The History of the Book at the Brooklyn Library
A book is a written work of literature on a specific subject matter. It is a full expression of ideas, and it is expected to convey all that one can know about an aspect of its subject. Books are incredibly diverse and come in a variety of formats.It is easy to take the characteristics that define a book for granted. The physical embodiment of a book—its format, shape, pages and text—can be as interesting and evocative as the words themselves. But what is it that gives a book its “bookness?” These objects in this exhibition and throughout the museum ask us to consider how the very qualities that signify a book—its codex form, its bindings and covers, its pages and texts—can be used to explore the history of books as material culture.This exhibit is curated by the Collections and Exhibits Department of the Brooklyn Library. It has been made possible by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.The history of the book is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates textual scholarship, codicology, bibliography, palaeography, art history and social and cultural history. It traces the development of books as objects and their relationship with readers across time and space. It can reveal the ideological and religious beliefs of a time, where and how books were kept, who read them, and the ways in which the book was used.Modern books are usually constructed in a codex format, consisting of many pages bound together and protected by a cover. Earlier formats include the scroll and tablet. Books can be made in a wide range of sizes, but they are generally identified by their trim size: the height to width ratio that produces an optimal printed sheet from lithography and offset printing. Trim sizes are based on a series of standard paper sizes that emerged 200 or 300 years ago, and they remain the basis for most commercially produced books today.Chapters are a feature of most books and can help to structure and organize the text. They can be found in novels, nonfiction and academic texts, and are an important way for readers to follow a logical progression of ideas or locate particular topics within the book. They also provide a sense of closure and allow the reader to move on.The acknowledgements section at the end of a book is a place for the author to share with the reader his or her gratitude to those who have helped in the production of the text. This can be a very moving part of a book and can help to cement the reader’s attachment to the work. An epilogue is a similar but more formal kind of closing statement and can offer additional insight or perspectives on the themes presented in the main body of the text. An epilogue can be particularly useful in a literary work, but it is also common in nonfiction texts. It can be used to explore issues such as social justice, the dignity of wrath and the inevitability of repetition in history.