A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made
of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a
leaf, and each side of a sheet is called a page. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book.
The purpose of a book is to be read by the eyes or by fingertips and in some cases by hearing to gather information that has
been recorded or printed onto a piece for the transferring of information to the brain for processing.
Books may also refer to a literary work, or a main division of such a work. In library and
information science, a book is called a monograph, to distinguish it from serial
periodicals such as magazines, journals or newspapers.
In novels, a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, etc).
A lover of books is usually referred to as a bibliophile, a bibliophilist, or a
philobiblist, or, more informally, a bookworm.
Etymology
The word book comes from Old English "bōc" which comes from
Germanic root "*bōk-", cognate to beech.[1]
Similarly, in Slavic languages (e.g. Russian and Bulgarian "буква" (bukva)—"letter") is cognate
to "beech". It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may
have been carved on beech wood.[2]
History of books
-
Antiquity
When writing systems were invented in ancient
civilizations, nearly everything that could be written upon—stone, clay, tree bark,
metal sheets—was used for writing. Alphabetic writing emerged in
Egypt around 1800 BC. At first the words were not separated from each other (scripta
continua) and there was no punctuation. Texts were written from right to left, left to
right, and even so that alternate lines read in opposite directions. The technical term for this type of writing is
'boustrophedon,' which means literally 'ox-turning' for the way a farmer drives an ox to
plough his fields.
Scroll
-
Egyptian papyrus showing the god
Osiris and the weighing of the heart.
Papyrus, a thick paper-like material made
by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool, was used for writing in
Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First
Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Neferirkare
Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[1] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime (Latin liber, from there also
library) and other materials were also used.[2]
According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians
brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the tenth or ninth century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material
(biblion) and book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through
which papyrus was exported to Greece.[3] From Greeks we
have also the word tome (Greek: τόμος) which originally meant a
slice or piece and from there it became to denote "a roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same
meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville).
Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper in East Asia, scrolls were the dominant form
of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese and Hebrew cultures. The more modern codex book format
form took over the Roman world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much
longer in Asia.
Codex
-
Woman holding a book (or wax tablets) in the form of the
codex. Wall painting from
Pompeii, before 79 AD.
Papyrus scrolls were still dominant in the first century AD, as witnessed by the findings in
Pompeii. The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the century, where he praises its compactness.
However the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it
gain widespread use.[4] This change happened gradually
during the third and fourth centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are several: the format is more
economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is portable, searchable, and easy to conceal. The Christian
authors may also have wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan texts written on scrolls.
Wax tablets were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking
notes. They had the advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank. The custom of binding
several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor for modern books (i.e. codex).[5]The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it may
have developed from wooden wax tablets.[6]
In the 5th century, Isidore of Seville explained the relation between codex, book
and scroll in his Etymologiae (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of
metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a
multitude of books, as it were of branches."
Middle Ages
Manuscripts
-
The fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. saw the decline of the
culture of ancient Rome. Papyrus became difficult to obtain, due to lack of
contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been used for centuries, began to be the main
writing material.
Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of
Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts[7]. St. Benedict of Nursia, in his Regula Monachorum (completed around the middle of the 6th century) later also promoted
reading.[8] The Rule of St. Benedict (Ch.
XLVIII), which set aside certain times for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the
Middle Ages, and is one of the reasons why the clergy were the predominant readers of books.
The tradition and style of the Roman Empire still dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged.
Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied
by hand, making books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only some dozen books, medium sized
perhaps a couple hundred. By the ninth century, larger collections held around 500 volumes; and even at the end of the Middle
Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[9]
Burgundian scribe (portrait of Jean Miélot, from
Miracles de Notre Dame), 15th century. The depiction shows the room's
furnishings, the writer's materials, equipment, and activity.
The scriptorium of the monastery was usually located over the chapter house. Artificial light was forbidden, for fear it may damage the manuscripts. There were five
types of scribes:
- Copyists, who dealt with basic production and correspondence
- Calligraphers, who dealt in fine book production
- Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it had been produced
- Rubricators, who painted in the red letters
- Illuminators, who painted illustrations
The bookmaking process was long and laborious. The parchment had to be prepared, then the unbound pages were planned and ruled
with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by the scribe, who usually left blank
areas for illustration and rubrication. Finally the book was bound by the bookbinder.[10]
Desk with chained books in the Library of Cesena, Italy.
