WHEN BOOKS WERE WRITTEN
To many persons the words “Printing” and “Typography” are synonymous. The Standard dictionary, in its leading definition of the word “Printer,” says: “One engaged in the trade of typographical printing; one who sets type or runs a printing press; specifically a compositor.”
But in these days there are so many kinds of printers (lithographic printers, steel- and copper-plate printers, linotype printers, textile printers, etc.) that to define the sort of printer who does his work with type the use of the adjective “typographic” is necessary.
The word “typography” is derived from the Greek typos, or type; and graphe, or writing—type-writing. Typography, then, as I shall use it, means printing from movable, or separate, types.
The origin of typography may be open to dispute, but it is an undeniable fact that the art of printing with separate types was practiced at Mainz, Germany, during the years 1450–1455, and from there spread over Europe.
Before that period books were written by hand or printed from crudely engraved blocks of wood.
The thousand years preceding the invention of printing (the fifth to the fifteenth century) are known in history as the Middle Ages, and the first six centuries of this period (the fifth to the eleventh) are called the Dark Ages, because during those years civilization in Europe relapsed into semi-barbarism, and scientific, artistic and literary pursuits were almost entirely abandoned.
Latin had been the language of intellectual Europe up to the time of the fall of Rome (476 A.D.) and one of the influences that led up to this benighted period was that Southern Europe was overrun by so-called barbarians from Germania in the north—the Angles and Saxons, who settled in Britain; the Franks, Burgundians and Goths, who settled in Gaul (now France) and Germany; the Vandals who settled in Spain, and the Lombards, who settled in Italy.
In Italy, Spain and Gaul the Latin-speaking natives far outnumbered the invaders, and the Germanic conquerors were forced to learn something of Latin. The present languages of those countries are the result of that attempt. The language of the Germanic Angles and Saxons was used in Britain after their invasion of that country, but was modified by the French-speaking Normans who conquered England in the eleventh century. Thus Latin as a common language died.
Altho dead to most of the population of Europe, Latin was made the official language of the Christian church, and, during that period of the Middle Ages when French, Spanish, Italian and English were in a state of evolution, it afforded a means of keeping alive in written books the knowledge the world had gained before the dark curtain of ignorance was rung down.
Manuscript books are so-called from the Latin words manu scripti, meaning “written by hand,” and the initials of these two Latin words are frequently used for the word manuscript, i.e., “MS.”
The materials upon which books were written have at various times been clay, stone, wood, lead, skin, papyrus and paper.
ASSYRIAN CLAY TABLET
Showing the cuneiform (arrow-shaped) writing
Looking back six thousand years to the beginning of recorded time we find the Chaldeans (Babylonians and Assyrians) writing arrow-shaped characters with a sharp tri-pointed instrument upon damp clay, which was then made permanent by baking. In 1845 a library of baked clay tablets was discovered among the ruins of Nineveh. Thousands of these tablets have been collected in the British Museum, the most interesting of which is one which had been broken in eighteen pieces, containing an account of the Flood.
Twenty-five hundred years before the Christian era, when the great pyramids were being built, the Egyptians wrote upon papyrus, a plant growing on the banks of the Nile. The inner portion of the plant was stripped, the strips laid across each other, pressed and dried. The squares of material thus made were then joined together to form a long strip which was rolled around a rod.
Upon papyrus is written one of the oldest “books” in the world, “The Book of the Dead,” now in the British Museum. This is a literary work of a semi-sacred character, and copies were placed in the tombs with deceased Egyptians, whence its name. A reproduction of a portion of this book is given on page three.
Supposedly under the patronage of the Egyptian ruler, Rameses II., about thirteen hundred years before Christ, many books on religion, law, medicine and other subjects were written, and a great library was accumulated.
The Chinese wrote with a stylus or brush upon tablets of bamboo fiber. It is impossible accurately to determine the antiquity of Chinese methods, as the extravagant and often unsubstantiated claims of historians antedate those of modern discovery. Ink, paper, and printing from blocks were all supposedly invented by the Chinese early in the Christian era, and even the first use of separate types is credited to Pi-Shing, a Chinese blacksmith. It may be relevant to suggest that the old-time “blacksmith” joke and the printing-term “pi” are derived from this source.
