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“Why should the structure of a book matter to me? Aren’t the words and pictures the most important parts since, y’know, that is what people pay attention to?” 🤷♂️
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Maybe it’s true that the information provided by a book is its most important part, but information relies on its medium in order to be conveyed. If you understand the structure of the medium, it becomes much easier to repair, and thereby preserve the information within. Hence my attempt to look into and write about the anatomy of books.
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Words/text printed on paper are a common sight in today’s world, but books didn’t always have this structure.
One of the earliest forms of text on a medium was found in Mesopotamia (the first civilisation, located around modern day Iraq 🇮🇶) when writing was first inscribed on clay tablets with the use of wedge-like sticks or styluses (styli?).
Clay is a simple material made from mud/dirt and water, both of which are plentiful around rivers (i.e., where civilisation typically arises). Solidified clay is also very inert, so artifacts made from clay like sculptures, or inscriptions made upon clay tablets, have been preserved for millennia.
^Clay tablet with cuneiform writing and potentially some pictures, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/cuneiform
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7OzA26mqzSQ
Cuneiform letter-writing by Dr. George Heath-Whyte, from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7OzA26mqzSQ. He gives a live demonstration of writing upon clay with a stylus, and even reads/pronounces his inscription!
Other ways of recording writing are on wooden tablets with ink or charcoal (e.g., mokkan), with slate and chalk (both are kinds of stones), with parchment or vellum (animal skin)… (KEEP GOING)
The modern book as we know it today has the structure of a ‘codex’ (plural is ‘codices’) (INCLUDE A PICTURE HERE), which is made of sheets of paper that are stitched and bound together on one side, then attached (usually glued) to a covering material that wraps around three sides of the bound pages to protect them from damage 📘. One of the oldest extant codices is a manuscript of the christian bible that dates to the 4th century BC, which is called the Codex Sinaiticus (Sinai as in Mt Sinai from biblical legend).
Variations of the codex exist in the modern day too, from durable board books and fun lift-the-flap books to simple paperbacks and fancy hardcovers. Different materials of books can be selected based on the characteristics of who will read them (or the price points of people who will pay for them📔💰).
In this page, I will try to share what I have learned (or am currently learning!) about the modern codex, with the ideas organised into two categories: Macrostructure (big stuff) and Microstructure (small stuff).
All instances of using copyrighted pictures or works in this blog are covered by the Australian Federal Copyright Act 1968, namely Division III Section 40 Fair dealing for purpose of research or study and Division III Section 41 Fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review.