BOOK. - This name is properly given to the writing material which, after suitable preparation, is used to receive and disseminate the graphic expression of thought, executed by hand or by mechanical means. Apart from minor examples (silk, lead plates, clay tablets, wax tablets), the writing material is represented above all, in the course of time, by papyrus (v.), parchment (v.), and paper (v.): excluded from the concept of the book, on the other hand, are epigraphic materials (marble, bronze), or even the same book materials when they are used for another purpose, even if they contain writing, as in the case of documents.
The form of the book varies according to the material used: with papyrus the roll (volumen) predominates, obtained by means of a long strip of sheets glued one beside the other, which is wound around a small rod of wood or ivory; with parchment, on the other hand, there is the codex (codex), constituted by the union of several sheets folded in the middle like a hinge and superimposed so as to form quires of two (binio), three (ternio), four (quaternio) or more double sheets. This form, being more practical, was preserved even after the adoption of paper.
In the first period of its history, which runs from the most remote times to the middle of the 15th century, the book was written by hand with various instruments and liquids. The reproduction of texts was carried out in writing workshops (scriptoria) in which the copyists or amanuenses worked, constituting a kind of craft: their work was remunerated according to rules that were for the first time regulated in a definite manner in the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period. With Christianity, however, a profound change also came about in this field, above all through the work of monasticism, to which belongs the merit of having continued and perfected the writing and doctrinal tradition; only around the 12th century, with the rise of the universities, did there come a return to the laicization of the writing centers, which was then to become ever more pronounced with Humanism and the Renaissance.
The first period, that of the manuscript book, is succeeded by that of printing with movable type. The technique of engraving designs and colored figures on wood blocks for printing on fabrics, on religious images and on playing cards was already known. Wood blocks with fixed characters were also used for the reproduction of those particular texts that bear the name of xylographic or block books and that had a limited circulation during the 15th century: but they have no relation of dependence on printing with movable type, whose first manifestations date from the middle of the 15th century. The inventor was Giovanni Genfleisch, called Gutenberg (v.), who worked above all in Mainz. From Germany printing (v. INCUNABULO) spread rapidly throughout Europe, and sooner than elsewhere in Italy, where it soon reached a high degree of perfection (Subiaco, Rome, Venice, Milan, Naples, Florence and many other cities) and had its greatest flourishing in the 16th century (v. BLADO; GIOLITO; GIUNTA; MANUZIO). In the 17th century the most active and most renowned center was in the Netherlands (v. ELZEVIER), but in the following century France (v. DIDOT) and Italy (v. BODONI) returned to favor.
In the 19th century the typographic art became industrialized, until the 20th century represents the full triumph of mechanization in all the manifestations of the book industry. Recently, moreover, photographic technique has opened a new chapter in the history of the book: above all in the libraries of America, where the adoption of microfilm tends to replace printed works. It is worth observing, however, that such a system, of great utility in relation to the space it allows one to save, proves poorly suited to consultation when it is adopted for volumes of many pages or of large format. It presupposes, in any case, the printed book.
The interest that the book arouses as one of the most important manifestations of civilization, the importance it holds for the dissemination of human thought, the care and special expertise that it requires for collection and preservation have given rise around it to a particular discipline, bibliology, which not only
CANTO XXXII. 195
CANTO XXXII
L'affitto al suo piacer, quel contemplante,
Libero affetto di distinte assunse,
E resistere queste parole sante:
La pigia, che Maria richisse ad esse,
Quella, ch'è tanto bella da noi piedi,
È solita, che l'apriva e che la piacer,
Nell'ordine che fanno i treri sedi,
Siede Rachel di sana da creati
Con Beatrice, si come su sedi,
Sara, Rebecca, Julia, e eule,
Che fu buona al canne, che per doglia
Dal fatto disse Miserere mer,
Puoi in veder essa di soglia in soglia
Che digredar, con'io, ch'è proprio nome
Vo per la cosa già di foglia in foglia.
È dal cristino grado in giro, si come
Incisa ad esso, succedono Ebere,
Dizionando del fine tutte le chiuse:
Perché, scende la sguarda, che fie
La fede in Cristo, queste sono il mare,
A che si partono le sacre scabie.
(Int. Enc. Catt.)
BOOK - Divine Comedy: Paradiso, XXXII, 1-21. Bodoni edition edited by Jacopo Dionisi (Parma 1793) - Copy from the Vatican Library.
it studies its history in relation to the writing material and instruments, to typographic technique, to ornamentation (v. MINIATURE), to binding (v.), but it also deals with damage and restoration, with publishing technique, with the book trade, with bibliophily.
