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Mary E. Brown, Ph.D., Professor
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ILS 518 History of Books and PrintingMaterialsMan has been writing for around 8,000 years, utilizing, at first, local materials that were at hand and in large and accessible supply. Writing surfaces have included stone and clay, bark, papyrus, animal skins, and other materials that would temporarily or permanently record ideas. Need, desire, accident, imagination, and experimentation lead the way for writing materials to increase the range of properties of the surfaces themselves, the methods of inscription, and the techniques for controlling flow and organization of materials and reading. Some of the terms we use suggest the materials that provided early writing surfaces. Library comes from the Latin liber, meaning bark of a tree. Book comes from the German Buch, meaning beech tree or beechen boards. SURFACES FOR WRITING AND PRINTINGCave drawingsSee paleolithic art, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. Clay tabletsSee Writing, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. See also inscription, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. Papyrus"...a sedge (Cyperus papyrus), now almost extinct in Egypt but so universally used there in antiquity as to be the hieroglyphic symbol for Lower Egypt and a common motif in art. The roots were used as fuel; the pith was eaten. The stem was employed for sandals, boats, twine, boxes, mats, sails, cloth and most notably as a writing material (used in Egypt until the introduction of paper there in the 8th cent. and exported throughout the Mediterranean world). This writing material, which was also called papyrus, was formed into sheets by laying lengthwise slices of the sedge side by side in two layers at right angles and pressing them together with an adhesive probably composed of their own juices and Nile water. The sheets were glued end to end and rolled on wooden rods to form manuscripts. Many examples have been recovered, especially in Egypt, and have furnished valuable literary and historical matter in Greek and other languages. The science of papyrology is concerned with the study of these documents. Papyrus is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Liliopsida, order Cyperales, family Cyperaceae." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05. See also University of Michigan Papyrus Collection Parchment"...untanned skins of animals, especially of the sheep, calf, and goat, prepared for use as a writing material. The name is a corruption of Pergamum, the ancient city of Asia Minor where preparation of parchment suitable for use on both sides was achieved in the 2d cent. B.C. Parchment, which is more durable than papyrus and susceptible of being folded into book form, very gradually superseded papyrus. In Europe it gave way to paper for use in books only after the advent of printing. The skins were soaked in water, treated with lime to loosen the hair, scraped, washed, stretched, and dried, and then rubbed with chalk and pumice stone. A fine grade prepared from the skin of the calf or kid became known as vellum, a name applied during the Middle Ages to any parchment used in manuscripts. For important manuscripts vellum was often dyed purple. Parchment is still used for certain documents and diplomas, for bookbindings and lampshades, and for the heads of drums, tambourines, and banjos. Vegetable parchment is paper treated to make it tough, translucent, and impervious to water." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05.VellumSee parchment (above): "A fine grade prepared from the skin of the calf or kid became known as vellum, a name applied during the Middle Ages to any parchment used in manuscripts." If made from the intestines of the calf, it was called uterine vellum; this was the whitest and thinest vellum. PaperPotsherdsA potsherd is a fragment of broken pottery; a potsherd with an inscription is called an ostracon (ostraca, plural). Athenians used potsherds in voting for ostracism; while ostraka were used in Egypt as receipts for taxes or for letters or orders to officials. Other materials, instruments, and inkBark, leaves (palm), skins of animals, bones, metal, stone, linen, and wax were also used for writing surfaces. Writing tools included reeds (marsh grasses, bamboo), quills (bird feathers), hair pencil or brush, and "a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond" (Jeremiah, xvii, 1). Ink was made from cuttle-fish, lampblack or charcoal and gum, gall-nuts and sulphite of iron, gold and silver. The primary ink colors were red, purple, green, and yellow. Gold and silvers were sometimes used, especially on purple-tinted parchment. Forms of BooksPapyrus lended well to scrolls. Long strips up to 150 feet in length were rolled around a stick. Papyrus had a right side and a wrong side for writing (that is, a face and back to the papyrus); writing was typically in columns of about thirty-eight letter lines. Papyrus was easily punctured and scratched with writing instruments and therefore the writing needed to be done with a light hand. Over the years, papyrus became dry and brittle: no suitable for permanent records. Parchment was used in the roll form (scroll) and as bound pages. Parchments were roughly 10 inches high by 18 inches wide. These were folded in half to form 10 by 9 quartos (two leaves of 4 pages). Four quartos were fitted inside one another to form a section (quaternio) of 8 leaves or 16 pages. There are many variations of this standard form with both larger and smaller sized quartos and fewer and greater numbers of quartos in a section. Sections were then bound into books. Parchment is credited as being "the most satisfactory material ever discovered for purposes of writing and illumination." It adapts to a variety of writing styles and preserves well into the future. Paper was more adaptable than parchment as it could be made into larger sheets, folded into smaller sizes, and was more affordable. Paper as a writing surface has been primarily used to make books as opposed to scrolls. The standard sized paper for books was 12 inches high and 16 inches wide. A book was called by the way paper was folded into sections to create it. A book made of sections of single folded paper was called a folio. If the section was made from paper folded twice (yielding 4 leaves or eight pages), the book was called a quarto. If the paper was folded a third time, yielding sections of 8 leaves or 16 pages, the book was called an octavo Other ResourcesMaterials and Techniques of Manuscript Production ReferencesMadan, F. (1968). Books in manuscript (reprint) (pp. 5-17). New York: Haskell House. Winckler, P. A. (Ed.). (1978). Reader in the history of books and printing (pp. 31-50). Englewood, CO: Information Handling Services. |
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Last Modified
Thursday, July 7, 2005
