Lotte Hellinga Livres

Proceedings of a Conference held in London, 15-17 september 1999, organized by The Association for Low Countries Studies, University College London, Centre for Dutch and Flemish Culture, The British Library, Dutch and Flemish section, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. Twenty-five papers by experts in their particular period or area were selected for publication. Covering almost five centuries, they represent a wholly modern approach to the history of the book and publishing in a European context, highlighting for the first time the crucial role of the Low Countries in transmitting the intellectual heritage of an area well beyond their own - changing - borders.

This work takes a fresh approach to the first 60 years of printing in England by placing Caxton, his contemporaries and the later generations in the broad context of the history of book production between the middle of the 15th century and the Reformation.

In Incunabula in Transit Lotte Hellinga explores trade in early printed books in the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Material evidence (typography, illumination, binding) and historical context deepen understanding of the evolving book trade. Eighteenth-century collectors changed early patterns of ownership.

Texts in Transit addresses the question what happened to texts during their production in printing houses in the fifteenth century. Lotte Hellinga finds some answers by exploring printer's copy and proofs in diverse printing houses, covering the period 1459 -1496.