Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Story of Books
    The Story of Books
    The Story of Books
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Story of Books

    Written by Gertrude Burford Rawlings

    Narrated by LibriVox Community

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Rawlings follows the development of printing from the origins of writing to modern printing. Some of the earliest records are ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman recordings on papyrus and wax tablets. However, Rawlings acknowledges the sparse nature of this first fragile evidence, and limits speculation.

    Later, libraries of religious books grew in Europe, where monks copied individual books in monasteries. The "block printing" technique began with illustrations carved in wood blocks, while the text needed to be written by hand. Eventually, entire pages were printed as combinations of illustrations with text. The Biblia Pauperum, or “Bible of the Poor,” demonstrates this first time saving method.

    Later chapters focus on printing developing as an industry, especially after the invention of movable type. Two inventors are contested as the first inventor, Johann Gutenberg of Mentz in Germany, and Laurenz Coster of Haarlem in Holland. Rawlings describes the evidence for each side, along with stories and legends that grow around their names.

    Since many of the medieval books were meant to be admired as art by the illiterate majority and read only by an educated minority, copiers spent much time decorating manuscripts. Also, these highly decorated volumes needed to be protected. Here, Rawlings describes the techniques for binding and beautifying books. Arriving closer to the present day, Rawlings describes a few modern printing techniques that bring mass produced and cheap books to the now literate public. (Summary by LivelyHive)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLibriVox
    Release dateAug 25, 2014

    Related to The Story of Books

    Related audiobooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Life Worth Writing

      Apr 1, 2021

      A Life Worth Writing
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Textual Pompeii

      Jan 23, 2023

      A Textual Pompeii
      5 min read

    • Article

      History’s Most Famous Missing Documents (and One That Was Found)

      Aug 5, 2021

      Also known as the logia, the ‘Q’ Gospel is a (hypothetical) Greek-language document that many biblical scholars nevertheless believe to have been in circulation at the time of the Synoptic Gospels – Mark, Matthew and Luke – between 65 and 95 AD. The

      1 min read

    • Article

      Sectarian Scrolls?

      Apr 7, 2023

      Sectarian Scrolls?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Craft

      Jan 5, 2024

      Benedictine monasteries made some of the most beautiful books of the Middle Ages. In their early centuries, their communities held a virtual monopoly on the collection and circulation of books, which brought into their precincts scribes, artists, and

      1 min read

    • Article

      Alchemy enters Europe

      Feb 28, 2020

      Alchemy enters Europe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Books About Online: An Excerpt from ‘Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction’

      Aug 13, 2018

      1. The Catalog of Nibru (Various, circa 21st to 20th Centuries B.C.) I, the king, was a hero already in the womb I am a king treated with respect Not only did the lord make the world appear in its correct form Lady of all the divine powers These line

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Big Idea: Could The Greatest Works Of Literature Be Undiscovered?

      May 30, 2022

      When the great library at Alexandria went up in flames, it is said that the books took six months to burn. We can’t know if this is true. Exactly how the library met its end, and whether it even existed, have been subjects of speculation for more tha

      4 min read

    • Article

      Legendary Alchemists

      Feb 28, 2020

      Thomas Norton, who lived from c.1433-1513, was the disciple of another famous English alchemist called George Ripley. As an alchemist, Thomas was supposedly successful in creating the elixir of life not once but twice, only to have it stolen from him

      1 min read

    • Article

      Development Of Writing

      Sep 18, 2020

      Development Of Writing
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Leiden Amun Papyrus

      Aug 22, 2022

      The Leiden Amun Papyrus
      5 min read

    • Article

      Legends And Pseudonyms

      Feb 28, 2020

      One of the joys of being a writer is seeing your name in print (see my own humble byline above) yet in the past many authors of alchemical texts hid their identity behind pseudonyms. Were these noms de plume a method of concealment or conceit? As wit

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Renaissance In Europe

      Feb 28, 2020

      The Renaissance In Europe
      5 min read

    • Article

      World’s Oldest Book

      Dec 2, 2023

      A 10-by-6-inch piece of papyrus is, researchers now believe, part of the world’s first book. And, like many of the volumes that fill offices, libraries, and homes, it has had many lives. The papyrus fragment, which was unearthed along with hundreds o

      1 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Apr 11, 2024

      I MET UP WITH A CHINESE FRIEND THE OTHER day at the British Library. What better place to reflect on human history as told through its literature? From Michelangelo and Leonardo, to the Ma'il Qur'an and the Codex Sinaiticus; from Jane Austen and Geor

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books Of Revelation

      Dec 8, 2023

      Roland Allen loves notebooks. Why wouldn’t he? He is, after all, a writer. In his new study he declares: “If your business is words, a notebook can be at once your medium – and your mirror.” Paul Valéry was at least as devoted to his notebooks as the

      2 min read

    • Article

      Copernicus Blazed A Trail For Early Astronomers To Follow

      Dec 31, 2019

      Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo each played a role in furthering the study of the heavens, as L.S. Fauber amply demonstrates in “Heaven on Earth.”

      3 min read

    • Article

      First-century Mark

      Jun 2, 2023

      Due to the availability of nineteenth-century books and the unavailability of modern studies, often locked behind paywalls, the theory that Jesus never existed has returned. Among the arguments for this so-called ‘mythicism’ is the observation that t

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Deep Humanity Of Books

      Jul 27, 2023

      The Deep Humanity Of Books
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Story of Books

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words