Some reference books answer questions. Others change how you think about books altogether. Printing and the Mind of Man belongs to the second category.
What Is Printing and the Mind of Man?
Printing and the Mind of Man began as an exhibition catalog. It was assembled for a 1963 show held jointly at the British Museum and Earls Court in London. The goal was ambitious: to identify the books, documents, and manuscripts that had shaped the history of human thought.
The catalog does not organize its entries by subject or strict chronology. Instead, it asks one question about each item. Not “is this rare?” Not “is this valuable?” But: “did this change something?”
The entries range widely. Gutenberg’s Bible is here. So are Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus, Newton’s Principia, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Marx’s Das Kapital, and Einstein’s papers on relativity. What connects them is not subject matter. It is consequence.
Why Collectors Should Own It
For rare book collectors, Printing and the Mind of Man is useful in a practical way. It documents the bibliographic points of many of the most significant books in Western intellectual history. Often, it was the first authoritative source to do so.
But the value goes well beyond the technical. Each entry is a small essay. It explains why a particular text mattered and what it set in motion. Reading through them is a reminder of what books are actually for. Not objects to be acquired and shelved. Ideas made physical, passed from hand to hand across centuries.
It is, in the best sense, a book that makes you want to read more books.
Have a copy you’re looking to sell, or looking for one to add to your library? Contact Urban Antiquaria.