FAQs

TIME-TABLE (CHRONOLOGICAL)
YEAR	KEYWORD	EVENT
-3500	SUMERIAN CLAY TABLETS	Sumerians use cuneiform alphabet, pressed in clay with a triangular stylus. Clay tablets were dried and/or fired for longevity. Some even had clay envelopes,' which were also inscribed. Some people consider them to be the earliest form of the book.
-2500	WESTERN ASIAN SCROLLS	Animal skins are used for scrolls in Western Asia.
-2400	PAPYRUS	Date of the earliest surviving papyrus scroll with writing.
-1900	HITTITES	Hittites, from between 1900 and 1200 BC, left appr. 15,000 clay tablets
-1800	BOOK OF DEAD	Book of the Dead, Egypt
-1500	PHAISTOS DISC	The 'Phaistos disc', found on the island of Crete in 1908, was produced by pressing relief-carved symbols into the soft clay, then baking it. Although it contains the germ of the idea of printing, it appears to be unique.
-950	LEATHER USED FOR SCROLLS	Leather is made and used for scrolls and writing.
-800	PHOENECIAN WRITING	Moabite stone is created with one of the finest specimens of Phoenician writing. The letters resemble Greek.
-650	PAPYRUS	Papyrus. First rolls arrive in Greece from Egypt
-600	WRITING SYSTEM DEVELOPED	6th C. BC General agreement among Mediterranean cultures on left-to-right writing and reading. Before that, there was L-R, R-L, top-to-bottom, and boustroph edonic (back-and-forth). The Hebrews kept R-L.
-500	LAO TZE	Lao-Tze's lifetime, was said to have been archivist of the imperial archives
-431	XENOPHON	(431-352 BC) author of Anabasis and Memorabilia.
-295	ALEXANDRIA LIBARY	King Ptolemy I Soter enlisted the services of the orator Demetrios Phalereus, a former governor of Athens, and empowered him to collect, if he could, all the books in the inhabited world. To support his efforts, the king sent letters to all sovereigns and governors on earth requesting that the furnish works by poets and prose-writers, rhetoricians and sophists, doctors and soothsayers, historians, and all others too (Flavius Josephus). Agents were sent out to scout the cities of Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Foreign vessels calling in at Alexandria were searched routinely for scrolls and manuscripts. Transcripts were returned in due course, but the originals remained confiscated in the library. The story of the 47 AD destruction of the library is only partly true. Some 40,000 of the 700,000 volumes did go up in flames.
-213	CHIN TAIN SHIHUANGTI	Chin Tain Shihuangti, emperor of China, issued an edict that all books should be destroyed (manuscripts on bamboo)
-200	WAX TABLETS CODEX	Before 1st C. BC Both Greeks and Romans used wax tablets, framed and backed with wood, for note taking, orders, correspondence, and other temporary informat ion. At times, two or more tablets were joined with thongs or cords, similar to a 3-ringed binder. The Latin name for this was _codex_, from the word for wood. Single wax tablets had been used earlier than this in Mesopotamia, Greece, and Etruria.
-197	PERGAMUM	197-159 BC In the Middle East, near Pergamum, large herds of cattle are raised for skins to be made into what we now call 'parchment.'
-196	ROSETTA STONE	The'Rosetta' stone is cut. It contains the same text in Egyptian hieroglyphic, Egyptian demotic, and Greek writing. It was discovered in 1799 near the mouth of the Nile and served to break the code for deciphering ancient Egyptian works.
-150	PAPER	The first paper is made in CHina from macerated hemp fibers in water suspension.
-150	DEAD SEA SCROLLS	150 BC - 40 AD Approximate dates of the Hebrew and Aramaic documents, Biblical and nonbiblical, found as scrolls sealed in ceramic pots in caves near the Dead Sea in 1957. Some are written on thin, whitish leather similar but not identical to parchment
-100	PAPER	Nash Papyrus, oldest known biblical fragment, containing the Hebrew text of the ten commandments. Acquired in Egypt 1902 by W.L.Nash and now in Cambridge University Library.
-100	CODICES	1st C. BC - 1st C. AD The Romans substituted skin, or membranae, for the wood panels in codices. It is unclear just when this was done and whether membranae was similar to Medieval parchment or to the thin leather of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it is known that there are no examples or records of this substitution prior to the Romans. Later, Romans used codices to record laws and rules of order, lending the name codes or codicils to such documents.
-100	CODEX	1st C. AD By the end of this century, the form of the book had largely changed from the scroll to the codex.
