



Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Stephanie Eason,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net.









TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES--PART VIII--NO. 49


  BOOKS BEFORE
  TYPOGRAPHY

  A PRIMER _of_ INFORMATION ABOUT THE
  INVENTION OF THE ALPHABET AND
  THE HISTORY OF BOOK-MAKING
  UP TO THE INVENTION OF
  MOVABLE TYPES

  BY
  FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, LL.D.

  EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR
  UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA

  PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
  UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA
  1918



  COPYRIGHT, 1918
  UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA
  CHICAGO, ILL.




PREFACE


An attempt has been made in this book to trace briefly the story of the
book from the earliest attempts made by mankind to convey a message by
marks on some substance down to the invention of movable types. The
development of writing is rapidly traced from the earliest known
pictures and sign marks to the present day. The discussion covers the
subjects of writing materials and how they were made; the evolution of
the book; the conditions of manufacture, distribution, and preservation
of books before printing, and the conditions out of which sprang the
invention of typographic printing.

It is believed that a comprehensive knowledge of the main facts in this
long story will be of great value to the young printer, and it is hoped
that he may be interested to continue the study in some of the many very
excellent books which are available. A short list of a few of the best
and most accessible authorities in English will be found on page 44. It
has not been thought worth while to refer to books in other languages.

The story of the efforts of men to convey their thoughts to the absent
is one of absorbing interest and leads into many pleasant byways of
knowledge. While we are studying the processes and materials of a trade
by which we hope to gain a livelihood it is well to know something about
the men of the past whose accomplishments we inherit. To know something
about the men of another time who made this time possible, what they
did, what manner of men they were, how they lived, and what they created
for us, is the task of this and the following volumes in Part VIII of
this series.




CONTENTS

                                                 PAGE

  CHAPTER I     THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET          1

  CHAPTER II    WRITING MATERIALS                   9

  CHAPTER III   THE EVOLUTION OF THE BOOK          15

  CHAPTER IV    MAKING THE MANUSCRIPTS             20

  CHAPTER V     ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL LIBRARIES     27

  CHAPTER VI    THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA              37




BOOKS BEFORE TYPOGRAPHY




CHAPTER I

_The Origin of the Alphabet_


The story of printing really begins with the earliest dawn of
civilization. As soon as men developed a language, even of the simplest
sort, they felt the necessity of a means of communication with those who
were not present. This would be needed for the identification of
property, the making of records, the sending of orders or information,
the making of appointments, and many other purposes which would be
developed by the needs of even the most rudimentary civilization. We
accordingly find evidences of devices to accomplish these ends
associated with the earliest human remains. While the cave man was
disputing food and shelter with the cave bear, the sabre-tooth tiger,
and the mammoth in those places which are now the seats of the most
advanced civilizations, he scratched or painted outline sketches of the
animals he fought, and perhaps worshipped, on the wall of a cave or on
the flat surface of a spreading antler or a piece of bone.


[Illustration: The oldest known attempt to carve a picture. It dates
from the cave period and was found at Dordogne, France.]


One of the greatest single steps in civilization was the advance from
the use of rough stone implements and weapons to the use of chipped and
finished stones for the same purpose, commonly referred to as the
transition from the paleolithic to the neolithic age. Just how long ago
that was no one knows and only geologists can guess. Among remains
dating from this period of transition found in the little village of Mas
d'Azil in France, there have been discovered a number of painted
pebbles. Whether these were game counters, ownership tags, records, or
what not, no one can guess. Whether the marks on them were purely
mnemonic signs, numerals, or verbal signs of some sort, no one knows.
That they were in some way, however, the ancestors of modern printed
matter is unquestionable.


[Illustration: Pebbles from Mas d