Space between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading

Contains some good information on the history of books and reading. Contents: Introduction The nomenclature of word separation Complements to word separation by space Insular culture and word separation in the seventh and eighth centuries Exceptions to continental aerated text formats in the ninth and tenth centuries The origins of continental word separation, 950-1300 Word separation and the transcription of numbers and music The early protoscholastics The proliferation of word separation in the eleventh century The spread of word separation from England to the low countries and Lorraine The spread of word separation from England to northern France Cluniac monasticism: eastern and southern France Italy Reading and writing in northern Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Written culture at the end of the middle ages Appendix: Characteristics relating to word separation in manuscripts surveyed