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History of the Book Reading List
by Gene Alloway
The history of the book list below covers several of the best introductions to the field as a whole and some narrower areas of study. The entire field of books about books is much broader, and we'll be doing more bibliographies in that area in the coming year.
Introduction
Books and their creation have a long and fascinating history. For over 4000 years human beings have been recording information in codes or more advanced alphabets, driven by the rising need for information of civilization. The physical form of the book and its content have dynamically influenced each other a great deal over the centuries, resulting in new technologies for manufacture, new ways of reading, and new ways of organizing information to meet new needs.
Written works in the ancient west began with clay tablets and stone inscriptions of Sumeria. These works were primarily religious myths or administrative records, concerned with trade and taxes. The Egyptians, with a new material for writing made from reeds called papyrus, created a new format, the scroll, over 3000 years ago. This long, rolled book was dominant in the Mediterranean world until the end of the Roman Empire (4th century AD).
A new, cheaper material, parchment (also called vellum), enabled the rise of the codex and ended the use of papyrus. The codex is the form of the book as we now know it with boards over sequential paper pages bound together. Parchment is the dried, treated, stretched, and smoothed skin of an animal (usually a cow, sheep or goat) first used by the Egyptians as early as 1500 B.C. Coupled with the increasing use of parchment, the need and use of Christian religious texts across the Mediterranean promoted the dominance of the more usable and protective bound codex that we know today.
By the end of the Roman Empire, the codex was supreme. However, production of books declined, with organized government and learning, retreating to monasteries and a few additional secular locations. For religious texts or more important works expensive illustration, called illumination, was used. Some of the most beautiful surviving early illuminated works came from England and Ireland. These works, because of their expense and the low literacy of the population, were primarily for Churchmen and the nobles.
By 1100 A.D. the manufacture of books began to move out of the monasteries and into the larger cities, concentrated around the rising cathedral schools which became the first universities, open to the more numerous middle classes. The first paper mills also began in Europe, a technology learned from the Muslims which made new writing material from rags, with greater ease and less cost than using parchment.
With more widespread production, increased demand and the availability paper, books became more common and cheaper to produce. They were now made for use by educators, students, officials, and merchants, not just the wealthy aristocracy and the educated Church. Literature in vernacular languages also started at this time as literacy rose.
It is little surprise, then, that the first printed book appeared in a university town. Wood block picture books had been printed for some time. However the first documents and books with words, papal indulgences and Bibles, were printed by Johannes Gutenberg, approximately 1452. Working in Mainz, an important commercial and university town, his press was the first to use movable type, letters cast individually from metal, enabling the rapid printing of both multiple copies and multiple titles of books..
Gutenberg's methods for casting type and printing books lasted for nearly 350 years. Starting in 1800, book printing and type casting underwent a series of improvements, from the faster and physically less demanding iron hand presses to the steam powered cylinder and rotary presses later in the 19th century, print production took off. Lithography and offset printing replaced cast type, and soon books, newspapers, broadsides, handbills, posters, and more were coming off the presses in larger and larger numbers..
The modern era of the book is moving beyond mechanical processes. Early computers enabled the use of photocomposition, or the photographing of digital text and images created on the computer onto film or paper for printing. Current computers and personal computing devices have enabled the invention of electronic books - books with no physical component at all. Electronic paper - a electrically sensitive coating that can be put on many different surfaces - allows pages to change text before your eyes. Whether these innovations will signal the demise of the traditional codex book is perhaps the most exciting - and perhaps worrisome - question facing society today.
Below are a few of the better works on the history of books and printing. While most time periods are covered, there appears to be no broad survey of the modern book covering the period between 1700 and the present. We suggest using Chapter 14 (the Eighteenth Century) and Chapter 15 (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries) from RosenblumÕs bibliography (see last entry) for further reading for the early modern and modern era in specific topics.
