"Disbound and Dispersed: The Leaf Book Considered is the first book to examine the fascinating history of the leaf book. A nineteenth-century development, a leaf book contains an original leaf from a manuscript or significant printed volume that has been complemented with an essay or other explanatory material relating to the leaf's origins. The resulting book is often a fine press publication, with an elaborate binding or case. While this practice allows collectors to study and enjoy at least a fragment of an historic manuscript or book that they could never hope to own otherwise, the experience often comes at the price of destroying and dispersing an historic manuscript or book that was intact, or only somewhat incomplete."--BOOK JACKET.