Y. Sordet. History of the Book and Publishing: Production & Circulation, Forms & Mutations - History, Politics and Society

French Literature Reviews - 2026

Y. Sordet. History of the Book and Publishing: Production & Circulation, Forms & Mutations
History, Politics and Society

Yann Sordet

History of the Book and Publishing: Production & Circulation, Forms & Mutations

Afterword by Robert Darnton. Paris, Albin Michel, coll. L'Évolution de l'Humanité, 2021

798 p. — ISBN 978-2-226-45767-7 — €32

From the invention of writing to the digital revolution, Yann Sordet’s ambitious, richly documented and illustrated synthesis retraces the major milestones and revolutions in the history of the book through its production, economics, circulation and regulation, as well as its uses, forms and major mutations—the expansion of the codex at the dawn of the Christian era, the development of typography in Europe in the xve century, the invention of periodicals in the early xviie, the entry of bookselling into consumer society and the globalization of the publishing market since the xixe, the dematerialization of processes in the xxe century…

This vast survey thus embraces the entirety of written production, regardless of its purpose—pedagogy, knowledge, combat, worship, information—and its forms—ranging from planetary bestsellers to almanacs, ephemeral publications and everyday print—while interrogating a foundational ambiguity: both a manufactured object and a commercial product, the book is also a symbolic good, a work with strong identity value.

Finally, it pays close attention to the diversity of the actors in this general history of the book and publishing—authors, legislators, copyists, illuminating artists or engravers, printer-booksellers then publishers, but also readers, collectors, librarians—and their interactions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

PART ONE: THE MANUSCRIPT BOOK

1. From Writing to the Book

  • The Trial of the Written Word
  • Sign, Sound, Concept
  • Counting and Believing: Calculation, the Hereafter, and the Invention of Writing
    • Accounting Writing: Tokens, Bullae, and Clay Tablets
    • Divinatory Writing: Bird Tracks, Shells, and Shoulder Blades
  • The Spread of Alphabetic Scripts
  • The Form of the Sign: Linguistic Abstraction and Calligraphic Intention

2. Supports and Forms of the Book in the Mediterranean Basin

  • Papyrus and the Volumen
    • The Production of Papyrus According to Varro and Pliny
    • The Volumen as an Editorial Unit
    • Manufacture and Representation of the Book in Greco-Roman Antiquity
    • Other Book Supports in the Greco-Roman World
  • Parchment and the Codex
    • Codices Prior to the Volumen?
    • Parchment and the Political Drivers of Its Spread
    • The Substitution of the Codex for the Volumen
    • The Real and Symbolic Resistance of the Scroll

3. In the East: Other Scripts, Other Supports

  • In China
  • In Japan
  • In Korea
  • In India

4. Paper

  • Chronology of a Technological Transfer
  • Paper Manufacturing in Europe (13th–18th Century)
  • Geography, Market, and Economic Trends
  • Parchment then Paper, Certainly, but Also…

5. From the Fragmentation of Antique Models to the Carolingian Renaissance

  • The End of a World?
  • The Development of European Monasticism
  • Foundations and Filiations: The European Geography of Scriptoria (6th–8th Century)
  • Sacred/Secular: A New Polarization of Texts and Knowledge
  • The Carolingian Renaissance: Renewal of Writing and Studies, Antique Heritage, and Biblical Publishing
  • The Evolution of Scripts: Diversification and Unity
    • Roman Heritage and "National" Forms
    • Caroline Minuscule
  • Constantinople and Eastern Christendom: Iconoclasm and the Greek Renaissance
  • Congregations and Reforms: The Place and Circulation of the Book within Monastic Orders
  • French and Vernacular Languages Put to the Test of Writing

