Publisher's Synopsis
Woodcuts are a unique resource in the study of late medieval and early modern books: they have much to tell us about how books were produced and for what purposes, about reading habits and developments in literacy, and about the part that books played in social, political, and religious change. The central focus of this volume is on the physical evidence - pictures and texts - provided by books produced during the pre- and early Reformation periods, ranging from the products of the earliest English printers such as William Caxton, Richard Pynson, and Wynkyn de Words, through woodcut images of holy women and black people, to books that were censored, defaced, and glossed by Protestant reformers.
