A New Introduction to Bibliography

 (2 customer reviews)

Gaskell (as it is known) was the textbook I used at UCLA for an Analytical Bibliography class which was a prerequisite for a class on Handpress Printing. It's not for wimps (UCLA, the Analytical Bib class, OR this work!). Hint: if you don't know what the term "analytical bibliography" means, do not buy this book (exception: if the book is required for your class in Analytical Bibliography!).Gaskell is an astonishingly thorough one volume overview of almost everything about the transmission of printed text. It consists of only 438 pages, yet manages to cover book production from 1500 to 1950. Included are sections on printing type, composition, paper, imposition, presswork, warehousing, binding, decoration, the American and English book trades, machinery, etc., ad infinitum (it seems). The "Reference Bibliography" following various appendices thoroughly lists the resources to which one would refer for more indepth analysis (e.g., watermark catalogs, surveys of...Read more

I thought I was buying a book like the MLA, or Tarabian book on the proper way to cite references, but this book is nothing useful for College students. Unless you are studying to be a printing expert, because they have all kinds of historical information about different kinds of print face from old England and others.