Twenty-six of the world's most eminent scholars in the field of historical bibliography have drawn extensively on the extraordinary depth and richness of the British Library's holdings of early printed books from the German-speaking countries to bring together this volume of essays in honour of David L. Paisey, recently retired curator of German books, whose highly acclaimed five-volume Catalogue of Books Printed in the German-speaking Countries and of German Books Printed in other Countries from 1601-1700 now in the British Library was published in 1994. The essays explore a wide range of aspects of German book production from 1450 to 1750 and underline the centrality of the British Library's collections for current European research in the history of the book.