Reading typographically : immersed in print in early modern France / Geoffrey Turnovsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turnovsky, Geoffrey, author.

Series:

Stanford Text Technologies Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Books and reading--France--History--17th century.

Books and reading.

Books and reading--France--History--18th century.

Printing--France--History--17th century.

Printing.

Printing--France--History--18th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (330 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Anxieties about the fate of reading in the digital age reveal how deeply our views of the moral and intellectual benefits of reading are tied to print. These views take root in a conception of reading as an immersive activity, exemplified by the experience of "losing oneself in a book." Against the backdrop of digital distraction and fragmentation, such immersion leads readers to become more focused, collected, and empathetic. How did we come to see the printed book as especially suited to deliver this experience? Print-based reading practices have historically included a wide range of modes, not least the disjointed scanning we associate today with electronic text. In the context of religious practice, literacy's benefits were presumed to lie in such random-access retrieval, facilitated by indexical tools like the numbering of Biblical chapters and verses. It was this didactic, hunt-and-peck reading that bound readers to communities. Exploring key evolutions in print in 17th- and 18th-century France, from typeface, print runs, and format to editorial organization and punctuation, this book argues that typographic developments upholding the transparency of the printed medium were decisive for the ascendancy of immersive reading as a dominant paradigm that shaped modern perspectives on reading and literacy"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the benefits of reading

Typeface : disappearing letters from romain du roi to Didot

Print runs : tender maps in the marketplace

Format : appropriations of the book

Editorial labors : the typography of intimate texts

Punctuation marks : bringing speech to life on the printed page

Conclusion : hybridity and text technologies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503639164

1503639169

OCLC:

1432588440