Humanity
dates back more than a million years but signs of literate civilization only
date back about 5,000 years ago, when the origins of books developed in the
form of inscribed clay tablets in Mesopotamia and papyrus scrolls in ancient
Egypt. However, “we do not know how ‘the
book’ began, any more than we know how writing or language started,” says
author David Diringer in his 1953 book, The
Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval,
and Oriental.”
The
early years of writing developed simultaneously in different regions of the
world. Parchment, wood, leather, clay
tablets, stone, linen, and thin parts of tree bark were used. Diringer says “only the
Egyptian papyrus book can be considered the true ancestor of the modern book.”
Some
scholars believe Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was created about 5,000 years
ago. They also credit Egyptians with
inventing the short story.
Diringer
believes parchment was the most beautiful and suitable material for writing or
printing upon that was ever used, noting “its surface being singularly even and
offering little or no resistance to the pen so that every sort of handwriting
can be made upon it with equal ease.”
The
history behind the alphabet, writing, and printing books is quite interesting
and lengthy. Things didn’t happen
overnight. But no doubt, the book itself
is a significant invention that has helped create new inventions, movements, and
philosophies.
Diringer
writes: “The history of ‘the book,’ even
more than the history of mankind and the history of language, begins with the
history of writing. Only when history
began to be recorded, when the historical events, the traditions, customs,
laws, religious myths and rituals and the formerly memorized ‘works’ of
literature could be, put down in writing, were they enshrined into ‘books’ to
be prisoned in the libraries of temples and royal palaces. The history of the book must obviously take
into account the history of writing.”
The
writing of scrolls and transcription of them had their challenges, aside from
the obvious cost and time to reproduce them.
There were errors in transcription.
Sometimes the copyist confused words or letters. Other times they were just careless and
missed a word or line. Some even
intentionally tampered with what they copied, substituting, eliminating, or
altering text portions.
For
centuries, words were not separated.
Paragraphs also were not merely separated by a line of space. Spellings changed over time. Certain words or terms grew out of favor
while others came into existence. I
wonder, what will change with language or books down the road?
It
is to be noted that for the few surviving sheets of written upon parchment and
papyrus that survived today, many thousands were destroyed or lost
forever. The ravages of time, from fire
and flood, to intentional destruction due to politics, religion, or war have
taken a significant toll on the written record of society. What exists is but a distorted fragment of
ages past.
Many
of the earlier writings were done by the wealthy, the military and ruling
class, and religious houses. Much of
what remains of the distant past is steeped in the sacred rather than the
secular.
Another
book that I came across, Books and
Printing: A Treasury for Typophiles,
edited by Paul A. Bennett in 1951, features a collection of essays on the topic
of bookmaking. One of the essays talked
about book collecting, written by Anne Lyon Haight, and though it seems
representative of the mindset from 66 years ago, it make an interesting point:
“It
would appear that book collecting is a truly feminine pastime, containing many
elements which appeal to their sex; romance, intellectual curiosity, love of
the beautiful and the quest of something difficult to obtain. But feminine collectors should beware of
pitfalls, for sometimes this mania arouses the baser instincts such as envy,
extravagance and self-indulgence. Wives have
even been known to spend their marketing money on books instead of daily bread,
and to waste hours reading book catalogues instead of attending to their
housewifely duties. Book collecting,
however, is a common denominator of all ages and a medium through which the
minds of both sexes may meet with pleasure and therefore greatly to be
recommended as a delightful occupation.”
I
conclude with an excerpt from another essay in that book, penned by Porter
Garnett, about the notion of an ideal book:
“There
is no such thing nor can there be such a thing as “the ideal book.” No single book, no particular style of book
can be said to represent in itself an ideal below which all other books and
other styles which differ from it fall.
A certain book may be ideal for its purpose, but books can no more
conform to a fixed ideal than can churches, cocktail-shakers, or hats. The best that one can do is to attempt to
enumerate and codify those elements of good bookmaking that enter into what may
be called the “fine” book.
"It
is difficult to declare oneself an advocate or exponent of fine printing or
fine book-design without being misunderstood.
Such a declaration, however, is not to arrogate superiority. It merely means that one believes in certain
principles of craftsmanship and in upholding certain standards based upon a
scrupulous and uncompromising observance of refinements and minutiae.”
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