A Concise Timeline of Printing Milestones
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A Concise Timeline of Printing Milestones ________________________________________________________________ -3500 Sumerians use cuneiform alphabet, pressed in clay with a triangular stylus. Clay tablets were dried and/or fired for longevity. Some even had clay envelopes,' which were also inscribed. Some people consider them to be the earliest form of the book. -2500 Animal skins are used for scrolls in Western Asia. -2400 Date of the earliest surviving papyrus scroll with writing. -1900 Hittites, from between 1900 and 1200 BC, left appr. 15,000 clay tablets -1800 Book of the Dead, Egypt -1500 The 'Phaistos disc', found on the island of Crete in 1908, was produced by pressing relief-carved symbols into the soft clay, then baking it. Although it contains the germ of the idea of printing, it appears to be unique. -950 Leather is made and used for scrolls and writing. -800 Moabite stone is created with one of the finest specimens of Phoenician writing. The letters resemble Greek. -650 Papyrus. First rolls arrive in Greece from Egypt -650 Papyrus. First rolls arrive in Greece from Egypt -600 6th C. BC General agreement among Mediterranean cultures on left- to-right writing and reading. Before that, there was L-R, R-L, top-to- bottom, and boustroph edonic (back-and-forth). The Hebres kept R-L. -500 Lao-Tze's lifetime, was said to have been archivist of the imperial archives -431 Xenophon. (431-352 BC) author of Anabasis and Memorabilia. -295 King Ptolemy I Soter enlisted the services of the orator Demetrios Phalereus, a former governor of Athens, and empowered him to collect, if he could, all the books in the inhabited world. To support his efforts, the king sent letters to all sovereigns and governors on earth requesting that the furnish workd by poets and prose-writers, 1 rhetoricians and sophists, doctors and soothsayers, historians, and all others too (Flavius Josephus). Agents were sent out to scout the cities of Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Foreign vessels calling in at Alexandria were searched routinely for scrolls and manuscripts. Transcripts were returned in due course, but the originals remained confiscated in the library. The story of the 47 AD destruction of the library is only partly true. Some 40,000 of the 700,000 volumes did go up in flames. -213 Chin Tain Shihuangti, emporer of China, issued an edict that all books should be destroyed (manuscripts on bamboo) -200 before 1st C. BC Both Greeks and Romans used wax tablets, framed and backed with wood, for note taking, orders, correspondence, and other temporary informat ion. At times, two or more tablets were joined with thongs or cords, similar to a 3-ringed binder. The Latin name for this was _codex_, from the word for wood. Single wax tablets had been used earlier than this in Mesopotamia, Greece, and Etruria. -197 197-159 BC In the Middle East, near Pergamum, large herds of cattle are raised for skins to be made into what we now call 'parchment.' -196 The'Rosetta' stone is cut. It contains the same text in Egyptian hieroglyphic, Egyptian demotic, and Greek writing. It was discovered in 1799 near the mouth of the Nile and served to break the code for deciphering ancient Egyptian works. -150 The first paper is made in CHina from macerated hemp fibers in water suspension. -150 Dead Sea Scrolls. 150 BC - 40 AD Approximate dates of the Hebrew and Aramaic documents, Biblical and nonbiblical, found as scrolls sealed in ceramic pots in caves near the Dead Sea in 1957. Some are written on thin, whitish leather similar but not identical to parchment -100 Nash Papyrus, oldest known biblical fragment, containing the Hebrew text of the ten commandments. Acquired in Egypt 1902 by W.L.Nash and now in Cambridge University Library. -100 Nash Papyrus, oldest known biblical fragment, containing the Hebrew text of the ten commandments. Acquired in Egypt 1902 by W.L.Nash and now in Cambridge University Library. -100 1st C. BC - 1st C. AD The Romans substituted skin, or membranae, for the wood panels in codices. It is unclear just when this was done and 2 whether membranae was similar to Medieval parchment or to the thin leather of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it is known that there are no examples or records of this substitution prior to the Romans. Later, Romans used codices to record laws and rules of order, lending the name codes or codicils to such documents. -100 1st C. AD By the end of this century, the form of the book had largely changed from the scroll to the codex. -100 Nash Papyrus, oldest known biblical fragment, containing the Hebrew text of the ten commandments. Acquired in Egypt 1902 by W.L.Nash and now in Cambridge University Library. -39 Libertas. Asinius Pollio establishes first public library in Rome at the Libertas Temple -28 Augustus. Under the reign of emporer Augustus two large libraries were founded, the Palatine and the Octavian library 47 The great Library of Alexandria was damaged by fire when Julius Caeser besieged the city. It was said at one time to contain copies and translations of all known books (scrolls), between 400,000 and 500,000. It was later ravaged by civil war in the late 200s AD and by 400, nothing was left. 100 Ulpia. Bibliotheca Ulpia founded by Trajan, also serving as emperial archive 104 Papermaking discovered in China by Ts'ai Louen (date is not very specific: it may have been 105. Name also written as: Ts'ai Lun) Material used: plant bark, discarded cotton and old fishnets. 