The Technological Changes in Book Arts, Essay Example

The changing art of books over the course of human history is relevant to changing technological advancements. When a populace grows exponentially certain other areas also increase through the rule of supply and demand. Although this is a fairly recent rule, the maxim of it holds: when civilization is in need of a certain item, technology finds a way to procure it. In fact, technology finds a way to advance it so that it not only fits the needs of the populace but also improves the thing in question. This paper will focus on the advancement of books through a technological scope and will be dissected in the following areas: the origins of the written word, the use of tools and scribes for writing early works, the advancement of paper through the ages and finally the introduction of the printing press into society.

The written word begets the difference between pre-history and history as history is defined as something that is written down. History began with symbols on clay tablets originating with the Sumerians. The Sumerians are credited with the advancement of our written words. Clay tablets with writing began with the need to catalogue purchases mostly due to keeping track of royal, or leadership, quantities of goods and services, “There was no way for most people to read such heady ideas, no way to distribute them, and no real way to sustain them” (Sonn, 2006, p. 17). This began around 3000 B.C., when clay tablets and tools such as “reed styluses” (p. 17) were used; “We know that the development of Sumerian writing took at least hundreds, possibly thousands, of years” (Diamond, 1997, p. 224). When clay tablets began, Sumerian scribes needed to make sure their tally marks and cuneiform writing made sense, so they organized the tablets with “horizontal rows” (p. 17) which are still in use today by western society. Sumerians did such a great job with writing on clay tablets that this form of communication was then adapted by conquering Babylonians (Diamond, 1997, p. 217). As civilization spread more and more tribes, and cultures began using Sumerian tablets but it was with the invention of papyrus as an early form of paper that books began to be collected and stored in early libraries for the general use of cataloguing seasonal changes, crop output, recipes, and a written record of occurrences in the world. Such a need for these kinds of records leads to papyrus being manufactured and used on a wide scale. Such necessary industry led to a vacuum in society’s designation of jobs to its workers. The need for a more documentation lead to the need for a worker whose job it was to record the occurrences in the world for posterity. Thus, scribes were given a place in history and their work on books is best cited in The Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illustrious vision of the four gospels. In order to get to The Book of Kells from Egyptian papyrus however, the advancement of paper is necessary to understand.

Papyrus began its reign over the paper industry as early as 500 B.C. where papyrus manuscripts were found in pharaohs’ tombs and in the catacombs. Around the same time in China people were using bamboo, or strips of bark from trees and a type of paint applied using sharpened sticks, as their writing equipment. Papyrus however was more sturdy a device on which to write (clay tablets weren’t well transported, nor did they last very long under extreme conditions and exposure to humidity). The need to maintain documentation beyond a few years in order to denote certain crop rotations, seasonal catastrophes such as flooding, and other imperative or life threatening situations. Papyrus, however, was replaced by a newer substance known as parchment (forms of which are still in use today) used by Ionians in 440 B.C. according to Herodotus, parchment was made from the skins of animals, mostly sheep and goat (Munsell, 2013, p. 11-12). Papyrus and parchment battled between cultures. In fact large quantities of Egyptian papyrus were transported around the known world at this time as the need for documentation grew.

In 200 B.C., Pergamus found a more stable way to produce and ship parchment. During the same time papyrus also found a rival in tree bark (as stated, China was familiar with this method of documenting). The problem with each of these writing tools was that often humidity or just simple aging and the wear and tear that comes from it, damaged them. It wasn’t until civilization began to cultivate crops more steadily that cotton replaced these forebears; Arabia was at the forefront of its development. Still hunting for something more durable than cotton however, from 706 A.D. to 1085 B.C. the battle between cotton “paper” and paper made from the pulp of linen rags began. Cotton also succumbed to some of the same devices that lead to the downfall of papyrus, Cotton was not well received because the material lead to spoilage from humidity and other “defects” (Munsell, 2013, p. 14). The development of industry turned paper making into a viable business.

While civilization was growing its roots and people began to cultivate crops and tended to stay by those crops mills were used in the production of water, grains, and other domestic and industrial endeavors. The paper mill began it’s thriving business during this time with the development of pulping used linen rags (soiled or discarded) and using a similar process as making papyrus, began making paper in mass quantities. When the Egyptians shipped papyrus, the material was exposed to water, humidity and sometimes-salt air, which deteriorated the material. Linen on the other hand was more durable a material and because of the spread of civilization and the beginnings of towns and larger cities, shipping wasn’t that big of a problem for two reasons: the material was stronger, and towns and cities often times had their own paper mill at their disposal making shipping and the material deteriorating because of exposure less of a factor; “Once paper became of a sturdy quality, and the need for mass production of books became to be present, it seemed there was a need for greater production which meant that the painstaking time that scribes took to write their books (mainly bibles) was not efficient (Munsell, 2013, p. 14).

The Gutenberg Bible stands as a testament to the printing press, and the advancement of man in technological endeavors. Made in 1450, the Bible was comprised of parchment paper that was developed in a paper mill in Germany. The 1450’s ushered in a time of better paper quality, paper that was not only durable but also sturdy. As civilization grew and population skyrocketed the need for printed materials became apparent which meant the “production, which meant that the painstaking time that scribes took to write their books (mainly bibles) was not efficient” (Munsell, 2013, p. 14). Thus, the printing press came into being to replace the age-old devices such as “quells and ink blotters (Munsell, 2013, p. 14).

