History of books

The history of books begins with the invention of writing, as well as other inventions such as paper and printing; this history continues all the way to the modern-day business of book printing. The earliest knowledge society has on the history of books actually predates what we came to call "books" in today's society, and instead begins with what are called either tablets, scrolls, or sheets of papyrus. The current format of modern novels, with separate sheets fastened together to form a pamphlet rather than a scroll, is called a codex.

The earliest forms of writing began with etching into stone slabs, evolving over time to include palm leaves and papyrus in ancient times. Parchment and paper later emerged as important substitutes for bookmaking, as they increased durability and accessibility. Ancient books were made from a variety of materials depending on the region's available resources and social practices.

The invention of the printing press in the 15th century marked a pivotal moment, revolutionizing book production. Innovations like movable type and steam-powered presses accelerated manufacturing processes and contributed to increased literacy rates. Copyright protection also emerged, securing authors' rights and shaping the publishing landscape.

The 19th century witnessed the invention of the typewriter, which became indispensable in the following decades for professional, business and student writing. In the 20th century the advent of computers and desktop publishing transformed document creation and printing. Digital advancements in the 21st century led to the rise of e-books, propelled by the popularity of e-readers and accessibility features. Efforts to make literature more inclusive emerged, with the development of Braille for the visually impaired and the creation of spoken books, providing alternative ways for individuals to access and enjoy literature.

Clay tablets

Further information: Clay tablet

Clay tablets were used in Mesopotamia around the year 3000 BCE. People used a tool called a calamus to write on soft clay, and then they baked the tablets to make them hard. In a place called Nineveh, more than 20,000 of these tablets were found. They were kept by the kings of Assyria and showed that they had special rooms to store and organize these early "books."

Writing began in Sumer around 4000 BCE with something called cuneiform. Clay tablets with cuneiform writing were used to keep records, make lists, and tell stories. Young people were taught how to write in special schools. The cuneiform script was named after a Latin word meaning "wedge-shaped" because the marks looked like tiny wedges. People wrote in many languages with cuneiform for over 3000 years.

South Asia

Early manuscripts

Long ago, people in South Asia used stone slabs for writing. The oldest books we still have today are from the 10th century CE and belong to Buddhist traditions. Before paper was used, people wrote on palm leaves, which were easy to find in that part of the world. These leaves were usually three feet wide and two inches tall. They were dried, polished, and treated with starch to make a good surface for writing. The pages were tied together with a single string on the shorter side and held close to the reader’s chest.

Later, paper was brought to the area by merchants from Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula in the 11th century CE. The first paper mills were set up in the 15th century CE by workers from Samarkand. Even after paper arrived, some places in eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka kept using palm leaves for writing. With paper, the pages became thinner, though they were still laid out horizontally. Pictures took up about a third of each page, with the rest filled with writing.

East Asia

China

Before books were made, people in China wrote on bones, shells, wood, and silk for a long time. Paper was invented in China around the 1st century CE. The first books in China were made from rolls of thin bamboo strips tied together with hemp, silk, or leather. Later, people learned to make paper from mulberry bark. Texts were copied by carving them into wood blocks, a slow process.

Around the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), the first printed books appeared in China. The oldest printed book we still have today is the Diamond Sutra, from 868 CE. A new method called movable type printing was invented by Bi Sheng between 1041 and 1048 CE. This used small pieces of ceramic or clay to form words that could be rearranged and reused.

Japan

In the early 1600s, Japan produced very detailed books. One writer spent sixty years writing about flowers and animals. As more people learned to read, schools taught children about geography, history, and crafts. Writers began using simpler language for everyday readers, creating stories and guides for common people. These books were written in a new style that made them easier to understand.

Writers started sharing more than just crafts, exploring regional guides and public knowledge. Even with some rules about what could be written, more people could read and enjoy books, creating new markets for different kinds of stories.

Mughal era

The first Mughal Emperor, Babur, wrote about his life in a book called the Baburnama. His successor, Humayun, brought artists from Persia to the Mughal court. Emperor Akbar, though unable to read himself, supported artists who made beautiful books and paintings. His grandson, Shah Jahan, focused more on the words in books and added flower designs around the edges. Over time, single pictures became popular because they were cheaper to make and buy.

Wax tablets

Romans used special wooden tablets covered in wax, called pugillares. They wrote on these tablets with a tool called a stylus, which had a pointy end for writing and a round end for erasing. These tablets were often used for everyday tasks like keeping track of things or helping children learn to write, as described by Quintilian. Multiple tablets could be put together in a way that looked like the books we know today, called a codex. The word "codex" might even come from these wooden wax tablets.