104 Papermaking discovered in China by Ts'ai Louen (date is not very specific: it may have been 105. Name also written as: Ts'ai Lun) Material used: plant bark, discarded cotton and old fishnets. 105 Chinese history records that papermaking was invented by Ts'ai Lun in the court of Ho'ti in Lei-yang, China. Paper had, in fact, been made in China for at least two hundred years before this date. The first papers were made from hemp, bark, and used fish nets. 191 Palatine library destoyed by fire 370 Public libraries, in these days there were said to be 28 public libaries in Rome 3 391 Alexandrian Library destroyed under the direction of Archbishop Theophilus of Antioch (destruction of temple of Serapis) 480 (480-524), the last learned Roman to study the language and literature of Greece. He wrote his DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE while awaiting his execution. The Consolation of Philosophy is a dialogue of 39 short poems in 13 different meters that paid tribute to the ancient authors and philosophers. 590 Luxeuil. Monastery founded by Columban, first monastery in Gaul. Irish Monks brought along numerous manuscripts 637 Caesarea Library destroyed by Arabs conquering Palestine (library was orignally founded by church father Origen who died 309 AD) 687 Undoubtedly one of history's most dramatic book exhumations involves a manuscript copy of the Gospel of St.John that was buried in the year 687 with the body of St. Cuthbert, bishop near Lindesfarne. Two hundred years later Danish invaders sacked the holy compund, carrying with them the remains of Cuthbert. In 1104 the carved wooden casket was opened and the Gospel, a manuscript written in uncial, was found perfectly preserved. 700 Lindisfarne Gospels written on 258 leaves (link to on-line reproductions: http://www.xs4all.nl/~knops/manuscri.html ) 715 Codex Amitinus, manuscript of the Vulgate written in Northumbrian uncial. 716 Amiatinus. Codex Amiatinus, made at the scriptorium of the twin monasteries Wearmouth and Jarrow near Newcastle, Northumbria. This codex brings together the entire old and new testament in 1,030 folios in a single binding.. 750 Aureus. Codex Aureaus written, probably at Canterbury 750 Canterbury School of manuscript illumination, active until 13th century. 750 Paper making reached Samarkand before 750, Baghdad in 793, Damascus and Cairo in approximately 950. Through the Arab conquest of North Africa and Southern Spain, the invention first reached the Moorish parts of Spain in the 11th century. A mill was recorded at Fez in Morocco in 1100, and the first on the Spanish mainland at Xativa in 1151. It reached Southern Italy in the 13th century, where, untill quite recently, some of the oldest handmade paper mills in Italy were operating near Amalfi, in the Naples area. 4 750 Willibrord Gospels made appr. 750, probably made by the artists of the Book of Durrow 751 Papermaking introduced in the Islamic world 800 Marbling in Japan, first Turkish marbled paper 1586, first Dutch 1598 800 Kells, Book of. written and painted at the Columbian monastery of Iona or at the Abbey of Kells in Ireland. 340 folia survived. Since 1661 in Trinity College, Dublin 800 Marbling in Japan, first Turkish marbled paper 1586, first Dutch 1598 868 China, oldest known woodblock printing (method was in use much earlier) 868 The first book printed on paper in China, in block printed Buddhist scripts. 896 Colophon, oldest known manuscript colophon, in Books of the Prophets written by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias. 896 Colophon, oldest known manuscript colophon, in Books of the Prophets written by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias. 950 Winchester School, 950-1100, characteristic style of manuscript illumination 954 Abingdon Monastery founded by Aethelwold, monks famous for manuscript illumination, Winchester School 1041 In 1403 the earliest known book was printed from movable type in Korea, a process which had been used by the Chinese as early as 1041. In 1450 Gutenberg printed his 42-line Bible in Mainz on a quality of handmade paper which remains unsurpassed to this day. 26 Years later William Caxton brought the art of printing to England, and in 1486 the first English coloured illustrated book was printed in St.