terms described.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Praised as a "tour de force" and a must-have for librarians, booksellers, collectors, and students, this edition builds on Berger's 2016 work with clear, precise definitions. Reviewers highlight its breadth, including the history and evolving meanings of terms, and commend it for enabling confident and intelligent discussion of books and book arts. One review calls it a true "Booktionary" that goes far beyond earlier glossaries, making it an immensely useful resource.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781538151327
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 16 January 2023
Country: United States
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield
Edition: 2nd edition
Illustration: 203 b/w photos; 3 tables
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 35.0mm
Width: 229.0mm
Height: 283.0mm
Weight: 1579g
Pages: 574
About the Author
Sidney E. Berger was the Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem; he is now that library’s Director Emeritus. For the past 18 years he has been on the faculties of Simmons University and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, teaching rare-book classes in both institutions’ library schools. He was also Curator of Printed Books and then Curator of Manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA, and he headed the Special Collections Department at the University of California, Riverside. He is widely published in several fields, and his book Rare Books and Specials Collections won the 2015 ABC-CLIO/American Library Association award for the Best Book in Library Literature. He makes paper and casts type by hand, and he is the proprietor of the Doe Press, publishing short texts from handset types, printed on a handpress.
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