Index, a history of the: a bookish adventure from medieval manuscripts to the digital age
(Book)
Description
"Most of us give little thought to the back of the book-it's just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne. Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists' living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and primeministers, poets, librarians and-of course-indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart-and we have been for eight hundred years"--
Copies
More Details
Notes
Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Duncan, D. (2022). Index, a history of the: a bookish adventure from medieval manuscripts to the digital age. First American edition. W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Duncan, Dennis. 2022. Index, a History of The: A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Duncan, Dennis, Index, a History of The: A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.
MLA Citation (style guide)Duncan, Dennis. Index, a History of The: A Bookish Adventure From Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age. First American edition. W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.
Staff View
Record Information
| Last Sierra Extract Time | Jun 27, 2025 01:52:38 AM |
|---|---|
| Last File Modification Time | Jun 27, 2025 01:53:02 AM |
| Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Jun 27, 2025 01:52:43 AM |
MARC Record
| LEADER | 03312nam a2200373 i 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 008 | 211116s2022 nyua e b 001 0 eng | ||
| 020 | |a 9781324002543 |q (hardcover) | ||
| 020 | |a 1324002549 |q (hardcover) | ||
| 040 | |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d EL | ||
| 082 | 0 | 0 | |a 025.3 |2 23/eng/20211123 |
| 100 | 1 | |a Duncan, Dennis |q (Dennis J. B.), |e author. |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nb2017014504 | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Index, a history of the : |b a bookish adventure from medieval manuscripts to the digital age / |c Dennis Duncan. |
| 250 | |a First American edition. | ||
| 264 | 1 | |a New York : |b W.W. Norton & Company, |c [2022] | |
| 300 | |a vii, 343 pages : |b illustrations ; |c 24 cm | ||
| 336 | |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
| 337 | |a unmediated |b n |2 rdamedia | ||
| 338 | |a volume |b nc |2 rdacarrier | ||
| 500 | |a First published in Great Britain under the title Index, a history of the : a bookish adventure. | ||
| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (273-297) and index. | ||
| 520 | |a "Most of us give little thought to the back of the book-it's just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne. Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists' living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and primeministers, poets, librarians and-of course-indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart-and we have been for eight hundred years"-- |c Provided by publisher. | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Indexing |x History. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Indexes |x History. | |
| 907 | |a .b27017680 | ||
| 945 | |y .i66782740 |i 21203964461 |l nwan |s - |h |u 8 |x 0 |w 0 |v 7 |t 2 |z 01-24-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 DUN | ||
| 945 | |y .i6688150x |i 33520001470531 |l osan |s - |h |u 4 |x 0 |w 0 |v 1 |t 2 |z 02-22-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 DUNCAN | ||
| 945 | |y .i6688231x |i 21802739223 |l wdan0 |s - |h |u 4 |x 0 |w 0 |v 5 |t 2 |z 02-22-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3/DUN | ||
| 945 | |y .i66913627 |i 31200500393052 |l hmana |s - |h |u 9 |x 0 |w 0 |v 2 |t 2 |z 03-02-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3/DUN | ||
| 945 | |y .i66926518 |i 32159002432611 |l oran |s - |h |u 3 |x 0 |w 0 |v 2 |t 2 |z 03-03-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 Duncan | ||
| 945 | |y .i66941805 |i 22801622618 |l ehan |s - |h |u 6 |x 0 |w 0 |v 7 |t 2 |z 03-08-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 DUN | ||
| 945 | |y .i66964969 |i 20503774380 |l guan |s - |h |u 10 |x 1 |w 0 |v 6 |t 2 |z 03-15-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 DUNCAN | ||
| 945 | |y .i67081939 |i 20603666452 |l elan |s - |h |u 2 |x 0 |w 0 |v 0 |t 2 |z 04-19-22 |r - |o - |a 025.3 Duncan | ||
| 945 | |y .i6817312x |i 20802778520 |l lban |s - |h |u 2 |x 0 |w 0 |v 0 |t 2 |z 03-27-23 |r - |o - |a 025.3 Duncan | ||
| 998 | |e - |d a |f eng |a lb |a eh |a el |a gu |a hm |a nw |a os |a or |a wd | ||