BOOK HISTORY
It is not until about 425 BC that a book trade developed in Athens, with educated people acquiring papyrus scrolls to read in the privacy of their homes.
Plato, writing in the Phaedrus in about 365 BC, expressed strong disapproval of this new-fangled fashion for reading by oneself.
The earliest books in China can be traced back to the 3rd century BC, in the form of wood or bamboo leaves bound with cord. The records indicate that they were in use at least 1000 years earlier, in the Shang dynasty.
An indigenous plant in China, the bamboo, proved as convenient a writing material as papyrus in Egypt. Chinese characters at this early period were written in vertical columns, so a thin strip of bamboo was ideal for a single column. To create a longer document, two lines of thread linked each bamboo strip to its neighbour. The modern Chinese character for a book evolved from a pictogram of bamboo strips threaded together.
In 213 BC the Chinese Emperor ordered that all books (except those on medicine, agriculture and divination) were to be burnt.
In 523 Boethius, who was the head of the civil service and chief of the palace officials for Theodoric The Great in Rome, was arrested on suspicion of secret dealings with Theodoric’s enemies in Constantinople. During his time in prison awaiting execution, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which encouraged man to find consolation through meditation and prayer. Over the next millennium, The Consolation was probably the most widely read book after the Bible.
The St Cuthbert Gospel is a 7th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin, which was placed in the tomb of Saint Cuthbert at Lindisfarne, probably a few years after he died in 687. Its finely decorated leather binding is the earliest known Western book-binding to survive, and the whole book is in outstanding condition for its age. When the British Library purchased the volume for £9m ($14.3m) from the British Jesuits, they described it as "the earliest surviving intact European book and one of the world's most significant books".
A block print copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sūtra has been dated back to May 11, 868 making it the oldest known dated printed book. The Diamond Sūtra is a Buddhist collection of aphorisms from the "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment.
| Frontispiece of the Chinese Diamond Sūtra |
On May 13, 1373 Lady Julian of Norwich experienced 16 mystical visions over two days whilst suffering from a life-threatening illness. God showed these 16 different revelations of his immense love to her in order that she could meditate upon them for the rest of her life and to share them with others. Twenty years later, the fifty-year-old mystic recorded them in a book, The Revelations of Divine Love. This was the first book written by a female in the English language.
Before the Renaissance, three-quarters of all the books in the world were in Chinese. This was due to a number of factors, including the fact that China had a large and literate population, a well-developed system of writing, and a long tradition of scholarship and education.
The Gutenberg Bible was the first western book printed with movable type. The traditional date for its publication was February 23, 1455.
| Gutenberg Bible of the New York Public Library. By NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng) |
The first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer is a magnificent Psalter completed in Mainz on August 14, 1457, which lists Johann Fust and and his son-in-law Peter Schöffer. The Psalter is decorated with hundreds of two-colour initial letters and delicate scroll borders that were printed in a most ingenious technique based on multiple inking on a single metal block.
| The Mainz Psalter (1457) of George III, rebound in 1800 |
De Officiis (On Moral Obligations) by Cicero was printed by Johann Fust and and his son-in-law Peter Schöffer in 1465. This quarto of 88 leaves was the first printed edition of a Latin classic and contained the first printed Greek characters.
The first to be printed in the English language was The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, a version of a French book written around 1463. It was translated over a three-year period by William Caxton, who would go on to pioneer the printing press in England. He published his version around 1474, at a time when when most books were printed in Latin, in either Ghent or Bruges, Belgium.
The biggest selling novel in history is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. It is estimated to have sold over 500 million copies worldwide. The novel was first published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. The novel tells the story of Don Quixote, a middle-aged man who loses his mind after reading too many of these romances. He sets out on a journey to become a knight-errant, but his adventures are often humorous and misadventures.
