The history
of the book is an academic discipline that studies the
production, transmission, circulation and dissemination of text from antiquity
to the present day. The scope of the history of the book, or book history as it
is also known, includes the history of ideas, history
of religion, bibliography as
well as practices of conservation and curation.
Origins and antiquity
Writing is a system of linguistic symbols which permit one to transmit and conserve information. Writing appears to have developed between the 7th millennium BC and the 4th millennium BC, first in the form of early mnemonic symbols which became a system of ideograms or pictographs through simplification. The oldest known forms of writing were thus primarily logographic in nature. Later syllabic and alphabetic or segmental writing emerged.
The book is also linked to the desire of humans to create lasting records. Stones could be the most ancient form of writing, butwood would be the first medium to take the guise of a book. The words biblos and liber first meant "fibre inside of a tree". In Chinese, the character that means book is an image of a tablet of bamboo. Wooden tablets (Rongorongo) were also made onEaster Island.
Silk, in China, was also a base for writing. Writing was done with brushes. Many other materials were used as bases: bone, bronze, pottery, shell, etc. In India, for example, dried palm tree leaves were used; in Mesoamerica another type of plant,Amate. Any material which will hold and transmit text is a candidate for use in bookmaking.
Clay Tablets
Clay tablets were used in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. The calamus, an instrument in the form of a triangle, was used to make characters in moist clay. The tablets were fired to dry them out. At Nineveh, 22,000 tablets were found, dating from the 7th century BC; this was the archive and library of the kings of Assyria, who had workshops of copyists and conservationists at their disposal. This presupposes a degree of organization with respect to books, consideration given to conservation, classification, etc. Tablets were used right up until the 19th century in various parts of the world, including Germany, Chile, and the Saharan Desert.
Wax Tablets
Romans used wax-coated wooden tablets (pugillares) upon which they could write and erase by using a stylus. One end of the stylus was pointed, and the other was spherical. Usually these tablets were used for everyday purposes (accounting, notes) and for teaching writing to children, according to the methods discussed by Quintilian in his Institutio Oratoria X Chapter 3. Several of these tablets could be assembled in a form similar to a codex. Also the etymology of the word codex (block of wood) suggest that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.
Printing press
The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 marks the entry of the book into the industrial age. The Western book was no longer a single object, written or reproduced by request. The publication of a book became an enterprise, requiring capital for its realization and a market for its distribution. The cost of each individual book (in a large edition) was lowered enormously, which in turn increased the distribution of books. The book in codex form and printed on paper, as we know it today, dates from the 15th century. Books printed before January 1, 1501, are called incunables. The spreading of book printing all over Europe occurred relatively quickly, but most books were still printed in Latin. The spreading of the concept of printing books in the vernacular was a somewhat slower process.
The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 marks the entry of the book into the industrial age. The Western book was no longer a single object, written or reproduced by request. The publication of a book became an enterprise, requiring capital for its realization and a market for its distribution. The cost of each individual book (in a large edition) was lowered enormously, which in turn increased the distribution of books. The book in codex form and printed on paper, as we know it today, dates from the 15th century. Books printed before January 1, 1501, are called incunables. The spreading of book printing all over Europe occurred relatively quickly, but most books were still printed in Latin. The spreading of the concept of printing books in the vernacular was a somewhat slower process.
E-Resources
It is
difficult to predict the future of the book. A
good deal of reference material, designed for direct access instead of
sequential reading, as for example encyclopedias, exists less and less in for the
form of books and increasingly on the web. Leisure reading materials are
increasingly published in e-reader formats.
Although
electronic books, or e-books, had limited success in the early years, and
readers were resistant at the outset, the demand for books in this format has
grown dramatically, primarily because of the popularity of e-reader devices and
as the number of available titles in this format has increased. Another
important factor in the increasing popularity of the e-reader is its continuous
diversification. Many e-readers now support basic operating systems, which
facilitate email and other simple functions. The iPad is the most obvious example of this
trend, but even mobile phones can host e-reading software.
E-book
readers such as the Sony Reader, Barnes &
Noble's Nook, and the Amazon Kindle have increased in popularity each time
a new upgraded version is released. The Kindle in particular has captured
public attention not only for the quality of the reading experience but also
because users can access books (as well as periodicals and newspapers)
wirelessly online (a feature now available in all other e-reader devices).
Apple has also entered this arena with applications for the iPhone and iPad
which enable e-book reading.
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