The Story of Books Part 1

The Story of Books.

by Gertrude Burford Rawlings.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The book family is a very old and a very n.o.ble one, and has rendered great service to mankind, although, as with other great houses, all its members are not of equal worth and distinction. But since books are so common nowadays as to be taken quite as matters of course, probably few people give any thought to the long chain of events which, reaching from the dim past up to our own day, has been necessary for their evolution.

Yet if we look round on our bookshelves, whether we measure their contents by hundreds or by thousands, and consider how mighty is the power of these inanimate combinations of "rag-paper with black ink on them," and how all but limitless their field of action, it is but a step further to wonder what the first books were like. Given the living, working brain to fas.h.i.+on thoughts and create fancies, to whom did it first occur to write a book, what language and characters and material did he use, when did he write, and what did he write about? And although these questions can never be answered, an attempt to follow them up will lead the inquirer into many fascinating bye-ways of knowledge. It is not, however, the purpose of these pages to deal at length with the ancient history of the _ma.n.u.script_ book, but, after briefly noticing the chief links which connect the volumes of to-day with primeval records, to present to the reader a few of the many points of interest offered by the modern history of the _printed_ book.

=The Beginning of Writing.=--Books began with writing, and writing began at the time when man first bethought himself to make records, so that the progenitor of the beautiful handwriting and no less beautiful print of the civilised world is to be looked for in the rude drawing which primeval man scratched with a pointed flint on a smooth bone, or on a rock, representing the beast he hunted, or perhaps himself, or one of his fellows. The exact degree of importance he attached to these drawings we cannot hope to discover. They may have been cherished from purely aesthetic motives, or they may have served, at times, a merely utilitarian end and acted, perhaps, as memoranda. However this may be, these early drawings are the germs from which sprang writing, the parent of books, and liberator of literature, that great force of which a book is but the vehicle. How these drawings were gradually changed into letters, in other words, the story of the alphabet, has been already told in this series by Mr Edward Clodd, and therefore we need not deal further with the subject here.

Writing once learned, and alphabets once formulated, the machinery for making books, with the human mind as its mainspring, was fairly in motion. "Certainly the Art of Writing," says Carlyle, "is the most miraculous of all things man has devised.... With the art of Writing, of which Printing is a simple, an inevitable and comparatively insignificant corollary, the true reign of miracles for mankind commenced." That these words only express the feeling of our far away ancestors, a cursory glance into the mythology of various peoples will prove. For wherever there is a tradition respecting writing, that tradition almost invariably, if not always, connects the great invention with the G.o.ds or with some sacred person. The Egyptians attributed it to Thoth, the Babylonians and a.s.syrians to Nebo, the Buddhists to Buddha, the Greeks to Hermes. The Scandinavians honoured Odin as the first cutter of the mysterious runes, and the Irish derived their ogham from the sacred Ogma of the Tuatha de Danaan. And it is noteworthy how, from time immemorial, writing, and the making of books, have been considered high and honourable accomplishments, and how closely they have ever been connected with the holy functions of priesthood.

=Materials for Writing and Books.=--The early forms of books were various, and, to modern eyes, more or less clumsy. Wood or bark was one of the oldest substances used to receive writing. Stone was no doubt older still, but stone inscriptions are outside our subject. The early Greeks and Romans employed tablets of soft metal, and wooden leaves coated with wax, when they had anything to write, impressing the characters with a stilus. Thus Pausanius relates that he saw the original copy of Hesiod's _Works and Days_ written on leaden tablets.

The wooden leaves, when bound together at one side, foreshadowed the form of book which is now almost universal, and were called by the Romans _caudex_, or _codex_ (originally meaning a tree-stump), in distinction to the _volumen_, which was always a parchment or papyrus roll. The oldest ma.n.u.script in existence, however, is on papyrus, which, as is well known, was the chief writing-material of the ancient world.

Although the discovery that skins of animals, when properly prepared, formed a convenient and durable writing-material, was made at a very early date, the papyrus held its own as the writing-material of literary Egypt, Greece, and Rome, until about the fourth or fifth century of our era.

