The History of the Book

What we know and love as ‘the book’ has a long and fascinating history from its first appearances in the form of clay tablets and manuscripts, through the first ever codex, or bound books with real pages, and onward to the e-book we now have available to us. The book has thus played a key role in our history for longer than we might realise: five thousand years. It was, of course, essential to the development of all literature, religions and sciences. Until not so long ago it was accessible only to elite groups in society but now most people know the feeling of a book in their hands. This volume looks mostly at the history of the book in Europe but also in other parts of the world.