本书以最初形态“文化中间人”——英国出版商的产生过程为微观考察对象，探究文化的不确定性在文化生产的结构塑造和演进历程中的作用与影响，进而丰富对文化生产的本质、特殊性与演进规律的认识。具体而言，社会结构与交往方式增大了文化生产与消费的不确定性，使现代文化大生产具有特殊的高风险。应对风险的过程催生了专门化的文化中间商及文化产业独特的利润机制。在对该过程的细致描述中，文化产业的复杂性与独特性得以揭示。

Thousands of texts, written over a period of three thousand years on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, and other languages, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology provides an introduction to the world of these ancient documents and literary texts, ranging from the raw materials of writing to the languages used, from the history of papyrology to its future, and from practical help in reading papyri to frank opinions about the nature of the work of papyrologists. This volume, the first major reference work on papyrology written in English, takes account of the important changes experienced by the discipline within especially the last thirty years. Including new work by twenty-seven international experts and more than one hundred illustrations, The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology will serve as an invaluable guide to the subject.

全书通《易》、《书》、《诗》、《礼》、《春秋》、《小学》诸志，以阐述经学古今之流变而考论其得失，翔实精审，实为研治中国经学的要籍。

纸草文献的出土，为西方图书史的研究提供了大量的实物和第一手资料。在本书中，凯尼恩主要对这些资料进行了概括和分析，并结合古典文献中关于图书和阅读的零星记述，向读者生动而又详细地介绍古希腊和古罗马社会生活中图书的材质、形制、内容以及阅读习惯的发生、发展和演变的情况。
本书是西方图书史研究的经典之作，有很高的参考价值。

When early Christians began to study the Bible, and to write their own history and that of the Jews whom they claimed to supersede, they used scholarly methods invented by the librarians and literary critics of Hellenistic Alexandria. But Origen and Eusebius, two scholars of late Roman Caesarea, produced new kinds of books, in which parallel columns made possible critical comparisons previously unenvisioned.

造纸术与印刷术、指南针、火药并称为中国古代科学技术的四大发明，在推动中国和全世界的发展中起了巨大作用。潘吉星研究员一直坚持在纸史领域耕耘，特别偏重对纸史中技术和应用部分的研究，解决造纸技术起源及其发展问题，探讨各种纸原料、制造技术、在社会上用途的推广和印刷中应用等，并对纸的西传及其影响作了深入的研究。本书中，作者采用新的研究方法，将文献考证、考古发掘、古代实物标本的分析化验、模拟实验、传统技术调查、中外技术比较和技术原理探讨等七个方面结合起来，作交叉的综合研究，同时还结合有关社会历史背景进行分析。全书还配以精美图片200多幅，大多是各个时代出土的纸以及印刷品。