Dressed skins and palm leaves were used by the Hindoos, and writings in Sanscrit were probably done in the temples by the Brahmins, the priests and philosophers of early India. The Vedas, sacred writings as old as 2000 B.C., formed a big portion of the Hindoo literature.
The Hebrews wrote upon stones and animal skins. In this manner they preserved the Old Testament portion of the Bible, and gave to posterity one of the most wonderful books ever written.
The ancient Phœnicians were commercial people, and being such did very little in producing literature; yet it is to them that we owe the present Roman alphabet. The illustration on a following page shows how this transition probably came about. There is a slight resemblance between some of the twenty-one characters in the Phœnician alphabet and certain picture writings of the Egyptians, whose hieroglyphic alphabet consisted of several hundred characters and was as cumbersome as is the Chinese alphabet with its several thousand characters.
The Greeks received their alphabet directly from the Phœnicians, there being a tradition that one Cadmus introduced it into Greece. Some writers claim that “Cadmus” merely signifies “the East” and does not refer to an individual. The names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Beta, are similar to those of many other languages, and the word “alphabet” is derived from these two words.
In Greece, especially at Athens, before manuscripts became numerous, lectures and public readings were important features of intellectual life.
The poems of Homer, supposed to have been composed about 880 B.C., were not put into writing until 560 B.C., and during this period of more than three hundred years they were retained in the memory of bards, by whom they were sung or recited.
“Plutarch’s Lives,” one of the best known Greek literary works, was written in the second century, A.D.
The Greek nation is generally acknowledged to have been one of the most intellectual of ancient times, yet it is a peculiar fact that only the boys were given an education, the intellectual development of women being considered unnecessary.
Copying of manuscripts was often a labor of love. Demosthenes, the great philosopher, is said to have transcribed with his own hands the eight books of Thucydides on the history of the Peloponnesian War.
Many of the Greek manuscripts were written by scribes and copyists who were slaves, and some of these slaves developed much talent of a literary kind.
The Greeks imported papyrus as a writing material, until one of the Ptolemies, in the interests of the Alexandrian library, decreed that no papyrus should go out of Egypt. This led to the development of parchment, so named from the city of Pergamus, where it was first made. Parchment is the skin of calves, goats or sheep, cleaned and smoothed.
In the days of militant Greece, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, and in the year 332 B.C. founded Alexandria. When at his death Alexander’s empire was divided among his generals, Egypt fell to the lot of Ptolemy, surnamed Soter. Thus began a dynasty of Egyptian kings known as Ptolemies, ending in 30 B.C. with the death of Cleopatra, the last of the line. The second Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, founded the great Alexandrian library, which accumulated over five hundred thousand rolls of manuscript, mostly brought from Greece. The length of the rolls varied from small ones of two hundred lines to massive scrolls of one hundred and fifty feet when unwound.
There is a legend that Ptolemy Philadelphus was so impressed with the appearance of a roll of parchment containing in gold letters the sacred scriptures of the Hebrews, that, about 270 B.C., he caused their translation to be made into Greek. This, it is said, was done in Alexandria in seventy-two days by seventy-two learned Jews from Jerusalem. Hence the name “Septuagint,” which has always been applied to that Greek version of the Old Testament.
ANCIENT ROMAN READING A MANUSCRIPT ROLL
From a painting found at Pompeii
Julius Cæsar, the Roman conqueror, whom Shakespeare designated “the foremost man of all this world,” about the year 30 B.C. visited the city of Alexandria and became interested in Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen. This led to a war with King Ptolemy, and during a fierce battle Cæsar set fire to the Egyptian fleet. Unfortunately the flames extended to the Alexandrian library and destroyed the greater part of its magnificent collection of manuscripts.