Papyrus

Main article: Papyrus

Papyrus was an early material used for writing. It came from the stems of papyrus reeds and went through steps like pressing and drying to make good writing surfaces. In Ancient Egypt, people used papyrus to write on as far back as the First Dynasty. They wrote with tools made from reeds or bird feathers. The writing style they used was called hieratic, a simpler form of their usual symbols.

Papyrus books were made as scrolls by joining many sheets together. Some scrolls were very long, even over 10 meters! These scrolls were read from left to right, with text on one side. Important books, like the Book of the Dead, were often placed in tombs. Papyrus was also used for official documents and contracts. Later, papyrus was replaced by paper, but some was still used for book covers.

Pre-Columbian American codices

In Mesoamerica, people recorded information on long strips of paper, agave fibers, or animal hides. These were folded and protected with wooden covers. Many of these books, called codices, contained important information like calendars, stories about gods, and records of rulers. Sadly, many were destroyed by Spanish colonizers.

The Maya people created special books written on a type of paper called Amate. Almost all of these Maya books were destroyed, but one famous example, the Dresden Codex, still exists today. Other cultures in Mesoamerica also had their own ways of writing, though these were simpler than the Maya's.

The Florentine Codex is a big collection of information about the Aztec people. It includes over 2,000 drawings made by native artists and describes many parts of Aztec life, including their beliefs, traditions, and the world around them. This important work was created by a Spanish friar named Bernardino de Sahagun, who worked on it for many years. Today, it is available to anyone who wants to learn about Aztec history. The codex has twelve books covering topics like gods, ceremonies, and daily life.

Parchment and paper

Parchment

Main article: Parchment

Parchment took the place of papyrus over time. It is said that a king named Eumenes II from Pergamon first made it, which is where the name comes from. People started making parchment around the 3rd century BCE using animal skins, like from sheep or cows. Parchment was better for keeping because it lasted longer and could even have writing erased and rewritten. But it was expensive because it took a lot of time and materials to make. A special kind called vellum was made from the skin of a young calf.

Greece and Rome

In ancient Greece and Rome, books were often rolled up scrolls made from a material called papyrus. These scrolls could only be read in order, like watching a video tape, and you needed both hands to hold them. One type of scroll still used today is the Jewish Torah.

Description

Scrolls were rolled around two wooden sticks. You could only read them in order, and it was hard to jump to a specific spot. You needed both hands to turn the rolls, so you couldn’t read and write at the same time.

Book culture

Back then, writers didn’t own their work. Anyone could copy a book, even change it. Writers mostly became famous, not rich, unless someone paid them. Books were sometimes destroyed if leaders didn’t like the ideas inside. For example, some leaders burned books with ideas they didn’t agree with. Even today, some places still control what books people can read.

Proliferation and conservation of books in Greece

Not much is known about books in ancient Greece, but there were places where people could buy them. During a later time called the Hellenistic period, big libraries appeared because people wanted to learn. These libraries showed off the power of the cities that built them.

Some important libraries included:

• The Library at Antioch
• The Library at Athens
• The Library at Pergamon
• The Library at Rhodes
• The Library of Alexandria

These libraries kept copies of books, helped make sure texts were correct, and allowed books to spread to more people.

Book production in Rome

Books started to spread more in Rome during the 1st century BCE. Most readers were people who loved literature. Over time, books became more common all over the Roman Empire. There were even bookstores in places like Lyon. By the year 377, Rome had 28 libraries, and many smaller cities had libraries too.

Main article: History of paper

Paper

People in China are thought to have made paper first around 105 CE. They used things like tree bark, old rags, and hemp to make it. At first, paper was used for wrapping things, but by the 3rd century, people in China started using it for writing. By the 6th century, paper was even used for cleaning. Later, during the Tang Dynasty, people folded paper into bags to keep tea fresh. The Song Dynasty was the first to use paper as money.

Paper making spread from China to Central Asia by the 8th century CE. People there used different materials to make paper and improved how they made it. By the 10th century, paper had mostly replaced papyrus in areas ruled by Arab leaders. In the 11th century, water-powered paper mills were built in Spain, which made making paper much faster and cheaper. Soon, paper making spread to Italy, making paper even more affordable.

