The dataset 'Booktitles per capita world 1500-2010' originaly forms part of the collection of Bibliometrics, which has been dowloaded from the Centre of Global Economics website (http://www.cgeh.nl/global-historical-bibliometrics) in september 2017.
The dataset consists of an excel file with two sheets, one containing the data and one containing a description of the datasources. The set countains annual data on 70 countries and covers a period of 510 years.
Bibliometrics, the science that occupies itself with the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media of communication (Pritchard, 1969), is a field that can be quite fruitful too for other sciences interested in quantitative time-series on the development of ideas and the processes of their communication.
Our project named "Global Historical Bibliometrics" aims to produce a database that covers bibliometrical data on the one hand over an area geographically as wide as possible and that eventually contains worldwide historical data on current and historical stocks and production of handwritten or printed materials. Such data may be very interesting because the production and accumulation of "books" can be used as a proxy of the production and accumulation of ideas. Also, the demand for books will to a large extent be determined by the level of literacy in a given society, although other variables will also play a role. In short, the production of books is linked to a number of variables that are used in new growth theory, such as human capital and knowledge production. The numbers of manuscript and printed books produced in a given society are, in brief, complex measures of economic performance and of societal capabilities, and therefore a valuable guide to the study of long-term economic change.
The final goal, which is the quantification of global "book" production over time in this database Global Historical Bibliometrics makes it possible to address some of the big debates in the (economic) history of the world.
The database Global Historical Bibliometrics and its contents are freely accessible for research purposes to people from over the world by means of the World Wide Web.
