With examples and illustrations drawn from the rare books collection within the Bowdoin College Library’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Joseph A. Dane ’69, a University of Southern California English professor, has just published What Is a Book? The Study of Early Printed Books (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012).

This introduction to the study of books as physical objects examines those produced during the period of the hand press, from about 1450 through 1800.

A summer resident of Harpswell, Dane spent several sabbatical years perusing the College’s collection of rare books.