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Publishing History archive

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Penguin Books: History and Key Facts

Penguin Books Limited is a British publishing house that was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John.

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Pulp magazine: History and Key Facts

Pulp magazines, also called "the pulps", were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955.

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Paperback: History and Key Facts

A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples.

Title page of a chapbook Jack the Giant Killer

Chapbook: History and Key Facts

A chapbook is a type of small printed booklet that was a popular medium for street literature throughout early modern Europe.

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Little magazine: History and Key Facts

In the United States, a little magazine is a magazine genre consisting of "artistic work which for reasons of commercial expediency is not acceptable to the money-minded periodicals or presses",

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Printing press: History and Key Facts

A printing press is a machine that applies pressure to transfer ink onto a surface made of paper, cloth, or a similar material.

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History of books: History and Key Facts

The history of books begins with the invention of writing, as well as other inventions such as paper and printing; this history continues all the way to the modern-day business of book printing.

Doppelseite mit Eintragungen vom August 1553 aus dem Stammbuch des Johann Valentin Deyger, 1552–1554 Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, Mh 1030

Album amicorum: History and Key Facts

The album amicorum ('album of friends', friendship book) was an early form of the poetry book, the autograph book and the modern friendship book.

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Bibliographical Society: History and Key Facts

Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society in the UK dealing with the study of the book and its history.

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Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia: History and Key Facts

Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia is a learned society founded in 1947 at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville to promote interest in books and manuscripts, maps, print

Page from the Apocalypse, a block book printed in Europe between 1450 & 1500. The image come from a late 15th century compilation blockbook [Cod Pal. Germ 34] of which the 'Apokalypse' (4th ed.) forms one section. The printed text is in latin but handwritten german translation sheets were inserted between the blockboo

Block book: History and Key Facts

Block books or blockbooks, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include b

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Book burning: History and Key Facts

Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context.

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Book History: History and Key Facts

Book History is the official publication of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing.

The title page of the w:First Folio of William Shakespeare's plays

First Folio: History and Key Facts

Mr.

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A History of the Book in America: History and Key Facts

A History of the Book in America is a five-volume series of scholarly books of essays published 2000–2010 by the University of North Carolina Press, and edited by David D.

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Lyell Lectures: History and Key Facts

The Lyell Readership in Bibliography is an endowed annual lecture series given at the University of Oxford.

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Manuscript culture: History and Key Facts

A manuscript culture is a culture that depends on hand-written manuscripts to store and disseminate information.

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Print culture: History and Key Facts

Print culture embodies all forms of printed text and other printed forms of visual communication.

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Project Panama: History and Key Facts

Project Panama is a destructive book scanning operation started in early 2024 by the American artificial intelligence corporation Anthropic.

One of the Qur'an fragments from the Sana'a palimpsest, found in 1972 in the loft of the Great Mosque in Sanaa, Yemen, and photographed by Doctor Gerd R. Puin who was in charge of the project between 1981 and 1985. The writings are from verses 3 to 10 of Sura 20 (Taha).

History of the Quran: History and Key Facts

The history of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is the timeline ranging from the inception of the Quran during the lifetime of Muhammad (believed to have received the Quran through revelation b

Miniature of the book’s author, Vincent of Beauvais, within a border containing the arms of Edward IV, to whom this manuscript belonged. Miroir historial, vol. 1 (Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, trans. into French by Jean de Vignay), Bruges, c. 1478-1480, Royal 14 E. i, vol. 1, f. 3r

Scriptorium: History and Key Facts

A scriptorium ( ) was a writing room in medieval European monasteries for the copying and illuminating of manuscripts by scribes.

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Sola scriptura: History and Key Facts

Sola scriptura (Church Latin for 'by scripture alone') is a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, tha

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Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing: History and Key Facts

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) formed in 1991 in the United States on the initiative of scholars Jonathan Rose, Simon Eliot, and others.

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Sophistication (books): History and Key Facts

Sophistication of books is the practice of making a book complete by replacing missing leaves with leaves from another copy.

Titel page of the German Messkatalog (Term Catalogue) published for Easter 1711

Term Catalogue: History and Key Facts

A Term Catalogue (German: Messkatalog) is a serial publication compiled to inform customers—most importantly book traders from other cities—of the book production as available on the book fairs.

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Publishing: History and Key Facts

Publishing is the process of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, whether in physical or digital form, available to the public for sale or free of charge.

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African Books Collective: History and Key Facts

The African Books Collective (ABC) is a nonprofit distribution and marketing collective owned by African publishers.

Design for a Metalwork Book Cover. Pen and black ink with black, grey, and yellow wash on paper, 8.1 × 6 cm, British Museum. This is a design for a book cover to be made with black enamel patterned over gold (Foister, p. 84). Small girdle books of this sort were attached to the belt by a ring, as drawn at the top. Clas

Book design: History and Key Facts

Book design is the graphic art of determining the visual and physical characteristics of a book.

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Book packaging: History and Key Facts

Book packaging, or book producing, is a publishing activity in which an individual or outside company independently develops and produces a book, performing the creative and production work that

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Bookbinding: History and Key Facts

Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated process

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Cerlalc: History and Key Facts

The Regional Center for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and Caribbean (CERLALC) (Spanish: Centro Regional para el Fomento del Libro en América Latina y el Caribe, Portuguese: Centro Regio

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Castoff (publishing): History and Key Facts

In book publishing, casting off is the process of estimating the number of signatures required to typeset a manuscript.

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Endpaper: History and Key Facts

The endpapers or end-papers of a book (also known as the endsheets) are the pages that consist of a double-size sheet folded, with one half pasted against an inside cover (the pastedown), and the

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Fixed book price: History and Key Facts

Fixed book price (FBP) is a form of resale price maintenance applied to books.

Title page of the First Folio, by William Shakespeare, with copper engraving of the author by Martin Droeshout. Image courtesy of the Elizabethan Club and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. [1]

Folio: History and Key Facts

The term "folio" (from Latin folium 'leaf') has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper

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Jeannette Hopkins: History and Key Facts

Jeannette Hopkins (1923–2011) was an American editor known for her career at a time when few women worked in the field.

The first page of the index of Novus Atlas Sinensis by Martino Martini

Index (publishing): History and Key Facts

An index (pl.: usually indexes, more rarely indices) is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found

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Icelandic Christmas book flood: History and Key Facts

The Christmas book flood or Yule book flood (Icelandic: Jólabókaflóðið) is a term used in Iceland for the annual release of new books occurring in the months before Christmas.

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COPIM: History and Key Facts

The Copim community is an international group of researchers, universities, librarians, open access book publishers and infrastructure providers.

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Presentation copy: History and Key Facts

A presentation copy is a copy of a book that has been presented, usually by the author or someone associated with the book's production, to another individual.