Description
Book SynopsisMiniature books, handwritten or printed books in the smallest format, have fascinated religious people, printers, publishers, collectors, and others through the centuries because of their unique physical features, and continue to captivate people today. The small lettering and the delicate pages, binding, and covers highlight the material form of texts and invite sensory engagement and appreciation. This volume addresses miniature books with a special focus on religious books in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The book presents various empirical contexts for how the smallest books have been produced, distributed, and used in different times and cultures and also provides theoretical reflections and comments that discuss the divergent formats and functions of books.
Table of ContentsReligious Miniature Books: Introduction and Overview Kristina Myrvold and Dorina Miller Parmenter Chapter 1: Ritualizing the Size of Books James W. Watts, Syracuse University Chapter 2: On the Functions of Miniaturizing Books in Jewish Religion Marianne Schleicher, Aarhus University Chapter 3: Words in a Nutshell: Miniaturizing Texts in Early Modern England Lucy Razzall, University College London Chapter 4: Small Things of Greatest Consequence: Miniature Bibles in America Dorina Miller Parmenter Chapter 5: Diminutive Divination and the Implications of Scale: A Miniature Quranic Falnama of the Safavid Period Heather Coffey, OCAD University, Canada Chapter 6: Mite Qurans for Indian Markets: David Bryce in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Kristina Myrvold Chapter 7: Miniature Qurans in the First World War: Religious Comforts for Indian Muslim Soldiers Kristina Myrvold and Andreas Johansson, Lund University Chapter 8: Size Matters! Miniature Mushafs and the Landscape of Affordances Jonas Svensson, Linnaeus University Chapter 9: Gitamahatmya! Paratexts in Miniature Bhagavad Gitas with Special Reference to Pictures and Gender Jon Skarpeid, University of Stavanger, Norway Chapter 10: Sutras Working in Buddha’s Belly and Buddhists’ Pockets: Miniature Sutras in Korean Buddhism Yohan Yoo and Woncheol Yun, both at Seoul National University
