imagine if books were so expensive that only billionaires and elite people could afford it.It's
hard to think of a world with books being so rare but actually books have been like that
for most of its history books were so difficult to produce that only elite scholars could afford it
one of the major changes in the production of books was brought by a german goldsmith
who invented the printing press a machine that turned books
from a luxury of the elites to a necessity of the common people but exactly how did that happen
the writing system was developed long before books existed even before anything like paper
existed ancient civilizations used to write on stones trees metal sheets and bones one of the
earliest portable writing mediums was the clay tablets which became very popular in ancient
near east throughout the bronze age a reed stylus was used to write on this flattened clay tablet
it could be reused by soaking in water sometimes the clay tablets were fried in fire
intentionally or accidentally which made them survive much longer the earliest paper-like riding
medium was used by the ancient egyptians papyrus a thick paper-like material made from the pith of
the papyrus plant papyrus was rolled up into a scroll which is kind of an early form of a book
this is a section of the egyptian book of the dead written on a papyrus scroll.
scrolls were highly regarded at that time scrolls made of parchments were used by the israelites
parchment is another writing medium made from animal skin scrolls remained the most popular
form of a book until the codex was introduced during the roman period a codex is the first
formation that modern people would recognize as a book stack of sheets bound together at one edge
a codex is much like the modern book legend has it that julius caesar may have been the first
roman who folded scrolls to form a codex for the first time but it is not sure if he really was
the inventor of codex historically christians were among the earliest people to make widespread use
of codices several christian papyrus codices date from the 2nd century in the western culture
codices gradually replaced scrolls during the 4th century although scrolls were still used
it wasn't the most widely used anymore and it was reasonable to use a codex instead of a scroll
a codex took less space it could be easily handled and it was awkward to use a scroll when the reader
wished to read contents from the other edge of the scroll it was much easier to navigate any
content in a codex modern books are not much different from codices the only differences
being the use of paper and printing press paper was invented more than 2 000 years
ago in china early chinese paper was made from the bark fibres taken from the mulberry tree
the fibres were pounded and broken into small pieces then it was stirre in water and dried on
a mat to form a sheet of paper later they started mixing hemp rags and fishing nets with the pulp
to make higher quality paper china kept the process a secret for a long time but in 751 a.d
the arab caliphate army defeated the chinese tang army in the battle of talas among the prisoners
of the battle there were two chinese paper makers from whom the islamic world learned to make paper
widespread use of paper started in the middle east from the 8th century paper mills were built
all over the middle east islamic papers were made using leftover fibers from hemp and clothe rags in
the 13th century paper was introduced to medieval europe through the city of baghdad in the next two
centuries paper mills were built throughout europe soon paper started replacing other writing mediums
remember the title of this video it was about a german goldsmith who invented the
printing press who is this german goldsmith and why is the printing press so important
before the discovery of printing machines almost all books were copied by hand means a person had
to copy the whole book by themselves that's why books were comparatively rare and expensive a
professional copyist was called a scribe different kinds of scribes were needed to finish a single
book normal copyist used to copy basic productions a calligrapher was needed for fine book production
the copyist would usually leave blank places for an illuminator to paint the illustrations
finally a corrector would compare the copied book with the original manuscript
for the final corrections copying a book was a really hard job and it took a long long time
in the 14th century the rise of universities in europe increased the demand for books a new faster
and easier method of printing books was needed more than ever and for the new method we have
to look at china once again wood block printing is the earliest form of printing that was applied on
paper it was invented in china before 220 a.d and became widely used throughout east asia including
korea and japan initially it was used for printing on clothes later in the 7th century it started
being used for printing on paper piece of food was cut precisely into the shape of the characters or
paintings the woodcut was first pressed on colors and then on the paper to print the whole page at
a time this is the front piece of the earliest dated printed book known to us called the diamond
sutra which dates back to 868 ad movable type printing also started in china in movable types
separate character blocks were placed in a frame to form the preferred composition both woodblock
and movable type printing didn't reach europe until the late 14th to 15th century when paper
became widely available but the real revolution of printing started in 1440 when johannes gutenberg
a german goldsmith invented the printing press this is a gutenberg printing press he developed
movable under table that helped to speed up the printing process a new technique of making the
metal letters from hand mold was invented by him to create the type pieces used in the movable type
as a goldsmith he used his knowledge about metals to create the letters from a lead-based alloy it
proved to be so perfect for the printing process that it is still used in modern printing presses
water-based ink didn't stick well to metals so he used an oil-based ink which was more durable
at first the ink was spread on the type then the paper was pressed on the inked type to
transfer the ink to the paper using a screw attached to a metal pallet a small rotating
handle was used to do this here in the sketch you can see two men working on a printing press
one is removing the printed paper and the other is spreading ink on the metal text this duo
could print up to 3600 pages per day while the traditional hand print could only print 40 pages
this made printing books cheaper easier and faster by the end of the 15th century
printing presses were already in use in over 200 cities in europe and produced several million
copies books became cheaper and widely available it started the era of mass communication ideas
could be circulated beyond borders which started reforming the structure of society permanently
book production wasn't controlled by religion or government anymore which is known as the
democratization of knowledge this allowed the society to question the authorities
the printing press has gone through several improvements since then but the printing
method remained fundamentally the same until the 20th century modern day books are printed
using offset lithography the offset printing uses cylinders instead of flat metal presses
in this method the image information is coated on a thin aluminum plate using laser technology
the image area is then covered with ink and the non-image area with water oil-based ink doesn't
mix with the water so it remains in the image area the ink is transferred to a rubber cylinder called
the blanket and then onto a paper which passes through the blanket and the impression cylinder
digital printing is also being used recently only for small book productions the process of making
books has evolved a lot with the discovery of new technologies but the overall appearance
of a book didn't change much since the codex was introduced well it depends on what exactly
you consider a book physical books can still be categorized as codices but the electronic books or
in short e-books are a totally different concept no paper or printing machine is needed to make an
e-book just a capable digital device and sometimes an internet connection
ebooks can be easily distributed all over the world through the internet
and they are also cheaper but still many people prefer physical books
maybe there is something special about holding a book with your hands while reading what do you
think are physical books better than ebooks write down your thoughts in the comments and if you like
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