History of the book

This collection of links focuses on the history of the book, mainly in Britain and Europe more widely. It is by no means complete; please feel free to suggest further links in the comments.

See also Pinterest page, History of the Book

This page:
Organizations
Projects

Organizations:

• Association of European Printing Museums (AEPM): international links
• The Bibliographical Society (UK): extensive publications since 1892, many available online
• The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA): resources online
• The Bibliographical Society of Canada ☙ La Société bibliographique du Canada: Bulletin online
• Bibliopolis: history of the printed book in the Netherlands
• Centre for the Study of the Book (CSB)(Bodleian): courses, research, resources
• Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL): “CERL’s primary objective is to record all books printed in Europe during the hand-press period, c.1450–c.1830, in a machine-readable catalogue, called the Heritage of the Printed Book Database or HPB (originally called the Hand Press Book Database). Two other significant initiatives are the development of the CERL Thesaurus and the CERL Portal.” See also the extensive Web resources for the History of the Book
• Early Book Society for the study of manuscripts and printing history
• Ephemera Society (UK): excellent links to museums, organizations, and on-line resources
• Institut d’histoire du livre (Lyons): offers an annual workshop on Book History; site includes various resources (see in particular Analytical bibliography. An alternative prospectus)
• Le Musée de l’imprimerie du Québec
• The Printing Historical Society (UK): publications, including back issues of Printing History News ; links to museums and other organizations
• SHARP: The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing: including Book history resources: research
• St Bride Foundation (UK): “the largest print and publishing library in the world”

Projects/resources:

• 3-D digital representations of three nineteenth-century wood engravings, Special Collections and Rare Books, University of Minnesota Libraries, including blocks associated with Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) and George Cruikshank (1792–1878)
• A to Z of Ephemera: based on exhibition in Dept of Typography & Graphic Communication, U of Reading, 18.9.17–8.12.17. Colourful!
• ArchBook (University of Saskatchewan Humanities and Fine Arts Digital Research Centre): “an open-access, peer-reviewed collection of richly illustrated essays about specific design features in the history of the book”  [open access]
• Archaeology of Reading in Early Modern Europe (Princeton/UCL/Johns Hopkins): “a corpus of important and representative annotated texts with searchable transcriptions and translations”
• Atlas of Early Printing, 1450–1500 (U of Iowa Libraries): an interactive map that traces the spread of printing through Europe, with explanatory info. and resources  [open access]
• Book Arts Web
• British Book Trade Index (BBTI)(CSB, Bodleian): “biographical and trade details of all those who worked in the English and Welsh book trades up to 1851”
• “The Commercial History of a Penny Magazine,” The Penny Magazine, Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: “an introduction for the common reader to the history and technology of printing. Hardly noticed since its first publication, this work provides the modern reader with a compendious account of printing practices that were common at the height of the Industrial Revolution” (archived)
• Eighteenth-Century Materials in the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham: including substantial materials relating to printing and bookselling
• Chez La Veuve: Women Printers in Great Britain, 1475-1700, an exhibition at the University of Illinois Library Rare Book and Special Collections Library, 1998
• Early Modern Letters Online (EMLO)(Cultures of Knowledge: Networking the Republic of Letters, 1550-1750): “[a] growing union catalogue of sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century correspondence”
• Exeter working papers in book history: “biographical, bibliographical and historical information on book history, particularly for the later eighteenth century” [open access]
• Fleuron, U of Cambridge: “a database of eighteenth-century printers’ ornaments”
• History of Information and Media, Jeremy Norman: huge interactive database
• Incunabula Short Title Catalogue: “the international database of 15th-century European printing created by the British Library with contributions from institutions worldwide”
• The London Book Trades (CSB, Bodleian): “biographical information on printers, booksellers, bookbinders, stationers, and those in associated trades who worked in and around London from the introduction of printing into England until about the year 1830”
• Recent Studies of 18th-Century Book Culture, Jim May, C18-L: text bibliography
• The Nichols Archive Project (U of Leicester): papers of John Nichols and his family of printers, editors of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and antiquaries, 1745 – 1873″ [open access]
• History of the Book, Textual Studies, and Publishing, Romanticism and Eighteenth-Century Studies Oxford (RECSO): links
• Textual Scholarship: bibliographical resources and articles (not being updated but good links)
• Textual Studies, 1500-1800, Kevin Curran (blog not being updated, but full of resources)
• Timetable, Knops Boekrestauratie: chronology of major developments in writing technology from the ancient world to the present day
• Typefoundry: “documents for the history of type and letterforms” (blog, no longer being updated, but an excellent resource)
• Digital Exhibits, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries Special Collections: The Infancy of Printing: Incunabula at the Golda Meir Library, and Author, Publisher, Bookseller, Reader: Transformations in the 18th-Century British Book Trade 
• Women in Book History: a bibliography, Cait Coker and Kate Ozment, Texas A&M U.

[Linked image on Library page: Haarlem printing press of 1440, NL 1628.]