The books of Babylonia and a.s.syria took the form of thick clay tablets of various sizes. The wedge-shaped characters they bore were made by impressing the wet, soft clay with a triangular-pointed instrument of wood, bone, or metal. The tablet was then baked, and as recent discoveries prove, rendered exceedingly durable. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether the form of the original doc.u.ments of the Old Testament was that of the Babylonian tablets, or of the Egyptian papyrus rolls, or of rolls of parchment. Perhaps all three were employed by the various biblical writers at different times.

It is stretching a point, perhaps, to include among writing materials the tablets of bamboo bark which bore the earliest Chinese characters, since the inscriptions were carved. The Chinese, however, soon discarded such primitive uses, and the paper which is so indispensable to-day was invented by them at a very early date, though it remained unknown to Europe until the Arabs introduced it about the tenth century, A.D. One of the earliest extant writings on paper is an Arabic "Treatise on the Nourishment of the Human Body," written in 960 A.D., but it seems to have been printing which really brought paper into fas.h.i.+on, for paper ma.n.u.scripts are rare compared with those of parchment and vellum.

CHAPTER II

THE PRESERVATION OF LITERATURE

It is easier to find the beginning of writing than the beginning of literature. Although we know for certain that the ancient nations of the world had books and libraries, that they preserved traditions, stored records and knowledge, and a.s.sisted memory by means of their tablets, their monuments, and their papyri, we shall probably never know when the art of writing was first applied to strictly literary purposes, and still less likely is it that we shall ever discover when works of the imagination were first recorded for the edification of mankind. It is not very rash, however, to a.s.sume that as soon as the art had developed the ancients put it to much the same uses as we do, except, perhaps, that they did not vulgarise it, and no one wrote who had not something to write about. But we are not without specimens of antique literatures.

Egypt has preserved for us many different specimens of her literary produce of thousands of years ago--historical records, works of religion and philosophy, fiction, magic, and funeral ritual. a.s.syria has bequeathed to us hundreds of the clay books which formed the great royal library at Nineveh, books of records, mythology, morals, grammar, astronomy, astrology, magic; books of reference, such as geographical tables, lists of temples, plants, birds, and other things. In the Old Testament we have all that now remains of Israelitish writings, and the early literatures of China and India are also partly known to us. After these the writings of Greece and Rome are of comparatively recent origin, and moreover, they are nearer to us in other respects besides the merely chronological. The literature of Greece, dating from the far Homeric age, grew up a strong and beautiful factor in Greek life, and Rome, drawing first her alphabet and then her literature from the land before which she stooped, even while she conquered it, pa.s.sed them on as an everlasting possession to the peoples of the western world. The fact of the literary pre-eminence of Greece partly helps to explain why Greek ma.n.u.scripts form the bulk of the early writings now extant.

In considering how early literature has been preserved, therefore, we are hardly concerned with Egyptian papyri or cuneiform tablets, but with the writings of Greece and Rome, or writings produced under Greek or Roman influence. And it is curious that while the libraries and books of older nations have survived in comparatively large numbers, there should be no Greek literary ma.n.u.scripts older than about 160 B.C., and even these are very fragmentary and scarce. The earliest Latin doc.u.ment known is dated 55 A.D., and is an unimportant wax tablet from Pompeii.

For this lack of early doc.u.ments many causes are responsible, and those who remember that it is not human beings only who suffer from the vicissitudes inseparable from existence will wonder, not that we have so few ancient writings in our present possession, but that we have any.

The evidence of many curious and interesting discoveries of ma.n.u.scripts made from time to time goes to show that accident, rather than design, has worked out their preservation, and that the civilised world owes its present store of ancient literature more to good luck than good management, to use a handy colloquialism. It is true, of course, that in early days there were many who guarded books as very precious things, but in times of wars and tumults people would naturally give little thought to such superfluities. Fire and war have been the agencies most destructive of books, in the opinion of the author of _Philobiblon_, but carelessness and ignorance, wanton destruction and natural decay, are also accountable for some part of the great losses which have wasted so large a share of the literary heritage, and although we are deeply indebted to monastic work for the transmission of cla.s.sic lore as well as of Christian compositions, we can hardly conclude that the monkish scribes wrote solely for the benefit of posterity. Their immediate purpose, no doubt, and naturally so, was much narrower, and identified the service of G.o.d with the enrichment of their houses. Besides, they did not hesitate to erase older writings in order that they might use the parchment again for their own, whenever it suited them to do so.

