TYPES OF LIBRARIES – (HISTORY)
1. Libraries of Clay – The greatest contribution of the Sumerians to mankind is the earliest known from
of writing called “cuneiform” . The word “cuneiform” , which describes their style of writing, is from cuneus,
the Latin word for wedge. The materials used were softly clay and a wedge-shaped stylus or metal, ivory, or
wood. These are the earliest known writing materials which were used as we now use paper and pencil.
The ancient Babylonians made tablets of clay and cut symbols into them in a system of writing called
cuneiform. After about 4000 B.C., the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and many other peoples used similar tablets
for keeping records. The also used them to write messages. Through commerce and conquest, these peoples
carried cuneiform tablets westward to Egypt.
The Babylonians and Assyrians kept huge libraries of cuneiform tablets. Many of them lay buried for
thousands of years. In 1953, A British Archeologist, Sir Henry Layard, discovered a great public library at
Nineveh, near what is now Mosul, Iraq. The library held 10,000 clay tablets. An Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal,
built the library during the 600 B.C. Other great collections of of tablets have been recovered from such ancient
cities as Ur, Nippur, Kish, and Tello. Tablets in these collections contain history, mythology, mathematics, and
legal and commercial records. Some of the tablets found at Nippur contained part of the Code of Hammurabi,
the law giver of Babylon. Another famous record, the story of Gilgamesh, was found in Nineveh. It tells the
Babylonian story of the flood.
2. Libraries of Papyrus – About the same time the Babylonians were developing cuneiform writing,
the Egyptians learned to make beautiful writing material from the papyrus plant. Papyrus became the standard
writing material in all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Papyrus could be joined easily, and the
Egyptians used long papyrus scrolls for books.
The Geeks also used papyrus. Pisistratus, a ruler of Athens, probably founded the library there in the 500
B. C. The Greeks set up libraries in all the cities they founded, from Sicily to the Black Sea. Aristotle’s scrolls
were passed on until they became part of the most famous library in the ancient world, at Alexandria. Alexander
the Great was Aristotle’s pupil, and he learned the value of books form his teacher. He built Alexandria n 332
B. C, and his successor, Ptolemy I, founded a library there soon afterward. Scholars believe the library
contained more than 500,000 scrolls, representing the literature of all the known world, as far as India. Two
famous librarians of the Alexandria library are:
(a) Zenodotus – who was a Greek historian who edited the works of Homer, and
(b) Callimachus – who classified and catalogued the library collections.
The partial destruction of the library was in 47 B. C. and its total destruction was in 391 A. D. This was brought
about due to Roman invasions and conquest when the Roman Empire expanded very extensively at the height
of its glory.
3) Libraries of Parchment – other successors of Alexander the Great developed the city Pergamum,
near Constatinople as a center of learning. When the library at Pergamum threatened to become more important
than the one at Alexandria, the Alexandrians cut off its supply of papyrus. The people of Pergamum began
writing on animal skins and developed an improved material. They called this material pergamentum, the origin
of our word parchment. But, in 41 B. C., Mark Anthony took 200,000 scrolls from Pergamum and gave them to
Cleopatra for the library at Alexandria. When the Roman Empire fell apart (476 A. D.), scholars and monks
preserved many of the parchment books. An important room in every monastery was the scriptorium, where
monks reached great heights of artistic creation in illuminating (decorating) their books.
4) Libraries of Paper – The Chinese built libraries as early as the 300 B. C. But they made their
greatest contribution to the development of libraries when they invented paper about 105 A. D. The use of paper
spread westward through Arabia, and finally reached Europe about the year 1100. When Johannes Gutenberg, a
German, printed with movable type on paper about 1440, he made it possible for more and more people to own
books. The Latin Bible was the first book printed.
PRINTED MATTER – HISTORY
Use of Signs and Symbols as means of Communication.
During the early times, man was able to communicated with his fellowmen by means of grunts and
cries. These supplemented with gesture as sort of sign language. These went on for a while until men became
masters of his language. Later, they discovered that his language was not enough, so they begun to think of
something more to enable them to communicate and be able t store what was believed to be of importance.
Man finally discovered the use of symbols to express themselves. They used drawings or some sorts of pictures
to make themselves understood. These symbols led to a turning point as a great achievement which later served
as a foundation of men’s rank in the living world. The development of the early means of communication are
commemorating the lives and experiences of pre-historic men. This served as papers of the past which is most
useful to history.
In the early United States, the early cave dwellers were the American Indians. These people made use of
signs and symbols that they almost lived on them. At present, caves are still preserved. Their works are very
much taken cared off; their writings, and even their primitive arrangement of rocks and sand which they used as
sort of furniture still exist in almost perfect condition.
Along the walls of the caves, one may find carves of animals and other objects symbolizing for instance:
the sun, tree, lightning, etc. They also went to the extent of carving traces of human beings especially of people
they adore or love.
In Europe, the Paleolithic cave dwellers have almost the same works that the American Indians have.
Like the American Indians, they also made use of the crudest tools to enable them to carve and draw pictures of
animals and objects.
Therefore, pre-historic man have thought of signs and symbols and handed to humanity the beginning of
writings.
