'Whatever they may do, authors do not write books.  Books are not written at all.  They are manufactured by scribes and other artisans, by mechanics and other engineers, and by printing presses and other machines.'  

 

So observed Roger Stoddard, the eminent book historian and former curator of Rare Books at Harvard, which is the starting point for a meditation on the history of the book by our colleague Anthony Payne, Hordern House's consultant in Europe. We are delighted to share it with you here. Anthony's ongoing research project is a bibliographical study of the various travel books and other writings of Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616), and has been awarded a PhD for the first instalment of this.