Books are a way of transmitting and storing information. Their existence became possible with the appearance of writing in the 5th-4th millennium BC. Since that time, knowledge has ceased to depend on the oral form of their transmission, the development of civilization has accelerated. Further changes in books are directly related to the development of society and technology.
Instructions
Step 1
Writing appeared in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia; such accessible materials as clay tablets and tree bark were used for writing. The very first records were related to business accounting.
Step 2
The first major change in the book is associated with the invention of papyrus in Egypt, it allowed recording long messages on a medium that took up a small amount of space, since individual sheets of papyrus could be combined into one and the resulting book could be rolled into a thin scroll. In Egypt, papyrus books were mainly used for accounting records, but scientific and historical information was also recorded.
Step 3
Around the 10th century BC, the Phoenicians brought papyrus to Ancient Greece. The Greeks also took the Phoenician alphabet as the basis of their writing and improved it by adding letters for vowel sounds. Taking notes is now much easier. In Greece, and then in Rome, large libraries appeared with tens of thousands of books in the form of papyri. The books began to record a variety of information - philosophical and scientific works, works of art.
Step 4
The Roman papyrus book was a stick with bulges at the ends, with a papyrus scroll wound on it, such a book had a leather label with a title. Bookstores already existed in ancient Rome. Also in ancient Rome, wax tablets were used, they were used for household records and in schools. After the information on them became unnecessary, they were simply melted and wax was used for a new clean tablet.
Step 5
In the first century AD, codes appeared, similar to modern books, in which sheets of papyrus were stitched together in a notebook. Such manuscripts supplanted scrolls only by the 3rd century, when more durable parchment (specially treated leather) was used for writing. The replacement of scrolls with manuscripts is also related to the fact that Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire.
Step 6
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, manuscripts completely replaced the papyrus scrolls. Books were created and copied in monasteries. Around the 8th century, monks began to use spaces between words, which made it easier to read texts. At the beginning of the second millennium AD, paper came to Europe from Asia, books became cheaper and more accessible. At the same time, the Dark Ages were ending, universities appeared in Europe, scientific thought was actively developing, and there were more and more books. In the Arab world, some libraries contained up to four hundred thousand volumes.
Step 7
In the 14th century, Europeans adopted the oriental woodcut method, and it became much easier to make copies of books. Finally, in the 15th century, Gutenberg invented the printing press. Typesetting elements began to be made of metal, now they could be used many times. Typography has made the book much more accessible.
Step 8
By the end of the 19th century, books were being produced on factory presses. Circulation has increased to unprecedented levels. As the number of books increased, so did freedom of speech, as it became more and more difficult to delay the spread of information.
Step 9
The advent of the Internet and e-books is the last stage in the development of the book. Paper books are fading into the background, humanity is increasingly using electronic media for reading and storing books.
