The history of books

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Even in year 581e.Er. they were printing in China, and in the 10th century some of China’s classical works were printed. A Chinese blacksmith was likely to have printed “letters” into soft metal to create frames that later stiffen in fire. Does letters could later be put together after need.

But the art of book printing soon fell in dark and they went back to write on wooden boards which, for that matter, was easier to write on with the character of the Chinese script.

First on the 1660, the art was reintroduced, by the Jesuits movable. Because the Chinese art of book printing was un known in Europe it didn’t influence the development of the book making art.
The direction to the written word could be found in the German and the Dutch xylographic prints, with which playing cards and pictures of saints were made. The oldest xylographic print with appointed year is a one sheet picture of s:t Christopher, caring Jesus as a child. The picture is from 1423.

A lot of places in Germany, Deutschland and Italy have call themselves the city of the book printing but only the cities of Strasburg, Mainz and Bamberg has had reasonable reasons. But nothing is certain since they in 1745 have found documents concerning a trial against Johann Gutenberg in 1454-55. But it has later been showed that Bamberg’s claim on the invention misses cause, because Albert Plister was a pupil of Gutenberg.

In the beginning of the 16th century the book making art was known in almost all countries of Europe. In 1500 Italy had around 600 printing workshops (only had 200), Germany had more then 200, France almost 150 and Spain 50, and so on and so on.

The first known printed book in Sweden was printed in 1483 in Stockholm and is called “Vita sive legenda cum miraculis Katherine.” (only two known copies.)


Writing and writing materials

Script:
The Writings origin occurred in 3000 B.C. by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia and Egypt. All the old writing systems – the cuneiform, the hieroglyphs and the Chinese script – were word scripts, meaning that every word had one sign. But they were later developed in all the places, except in China.

The changed the hieroglyphs to a letter script around 1100 B.C., a so called consonant alphabet. Out of that alphabet the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Indian alphabet were later formed. The Greeks were the first ones to create an alphabet with signs for both vowel and consonants.

Paper/materials:
The different countries wrote on different kinds of materials. The Sumerians printed their script onto plates made of clay which they later burned hard. In India they wrote on palm leafs and in China on bamboo sticks that was put together; that’s probably why the Chinese wrote from the top to the bottom. Papyrus was the most popular writing material in the district around the Mediterranean sea. Papyrus was the marrow of a reed plant that was exported from Egypt. It was cut into thin peaces that they laid in layers crosswise so that the juice from the plant glued it together. They made book rolls out of the papyrus and the rolls could be almost 20m long.

The paper as we know it today was named after the plant ‘papyrus’.
The paper that we use today was made in China about 200 B.C. the main ingredient is called ‘Broussoneia papyrifera’ in latin. What it’s called in english i don’t know. The art of making paper were soon spread to the west and 600 A.C. was Samarqand the main place for paper making. Then it started in Baghdad and from there it spread to the countries around the Mediterranean sea. The Greeks learned the art in Asia in the 800 A.C. and in 900 A.C. Kairo in Egypt was the main place for papermaking. We used something that is called ‘Lump’ in Swedish to until 1860 when they started to use wood. ‘Lump’ is a kind of mixture that contains old, used textile.


Did you know that…

 - Books could be put in prison in year 1700?

 - A book doesn’t really counts as a book, unless it has at least 49 pages?

- A monk scratched away one of the oldest copies of Aristotle book, to make a psalm book?

- The language in the Old Testa...