Tomes' Tome

If books disappear, they’ll have a fitting monument in The Oxford Companion to the Book. The first part of this hefty Companion comprises 48 in-depth essays offering a tour of the book’s evolution from Sumerian clay tokens to e-books. In between are discussions of printing, paper, illustration, bookbinding, children’s books, and other topics, as well as the history of the book in countries across the globe. The second part consists of more than 5,000 entries on individuals, libraries, types of books, types of type, printing, publishing, seminal works such as The Canterbury Tales, and much more. Some 28 editors and 398 scholars from 27 countries labored on this project which, incidentally, is also available in digital form.

Indexed.  2v. 1,048p. $275 from Oxford University Press (9780198606536)