ORIGIN OF ALPHABET
Alphabet – is the series of letters used in writing a language. The name means exactly what the terms
ABC means as a name for the 27 letters of our alphabet. The word comes from “alpha and beta”, the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet.
Most books, magazines, and newspapers are printed in the 27 letters alphabet called Roman. But the
Romans did not invents it. They put finishing touches on a system that had been growing for thousands of years.
Thousands of years passed when men begun to realize the difficulty of interpreting objects that they
represent due to the innumerable pictographs that appeared. Many of these could not be identified although,
undoubtedly had different meanings at least to men who used them. Primitive as they were, they tried to invent
and think of more possible way to enable better understanding among themselves. Thru some unknown
explanation, pictographs came into writing. Man, of course have a quite difficulty of grasping the
idea and associating the interpretation of an object with certain alphabetic characters, thus pictographs little by
little developed into ideographs or symbols that interpret or represent objects.
Later, the development of the Egyptian Phonetic system of writing came about; but then seemed to have
confused them due to so many characters that were invented to represent a particular thing.
The Babylonians, Mesopotamians, and the Assyrians who were the Egyptian’s contemporary developed
phonetic system of writing but this resulted to a syllabic system of writing. The system of writing were just sort
of skeleton frames. From Sinai, these system of writing seemed to have brought to Palestine and Arabia. The
Palestine Alphabet was said to be the pro-genitor (direct ancestor) of the earliest Phoenician Alphabet.
The Phoenician Alphabet at the earliest stage seemed to have developed for maturely that it would give
an impression that it has been used for quite while.
CHARACTERISTICS of the early Phoenician Alphabet:
1. It is purely consonantal with no letters for true vowel sounds.
2. It has occasional sort of vertical strokes which is used to divide words or groups of word.
The Greeks realized the difficulty of lack of vowel sounds in this alphabets. They used to have certain
voiceless breathings to emphasizes vowel sounds. Finally, they thought that an invention of some characters
to represent some vowel sounds will do a great deal to facilitate pronunciation. Some of the Phoenician
characters were no doubt adopted to the Greeks but after sometime, the Greeks introduced the use of
diphthongs such as: ai, ei, ou. This was an outstanding contribution of the Greeks to us. With the
distinguished contribution of the evolution of the Greek Alphabet ---- this resulted to the so called Eastern
and Western Alphabet.
1) The eastern alphabet was revived in Greece with some minor changes. This found its way toward the
beginning of the alphabets of Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia and the rest of the Slavic Nations. The importance of
the eastern Greece alphabet was that it became the ancestors of our alphabet.
2) Western alphabet – the early Romans were said to have learned the architecture. No one knew when the
Roman writing first spread but a historical evidence was found at the modern Palestrina (a town near
Rome). This was about 600 B. C. This was incised in gold fibula and the incision was said to have
inscription in which was said to have been written from left to right. Here was written the 4 words in the
inscription in which was said to be the oldest form of Roman Alphabet.
The Romans have written these alphabets to almost nearly like ours but have eliminated the use of K and
used of C instead. But later, letter C was used everywhere with an equivalent of letter G. So in order to
differentiate these two, they put a little dash on letter C. – G.]
The Romans kept the letter F called “di-gamma or double gamma” by the Greeks. This has a V sound but
this V sound disappeared when the Greeks strengthened it and this has an equivalent sound of our F at present.
The Greeks and the Etruscans did not recognize the use of letter q as in quotation. But the Romans proved
that this letter is very much indispensable in their alphabet. The Romans established the usage of QV. The letter
V was used both as vowel and semi-vowel
. As a vowel, v was used like the English double 0.00 / as a semi-vowel, it was used as in English double W. V
was taken from the Greek letter upsilon y.
Letter Z – this was discarded by the Romans during the earlier times. Z, the 7th in the English alphabet was
replaced by letter g during the earlier time.
Letter J – was entirely unknown to the Romans. They added a tail to letter I, thus letter j was formed.
Letter W – was formed by putting 2 letters vs together.
During the early part of the Christian era, the Romans used almost a perfect unity of style in writing. But
because of the bulk of work to be done, lots of modification appeared in the style of writing. These were
partially true in writing books and other important documents. The Rustic Capital thus became the outcome of
these modifications. This rustic capital are similar to those which some of us are still using. Through transitional
changes our small letters came into existence. These were the result of the unconscious tendency of the scribes
who became more and more familiar with the letter they were using.
Some changes came in the form of style writing when some innovators started using traditional capitals
which were named majuscules. These involves 2 forms of majuscules:
1. Square capital – they are more informal and similar in style with the letters seen in the monumental
inscriptions.
2. Rustic capital – the letters are thinner and more elongated.
(majuscules – capital letters of our alphabet now, minuscules – small letters)
During the 4th century, another style of writing came about and this is the so called “uncial” from the
Latin word “uncia”. This is characterized by the exaggeration of size. This style of writing merely show the
beginning of our small letters. Before the uncial letters disappeared, the so called half-uncials were beginning to
appear. This led the steps toward the development of the small letters. This style was carried to Ireland by St.