6. From Scriptoria to Librarii, 12th–15th Century

  • Salvation, the Book, and the Church
  • The Changes of the 12th Century
  • Universities and the Pecia
  • Preaching, a New Pedagogical Challenge
  • Tools for Intellectual Work
    • Grand Syntheses
    • The Gloss
    • Indexes, Correctoria, and Concordances
  • Translators and Text Passers
  • The Hebrew Book
  • The Triumph of Gothic
  • Music
  • New Professionals
    • Stationers and Sworn Booksellers
    • Patrons, Suppliers, and Clientele
  • The Book of Hours: Luxury Production and Ordinary Books for Lay Use
  • The Last Centuries of Byzantium and the Greek Sources of Humanism

7. The Making of the Medieval Manuscript

  • The Quire
  • The Paper Process
  • Inks
  • Copying
  • Illumination and Decoration
  • Binding
  • Formats and Dimensions

8. Antique and Medieval Libraries

PART TWO: THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

9. Transformations of the Written Word at the End of the Middle Ages

  • At the Sources of Humanism
  • Graphic Research

10. Printing and Publishing Before Gutenberg

  • Far Eastern Precedents
  • "Natural" Printing
  • Woodblock Printing and Xylographic Booklets
  • Series Production

11. Typographic Technique

  • Gutenberg
  • Historiographical Controversies and Rivalries
  • Printing in Question: The Reservations of an Anxious Society

12. Constraints and Opportunities: The Geography of Print

  • The First European Expansion
  • Territories, Markets, Repertoires
  • A New Economy
  • Prospectuses and Specimens, Fairs and Catalogs: Tools of Commodification

  • Bookselling Figures and the Issue of Print Runs

  • The Men of the Book

13. The Book and Languages

  • Latin and the Vernacular
  • Languages and Typography

14. The Book and Powers: From Regulation to Supervision

15. A New Object

  • A Product in Search of Visual Identity: Trademark, Imprint, and Title Page
  • Imposition and Format
  • Typographic Page Layout
  • The Image
  • Color
  • Binding

PART THREE: THE EARLY MODERNITY OF THE BOOK: RENAISSANCE, HUMANISM, REFORMATION, AND PRINTING

16. The Book and Faith

  • Spiritual Anxieties
  • Modern Devotion
  • The Challenge of Exegesis
  • The Challenge of Translation
  • The Reformation and the Book, the Reformation in the Book
    • Luther: A Media Revolution
    • French Evangelism, the Geneva Reformation, and Calvinism
    • The Religious Fracture and the World of Bookselling: Segmentation and Opportunism
  • The Counter-Reformation Through the Book

17. Printing and Humanism

  • Support from Power
  • Classics and Grammar
  • Humanist Printers: The Case of Aldus Manutius
  • Humanist Printers: The Ambiguities of Jodocus Badius
  • Defense of the French Language and Orthotypography

18. The Control of Publishing Between Spiritual, Secular, and Corporate Powers

  • Authorization to Print: Privilege and Prior Censorship
  • The Ambiguities of Legal Deposit
  • Book Banning and the Index
  • Rome
  • The Organization of Trades (from the 16th Century to the End of the Ancien Régime)
  • The King’s Printer

19. Networks of Men and Circulation of Books

20. Memory and Glory: The Power of the Book

21. Forms and Repertoires

  • The Art of the Letter
    • The Triumph of Roman Type and the Experiment with Italic
    • Civilité Type
    • Greek Type
    • The Origins of Orientalism
  • The Renaissance and the Arts of the Book
  • Evolution of Page Layouts
  • Occasionals and Ephemeral Prints
  • Epistolary Art
  • Teaching and Learning
  • Pamphlets and Libels
  • Music…
  • … and Dance
  • Functions and Economics of Illustration
    • Iconoclasm and Standardization
    • The Image Trades and Bookselling
  • The Scientific Book and Its "Imagery"
    • Medicine
    • Botany and Natural Sciences
    • Geography
    • Astronomy

22. Publishing Markets: Openings and Compartmentalization

PART FOUR: BOOKSELLING IN THE CLASSICAL AGE

23. Bookselling Regime and Book Policing

  • Censorship and Surveillance
  • Privilege: Affirmation, Contest, and Misuse
  • Counterfeiting: The Economic Rationale of an Illicit Practice