Kilgour,
Frederick G. The Evolution of the Book.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
A useful,
basic introduction to major changes in the format
of the book and printing technologies. He touches
briefly on electronic books, but some material
is already outdated. His analogy to biological
evolution is interesting, but a bit distracting.
McMurtrie,
Douglas Crawford. The Book: The Story of
Printing and Bookmaking.
New York: Covici Friede, 1937.
The classic
work on the history of books and printing. Primarily
focused on printing and printed books, McMurtrie
gives us a through and useful overview of books
and printing from cuneiform to the modern codex.
First published in the 20's as "The Golden Book",
this work went through 2 editions under that
title, and 3 editions under the later one. McMurtrie
improved his work throughout all editions. The
third is the best, and most accurate.
Avrin,
Leila, Scribes, Script, and Books : The Book
Arts From Antiquity to the Renaissance.
Chicago: American Library Association; London:
The British Library, 1991.
This work
is a superb review by the late, respected lecturer.
Her work covers the entire history of hand made
books, including discussions on cultural variations,
techniques for bookmaking, and developments
in scripts and illustration. A excellent addition
to any collection on early books.
Diringer,
David. The Hand Produced Book. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1953. Reprinted in paperback
as The Book Before Printing : Ancient, Medieval
and Oriental in 1982 by Dover.
Scholarly
and detailed, this work ranges across Europe
and Asia (even touching briefly on the Maya
in Central America). It traces the growth, manufacture,
and use of books before the age of printing.
His work effectively ends about 1100 A.D., with
a discussion on the Anglo-Celtic contribution
to the development of medieval books. The work
is useful for the discussion of books and bookmaking
outside of Europe.
de
Hamel, Christopher. History of Illuminated
Manuscripts. NY : Phaidon, 1994 2nd edition.
Excellent
study and introduction of the western book from
its rise to prominence at the end of the classical
world to the 16th century. de Hamel concentrates
on eras of the book as defined by their primary
users, such as missionaries, monks, and the
middle class. This work also contains a very
good bibliography on illuminated works.
Eisenstein,
Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early
Modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.
A broader study
than Febvre (below) on the impact of the book
on western and world culture, from alphabetizing
and indexes to the rise of the importance of
authorship. A very scholarly and insightful
work. It is an abridged version of her larger,
seminal work, The Printing Press as an Agent
of Change, printed in 1979.
Febvre,
Lucien Paul Victor. The Coming of the Book:
The Impact of Printing 1450-1800. London:
N.L.B., 1976.
This work
looks at the social structures of European and
book culture and how they have changed with
the advent and development of printing. It is
scholarly social history, with excellent chapters
on the book community and book trade system.
Febvre approach established the French school
of book studies called ÒlÕhistoire du livreÓ.
Blumenthal,
Joseph. The Printed Book in America.
Boston: D.R. Godine, 1977.
Blumenthal
follows the history of the American book from
1638 to the 1970's. Starting with the first
book printed in the area of the current United
States, Bay Psalm book, he discusses the major
figures in American printing up to modern American
fine press printers. A beautiful and highly
informative book, with illustrations comprising
the facsimile title pages of the major American
books discussed, some 70 works. A fine work
for anyone interested in American book arts.
Clement,
Richard W. The Book In America.
Golden, CO. : Fulcrum Publishing, 1996.
A well
written and detailed, if more austere, study
of bookmaking and book publishing in America
(specifically the area of the United States)
from the colonies to the 20th century. The work
contains special sections on libraries, reading,
and books during wartime. Readable yet scholarly,
Clement introduces the reader to the major works
and events concerning the book in America, as
well as the major participants.
Rosenblum,Joseph.
A Bibliographic History of the Book : an
Annotated Guide to the Literature.
Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1995.
An excellent
starting point for further study, though a great
many important book on books and printing have
been published since 1995. Covers writing surfaces,
ink, the alphabet, typography, printing, book
design, illustration, bookbinding, book history,
collecting, bookselling, and private presses.
A valuable reference work for any researcher
or bibliophile.
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