What is the History of Books?

The book, whose title refers to the classic essay by Robert Darnton, a leading figure in the field, presents studies focused on the historiography and history of books and book culture. The aim of the volume is to capture the changes that the study of book culture, in the sense of analysing the complex relations between the social existence of the printed text, its material form and the meanings it carries, has undergone, especially in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. It focuses on key texts that have defined the objects and methods of the historiography of books. It also includes studies by scholars elaborating on various aspects of Darnton's model of the book communication circuit, which connects authors to readers through networks of publishers, bookbinders, printers, booksellers, distributors, and librarians.