FROM PAPYRUS TO THE PRINTING MACHINE:-:The Written word

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

FROM PAPYRUS TO THE PRINTING MACHINE:-:The Written word

IITORDS, words, words, hundreds f Y of words, words that redevt the J tranquil loveliness of forest, j glades, or the egg shell transparency of perfect skies. Words paint [>k-- ' turas for us as surely a<s an artist's , brush interprets and reveal* his impression* of the ever-i-hansing scenes of life. There are pictures of sorrow and pictures of jov, pie- ' tureg of laughter end pictures of I tears, Words that cover the whole j gamut of human emotions. Audi think of the hundreds of letters that ' go to 'Sf.ke up these words, long I letters, "' t letters, fat letters, thin letters, . the different ways in which t-*./ may be used. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet, but they we the basis of our written and spoken language. Have you ever wondered how many different words we use in our sreneral conversations! Most boys and girls would probably guess somewhere in the vicinity ot 2000, but people who have taken the trouble to find out for themselve* nay that it U only a few hundred. It'k. quite a different case with the author or journalist, who must try and avoid all manner of hackneyed word* or phrases. Certain sentences have become so well known and tit the case so well that it is sometimes an impossibility to coin a new phrase. Sometimes when we are s>tuck for word* a familiar phrase comes to our rescue, despite the fact that it has been used many times before. Perhaps we do it unconsciously, but we do it all the same. But letters and words open up wonilerfu! fields of exploration, not only ! to the authors, but to the people who { read them. too. Everybody has a I favourite book, it may "be "Alice In I Wonderland" or the '"Swiss Family'

Robinson," and after we have finished with it we may pass it on to someone else. Books while away many a dull hour, they are the ideal t-ompanions for a pleasure or holiday trip. And did ever bocks cover it more fascinating range of subjects than they do to-day? There are volumes on every known subject under the sun —even the educational side has been brought up-to-date, and text bonks are no longer the dull things they used to be. Hard indeed would he be to please who could not find something to interest him from such a wide selection. And. too, they come to us clearly printed on nice paper, bound in different colours and with an attractive cover design. How vastly different from the books of long ago, the sheets of vellum and heavy parchment, and the long rolls of papyrus. The first book of all was written on papyrus, that papery plant that ' stows in old Egypt and other parts of the East, It contained 28 columns and was written in the hieratic script employed by the ancient scribes. Hieratic writing was quite ! different from the hieroglyphics found on many an ancient monument and. stone, because, while the former represented the picture writing of the Egyptians, the hieratic writing was an early form of shorthand. As papyrus was such a popular, kind of writing material, it could ! not be ex]vetted that it would last indefinitely, and in the second • cen- i tury, 8.C.. King Eumenes the Second |of Pergamns, found that lie had | exhausted his supply. When he j discovered how difficult it was to j obtain fresh quantities, he set about I him to find some more material, and j his search resulted in a new form of parchment. The skins of sheep and calves had been tried before, but j King Eumenes improved them bv a I process of hU own, and as * reward!

the name of hi» kingdom was pre- ( curved in th c word •■pergamentum." i Parch men t long supplied the writing j material for the literature of een- [ turies, but it had to be carefully pre- j pared before it was ready to receive ' the various inks ami dyes. Before Eumenes set to work it was only possible to write on one side t»f the parchment. This was all very well in 'the days when it was not customary to write on both side*, but the invention of two-sided parchment insured the development of the codex. The word codex was the name given to the stump of a tree or a block of wood. Later, it was applied to the three-leaved tablets into which the lu>ok was sewn. As parchment superseded papyrus, the codex increased in popularity. Certain animals, supplied the skin for the new material, among them sheep, goats and calves. The finer kinds of manufacture were produced from the more delicate of calf or kid. and STadually became known as vellum. Many of the codices of the Middle Ages were made partlv from this material, hut it would not be correct to say that they were made entirely from vellum. Roman authors make reference to the fact that as early as the second century A.D., parchment or vellum was entering into competition with papyrus. Xo further proof of the efficacy of the King's method could be mentioned here, although a coarser kind of parchment existed from early times. Mention must be mode here of the process of illumination, a term which is applied to the "lighting" of a book with colours or gold. The illumination of manuscripts dates back to the first century of our era, and the early specimens of the art are unrivalled for their beauty. Although it was used such a great deal, vellum was a very costly material, so costly that it was often cleaned and used again. Arehaeologists delight in these old manuscript* because, when the first writing has been restored, texts, of great value have been revealed underneath. Despite the fact that the invention of the printing press has been responsible for the gradual decline of both writing and illumination, we i cannot hope to equal the wonderful . hand-painted lettei"s. the clear, radiant colours. and the perfect ' designs and dainty miniatures of those wonderful old hooks. It is almost impossible for lis to realise thot the hand of man was responsible for the lovely initials jrarlanded with flowers, the delicate scrolls and the vignettes. A holy book belonsrinsr to a lady of the "fifteenth century contains a wonderfnllv t'nted picture I of thp Madonna and chi'd. surrounded by animals, birds and flowers and 1 heraldic design*.

