History Book

1 history

1.1 antiquity

1.1.1 tablet
1.1.2 scroll
1.1.3 codex
1.1.4 manuscripts
1.1.5 middle east
1.1.6 wood block printing
1.1.7 movable type , incunabula


1.2 19th century 21st century

history


antiquity

when writing systems created in ancient civilizations, variety of objects, such stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, , bones, used writing; these studied in epigraphy.

tablet

a tablet physically robust writing medium, suitable casual transport , writing. clay tablets flattened , dry pieces of clay carried, , impressed stylus. used writing medium, writing in cuneiform, throughout bronze age , iron age. wax tablets pieces of wood covered in thick enough coating of wax record impressions of stylus. normal writing material in schools, in accounting, , taking notes. had advantage of being reusable: wax melted, , reformed blank.

the custom of binding several wax tablets (roman pugillares) possible precursor of modern bound (codex) books. etymology of word codex (block of wood) suggests may have developed wooden wax tablets.

scroll


egyptian papyrus showing god osiris , weighing of heart.

scrolls can made papyrus, thick paper-like material made weaving stems of papyrus plant, pounding woven sheet hammer-like tool until flattened. papyrus used writing in ancient egypt, perhaps first dynasty, although first evidence account books of king nefertiti kakai of fifth dynasty (about 2400 bc). papyrus sheets glued form scroll. tree bark such lime , other materials used.

according herodotus (history 5:58), phoenicians brought writing , papyrus greece around 10th or 9th century bc. greek word papyrus writing material (biblion) , book (biblos) come phoenician port town byblos, through papyrus exported greece. greek derive word tome (greek: τόμος), meant slice or piece , there began denote roll of papyrus . tomus used latins same meaning volumen (see below explanation isidore of seville).

whether made papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls dominant form of book in hellenistic, roman, chinese, hebrew, , macedonian cultures. more modern codex book format form took on roman world late antiquity, scroll format persisted longer in asia.

codex

a chinese bamboo book meets modern definition of codex

isidore of seville (died 636) explained then-current relation between codex, book , scroll in etymologiae (vi.13): codex composed of many books; book of 1 scroll. called codex way of metaphor trunks (codex) of trees or vines, if wooden stock, because contains in multitude of books, of branches. modern usage differs.

a codex (in modern usage) first information repository modern people recognize book : leaves of uniform size bound in manner along 1 edge, , typically held between 2 covers made of more robust material. first written mention of codex form of book martial, in apophoreta clxxxiv @ end of first century, praises compactness. however, codex never gained popularity in pagan hellenistic world, , within christian community did gain widespread use. change happened gradually during 3rd , 4th centuries, , reasons adopting codex form of book several: format more economical, both sides of writing material can used; , portable, searchable, , easy conceal. book easier read, find page want, , flip through. scroll more awkward use. christian authors may have wanted distinguish writings pagan , judaic texts written on scrolls. in addition, metal books made, required smaller pages of metal, instead of impossibly long, unbending scroll of metal. book can stored in more compact places, or side side in tight library or shelf space.

manuscripts


folio 14 recto of 5th century vergilius romanus contains author portrait of virgil. note bookcase (capsa), reading stand , text written without word spacing in rustic capitals.



the codex amiatinus anachronistically depicts biblical ezra kind of books used in 8th century ad.

the fall of roman empire in 5th century a.d. saw decline of culture of ancient rome. papyrus became difficult obtain due lack of contact egypt, , parchment, had been used centuries, became main writing material. parchment material made processed animal skin , used—mainly in past—for writing on. parchment commonly made of calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. historically used writing documents, notes, or pages of book. parchment limed, scraped , dried under tension. not tanned, , different leather. makes more suitable writing on, leaves reactive changes in relative humidity , makes revert rawhide if overly wet.

monasteries carried on latin writing tradition in western roman empire. cassiodorus, in monastery of vivarium (established around 540), stressed importance of copying texts. st. benedict of nursia, in rule of saint benedict (completed around middle of 6th century) later promoted reading. rule of saint benedict (ch. xlviii), set aside times reading, influenced monastic culture of middle ages , 1 of reasons why clergy predominant readers of books. tradition , style of roman empire still dominated, peculiar medieval book culture emerged.

before invention , adoption of printing press, books copied hand, made books expensive , comparatively rare. smaller monasteries had few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps few hundred. 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes , @ end of middle ages, papal library in avignon , paris library of sorbonne held around 2,000 volumes.

burgundian author , scribe jean miélot, miracles de notre dame, 15th century.

the scriptorium of monastery located on chapter house. artificial light forbidden fear may damage manuscripts. there 5 types of scribes:

calligraphers, dealt in fine book production
copyists, dealt basic production , correspondence
correctors, collated , compared finished book manuscript had been produced
illuminators, painted illustrations
rubricators, painted in red letters

the bookmaking process long , laborious. parchment had prepared, unbound pages planned , ruled blunt tool or lead, after text written scribe, left blank areas illustration , rubrication. finally, book bound bookbinder.