Different types of ink were known in antiquity, usually prepared from soot and gum, and later also from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing the typical brownish black
color, but black or brown were not the only colours used. There are texts written in red or even gold, and different colours were
used for illumination. Sometimes the whole parchment was coloured purple, and the text was written on it with gold or silver (eg
Codex Argenteus).[11]
Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the seventh century. This facilitated reading, as these monks tended to be
less familiar with Latin. However the use of spaces between words did not become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been
argued,[12] that the use of spacing between words shows
the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading.
The first books used parchment or vellum (calf skin) for
the pages. The book covers were made of wood and covered with leather. As dried parchment tends to assume the form before
processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when
public libraries appeared, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to prevent theft. The
so called libri catenati were used up to 18th century.
At first books were copied mostly in monasteries, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time lead to an
increase in the demand for books, and a new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves
(pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system
was maintained by stationers guilds, which were secular, and produced both religious and
non-religious material.[13]
Wood block printing
A 15th century
incunabulum. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses and clasps for
holding the book shut.
In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of
wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. This method originated in China, in the
Han dynasty (before 220AD), as a method of printing on
textiles and later paper, and was widely used
throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD).
The method (called Woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th
century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by
this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks
tended to crack, if stored for long.
Movable type and incunabula
-
The Chinese inventor Pi Sheng made movable type of
earthenware circa 1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Metal movable
type was invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty
(around 1230), but was not widely used: one reason being the enormous Chinese character set. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention,
Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting
the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive
to produce, and more widely available.
Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before the year 1501 in Europe are known as incunabula. A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth
year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced
since Constantine founded his city in A.D. 330.[14]
Modern world
Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 1800s. These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour, but
workers could only set 2,000 letters per hour.
Monotype and linotype presses were
introduced in the late 19th century. They could set more than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once.
The centuries after the 15th century were thus spent on improving both the printing press and the conditions for
freedom of the press through the gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws.
See also intellectual property, public
domain, copyright. In mid-20th century, Europe book production had risen to over
200,000 titles per year.
Book structure
An uncut book; the pages must be separated before reading
-
The common structural parts of a book include:
- Front cover: hardbound or softcover (paperback); the spine is the binding that joins the front and rear covers where the pages hinge
- Front endpaper
- Flyleaf
- Body: the text or contents, the pages often collected or folded into signatures; the pages are usually numbered sequentially, and often divided into chapters.
Sizes
-
The size of a modern book is based on the printing area of a common flatbed press. The pages of type were arranged and clamped
in a frame, so that when printed on a sheet of paper the full size of the press, the pages would be right side up and in order
when the sheet was folded, and the folded edges trimmed.
The most common book sizes are:
- Quarto (4to): the sheet of paper is folded twice, forming four leaves (eight pages) approximately 11-13 inches (ca 30 cm)
tall
- Octavo (8vo): the most common size for current hardcover books. The sheet is folded three times into eight leaves (16 pages)
up to 9 ¾" (ca 23 cm) tall.
- DuoDecimo (12mo): a size between 8vo and 16mo, up to 7 ¾" (ca 18 cm) tall
- Sextodecimo (16mo): the sheet is folded four times, forming sixteen leaves (32 pages) up to 6 ¾" (ca 15 cm) tall
Sizes larger than quarto are:
- Folio: up to 15" (ca 38 cm) tall.
- Elephant Folio: up to 23" (ca 58 cm) tall.
- Atlas Folio: up to 25" (ca 63 cm) tall.
- Double Elephant Folio: up to 50" (ca 127 cm) tall.
Sizes smaller than 16mo are:
- 24mo: up to 5 ¾" (ca 13 cm) tall.
- 32mo: up to 5" (ca 12 cm) tall.
- 48mo: up to 4" (ca 10 cm) tall.
- 64mo: up to 3" (ca 8 cm) tall.
Types of books
Small books can be called booklets.
Notebooks are blank books to be written in by the user. Students use them for taking notes. Scientists and other researchers use
lab notebooks to record their work. Many notebooks are simply bound by a spiral coil at the
edge so that pages can be easily torn out. Books to be partly filled in by the user include a personal address book, phone book,
or calendar book for recording appointments, etc.
Albums are books for holding collections of memorabilia, pictures or
photographs. They are often made so that the pages are removable. albums hold collections of stamps.
Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are called logbooks or simply logs. A similar book for writing daily the owner's private personal events and
information is called a diary.
Businesses use accounting books such as journals and
ledgers to record financial data in a practice called bookkeeping.
Pre-printed school books for students to study are commonly called textbooks.