The first book published in what is now the United States was The Whole Booke of Psalmes (often referred to as the Bay Psalm Book). It was published in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye, an English printer who had brought his printing press with him to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Whole Booke of Psalmes was a metrical psalter, which means it contained metrical versions of the Book of Psalms from the Bible. It was created to be used as a hymnbook for the Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and to facilitate their worship. The book was a huge success, and it helped to establish the printing press as an important tool for communication and education in the colonies.
Mary Rowlandson's 1682 book about her capture by Native Americans, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, is considered America's first "bestseller."
From the Middle Ages to the 18th century books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk. This was because books were very valuable, and there was a high risk of them being stolen. The chains were usually made of iron or brass, and they were attached to the book's spine. The other end of the chain was then attached to a fixed object, such as a bookshelf or a desk. This prevented the book from being removed from the library without breaking the chain.
Chained libraries were common in monasteries, universities, and other institutions where books were kept. They were also found in some private homes. The practice of chaining books began to decline in the 18th century, as books became more affordable and less valuable.
Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, published in 1843, was the first book ever to contain photographs. It was written by Anna Atkins (née Children; March 16, 1799 – June 9, 1871), an English botanist and photographer.
Atkins used a photographic process called cyanotype to create her images, which involved placing plant specimens directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposing them to sunlight. This produced a blueprint-like image that showed the intricate details and structures of the plants.
Atkins' book contained 307 cyanotype images of different species of algae found along the British coast.
| A cyanotype photogram made by Atkins which was part of her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions |
The slowest-selling book is reputedly a 1716 translation of the New Testament from Coptic into Latin. The last of its 500 copies was sold in 1907.
The world's oldest bookstore that is still in operation is Livraria Bertrand in Lisbon, Portugal. It was founded in 1732 by Pedro Faure, a Portuguese visionary. The bookstore has been located in its current location in the Chiado neighborhood of Lisbon since 1755.
The oldest bookstore in America is the Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1745 by Samuel Powell, a keeper of the Church's Crown Inn on the south side of the Lehigh River. The Moravian bishop had suggested the settlement would need many new books. The business took off and it is said to be the first bookstore in America.
The first book described as a "best-seller" was Fools Of Nature by US writer Alice Brown in 1889. Fools of Nature is a collection of short stories about rural life in New England. It was published by Houghton Mifflin and received positive reviews from critics. The book was a commercial success, selling over 10,000 copies in its first year.
Book tokens were launched by the Booksellers Association in 1934 with the slogan “The Gift is Mine. The Choice is Thine”. The idea for them came from Harold Raymond of Chatto and Windus in 1926 but the scheme took six years to come to fruition.
The Catholic Church abolished its list of Forbidden Books, which had existed since the sixteenth century. By 1948 over 4,000 titles had been censored including works by Erasmus, Defoe, Descartes and Immanuel Kant.
The Unfortunates is an experimental book, which was published in 1969 by English author B. S. Johnson. It shipped as a 'book in a box' consisting of 27 unbound sections with the first and last chapter specified. The remaining sections range from a single paragraph to 12 pages in length and are designed to be read in any order.
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was invented by British retailer W H Smith, because they were moving to a computerized warehouse in 1967. It was approved as a ISO standard in 1970.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It was eventually published in 1974 and went on to sell five million copies worldwide.
The largest single first printing in publishing history is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was printed in an initial run of 80 million copies in 44 languages. The book was released on March 18, 2003, and became an instant bestseller, selling over 80 million copies in its first year.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It was eventually published in 1974 and went on to sell five million copies worldwide.
| First edition |
The largest single first printing in publishing history is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was printed in an initial run of 80 million copies in 44 languages. The book was released on March 18, 2003, and became an instant bestseller, selling over 80 million copies in its first year.
The fastest-selling hardcover book of all time is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, the final book in the popular Harry Potter series. It sold 8.3 million copies in the United States and United Kingdom on the day of its release, July 21, 2007 setting a new record for the fastest-selling book in history. The book also broke the record for the highest first-day sales of any book in history, with sales of over 11 million copies worldwide.