desk chained books in malatestiana library of cesena, italy.

different types of ink known in antiquity, prepared soot , gum, , later gall nuts , iron vitriol. gave writing brownish black color, black or brown not colors used. there texts written in red or gold, , different colors used illumination. luxurious manuscripts whole parchment colored purple, , text written on gold or silver (for example, codex argenteus).

irish monks introduced spacing between words in 7th century. facilitated reading, these monks tended less familiar latin. however, use of spaces between words did not become commonplace before 12th century. has been argued use of spacing between words shows transition semi-vocalized reading silent reading.

the first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) pages. book covers made of wood , covered leather. because dried parchment tends assume form had before processing, books fitted clasps or straps. during later middle ages, when public libraries appeared, 18th century, books chained bookshelf or desk prevent theft. these chained books called libri catenati.

at first, books copied in monasteries, 1 @ time. rise of universities in 13th century, manuscript culture of time led increase in demand books, , new system copying books appeared. books divided unbound leaves (pecia), lent out different copyists, speed of book production considerably increased. system maintained secular stationers guilds, produced both religious , non-religious material.

judaism has kept art of scribe alive present. according jewish tradition, torah scroll placed in synagogue must written hand on parchment , printed book not do, though congregation may use printed prayer books , printed copies of scriptures used study outside synagogue. sofer scribe highly respected member of observant jewish community.

middle east

people of various religious (jews, christians, zoroastrians, muslims) , ethnic backgrounds (syriac, coptic, persian, arab etc.) in middle east produced , bound books in islamic golden age (mid 8th century 1258), developing advanced techniques in islamic calligraphy, miniatures , bookbinding. number of cities in medieval islamic world had book production centers , book markets. yaqubi (d. 897) says in time baghdad had on hundred booksellers. book shops situated around town s principal mosque in marrakesh, morocco, has street named kutubiyyin or book sellers in english , famous koutoubia mosque named because of location in street.

the medieval muslim world used method of reproducing reliable copies of book in large quantities known check reading, in contrast traditional method of single scribe producing single copy of single manuscript. in check reading method, authors authorize copies, , done in public sessions in copyist read copy aloud in presence of author, certified accurate. check-reading system, author might produce dozen or more copies single reading, , 2 or more readings, more 1 hundred copies of single book produced. using writing material relatively cheap paper instead of parchment or papyrus muslims, in words of pedersen accomplished feat of crucial significance not history of islamic book, whole world of books .

wood block printing

bagh print traditional woodblock printing in bagh madhya pradesh, india.

in woodblock printing, relief image of entire page carved blocks of wood, inked, , used print copies of page. method originated in china, in han dynasty (before 220 ad), method of printing on textiles , later paper, , used throughout east asia. oldest dated book printed method diamond sutra (868 ad).the method (called woodcut when used in art) arrived in europe in 14th century. books (known block-books), playing-cards , religious pictures, began produced method. creating entire book painstaking process, requiring hand-carved block each page; , wood blocks tended crack, if stored long. monks or people wrote them paid highly.

movable type , incunabula

a 15th-century incunable. notice blind-tooled cover, corner bosses , clasps.




selected teachings of buddhist sages , son masters, earliest known book printed movable metal type, 1377. bibliothèque nationale de france.

the chinese inventor bi sheng made movable type of earthenware circa 1045, there no known surviving examples of printing. around 1450, in commonly regarded independent invention, johannes gutenberg invented movable type in europe, along innovations in casting type based on matrix , hand mould. invention gradually made books less expensive produce, , more available.

early printed books, single sheets , images created before 1501 in europe known incunables or incunabula. man born in 1453, year of fall of constantinople, fiftieth year on lifetime in 8 million books had been printed, more perhaps scribes of europe had produced since constantine founded city in a.d. 330.

19th century 21st century

steam-powered printing presses became popular in 19th century. these machines print 1,100 sheets per hour, workers set 2,000 letters per hour. monotype , linotype typesetting machines introduced in late 19th century. set more 6,000 letters per hour , entire line of type @ once. there have been numerous improvements in printing press. well, conditions freedom of press have been improved through gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws. see intellectual property, public domain, copyright. in mid-20th century, european book production had risen on 200,000 titles per year.

throughout 20th century, libraries have faced ever-increasing rate of publishing, called information explosion. advent of electronic publishing , internet means new information not printed in paper books, made available online through digital library, on cd-rom, in form of e-books or other online media. on-line book e-book available online through internet. though many books produced digitally, digital versions not available public, , there no decline in rate of paper publishing. there effort, however, convert books in public domain digital medium unlimited redistribution , infinite availability. effort spearheaded project gutenberg combined distributed proofreaders. there have been new developments in process of publishing books. technologies such pod or print on demand , make possible print few 1 book @ time, have made self-publishing (and vanity publishing) easier , more affordable. on-demand publishing has allowed publishers, avoiding high costs of warehousing, keep low-selling books in print rather declaring them out of print.