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| | The history of books:
Ancient times:
Oral communication is the oldest method of the transfer of knowledge in the history of human beings. After the invention of the writing system, people started using it all the time where it was possible for writing letters like clay plates, wooden bark, sheets of metal etc.
Rolls:
Cigarette paper (a type of paper made from the stems of a flimsy tree) was used in ancient Egypt for writing from the time of the First Dynasty. However the first evidence is the account book of King Neferirkare Kakiya of the fifth Dynasty (approximately 2400 BC). For convenience, some flimsy papers were glued into rolls. This tradition has become very famous in the Ellinsk and Roman world, though there is evidence for the usage of wooden bark and other materials. According to Gerodotu, the Phoenicians brought the written language to Greece in about the 10th or 9th century of BC. “Biblion” has become the Greek word for flimsy as the materials for making notes, and “Biblos” for a book from the name of the Phoenician port city through which the flimsy was exported to Greece.
Generally wax nameplates were used in schools, accounting and for making notes. They had the advantage of multiple usage: the wax can be melted and new text can be applied again. The linking of such nameplates possibly was the predecessor of modern books.
Ancient manuscripts
Flimsy rolls were used even in the first century AD, when ancient manuscripts have appeared. Gradually people started using them more frequently; the first record of manuscripts as a variety of books can be related to the end of the first century when Martial in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV praises their compactness. In the pagan world, the manuscript could not get recognition and only with Christianity did it become popular and widely spread.
Initially the manuscript was used for maintaining accounts, but with the development of parching in the third century AD it gradually started eliminating the flimsy. This already happened in the Christian world. The reasons for accepting the manuscripts as basic types of books are different: it is economical, as it can be used on both sides of the sheet; it can be hidden easily; it was convenient and accessible. Possibly, Christian authors used manuscripts purposefully so that they are not similar to pagan texts, which were generally written in the form of rolls.
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