Gradually after that, Rome superseded Alexandria as an intellectual center, as Alexandria had previously superseded Athens. The conquest of Greece, over a hundred years before, had been the cause of many Greek scholars and philosophers taking up their abode in Rome. This, with the fact that a great number of scribes and copyists had involuntarily come to the Eternal City because of the fortunes of war, helped to develop in the Romans an interest in literature.
During the period of Roman history identified with Julius Cæsar there were customs in manuscript making that are interesting in their suggestion of modern newspaper methods. In fact, Cæsar is credited with having been the founder of the newspaper.
He introduced the daily publication of the news of the Roman Senate and People, a radical change from the previous custom of issuing yearly news-letters known as the Annals. The acts of the senate were reported by trained writers known as tabularii, or inscribers of tablets, and were revised and edited before publication by a senator appointed to that duty. Abbreviated forms of writing were used in “reporting,” a sort of short-hand which enabled the scribe to write as rapidly as a man could speak. Cæsar himself wrote his letters in characters which prevented them being read by his enemies.
ROMAN WAXED TABLET
The present method of binding flat books might have originated with these old tablets
The “Acts of the Senate” grew into a diary of general news, known as the “Acts of the City,” and it is likely that the educated slaves in the families of public men were called into service to duplicate copies for circulation.
Altho the Emperor Augustus, who reigned in Rome at the beginning of the Christian era, discontinued publishing the Acts of the Senate, he encouraged the writing and copying of books to such extent that the period is a memorable one in literature. The classic authors, Virgil and Horace, wrote at that time, and many other important manuscripts were produced.
Slave labor was utilized for copying, and large editions of manuscript rolls were produced with an ease that rivaled the later method of the printing press. In such instances it was the custom for a reader to read aloud, to, say, one hundred trained writers. The possibilities of this process may be imagined. Horace allowed his slaves rations which were so meager that the entire cost of production, including papyrus and binding, of a small book was equivalent to about twelve cents in United States coin.
Thus it will be seen that in the days of the Roman Empire books were plentiful and cheap because of slave labor, just as they are cheap in modern times because of machinery.
For most of their books the Romans, as had the Egyptians and Greeks before them, used rolls of papyrus wound about rods.
Ordinarily these rods were made of wood, but for highly-prized manuscripts, rods made of ivory with gold balls at the ends were used, and the writing in such cases was on purple-colored parchment, elaborately decorated with gold or red ink.
The present style of flat sheet books might have originated with the use by the Romans of tablets of wood or metal, wax-coated, on which memoranda were scratched with the stylus. Several tablets were hinged together and the wax surface was protected by raised edges in the manner of the modern school slates (see illustration). This led to the use of several leaves of vellum fastened together and enclosed by richly carved ivory covers, a form that came into use about 300 A.D., shortly before Constantine removed the Roman capital to Constantinople. Constantinople naturally became the center of civilization, and the work of transcribing manuscripts was taken up in that city. In the eighth century the reigning emperor, in order to punish the transcribers for insubordination, caused the library at Constantinople to be “surrounded by vast piles of fagots, which being fired at a given signal, the whole building was totally destroyed, along with its twelve scribes and chief librarian and more than thirty thousand volumes of precious manuscripts.” It seems to have been a favorite method of punishment during the Middle Ages for those in authority to destroy valuable manuscripts.
While, as we have seen, with the fall of the Western Empire of Rome, the drift of literature was toward the East, there remained in the West a dim light that was kept burning thru the six hundred years so fittingly called the Dark Ages. This light came from the monasteries of Europe, in which little bands of devoted men were transcribing and decorating the holy writings used by the Christian church.
THE FAMOUS “BOOK OF THE DEAD”
Part of the seventeenth chapter of the “Book of the Dead,” showing hieroglyphics and illustrations. This book was written upon papyrus, and copies were placed by ancient Egyptians in tombs with their dead
The Christian church as an organization became powerful after the Roman Empire declined, and the monopoly of learning which the church possessed during the Dark Ages gave it such a superior knowledge and power that the Church of Rome granted authority to kings, and took it away, at its pleasure. A memorable instance of this power took place in the eleventh century, when Hildebrand, who as head of the church was known as Pope Gregory VII., forced Henry IV. of Germany, who had offended him, to seek pardon in a most humiliating manner. Henry stood barefoot in the snow for three days, before Hildebrand would pardon him.