Patrick during the 5th century. This was carried further and further by the monks to
England and to other places where they went. Through Irish influences, the art of writing revived. One of their
finished work that was produced was the so called Lindisfarne Gospel. This came about the year 700 A.D. in
the north of England and was said to have been made by Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne.
The uncial style begun to be less used during the 8th century. The scribes found sit inadequate for their
use since this requires skill and time. They also found it too expensive to maintain due to the space it requires in
order to display itself. There was scarcity in vellum (oalf skin) and papyrus which were used for writing
materials.
As a result of the scribe indifference toward the uncial styles, a great mixtures of styles appeared.
Uncials, half-uncials, cursive and even abbreviations and ligatures which had nothing to do with the alphabet
were used. These brought about confusion for the scholars.
Before the 9th century, Charlemagne came into power in Europe. He advocate change in the art of
writing and even gave aid to the cause of scholarship. He established a school a school of writing at Tours.
Another style of writing was developed and this called the Caroline Minuscules and this style was based on a
careful selection from other styles and this also introduced the practice of
separation of words to aid an easy reading. The Tours school gave valuable reforms but after the days of its
influence had passed, local and national characteristics in penmanship once more appeared. The Gothic style
came into existence during the 12th century. This was influenced by the increasing tendency towards angularity
in forming of letters but it has never lost the fine features of its Carolingian predecessor.
The forms of capital letters were particularly striking in style. This style did not last long. It was not in
its best form when the invention of printing put a start in its evolution. The scholars during this time felt that
manuscript copies of the classics should be written in purer and simpler form which was most suitable than the
elaborated script then in used. They, therefore, went back to the Carolingian style which was described to be
clearer and legible style that much suited for writing manuscripts. The evolution of the alphabet from the rustic
capitals of ancient Rome to the forms of letters we are now using have given 2 things:
1. our capital letters
2. small letters
have separate functions in their uses.
Early materials used for writings were:
1. leaves
5. Animal skin or parchment or vellum
2. bark of trees
6. Baked clay (not all nations have clay, too difficult to get
and once written that is the end of it
3.bamboo’s
4.rocks or any flat surface objects
7. Papyrus
PAPER – CHINA, 105 A. D.
There were two factors that hindered the spread of paper in the western world. These were: religion and
military conquest.
The Buddhist missionaries whose aims were endless repetition and multiplication of their sacred sect,
seized on paper as means of spreading their faith throughout China and Japan.
The Mohammedans who represented the conquering Arabs at the time put a close to Europe the ancient
trade routes from the east thus diverted the spread of paper in the Muslim world.
The earliest paper mill in Christendom was probably erected at Fabriano, an Italian city, considered the
world’s important center for the production of beautifully made papers. For some time in Europe, especially in
France and Germany, paper was used but then a sudden decrease of paper became noticeable. After its
introduction in Europe the use of paper became too small due to the following reasons:
1. Parchment was highly satisfactorily material and this was much better than the earliest paper.
2. Education in Europe at that time was backward and there were relatively few who could read and
write.
3. It also suffered at first from laws which forbade its use for public documents and important written
instruments. The decree of Emperor Frederick II in 1221 declared that instruments written on paper
had no validity in law.
EARLY PRINTERS
In England, the first printer was William Caxton, born about 1422 in Kent, England. He began his career
as an apprentice to a prominent London merchant. He prospered after a year of hard work and even became a
holder of government position. He must have relinquished the office in 1470 and having no great change of
occupation, he undertook the work of translating the “Recuereil Des Historie”. This is a compilation from Latin
sources by Raoule Le Fevre. The translation begun at Burges, Belgium, continued at Kent and completed in
Cologne in 1471.
It was learned that Caxton learned the art of printing in order that he might produce the copies of the
translation in book form. He became familiar with printing when he was in Cologne and it was believed that he
went on a voluntary exile due to the insurrection of his native country and to master the art of printing.
In his return to Bruges, he established a printing office and listed as an associate and talented
calligrapher by the name of Colard Mansion. The first production of the press was the Recuyell of the Historyes
of Torye which Caxton has translated into a small folio of 351 leaves. This contains the prologue, printed in red.
The Recuyell was said to be the first book printed in English and it appeared in 1474 – 76. In 1477, Caxton
published the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, the first book printed in England.
PRINTING PRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Printing in China was known even before the coming of the Europeans to the orient. Letters were
engraved to the wooden block and impression was said to be xylographic. In 1590, the Chinese in the
Philippines were said to be somewhat neglected in terms of conversion to Christianity, due to the language
barrier. Through the help of Don Gonzalo Ronquillo, the Chinese were gathered together in a place “Parian”
where ministers could study their language and instruct them at the same time. This was successful due to the
friendly relation that existed after a long struggle and hard work.
