Raven 2014

Raven, James. Bookscape: Geographies of Printing and Publishing in London before 1800. London: The British Library, 2014.

Places and Transformations

Booksellers and printers active in London more than doubled during 17c

“Commercial topography” of the book trade

Argument: “first, that radical disjunctions in memory have created voids and confusions, and that to overcome these we need to consider contemporary perceptions of change and of the past (and hence my title ‘before 1800’ rather than ‘in the eighteenth century’). Second, we need to widen our approach to the commercial topography of these trades, to reconsider site and place, and to think in new wyas about local space in a neighbourhood.” (2)

spatial turn, actor-network theory

“The challenge for continuing study of the history of books is a global one, of books across boundaries and the devvelopment of research strategies that move bibliometrics from production to circulation.” (7)