Kathleen P. Whitley. The Gilded Page: The History and Technique of Manuscript Gilding. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press; London: The British Library, 2010. xv, 233p. ISBN (USA; hardcover) 978-1-58456-239-9; (USA; paperback) 978-1-58456-241-2; (UK; paperback) 978-0-7123-5066-2. $49.95; $34.95

Abstract

Kathleen Whitley’s The Gilded Page is a mixture of excellent and wretched, satisfying and frustrating.

Let’s look at the excellent first. The content is amazing, filled with an abundance of information on the history and technique of gilding, coming from an experienced gilder. In 1969, D.F. McKenzie wrote his landmark essay “Printers of the Mind: Some Notes on Bibliographical Theories and Printing-House Practices”¹ in which he talks about “the need for what might be called ‘scientific’ investigation in bibliography” which comes from “a strict regard for certain fixed bounds of physical fact” (p. 1). Among many other things this article . . .