BOOKS. Book is the name for any literary production of some bulk, now applied particularly to a printed composition form ing a volume, or, if in more than one volume, a single organic literary work.
(q.v.) which were literary as well as documentary in their contents and were col lected into libraries, are perhaps entitled to be called books, but the direct ancestry of the modern printed book begins rather with a papyrus roll of 18 columns in Egyptian hieratic writing of about the 25th century B.C., in the Musee de Louvre at Paris, preserving the maxims of Ptahhetep. Papyrus continued to be the usual vehicle of writing until the early centuries of the Christian era, and it was from the name by which they called it, j3ii 3Xos or 01.j3Xos, that the Greeks formed 13ij3X cov, their word for a book, the plural of which (mistaken for a feminine singular) has given us our own word Bible. In the end century B.C. Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, finding papyrus hard to procure, introduced improve ments into the preparations of the skins of sheep and calves for writing purposes, and was rewarded by the name of his kingdom being preserved in the word pergamentum, whence our "parch ment," by which the dressed material is known. In the loth century there was introduced from the East a new writing material made from a pulp of linen rags, and the name of the vanquished papyrus was transferred to this new rival. Paper-mills were set up in Europe in the i 2th century and the use of paper gained ground, though not very rapidly, until the invention of printing created an unprecedented demand for it which has since con tinually increased, and is now largely met by substitutes passing under the same name, mainly composed of wood-pulp, esparto grass and clay (see PAPER).
So long as the use of papyrus was predominant the usual form of a book was that of the volumen or roll, wound round a stick, or sticks. The modern form of book, called by the Latins codex (a word originally used for the stump of a tree, or block of wood, and thence for the three-leaved tablets into which the block was sawn) was coming into fashion in Martial's time at Rome, and gained ground in proportion as parchment superseded papyrus. The volumen as it was unrolled revealed a series of narrow columns of writing, and the influence of this arrangement is seen in the number of columns in the earliest codices. Thus in the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus of the Bible, both of the 4th century, there are respectively f our and three columns to a page; in the Codex Alexandrinus (5th century) only two; in the Codex Bezae (6th century) only one, and from this date to the invention of printing, while there were great changes in hand writing, the arrangement of books changed very little, single or double columns being used as was found convenient.
15th Century.—Between a manuscript written in a formal book-hand and an early printed copy of the same work, printed in the same district, the difference in general appearance was very slight. The printer's type (see TYPOGRAPHY) would as a rule be based on a handwriting considered by the scribes appropriate to works of the same class; the chapter headings, headlines, initial-letters, paragraph marks, and in some cases illustrations, would be added by hand in a style which might closely resemble the like decorations in the manuscript from which the text was being printed ; there would be no title-page and very probably no statement of any kind that the book was printed, or as to where, when or by whom it was produced. Information as to these points, if given at all, was reserved for a paragraph at the end of the book, called by bibliographers a colophon (q.v.), to which the printer often attached a device consisting of his arms, or those of the town in which he worked, or a fanciful design. The earliest title-page is prefixed to a bull of Pope Pius II., printed by Futt and Schoeffer, at Mainz, probably in 1463, and bears the words, "Dis ist die bul zu dutsch die unser allerheiligster vatter der bapst Pius herusgesant hait widder die snoden un gleubigen turcken." In 147o Arnold ther Hoernen at Cologne printed a nine-line paragraph on an otherwise blank page giving the title of the book, Sermo ad populum predicabilis in festo presentations Beatissime Marie Semper Virgins, with some words in its praise, the date in Roman numerals. and a reference to further information on the next page. In 1475 in a Venice edition of Augustine's De Civitate Dei the name of the printer, Gabriel Petri, is found in the headline of the first page of text. In 1476 Erhard Ratdolt and his partners at Venice printed their names and the date, together with verses describing the book, on the title-page of a Latin calendar, and surrounded the whole with a border in four pieces. For another 20 years, however, when title pages were used at all, they usually consisted merely of the short title of the book, with sometimes a woodcut or the printer's (subsequently the publisher's) device beneath it, decoration be ing more often bestowed on the first page of text. Title-pages completed by the addition of the name and address of printer or publisher, and also by the date, did not become common till about 152o. In other respects the completion of the book, inde pendently of handwork, was fairly rapid. Printed illustrations appear first as rude woodcuts in