Page - 30 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

30 | Erich Renhart www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 13–32 We cannot claim that a religious book always requires the best quality materials. Equilibrium or tension has always characterised the relationship between a book’s contents and their presentation. Books preserve their writ- ten content, and the material artefact that is the book has a contribution to enact. That involvement is shaped by the authority and weight of the content, economic and societal realities, piety and veneration, and emotional, spiritual and intellectual appropriation. Such factors are still valid today and will presumably remain so for a long time to come. Appreciation of the religious book’s materiality is tied to its use and to the emotional impact of turning to it (fig. 11). My own emotional response starts with the book’s appearance and the feel of its surface; it continues with the layout of the page and the lettering (writing fonts) used, and climaxes with the bounty of the margins and, last but not least, with the quality of the paper and bindings – all together they compose an elegance of style and expression. And finally we return to the hypothesis stated at the beginning of this arti- cle. The material quality of a book does not in fact necessarily correspond to Fig. 11: SOP 192: A ribbon for marking one’s place in a book flows from the head band. Such attractive details might contribute to the owner’s/reader’s emotional appropriation. (Photo: E. Renhart)