History of Books

Writing is a system of linguistic symbols, which makes it possible to transmit and retain information. Writing seems to have evolved between the 7th millennium BC and the 4th millennium BC, initially in the form of early mnemonic symbols which was a system of ideograms or pictographs through simplification. The oldest known forms of writing was thus primarily logo graphic nature. Later, syllabic and alphabetic (or segments) write occurred.

Silk, in China, was also a base from which to write. Writing was done with brushes. Many other materials were used as bases: bone, bronze, ceramic, shell, etc. In India, for example dried palm leaves were used in Mesoamerica a second type of plant, Amat. Any material which will hold and transmit text is a candidate for use in bookmaking. 

The book is also linked to people's desire to create permanent records. Stone could be the oldest form of writing, but wood would be the first media to take the form of a book. Words biblos and liber first meant "fiber inside a tree." In Chinese, the character makes the book is a picture of a tablet of bamboo. Wooden tablets (Rongorongo) was also made on Easter Island.

After extracting bone marrow from the stems, a series of steps (wetting, pressing, drying, gluing, and cutting), produced media of varying quality, the best being used for sacred writing. In ancient Egypt was papyrus used for writing may already from the first dynasty, but only evidence from the accounting books king Neferirkare Kakai of the fifth dynasty (ca. 2400 BC). [2] a Calamus, the strain of a pipe sharpened to a point, or bird feathers were used to write. The script of Egyptian scribes were called hieratic or sacerdotal write, this is not hieroglyphics, but a simplified form is better adapted to screenplay writing (hieroglyphs usually engraved or painted).

Papyrus books were in the form of a roll of several sheets pasted together with a total length of up to 10 meters or more. Some books, such as history, the reign of Ramses III, were over 40 meters long. Books rolled out horizontally text occupied the one hand, and was divided into columns. The title was tagged with a label on the bottle containing the book. Many papyrus texts come from the graves, where prayers and sacred texts were deposited (eg Book of the Dead, from the early 2nd millennium BC).

These examples show that the evolution of the book in its material makeup and appearance, depending on the content dictated by political (the story of the Pharaohs) and religious (believing in an afterlife) values. The special influence granted to write words, and perhaps motivated research on methods of preserving texts.

Book culture:

The authors of antiquity had no rights to their published works were either writers or publishing rights. Anyone could have a text recopied, and even alter its contents. Scribes earned money and writers earned the most glory, unless a patron of cash, a book made its author immortal. This followed the traditional view of culture: a writer sits on several different models, which he imitated and tried to improve. Status of the author was not considered quite personal.

From a political and religious viewpoint was censored books very early: the works of Protagoras were burned because he was in favor of agnosticism and claimed that one could know whether the gods existed. Generally, cultural conflicts led to important periods of the book destruction: in 303, Emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of Christian texts. Christians later burned libraries, and especially heretical or non-canonical Christian texts. This practice can be seen throughout human history. You see what is at stake in these battles over the book: the effort to remove all traces of the adversarial principle ideas and thus deprive the descendants of these works. A violent propose an author when an attacking his or her works, it is a form of violence, perhaps more effective than physical attacks.

 

But there is also a less visible but nonetheless effective form of censorship when the books are reserved for the elite, the book was not originally a medium for expressive freedom. It may serve to confirm the values of a political system in the Emperor Augustus, who skilfully surrounded himself with great writers. This is a good example of old media control as a political force.

Book production in Rome:

Book production developed in Rome in the first century BC Roman literature, which had been influenced by Greek.

This expansion primarily interested circles of literary persons. Atticus was editor of his friend Cicero. But the book company gradually expanded through the Roman Empire, for example, there were bookstores in Lyon. The dispersion of the book were helped by the expansion of the kingdom, which involved the introduction of the Latin tongue in a large number of people (in Spain, Africa, etc.).

Libraries were private, or created at the behest of a person. Julius Caesar, for example, wanted to establish one in Rome, to prove that libraries were signs of political prestige. 

In 377 years there were 28 libraries in Rome, and it is known that there were many small libraries in other cities. Despite the ubiquitous books, the researchers did not have a complete picture as the literary scene in antiquity, as thousands of books have been lost through time.

The writing on the bones, shells, wood and silk, available in China in the second century BC. Paper was invented in China around the first century. The discovery of the process using the bark of the Mulberry Bush attributed to Ts'ai Louen, but it may be older. The texts were reproduced by woodblock printing, the spread of Buddhist texts was a major driving force for large-scale production.

In the eleventh century, invented a blacksmith Pi Cheng Movable Type, but woodblock printing remained the main technique for books, possibly because of the poor quality of ink. The Uyghur of Turkestan also used movable type, as did the Koreans and Japanese. 

The format of the book evolved in China in the same way as in Europe, but much slower, with intermediate stages of the scrolls folded concertina-style rolls tied at one edge ( "butterfly books") and so on. Printing was almost always on one side of paper first.