Analytical (sometimes called critical) bibliography, and its related studies of historical, textual, and descriptive bibliography, is the 'study of books as material objects.' It is a specialty within library and humanistic spheres that studies the book a

Analytical (sometimes called critical) bibliography, and its related studies of historical, textual, and descriptive bibliography, is the 'study of books as material objects.' It is a specialty within library and humanistic spheres that studies the book and all its parts in the assumption that any individual book is a representation of the society in which it was produced and that analyzing aggregates of books will assist in understanding the means and circumstances of transmitting ideas and the general nature of past society.