The Dictionary of the Book

A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others

By: Sidney E. Berger

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eText | 16 January 2023 | Edition Number 2

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Named a Library Journal Best Reference of 2023 - From Library Journal's Starred Review: "This ambitious and entertaining update solidifies Berger's volume as a must-have title for librarians, booksellers, collectors, and students of the book arts and book history."

This new edition of The Dictionary of the Book adds more than 700 new entries and many new illustrations and brings the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world, which has been forced to adjust to a new reality.

The definitive glossary of the book covers all the terms needed for a thorough understanding of how books are made, the materials they are made of, and how they are described in the bookselling, book collecting, and library worlds. Every key term—more than 2,000—that could be used in booksellers' catalogs, library records, and collectors' descriptions of their holdings is represented in this dictionary. This authoritative source covers all areas of book knowledge, including:

The book as physical object
Typeface terminology
Paper terminology
Printing
Book collecting
Cataloging
Book design
Bibliography as a discipline, bibliographies, and bibliographical description
Physical Condition and how to describe it
Calligraphy
Language of manuscripts
Writing implements
Librarianship
Legal issues
Parts of a book
Book condition terminology
Pricing of books
Buying and selling
Auctions
Items one will see an antiquarian book fairs
Preservation and conservation issues, and the notion of restoration
Key figures, presses / publishers, and libraries in the history of books
Book collecting clubs and societies
How to read and decipher new and old dealers' catalogs
And much more

The Dictionary also contains an extensive bibliography—more than 1,000 key readings in the book world and it gives current (and past) definitions of terms whose meaning has shifted over the centuries.

More than 200 images accompany the entries, making the work even more valuable for understanding the terms described.