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Revolution and the antiquarian book : reshaping the past, 1780-1815 / Kristian Jensen
Bib ID 5126399
Format BookBook
Author
Jensen, Kristian, 1954-
 
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Description Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011. 
x, 318 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. 
ISBN 9781107000513 (hbk.)  1107000513 (hbk.) 
Summary

"At the end of the eighteenth century, noblemen and revolutionaries spent extravagant sums of money or precious military resources competing to acquire old books, which until then had often been regarded as worthless. These books, called incunabula, achieved cultural and political importance as luxury commodities and as tools for mastering a controversial past. Men of different classes met in a new, shared marketplace, creating a competition for social authority, as books were no longer seen merely as sources of textual information but as a way of controlling the past in the service of contemporary concerns. The old books themselves were often changed to meet new expectations of what important historic objects should be. Focusing on Paris and London, but taking a resolutely pan-European view, this book examines the emergence of this commodity and of a new historical discipline created by traders and craftsmen"--

Full contents Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Enlightenment ideas and revolutionary practice: incunabula and freedom; 2. Aristocratic aspirations and the war-time market: competing for the past and the future; 3. An object-based discipline emerges: old books, new luxury; 4. Competing for authority. 'The insolence of English wealth'; 5. Commemorating and obliterating the past: 'old books, very displeasing to the eye'; 6. Conclusion. 
Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects Books and reading - Europe - History - 18th century.  |  Books and reading - Europe - History - 19th century.  |  Books - History - 18th century.  |  Books - History - 19th century.  |  Book collecting - Europe - History - 18th century.  |  Book collecting - Europe - History - 19th century.  |  Europe - Intellectual life - 18th century.

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