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                           THE STORY OF BOOKS




The Useful Knowledge Library


PLANT LIFE. By Grant Allen.

ARCHITECTURE. By P. L. Waterhouse.

THE STARS. By G. F. Chambers, F.R.A.S.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM. By George F. Chambers, F.R.A.S.

FOREST AND STREAM. By James Rodway.

THE MIND. By Prof. J. M. Baldwin.

THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. By the Rev. E. D. Price, F.G.S.

EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE EAST. By Robert E. Anderson, M.A., F.A.S.

THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. By M. M. Pattison Muir, M.A.

A PIECE OF COAL. By E. A. Martin.

THE EARTH IN PAST AGES. By H. G. Seeley, F.R.S.

BIRD-LIFE. By W. P. Pycraft.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY. By Joseph Jacobs.

PRIMITIVE MAN. By Edward Clodd.

THOUGHT AND FEELING. By Frederick Ryland, M.A.

THE BRITISH RACE. By John Munro.

GERM LIFE. By H. W. Conn.

ANIMAL LIFE. By B. Lindsay.

COTTON PLANT. By F. Wilkinson, F.G.S.

ECLIPSES. By G. F. Chambers, F.R.A.S.

ELECTRICITY. By J. Munro.

WEATHER. By G. F. Chambers, F.R.A.S.

WILD FLOWERS. By Rev. Prof. Henslow.

                      LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON




[Illustration: EARLY PRINTERS AT WORK.]




                                  THE
                             STORY OF BOOKS

                                   BY
                       GERTRUDE BURFORD RAWLINGS

              Author of "The Story of the British Coinage"

                          HODDER AND STOUGHTON
                           PUBLISHERS, LONDON




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                                      PAGE

     I. Introductory                                            9

    II. The Preservation of Literature                         13

   III. Books and Libraries in Classical Times                 26

    IV. Books in Mediæval Times                                36

     V. Libraries in Mediæval Times                            56

    VI. The Beginning of Printing                              70

   VII. Who Invented Moveable Types?                           81

  VIII. Gutenberg and the Mentz Press                          89

    IX. Early Printing                                        103

     X. Early Printing in Italy and some other Countries      110

    XI. Early Printing in England                             118

   XII. Early Printing in Scotland                            131

  XIII. Early Printing in Ireland                             138

   XIV. Book Bindings                                         144

    XV. How a Modern Book is Produced                         159

  Postscript                                                  164

  Index                                                       166




ILLUSTRATIONS


  Early Printers at Work                                     Frontispiece

                                                                     PAGE

  Page from the Book of Kells                                          38

  Part of Page from the Book of Kells                                  39

  Page from the Lindisfarne Gospels                                    44

  Page from the Biblia Pauperum                                        76

  Type of the Mentz Indulgence                                         95

  Page from the Mazarin Bible                                          98

  Type of the Mazarin Bible                                            99

  Type of the Subiaco Lactantius                                      111

  Type of the Aldine Virgil, 1501                                     114

  Type of Caxton's Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres,
  Westminster, 1477                                                   123

  Boys Learning Grammar                                               125

  Caxton's Device                                                     127

  Type of Wynkyn de Worde's Higden's Polychronicon, London, 1495      129

  Myllar's Device                                                     132

  Title Page of O'Kearney's Irish Alphabet and Catechism              140

  Upper Cover of Melissenda's Psalter                                 149




THE STORY OF BOOKS




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY


The book family is a very old and a very noble one, and has rendered
great service to mankind, although, as with other great houses, all its
members are not of equal worth and distinction. But since books are so
common nowadays as to be taken quite as matters of course, probably few
people give any thought to the long chain of events which, reaching from
the dim past up to our own day, has