History of Printing and Reading

The Newberry’s collection on the history of printing and the book arts is one of the world’s leading collections in the field. Collection strengths include the design of letter forms, calligraphy, type and type-founding, technical innovations in printing, design usage and theory, bookselling, bookbinding, paper-making, the history of book collecting, and the history of libraries.

Translate Latin place names used in early printed books to their modern equivalents. Maintained by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries.

If you click on one of the courses being offered that relates to your research question, there is often a bibliography of resources available.

The Atlas of Early Printing is an interactive site designed to be used as a tool for teaching the early history of printing in Europe during the second half of the fifteenth century. While printing in Asia pre-dates European activity by several hundred years, the rapid expansion of the trade following the discovery of printing in Mainz, Germany around the middle of the fifteenth century is a topic of great importance to the history of European civilization.