THE DISEASES OF THE L
Many agents of a physical and biological nature can modify more or less profoundly the structure of the writing material, producing alterations that can resemble diseases, owing to certain affinities with the morbid states peculiar to plant and animal organisms. Their onset can be prevented by appropriate prophylaxis, or their progress and development can be halted by promptly adopting remedies suited to the nature of the processes to be combated.
Climatic factors, that is, the whole complex of conditions of humidity, temperature, pressure, aeration, and insolation, can by themselves bring about those alterations if they exceed certain maxima or minima, or favor the spread of harmful biological species. When one speaks of climate, one refers to that of the environment in which books are kept, and not to only one of its agents but to all of them and to their mutual relationships. In fact, to guarantee to library material a hygienic state of preservation, the average temperature must not exceed 18° or 20° C., on condition that the relative humidity does not exceed a minimum of 40% and a maximum of 65%. Beyond these limits, fibers, fabrics, and bindings suffer from excesses and deficiencies of humidity. The same happens with permanent imbalances of the other factors. Insects, molds, and bacteria live and propagate more easily if they find thermal and hygrometric coefficients higher than the averages mentioned above.
Thus a tradition of studies has arisen, in which the causes, genesis, and pathological manifestations are investigated, along with the means suited to preventing and combating them. Among the biological agents, first of all stands man, who, as maker or user of the book, consciously or unconsciously causes it potential or real, direct or indirect damage. From remote times there are records of voracious insects that damage books and shelves. Only, however, since it became possible to distinguish species from species, to study their habits and biological possibilities, have prophylactic measures been adopted to prevent their spread, and in cases of infestation interventions have been devised to ensure vigorous and rapid disinfestation.
Almost all alterations of a microbial nature (pigmentations, woolly and granular vegetations of various colors, etc.) go under the common name of molds. Many of them are indeed due to the specific action of fungi, sometimes merely chromogenic, sometimes cellulositic, but which, according to the current view, presupposes as preparatory or concomitant the action of bacteria. Some species are exclusively paper-dwelling, others ubiquitous. Their fibrolytic action also varies. Parasitologists and hygienists have devoted particular attention to the spread of pathogenic germs by means of the book and to its contagiousness among readers, without however reaching concordant and definitive conclusions. The book can suffer damage from violent traumatic causes as a result of accidents: fires, collapses, volcanic and alluvial cataclysms, explosions, shipwrecks. From these derive oxidations, carbonizations, crushings, abrasions, pulping, and dilutions.
Once the nature, causes, and genesis of the damage have been ascertained, with the aid of the necessary experimental means one works on the material so as to halt the degenerative processes under way and to ensure for it, by means of restorative interventions, its further preservation. Preliminary investigations are therefore required, intended to identify the agents that produced the alterations, along with research on the choice of remedies to be adopted: disinfectants and antiseptics, decolorizing reagents, detersive actions and substances, and the possibility of total or partial interventions.
Restoration consists of a complex of operations that require special techniques. It derives from an ancient craft tradition that loved to surround itself with mysterious secrets. Today, thanks to the progress made and to the collaboration of experimenters, rational procedures have replaced the customary empiricisms. Taking rigorous account of the particular state of the material, restoration can be total or partial. It must achieve the reclamation of the material, and not of the writings, the ornamentations, or any mark that the hand of man may have left there. It requires the greatest sense of responsibility and the most absolute and jealous respect for the morphological and structural integrity of the various elements that make up the book. In any case it must be considered an exceptional remedy, to be adopted only in cases in which the preservation of a text is seriously compromised. The restoration operations carried out successively are: a) unstitching of the book; b) cleaning, stain removal, and washing of the individual leaves; c) patching; d) flattening; e) reassembly and sewing; f) rebinding and finishing. - See pl. LXXXV.
Bibliography14 works
On the applications of microfilm, cf. the report of the conference by Fr. Anselmo M. Albareda held on 25 Nov. 1948 at the Vatican Library, in L'osservatore romano, of 1 Dec. 1948, p. 2, cols. 1-2. - On the diseases of the book cf. A. Gallo, Le malattie del l., Milan 1935; id., Patologia del l., in Bollettino dell'Istituto di patologia del l., 8 (1949), pp. 1-55 (with bibliography).