The History of the Book Group was established at Merton in May 2006. Fellows, graduates and visitors from many disciplines gather at least once a term to discuss the history of books; the College's own historic holdings are often the focus of inquiry, aided by the Library's growing collections in bibliography and book history.

The History of the Book is a relatively young discipline: it takes its character from the various subject-areas in which its practitioners are based and to which it contributes in turn. It defines the book broadly, from inscriptions, manuscripts and early printing to digital media. Drawing upon both textual and historical scholarship, it necessarily includes the history of authors, publishing, libraries and reading. The material form of the book is of particular interest in the field at present, as is electronic editing and publishing.

Merton numbers a large number of Fellows and graduates with an interest in the subject. Dr Jonathan Prag is interested in Roman literature and inscribed documents of the Hellenistic and Roman periods; Dr Julia Walworth, College Librarian, specializes in the study of medieval manuscripts.

Professors Richard McCabe and David Norbrook are scholars of early-modern British literature. Dr Steven Gunn works on English and Dutch history in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Dr Jonathan Thacker specializes in Spanish literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Mr Philip Waller works on nineteenth-and twentieth-century British social history. His Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870 - 1918 has recently been published to great acclaim. Dr Michael Whitworth specializes in British modernism and modernist writers, and Dr Ian Maclachlan's main focus of research is on modern French literature and philosophy. Rita Ricketts, Archivist at Blackwells Publishers and visiting scholar at the Bodleian Library and at Merton, is cataloguing and researching the Merton Blackwells Archive held at the College.

The group hosts papers, a reading group and makes trips to libraries, archives and other places in which books and their histories are important. Information on events and membership may be obtained from the convenor.