The Book on the Bookshelf Hardcover - 1999

New York: Alfred A Knopf Inc, 1999. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7?" - 9?" tall. Type: Hardback Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1999. First Edition. Hardcover Book and Dust Jacket in Fine Condition. Very clean and unmarked book in burnt-orange and cream binding; upper front corner has small crease, spine head and heel shelf-compressed. Sewn binding tight & solid, square with sharp corners; no former owner notations. Jacket not price-clipped, slight edgewear. Books and book shelves- from the ancient scroll to the codex as the book we know today, Petroski takes the reader into the pre-Gutenberg world, where books were chained to lecterns for security; to how the printing press evolved and changed the way books were made and shelved, and how their availability eventually transformed book readers into owners and collectors; and to how books are shelved--and the history of, yes, shelving and storage of books. Books, book selling, book collecting, book buying through the centuries. There are numerous illustrations and some diagrams throughout the book, in black and white--for example, the fifteenth-century scholar with a second lectern mounted above his lectern desk; a diagram of the British Museum Reading Room; the Wren Library of Trinity College; Agostino Ramelli's fanciful bookwheel that was illustrated in his 1588 theatre of machines; St John Curing the Lion, a 1492 woodcut by Albrecht Durer; and many more. 290 pages with Appendix, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. 9.5 x 5.8 inches. 1999, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York, USA ISBN10: 0375406492, ISBN13: 9780375406492