"This is a major study on publishing in South Africa, providing an in-depth analysis of the book industry, reviewing its social and historical context, and examining its role as a strategic industry in South Africa's future development. With contributions by some of the country's leading book profes
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sionals and practitioners, the book examines fields such as policies of literacy and development of African languages, academic publishing, writers and publishing, reading promotion, new digital technologies and their impact on publishing, and issues relating copyright and reproduction rights. There are also some interesting papers on alternative publishing, and the alternative press, under the former repressive apartheid regime." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 1002)
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"This volume explores and calls into question certain commonly held assumptions about writing and technological advancement in the Islamic tradition. In particular, it challenges the idea that mechanical print naturally and inevitably displaces handwritten texts as well as the notion that the so-cal
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led transition from manuscript to print is unidirectional. Indeed, rather than distinct technologies that emerge in a progressive series (one naturally following the other), they frequently co-exist in complex and complementary relationships – relationships we are only now starting to recognize and explore. The book brings together essays by internationally recognized scholars from an array of disciplines (including philology, linguistics, religious studies, history, anthropology, and typography) whose work focuses on the written word – channeled through various media – as a social and cultural phenomenon within the Islamic tradition." (Publisher description)
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"Engagement with Christian manuscripts – Eastern and Western – and with ancient and rare printed books makes evident a growing interest in material and codicological aspects of our book heritage. In other words, it evinces an emerging curiosity about the non-textual realities of books – at lea
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st of ancient books. This shift is particularly true for manuscript studies. The question of materiality remains unavoidable, however, even today, when we decide to edit a book in hard copy along with electronic or digital versions. As has always been the case, there is a direct correlation between the quality of materials used, the production/confection techniques and the external appearance of a book. Normally, one would not expect to find the finest inks, paper or parchment in the hands of less-skilled scribes or illuminators. This article sets alongside immediate material aspects corresponding, and usually expensive, issues like sewing and binding techniques, layout (mise-en-page) and decoration. They too condition our assessment – even unconsciously – when we meet religious books." (Abstract)
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"Las contribuciones reunidas en este volumen buscan dar un paso en el esfuerzo por exami-nar las condiciones y problemas que han rodeado y rodean la producción, circulación y usos del libro en un país poco conocedor de su historia libresca y editorial. Los textos reconstruyen diversos momentos en
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el desarrollo de una cultura impresa local, que se vio delineada por políticas estatales, movilidades transnacionales y no pocos agentes y producciones que activaron cambios de relevancia dentro del espacio cultural nacional. El libro plantea un recorrido que parte desde el siglo XVI, antes de la llegada de la imprenta al territorio neogranadino, y se extiende hasta los albores del siglo XXI para examinar las nuevas condiciones del mundo del libro. Entre ambas orillas, se analiza el dinamismo tomado por el mundo impreso y sus mediado-res durante el siglo XIX, así como lo ocurrido en el siglo XX, cuando se produjo el momento de mayor modernización editorial y expansión de los grupos lectores colombianos." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"Tendo como pressuposto inicial a afirmação de que o ato de compra de um livro indica uma demanda cultural por parte do comprador ou do potencial leitor, e assumindo a correlata afirmação de que os títulos mais difundidos em determinada sociedade em dada época podem indicar suas dominantes cul
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turais, o livro Mercado Editorial Brasileiro analisa os livros de autores nacionais mais vendidos no Brasil nas décadas de 1960, 1970 e 1980. Para traçar as linhas gerais do perfil temático das escolhas voluntárias de aquisição de livros de 1960 a 1990 o trabalho utiliza três instrumentos: 1) dados quantitativos gerais sobre o mercado editorial brasileiro; 2) listagens anuais de livros mais vendidos publicadas em jornais e revistas- utilizados como vagos indicadores das temáticas e preocupações dominantes no setor da população que tem acesso a livro; 3) dados históricos e conjunturais que ajudam a esclarecer os dados de vendagem. O resultado é uma abordagem analítica das preferências dos leitores e suas correlações com os contextos social, político e cultural do pais entre 1960 e 1990." (Resumo)
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"Dieses Sachlexikon bietet nun bereits in dritter, gründlich überarbeiteter und ergänzter Auflage Grundlagenwissen rund um das Medium Buch: von der Handschrift über das gedruckte Buch bis zum E-Book. Auch andere Schriftmedien wie das Flugblatt, die Zeitung oder die Zeitschrift sind berücksichti
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gt. In ca. 1.500 Artikeln werden alle Bereiche von Buch und Buchhandel behandelt, knapp, verständlich und fachlich kompetent: Herstellung und Technik, Markt und Marketing, Recht und Zensur, Lesen, Schreiben und Drucken, Buchausstattung und Buchillustration sowie Bibliotheken. Zahlreiche Zeichnungen und Graphiken veranschaulichen den komplexen Stoff." (Klappentext)
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"Combining insights from imperial studies and transnational book history, this provocative collection opens new vistas on both fields through ten accessible essays, each devoted to a single book. Contributors revisit well-known works associated with the British empire, including Charlotte Brontë's
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Jane Eyre, Thomas Macaulay's History of England, Charles Pearson's National Life and Character, and Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. They explore anticolonial texts in which authors such as C. L. R. James and Mohandas K. Gandhi chipped away at the foundations of imperial authority, and they introduce books that may be less familiar to students of empire. Taken together, the essays reveal the dynamics of what the editors call an "imperial commons," a lively, empire-wide print culture. They show that neither empire nor book were stable, self-evident constructs. Each helped to legitimize the other." (Publisher description)
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"A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume. The 54 chapters introduce readers to the fascinating world of book history. Including 21 thematic studies on topics such
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as writing systems, the ancient and the medieval book, and the economics of print, as well as 33 regional and national histories of 'the book', offering a truly global survey of the book around the world, the Oxford History of the Book is the most comprehensive work of its kind. The three new articles, specially commissioned for this spin-off, cover censorship, copyright and intellectual property, and book history in the Caribbean and Bermuda." (Publisher description)