24. The Concentration of Facilities: Figures and Factors

25. Printed Information and Communication: The Invention of Media

  • Birth of the Press
    • Precursors
    • The "Gazette"
    • The Expansion of Periodicals
  • Publishing and Politics
    • Crises and Political Communication
    • The Mazarinades
    • Gabriel Naudé and the Media Regime
    • The Royal Printing Office

26. Users, Clienteles, and Editorial Strategies

  • The Stimulations of the Counter-Reformation
    • The Jesuits and Education Through the Book
    • The Missionary Book
    • Diocesan Action: Catechisms and Ecclesiastical Conferences
  • Bestsellers and Long-Sellers

  • Collections Before Their Time

  • The Economics of the Ephemeral
  • Popular Books
    • Pliego de Cordel and Chapbooks
    • The Bibliothèque Bleue
    • Almanacs
  • Popular Imagery
  • History in Books, History Through Books
  • Grand Collective Syntheses and Dictionaries
  • Libraries and the Bookselling Market

27. Local Demands, Distant Markets: Print Outside Europe

28. Techniques and Forms: The Evolution of Books in the 17th and 18th Centuries

  • Calligraphy and Typography in the Classical Age
    • Financial and Round, French or English
    • Artificial Scripts
    • The Reform of the Sign and the Romain du Roi
  • Classical Text Settings
  • Music Publishing
  • Manuscript Circulation

PART FIVE: THE BOOK IN REVOLUTION

29. Media Convulsions and Ordinary Books

30. The Expansion of Clandestinity

31. Control, Repression, Freedoms

  • A Code for Bookselling
  • The Search for Compromise
    • Tacit Permissions
    • Monitoring to Prevent
    • Legalizing to Contain
  • Selected Publishing Adventures of the Enlightenment
    • 1752–1772: The Encyclopedia
    • 1758: De l’esprit (On the Mind)
    • 1762: Émile
  • The Issue of Freedom of the Press

32. Recognition of the Author and Status of Works

33. The Book as Actor: Print in the Public Sphere

34. Economic Tensions and Technical Innovations

35. A New Aesthetics of the Book

36. French Publishing Through Revolution, Empire, and Restoration: Break or Transition?

  • The French Revolution: A Tabula Rasa?
  • The Imperial Bookselling Code and the Patent System (1810)
  • The Oscillations of the Restoration

37. Books, Nations, and Cultural Transfers

PART SIX: TOWARDS AN INDUSTRIAL MODEL?

38. Technical Context and Social Demand

39. The Dynamics of Invention

  • Transformations in Paper
  • Growing Mechanization of Printing and Typesetting
    • Stereotyping
    • The Single-Impression Press
    • Flat-bed against flat-bed, flat-bed against cylinder, cylinder against cylinder: towards the rotary press
    • Mutations in Composition and the Programmed End of Movable Type

40. The Reign of the Image

  • Lithography
  • The Revival of Wood Engraving
  • The Illustrated Press

41. Photography

  • Development of Processes
  • Adapting Photography to Publishing
  • The Book and Photographic Art
  • The Book and the Photographic Document
  • Photography and the Press

42. The Book and the Law

  • The Fight Against Belgian Counterfeiting
    • Favorable Economic and Legal Factors
    • Counter-Offensives
    • The Convention of August 22, 1852
  • Debates on Literary Property
    • A Social Issue
    • Copyright and the Berne Convention (1886)
    • The U.S. Case and the International Copyright Act (1891)
  • The Newspaper: Legal Constraints and Surveillance
  • Modern-Day "Censorship" and Freedom of the Press

43. Men and Structures

  • The Late Printer-Bookseller: The Era of Printers and Publishers
  • The Birth of Publishing "Houses"
  • Major Printing Entrepreneurs
  • The Social Policy of Employer Printers
  • The Worker and the Machine
  • Book Trades and Professional Organizations
    • In Printing: Employer Chamber and Worker Unionism
    • In Publishing: Cercle de la Librairie and Syndicat de l’Édition
    • Booksellers
    • Bouquinistes (Secondhand Booksellers)
    • Binders

