For anyone interested in the production and dissemination of printed books since the fifteenth century, this collection of essays offers a way of studying how tastes and practices have changed and can be understood. Using evidence from tiny fragments to entire libraries, from the manufacture of type and the creation of bindings to the sale of books, Professor McKitterick explores how people have come to decisions about what and how to read. As the world now depends increasingly on digital resources, these essays provide the means of understanding how print was dominant for five centuries.