A room without books is like a body without a soul. -Cicero
For most of us, books are prevalent and familiar items in our lives. All too often, we appreciate books simply as carriers of content, leaving the physical book unexplored. Books, however, have a history of their own. The history of the book is a story of creativity, innovation, collaboration, and power. It is a story that is still being written. Book history provides a lens through which we can view and understand the history of the world.
Introduction
The mission of the Bentley Rare Book Museum is to develop and preserve collections of rare, unique, and historic books and manuscripts in order to engage the University and community in the history of the book.
This module provides a brief introduction to book history by utilizing a selection of items from the Bentley Rare Book Museum. This module will provide a basis for understanding how expansive book history can be.
Image: Bentley Rare Book Open House program, 2017. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
The Printed Word in Antiquity
In the ancient world, books as we know them today did not exist. Instead, people recorded transactions, thoughts, ideas, and stories on tablets and scrolls. In Mesopotamia, damp clay from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided a plentiful medium for making tablets as early as the fourth millennium BCE. People wrote into the wet clay using a reed stylus and then let the clay bake in the sun or in a kiln. In Egypt and Asia, papyrus, birch bark, palm leaves, bamboo stems, and silk were used to make scrolls.
Image: Sumerian cuneiform tablet, 2036-2028 BCE, Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Manuscripts and the Codex
For nearly 4000 years, people have used treated animal skins, or parchment, to record ideas. Between 100 and 500 CE, the Western world began gathering leaves of parchment and combining them to create codices. A codex (pl. codices) refers to a stack of pages held together by stitching on one side. The codex medium was especially popular within the early Christian church that was emerging around the same time. Today, the most familiar book format is the codex.
During the medieval period in Europe (circa 500 CE - 1500 CE), monks and scribes recorded religious texts and philosophical works on parchment. They used quill pens as writing tools and boiled iron filings, oak bark, and gall nuts to make ink. Many of these manuscripts were illuminated with vibrantly colored inks made from gem stones or plant and insect dyes. The manuscript leaves were then sewn together as books. These books were made entirely by hand.
After the Protestant Reformation, many manuscript books were unbound, and their leaves were used as bindings for other books or sold to private owners. Today, manuscript leaves are the most abundant items we have from the medieval period. The majority of surviving manuscript leaves are from prayer books called Books of Hours.
Image: French or Italian manuscript, circa 1200-1300. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Learn more about medieval Books of Hours by watching the video below.
Critical Thinking: Structure
Take a look at this manuscript leaf on the left. What do you notice about the structure of the text? How does this structure differ from a text we might encounter today? Notice the rubrication (red marks throughout the text). What purpose do you think the red marks are serving?
Critical Thinking: Content
What language did the scribe use to write the text? If you are unable to tell, make an educated guess.
We use the term marginalia to refer to handwritten notes in the margins of texts. What might be the significance of the marginalia on this leaf? Do you write in the margins of your books? If so, what purpose do these notes serve?
Image: Excerpt from a Vulgate Bible, Book of Jeremiah, 1240. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum
View an additional manuscript leaf below. What do you observe about the handwriting styles, marginal notes, decorative initial letters, and doodles? (Yes, people drew doodles in their books during the medieval period)!
Paper Making and Early Printing
In China, paper making began as early as the second century BCE and subsequently spread throughout eastern Asia and the Middle East. Paper was not widely available in Europe until the mid-twelfth century. Even when Europeans became well acquainted with paper, many considered this medium less authoritative and dependable than parchment. Most paper was handmade from rags until the early nineteenth century.
Print using woodblocks began in China somewhere between the sixth and ninth century CE. Moveable type was also born in China circa 1040 CE. Johannes Gutenberg revolutionized print in Europe through his version of movable type technology during the fifteenth century CE. Gutenberg's pinnacle work, the Gutenberg Bible, is considered the first printed book in Europe. It was completed around 1455.
