The article is devoted to the significance of the engraving for the history of book and the development of science and culture. For the first time ever, the engraving is regarded as an invention equal in its importance to the invention of printing, as a specific book technique, existing not only in collaboration with the typographic printing, but also on its own. In the modern era, this technique enabled the creation of a special type of book, without which the progress in science and culture would have been impossible. The article reviews the methodological issues connected with writing of the history of book and its study in the modern period. What is new here - it is putting the question of studying the engraving through the historical process of book culture development, studying the engraving as a specific book technology, ensuring development of the specific, engraved, type of book, which played an important role in the book culture in almost every book genre (scientific, technical, medical, etc.) providing transmission of the data (knowledge) unattainable for verbal means of communication. This approach reveals new areas for research, some processes unstudied by bibliology; opens up new approaches and principles of writing the history of book and studying the history of book art.