The Gutenberg Bible presented civilization with two different but very important advancements: movable and interchangeable type. Literacy among the populace grew at this time and as governments also grew and the need for documentation, laws, correspondences, and archives grew along with these things, there was a need for a “less-costly method of reproducing the written word” (Kreis, 2012, para. 6). Previous to the printing press books were being designed with a Chinese “block-books” device wherein a block of wood was carved to etch out a word or symbol, then ink was placed on it and then the image was stamped onto a piece of paper. These woodcuts however were not durable devices as they would split from use (even a single use) and therefore their longevity became a hindrance on craftsmanship and mass distribution became a timely business since it took workers many hours to replace the used woodcuts (Kreis, 2012, para. 6).

Johannes Gutenberg came up with the idea of durable, movable, and interchangeable type. He created his version of a woodcut from “alloy of lead, tin and antinomy that would melt at low temperature, cast well in the die, and be durable in the press” (Kreis, 2012, para. 7). Metal, coming into use after the stone, and Bronze Age, made a difference in typesetting for printing presses. In fact, without the use of metal, a printing press lost its value since it’s value was placed solely on its durability, and ability to produce large quantities of the printed word in a shorter amount of time than previous technologies. Gutenberg’s type allowed for letters to “be arranged into any format, an infinite variety of texts could be printed by reusing and resetting the type.” (Kreis, 2012, para. 7). Technological advances also helped with this medieval print setter and thus printing spread quickly throughout Europe as Diamond (1997) states, Medieval European printers were able to combine six technological advances, most of which were unavailable to the maker of the Phaistos disk. Of those advances—in paper, movable type, metallurgy, presses, inks, and scripts—paper and the idea of movable type reached Europe from China. Gutenberg’s development of typecasting from metal dies, to overcome the potentially fatal problem of nonuniform type size, depended on many metallurgical developments: steel for letter punches, brass or bronze alloys (later replaced by steel) for dies, lead for molds, and a tin-zinc-lead alloy for type (Diamond, 1997, p. 259).

Gutenberg’s press proved key in the development of the book. Gutenberg used “screw presses” in his device as well as a durable ink that was oil-based, which lasted longer than inks in development on the market. In fact the alphabet used in Gutenberg’s press was an improvement upon thousands of years of language development, “The alphabetic scripts that medieval Europe inherited from three millennia of alphabet development lent themselves to printing with movable type, because only a few dozen letter forms had to be cast, as opposed to the thousands of signs required for Chinese writing (Diamond, 1997, p. 260). The press offered a better way to communicate other than writing a book by hand as the scribes had been employed to do and as such “the potential mass market for printing in medieval Europe induced numerous investors to lend money to Gutenberg” (p. 260). This allowed for mass production to ensue as well as cut the time and price of production of printed materials since scribes did not have to be commissioned (sometimes for years) to work on a book. The printing press allowed for mass populace to have access to more books and in fact library shelves were now overflowing with a variety of new literature that in turn advances society through the simple device of access. The printing press “also facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form…” (Kreis, 2012, para. 7). Thus, ideas previously unknown to a great many people began to gain in popularity and have an impact on society as a whole (Kreis, 2012, para. 7).

Technological advancements in the art of book making tell a tale of the rise of civilization; history begins somewhere around the time of the Phaistos disc (1700 B.C.) and meets a drastic turning point with Gutenberg’s printing press (Diamond, 1997, p. 260). When the Phaistos disc was made, civilization was in the Stone Age while Gutenberg’s printing press was made during the middle ages, past the Iron Age. Therefore the devices and skills used between the Phaistos disk and Gutenberg’s printing press were extremely diverse: the Phaistos disk was made by hand while the printing press used metallurgical manipulations; the disk’s language was cuneiform while the printing press was German or Roman script (simple to complex language usage); and the “Phaistos disk’s printing technology was much clumsier, and offered fewer advantages over writing by hand, than Gutenberg’s printing press” (p. 260). The switch from handiwork to metal work; from reeds stylus to the printing press; and the advancement of the book from clay, papyrus, cotton, linen and finally where it is today all coincide with the particular technologies of the day as well as the supply and demand of booming civilizations. Each of these advancements from mankind served to further their knowledge of the world. Once paper replaced clay, books became more easily transferred as well as more durable: when papyrus was replaced by cotton then linen, humidity, spoilage, and other detrimental factors were no longer that much of a concern. The use of cotton and linen however would not have been options for paper had humans remained hunter-gatherers instead of agriculturalists. The building up of a society into a city begets technological advancement that is well exemplified in the art of book making through its rise into the marvel that is today thanks to all the previous advancements put toward it in making it a part of history.

References

Diamond, Jared. (1997). Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York City, NY: W.W. Norton and Company. Print.

Kreis, Steven. (2012). The Printing Press. 16 April 2014. Web.

Munsell, Joel. (2013). Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Paper-

Making. Albany, NY: Harvard College Library. Print.

Sonn, William J. (2006). Paradigms Lost: The Life and Deaths of the Printed Word. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Print.