"This is a tour de force of sophisticated global erudition." --Filippo
de Vivo, University of Oxford, UK
"In its wide global range and rich variety of studies, this expertly
edited volume provides an unprecedented view into the scribal practices
of diverse cultural traditions in the early modern period." --Johanna
Drucker, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
"This volume finally gives the colophon the place it deserves. We see
scribes and printers at work in Thailand, the Deccan, Delhi, Damascus,
Antwerp, and Timbuktu." --Konrad Hirschler, University of Hamburg,
Germany
"In this cross-disciplinary endeavor, ten authors tell lively and
exciting stories of historical scribal practices." --Verena Klemm,
University of Leipzig, Germany
This book is the first to chart the global diversity of colophons
between 1400 and 1800. The volume presents a new approach to scribal
cultures that expands traditional definitions. Moving from the paradigm
of codicological information towards a thorough interpretation of the
wider social worlds of colophons in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North
America, this volume uncovers the fascinating cultural history of early
modern scribes. Chapters examine how those engaging in the composition
and distribution of colophons shaped scribal identities, group cultures
and bookish communities in a world in which manuscripts mattered.
Authors build on approaches from anthropology, cultural studies,
codicology, history, and philology to offer a new conceptual framework
that studies colophons as scribal practices embedded in their changing
social and cultural worlds. As a new contribution to the history of the
book, this volume's global approach pushes the boundaries of what
constitutes a colophon.
