Based on a survey of early printed books, Used Books describes what readers wrote in and around their books and what we can learn from these marks by using the tools of archaeologists as well as historians and literary critics.

Used Books
Marking Readers in Renaissance England

William H. Sherman

2007 | 288 pages | Cloth $45.00 | Paper $19.95
Cultural Studies | Literature

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface	

PART I. OF MARKS AND METHODS
Chapter 1. Introduction: Used Books
Chapter 2. +: Toward a History of the Manicule
Chapter 3. Reading the Matriarchive

PART II. READING AND RELIGION
Chapter 4. "The Book thus put in every vulgar hand": Marking the Bible
Chapter 5. An Uncommon Book of Common Prayer

PART III. REMARKABLE READERS
Chapter 6. John Dee's Columbian Encounter
Chapter 7. Sir Julius Caesar's Search Engine

PART IV. RENAISSANCE READERS AND MODERN COLLECTORS
Chapter 8. Dirty Books? Attitudes Toward Readers' Marks

Afterword: The Future of Past Readers

List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments