THE SHAPE OF THE BOOK

Part of the Library on Display series devoted to exhibitions held at the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, this book is divi ded into two sections - the Papyrus Collection and the Manuscript collection. Between two intentionally striking extremes - a potshe rd on which a pupil from the 2nd century BC wrote the ancient verses of one of Sappho's odes and a 19th century Japanese erotic-grot esque scroll - the entries illustrate the relationship between book form and function, describing manuscripts of different formats a nd perio...[Read more]