Before noting some of the ways by which ancient literature has come down to the present day, let us for a moment transport ourselves into the past, and see how a wealthy Roman lover of letters would set about gathering a collection of books. Having no lack of means, all that is best in the literary world will be at his service. He will first take care that the works of every Greek writer which can possibly be obtained, as well as those of Roman authors, are represented in his library by well-written papyrus rolls containing good, correct texts. If he can obtain old ma.n.u.scripts or original autographs of famous writers, so much the better; but whereas ordinary volumes will cost him comparatively little, on these he must expend large sums. If a book on which he has set his heart is not to be purchased, he may be able to obtain the loan of it, so that it may be transcribed for him by his _librarius_ or writing-slave. If he can neither borrow nor purchase what he desires, he may commission the bookseller to send for it to Alexandria, where there is an unrivalled store of books and many skilled scribes ready to make copies of them.

But it is not easy to estimate with any degree of certainty the quant.i.ty of literary material available, say, at the time of the establishment of the first public library in Rome, which was probably about 39 B.C. Books were common and booksellers flourished. Greek and Roman writings were preserved on papyrus, not neglected or lost, and the various parts of what we now call the Old Testament probably existed in the Hebrew synagogues. We may, perhaps, a.s.sume that the Roman book collector, did he choose to take the necessary trouble, might add to his collection some of the writings of ancient Egypt. But no doubt Greek and Latin authors only are of value in his eyes. At this point it is dangerous to speculate further, and we must leave the imaginary Roman, and, advancing to our own time, where we are on surer ground, ask what remnants of old records and literature have come down to us, and how have they been preserved?

It will be disappointing news, perhaps, to those to whom the facts are fresh, that no original ma.n.u.script of any cla.s.sical author, and no original ma.n.u.script of any part of the Bible, Old Testament or New, has yet come to light. Nothing is known of any of these doc.u.ments except through the medium of copies, and in some cases very many copies indeed intervene between us and the original. For instance, the oldest Homeric ma.n.u.script known, with the exception of one or two fragments, is not older than the first century B.C., and the most ancient Biblical ma.n.u.script known, a fragment of a Psalter, is a.s.signed to the late third or early fourth century A.D. The earliest New Testament ma.n.u.script extant, the first leaf of a book of St Matthew's Gospel, is also no older than the third century. It is curious, too, that no ancient Greek ma.n.u.scripts have been found either in Greece or Italy excepting some rolls discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum. One reason for this is no doubt the fact that when Roman armies a.s.sailed Athens and other Greek cities they despoiled them not only of their statues and works of art, but of their books as well. These went to furnish the libraries of Rome, though it is probable that certain of them found their way back to Greece in company with some of Rome's own literary produce when Constantine set up his capital and founded a library at Byzantium.

Another means by which Greek ma.n.u.scripts left the country was afforded by the eagerness of Ptolemy II. to extend the great library of Alexandria, to which end he bought books in all parts of Greece, and particularly in Athens and Rhodes.

