Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/325

* BOOK. 287 BOOK. scribes worked were the papyrus sheets, which shortly thereafter disappeared altogether. For- tunately for the literature of the world, the labor of these earlier generations of monks was not confined exclusively to the duplication of the Scripture or of the sermons of the Fathers. At the instance of Cassiodorus, who in 567 organ- ized in his own monastery at Vivarium the first of these scriptoria, a portion of the working time was given to selections of the classics, though the books which were multiplied most frequently were the Scriptures in the Latin version of Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine's City of God, and the t'onsotations of Philosophy, by Boethius. In fact, it was to the monastic scribes that the first printers owed the existence of the classical texts friini which their own work was done. See Be.nedictines. The next period in the making of books comes with the organization of the oldest universi- ties, Bologna and Paris, all of which date, as far as their eB'ective work is concerned, from the beginning of the Thirteenth Century-. In these universities the making of books became part of the educational work. The book-makers, that is to say, the scribes who had charge of the multiplication of the texts, were appointed by the university authorities. They were held strictly responsible for the accuracy of their manuscripts, which were to be used as texts for the lecturers and for their students. The first scholarly editorial work in the collation and cor- rection of the classic texts dates from this period. The name given to the officials who were charged with the duty of providing texts for the universi- ties was stdtioniirii. The work of these men comprised, in addition to the preparation of the texts, the renting at specified rates of the manu- scripts so prepared to the students and instruc- tors. During the earlier years of book-making in the universities the sale of manuscripts by the stationarii was not permitted. Paper (q.v. ) was introduced into Europe about the beginning of the Tenth Century. This earliest paper [charta bomliacina) was made from cotton. Paper made of linen first came into use, according to ilabillon. in the Twelfth Century, although Montfaucon asserts that no specimens have been identified earlier than 1270. According to tradition, the University of Bologna owed its foundation to Charlemagne. This connection is now held to be but a legend. It is true, however, that before the close of the Eighth Century Charlemagne rendered an important ser'ice to the making of books. In 782 the monk Alcuin was called by Charle- magne from his home monastery in York to the Court at Tours. Alcuin established a scries of royal schools. In these schools was instituted a uniform system of script, which was prescribed for the educational and for the official documents of the realm. Fortunately for the work of the later scribes and for the interests of literature, Alcuin selected for his standard of form not the Gothic, but the Latin script. It was this .script of Alcuin's which was accepted as the model for the xcriptoria of the monasteries, and later for the working-rooms of the universities. It was this same script, as developed through the cen- turies of book-writing in the universities, that became the model for the type-founders after 1472, who shaped the fonts of the Latin alpha- bets; that is, of all the Western alphabets other than the Gothic or German. It was the practice of the maiuiscript copyists to place at the do.se of the text information in regard to the date and place of production, and occasionally, although by no means uniformly, the name of the writer. Such a record at the close of the work is known as a 'colophon.' Even after the introduction of printing, we find in a numljer of books of the last half of the Fifteenth Century such records presented at the end of the volume in a colophon. It is an inconvenient peculiarity, however, of a large number of the earlier printed books that they fail to present either the name of the printer or the date of their production. An instance of the price of a manuscript work of the Ninth Century is given in the life of King Alfred, who bought in 880 from Ceolfried. Bishop of Wearmouth, a work on cosmography, for which he paid in land sufficient to support eight families. It is not safe, however, to deduce an average market value for written books from this or from similar instances of exceptional prices paid for manuscripts. It happened not in- frequently that the manuscript contained, in ad- dition to the work of the scribe, designs and illu- minations contributed by artists who may have given to this additional labor years of time; and certain manuscripts were inclosed in very elab- orate and costly covers. Finally, in ease the manuscript happened to be the only copy of that particular text that was within reach, it would possess what might be called a competition value, irrespective of the actual cost of the labor of its production. If the owner forbade any copying, its unique value would remain. We have, there- fore, instances through the manuscript period of single works being purchased at exceptional prices, while other works, which called for no less labor on the part of the scribes, could be secured at moderate cost. For additional infor- mation in regard to books produced in the manu- script period, see Paleogr.piiy. With the invention of printing we come to what may be called the modern period of the making of books. The press of Gutenberg was brought to completion in Mainz by the year 1450. For a century prior to this date, books of a special character, made up mainly of pictures with an inconsiderable interpolation of text, had been printed from blocks of solid wood, and later of zinc. These books were chiefiy devotional in character. The printing of these block books is termed xylot/rapliy, as contrasted with the print- ing from movable type, which is classed as typography. It is certain that the more im- portant part of Gutenberg's invention was not the medumism of his press, which ditfered in detail rather than in principle from the presses previously in use. but the use of movable type. It may be recalled here that movable wooden tyi«' had l)eeii utilized by the Chinese as early as the beginning of the Eleventh Century. The first work produced by the movable metal tyi)e of Gutenberg was a Latin Bible. Prior to the invention of the printing-press, the book had been something with which the scholarly class (chiefly the clerical or ecclesiastical class) alone was concerned. With the distribution of printed copies, first of religious works, then editions of the classics, later writings addressed directly to the understanding of the general public, the