History of books

1. Dr. Richardson
Information Studies 180
November 5, 2008

3.  Any document written by hand
 Ancient western world book was in form of a Scroll or
Roll
 Papyrus sheets
 Standard size: 30 feet long, 7-10 inches wide
 Standard sheet size: Ten by seven and one-half inches
 Writing was in columns three inches wide called
pagina

4.  Eastern Mediterranean and Ancient Egyptian
Civilizations
 Israelites : Torah
 Hand-copying process
 2,000 hours
 40 hour work week
 2,080 hours a year
 Divided up into pages

5.  Letters written from left to right
 Right to left
 Or alternating in direction
 “Ox turning”

6.  Early Evidence : Berthe van Regemorter
 Hittite Empire from
 8th or 7th c. BCE
 Pergamum 3rd c. BCE
 Basic codex form
invented
 Romans 1st c. AD
 Latin Poet Martial
experimented with
the format

7.  Martial in 84-86 AD first to mention a parchment
codex
 More convenient for travelers
 Save space in a library
 Fourth century AD the codex
gains wide acceptance
 Could be opened flat
 Allowed easier reading
 Pages written on both front/back
 Durable covers

8.  Nomina Sacra
 Differentiate from the Script
of the Jews
 Reference passages of the Bible
 Monasticism Book Production

9.  Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398-1468)
 Movable Type
 B42 Type
 1458 36 Type-Bible Print

12.  Frozen in time
 Must read whole book
 Expensive to produce
 U.S. decrease of 18%
 EBooks: Kindle, Online book catalog

14.  www.wikipedia.org
 web.ku.edu
 www.buzzmachine.com
 www.bowker.com