If you are
interested in following the evolution of paper from a seed (flax) as it morphs to
cloth to writing paper and beyond, consider reading these oldies:
“Adventures of a Quire of Paper,” London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer 48 (August–October 1779), 355–58, 395–98, 448–52; “The Adventures of a Robinson Crusoe. Written by Itself,” in The Young Gentleman’s and Lady’s Magazine, or Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction and Amusement (London: J. Walker and E. Newbery, 1799–1800), vol. 1, 185–92. |
The Invention of the Printing Press and movable type. The use of Photography
“Bound at the spine,
the closedness of the book facilitates its opening.” Lupton, C. (2014).
As towns began to appear in medieval times around what
became centers of information sharing, economic issues took hold. With the
invention of moveable type by Gutenberg (approximately 1450), and the increased
participation in innovation the printing press became as a communication tool a
viable component of society. The individual human being could no longer be
isolated but became entrenched as an integral member of the cultural and
political community.
Around the turn of the century (1500) printed books were still sought after by the religious orders at great expense. Thinking it economically advantageous, there were a number of monastery printing shops throughout Europe but as the prices of religious books went down they were forced to re-evaluate these ventures. Printing shops were labour intensive and demanded skilled workers. Time required for such tasks of composing, text compilation, editing, binding and publishing were initially thought to ward of idleness within the monastic communities in the hopes of also filling their libraries with historical artifacts to include their own historical intellectual treasures and local histories. All the activities surrounding the processes of printing books also made the walls of the monasteries porous with the movement of merchants and workers, raw material going in and finished books coming out. The business of printing conflicted with the ideal of monastic life. In the end, one of the roles of the religious organizations continued. That was the preservation of knowledge in the form of the printed word for which we today are grateful. Have you been wondering where our Red Dot went? The Red Dot is now a Black Period.
With the move to modern computer technology, our Black Dot takes on a new role and a new colour Blue as in .com
|