<div>This beautifully illustrated book provides an accessible introduction to the medieval manuscript and what it can tell us about the world in which it was made and used. <i>Books Before Print</i> explores how manuscripts can act as a vibrant and versatile tool to understand the deep historical roots of human interaction with written information. It highlights extraordinary continuities between medieval book culture and modern-world communication, as witnessed in medieval pop-up books, posters, speech bubbles, book advertisements, and even sticky notes.</div>

This volume explores the production and use of medieval manuscripts that contain classical Latin texts. Six experts in the field address a range of topics related to these manuscripts, including how classical texts were disseminated throughout medieval society, how readers used and interacted with specific texts, and what these books look like from a material standpoint. This collection of essays also considers the value of studying classical manuscripts as a distinct group, and demonstrates how such a collective approach can add to our understanding of how classical works functioned in medieval society. Focusing on the period 800-1200, when classical works played a crucial role in the teaching of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, this volume investigates how classical Latin texts were copied, used, and circulated in both discrete and shared contexts.

This book looks particularly at the shift from manuscripts to the physical book, while taking into account the medieval book as not only as a source of information, but also as an aesthetic experience, a status symbol, and a shrewd investment. Tracing the rise of the book in the ninth and tenth century, this insightful study looks at the way in which the scribes eased the shift from manuscript to book through additions such as running titles and chapter numbers. A rich and intriguing history, Turning over a New Leaf examines how readers and the reading experience shape books, and vice versa.