Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Book
BOOK, a general name for most literary compositions; but should, with propriety, be applied to such productions only as extend to the size of a volume.
The writings of Moses are allowed to be the most ancient of any extant; but as several are cited by this author, some must undoubtedly have been written previous to his time. The oldest books of a profane nature, with which we are acquainted, are Homer's Poems ; though the Greek authors mention no less than seventy other writers prior to Homer.
The materials used by the ancients instead of paper, were of various kinds; as plates of lead and copper, the bark of trees, bricks, stone, wood, &c. Instead of wooden tablets, the leaves of the palm-tree were afterwards used, and the inner part of the bark of the lime, the ash, the maple, and the elm: as these could be rolled up, they received the name of volumen, or a volume, which appellation was afterwards transferred to similar rolls of paper, or parchment.
The material next introduced for the purpose of transmitting the records of the learned to posterity, was wax; and afterwards leather, or the skins of goats and sheep, which at length were manufactured into parchment: these were succeeded by lead, linen, silk, horn, and, lastly, paper. Books were first made square, in the form of blocks and tables; but that of rolls was afterwards found most convenient: they were composed of several sheets fastened together, and rolled upon a stick; the whole making a kind of column, which was managed by the stick as a handle, it being considered a crime to lay hold of the roll itself. The volume, when extended, was commonly fifty yards in length, and a yard and a half wide. The present form of books, consisting of separate leaves, was not unknown to the ancients, though little used by them.
With the form of books is also connected their internal economy, as the order and arrangement of lines and pages, margins, &c.: these have undergone many variations. At first, the letters were only divided into lines; afterwards into separate words, which by degrees were distinguished by accents, and distributed by points and stops into periods, paragraphs, chapters, and other divisions. The Orientals began their lines from the right, and carried them to the left; while the Greeks wrote in both directions, alternately beginning in the one, and returning in the other. The method of writing practised by the Chinese is still more curious, as they extend their lines from the top to the bottom of the page.
Complaints were made as early as the time of Solomon, respecting the multiplicity of books; and they are now too numerous, not only to be procured and read, but even to be known by their names or titles. The editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica remark, that "England has more to fear on this score than other countries, since, besides our own produce, we have for some years past drained our neighbours." It is but justice to observe, however, that this idea is unfounded, as it is a well known fact, that the number of volumes annually published on the Continent, and particularly in Germany, is more than four times the amount of those issued from the British press in the three united kingdoms: besides which, many hundred volumes are annually exported, thus rendering the number in the country nearly what it would be without the importation of foreign books. This truth will be evident to those who reflect on the relative difference between the price and quality of the paper employed on the Continent, and that used in this country, not to mention the extremely high price of labour, and many other circumstances, which, we apprehend, will ultimately tend to impede the progress of British Literature. But with respect to a superfluity of books, they are doubtless of use; for knowledge is ever advantageous, and cannot be too widely diffused.
We shall conclude this article, by stating a method of preserving books from the depredations of worms and insects. There is a very, small insect that deposits its eggs in books during the month of August, especially on those leaves nearest the cover. These gradually produce a sort of mites, similar to what are generated in cheese, and which afterwards change their state, and become beetles: and when the time of their transformation approaches, they eat their way through, till they gain the extremity of the book. The best preventive against their attacks is mineral salts, to which all insects have an aversion. The salt called in the old system of chemistry, arcanum duplicatum, alum and vitriol, are proper for this purpose; a small quantity of which should be mixed with the paste used by book-binders. To prevent the depredations of the book-worm, M. Prediger advises book-binders to make their paste of starch instead of flour. He likewise directs a little pulverized alum to be strewed between the book and its cover, and also upon the shelves of the library.