Middle Ages

Main articles: Manuscript culture and Illuminated manuscript

By the end of ancient times, between the 2nd and 4th centuries, people stopped using long scrolls and started using a new book shape called the codex. Instead of one long piece of paper rolled up, books became collections of separate sheets connected at the back. This made it easier to find specific parts of the book and to rest the book on a table while reading or taking notes. Over time, books also began to have spaces between words, big letters at the start of sentences, and punctuation marks, which helped people read silently. This style of book is still used today, more than 1,500 years after it first appeared.

During difficult times, monasteries helped keep many important books safe. Monks copied and cared for religious texts and some older works. They had special rooms called scriptoriums where they wrote and decorated books by hand. These books were sometimes chained to tables to prevent them from being taken. As cities grew and universities formed, more people wanted books for learning and everyday use, leading to new ways of making and selling books.

The printing press

Main articles: Printing press and Global spread of the printing press

See also: Editio princeps

The invention of the moveable type on the printing press by Johann Fust, Peter Schoffer, and Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 started a big change in how books were made. Before this, each book was made by hand, which made them rare and expensive. With the printing press, many copies of a book could be made quickly and cheaply. This helped spread ideas far and wide. By the 15th century, books as we know them today—made from separate sheets of paper tied together—began to appear.

Printing first began in Europe, and slowly spread to other parts of the world. In the 1700s, printing presses were set up in places like Constantinople. Later, in the 1800s, new ways to print, like using smooth stone, were invented. These new methods let artists add beautiful pictures to books, keeping traditions alive. Even though ways of printing changed over time, the idea of sharing stories and knowledge through books continued to grow.

Modern era

Late modern period

The Late Modern Period brought many changes to books. Short, affordable booklets called chapbooks became popular among readers from all walks of life. These booklets covered many topics, from stories and fairy tales to helpful advice and prayers, which helped more people learn to read. By 1890, most people in Western Europe, Australia, and the United States could read, and soon men and women were learning to read at about the same rate.

New inventions changed how books were made. Machines powered by steam were created in the early 1800s, and by the 1830s, they were commonly used, especially by newspapers. New machines for making paper also appeared, producing wide rolls of paper quickly. The last big challenge was arranging the words in books, but new machines like the Linotype made this faster. With these improvements, book production grew quickly.

Authors also gained more protection for their work. Laws like the Statute of Anne in 1710 and the Copyright Act of 1814 gave authors rights to their books for a certain time after they were published.

During a time called the Enlightenment, many more books were printed in Europe, sometimes overwhelming readers. Groups like the British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society asked for large numbers of inexpensive books, which led to new printing and paper-making machines. These changes made books cheaper and more numerous. New kinds of documents, such as photographs, sound recordings, and films, also appeared in the 1800s.

Contemporary period

Typewriters, and later computers, allowed people to create and print their own documents. In the 21st century, desktop publishing became common.

In the 1990s, digital multimedia grew, encoding texts, images, animations, and sounds in new ways. Hypertext made finding information easier, and the internet reduced the cost of making and sharing books.

E-books

It is hard to predict what will happen to books with rapid technology changes. Some people worried books might disappear because of radio, television, or the internet, but print books have stayed strong. In the 2020s, printed books were still sold more than e-books in most countries and remained a big business.

Reference materials like encyclopedias are now often found online instead of in books, while leisure reading is increasingly published for e-readers. E-books were slow to catch on at first, but demand grew, especially after devices like the Amazon Kindle were introduced in 2007. E-books are easier to buy and cheaper than printed books because they don’t need paper. E-readers also became more advanced, supporting features like email. The iPad is a good example of this trend, but even mobile phones can now host e-reading software.

Reading for the blind

Braille is a special way for people who cannot see to read and write using their fingers. It uses small raised dots arranged in two columns, like tiny blocks, to stand for each letter. People who use Braille can feel these dots and read quickly, often up to two hundred words per minute.

Braille was created by a man named Louis Braille in France in 1824. He worked hard to develop this system, building on earlier ideas. Over time, Braille became the standard way for blind people to read and write, and it was later adapted for use in mathematics and science.

Spoken books were made to help people who cannot see enjoy reading. They started in the 1930s using vinyl records played on gramophones. Later, they moved to cassette tapes and then to compact discs. Today, audiobooks are easy to listen to on the internet and can be enjoyed anywhere.

Academic study

The study of books became a recognized subject for scholars in the second half of the 1900s. Important books that helped start this study include Prints and Visual Communication by William Ivins Jr. in 1953, The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450–1800 by Henri-Jean Martin and Lucien Febvre in 1958, and The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man by Marshall McLuhan in 1962. Robert Darnton was also a key figure in this field.