Matter, Sociability and Space: Some Ways of Looking at the History of Books

Abstract

This contribution examines some of the key themes that recur throughout the volume, including: the materiality of books; the social interactions that gave books their meaning in sociable contexts, and that facilitated their distribution; the relevance of censorship; and the nature of the spaces in which those social interactions took place. The author suggests that book history, far from being a specialized discipline restricted to the history of texts, provides a useful tool with which to explore the history of human culture and human action more generally.