LOGOS Tlie printed boolc: deatli or transfiguration?

Since the earliest cave drawings, human beings Jerome S Rubm have tried to communicate across the bounds of SB, LLB time by making lasting representations in symbol­ ic form. The earliest known system of writing as a device for recording language was developed over 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, and the Egyptians, probably under Mesopotamian influence, evolved their system shortly thereafter. An honors graduate of Harvard More than two millennia later the Greeks created College (Physics) and of the a full alphabetic system of writing, and since then the principles of writing have not undergone any Harvard Law School, Jerome Rubin fundamental change. The invention of letters was m practice in international busi­ prompted Plato's technophobic lament: "This ness law in New York City for the invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds first twenty years of his career. In of those who learn to use it, because they will not 1971, he became President and exercise their memory." Chief Executive Officer of Mead Writing, the greatest technology devised by man, spawned ancillary technologies—includ­ Data Central, where he developed ing, of course, the preparation of surfaces on LEXIS, the first and largest fiill-text, which to write. As early as 3500 B.C., the computer-assisted information- Egyptians were recording their hieroglyphics on retrieval service, and its offshoot, papyrus. The most important writing material of the ancient world, papyrus was made from the NEXIS. LEXIS today serves the legal fibrous stem of the papyrus reed (byblos), which profession throughout the English- grew profusely in the Nile Delta. Not only Egypt, speaking world and in France. but Greece and Rome, relied on papyrus. Rubin is Chairman of the Parchment, the other great ancient writ­ Professional Information and Book ing material, is the specially prepared skin of ani­ mals, mostly sheep, lambs, goats, and calves. The Publishing Group of Times Mirror, word parchment derives from Pergamum, an which he joined in 1983. Serving on important centre of Hellenistic culture near mod­ many professional and not-for-profit ern-day Izmir which was also the centre of parch­ bodies, Rubm is currently Chairman ment manufacture beginning in the third century B.C. Although the terms parchment and vellum of the Association of American are often used interchangeably, the word vellum is Publishers. Among his many non­ usually applied to the finestparchment , made from executive directorships are MIT the skin of a calf. (The etymology is clear.) Press, the Faxon Company, and The technology of making paper, the Interactive Network. basic writing material of the modern world, was invented by an official of the Imperial court of Han China in 105 A.D., and spread westward very slow-

14 LOGOS 1/1 © WHURR PUBUSHERS 1990 The printed book; death or transfiguration? ly It reached Samarkand in 751 and Baghdad in By Gutenberg's time and until the late eighteenth 793, during the golden age of Islamic culture. century, inks were typically made by mixing var­ Although paper was extensively employed in the nish or boiled linseed oil with lamp-black. Arab world shortly thereafter, ft was not in com­ The principal writing instruments of the mon use in Europe until the fourteenth centu­ ancient Western world were reeds. But in north­ ry—and it came to Europe via Islam's domination ern Europe, where reeds suitable for writing pur­ of Spain. Paper, a plant-based writing material like poses do not grow, the quill of the feather became papyrus, assumed the name of its ancient, half-for­ the principal writing instrument. A Latin word for gotten predecessor. Through most of classical antiquity, the ••The Domesday Book was standard form of book was the papyrus roll or ^^ never updated; its contents scroll, consisting of papyrus sheets glued togeth­ ^ ^ remained frozen in time and er Taking fts name from byblos, the papyrus plant thus had little practical value. from which it was made, it was commonly called biblion—^which in turn gave its name to The Book,feather , penna, has given us our pen, just as anoth­ the Bible. But the unrolling and rewinding of a er Latin word for feather, pluma, gave plume to the long book was inconvenient and time-consuming. French. The development of parchment made possible the The technologies of writing were neces­ codex, or book in the form we know today. sary but not sufficient; little written material was Papyrus, unlike parchment, cracks when folded; in produced in the early Middle Ages, since, in addition, parchment could be sewn easily and Christian Europe, writing and reading were skills scribes could write on both sides of it. The new centred in the monastery. The great majority of technology, which became popular in the early people rehed on memory and oral tradition to days of the Christian era, involved cutting parch­ spread information and preserve knowledge. ment into rectangular sheets, folded once into a William the Conqueror was largely folio, or twice into a quarto, or thrice into an octa­ responsible for initiating the transition from oral vo, and so on. Despite the great technological tradition to written record in medieval England. advantages of the codex, it was at first used pri­ His famous Domesday Book was a written survey marily for account books; the resistance to change of the conquered land. But the Domesday Book of both readers and booksellers permitted the lit­ was never updated; its contents remained frozen in erary roll to survive for centuries. Many legal doc­ time and thus had little practical value. uments continued to be written in scroll form until As foreigners ruling in a tradition of con­ the twentieth century in several countries, includ­ quest, William's successors bombarded the ing England, where the Master of the Rolls English with written demands for information and remains the title of one of the highest judicial offi­ money. Land charters were put in writing, govern­ cers. (But the conservatism of lawyers is to be ment bureaucracy flourished, and the number of expected; the law, after aU, is the second oldest documents grew. People needed to read and write profession.) to cope with government demands, and literacy The other important writing technolo­ became widespread; yet it was centuries before gies are those of inks and writing implements. The the value of written records was fully understood. ancient inks of Egypt and China consisted of lamp­ Making documents, keeping them in archives, and black mixed with gum or glue and formed into subsequently using them again for reference were sticks which were mixed with water when used by three distinct stages of development. While the the scribe. The colored juices or extracts of vari­ peoples of classical antiquity had developed and ous plant and animal substances also served as used indexing techniques, many medieval docu­ inks in ancient times—including the black dis­ ments, especially government records, were not charges of cephalopods such as octopus, squid, indexed. The medieval archivist seeking specific and cuttlefish. In later antiquity and throughout information had no way of knowing which page or the Middle Ages, ink was also made from oak-galls roll to search. steeped in a solution of vitriol (ferrous sulphate). Despite the proliferation of documents in

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