Image: Page from a Gutenberg Bible facsimile, 1985. Courtesy of Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Learn more about the Gutenberg Bible by watching the video below.
The Hand-Press Period and The Rise of Printing in the West
Between 1450 and 1800, all books were made by hand. This period of book history is called the hand-press period.
Books printed before 1501 are called incunabula. This term comes from the Latin cunae, meaning "cradle." Hence, a text printed prior to 1501 was made during the dawn or early days of printing. Some of these texts also included woodcut illustrations that were made by carving an image into a block of wood (in reverse), applying ink to the raised wood, and transferring the inked wood to paper.
As printing gained traction in Europe throughout the latter half of the fifteenth century and into the sixteenth century, a distinguished group of early printers emerged. A few examples included William Caxton (England), Anton Koberger (Germany), Aldus Manutius (Italy).
Image: Page from De Philosophico Consolatu (Consolation of Philosophy) by Boethius, printed in 1501. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Critical Thinking: Context
The advent of printing in Europe presented endless opportunities to exchange knowledge and ideas. In sixteenth-century Europe, most printing was controlled by the Church, and censorship was common. Printers used colophons (finishing strokes) at the end of books to provide bibliographic information about the text. Colophons were often accompanied by an illustrated printer's device (see image on the right). Colophons and printer's devices served as evidence that the text in question was, in fact, the work of a specific printer.
Why do you think printed texts (as opposed to handwritten texts) presented a larger threat to those in power?
Image: Aldine printer's device featured in Dante's Divine Comedy printed by Aldus Manutius, circa 1502. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
The Bible in Early Modern Europe
For much of the Middle Ages, vernacular languages held little prestige in Europe. Latin was the official language of art, scholarship, and theology. Despite being the primary text of the Christian faith, the Bible was not readily available in vernacular languages.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, political and religious leaders became increasingly concerned about the public receiving direct access to scriptures. Many of these leaders viewed public access to the Bible as a threat that could lead to heretical doctrine or uprisings. These fears were exacerbated by the spreading of ideas made possible by the printing press and the splitting of the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation. Many people who challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and who wrote, printed, or advocated for translations of the Bible into vernacular languages were deemed heretics, and several were punished or killed. Examples of reformists include John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, Miles Coverdale, and William Tyndale.
Image: Leaf from Coverdale Bible, 1535. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
King James I of England began his reign in 1603. To help achieve religious and national unification, King James commissioned a group of fifty-four scholars to complete an official translation of the Bible into English. During the translation process, the scholars focused on accuracy, vernacular stability, and establishing "the voice of God." The King James Bible, as we call it today, was printed in 1611 by Robert Barker, the King's printer.
Critical Thinking: Structure
The King James Bible was printed on rag linen paper using mostly blackletter font. The text is printed in two columns. Notice the minimal number of scripture references and commentary. In addition, there are no illustrations. Why might King James have wanted to minimize commentary and illustrations in the authorized version of the English Bible?
The King James Bible was printed in a large, folio-style format. What does the book's size tell us about how it was meant to be read?
Image: Book of Ecclesiastes from King James Bible, 1611. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
The Machine-Press Period
The production and consumption of books experienced changes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As literacy rates and the demand for books continued to increase, printers sought ways to cheapen the bookmaking process. Additionally, the concept of the modern publishing company took place and eventually gained strength over individual printing houses and bookbinding companies.
By the start of the nineteenth century, books were no longer made exclusively by hand. As the Industrial Revolution took hold, machine power was added to the bookmaking process. The Fourdrinier machine, developed in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, popularized machine-made paper. In the mid-nineteenth century, papermakers began to use wood pulp - a cheaper and more abundant substitute for linen rags - as the main substrate in paper. Steam power was added to printing presses, and at the end of the nineteenth century, stereotype and electrotype plates were used as a more efficient alternative to casting and re-casting metal type. Finally, publishers began to cover printed books in cloth bindings known as "publisher's cloth." Publisher's cloth bindings freed book buyers from the burden of commissioning bespoke leather bindings for all their books.
