Watts/Iconic Books, 3. Talking about “Iconic Books” in the Terminology of Book History

This chapter considers the potential of “the book” for insights into the study of religion. The focus is on “iconic” books, a subset of books that seems intuitively recognizable as a genre but is variously understood by the writers of the essays in this collection. Thus, the chapter discusses terminology. It explores various approaches to defining “iconic,” tracing the evolution of the terminology of book history, and presenting a sample of particularly pertinent terms from that discipline to clarify future discussions of aspects of an “iconic book.”