The Roman libraries did not survive the onslaughts of the barbarians, who seem to have carried out a very thorough work of destruction in the Eternal City. But it is not unlikely that in some cases books, among other portable treasures, were carried away when their owners sought refuge in less troubled localities, such as Constantinople or Alexandria. Still, the fact remains that the contents of the Roman libraries have disappeared, and that for the ancient ma.n.u.scripts now in our possession we are indebted to the tombs, the temples, the monasteries, and the sands of Egypt. Sometimes--to show the strange adventures of some of these ma.n.u.scripts--the cartonnage cases in which mummies of the later period were enclosed, were made of papyrus doc.u.ments, which apparently had been treated as waste paper and put to all sorts of undignified uses. The two oldest cla.s.sical papyri known, consisting of fragments of Plato's _Phoedo_ and of the _Antiope_ of Euripides, were recovered from mummy-cases, and are supposed to date from the third century B.C. Other important Greek texts which have been preserved by Egypt are Aristotle's _Const.i.tution of Athens_, the _Mimes_ of Herodas, the _Odes_ of Bacchylides, the _Gospel_ and _Apocalypse_ of Peter, the Book of Enoch, &c.

But here we have to take into consideration a new and important factor in literary as in other matters--the spread of Christianity. With such obvious exceptions as the cuneiform records, or the Egyptian writings, and similar remains, the bulk of the ma.n.u.scripts (as ma.n.u.scripts, not as compositions) is the work of (Christian) religious houses, and it is easy to see that we owe much to the labours of the monks and ecclesiastics who have transmitted to us not only the earliest and most valuable works of the Church's own writers, but also the chief part of the literature of Greece and Rome. As Mr Falconer Madan says in his _Books in Ma.n.u.script_, "the number and importance of the MSS. of Virgil and the four Gospels is greater than of any other ancient authors whatever," and it is safe to a.s.sume that all these Gospel MSS., and perhaps all the Virgil MSS. also, were the handiwork of churchmen.

As an example of the ma.n.u.script treasures yielded by Egypt may be instanced the find at Behnesa, a village standing on the site of the Roman city of Oxyrhynchus, one of the chief centres of early Christianity in Egypt. Here, in 1896, Mr B. P. Grenfell and Mr A. S.

Hunt, searching for papyri on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund, lighted upon one of the richest hunting-grounds yet discovered. The result of their excavations was that about 270 boxes of ma.n.u.scripts were brought to England, while 150 of the best rolls were left at the Cairo Museum. I am unable to give the size of the boxes, but Professor Flinders Petrie's statement that "the publication of this great collection of literature and doc.u.ments will probably occupy a decade or two, and will place our knowledge of the Roman and early Christian age on a new footing," will testify to the extent and importance of the find.

In this collection the doc.u.ment which excited most interest was a papyrus leaf bearing some sc.r.a.ps of Greek, to which the name of +LOGIA IeSOU+, or Sayings of our Lord, has been given. This leaf is at present a.s.signed to a date between 150 and 300 A.D. The Logia are eight in number, and while three of them are closely similar to certain pa.s.sages in the Gospels, the rest are new. Another valuable doc.u.ment was the fragment of St Matthew's Gospel alluded to above, which, written in the third century, is a hundred years older than any New Testament ma.n.u.script hitherto known. Cla.s.sical doc.u.ments also were found in great numbers, and included a new _Ode_ of Sappho, which, however, is unfortunately imperfect. It was transcribed probably about the third century A.D.

Many Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic ma.n.u.scripts have been recovered from the numerous monasteries of Palestine, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Several travellers who have managed to overcome the suspicion of the monks and their unwillingness to open their literary h.o.a.rds to strangers, or to part with any of the volumes, have found immense numbers of books hidden under dust and rubbish in vaults and cellars or stowed away in chests, where they were probably thrust at some time when danger threatened them. Books written in these monasteries themselves in earlier days, or brought thither from other monasteries further east, have thus lain forgotten or neglected for centuries, or, if they were noticed at all, it was only that they might be put to some ign.o.ble use. Thus some were found acting as covers to two large jars which had formerly held preserves. "I was allowed to purchase these vellum ma.n.u.scripts," says the author of _Monasteries of the Levant_, "as they were considered to be useless by the monks, princ.i.p.ally, I believe, because there were no more preserves in the jars." In another case some large volumes were found in use as footstools to protect the bare feet of the monks from the cold stone floor of their chapel.