The Chinese brought xylography to the Philippines but insignificant to use because no one to start
printing by this process. During the year 1587 – 1588, two noted theologians were assigned to the service of the
Chinese – both of whom were masters of Chinese language. Fr. Benavidez constructed the church and convent
of Binondo and Fr. Juan de Cobo translated the “Beng-Sin-Po-Cam” from Chinese to Spanish. He also wrote
the Doctrina Christian which was said to be the first printed book in Chinese characters. This was printed under
the direction of Fr. Juan de Cobo. Binondo was the origin of the first printing press in the Philippines. This was
later transferred to Bataan, then to Manila, tehn to Pila and then in 1618 transferred to Pampanga. Finally to
University of Sto. Tomas in 1625 where it remains up to the present day.
HOLY CROSS OF DAVAO COLLEGE
BSLIS IN-HOUSE REVIEW FOR LIBRARIANS’ BOARD EXAM
TYPES OF LIBRARIES – (HISTORY)
1. Libraries of Clay – The greatest contribution of the Sumerians to mankind is the earliest known from
of writing called “cuneiform” . The word “cuneiform” , which describes their style of writing, is from cuneus,
the Latin word for wedge. The materials used were softly clay and a wedge-shaped stylus or metal, ivory, or
wood. These are the earliest known writing materials which were used as we now use paper and pencil.
The ancient Babylonians made tablets of clay and cut symbols into them in a system of writing called
cuneiform. After about 4000 B.C., the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and many other peoples used similar tablets
for keeping records. The also used them to write messages. Through commerce and conquest, these peoples
carried cuneiform tablets westward to Egypt.
The Babylonians and Assyrians kept huge libraries of cuneiform tablets. Many of them lay buried for
thousands of years. In 1953, A British Archeologist, Sir Henry Layard, discovered a great public library at
Nineveh, near what is now Mosul, Iraq. The library held 10,000 clay tablets. An Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal,
built the library during the 600 B.C. Other great collections of of tablets have been recovered from such ancient
cities as Ur, Nippur, Kish, and Tello. Tablets in these collections contain history, mythology, mathematics, and
legal and commercial records. Some of the tablets found at Nippur contained part of the Code of Hammurabi,
the law giver of Babylon. Another famous record, the story of Gilgamesh, was found in Nineveh. It tells the
Babylonian story of the flood.
2. Libraries of Papyrus – About the same time the Babylonians were developing cuneiform writing,
the Egyptians learned to make beautiful writing material from the papyrus plant. Papyrus became the standard
writing material in all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Papyrus could be joined easily, and the
Egyptians used long papyrus scrolls for books.
The Greeks also used papyrus. Pisistratus, a ruler of Athens, probably founded the library there in the
500 B. C. The Greeks set up libraries in all the cities they founded, from Sicily to the Black Sea. Aristotle’s
scrolls were passed on until they became part of the most famous library in the ancient world, at Alexandria.
Alexander the Great was Aristotle’s pupil, and he learned the value of books form his teacher. He built
Alexandria n 332 B. C, and his successor, Ptolemy I, founded a library there soon afterward. Scholars believe
the library contained more than 500,000 scrolls, representing the literature of all the known world, as far as
India. Two famous librarians of the Alexandria library are:
(c) Zenodotus – who was a Greek historian who edited the works of Homer, and
(d) Callimachus – who classified and catalogued the library collections.
The partial destruction of the library was in 47 B. C. and its total destruction was in 391 A. D. This was brought
about due to Roman invasions and conquest when the Roman Empire expanded very extensively at the height
of its glory.
3) Libraries of Parchment – other successors of Alexander the Great developed the City Pergamum,
near Constantinople as a center of learning. When the library at Pergamum threatened to become more
important than the one at Alexandria, the Alexandrians cut off its supply of papyrus. The people of Pergamum
began writing on animal skins and developed an improved material. They called this material pergamentum,
the origin of our word parchment. But, in 41 B. C., Mark Anthony took 200,000 scrolls from Pergamum and
gave them to Cleopatra for the library at Alexandria. When the Roman Empire fell apart (476 A. D.), scholars
and monks preserved many of the parchment books. An important room in every monastery was the
scriptorium, where monks reached great heights of artistic creation in illuminating (decorating) their books.
4) Libraries of Paper – The Chinese built libraries as early as the 300 B. C. But they made their
greatest contribution to the development of libraries when they invented paper about 105 A. D. The use of
paper spread westward through Arabia, and finally reached Europe about the year 1100. When Johannes
Gutenberg, a German, printed with movable type on paper about 1440, he made it possible for more and more
people to own books. The Latin Bible was the first book printed.
PRINTED MATTER – HISTORY
Use of Signs and Symbols as means of Communication.
During the early times, man was able to communicated with his fellowmen by means of grunts and
cries. These supplemented with gesture as sort of sign language. These went on for a while until men became
masters of his language. Later, they discovered that his language was not enough, so they begun to think of
something more to enable them to communicate and be able to store what was believed to be of importance.
Man finally discovered the use of symbols to express themselves. They used drawings or some sorts of pictures
to make themselves understood. These symbols led to a turning point as a great achievement which later served
as a foundation of men’s rank in the living world. The development of the early means of communication are
commemorating the lives and experiences of pre-historic men. This served as papers of the past which is most
useful to history.
