Miniature book

Books designed in form and usually in content to be very much smaller than average, with a maximum dimension of three (or occasionally four) inches (76 or 100 millimeters). The smallness may serve practical purposes: Bibles and other devotional literature, dictionaries, almanacs, and travel timetables have all been produced in miniature. If the purpose is actually to conceal the book— of love poetry, espionage, pornography, or banned religious or philosophical texts—smallness is important. 0195146565.Miniature-Books.1.jpgMiniature Books. The Doll's Library (London: J. Marshall, c. 1800). Reproduced courtesy of the Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University Library

More often, miniature books are too small to be really useful. They arouse admiration of the skill of their makers and often an amused sense of incongruity, especially when a title suggests grandeur. Tiny books usually have “cuteness,” evoking tender protectiveness for something so small. Miniature books are precious and not intentionally thrown away—though easily lost.

Those miniature books for children that have survived are often sturdy, like the “thumb Bibles” produced (in about three hundred versions) from the 17thtotheearly19thcentury. These copiously illustrated collections of Bible stories were valued for the education of children and the illiterate. The more delicate little books that John Marshall marketed in about 1800—The Child's Library, The Doll's Library, and others—fitted into little bookcases; Marshall hoped that these would be placed in toyhouses and used for doll education.

Although other publishers followed Marshall’s example, and moderately small books for children have been published sporadically since, miniature books remain exceptional, not usually stocked in libraries or even bookstores. Yet, surprisingly large numbers of some miniature books were printed: David Bryce of Glasgow claimed to have published 100,000 copies of his English dictionary, about an inch high, and this was only one of his wide range, published around 1900. More recently, the stories of Beatrix Potter, who insisted on small volumes for small children, have been published in “miniature” size. Little Golden Books, not at all small, have shrunk themselves to Little Little Golden Books and Tiny Little Golden Books.

Miniature books made by children themselves have a special interest, the Brontës’ juvenilia being the best known. Most famous and most inaccessible are the books of the library of Queen Mary's Dolls’ House in Windsor, many handwritten for the occasion by the best authors of the day.