Space Between Words The Origins of Silent Reading

"Saenger outlined his revolutionary thesis 15 years ago in his famous essay 'Silent Reading'; the present magisterial book retells the story step by step. . . . Paleographic studies rarely command wide audiences, but Saenger tells so important a story that Space Between Words will interest all who are concerned with the history of reading or the book." -Choice "Saenger's remarkable new book . . . demonstrates that . . . the scribal innovations of medieval Europe were no less seminal and far-reaching thatn those of post-Gutenberg typesetters. . . . for the first time, we see the evolution of writing, print, and computing not as a succession of fitful revolutions but, rather, as a continuum of technological innovation."-College and Research Libraries "The work is, or should be, reading matter for every medievalist, not only for its impeccable scholarship and the information it contains, but also for Saenger's readiness to include neurophysiological evidence in support of his argument"-Written Language and Literacy "Very solid and convincing. . . . a first rate analysis of how word separation emerged in the seventh and eigth centuries and eventually spread all over Europe."-Mediaevistik "This is an impressive, fascinating, and exasperating work of scholarship..." Language in Society