The course of study in the History of the Book focuses on the role of the book in distributing information and knowledge. Research in the field covers the entire spectrum antiquity to the present. Its main focus is on the history of printing, from Gutenberg to the Internet. The History of the Book or, literally, the science or study of the book (Buchwissenschaft), analyses the history of writing and printing, the book trade and book making, while always taking into consideration social and cultural points of view. The subjects of research are censorship, reader manipulation, and competition between different media as well as philosophical, legal, and economic aspects of the book and its distribution. Case studies taken from the history of the book provide insight into contemporary problems, like the discussion of author’s rights, the introduction of copyright law in the middle of the 19th century and the changes in copyright law under the influence of global electronic networks.
The areas of specialisation in the History of the Book are palaeography, the science of incunabula (the early printed books of the 15th century), the history of publishing and the book trade, book illustration and binding, as well as the business and sociological aspects of the book.