Form and Meaning in the History of the Book

Nicolas Barker, OBE, FBA, has made many distinguished contributions to the study of the book over the past forty years. In celebration of his seventieth birthday the British Library published a selection of his occasional essays that show the range of his interests in a number of related fields: books and texts, books and people, typography and early printing, the history of the book, bookselling, and forgery. None of these essays has previously been reprinted and collectively they offer a series of authoritative insights into fascinating and complex questions raised by various aspects of the book as physical and cultural artefact. The collection is prefaced by an Introduction by Alan Bell, former librarian of the London Library.