some small books produced at Bamberg by Albrecht Pfister about 1461. Pagination and head lines were first used by Arnold ther Hoernen at Cologne in 1470 and 1471; printed signatures to guide binders in arranging the quires correctly (see BIBLIOGRAPHY) by Johann Koelhoff, also at Cologne in 1472. Illustrations abound in the books printed at Augsburg from the year 1470, and from about 148o are common in Germany, France and the Low Countries, while in Italy their full development dated from about 149o. Experiments were made in both Italy and France with illustrations engraved on copper, but in the 15th century these met with no success. Bound with wooden boards covered with stamped leather, or with half of the boards left uncovered, many of the earliest printed books are immensely large and heavy, especially the great choir-books, the Bibles and the biblical and legal commentaries, in which a great mass of notes surrounds the text. The paper on which these large books were printed was also extraordinarily thick and strong. For more popular books small folio was at first a favourite size, but towards the end of the century small thin quartos were much in vogue. Psalters, books of hours, and other prayer-books were practically the only very small books in use. As early as 1467 the bishop of Aleria writing to Pope Paul II. speaks of the intro duction of printing having reduced prices to one-fifth of what they had previously been, and they steadily diminished.
The popularization of the small octavo by Aldus at Venice in 1501 and the introduction in these handy books of a new type, the italic, had far-reaching consequences. Italics grew steadily in favour during the greater part of the cen tury, and about 1570 had almost become the standard vernacular type of Italy. In France also they were very popular, the attempt to introduce a rival French cursive type (lettres de civilite) at taining no success. In England they gained only slight popularity, but roman type, which had not been used at all in the 15th century, made steady progress in its contest with black letter, which by the end of the century was little used save for Bibles and proclamations. The modern practice in the use of i and j, u and v dates from about 1580, though not firmly established till the reign of Charles I. In the second quarter of the 16th century the French printers at Paris and Lyons halved the size of the Aldine octavos in their small sexto-decimos, which found a ready market, though not a lasting one, the printers of Antwerp and Leyden ousting them with still smaller books in 24mo or small twelves. These little books were printed on paper much thinner than had previously been used. The size and weight of books was also reduced by the substitution of pasteboards for wooden sides. Gold tooling came into use on bindings, and in the second half of the century very elaborate decoration was in vogue in France until checked by a sumptuary law. On the other hand a steady decline in the quality of paper, combined with the aban donment of the old simple outline woodcuts for much more ambitious designs, made it increasingly difficult for printers to do justice to the artists' work, and woodcuts, at first in the Low Countries and afterwards in England and elsewhere, were grad ually superseded by copper-plates printed separately from the text. At the beginning of this century in England a ballad or Christmas carol sold for a halfpenny and thin quarto chapbooks for 4d. (a price which lasted through the century) ; the Great Bible of 1S41 was priced at ios. in sheets and
bound, Edward
VI.'s prayer-book (1549) at 2s. 2d. unbound, and 3s, 8d. in paste
or boards; Sidney's Arcadia and other works in 1598 sold for 9s.
Although the miniature editions issued by the Elzevirs at Leyden, especially those published about 1635, have attracted collectors, printing in the a 7th century was at its worst, reaching its lowest depths in England in the second quarter. After this there was a steady improvement, partly due to slight modi fications of the old printing presses, adopted first in Holland and copied by the English printers. In the first half of the century many English books, although poorly printed, were ornamented with attractive frontispieces, or portraits, engraved on copper. During the same period, English prayer-books and small Bibles and New Testaments were frequently covered with gay em broideries in coloured silks and gold or silver thread. In the second half of the century the decorated leather bindings in vogue were the daintiest England had yet produced. For trade bindings rough calf and sheepskin were most used, and the practice of lettering books on the back, instead of on the sides or fore-edges or not at all, came gradually into favour. Owing to the increase of money, and in some cases to the action of monopolists, in others to the increased payments made to authors, book-prices rather rose than fell. Thus church Bibles, which had been sold at Ios. in 1541, rose successively to 25s., 3os. and (in 1641) to 40s. Single plays in quarto cost 6d. each in Shakespeare's time, Is. after the Restoration. The Shakespeare folio of 1623 is said to have been published at LI. Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler was priced at Is. 6d. in sheepskin, Paradise Lost at 3s., The Pil grim's Progress at Is. 6d. Dryden's Virgil, published by sub scription at £5 5s., stands by itself.
