The forerunner of today's book clubs, nineteenth-century literary societies provided a lively social and intellectual forum where people could gather and discuss books, cultural affairs, and current events. In Come, bright Improvement Heather Murray explores the literary societies of Ontario between 1820 and 1900 - some of which are still in existence today - and examines the extent to which they mirrored or challenged contemporary social, political, and intellectual trends.

Based on a wealth of original research with periodicals and local archival materials, Murray traces...

One of early Enlightenment Spain's most important scholars, Andres Gonzalez de Barcia (1673-1743) produced more than two dozen critical editions of some of Spain's most significant works on the New World, many of which were already rare when he published them. In this highly original new book, Jonathan E. Carlyon traces Gonz?lez de Barcia's work as editor, bibliographer, and author, focusing on his program of scholarly republication that resulted in the creation of the first comprehensive colonial Spanish American library.

Gonz?lez de Barcia established his collection to provide the...

Culinary Landmarks is a definitive history and bibliography of Canadian cookbooks from the beginning, when La cuisini?re bourgeoise was published in Quebec City in 1825, to the mid-twentieth century. Over the course of more than ten years Elizabeth Driver researched every cookbook published within the borders of present-day Canada, whether a locally authored text or a Canadian edition of a foreign work. Every type of recipe collection is included, from trade publishers' bestsellers and advertising cookbooks, to home economics textbooks and fund-raisers from church women's...

The most basic unit of the physical book is the page. It has determined the historical evolution of the book, the types of information communicated, and how the audience accesses that information.

Unique and rewarding in both its scope and approach, The Future of the Page is a collection of essays that presents the best of recent critical theory on the history and future of the page and its enormous influence on Western thought and culture. Spanning the centuries between the earliest record of the page and current computerized conceptions of page-like entities, the essays...

In this scholarly yet highly accessible work, Eva Hemmungs WirtEn traces three main themes within the scope of cultural ownership: authorship as one of the basic features of print culture, the use of intellectual property rights as a privileged instrument of control, and finally globalization as a pre-condition under which both operate. Underwritten by rapid technological change and increased global interdependence, intellectual property rights are designed to protect a production that is no longer industrial, but informational.

No Trespassing tells the story of a century...

In The Book Unbound, scholars and editors examine how best to use new technological tools and new methodologies with artefacts of medieval literature and culture. Taking into consideration English, French, Anglo-Norman, and Latin texts from several periods, the contributors examine and re-evaluate traditional approaches to and conclusions about medieval books and the cultural texts they contain - literary, dramatic, legal, historical, and musical. The essays range from detailed examinations of specific codices to broader theoretical discussions on past and present editorial...

The Myth of Print Culture is a critique of bibliographical and editorial method, focusing on the disparity between levels of material evidence (unique and singular) and levels of text (abstract and reproducible). It demonstrates how the particulars of evidence are manipulated in standard scholarly arguments by the higher levels of textuality they are intended to support.

The individual studies in the book focus on a range of problems: basic definitions of what a book is; statistical assumptions; and editorial methods used to define and collate the presumably basic unit of...

Impressive in scope and erudition, Christopher Knight's Uncommon Readers focuses on three critics whose voices - mixing eloquence with pugnacity - stand out as among the most notable independent critics working during the last half-century. The critics are Denis Donoghue, Frank Kermode, and George Steiner, and their independence - a striking characteristic in a time of corporate criticism - is reflective of both their backgrounds (Donoghue's Catholic upbringing in Protestant-ruled Northern Ireland; Kermode's Manx beginnings; and Steiner's Jewish upbringing in pre-Holocaust Europe)...

In this scholarly yet highly accessible work, Eva Hemmungs Wirten traces three main themes within the scope of cultural ownership: authorship as one of the basic features of print culture, the use of intellectual property rights as a privileged instrument of control, and finally globalization as a pre-condition under which both operate. Underwritten by rapid technological change and increased global interdependence, intellectual property rights are designed to protect a production that is no longer industrial, but informational.

No Trespassing tells the story of a century of...

The Old English Hexateuch is a manuscript of the earliest vernacular translation of the Old Testament books of Genesis through Joshua. The texts belong, in part, to the Anglo-Saxon monk Aelfric (950?-1010?) and to several anonymous translators and at least one artist who compiled these translations and illustrated them with nearly four hundred narrative images, which are carefully integrated into the manuscript.

The Hexateuch testifies to the creativity and innovation of Anglo-Saxon bookmakers and stands as an important, if little known, witness to the relationship between early...