To say reading and writing in early European history was elitist is not a stretch. Monarchs and clergy were those entrusted with books and the reading thereof. Using scribes at their behest was the norm and dictating what they wanted was not uncommon. The artifacts seen in at the Columbia University library supports this line of thought. The mass printing of texts should have increase print production thereby boosting readership. However it took some time for this new technology to make a significant mark.
Upon observing the display of written material at Columbia University one is struck by two things. First, the age and history attached to these items can be seen in the types of medium used to write. The tablet almost leads one to believe that this piece may have been from biblical times. This grave stone written in Latin in Rome around 1st or 2 AD still survives because the letters were hand chiseled. The worn surface is noticeable but the impressions of the letters albeit faded are still noticeable.
The scrap of the book The Odyssey written on papyrus was small but a significant piece of history as it dated back to 2nd or 3rd BC. It was interesting to learn that this piece of literature was once on a scroll that opened vertically instead of horizontally and used vegetable matter. In addition papyrus was
only written on one side of the medium and not on both sides as we currently write on paper today.
The second thing one notices about the Columbia University tour is the detail in the writing samples that were shown. Scriptura continua, the process of writing without spaces, was used in many of samples provided. No punctuation was could be detected to separate words and no pages numbers were used to distinguish one page from the next. Colors of red and blue were used as separators to indicate new paragraphs or new ideas. The more colors used on a page was indicative of the person for whom the text was written. Scribes were initially used to write at the request of the monarch or clergy where a number of colors were found on the writing samples provided. Writings of a biblical nature were found to be elaborate with color. One knew that the average citizen could not afford and therefore would not be in possession of this kind of material. However, in the 13th century, according to our Columbia University guide, Consuelo Dutschke, the use of multiple colors diminished in the 13th century when writing became more commercial.
One of the things I found fascinating is how mistakes were handled in early writing. If one was writing on parchment and an error was made a knife was used to scrape the parchment which wore the medium thin if done too hard. If paper were used, it was crossed out or in the more elaborate text filled with gold and silver, three dots were put under the mistake as a cue to the
reader to skip over it. This most held my interest because someone had to design this process by which everyone who read during that time knew what those dots meant. There were no written rules in which this was stated at the beginning of each text. Somehow the reader was conditioned to ignore the mistake just as we know to pause when we see a comma or period.
As writing progressed and scribes and the patronage of writers were not used as often, the idea of authorship became prevalent with the invention of the printing press. It can be said that the printing press leveled the playing field when it came to reading in a way that the task of writing 2 or 3 pages by hand could not. “…The author’s copyright was legalized and censorship was nearly abolished; enormous numbers of literary works...were printed and made available to readers…” (p. 49). Writing and reading were not only for the cultured as printing began to change the social life of at every level. (p. 48). It seems with the invention of the printing press it allowed more works to be distributed and therefore making books more available to the public. And one can assume with more books available readership also increased as well.
It is difficult to believe, according to Alvin Kernan’s book, Samuel Jackson & The Impact of Print, that the printing of books did not increase with the advent of the printing press. In fact, he relays that there was a drop in printing in the eighteenth century even when using the most conservative of numbers on the information available at that time. These numbers measured
the amount of titles printed instead of the number of books printed and therefore maybe mis-leading. However, by the 1800’s the increase in book production could not be denied (p. 60-61). Although there were trials and tribulations with this new technology the business of printing was here to stay and booksellers, publishers and those associated with the production of books all found ways to make publishing into a lucrative business for themselves. Although books were pricy more people had access to them than the hand-made material produced earlier.
Works Cited
Kernan, Alvin. Samuel Johnson & The Impact of Print. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1987/1989.
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