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5. Defining the field

All of the examples considered thus far might be viewed as instances of
an approach primarily concerned with the analysis of a book's physical
features, yet each of them also emphasizes aspects of the human side of book
production and the role of books in society. That this mixture is no fluke but
rather inherent in thoughtful considerations of book history is the theme of an
article in which G. Thomas Tanselle contemplates the field, his 1981 essay The
History of Books as a Field of Study. "Linking l'histoire du livre and English
analytical and historical bibliography," says Tanselle, "is not a pulling together
of separate disciplines; rather, by the very nature of their subject each
is inherently a part of the other, and any separation of them is artificial and
lessens the validity of their conclusions. . . . All scholars of the history of
books . . . are historians," and "since books are physical objects, any study
of the history of books, even when it focuses on the ideas disseminated
through them, cannot ignore the physical aspects of books and the effects
they have had on the works being transmitted" (p. 46).

To illustrate what this unified field theory means in practice, Tanselle
turns to textual study. Serious readers of texts on any subject need "to have
available any textual evidence that may have a bearing on understanding
the meaning of the text," and bibliographical analysis is an important way
of establishing that evidence. By the same token, if one is interested in discussing
"the influence of a work in a particular area and period," perhaps
on the basis that it appears in an early catalogue listing, one needs to know
"the peculiarities of the texts in which that work was being read" (p. 49).
"If book history is to be concerned—as it rightly should be—," he says, "with
the role of books in spreading ideas, then textual matters are central to it;
and the analysis of the physical evidence found in books is, in turn, central
to the elucidation of textual questions. Textual study, in other words, provides

a direct and inevitable link between analytical bibliography and
l'histoire du livre" (p. 50). Scholars of social and economic history, which
also involve the role of books in the world, often draw mainly from surviving
business records. But here too, the only full explanations can come
by considering the objects that are the subjects of that history. Collectors,
both institutional and private, are thus especially important for the study
of book history, for they are "preserver[s] of the evidence [that is, the artifacts
themselves] upon which all book history must rest" (p. 53).