Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0306801817, Paperback)

Norma Laverie traces the history of book design and formats against a background of the changing patrons and producers of books, the movements of social and political history, the state of the arts, the growth and conflicts of religion, the fresh contacts of trade and the development of technology. This is not a history of book production, nor of book illustration, but of the book as a work of art. It is intended for students of book arts, book-lovers and collectors.