History of books
Antiquity
When writing systems were invented/created in ancient civilizations,
nearly everything that could be written upon—stone, clay, tree bark,
metal sheets—was used for writing.The study of such inscriptions forms a
major part of history.The study of inscriptions is known as epigraphy.
Alphabetic writing emerged in Egypt about 5,000 years ago. The Ancient
Egyptians would often write on papyrus, a plant grown along the Nile
River. At first the words were not separated from each other (scriptural
continua) and there was no punctuation. Texts were written from right
to left, left to right, and even so that alternate lines read in
opposite directions. The technical term for this type of writing is
'boustrophedon,' which means literally 'ox-turning' for the way a farmer
drives an ox to plough his fields.
Tablet
A tablet might be defined as a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. See also stylus.
Clay tablets were just what they sound like: flattened and mostly dry
pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a (
possible dampened) stylus. They were used as a writing medium,
especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well
into the Iron Age.
Wax tablets were wooden planks covered in a thick enough coating of wax
to record the impressions of a stylus. They were the normal writing
material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes. They had the
advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a
blank. The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman
pugillares) is a possible precursor for modern books (i.e. codex).The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it
may have developed from wooden wax tablets.
Scroll
Papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the
papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool,
was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First
Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King
Nefertiti Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[6] Papyrus sheets
were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime and other
materials were also used.
According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing
and papyrus to Greece around the 10th or 9th century BC. The Greek word
for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and book (biblos) come from
the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to
Greece.[8] From Greek we also derive the word tome (Greek: τόμος), which
originally meant a slice or piece and from there began to denote "a
roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same
meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of
Seville).
Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the
dominant form of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, and Hebrew
cultures. The more modern codex book format form took over the Roman
world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much longer in
Asia.
Codex
In the 5th century, Isidore of Seville explained the then-current
relation between codex, book and scroll in his Etymologiae (VI.13): "A
codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called
codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as
if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of
books, as it were of branches." Modern usage differs.