Illuminated ma sources to the lovilljj ami labor their coinjjiliujr. written entirely

nuscripts owe their iißintisteritw to the inns care s|>eiit in Some of them were in black ink, with

crimson heading's and titles, others were embellished in "old. One of the most wonderful manuscripts still in existence is the book of Kells, which contains a copy of all the

Gospels. This ancient treasure is now in the possession of the Dublin Trinity College. It was written and illumined by a group of eight century monk*, T>ut tlie dainty ornamentation does not con tain one thread (if gold. This was the favoured material of the Byzantine ecribes and there k a record of a whole book being written in gold. The arrangement of books changed very little from the early manuscripts to the volumes that issued with the invention of printing. The Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus of the Bible contained four and three columns to a page, respectively. The greatest change of all took place in the different specimens of handwriting. John Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, was born in Germany at a time when the need of some new invention to give people books was very great. In the days when there were no books, people lived in the densest ignorance. There wae nothing to arouse their Interest, nothing that would tell them about the great and wonderful worlds outside their own. They could only exchange legends and "stories— the "only stimulant their imagination ever'received. The wealthy man was better off than a man of the poorer class, but what did he do with his opportunity? He considered reading and writing too lowly an occupation for him, and so he paid poor monks end clerks to do it for him. There were some who could have taught him to write, but he dismissed the task as being beneath his dignity. Aβ for books— they were far beyond most people's reach. Each volume took veare to make, and then they were not worth the trouble expended on them. They were that appealed simply to the superstitious in man and taught people to inflict all manners of cruelties and tortures on those who were thought to be witches. There wu only a handful of bookg throughout the whole of Europe at this time, and certainly the world would have been better" without them. There were better books to be had. however, books that were the works of the great writers of Greece and Rome, and which were highly prized by those who knew of them. The few copies that existed round about this time were not the aotual mamiwripts. but careful!v written transcript ions. The desire for books was growing, but they could not be produced quickly enough to keep pace with thp demand. From this we can realise how great was the need for books of all kinds when John Gutenberg came along. The Chinese were the first inventors of printing, and in 1900 a very ancient volume was discovered in the Province of Kansu. It contained a statement which telte u&

that it was printed by Wang Chieh on May 11, Btlß, in order to perpetuate the memory of hi<s parents. We also learn that it was intended for free distribution, and that it is the oldest book printed from blocks in existence. The first Chinese to evolve the process of printing from movable type wa* Pi Sheng, b-ut hie method was not a universal success because of the large number of characters in the Chinese alphabet. We cannot trace tie Idea of printing back- to any recognised source, but we know that Gutenberg was the first known inventor to pzint a book with separate pieces of movable type. While this k quite true of Gutenberg the earne was claimed for other men who lived round about the eame time. Although the year 1410 ie generally imagined to be the date of Gutenberg's birth, we cannot prove this for a fact, nor can we find anything that will throw a light upon his early days. We know that hie work caused a great revolution in the history of knowledge, but regarding his private life we are quite in the dark. When Outenberg was yet a youth, the idee had already occurred to man that there must be a better< way of producing books than writing them by hand. He experimented and found out that he could print picture* from a block of wood which had a drawing cut into it. The block was inked, a piece of paper pressed over the top, and lo and behold! there was an impression on the other side. This eystem of picture printing made man* familiar with the idea of tracing figures on

paper by means of carved wood, but it did not show him how to print word*. What he needed was a number of movable letters that could be put together to form words.' When one page had been printed it was necessary to distribute and eet up the letters if one wished to form other pages. It fell to Gutenberg to Invent the" wonderful scheme, and later he took into partnership Andrew and Anton Heilmann and an old friend of hie, Dritzehn. They experimented with woodcuts at thte stage for, ae yet, the idea of movable type had not occurred to the busy inventor. There is not space enough here to describe what happened between them and the day when he presented his first volume to the world, but in 1455 he finished his first printed book, the complete Bible in Latin. But Gutenberg's hour of triumph wae al&o hie hour of lose. Strife broke out between him and those who had assisted him financially, and thirteen years after the completion of his work he passed away, unhonoured and unsung. Sixteen veers after the printing of the Gutenberg Biblei the art of printing was being practiced in the principal citiee of Germany and Italv. And 60 dawned a new era in tb« history of knowledge. We have journeyed far from that day of trial and experiment, but Gutenberg'* work was not in vain. He gave ta the world a most priceless possession, an invention that place* knowledge free in the hands of every boy md girl the wide world tuioru^h.