A selection of papers that introduces students to the history of the book in the West from late Antiquity to the publication of the "Gutenberg Bible" and the beginning of the print revolution. It opens with wide-ranging papers on handwriting and the physical make-up of the book. '...a representative sample of the many different approaches to book history scholars have undertaken over the past several decades...The editor is to be praised for executing well a very difficult job.' College & Research Libraries