Gutenberg carefully lifted the paper from the type He proudly looked at the crisp clean lines of ink on the paper He had unlocked the secrets of printing with movable type The world would be forever changed Much of the knowledge the human race has gathered history science philosophy politics religion art and architecture and more is preserved and shared through the printed word Books magazines newspapers posters maps and other forms of printed material educate and entertain us daily Although many of us take the printed word for granted especially in the digital age it is still almost impossible to imagine a world without print Yet at one time printing did not exist Before the Printed Word Books existed long before the invention of the printing press in the mid 1400s Many of the world's greatest works of literature were written long before printing appeared The ancient Egyptians Greeks and Romans produced classic works that are still read to this day Medieval English writers produced many dramas and stories that are considered masterpieces of world literature Throughout Europe Latin translations of the Bible and other religious texts were available Various forms of literature accounts of daily life and histories appeared in many parts of Asia and the New World 8
Before printing books were copied by hand one by one Scribes labored in royal courts universities and monasteries and abbeys They painstakingly copied texts while artists created illustrations to adorn their work In France as many as 10 000 scribes worked to meet the needs of churches courts and universities the beginning at of the 1400s England's chancery responsible for producing official government documents employed 60 copyists A scribe s labor was tedious and it frequently took months to PREHISTORIC COMMUNICATION From the time the earliest humans roamed Earth people have had a strong desire to communicate with their fellow beings Thousands of years before writing appeared humans created primitive drawings and paintings Some of the earliest examples of prehistoric art are the cave paintings in Lascaux France The more than 15 000 figures depict animals humans and abstract signs that researchers date back 17 000 years Petroglyphs or rock carvings have been found in all parts of the world Archaeologists have estimated some petroglyphs found in Western Australia are up to 30 000 years old produce a single copy of a text Even the most highly skilled scribes made errors omitting or adding words to the text Some scribes used their own system of abbreviations which often made readings of the text inaccurate Translating text from Latin into another language such as German or English also increased the likelihood of
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THE MANUSCRIPT A handwritten document is also called a manuscript The word manuscript comes from the Latin words manu hand and scriptus to write Manuscripts were written on specially prepared animal skins or plant fibers The oldest known manuscripts date to ancient Egypt although manuscripts were produced in ancient times in Asia the Middle East Europe and South America The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 in a cave near Qumran Israel is a collection of manuscripts roughly 2 200 years old The texts written in Hebrew and Aramaic offer a glimpse into religious and cultural aspects of Jewish life during that time Most of the manuscripts that survive from the Middle Ages are religious books that reflect the beliefs and practices of Christianity Judaism and Islam The British Library in London and the National Library of France house two of the world's largest collections of medieval manuscripts The process of hand copying was expensive a service only the wealthy and the church could afford Furthermore scribes eventually were unable to meet the demands of the government universities and the clergy for written material Yet for years often in secretsome clever individuals in Europe were hard at work trying to develop a faster and more efficient way of reproducing texts and images Among them was a little known metalworker from the German town of Mainz Medieval manuscripts were works of art but they were costly and slow to produce 11