In the early United States, the early cave dwellers were the American Indians. These people made use
of signs and symbols that they almost lived on them. At present, caves are still preserved. Their works are very
much taken cared off; their writings, and even their primitive arrangement of rocks and sand which they used as
sort of furniture still exist in almost perfect condition.
Along the walls of the caves, one may find carves of animals and other objects symbolizing for
instance: the sun, tree, lightning, etc. They also went to the extent of carving traces of human beings especially
of people they adore or love.
In Europe, the Paleolithic cave dwellers have almost the same works that the American Indians have.
Like the American Indians, they also made use of the crudest tools to enable them to carve and draw pictures of
animals and objects.
Therefore, pre-historic man have thought of signs and symbols and handed to humanity the beginning
of writings.
ORIGIN OF ALPHABET
Alphabet – is the series of letters used in writing a language. The name means exactly what the terms
ABC means as a name for the 27 letters of our alphabet. The word comes from “alpha and beta”, the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet.
Most books, magazines, and newspapers are printed in the 27 letters alphabet called Roman. But the
Romans did not invent it. They put finishing touches on a system that had been growing for thousands of years.
Thousands of years passed when men begun to realize the difficulty of interpreting objects that they
represent due to the innumerable pictographs that appeared. Many of these could not be identified although,
undoubtedly had different meanings at least to men who used them. Primitive as they were, they tried to invent
and think of more possible way to enable better understanding among themselves. Thru some unknown
explanation, pictographs came into writing. Man, of course have a quite difficulty of grasping the idea and
associating the interpretation of an object with certain alphabetic characters, thus pictographs little by little
developed into ideographs or symbols that interpret or represent objects.
Later, the development of the Egyptian Phonetic system of writing came about; but then seemed to have
confused them due to so many characters that were invented to represent a particular thing.
The Babylonians, Mesopotamians, and the Assyrians who were the Egyptian’s contemporary developed
phonetic system of writing but this resulted to a syllabic system of writing. The system of writing were just
sort of skeleton frames. From Sinai, these system of writing seemed to have brought to Palestine and Arabia.
The Palestine Alphabet was said to be the pro-genitor (direct ancestor) of the earliest Phoenician Alphabet.
The Phoenician Alphabet at the earliest stage seemed to have developed for maturely that it would give
an impression that it has been used for quite while.
CHARACTERISTICS of the early Phoenician Alphabet:
1. It is purely consonantal with no letters for true vowel sounds.
2. It has occasional sort of vertical strokes which is used to divide words or groups of word.
The Greeks realized the difficulty of lack of vowel sounds in this alphabets. They used to have certain
voiceless breathings to emphasizes vowel sounds. Finally, they thought that an invention of some characters
to represent some vowel sounds will do a great deal to facilitate pronunciation. Some of the Phoenician
characters were no doubt adopted to the Greeks but after sometime, the Greeks introduced the use of
diphthongs such as: ai, ei, ou. This was an outstanding contribution of the Greeks to us. With the
distinguished contribution of the evolution of the Greek Alphabet ---- this resulted to the so called Eastern
and Western Alphabet.
3) The eastern alphabet was revived in Greece with some minor changes. This found its way toward the
beginning of the alphabets of Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia and the rest of the Slavic Nations. The importance of
the Eastern Greece alphabet was that it became the ancestors of our alphabet.
4) Western alphabet – the early Romans were said to have learned the architecture. No one knew when the
Roman writing first spread but a historical evidence was found at the modern Palestrina (a town near
Rome). This was about 600 B. C. This was incised in gold fibula and the incision was said to have
inscription in which was said to have been written from left to right. Here was written the 4 words in the
inscription in which was said to be the oldest form of Roman Alphabet.
The Romans have written these alphabets to almost nearly like ours but have eliminated the use of K and
used of C instead. But later, letter C was used everywhere with an equivalent of letter G. So in order to
differentiate these two, they put a little dash on letter C. – G.]
The Romans kept the letter F called “di-gamma or double gamma” by the Greeks. This has a V sound but
this V sound disappeared when the Greeks strengthened it and this has an equivalent sound of our F at present.
The Greeks and the Etruscans did not recognize the use of letter q as in quotation. But the Romans proved
that this letter is very much indispensable in their alphabet. The Romans established the usage of QV. The letter
V was used both as vowel and semi-vowel
. As a vowel, v was used like the English double 0.00 / as a semi-vowel, it was used as in English double W. V
was taken from the Greek letter upsilon y.
Letter Z – this was discarded by the Romans during the earlier times. Z, the 7th in the English alphabet was
replaced by letter g during the earlier time.
Letter J – was entirely unknown to the Romans. They added a tail to letter I, thus letter j was formed.
Letter W – was formed by putting 2 letters vs together.
During the early part of the Christian era, the Romans used almost a perfect unity of style in writing. But
because of the bulk of work to be done, lots of modification appeared in the style of writing. These were
partially true in writing books and other important documents. The Rustic Capital thus became the outcome of
these modifications. This rustic capital are similar to those which some of us are still using. Through transitional
changes our small letters came into existence. These were the result of the unconscious tendency of the scribes
who became more and more familiar with the letter they were using.