Critical Thinking: Structure and Context
The background image featured here is from an 1896 pulp fiction book titled The Girl He Forsook by Laura Jean Libbey. Observe the color of the paper and compare its color with that of other printed texts shown earlier in this presentation. What do you notice? What changes in the bookmaking process may have caused this difference?
Similarly take a look at this photo comparing a book printed in 1501 [bottom] with a book printed in the 1930s [top]. What differences do you observe?
Novels and Thrills
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the rise of the novel took place in Europe and the United States. Books were no longer restricted to religious, philosophical, and scholarly texts. Instead, literary movements such as Gothicism, Romanticism, and Victorianism produced novels that entertained everyday readers. Canonized writers including Jonathan Swift, Frances Burney, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain rose to prominence during these two centuries.
Image: Frontispiece from the 1831 edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Courtesy of Bentley Rare Book Museum.
"I busied myself to think of a story. . . . One which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror - one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart." -Mary Shelley
Critical Thinking: Context
Take a look at the illustration below by James Gillray. Describe the scene in your own words. What elements of Gothicism and Romanticism do you see? How does this illustration depict novel reading?
"After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.” -A.S.W. Rosenbach
The Golden Age of Book Collecting
The late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century are considered the Golden Age of Book Collecting. This heightened interest in collecting books, especially rare books, was precipitated by several factors including the identification of high points of the rare book market such as Shakespeare Folios and the Gutenberg Bible, revivals of classical, medieval, and renaissance culture that occurred in the Victorian era, and the establishment of the literary canon in English.
Around this same time, pleasure books for children were emerging and gaining literary recognition. In earlier centuries, most books for children were instructional and not meant for pure enjoyment. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, books like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Peter and Wendy (1911), and Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) were published and later became known as children's classics. During this time period, it was also common for some children's books to be beautifully illustrated and given as gifts during the holidays. These were known as gift books. See an example of a gift book below.
Image: Illustration by Arthur Rackham in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Works of the Harlem Renaissance
Printed works of the Harlem Renaissance demonstrate the lasting impact of African American literary output during the first half of the twentieth century. The Harlem Renaissance is loosely defined as an artistic, literary, and musical revival of African American culture that began after World War I and lasted until the end of the Great Depression. The Harlem Renaissance was partially fueled by the Great Migration - a mass movement of African Americans from the South to urban areas such as Harlem, New York. Works of the Harlem Renaissance explore numerous aspects of Black life and experiences such as Pan-Africanism, color and gender prejudice, civil rights, patriotism, familial relationships, urban and southern social life, and racial pride.
The Bentley Rare Book Museum holds a collection of early and first edition literary works created during the Harlem Renaissance. The most well-represented writers in the Bentley collection include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, Wallace Thurman, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen.
Image: Cover of 1951 reprint of Home to Harlem by Claude McKay. Courtesy of the Bentley Rare Book Museum.
Learn more about the Harlem Renaissance by watching the video below.
Critical Thinking: Context
The image below shows the table of contents from a 1927 poetry compilation entitled Four Negro Poets, edited by Alain Locke. Read the titles of the poems. What common themes can you identify just by reading the titles of these works? How do these themes relate to the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance?
Contemporary Graphic Adaptations
The Bentley Rare Book Museum puts contemporary adaptations of works in conversation with their preceding editions. For example, the Bentley Rare Book Museum is developing a collection of twenty-first century graphic adaptations of well-known texts like The Handmaid's Tale and the Diary of Anne Frank. The graphic adaptations use comic-style illustrations and condensed text to present classic works to new audiences.
View the images below of the graphic adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. How do the illustrations complement the text and vice versa?
Critical Thinking: Content
Take a look at the images below from the 2017 graphic edition of The Diary of Anne Frank. What are your first impressions? How might the experience of reading the graphic adaptation differ from reading the book? List some pros and cons of graphic adaptations.