“The deep dive into textual development . . . reflects the best of what book historical work can offer—namely, the meaning behind the material culture that was so important in early modern intellectual life. . . . Skloot’s ability to explain significance is impressive, and his clear contextualization makes this a worthwhile book for scholars, students, and lay readers of book history, early modern Europe, and Jewish–Christian interaction.”

Religious Studies Review

“Skloot’s monograph brings an admirable counterbalance to this broad picture of early Jewish printing. His is a perspective wherein, indeed, the book as the canonical version of the text appears in print but it also accounts for the creativity and consciousness of the bookmakers who actively maneuvered between material, political, and commercial necessities implicit in textual labor.”

European Journal of Jewish Studies

“By employing the scholarly paradigm of microhistory, the author masterfully . . . sheds light on broader questions surrounding the early days of the printing press. . . . By zooming in on these particular editions, the author provides valuable insights into the interplay between Jewish literature, the printing press, and the complex sociocultural landscape of the time.”

Jewish Link

“Who makes a book, the author or the publisher? Skloot studies a classic of medieval Jewish literature, Sefer Hasidim, to answer this old question in a new way. He takes the reader into two printing houses, one Jewish and one Christian, and shows how each of them framed and transformed the book, giving it an author and sometimes rewriting its text, in their editions. A classic of medieval spirituality that remained labile in manuscript, Sefer Hasidim took on the form it would retain for centuries in the inky hands of correctors. This lively and learned book is a tour de force of book history, rich in textual and human detail.” 

Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University

“Recent research has revealed that what we call Sefer Hasidim was composed from a loose collection of a variety of earlier ‘treatises’ and ‘text blocks’ without any coherent organization. In this groundbreaking study, Skloot demonstrates convincingly and in detail how this loose collection became a book in the proper sense of the word only during its printing process.” 

Peter Schäfer, professor emeritus, Princeton University