Some changes came in the form of style writing when some innovators started using traditional capitals
which were named majuscules. These involves 2 forms of majuscules:
1. Square capital – they are more informal and similar in style with the letters seen in the monumental
inscriptions.
2. Rustic capital – the letters are thinner and more elongated.
(majuscules – capital letters of our alphabet now, minuscules – small letters)
During the 4th century, another style of writing came about and this is the so called “uncial” from the
Latin word “uncia”. This is characterized by the exaggeration of size. This style of writing merely show the
beginning of our small letters. Before the uncial letters disappeared, the so called half-uncials were beginning to
appear. This led the steps toward the development of the small letters. This style was carried to Ireland by St.
Patrick during the 5th century. This was carried further and further by the monks to England and to other places
where they went. Through Irish influences, the art of writing revived. One of their finished work that was
produced was the so called Lindisfarne Gospel. This came about the year 700 A.D. in the North of England
and was said to have been made by Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne.
The uncial style begun to be less used during the 8th century. The scribes found sit inadequate for their
use since this requires skill and time. They also found it too expensive to maintain due to the space it requires in
order to display itself. There was scarcity in vellum (calf skin) and papyrus which were used for writing
materials.
As a result of the scribe indifference toward the uncial styles, a great mixtures of styles appeared.
Uncials, half-uncials, cursive and even abbreviations and ligatures which had nothing to do with the alphabet
were used. These brought about confusion for the scholars.
Before the 9th century, Charlemagne came into power in Europe. He advocate change in the art of
writing and even gave aid to the cause of scholarship. He established a school a school of writing at Tours.
Another style of writing was developed and this called the Caroline Minuscules and this style was based on a
careful selection from other styles and this also introduced the practice of separation of words to aid an easy
reading. The Tours School gave valuable reforms but after the days of its influence had passed, local and
national characteristics in penmanship once more appeared. The Gothic style came into existence during the
12th century. This was influenced by the increasing tendency towards angularity in forming of letters but it has
never lost the fine features of its Carolingian predecessor.
The forms of capital letters were particularly striking in style. This style did not last long. It was not in
its best form when the invention of printing put a start in its evolution. The scholars during this time felt that
manuscript copies of the classics should be written in purer and simpler form which was most suitable than the
elaborated script then in used. They, therefore, went back to the Carolingian style which was described to be
clearer and legible style that much suited for writing manuscripts. The evolution of the alphabet from the rustic
capitals of Ancient Rome to the forms of letters we are now using have given 2 things:
1. our capital letters
2. small letters
have separate functions in their uses.
Early materials used for writings were:
1. leaves
5. Animal skin or parchment or vellum
2. bark of trees
6. Baked clay (not all nations have
clay, too difficult to get and once written
that is the end of it
3.bamboo’s
4.rocks or any flat surface objects 7. Papyrus
PAPER – CHINA, 105 A. D.
There were two factors that hindered the spread of paper in the western world. These were: religion and
military conquest.
The Buddhist missionaries whose aims were endless repetition and multiplication of their sacred sect,
seized on paper as means of spreading their faith throughout China and Japan.
The Mohammedans who represented the conquering Arabs at the time put a close to Europe the ancient
trade routes from the east thus diverted the spread of paper in the Muslim world.
The earliest paper mill in Christendom was probably erected at Fabriano, an Italian city, considered
the world’s important center for the production of beautifully made papers. For some time in Europe, especially
in France and Germany, paper was used but then a sudden decrease of paper became noticeable. After its
introduction in Europe the use of paper became too small due to the following reasons:
1. Parchment was highly satisfactorily material and this was much better than the earliest paper.
2. Education in Europe at that time was backward and there were relatively few who could read and write.
3.It also suffered at first from laws which forbade its use for public documents and important written
instruments. The decree of Emperor Frederick II in 1221 declared that instruments written on paper had no
validity in law.
EARLY PRINTERS
In England, the first printer was William Caxton, born about 1422 in Kent, England. He began his
career as an apprentice to a prominent London merchant. He prospered after a year of hard work and even
became a holder of government position. He must have relinquished the office in 1470 and having no great
change of occupation, he undertook the work of translating the “Recuereil Des Historie”. This is a compilation
from Latin sources by Raoule Le Fevre. The translation begun at Burges, Belgium, continued at Kent and
completed in Cologne in 1471.
It was learned that Caxton learned the art of printing in order that he might produce the copies of the
translation in book form. He became familiar with printing when he was in Cologne and it was believed that he
went on a voluntary exile due to the insurrection of his native country and to master the art of printing.
In his return to Bruges, he established a printing office and listed as an associate and talented
calligrapher by the name of Colard Mansion. The first production of the press was the Recuyell of the Historyes
of Torye which Caxton has translated into a small folio of 351 leaves. This contains the prologue, printed in red.
The Recuyell was said to be the first book printed in English and it appeared in 1474 – 76. In 1477, Caxton
published the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, the first book printed in England.