Elementary school pupils often use workbooks which are published with spaces or
blanks to be filled by them for study or homework.
A book with written prayers is called a prayerbook
or missal. A book with a collection of hymns is called a
hymnal.
In a library, a general type of non-fiction book which provides information as opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary,
or otherwise supporting a point of view, is often referred to as a reference book.
A very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists of data and information on many topics is called an
almanac. A more specific reference book with tables or lists of data and information
about a certain topic, often intended for professional use, is often called a handbook.
Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use some equipment are called manuals.
An encyclopedia is a book or set of books with articles on many topics. A book
listing words, their etymology, meanings, etc. is
called a dictionary. A book which is a collection of maps
is an atlas. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain broad area may
be called an index, such as Engineering Index, or abstracts such as Chemical Abstracts, Biological Abstracts, etc.
Bookmarks were used throughout the medieval period,[15] consisting usually of a small parchment strip attached to the edge of folio (or
a piece of cord attached to headband). Bookmarks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were narrow silk ribbons bound into
the book and become widespread in the 1850's. They were usually made from silk, embroidered fabrics
or leather. Not until the 1880's, did paper and other materials become more common.
Books may also be categorized by their binding or cover. Hard cover books have a stiff binding. Paperback books
have cheaper, flexible covers which tend to be less durable.
Publishing is a process for producing books, magazines, newspapers, etc. pre-printed for
the reader/user to buy, usually in large numbers by a publishing company. Such books can be categorized as fiction (made-up stories) or non-fiction (information written as fact). A book-length fiction story is called a
novel.
Publishers may produce low-cost, pre-publication copies known as galleys or 'bound
proofs' for promotional purposes, such as generating reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually made as cheaply as
possible, since they are not intended for sale.
Collections of books
-
Main article: Library
Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept
in archives) first appeared in classical
Greece. In ancient world the maintaining of a library was usually (but not
exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries could have been either private or public, i.e. for
individuals that were interested in using them. The difference from a modern public
library lies in the fact that they were usually not funded from public sources. It is estimated that in the city of Rome
at the end of the third century there were around 30 public libraries, public libraries also
existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean region (e.g.
Library of Alexandria).[16] Later, in the Middle Ages, monasteries and universities had also libraries that could be accessible
to general public. Typically not the whole collection was available to public, the books could not be borrowed and often were
chained to reading stands to prevent theft.
Celsus Library was built in 135 A.D. and could house around 12,000 scrolls.
The beginning of modern public library begins around 15th century when individuals
started to donate books to towns.[17] The growth of a
public library system in the United States started in the late 19th century and was much helped by donations from Andrew
Carnegie. This reflected classes in a society: The poor or the middle class had to access most books through a public
library or by other means while the rich could afford to have a private library built in
their homes.
The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led
to an explosion of popular publishing. Paperback books made owning books affordable for many people. Paperback books often
included works from genres that had previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As
a result of the low cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in addition to the creation of a smaller
market of extremely cheap used paperbacks) owning a private library ceased to be a status symbol for the rich.
In library and booksellers' catalogues, it is common to include an abbreviation such as "Crown 8vo" to indicate the
paper size from which the book is made.
When rows of books are lined on a bookshelf, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from
slanting.
Identification and classification
During the 20th century, librarians were concerned about keeping track of the many books
being added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a global society called the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA), they devised a series of tools including the International Standard
Book Description or ISBD.
Each book is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is unique to every edition of every book produced by participating
publishers, world wide. It is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has four parts: the first part is the country code, the second
the publisher code, and the third the title code. The last part is a check digit, and can
take values from 0–9 and X (10). The EAN Barcodes numbers for books are derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, and calculating a new check digit.
Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to their books, so buyers may presume that the ISBN
is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. However many government publishers, in industrial as well as
developing countries, do not participate fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs.
Books on library shelves with
bookends, and call numbers visible on the spines
A large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes called "call numbers" relate
the books to the catalogue, and determine their locations on the shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library classification system. The call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a
short distance before the bottom, and inside.
Institutional or national standards, such as ANSI/NISO
Z39.41 - 1997, establish the correct way to place information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines, and
on "shelvable" book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video
tapes and software.
One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal System. This system has fallen out of use in some places, mainly because of a
Eurocentric bias and other difficulties applying the system to modern libraries. However, it is still used by most public
libraries in America. The Library of Congress Classification system
is more popular in university libraries. [citation needed]
Classification systems
