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Rating: 
Summary: Winner of the 1995 Mitchell Prize for Art History.
Review: We take for granted the proliferation of portable, mass produced images in our culture, but it has been decades since the early history of the mass production of pictures has been dealt with, and Landau and Parshall's book is the most important recent work adding to our understanding of early prints. The volume's scope takes into consideration aesthetics, the art market, techniques and styles, and the historical contexts and themes of prints. These include religious themes, secular and/or antique contents, botanicals, portraits and so on. It is also wonderfully illustrated, making it, frankly, one of the most visually compelling art history books of recent years. It is very scholarly, yet is as attractive as the best exhibition catalogue (in this it reminds one of Michael Baxandall's Limewood Sculptors book, also a Mitchell Prize winner). And at it's probably the best art history bargain out there. I teach a course in Print Culture at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and this is one of my textbooks. -Allan Langdale, UCSC Art History Department
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