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Synopsis

In today's increasingly electronic world, we say our personality traits are |hard-wired| and we |replay| our memories. But we use a different metaphor when we speak of someone |reading| another's mind or a desire to |turn over a new leaf|—these phrases refer to the |book of the self,| an idea that dates from the beginnings of Western culture. Eric Jager traces the history and psychology of the self-as-text concept from antiquity to the modern day. He focuses especially on the Middle Ages, when the metaphor of a |book of the heart| modeled on the manuscript codex attained its most vivid expressions in literature and art. For instance, medieval saints' legends tell of martyrs whose hearts recorded divine inscriptions; lyrics and romances feature lovers whose hearts are inscribed with their passion; paintings depict hearts as books; and medieval scribes even produced manuscript codices shaped like hearts. |The Book of the Heart provides a fresh perspective on the influence of the book as artifact on our language and culture. Reading this book broadens our appreciation of the relationship between things and ideas.|—Henry Petroski, author of The Book on the Bookshelf