IN ANCIENT TIMES

Evening Star, Issue 19518, 28 March 1927, Page 14

IN ANCIENT TIMES

■ ~i IS THERE ANYTHING* MEW ? The world wo might almost say has never been without its books, so lost in fabulous antiquity is their first beginning (says ‘John o’ London’s Weekly ’). Long centuries before the dawn of the Christian era there existed royal palaces and temples which contained libraries and collections, built up from the contents of previously existing libraries. In one library, said to have been founded as far back as 2000 n.c., there were discovered certain “ books ” which undoubtedly were translations of still older works, originally written in a language which already, at that remote period, had become obsolete. _ The preservation of these writings ] was due to the materials used by these ancient peoples; their records were ongraved by a tool on fine sun-dried clay, moulded into cylinders and hardened, so that they were almost indestructible. There exist in various European museums no fewer than 10,000 tables which at one time were housed in the great Nineveh library that belonged to Sennacherib, who died in 681 n.c. ft is only within recent years that many of these ancient documents have been made to give up their long-hidden stori', ft is an odd reflection that tho scholars of the Old Roman Empire knew less of great events in the world’s previous history than wo do to-day, thanks to tho men who unearthed and deciphered these records. THE OLDEST KNOWN BOOK. ‘ The Book of tho Dead,’ the oldest known hook, was written 2,000 years before the days of Moses. It was in existence when tho great pyramids of Egypt were built (about 4000 n.c.). A so°t of ritual, this book was usually placed m tho tomb as a safe conduct for the soul on its journey to tho other world. (There is a fine copy in the British Museum.) There was a ready sale for it, because the priests were wont to add special pages, or a, supplement which gave an account of the good deeds and virtues of tho deceased person ; and the undertakers made a business of selling copies to mourners and friends of the family. The copy would bo more or less embellished aud costly according to the wealth of the dear departed. It was thus undertakers became the first Egyptian booksellers! Bub the oldest bonk taken as an example of the literary art is ‘The Instruction of Ptah-Hotcp,’ written about 4000 n.c. (2,500 years before the Book of Genesis was written). This book (you can buy it to-day) summarises with simplicity and humor the leading characteristics and manners of the time. Wo read of tho wife, who must bo treated kindly at all costs; the genial (generosity of tho rich man, and the scowling boor, a thorn in tho side of bis friends and relations, tho laughingstock of all men; the unquenchable talkers of every station in life, who argue high, who argue low, who also argue round about them as common as now in tho East, and tho trusted councillor, weighing every word; the obstinate ignoramus who sees everything inverted, listening open-mouthed to the disjointed gossip of those near him, the scholar, conversing freely with learned and unlearned alike, recognising that, measured against tho infinite possibilities of knowledge and skill, we are all much of tho same stature. .Fiction was not unknown. ‘The Tale of Two Brothers’ is tho oldest story in tho world, which lias rdlno down to us as it was originally written over 3,000 years ago. It is as full of live human interest as a modern story, and even jaded readers of to-day can read it with zest. It is the story of two brothers and the older brother’s I erring wife, who developed a passion for the younger brother. In the fourth century n.c., in Plato’s time, we read of certain fortunate schoolboys who were provided with manuscript copies of the poets from which to study. “ FAKING ” ANTIQUITIES. Already in pre-Christian days there wore Egyptian kings, wealthy Roman citizens, and Grecian philosophers ready to spend large sums in acquiring manuscripts and valuable treatises that had been in yet remoter years tho cherished property of the dilettante. There were also cheats like cheats today who resorted to all kinds of tricks to “fake an antiquity, such ns burying a book in heaps of grain ” until the color had changed and it had become tattered and worm-eaten. There were large hook shops and an organised hook trade in every largo town in Italy at the beginning of the first century of our era.

Ono might si and at the bookseller’s door in a street in Koine and read the advertisements exhibited on the doors and pillars of books for sale within. Or one might listen to poets and orators declaiming their_ works in public, partly with the view of inducing hearers to buy their effusions. (Ts the 8.8. C. beginning to do tin's for the modern author P) In Ancient Romo there were some twenty-eight public libraries, and the Romans were about the last of the ancient civilised peoples to found libraries. The early Romans wore warriors, and their first libraries were formed from the spoils brought home by their conquering armies. The Alexandrian library, the most famous of ancient times, contained a mass of hooks dealing with almost every branch of knowledge. The first Alexandrian library,’ when burned by the Roman soldiers in 47 me., contained 40,000 volumes.- When destroyed again by the Saracens, 600 years later, there wore no fewer than 700,000 volumes lost—an irreparable loss to posterity. PAPYRUS ROLLS.

These ancient books had, of course, little phvsical resemblance to the books of to-day. The rolls of papyrus glued together were done up in the form of a modern map on rollers; they might bo anything up to thirty or forty yards long. So clever were somo of the copyists that it- is recorded on the authority of Pliny that a miniature manuscript copy was made of Homer’s * Iliad so small that it could be contained in a nutshell. There were at that period, as there are to-day, booksellers who were conversant with their trade and those who were only dealers in books. Lucian thus contemptuously speaksof the latter: “Look at these so-called booksellers, these pedlarsthey are people of no scholarly attainments or personal cultivation, they have no literary judgment, and no knowledge how to distinguish the good and valuable from the had and worthless. It is marvellous, considering that cverv copy had to ‘be written out on papyrus by a reed pen, at what speed and small 'cost the work could bo done. A number of slaves would write together to dictation, thus _ enabling copies to bo multiplied speedily to any extent. A book of 540 lines was written, bouncy and completed in Romo in an hour’s time. BOOKMAKING in ROME. The routine of bookmaking in those days, once a. systematised method of production had developed, _ was not very different from what still obtains. The original manuscript, instead of being handed to the printer, was given to the scribes, who made as many copies as were wanted. It would then go to the manuscript illustrator, who would ornament and embellish it with various devices and fancy scrolls. Ho was the prototype of the modern book illustrator. Next, the binders received the manuscript that they might cut the margins and smooth the parchment. ■ The single sheets or rolls being fastened together and a cover added, the scroll was fixed to a wooden cylinder, round which it was wound. The knobs at the cuds of these rollers were

frequently decorated with expensive ornaments in nietn). Later, in the second and third century, when parchment and'vellum had been in general use some time, one would get one’s books not in the form of continuous rolls, but like the books of the New Testament, for instance, done up, folded, and stitched, and bound together. The. author of those, days had no Society of Authors to protect his rights. A legal copyright by menus of which the Legislature reserves for the author an exclusive right in his works did not thou exist. No such thing as literary property in this souse was known in ancient times. Whatever remuneration might accrue to au author was to bo had from the sale of the manuscript. That was his own to sell, ff he had many admirers he could dispose of as many copies as there wore persons willing to buy, but there was nothing to prevent anyone making a copy for himself. The bookseller combined the office of publisher, keeping up an establishment for the reproduction of copies, the demand regulating the supply. Mr George Haven Putnam tells us that “in Home during the Augustan period there was a well-organised body of publishers utilising connection with Athens and Alexandria for the purpose of importing manuscripts, and carrying on an active trade in the distribution .of books. . . .—When a Roman gentleman from _ his villa in Gaul, or in far-otf Britain, is able to order through the Imperial Post copies of the latest Ode of Horace, we have the beginning of an effective publishing organisation.” Martial, the poet, complained: “It is said that even in distant Britain my verses are sung—what advantage is' that to mep My purse knows nothing of it.” »