FUN BOOK FACTS
World Book Day is a charity event held annually on the first Thursday in March. celebrating everything to do with literature and reading. The annual event, celebrated in over 100 countries around the world is led by the charity Unesco, It is largely targeted towards children and aimed at encouraging their love of reading.
EL James' erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey broke the UK weekly paperback sales record, when it sold 205,130 copies in the second week of June 2012, some 64,000 copies more than the previous record set by Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol in July 2010. The novel tells the story of the steamy relationship between billionaire businessman Christian Grey and "unworldly, innocent" literature student, Anastasia Steele.
The worlds largest book was lost by the city of Cleveland. It was called The Golden Book of Cleveland and it was as large as a mattress. It was misplaced in 1936.
When printers started to print books in the 15th century, they used scraps of ancient and medieval parchments to help bind the book. Examining the bindings, historians have reconstructed old texts. Some texts only survive in the modern day in this way.
Old books have a particular smell due to lignin being present in the paper. Lignin is related to vanillin, leading them to have a faint vanilla scent.
'Bibliosmia' is the enjoyment of the smell of old books.
One of eleven surviving copies of the first edition of the Bay Psalm Book sold at auction in November 2013 for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.
42% of college students will never read another book after they graduate.
The average Briton devotes 5 hours 18 minutes a week to reading.
Ten books on a shelf can be arranged in 3,628,800 different ways.
The Japanese word "tsundoku" refers to the practice of buying books and letting them pile up, unread.
38% of people finish books they don’t like.
The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. It has been estimated that over 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold worldwide. The second best-selling book is the Quran, which has been estimated to have sold over 2 billion copies.
One of eleven surviving copies of the first edition of the Bay Psalm Book sold at auction in November 2013 for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.
42% of college students will never read another book after they graduate.
The average Briton devotes 5 hours 18 minutes a week to reading.
According to a 2005 survey by the NOP World Culture Score Index, the world's biggest readers are Indians. The people of India read an average of 10.7 hours a week, which is twice as long as Americans. The survey also found that Indians are more likely to read for pleasure than for work or education.
Ten books on a shelf can be arranged in 3,628,800 different ways.
The Japanese word "tsundoku" refers to the practice of buying books and letting them pile up, unread.
38% of people finish books they don’t like.
The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. It has been estimated that over 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold worldwide. The second best-selling book is the Quran, which has been estimated to have sold over 2 billion copies.
The most expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction is the Codex Leicester, a collection of 18 scientific notebooks written by Leonardo da Vinci. It was sold for $30.8 million in 1994 at Christie's auction house in New York City. The Codex Leicester is a priceless treasure trove of Leonardo's thoughts and ideas on a wide range of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, engineering, and geology. It is one of the most important scientific documents ever written, and its sale was a major event in the world of book collecting.
The Codex Leicester was originally owned by the Italian nobleman Francesco Melzi, who was a student and close friend of Leonardo da Vinci. After Melzi's death, the Codex passed through a number of hands before it was acquired by American businessman Armand Hammer in 1917. Hammer sold the Codex to Bill Gates in 1994.
The thickest book published is the Shree Haricharitramrut Sagar by Gyanjivandasji Swami. It is a biography of Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan and was published in Gujarat, India in 2020. The book is 496 mm (19.5 in) thick and weighs 35 kg (77 lb). The book is written in Gujarati and contains 18,000 pages. It took 12 years to write and compile the book. The book is divided into 12 volumes and each volume is 42 cm (16.5 in) thick.
The largest book in the world is called This the Prophet Mohammed and is the largest, heaviest, widest, longest and most expensive book ever produced. It was unveiled in Dubai in February 2012 by the Mshahed International Group and weighs a staggering 1,500kg, roughly the same as a fully-grown giraffe! The book is an anthology of stories about the Prophet Mohammed and was written by around 15 scholars. The book measures 16.40-by-26.44 feet (5 m by 8 m) and has 429 pages. It is made of high-quality materials, including gold leaf and leather. The book is also equipped with a sound system that plays verses from the Quran.
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