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"As Europeans began to travel to all corners of the earth beginning in the 15th century, they were determined not only to conquer new lands but also to spread their faith. From Johann Gutenberg they had learned the power of the printed word, and were determined to use this revolutionary new technolo
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gy to christianize Asia. The impact of these efforts varied depending on a number of circumstances. The two most significant variables were the ability to wield control as a colonial power (e.g. in the Philippines, but not in Japan or China) and the pre-existence of a widespread print culture (e.g. in China), or lack thereof (e.g. in India and Malaya). This summary account of missionary printing also suggests that the principal difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant presses was the emphasis placed by the former on the exposition of Christian doctrine and the printing of catechetical treatises, and the early concentration by the latter on the preparation of partial or complete versions of the Bible in local languages." (Page 114)
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"There is a key and oft-repeated assumption that the book is not indigenous to Africa, and has a relatively short history here.1 Thus, to tell the story of the book in Africa, some would start with the coming of the first printing presses, brought to missions, colonies, and trading posts around the
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continent by Europeans. Others would argue that we should look at the first indigenous publishing initiatives, mostly newspapers set up by welleducated locals, which led to the inculcation of print into African cultures. But there is also a textual history that is around a thousand years older, the story of the writing, reading, and circulation of texts before the advent of movable type. Where we begin is also a question of location, and the geography of Africa is a complicating factor in any historical study. Borders have changed, peoples have migrated, and the transnational nature of trade and circulation has had a lasting impact on the continent. And “Africa” itself is a troublesome concept, often conceived of either as a monolithic whole or as broad swathes: sub-Saharan and North Africa, or black and Arab Africa, the linguistic and political categories of Anglophone and Francophone Africa, and so on. Moreover, while Adrian Johns argues that print has a role in transcending place, it is also important to look at the specifics of locale when examining book history in such a contested terrain. So there is great variety in both the places and times where the written word has been used, traded, printed, and dispersed in the African context. As a result, print and textual culture has had a differential impact in different parts of Africa, and for different groups." (Abstract)
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"Much work has been done to map out the contours of Islamic intellectual production in West Africa before the twentieth century. However, we still do not understand very well the process by which ideas and texts circulated in the region. Lists of specific books imported by West Africans during the n
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ineteenth century are rare (although one such compilation helps frame this paper), and the particular books memorized and/or copied by individual students on particular subjects usually fail to tells us much about their mentors’ libraries. As a result, the reconstruction of a trans-Saharan, much less the east-west Sahelian book trade, if these existed in any formal sense, must be subject to some speculation. Clearly, there was a steady demand in West Africa for Arabic texts; libraries and literary capital have long been understood as an important component of religious authority. But our knowledge of what might have been the actual texts sought in a book trade, is limited. We can deduce something about the distribution of books in West Africa from the authors and subjects studied in particular venues, and from analyses of the citations used in particular scholarly works written by West Africans. But both the works studied and the analysis of citations tell us about books that were known to individual scholars rather than works that were actually in demand. This paper seeks to describe the books—by author and title—that were in heaviest demand by doing an inventory of the contents of a cross-section of West African libraries." (Introduction)
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"As the manuscript treasures in the libraries of Timbuktu and throughout the northwestern quarter of Africa become known, many questions are raised. How did a manuscript culture flourish in the Sahara and in Muslim Africa more generally? Under what conditions did African intellectuals thrive, and ho
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w did they acquire scholarly works and the writing paper necessary to contribute to knowledge? By exploring the history of the trans-Saharan book and paper trades, the scholarly production and teaching curriculae of African Muslims and the formation, preservation and codicology of library collections, the authors of this original volume provide a variety of answers. The select number of invited contributions represents current research in the material, technological, economic, and cultural dimensions of manuscript production, circulation, and preservation, and the development of specific scholarly and intellectual traditions in Saharan and Sudanic Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This dissertation discusses interactions between politics and book publishing by missions and colonial governments in areas of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia over approximately 200 years [...] From its inception, book publishing in the Pacific Islands has been a significant instrument of ideo
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logical power [...] Far from portraying a unidirectional flow, wherein only foreigners have published information and instructed Pacific Islanders, this dissertation argues that some islanders have sought to participate in book publishing so as to express their views and/or those of their associates or communities, and this in turn has contributed to persuading and influencing other people, sometimes even across the Pacific. The organization of mission societies around publications, for example in biblical material, schoolbooks, or laws, often reinforced indigenous power, but it also eased the imposition of colonial rule. Ironically, command of text culture assisted islanders to negotiate with new and sometimes stronger political forces. The colonial era has reinforced the role of text culture in the organization of society, and published reiteration of particular languages, customs, and geographical boundaries has helped to shape and reshape polities that have endured well into the age of independent nation-states." (Abstract)
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"The author believes that, in many respects, the history of the book remains ‘terra incognita’, despite the work that has been done in the field, and here presents a brief survey of the research that has been conducted on this topic in Germany, France and Tunisia, and the literature that is avai
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lable. However, her overviews of the ground that has been covered in terms of research, and her short history of publishing in French-speaking Africa, pre- and post-independence, are very patchy indeed." (Hans M. Zell, Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa, 3d ed. 2008, nr. 2561)
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