Oxford Companion to the BookThe Oxford Companion to the Book is a unique work of reference, covering the book, broadly conceived, throughout the world from ancient to modern times. It includes traditional subjects such as bibliography, palaeography, the history of printing, editorial theory and practice, textual criticism, book collecting, and libraries, but it also engages with newer disciplines such as the history of the book and the electronic book. It pays particular attention to how different societies shape books and how books shape societies. The work includes a substantial series of introductory essays alongside an A-Z section of over 5,000 entries, all linked by thorough cross-referencing and served by a classified index of entries.