The Book: Its History and DevelopmentDavenport, Cyril
History
The Book: Its History and Development
Davenport, Cyril
Bookbinding; Books; Books -- History; Printing -- History
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_Paris_, 1864-66.
LACROIX, P.--Les arts au moyen age. (Diptychs.) _Paris_, 1809.
LUBBOCK, SIR J.--Prehistoric Times. _London_, 1865.
MADAN, F.--Books in Manuscript. _London_, 1893.
MASKELL, W.--Ivories Ancient and Mediæval. _London_, 1875.
MASKELL, A.--Ivories. _London_, 1904.
PLOTT, R.--Natural History of Staffordshire. (Clog almanacks.)
_Oxford_, 1686.
PRESCOTT, W. H.--History of the Conquest of Peru. (Quipus.) _London._
REINAUD.--(Description des monumens Musulmanes du cabinet de M. le Duc
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SIMPSON, SIR J. Y.--Archaic Sculpturings. _Edinburgh_, 1867.
SMITHSONIAN REPORT, 1879, p. 389. (Wampum.)
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CHAPTER II. ROLLS, BOOKS AND BOOKBINDINGS.
Rolls of papyrus and vellum--Quaternions--The sewing of
books--Headbands--The rounding and backing of books--Mediæval
books--Irish cumdachs--Byzantine bindings--Oriental books--Modern
methods of sewing and binding.
The length of ancient rolls of vellum has often puzzled bibliophiles.
Rolls of narrow breadth are found 16 or 17 feet or more in length. A
learned scholar on being asked how he accounted for this extraordinary
length was quite puzzled, never having realised that the roll was in
one piece. The neck of the giraffe seemed the only possible solution.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Egyptian papyrus roll, with mud seals.]
The writer however consulted a clever leather worker and gave him a
skin measuring about 3 feet by 2, suggesting certain ways of cutting
it. He produced eventually, by wetting, pulling and pinning, a
beautiful roll of nearly 4 inches in breadth and 16 feet 9 inches in
length.
Mediæval leather workers were no doubt more skilled and practised in
this particular art than anyone now is, and the experiment showed that
there is really nothing out of the way in the very long rolls which at
first sight seem so surprising.
Rolls were written upon in three ways. In the oldest rolls the usual
way was to write lines across the breadth of the roll, which was held
upright before the reader, and unrolled from the top downwards.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Roll written upon across its shorter diameter.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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