<!doctype html public «-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en»> http-equiv=content-type> How does one define and explore the “material presence of the written in non-typographical cultures?” The interdisciplinary and collaborative essays in this handbook present theoretical principles, describe text-bearing materials and objects, and investigate the diverse practices related to text-bearing artifacts. The analysis is illustrated with examples drawn from a period of over 4,500 years.