Bound Fast with Letters brings together in one volume many of the significant contributions that Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse have made over the past forty years to the study of medieval manuscripts through the prism of textual transmission and manuscript production. The eighteen essays collected here address medieval authors, craftsmen, book producers, and patrons of manuscripts from different epochs in the Middle Ages, extending from late antiquity to the early Renaissance, and ranging from North Africa to northern England. Their investigations reveal valuable information about the history of texts and their transmission, and their careful scrutiny of texts and of the physical manuscripts that convey them illuminate the societies that created, read, and preserved these objects. The book begins in Part I with articles on writers from the patristic era through the twelfth century who experimented with, and mastered, various physical forms of presenting ideas in writing. Part II contains essays on patronage and patrons, including Richard de Fournival, Jean de Brienne, Watriquet de Couvin, Pope Clement V, the Counts of Saint-Pol, and Christine de Pizan. Part III, on manuscript producers, discusses the questions, for whom? and by whom? were manuscripts made. The four essays in this section each reflect on a different part of the process of book-making. Throughout, Bound Fast with Letters focuses on the close ties between the physical remains of literate culture-from the wax tablets of the patristic era to the vernacular literature of the wealthy laity of the late Middle Ages-and their social and economic context.

Here's a big second serving for sassafras softdrink lovers. Ever since Tom Morrison's first beverage book, Root Beer Advertising and Collectibles, was published, a second edition about this popular pop was inevitable. More than 650 photographs of root beer bottles, cans, dispensers, mugs, signs and emblems, and more are depicted in this volume, which was made possible by the groupings of some of the largest root beer collections in America. Root beer tidbits, recipes, lists of clubs and newsletters, and a guide to the brand names also make this book a valuable guide for those who want to know more about these popular collectibles.