As we have already seen, Christian scribes not only preserved the writings of the Fathers of the Church, as well as the Holy Scriptures, but also directed much of their attention to the cla.s.sic works of poetry and philosophy. In every monastery from Ireland to Asia Minor, from Seville to Jerusalem, the work of transcribing and transmitting sacred and secular literature was carried on, and had we at the present day one half of the fruits of this labour we should be rich indeed. But we have also seen that many causes have contributed to the destruction of old writings, of which carelessness and ignorance are by no means the least.

The well-known story of Tischendorf's discovery of the oldest copy of the New Testament in existence,[1] in a basket of fuel at a monastery near Mount Sinai is but a single example, and that a modern one, of the dangers to which these ancient books were liable, and to which they too often fell victims. The danger was long ago recognised, however, and a canon of the third Council of Constantinople, held in 719 A.D., enacted "That n.o.body whatever be allowed to injure the book of the Old and New Testament, or those of our holy preachers and doctors, nor to cut them up, nor to give them to dealers in books, or perfumers, or any other person to be erased, except they have been rendered useless by moths or water or in some other way. He who shall do any such thing shall be excommunicated for one year." The same Council also ordered the burning of heretical books.

[1] The Codex Sinaiticus, now at St Petersburg.

With the revival of learning in the fourteenth century there came an awakened interest in ancient writings. They were eagerly sought for in the monasteries of Europe, and the learned of Italy were especially instrumental in recovering the neglected cla.s.sical works. It has been said that almost all the cla.s.sical authors were discovered or rediscovered either in Italy or through the researches of Italians.

Petrarch, with whose name the Renaissance is inseparably a.s.sociated, and a contemporary of our Richard de Bury, took great pains to form a collection of the works of Cicero, whose _Epistles_ he was fortunate enough to rescue from destroying oblivion. He tells us that when he met strangers, and they asked him what he desired from their country, he would reply, "Nothing, but the works of Cicero." He also sent money to France, Germany, Spain, Greece, and England that these books might be bought for him, and if while travelling he came across any ancient monastery he would turn aside and explore its book treasures.

Poggio Bracciolini, a learned Italian of the fifteenth century, has also made himself famous by his ardent pursuit of the remains of cla.s.sical literature, and by aiding the interest in them which the Renaissance had awakened. He searched Europe for ma.n.u.scripts to such good purpose that he unearthed a valuable text of Quintilian's _Inst.i.tutes_, "almost peris.h.i.+ng at the bottom of a dark neglected tower," in the monastery of St Gall, and recovered many other cla.s.sical writings by his industry, including some of the _Orations_ of Cicero; Lucretius; Manilius, and others. He also rescued the writings of Tertullian.

We may perhaps believe that even by this time the surviving treasures of the old storehouses of literature have not yet been all brought to light. Renan discovered in the large collection of ma.n.u.scripts still preserved in the monastery of Monte Casino in Italy, some unpublished pages of Abelard's _Theologia Christiana_, and other valuable finds besides, and it is quite possible that many more surprises are awaiting an enterprising and diligent searcher.

But although the monasteries had so large a share in the work of the preservation of literature, the monks themselves wrought harm as well as good, for in their zeal to record sacred compositions they frequently destroyed older and often more valuable doc.u.ments by sc.r.a.ping off the original writing and subst.i.tuting other. This was done for economy's sake, when writing material was costly, and parchments thus treated are known as palimpsests. Owing to this reprehensible practice, many literary treasures have been irretrievably lost. Our Anglo-Saxon literature, for instance, is not represented by any contemporary copies.

The Anglo-Norman writers had a contempt for the old English ma.n.u.scripts, and turned them into palimpsests without the slightest idea that there could be any value in them, and attached far more importance to the writing they themselves were about to make. Thus it happens that we are in the same position with regard to Anglo-Saxon literature as with regard to cla.s.sical authors. No original doc.u.ments exist, and it is known to us solely through copies, single copies, in most cases.

Beowulf, for instance, is represented only by a ma.n.u.script of the first half of the eleventh century, and Caedmon by a ma.n.u.script of the tenth century.

