Reveals the experience of reading in many cultures and across the ages

Covers reading practices from China in the 6th century BCE to Britain in the 18th century
Employs a range of methodologies from close textual analysis to quantitative data on book ownership
Examines a wide range of texts and ways of reading them from English poetry and funeral elegies to translated books in Peru
Challenges period-based models of readership history

Early Readers presents a number of innovative ways through which we might capture or infer traces of readers in cultures where most evidence has been lost. It begins by investigating what a close analysis of extant texts from 6th-century BCE China can tell us about contemporary reading practices, explores the reading of medieval European women and their male medical practitioner counterparts, traces readers across New Spain, Peru, the Ottoman Empire and the Iberian world between 1500 and 1800, and ends with an analysis of the surprisingly enduring practice of reading aloud.