The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others

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 objectTypeface terminologyPaper terminologyPrintingBook collectingCatalogingBook designBibliography as a discipline, bibliographies, and bibliographical descriptionPhysical Condition and how to describe itCalligraphyLanguage of manuscriptsWriting implementsLibrarianshipLegal issuesParts of a bookBook condition terminologyPricing of booksBuying and sellingAuctionsItems one will see an antiquarian book fairsPreservation and conservation issues, and the notion of restorationKey figures, presses / publishers, and libraries in the history of booksBook collecting clubs and societiesHow to read and decipher new and old dealers’ catalogsAnd much moreThe 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.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Nicholas Basbanes Introduction to the First Edition Introduction to the Second Edition The Dictionary Appendix A: Paper and Paper-Related Terminology in the Present Volume Appendix B: Typeface Terminology Appendix C: Paper Sizes Appendix D: Binding Terminology in the Present Volume Appendix E: Book Collectors’ Clubs and Societies Bibliography About the Author

About the Author :
Sidney E. Berger was the Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem; he is now that library’s Director Emeritus. For the past 18 years he has been on the faculties of Simmons University and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, teaching rare-book classes in both institutions’ library schools. He was also Curator of Printed Books and then Curator of Manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA, and he headed the Special Collections Department at the University of California, Riverside. He is widely published in several fields, and his book Rare Books and Specials Collections won the 2015 ABC-CLIO/American Library Association award for the Best Book in Library Literature. He makes paper and casts type by hand, and he is the proprietor of the Doe Press, publishing short texts from handset types, printed on a handpress.

Review :
Berger offers a second edition of his 2016 work presenting a comprehensive glossary of the book. The first edition was a remarkable achievement, but this newest effort is nothing short of a tour de force. This latest edition contains over 700 new entries for a total of 2,000 terms, covering all areas of the book arts and book history: parts of a book; typography; calligraphy; genre terms; pricing; paper; printing; bookbinding; physical condition; preservation and conservation issues; a short biography of key people, presses, and publishers; legal issues; and more. The volume presents terms from A to Z and most helpfully supplies over 200 illustrations and photographs of selected words. Additional features include five appendixes containing further information, including an extensive bibliography with over 1,000 resources and definitions of terms whose meanings have shifted over time. Readers will likely appreciate Berger’s impressive list of book clubs and societies around the world. 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. Sid Berger has been a positive influence on the book collecting world for many decades. His expertise ranges from the micro (his paper collection for example) to the macro (the vast language of old and rare books in all its forms) and is painstaking, accurate, well presented, and up-to-date. The second edition greatly enlarges and improves the first and will be the standard to which all collectors, librarians, and booksellers should adhere. As Mark Twain observed, there is a world of difference between 'the almost right word and the right word.' In this enlarged edition, Professor Berger gives us the right word for every possible term related to books. Going far beyond Carter’s ABC, he has produced a true Booktionary, defining thousands of terms related to the making, getting, keeping, trading, and loving of books. The whole history of books and printing, bookselling and collecting, librarianship, and much more is in this immensely useful resource. Berger’s definitions, so wonderfully precise and clear, give us the confidence to speak intelligently about books—always using just the right word. Each of the more than 2000 entries is comprehensively researched and exhaustively cited. There is also an extensive bibliography which will enable the reader to extend their research beyond the entries in this dictionary. It would also enable anyone with an interest to check that their own holdings on the history of the book are complete or guide those who wish to develop a collection in this area. It will be of interest to book collectors, booksellers, librarians, historians, and artists specialising in printmaking and handpress printing. The Dictionary of the Book is one I would like to add to my own collection[.] The second edition of The Dictionary of the Book stands as an indispensable cornerstone in the realm of bibliographic scholarship: the text is well informed and written with flair... The value of this edition lies in its meticulous coverage of bookmaking techniques and technologies. Berger leaves no stone unturned, presenting a comprehensive account of processes ranging from woodcut printing to digital typeset­ting. His lucid explanations and well-researched historical context provide readers with a vivid understanding of the evolution of book production. This is not merely a reference dictionary but a journey through time, tracing the transform­ation of the book as object from an artisanal craft to a prod­uct of industrial precision and back again... [This book is] an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the book at more than a superficial level and, equally important, it is a lot of fun to read.