This article introduces a new methodology in literary history : a poetics of media that builds on and differentiates itself from existing scholarship in history of the book and of media. After reviewing theoretical considerations found in previous books in this field (the works of Donald McKenzie, Roger Chartier, Gérard Genette) and locating this project’s specificity relative to them, the article enumerates three possible fields of investigation for a historically informed, poetics of material media : the editorial statement, the management of the editorial field by writers, and the media imaginary.