BiblioVault - Books about Books

The Harvard List of Books in Psychology

Fourth Edition

The Psychologists in Harvard University

Harvard University Press

The Harvard List of Books in Psychology was first compiled in the 1930s, when each student in the department enjoyed the luxury of an individual tutorial. Together tutor and student could map out a course of reading. By 1938, the list had proved so useful that its 349 titles were annotated and printed, though mainly for local consumption. Growth of an outside demand from students, librarians, and the reading public led to a supplement in 1944 and a number of successive editions bearing the present title. The present edition updates the List without expanding it beyond useful size: for each new title the compilers have faithfully tried to delete one, and new entries account for almost half of the present total of 744. Each title is annotated with descriptive and evaluative material.

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History of Reading

Steven Roger Fischer

Reaktion Books, 2003

Steven Roger Fischer’s fascinating book traces the complete story of reading from the time when symbol first became sign through to the electronic texts of the present day. Describing ancient forms of reading and the various modes that were necessary to read different writing systems and scripts, Fischer turns to Asia and the Americas and discusses the forms and developments of completely divergent dimensions of reading.

With the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East, innovative re-inventions of reading emerged – silent and liturgical reading; the custom of lectors; reading’s focus in general education – whereupon printing transformed society’s entire attitude to reading. Fischer charts the explosion of the book trade in this era, its increased audience and radically changed subject-matter; describes the emergence of broadsheets, newspapers and public readings; and traces the effect of new font designs on general legibility.

Fischer discusses society’s dedication to public literacy in the sweeping educational reforms of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and notes the appearance of free libraries, gender differences in reading matter, public advertising and the "forbidden" lists of Church, State and the unemancipated. Finally, he assesses the future, in which it is likely that read communication will soon exceed oral communication through the use of the personal computer and the internet, and looks at "visual language" and modern theories of how reading is processed in the human brain. Asking how the New Reader can reshape reading’s future, he suggests a radical new definition of what reading could be.

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The Hours of Marie de Medici

A Facsimile

Marie de Medici

Bodleian Library Publishing, 2016

A stunning facsimile copy of an illuminated manuscript owned by the French queen Marie de Medici.

At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a specialty of the renowned Ghent–Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer books, or “books of hours,” from detailed decoration to luxurious bindings and embroidery.

This manuscript owes its name to the French queen, Marie de Medici, widow of King Henri IV. The manuscript was painted by an artist known as the David Master, one of the renowned Flemish illuminators of the sixteenth century. Fine architectural interiors, gorgeous landscapes, and detailed city scenes form the subjects of three full-size illuminations and forty-two full-page miniatures. It is one of the finest examples of medieval illumination in a personal prayer book and the most copiously illustrated work of the David Master to survive.

Together with a scholarly introduction that gives an overview of Flemish illumination and examines each of the illustrations in detail, this full-color facsimile limited edition, bound in linen with a leather quarter binding and beautifully presented in a slipcase, faithfully reproduces all 176 leaves of the original manuscript.

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