Why study book history?

This question is one I have heard countless of times (along with: Who really needs to study medieval history? But that one is a subject for another time). I do not intend to give a full and satisfactory answer, for my focus is going to be on my views and why I think book history is an important discipline.

History is, in essence, stories. Those stories are told over and over again. One key feature about stories is that they spread the ideas within them. Thus, ideas move through humanity via stories. While the most common way to tell a story is orally, the most enduring one is text. Today, ideas spread through internet, social media and other electronic devices. It might appear that no one reads physical texts anymore. Well, before the digital age, information and ideas had to be transferred usually via written texts. And before the newspaper industry, that format was a book, or a codex.

Studying a copy of Decades in the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome last June.

Book history studies the books as vessels which transmit ideas among humans. Well, at least in one sense. It also studies the book itself, its dimensions, structure, material, writing, layout etc. Just like scholars who study social media platforms and newspapers, book historians study the book. The physical appearance of a book can tell us much about the technology of the period when the book was made. It can also help in locating the origin of a book, whether it is a manuscript or a printed book. The used writing material informs us what kind of animal skins were used, whether some animals were popular in specific regions etc. Moreover, finding a watermark in a paper manuscript can point to a specific paper manufacturer revealing important information of the paper trade.

So, why study book history? Along with the reasons mentioned above, studying books helps to understand the people in history. Consequently, book history can be seen as one of the central disciples in the study of the pre-industrial history. If, for example, a person hoards books of certain genre, that tells us something about the person and about the trends of the period when he or she lived. Popularity of certain books imply the popularity of the ideas within them. On another example, if the copies of a certain work have thought only to circulate in a restricted geographical area during a specific time period and suddenly you find similar ideas presented in altogether different location during the same period, it is required to find out how those ideas got there. 

Giving an example from my thesis, one of the copies of Biondo's Decades appeared in England in 1443. This copy was a gift to the bishop of Bath and Wells, Thomas Beckington (c. 1390-1465). In the margins of this copy, there are multiple annotations and comments, written in fine humanistic script. They appear Italian in origin. One of the comments helps in dating the marginal notes to the period of the pontificate of pope Paul II (1464-1471). As far as I know, the manuscript in question never left England after its arrival in 1443. After the death of Beckington in January of 1465, it was probably given to the Diocese of Bath and Wells or to Lincoln College. Either way, shortly before or after this, some (possibly Italian) humanist had access to Biondo's work and had the time to comment it thoroughly. 

This so far unknown commentator has inadvertently informed us that there were active scholarly networks between Italy and England. When combined with the existing scientific research on the subject, it emphasizes an even stronger connection between different parts of Europe. Connection of ideas; made possible by books.