- 1 Writing Systems
- 2 The Sacred Book
- 3 The Ancient Book
- 4 The History of the Book in Byzantium
- 5 The European Medieval Book
- 6 The European Printing Revolution
- 7 The Book as Symbol
- 8 The Transmission of Jewish Knowledge through MSS and Printed Books
- 9 Missionary Printing
- 10 Paper
- 11 The Technologies of Print
- 12 The Economics of Print
- 13 The Manuscript after the Coming of Print
- 14 Printed Ephemera
- 15 Children’s Books
- 16 The History of Illustration and its Technologies
- 17 Bookbinding
- 18 Theories of Text, Editorial Theory, and Textual Criticism
- 19 The Electronic Book
- 20a The History of the Book in Britain, c.1475–1800
- 20b The History of the Book in Britain, 1801–1914
- 20c The History of the Book in Britain from 1914
- 21 The History of the Book in Ireland
- 22 The History of the Book in France
- 23 The History of the Book in the Low Countries
- 24 The History of the Book in Germany
- 25 The History of the Book in Switzerland
- 26 The History of the Book in the Nordic Countries
- 27 The History of the Book in the Iberian Peninsula
- 28 The History of the Book in Italy
- 29 The History of the Book in Modern Greece, c.1453–2000
- 30 The History of the Book in Austria
- 31 The History of the Book in Hungary
- 32 The History of the Book in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
- 33 The History of the Book in Poland
- 34 The History of the Book in the Baltic States
- 35 The Slavonic Book in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
- 36 The History of the Book in the Balkans
- 37 The History of the Book in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 38 The History of the Book in the Muslim World
- 39 The History of the Book in the Indian Subcontinent
- 40 The History of the Book in China
- 41 The History of the Book in Korea
- 42 The History of the Book in Japan
- 43a The History of the Book in Southeast Asia (1): The Islands
- 43b The History of the Book in Southeast Asia (2): The Mainland
- 44 The History of the Book in Australia
- 45 The History of the Book in New Zealand
- 46 The History of the Book in Latin America (including Incas, Aztecs, and the Caribbean)
- 47 The History of the Book in Canada
- 48 The History of the Book in America
7 The Book as Symbol
- Source:
- The Oxford Companion to the Book
- Author(s):
- Brian CummingsBrian Cummings
‘Books are not absolutely dead things,’ wrote John Milton in 1644 in *Areopagitica. A book is a physical object, yet it also signifies something abstract, the words and the meanings collected within it. Thus, a book is both less and more than its contents alone. A book is a metonym for the words that we read or for the thoughts that we have as we read them. At one level, like any domestic object, a book takes on the imprint of its producer and its users. Old books have further value as containing the presence of many other readers in the past. Yet, more than other objects, a book is felt to embody not only a physical memory but also a record of past thoughts. The book contains both its reader and its author. In Milton’s more poetic terms, books ‘contain a potency of life in them’, because they ‘preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them’. The book thus achieves a further mystery, of transforming what appears to be purely immaterial and conceptual into something with a concrete form. It is therefore not entirely extravagant for Milton to claim that a book possesses ‘a life beyond life’. Destroying a book, then, Milton says, is like an act of homicide—indeed it is worse than that, since a book encloses the life of more than one person and exists in more than one time. Paradoxically, regardless of the material survival of a physical copy or artefact, a book is something immortal and imperishable.... ...
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- 1 Writing Systems
- 2 The Sacred Book
- 3 The Ancient Book
- 4 The History of the Book in Byzantium
- 5 The European Medieval Book
- 6 The European Printing Revolution
- 7 The Book as Symbol
- 8 The Transmission of Jewish Knowledge through MSS and Printed Books
- 9 Missionary Printing
- 10 Paper
- 11 The Technologies of Print
- 12 The Economics of Print
- 13 The Manuscript after the Coming of Print
- 14 Printed Ephemera
- 15 Children’s Books
- 16 The History of Illustration and its Technologies
- 17 Bookbinding
- 18 Theories of Text, Editorial Theory, and Textual Criticism
- 19 The Electronic Book
- 20a The History of the Book in Britain, c.1475–1800
- 20b The History of the Book in Britain, 1801–1914
- 20c The History of the Book in Britain from 1914
- 21 The History of the Book in Ireland
- 22 The History of the Book in France
- 23 The History of the Book in the Low Countries
- 24 The History of the Book in Germany
- 25 The History of the Book in Switzerland
- 26 The History of the Book in the Nordic Countries
- 27 The History of the Book in the Iberian Peninsula
- 28 The History of the Book in Italy
- 29 The History of the Book in Modern Greece, c.1453–2000
- 30 The History of the Book in Austria
- 31 The History of the Book in Hungary
- 32 The History of the Book in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
- 33 The History of the Book in Poland
- 34 The History of the Book in the Baltic States
- 35 The Slavonic Book in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus
- 36 The History of the Book in the Balkans
- 37 The History of the Book in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 38 The History of the Book in the Muslim World
- 39 The History of the Book in the Indian Subcontinent
- 40 The History of the Book in China
- 41 The History of the Book in Korea
- 42 The History of the Book in Japan
- 43a The History of the Book in Southeast Asia (1): The Islands
- 43b The History of the Book in Southeast Asia (2): The Mainland
- 44 The History of the Book in Australia
- 45 The History of the Book in New Zealand
- 46 The History of the Book in Latin America (including Incas, Aztecs, and the Caribbean)
- 47 The History of the Book in Canada
- 48 The History of the Book in America
