
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-illustrated-history-of-the-book-9780198702986?cc=gb&lang=en&#
Professor James Raven has received the prestigious 2025 Wenjin Book Award, for his edited book ‘The Illustrated History of the Book’.
The annual prize, awarded by the National Library of China, is considered one of the country’s highest literary honours. Titles selected for the award combine in-depth research with writing aimed at the general public.
Professor Raven’s book, The Illustrated History of the Book, brings together world experts in 14 original essays, revealing the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present. The original and richly illustrated narrative is global in scope. The history of the book is the history of millions of written, printed, and illustrated texts, their manufacture, distribution, and reception. Here are different types of production, from clay tablets to scrolls, from inscribed codices to printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, from written parchment to digital texts. The history of the book is a history of different methods of circulation and dissemination, all dependent on innovations in transport, from coastal and transoceanic shipping to roads, trains, planes and the internet. It is a history of different modes of reading and reception, from learned debate and individual study to public instruction and entertainment. It is a history of manufacture, craftsmanship, dissemination, reading and debate. Yet the history of books is not simply a question of material form, nor indeed of the history of reading and reception. The larger question is of the effect of textual production, distribution and reception – of how books themselves made history. To this end, each chapter of this volume, succinctly bounded by period and geography, offers incisive and stimulating insights into the relationship between books and the story of their times.
The book was first published in 2022, but a Chinese translation was only released last year.
The Wenjin Book Awards are named after Wenjin Ge, a royal library from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) located in present-day Hebei province, which helped to found and contributed to the creation of the National Library of China. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Wenjin Book Awards.
Professor Raven is a Life Fellow of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy and a senior member of the History and English Faculties, University of Cambridge.




