When the first book was made

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From the youngest age, most of us have had books around us: our parents may have read us bedtime stories, or brought us to the library where we can borrow books. We probably remember favorite books from our childhood.

Books have indeed been a part of people’s daily lives for many generations. But it was not always so easy to get your hands on a book. Did you know that the modern book, as we know it today, had to go through several makeovers to become what it is now?

Defining Books

Today, the modern book is defined as “a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.”

However, throughout history, people have used different materials for writing. Those who study the history of books consider trace the origins back to early materials, such as tablets, bamboo, beech bark, and sheets of papyrus.

Who First Invented Books?

Different civilizations had their own ways of keeping written documents, starting with the Mesopotamians around 3500 BCE.

Mesopotamia, c. 3500-3000 BC

The first settlers in Mesopotamia were known for making clay tablets on which they made markings using a triangle-ending instrument called the calamus, which was essentially the stem of the reed plant that had been sharpened to a point.

These wedge-like writings, created by the calamus in moist clay, are known as cuneiform. After etching figures onto the clay, the Mesopotamians used fire to dry the tablets out.

More than 20,000 such tablets were found at Nineveh (modern Iraq), with some dating as far back as the 7th century BC. This made up the library and archive of the kings of Assyria, giving us a glimpse into the system of organization they used for their books.

Tablets were in use even up to the 19th century in different parts of the world, including Chile, Germany, the Philippines, and even the Sahara Desert.

Example of hieroglyphics on a tablet. (Photo by Jeremy Zero on Unsplash)

Egypt, Early 3000 BC

In Egypt, people extracted the marrow from papyrus reed stems. Then, they went through a process in which they humidified, pressed, dried, glued, and cut the material into sheets, with the best reserved for sacred writing.

This was found to be the medium for writing as early as the first dynasty. The first evidence can be found in an account of books belonging to the Fifth Dynasty King Neferirkare Kakai, sometime around 2400 BC.

They then rolled strips of the papyrus plant into a scroll, the average being between 14 to 52 feet long, though they could be much longer. For example, a scroll on the history of the reign of Ramses III was measured at more than 40 meters long.

The scrolls opened horizontally, with the text occupying one side and the pages divided into columns. However, the length of rolled papyrus made it really clunky to open and read. The papyrus was easily cracked, which is why we only have fragments of these scrolls for our records today.

Egyptian Papyrus

Greece, 500 to 200 BC

At around this time, the skin of sheep and goats were used to make parchment, a more durable alternative to papyrus. Roman scholar Varro described the invention of parchment in the ancient city of Pergamum as springing from the shortage of papyrus.

What makes parchment different from leather is that the skins are limed but not tanned, which makes the parchment sensitive to humidity changes and may get spoiled when wet. The finest quality parchments are called vellum.

China, 100 BC

But around the 1st century AD, Ts’ai Lun invented paper by experimenting with different materials: the bark of the mulberry plant, hemp, old rags, or even fish nets!

The first recognizable books in China, called jiandu or jiance, were made from rolls of dried bamboo split really thinly and bound together with silk, hemp, or leather. Woodblock printing was the first process of reproducing books in China.

Rome, 100 BC

The Romans bound pages called vellum (made of animal skin) between wooden covers, which opened up like our books today. These were called the codex. They even had a table of contents and an index for these early “books.”

The codex was more compact and easier to carry around than the scroll. The early Christians were said to use this type of document when sharing the gospels in foreign lands.

When Was the First Book Invented?

Among the first “books” were the ancient scrolls, which were made as early as the 4th millennium BC/BCE. But the earliest printed book in the form that we know now, with pages bound together, is the Diamond Sutra.

It’s estimated to have been printed during the Tang Dynasty, around the first century AD/CE, using woodblock printing.

During the Middle Ages, monks copied books by hand, line by line, which made it very expensive to own a book. In fact, each book was essentially a unique hand crafted item, personalized by the scribe, the bookbinder, the owner, and the illustrator.

Photo by Mark Rasmuson on Unsplash

Illustrations on Handwritten Manuscripts, 600 to 800 AD

The manuscripts during this time were largely handwritten on parchment. The books during this period started to be decorated with gold and silver, with illustrations added, making them exquisite additions to a rich man’s collection.

Block Printing, 800 AD

The Chinese already had their own version of moveable type, which uses molds of individual characters or letters that could be arranged to form words on a frame. These frames were then inked, and when pressed against paper-like material, they created a page of text. Because these molds were reusable, they saved time and effort.