During this century there was a notable im provement alike in paper, type and presswork in both France and England, and towards the end of the century in Germany and Italy also. Books became generally neat and sometimes elegant. Book-illustration revived with the French livres-d-vignettes, and English books were illustrated by Gravelot and other French artists. In the last quarter of the century the work of Bewick heralded a great revival in woodcut illustrations, or as the use of the graver now entitled them to be called, wood engravings. The best 18th century binders, until the advent of Roger Payne, were inferior to those of the 17th century, but the technique of the average work was better. In trade bindings books were mostly cased in paper boards. Prior and Pope made large sums by subscription editions at high prices. Single poems by Pope, how ever, were sold at Is. and Is. 6d. Novels were mostly in several volumes. The price at the beginning of the century was mostly Is. 6d. each. It then remained fairly steady for many years, and at the close of the century rose again. Thus Miss Burney's Evelina (3 vols., 1778) sold for 7s. 6d., her Cecilia (5 vols., 1782) for 12s. 6d. and her Camilla (5 vols., 1796) for f 1 Is. Johnson's Dictionary (2 vols., folio, 1755) cost £4 4s. in sheets, £4 15s. in boards.
A great change in the appearance of books was caused by the use first of glazed calico (about 182o), after wards (about 183o) of cloth for the cases of books as issued by their publishers. At first the lettering was printed on paper labels, but soon it was stamped in gilt on the cloth, and in the last quarter of the century many very beautiful covers were designed for English and American books. Book illustrations passed through many phases. As subsidiary methods colour-prints, line engravings, lithographs and etchings were all used during the first half of the century, but the main reliance was on wood-engraving, in which very great technical skill was developed. In the '6os and the years which immediately preceded and followed them many of the chief English artists supplied the engravers with drawings. In the last decade of the century wood-engraving was killed for a time by the perfection attained by photographic methods of reproduction (see PROCESS), the most popular of these methods entailing the use of paper heavily coated with china clay. During the century trade-printing, both in England and America, steadily improved, and the work done by William Morris at his Kelmscott Press (1891-96), and by other amateur printers who imitated him, set a new standard of beauty of type and ornament, and of richness of general effect. On the other hand the demand for cheap reprints of famous works induced by the immense extension of the reading public was supplied by scores of pretty editions at is. 6d. and is. and even less. About 1894 the number of such medium-priced books was greatly in creased in England by the substitution of single-volume novels at 6s. each (subject to discount) for the three-volume editions at 3is. 6d. The preposterous price of ios. 6d. a volume had been adopted during the first popularity of the Waverley Novels, and despite the example of France, where the standard price was 3fr. 5o, had continued in force for the greater part of the century.
This opened well with the books printed by Emery Walker and Cobden Sanderson at the Doves Press in a fine roman type, based on that used by Nicolas Jenson at Venice (147o-8o), and apart from the badness of paper and shortage of skilled pressmen and binders from 1915 to 1920, there was a steady improvement in printing, due largely to the introduction of monotype machines, which ensured that every new book should be printed with new type. In connection with the monotypes many excellent new founts were introduced, the general tendency being to a lighter style of printing and decoration and a greater use of italics as a text type. The use of attractive paper jackets for new books, especially novels, somewhat lessened the decoration of bindings, but on the whole the standard of book production was higher than ever before, and though for some years after the World War books nearly doubled in price, with better ma chinery a gradual return to cheapness was found possible. (See PUBLISHING and BOOKSELLING.) (A. W. P.)