44. Repertoires and Strategies

  • Mass Press
  • The Serial Novel
  • The Invention of the Book Series
  • The Price of the Book
    • The Charpentier "Revolution"
    • Installments and Four-Penny Novels
    • In the Anglo-Saxon World: From Penny Bloods to Pulp Magazines
  • Geography, Travel, and Guides
  • History and Archaeology: Subsidized Publishing
  • Publishing and Pedagogy
    • The Engine of Public Instruction
    • Textbooks, Journals, Dictionaries, and Educational "Material"
    • Origins of Youth Literature
    • The Textbook War
    • The University Market
  • Almanacs and "Job Printing"

45. Institutions of Reading

46. Banalization and Sacralization

47. The Western Publishing Industry in the World

PART SEVEN: MODERN TIMES: DEMATERIALIZATION AND THE INFORMATION SOCIETY

48. Production Undergoing Dematerialization

  • The End of Lead: Offset and Photocomposition
  • Computerization of Processes
  • The Domestication of Techniques
    • Microphotography, Electrophotography, Photocopying
    • Microcomputing and Self-Publishing
  • Concentration, Overproduction
  • The "Graphic Chain"
  • Graphic Industries in Figures at the Dawn of the 21st Century
    • Geography, Structures, and Headcount
    • Market Segments and Economic Trends

49. The Book, the Artisan, and the Artist

  • Poetics and Materiality of the Sign
  • Typographic Creation: Vitality and Standardization
  • Private Presses and Artists' Books
  • Binding: Tested by Modernity and Industry

50. The Book and Politics, Policies of the Book

  • The "Fourth Estate" and the "Book Battles"
  • The Supervision of Publishing in Wartime
  • Forms of Clandestinity
  • Policies of the Book
    • Promises of the Popular Front
    • Tools and Actors of Regulation
    • Fixed Pricing and Cultural Exception
    • Literacy, Publishing, and Development: The Ambiguities of Francophonie

51. Economics of Contemporary Publishing

  • Globalization and Translation Flows
  • Oligopolies and Dispersed Margins
  • "Trade", "Learning" & "Professional": The Global TOP 10 in Publishing
  • New Actors in the Book Economy
  • The State of Bookselling

52. Figures of Contemporary Publishing

  • Literary Prizes: Institutions, Economic Engines, and Controversies
  • "Galligrasseuil": The Giants of Literary Publishing
  • Children's Books
  • Poche and Paperbacks
  • Commercial and Institutional Sectors in Academic Publishing
  • Independents and Free-Thinkers
  • The End of Publishers?

53. Digital Technology and Publishing: Shifts, Permanences, and Questions

  • The "Third Book Revolution": Discourse and Historiography
  • From Author to Reader: Continuum and New Intermediaries
  • A Partial Reconfiguration of the Publishing Ecosystem
  • Legal Battles and Negotiations
  • Open Access and Open Science

AFTERWORD by Robert Darnton

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 928 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 946

INDEX of personal names, corporate bodies, places, and titles (anonymous works, periodicals, and collections).

The history of the book is a multidisciplinary field that examines the material, economic, and cultural dimensions of written communication. By analyzing the transition from the scroll to the codex and the later impact of typography, scholars explore how technological shifts influence the dissemination of knowledge. This work situates these developments within a broad chronological framework, covering the rise of monastic scriptoria, the emergence of early printing centers, and the subsequent professionalization of the book trade. Readers interested in the intersection of material culture and intellectual history may find this synthesis of production and circulation patterns relevant.

Central to the history of the book is the dual nature of the volume as both a manufactured object and a symbolic good. The text examines how various actors, including copyists, printers, and librarians, have navigated the regulatory and commercial pressures of their respective eras. By tracing the evolution of formats—from medieval manuscripts to the rise of periodicals and global publishing markets—the work highlights the tension between the book as a commodity and its role in pedagogy, worship, and political discourse.