On one occasion previous to the event mentioned above, Charlemagne (Charles the Great), king of the Franks, who was crowned by Pope Leo III. and saluted as Emperor of the West, was so mistakenly zealous in extending along with his own kingdom that of the Lowly Nazarene, that he ordered the hanging of more than four thousand prisoners before the Saxons would consent to be baptized and conquered.
EVOLUTION OF THE ALPHABET
This table shows how the present-day Roman alphabet came to us from the ancient Phœnicians
Latin as a language is dead, so far as the secular world is concerned, but since the seventh century it has been the official language of the Church of Rome. All manuscripts produced by monks after that time, whether written in Britain, Germany or Italy, are in Latin, and the services of the Roman Catholic Church are conducted in that language even today. In the year 1080, the King of Bohemia asked Hildebrand, the Papal head of the church, for permission to have the services performed in the language of the people. This request Hildebrand refused, saying: “It is the will of God that his word should be hidden, lest it should be despised if read by every one.”
In 1229 a council of the church published a decree which not only strictly forbade the translation of the Bible into a “vulgar tongue,” but also forbade all but the clergy to have copies in their possession.
In spite of these mandates, translations of various portions of the Bible were made into common tongues, but at great risk. William Tyndale set about to translate the Bible into English, vowing that ere many years he would cause the plough-boy to know more of the Scriptures than did the priests. By 1526 he had completed the New Testament, but his books were burned in the public squares as soon as completed. Ten years later Tyndale was burned, as had been his books.
In 1534 Martin Luther completed his wonderful translation into German of the entire Bible, and gave to the people what had previously been denied them.
We will now consider the making of manuscript books in the Middle Ages. In the early days of the Christian church, persecution was so severe that Christians lived in hiding, or secluded themselves from the outer world to worship. This condition led to the existence of a class of men known as monks (from a Greek word monos, meaning “alone”). At the beginning of the sixth century, an earnest, conscientious Christian, now called Saint Benedict, set out to reform the evils then prevalent in monastic life. One of his theories was that the monks should spend their time, not in idleness, but in manual labor, in teaching the youth, and in copying manuscripts. The Benedictine monks, as the followers of Benedict are known, were the main agents in spreading Christianity and keeping learning alive during the Dark Ages. Their mode of living became so popular that, it is said, there were at one time thirty-seven thousand monasteries or cloisters in existence.
CAPITAL LETTERS OF THE ANCIENT ROMANS
From inscriptions carved in stone
One of the occupations of the Benedictine monks was that of copying manuscripts, and in some monasteries a room known as the scriptorium was set apart for such work. The office of scribe or copyist was one of great importance, and stringent rules governed the work. No writing was done by artificial light, talking was prohibited, and none but the scribes was allowed in the room. The tools were quill pens, knives to cut the quills, pumice stone to smooth the surface of the parchment, awls and rulers with which to make guide-lines, and weights to keep down the pages. Parchment and vellum, the former made of the skins of calves, goats or sheep, the latter of the skins of unborn lambs and kids, were the materials written upon. Black ink was commonly used for the text of books; and vermilion, an orange-red ink made of red clay, was used for titles and important parts of the text. The portions in red were known as rubrics, from rubrica (red earth.)
Illuminating was done to some extent in the monasteries, but illuminators other than monks were often called upon to assist in this work. This practice led to queer combinations, as sacred writings were frequently decorated with monkeys and other animals and birds, which might have afforded appropriate decoration for an account of the Flood.