With the invention and spread of the knowledge of printing, however, the risk of loss was greatly reduced. Such ancient writings as came into the printer's hands were given a fresh lease of life which in many cases was of indefinite length, or rather, of practically eternal duration. But the fact of being printed was not invariably a safeguard. Some of the works of the early printers have disappeared completely, and many are represented only by single copies. The strange history of the British Museum copy of the famous _Book of St Albans_, will serve to show the vicissitudes with which the relics of the past have to contend in their journey down the ages.

At the end of the last century the library of an old Lincolns.h.i.+re house was overhauled by someone who disdainfully turned out of it all unbound books, and had them destroyed. A few of the condemned books, however, were begged by the gardener. Among them was the Book of St Albans. At the gardener's death his son threw away some of the rescued volumes, but kept the "Book." At the son's death, his widow sold such books as he had left, to a pedlar, for the sum of ninepence. The pedlar re-sold them to a chemist in Gainsborough for shop-paper, but observing the strange wood-cuts in the "Book," the chemist offered it to a stationer for a guinea. The stationer would not purchase, but said he would display it in his window as a curiosity. Here it attracted attention, and five pounds was offered for it by a gentleman in the neighbourhood. The stationer, finding the volume an object of desire, gave the chemist two pounds for it and eventually sold it to a bookseller for seven guineas.

Of this bookseller the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville bought it for seventy pounds, and bequeathed it to the British Museum with the rest of his magnificent library. This story I give on the authority of Mr Blades, who also, to instance the way in which books travel about and turn up in odd places, relates that a brother of Bishop Heber's, who had been for years seeking for a book printed by Colard Mansion, but without success, one day received a fine copy from the bishop, who had bought it from a native on the banks of the Ganges.

CHAPTER III

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES IN CLa.s.sICAL TIMES

In literary Greece and Rome, so far as we can tell from the somewhat meagre information handed down to us, literature was pursued for her own sake, and filthy lucre did not enter into the calculations of authors, who appear to have been satisfied if their works met with the approval of those who were competent to judge of them. Literature walked alone, and had not as yet entered into partners.h.i.+p with commerce. The writing of books for pecuniary profit is a wholly modern development, and even now it is more often an aspiration than a realisation.

In those days, when an author desired to make known a work, he would read it aloud to an invited party of friends. This reading of original compositions became in time a common item of the programme provided by a host for the entertainment of his guests, and it is not difficult to imagine that such a custom was often subjected to grave abuse, from the guests' point of view. Later, the private reading developed into the public lecture. Lectures of this kind became very frequent in Rome, and we are told that it was looked upon as a sort of festival when a fas.h.i.+onable author announced a reading. But we are also told that some of the audience often treated a lecturer of mediocre merit with scant courtesy, entering late and leaving early, and frequently they who applauded most were those who had listened least. The public reading is recorded of a poem composed by Nero. It was read to the people on the Capitol, and the ma.n.u.script, which was written in letters of gold, was afterwards deposited in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

If a work happened to attract attention by reason of its author's reputation or its own merit, it was copied by students or others who had heard and admired it. This was the only way in which literary productions could be dispersed and made known to the public at large, or a collection of books be gathered together. As the literary taste developed, those who were sufficiently wealthy kept slaves whose sole business it was to copy books, which books might be either the original works of their master, who by this means disseminated his compositions, or the works of others, for the benefit of their master's library.

These slaves, being of necessity well educated and skilful scribes, were purchased at high prices and held in great esteem by their owners. But obviously it was only the rich who could command such service, and ordinary folk had to resort to the bookseller.

The booksellers of Athens and Rome were those who made copies of books, or employed slaves to make them, and sold or let them on hire to those who had need of them. The author had no voice in these matters. There was nothing to prevent anyone who borrowed or otherwise got possession of his work from making copies of the ma.n.u.script if he chose, and making money from the copies if he could. "Copyright" was a word unknown in those days, and for centuries after. The booksellers advertised their wares by notices affixed to the door-posts of their shops, giving the names of new or desirable works, and sometimes read these works aloud to their friends and patrons. Their shops were favourite places of resort for persons of leisure and literary tastes.