PRINTING PRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Printing in China was known even before the coming of the Europeans to the orient. Letters were
engraved to the wooden block and impression was said to be xylographic. In 1590, the Chinese in the
Philippines were said to be somewhat neglected in terms of conversion to Christianity, due to the language
barrier. Through the help of Don Gonzalo Ronquillo, the Chinese were gathered together in a place “Parian”
where ministers could study their language and instruct them at the same time. This was successful due to the
friendly relation that existed after a long struggle and hard work.
The Chinese brought xylography to the Philippines but insignificant to use because no one to start
printing by this process. During the year 1587 – 1588, two noted theologians were assigned to the service of the
Chinese – both of whom were masters of Chinese language. Fr. Benavidez constructed the church and convent
of Binondo and Fr. Juan de Cobo translated the “Beng-Sin-Po-Cam” from Chinese to Spanish. He also wrote
the Doctrina Christian which was said to be the first printed book in Chinese characters. This was printed
under the direction of Fr. Juan de Cobo. Binondo was the origin of the first printing press in the Philippines.
This was later transferred to Bataan, then to Manila, then to Pila and then in 1618 transferred to Pampanga.
Finally to University of Sto. Tomas in 1625 where it remains up to the present day.
TYPES OF LIBRARIES – (HISTORY)
1. Libraries of Clay – The greatest contribution of the Sumerians to mankind is the earliest known
from of writing called “cuneiform” . The word “cuneiform” , which describes their style of writing, is from
cuneus, the Latin word for wedge. The materials used were softly clay and a wedge-shaped stylus or metal,
ivory, or wood.
In 1953, A British Archeologist, Sir Henry Layard, discovered a great public library at Nineveh, near
what is now Mosul, Iraq. The library held 10,000 clay tablets. An Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, built the
library during the 600 B.C.
-Some of the tablets found at Nippur contained part of the Code of Hammurabi, the law giver of Babylon.
Another famous record, the story of Gilgamesh, was found in Nineveh. It tells the Babylonian story of the
flood.
3. Libraries of Papyrus – About the same time the Babylonians were developing cuneiform writing
- Egyptians learned to make beautiful writing material from the papyrus plant. Papyrus became the standard
writing material in all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea.
The Greeks also used papyrus. Pisistratus, a ruler of Athens, probably founded the library there in the
500 B. C. The Greeks set up libraries in all the cities they founded, from Sicily to the Black Sea. Aristotle’s
scrolls were passed on until they became part of the most famous library in the ancient world, at Alexandria.
Alexander the Great was Aristotle’s pupil, and he learned the value of books form his teacher. He built
Alexandria n 332 B. C, and his successor, Ptolemy I, founded a library there soon afterward. Scholars believe
the library contained more than 500,000 scrolls, representing the literature of all the known world, as far as
India. Two famous librarians of the Alexandria library are:
a)Zenodotus – who was a Greek historian who edited the works of Homer, and
b)Callimachus – who classified and catalogued the library collections.
3) Libraries of Parchment – other successors of Alexander the Great developed the City Pergamum, They
called this material pergamentum, the origin of our word parchment
4) Libraries of Paper – The Chinese built libraries - 300 B. C.
- they invented paper about 105 A. D. The use of paper spread westward through Arabia, and finally reached
Europe about the year 1100. When Johannes Gutenberg, a German, printed with movable type on paper about
1440, he made it possible for more and more people to own books. The Latin Bible was the first book printed.
PRINTED MATTER – HISTORY
Use of Signs and Symbols as means of Communication.
-grunts and cries.
-discovered the use of symbols to express themselves.
-drawings or some sorts of pictures to make themselves understood.
-early United States, American Indians-caves
walls of the caves, one may find carves of animals and
other objects: the sun, tree, lightning, etc.
-In Europe, the Paleolithic cave dwellers
- pre-historic man - signs and symbols and handed to humanity the beginning of writings.
ORIGIN OF ALPHABET
Alphabet – is the series of letters used in writing a language. The name means exactly what the terms
ABC means as a name for the 27 letters of our alphabet. The word comes from “alpha and beta”, the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet.
Most books, magazines, and newspapers are printed in the 27 letters alphabet called Roman.
3 systems of writings:
-pictographs –representing an object
-ideographs or symbols that interpret idea suggested by the object.
-phonographic-representing the sound of the object or idea
-Egyptian Phonetic system of writing
- Babylonians, Mesopotamians, and the Assyrians -developed phonetic system of writing but this resulted to a
syllabic system of writing.
CHARACTERISTICS of the early Phoenician Alphabet:
1. It is purely consonantal with no letters for true vowel sounds.
2.It has occasional sort of vertical strokes which is used to divide words or groups of word.
Some of the Phoenician characters were no doubt adopted to the Greeks but after sometime, the Greeks
introduced the use of diphthongs such as: ai, ei, ou. This was an outstanding contribution of the Greeks to
us. With the distinguished contribution of the evolution of the Greek Alphabet ---- this resulted to the so
called Eastern and Western Alphabet.
4. The eastern alphabet was revived in Greece with some minor changes. This found its way toward the
beginning of the alphabets of Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia and the rest of the Slavic Nations. The importance
of the Eastern Greece alphabet was that it became the ancestors of our alphabet.
