RRB

Remarkable
Renaissance
Books

by John Boardley

A celebration of innovation in the Renaissance age told through 18 of its earliest printed books.

PRE-ORDER (Oct. 24)
ASTRONOMICUM CAESAREUM (1540)

About the book

John Boardleys Remarkable Renaissance Books tells the story of extraordinary early printed volumes, from the very first titles printed in the fifteenth century to the groundbreaking scientific texts of the Enlightenment.

Including Gutenbergs watershed Bible, a maths book illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, Galileos observations of mountains on the Moon, Keplers treatise on a supernova, Robert Hookes discovery of microscopic honeycomb structures he coined cells, and Maria Sibylla Merians pioneering studies of metamorphosis, these beautiful books and their enthralling histories, prehistories and legacies chart the fascinating stories of readers, writers, printers, scientists, philosophers and artists and the part they played in forging the modern world. In addition to highlighting their production and reception, the author traces each books journey into print, painting a vivid and compelling picture of remarkable books authored by prodigious minds. This lavishly illustrated volume brings the early print culture of the Renaissance to life and will appeal to lovers of books and history alike.

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived, and worked, and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.
— Amy Lowell, 1925

Table of contents

INTRO: More than Books
1. From Pilgrims to Print
2. Illuminating Pliny
3. History in Your Hands
4. Luca & Leonardo
5. Catapults & Cornices
6. A Wedding & Four Funerals
7. Northern Renaissance
8. Paper Cosmos
9. The Walking Dead
10. Unicorns & the Sausage Supper Affair
11. Renaissance Invention
12. You Are Here
13. A Star Is Born
14. Forging Heaven
15. The Book on the Moon
16. Out of Eden
17. Of Mites and Men
18. Metamorphosis
EPILOGUE: Bacon’s Ark & Wittgenstein’s Glasses

Where to preorder

Remarkable Renaissance Books is now available for pre-order. It will be published first in the UK on October 24, and thereafter in the US and ROW.

BODLEIAN UNI of CHICAGO AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSHOP WATERSTONES KINOKUNIYA

Stats

Hardback
288 pages
Size: 259 x 237 mm
120 colour illustrations
Bodleian Library, Oxford Uni 
ISBN: 9781851245482
Publication: 24 Oct, 2025

cover of Remarkable Renaissance Books, by John Boardley