UNCIAL LETTERS OF THE SIXTH CENTURY
These letters show the Roman capitals assuming the shape of the later Gothic, or text, letters
After the parchment was prepared and before beginning to write the scribe would scratch his guide-lines upon it with an awl. The position of the page and the lines of lettering were thus indicated, the page guide-lines extending to the edge of the parchment. The scribe’s work was principally that of copying (setting reprint, printers would say) from a book on the reading desk at his side. He was supposed strictly to “follow copy,” and his work was compared occasionally by a person known as a corrector. The black writing finished, the skins were passed to the rubricator or illuminator, if the manuscript was to be elaborately treated.
The colored plate shown as a frontispiece is from an old print and pictures a scribe at work. He is writing the text on a sheet of parchment held in place by a weight. The book from which he is copying is in front of him, above his writing desk, and his copy is indicated by a guide such as printers still use. Ink pots and pens are in place and an elaborate library is evidently at his disposal. The picture is defective in perspective but is withal rather interesting.
HALF-UNCIAL LETTERS
Demonstrating the transition of Roman capitals into small, or lower-case, letters
The most beautiful and elaborate specimen of the illuminator’s art now in existence is the famous “Book of Kells,” a copy of the Gospels written about the seventh century. It is notable because of the excellence of its decoration, the endless variety of initial letters it contains, and the careful lettering. The scribes and illuminators of Ireland have a lasting monument in this book, as it is supposed to have been produced in the monastery of Kells, founded by St. Colombo.
Gold, red and blue were favorites with the illuminators, the burnished gold leaf adding richness to the brilliancy of the effect.
Manuscript books were ordinarily bound in thick wooden boards, covered with leather, but there are books yet preserved the boards of which are of carved ivory, and others that are inlaid with precious stones.
The books associated with the Middle Ages most familiar to us are the Missal (mass-book), containing the services of the celebration of the mass; the Psalter (book of psalms), containing the psalms used in church services; the Book of Hours, containing prayers and offices for the several hours of the day, and the Donatus, a short Latin grammar, the work of Ælius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the fourth century.
GOTHIC LETTERS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY
Also showing the decorative uncial-like initials used on manuscript Missals
When printing was invented the first types used were imitations of the current Gothic lettering, known to us as Black Letter, Old English, etc. A few years later, when typography was introduced into Italy, the types were cut in imitation of the lettering selected for use by the scribes of the Italian Renaissance, which lettering is familiarly known in our time as Roman. The capitals of this Roman lettering are fashioned after those used in ancient Rome, and the small or lower-case letters are after the Roman writing known as minuscule, of the twelfth century.
The ancient Roman writing was all capitals, and as found on stamps and coins was of the character of the modern so-called “gothic” (plain strokes, without the small cross strokes known as serifs). The more carefully made Roman capitals, as carved on monuments and buildings, are not unlike the present type-faces known as Caslon and French old style.
The evolution of Roman capitals into the small or lower-case letters of the present day is traced in the writing called uncial, in which the letters A, D, E, H, M, Q are rounded and altered in appearance. More changes developed the writing known as half-uncial, in which only the N and F retain the appearance of Roman capitals. The small (lower-case) letters became known as minuscule, as contrasted with majuscule, or capital letters. (See reproductions on preceding pages.)
From this point book writing developed in two directions: one toward the heavy pointed stroke of the churchly Gothic style, and the other, guided by Charlemagne in the eighth century, to the style of Roman letter used by Jenson and other printers of Venice, Italy, in their classic printing of the fifteenth century. Our old-style Roman types are from this source.
Another style, called cursive, was the carelessly executed handwriting used for ordinary purposes, and in that respect may be likened to our own business script.
Thus as the fifteenth century dawned upon Europe we find literature and learning locked in the cells of the monks, while outside, the hosts of people who for ten centuries wandered in semi-darkness had reached an elevation which showed them a new existence coming with the intellectual awakening that was then already upon them.
LETTERED PAGE FROM THE “BOOK OF KELLS”
Showing the beautiful writing of the Irish scribes of the seventh century
Portion of a page (full size) from Fust and Schœffer’s Psalter of 1457
The first book with a printed date: showing initials and decoration cut in wood
