In Early Modern Europe the first readers of a book were not those who bought it. They were the scribes who copied the author s or translator s manuscript, the censors who licensed it, the publisher who decided to put this title in his catalogue, the copy editor who prepared the text for the press, divided it and added punctuation, the typesetters who composed the pages of the book, and the proof reader who corrected them. The author s hand cannot be separated from the printers mind. This book is devoted to the process of publication of the works that framed their readers representations of the past or of the world. Linking cultural history, textual criticism and bibliographical studies, dealing with canonical works - like Cervantes Don Quixote or Shakespeare s plays - as well as lesser known texts, Roger Chartier identifies the fundamental discontinuities that transformed the circulation of the written word between the invention of printing and the definition, three centuries later, of what we call 'literature'.

In Early Modern Europe the first readers of a book were not thosewho bought it. They were the scribes who copied the author'sor translator's manuscript, the censors who licensed it, thepublisher who decided to put this title in his catalogue, the copyeditor who prepared the text for the press, divided it and addedpunctuation, the typesetters who composed the pages of the bookand the proof reader who corrected them. The author's handcannot be separated from the printers' mind.This book is devoted to the process of publication of the worksthat framed their readers' representations of the past or ofthe world. Linking cultural history, textual criticism andbibliographical studies, dealing with canonical works - likeCervantes' Don Quixote or Shakespeare's playsas well as lesser known texts, Roger Chartier identifies thefundamental discontinuities that transformed the circulation of thewritten word between the invention of printing and the definitionthree centuries later, of what we call 'literature'.

PrefacePart I: The Past in the Present1. Listen to the Dead with Your Eyes2. History: Reading Time3. History and Social Science: A Return to BraudelPart II: What is a Book?4. The Powers of Print5. The Author's Hand6. Pauses and Pitches7. TranslationPart III: Texts and Meanings8. Memory and Writing9. Paratext and Preliminaries10. Publishing Cervantes11. Publishing Shakespeare12. The Time of the Work