5. Western alphabet – the early Romans were said to have learned the architecture. No one knew when
the Roman writing first spread but a historical evidence was found at the modern Palestrina (a town near
Rome). This was about 600 B. C. This was incised in gold fibula and the incision was said to have
inscription in which was said to have been written from left to right. Here was written the 4 words in the
inscription in which was said to be the oldest form of Roman Alphabet.
-The Romans have written these alphabets to almost nearly like ours but have eliminated the use of K and
used of C instead. But later, letter C was used everywhere with an equivalent of letter G. So in order to
differentiate these two, they put a little dash on letter C. – G.]
The Romans kept the letter F called “di-gamma or double gamma” by the Greeks. This has a V sound but
this V sound disappeared when the Greeks strengthened it and this has an equivalent sound of our F at present.
The Greeks and the Etruscans did not recognize the use of letter q as in quotation. But the Romans proved
that this letter is very much indispensable in their alphabet. The Romans established the usage of QV. The letter
V was used both as vowel and semi-vowel
-As a vowel, v was used like the English double 0.00 / as a semi-vowel, it was used as in English double W. V
was taken from the Greek letter upsilon y.
Letter Z – this was discarded by the Romans during the earlier times. Z, the 7th in the English alphabet was
replaced by letter g during the earlier time.
Letter J – was entirely unknown to the Romans. They added a tail to letter I, thus letter j was formed.
Letter W – was formed by putting 2 letters vs together.
Some changes came in the form of style writing when some innovators started using traditional capitals
which were named majuscules. These involves 2 forms of majuscules:
1. Square capital – they are more informal and similar in style with the letters seen in the monumental
inscriptions.
2. Rustic capital – the letters are thinner and more elongated.
(majuscules – capital letters of our alphabet now, minuscules – small letters)
-During the 4th century, another style of writing came about and this is the so called “uncial” from the Latin
word “uncia”.
-One of their finished work that was produced was the so called Lindisfarne Gospel. This came about the year
700 A.D. in the North of England and was said to have been made by Eadfrith, the bishop of Lindisfarne.
-The uncial style begun to be less used during the 8th century
-There was scarcity in vellum (calf skin) and papyrus which were used for writing materials.
-Before the 9th century, Charlemagne came into power in Europe. He advocated the change in the art of writing
and even gave aid to the cause of scholarship. He established a school a school of writing at Tours.
Caroline Minuscules and this style was based on a careful selection from other styles and this also introduced
the practice of separation of words to aid an easy reading.
The Gothic style came into existence during the 12th century.
Carolingian style which was described to be clearer and legible style that much suited for writing manuscripts.
The evolution of the alphabet from the rustic capitals of Ancient Rome to the forms of letters we are now using
have given 2 things:
1.our capital letters
2. small letters
have separate functions in their uses.
Early materials used for writings were:
1. leaves
6. Animal skin or parchment or vellum
2.bark of trees
7. Baked clay (not all nations have
3.bamboos
clay, too difficult to get and once written
4.rocks or any flat surface objects
that is the end of it
5. Papyrus
PAPER – CHINA, 105 A. D.
There were two factors that hindered the spread of paper in the western world. These were: religion and
military conquest.
The Buddhist missionaries whose aims were endless repetition and multiplication of their sacred sect,
seized on paper as means of spreading their faith throughout China and Japan.
The Mohammedans who represented the conquering Arabs at the -diverted the spread of paper in the
Muslim world.
- Fabriano, an Italian city earliest paper mill in Christendom, considered the world’s important center for the
production of beautifully made papers.
-After its introduction in Europe the use of paper became too small due to the following reasons:
1.Parchment was highly satisfactorily material and this was much better than the earliest paper.
2. Education in Europe at that time was backward and there were relatively few who could read and
write.
3.It also suffered at first from laws which forbade its use for public documents and important written
instruments. The decree of Emperor Frederick II in 1221 declared that instruments written on paper had no
validity in law.
EARLY PRINTERS
In England, the first printer was William Caxton, born about 1422 in Kent, England.
-he translated the “Recuereil Des Historie”. This is a compilation from Latin sources by Raoule Le Fevre. The
translation begun at Burges, Belgium, continued at Kent and completed in Cologne in 1471.
-Bruges, established a printing office and talented calligrapher by the name of Colard Mansion.
-The first production of the press was the Recuyell of the Historyes of Torye which Caxton has translated into
a small folio of 351 leaves. This contains the prologue, printed in red.
-The Recuyell was said to be the first book printed in English and it appeared in 1474 – 76. In 1477, Caxton
published the Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers, the first book printed in England.
PRINTING PRESS IN THE PHILIPPINES
Chinese-xylographic- xylograph
1587 – 1588, two noted theologians -Fr. Benavidez constructed the church and convent of Binondo and
Fr. Juan de Cobo translated the “Beng-Sin-Po-Cam” from Chinese to Spanish. -wrote the Doctrina Christian
which was said to be the first printed book in Chinese characters.
Binondo was the origin of the first printing press in the Philippines. This was later transferred to Bataan, then
to Manila, then to Pila and then in 1618 transferred to Pampanga. Finally to University of Sto. Tomas in
1625 where it remains up to the present day.
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