The twenty-eight essays in this collection showcase cutting-edge research in manuscript studies, encompassing material from late antiquity to the Renaissance. The volume celebrates the exceptional contribution of John Lowden to the study of medieval books. The authors explore some of the themes and questions raised in John’s work, tackling issues of meaning, making, patronage, the book as an object, relationships between text and image, and the transmission of ideas. They combine John’s commitment to the close scrutiny of manuscripts with an interrogation of what the books meant in their own time and what they mean to us now.

Named "Man of the Millennium" in 1999, Johannes Gutenberg was the creator of one of the most influential and revolutionary inventions in Europe's history: a printing press with mechanical movable type. This development sparked the printing revolution, which is regarded as the milestone of the second millennium and represents one of the central contributions in the turn to modernity. His printing press came to play a key role in the development of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment, providing the material foundation for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses. His invention revolutionized the way that information is shared and broadened the boundaries of who has access to written knowledge. Paving the way for bibliophiles of today, the Gutenberg Bible of 1454 remains one of the most famous books in history.
Gutenberg's technical innovations remained unrivalled for almost 350 years, until industrialization of the printing industry and the digital revolution built on the advances that he began, increasing the rate at which information is spread. Despite his significance in forming the world as we know it, there has not yet been a rigorous and accessible biography of Gutenberg published in English. Written by the leading expert on Gutenberg, F ssel's biography brings together high academic standards and thorough historical details in a highly readable text that conveys everything you need to know about the man who changed printing forever.

狐狸窗，是日本民间至今流传的一种手诀。当人类遭遇狐狸嫁女、妖怪作魅等怪异现象时，赶紧用八根手指头搭成一个菱形的狐狸窗，置于眼前。透过狐狸窗你就能看见，那些粼粼点点的鬼火，其实是朝圣的狐狸们拿着提灯，列队前往狐狸王国的首都，东京王子稻荷神社。作者十年来，多次往返中国、日本，实地考察、调研日本民俗，做自己喜欢的研究，并且寻访珍本善书。因此，名为“勘破狐狸窗”，是回到历史现场，看破被既有历史叙事遮蔽的迷雾，形成一种“祛魅”的视角。书中，作者分梳了“人事”与“书事”两个范畴，在细密寻访中，将它们各自奇妙的经历与发现，呈现给读者。在书中，既有寻访“被鲁迅记忆抹去的敷波先生”，也有“饮食中的夏目漱石”；既有“日本早的中国道观实地调查”，也有中国民俗学鼻祖钟敬文留日生活的一览与“日本民俗调查计划”。

人にとって書物とは何か。なぜ、書物は必要なのか――。原資料と先行研究を幅広く渉猟し、目録学の誕生史を描き出す。

Marginalia in early modern and medieval texts – printed, handwritten, drawn, scratched, colored, and pasted in – offer a glimpse of how people, as individuals and in groups, interacted with books and manuscripts over often lengthy periods of time. The chapters in this volume build on earlier scholarship that established marginalia as an intellectual method (Grafton and Jardine), as records of reading motivated by cultural, social, theological, and personal inclinations (Brayman [Hackel] and Orgel), and as practices inspired by material affordances particular to the book and the pen (Fleming and Sherman). They further the study of the practices of marginalia as a mode – a set of ways in which material opportunities and practices overlap with intellectual, social, and personal motivations to make meaning in the world. They introduce us to a set of idiosyncratic examples such as the trace marks of objects left in books, deliberately or by accident; cut-and-pasted additions to printed volumes; a marriage depicted through shared book ownership. They reveal to us in case studies the unique value of marginalia as evidence of phenomena as important and diverse as religious change, authorial self-invention, and the history of the literary canon. The chapters of this book go beyond the case study, however, and raise broad historical, cultural, and theoretical questions about the strange, marvelous, metamorphic thing we call the book, and the equally multiplicitous, eccentric, and inscrutable beings who accompany them through history: readers and writers.

沈燮元，1924年生，版本目录学家，南京图书馆研究馆员，从事古籍整理、研究与保护工作六十余年。具有丰富的古籍保护从业经验，成就斐然，退而不休，以古籍整理为终生事业，对南京图书馆乃至全国古籍保护工作作出了突出贡献，在古籍版本研究领域具有较大的影响和权威。此次汇集其文章，编为一辑，既是对其一生著述的总结，也可对从事古籍工作的同行提供很好的借鉴。

所谓“群经义疏”，是指唐代孔颖达、宋代邢昺等人为儒家经书所撰“正义”和“疏”；宋本义疏包括宋刊单疏本、八行本、十行本三套丛刊；编校与刊印则涵盖了版本从孕育、诞生到面世的全过程。本书具体讨论群经义疏这三套丛刊，各自选择何种底本，如何编纂，怎样校勘，刊于何时何地，曾刻几种，在何时何地补版，文本发生了怎样的变化，大约到何时不再印刷。期待通过这些研究与思考，对义疏读者有所裨益，同时对“书”的生命历程获得更丰富的理解。

四百年前的毛氏汲古閣，不僅因雕版印書享譽當時，亦因文化傳播的功績而名垂後世並影響至今，然對其業績系統探究整理仍很欠缺。對汲古閣來說，盡管刻書、藏書、題跋均有專書載錄，當代某一專項的研究、考證亦有專著等，但在資料的搜輯運用、版本鑒定、數量統計諸方面，都存在一些不甚準確、完整之處，亦缺乏對汲古閣整體的認知。本書信而有征，主要包括汲古閣刻本、鈔本、藏本及相關書跋題評四部分，另有毛晉師友撰寫的毛晉小傳、墓誌，末附漫話一篇及簡目。
《汲古閣匯紀》對汲古閣藏書、刻書、題跋等均有研究考證，在資料的搜集運用、版本鑒定、數量統計等方面彌補了過去既有研究的不足之處，內容更加準確、完整，有利於對汲古閣做出全面的、整體的認識和研究，對於深入研究其出版宗旨、出版特點及對社會文化發展所起的推動作用，對於深入研究其藏書宗旨、藏書特色及對其出版事業所起的推動作用，都是不可或缺的重要材料。