The molds that the Chinese used were made of clay, which breaks easily. The Koreans had their own version of moveable type made of bronze, which was sturdier. As early as AD 1377, a Buddhist book was already designed by the Koreans, called the Jikji.

Moveable Type, 1000 to 1400 AD

In China, the first movable type, made of wood, was invented around 1000 AD. However, the complexity of Chinese characters and the soaking properties of wood made it very labor-intensive to use, so that it did not really take off. Instead, in 1200 AD, the first metal movable type was invented in Korea, during the Goryeo Dynasty, producing the first book printed with metal movable type called the Jikji, printed in 1377 AD.

Then, in 1439, Johannes Gutenberg, using his metalworking skills, designed a methodical and reliable printing press that allowed for the mass production of books. The first mass-produced book was The Gutenberg Bible, printed in 1455 using movable metal type.

The new printing press allowed people to print books, pamphlets, and newspapers, which became more easily accessible for the mass population.

Invention of the Pocketbook, 1500 AD

Italian humanist Aldus Manutius established the Aldine Press in Italy, giving us the italic type, the widespread use of the semicolon, and the precursor of the modern paperback: a small volume bound together with Vellum.

Because Aldus also had a passion for preserving the great works of the Greeks, he printed these works in the small pocketbook format, and using the italic font in order to squeeze more words onto a page, made them easily accessible to the general population.

First Book in America, 1600 AD

When the Puritans arrived in the New World, within twenty years, they had a printing press brought over, and printed the first book in America, “The Bay Psalm,” in 1640AD. It contained the Book of Psalms from the Bible. To this day, only eleven copies of this book known to exist.

Addition of Chlorine, 1744 AD

When Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered the element chlorine in 1744 AD, it affected the pages of the book: we now had a chemical to bleach and therefore whiten the sheets of paper!

Book Sleeves Added, 1834 AD

The detachable paper jackets we love so much today came into the scene in 1834. The first book known to have this book jacket was “The Keepsake,” a collection of stories by Sir Walter Scott. The book jacket retained its look and design for about sixty years.

The Cheap Paperback Arrives, 1832 to 1860 AD

The continued decrease in the cost of printing plus the improvement of education among the masses paved the way for the first mass-printed paperbacks. In the UK, the main market for these paperbacks were the youth and the working class adult, and they were known as “penny dreadfuls,” “penny blood,” or “penny number,” because each cost a penny.

The books were printed on cheap paper made of pulp. One of the most popular series printed during this time was Black Bess or the Knight of the Road, a series that ran for a whopping 254 episodes.

Meanwhile, in America, similar cheap books were circulating, known as “dime novels.” Nowadays, the term “dime novel” refers to sensationalized stories. But during that time, it merely connected to the price of the paperback.

The Hardbacks Rule, 1900s

At the turn of the 20th century, the hardbound books rose in popularity, with publishers looking down their noses at paperbacks for being of lower quality. Experiments conducted during that time showed that most people preferred to buy the more expensive hardbacks over their cheaper paperback counterparts.

During this time, the Boni brothers founded the Modern Library, which soon evolved into Random House, one of the largest publishing houses today. They observed all the mistakes that all the other printers made, and fell upon a viable solution: a mail order book club with a yearly subscription, wherein they regularly sent out high quality literature in paperback form.

Paperbacks Make a Comeback, 1937 onwards

The publishing house Penguin ushered in the comeback of paperbacks with tweaks to their design. The company also played a huge risk by printing 20,000 copies of the best “high-class” titles. The gamble paid off, and the company grew to include two other imprints, Pelican, designed to educate instead of entertain, and Puffin, aimed at young readers.

Computers Arrive on the Scene, 1970s

With the invention of the commercial microprocessor in the 1970s, the typing, layout, and design of books underwent an acceleration. It became easier to go through the process of editing and designing books.

Eventually, it also paved the way for the digitization of books, beginning with the first book put on CD in the 1980s, The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia.

Publishing in the Digital Age

From the traditional process of publishing books by the millions, we now have print-on-demand, which lets you print only the books that people are willing to buy.

When Project Gutenberg began converting books into digital form in 1971, it also ushered in the Internet Age, and with it, the e-book, or electronic book.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

Appreciating Books

This brief history tracing the evolution of books should help us appreciate books more—or at least the fact that we can get them so much more conveniently in this day and age!

And to make things even easier, you can sign up for our book deals newsletter and get special deals on books you’ll love, delivered straight to your inbox!

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Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.