Book review of Graphic Practices and Literacies in the History of English edited by Matti Peikola, Jukka Tyrkkö, and Mari-Liisa Varila

Graphic Practices and Literacies in the History of English is a multimodal, historically oriented collection that examines how visual features—such as layout, punctuation, tables, diagrams, and paratexts—shape the meaning and use of English texts from the medieval to the early modern period. The volume, grounded in the “Pragmatics on the Page” framework, explores how graphic events evolve into conventionalised practices and literacies. Divided into two parts, the book first analyses visual conventions in manuscripts and printed texts (e.g., title pages, mise-en-page, punctuation) and then investigates graphic devices used for organising knowledge (e.g., tables, lists, diagrams, captions). Across eleven chapters, contributors show how visual forms interact with verbal language, reflect technological constraints, and respond to readers’ needs. The review highlights the volume’s innovative contribution to historical pragmatics, its interdisciplinary scope, and its methodological rigour. It is praised for demonstrating the crucial semiotic and communicative role of graphic features in historical English texts.