-39	LIBERTAS TEMPLE	Libertas. Asinius Pollio establishes first public library in Rome at the Libertas Temple
-28	AUGUSTUS	Augustus. Under the reign of emporer Augustus two large libraries were founded, the Palatine and the Octavian library
47	ALEXANDRIA LIBRARY DAMAGED	The great Library of Alexandria was damaged by fire when Julius Caeser besieged the city. It was said at one time to contain copies and translations of all known books (scrolls), between 400,000 and 500,000. It was later ravaged by civil war in the late 200s AD and by 400, nothing was left.
100	ULPIA	Ulpia. Bibliotheca Ulpia founded by Trajan, also serving as emperial archive
104	PAPER	Papermaking discovered in China by Ts'ai Louen (date is not very specific: it may have been 105. Name also written as: Ts'ai Lun) Material used: plant bark, discarded cotton and old fishnets.
105	PAPER	Chinese history records that papermaking was invented by Ts'ai Lun in the court of Ho'ti in Lei-yang, China. Paper had, in fact, been made in China for at least two hundred years before this date. The first papers were made from hemp, bark, and used fish nets.
191	PALATINE	Palatine library destoyed by fire
370	PUBLIC LIBRARY ROME	Public libraries, in these days there were said to be 28 public libaries in Rome
391	ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY	Alexandrian Library destroyed under the direction of Archbishop Theophilus of Antioch (destruction of temple of Serapis)
480	BOETHIUS	(480-524), the last learned Roman to study the language and literature of Greece. He wrote his DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE while awaiting his execution. The Consolation of Philosophy is a dialogue of 39 short poems in 13 different meters that paid tribute to the ancient authors and philosophers.
590	LUXEUIL	Luxeuil. Monastery founded by Columban, first monastery in Gaul. Irish Monks brought along numerous manuscripts
637	CAESAREA	Caesarea Library destroyed by Arabs conquering Palestine (library was orignally founded by church father Origen who died 309 AD)
687	CUTHBERT, GOSPEL OF St. JOHN	Undoubtedly one of history's most dramatic book exhumations involves a manuscript copy of the Gospel of St.John that was buried in the year 687 with the body of St. Cuthbert, bishop near Lindesfarne. Two hundred years later Danish invaders sacked the holy compund, carrying with them the remains of Cuthbert. In 1104 the carved wooden casket was opened and the Gospel, a manuscript written in uncial, was found perfectly preserved.
700	LINDISFARNE	Lindisfarne Gospels written on 258 leaves.
715	CODEX AMITINUS	Codex Amitinus, manuscript of the Vulgate written in Northumbrian uncial.
716	AMITIANUS	Amiatinus. Codex Amiatinus, made at the scriptorium of the twin monasteries Wearmouth and Jarrow near Newcastle, Northumbria. This codex brings together the entire old and new testament in 1,030 folios in a single binding.
750	AUREUS	Aureus. Codex Aureaus written, probably at Canterbury
750	CANTERBURY	Canterbury School of manuscript illumination, active until 13th century.
750	PAPER	Paper making reached Samarkand before 750, Baghdad in 793, Damascus and Cairo in approximately 950. Through the Arab conquest of North Africa and Southern Spain, the invention first reached the Moorish parts of Spain in the 11th century. A mill was recorded at Fez in Morocco in 1100, and the first on the Spanish mainland at Xativa in 1151. It reached Southern Italy in the 13th century, where, untill quite recently, some of the oldest handmade paper mills in Italy were operating near Amalfi, in the Naples area.
750	WILLIBRORD	Willibrord Gospels made appr. 750, probably made by the artists of the Book of Durrow
751	PAPER	Papermaking introduced in the Islamic world
800	PAPER	Marbling in Japan, first Turkish marbled paper 1586, first Dutch 1598
800	KELLS	Kells, Book of. written and painted at the Columbian monastery of Iona or at the Abbey of Kells in Ireland. 340 folia survived. Since 1661 in Trinity College, Dublin
868	WOODBLOCK	China, oldest known woodblock printing (method was in use much earlier)
868	PAPER	The first book printed on paper in China, in block printed Buddhist scripts.
896	COLOPHON	Colophon, oldest known manuscript colophon, in Books of the Prophets written by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias.
950	WINCHESTER	Winchester School, 950-1100, characteristic style of manuscript illumination
954	ABINGDON	Abingdon Monastery founded by Aethelwold, monks famous for manuscript illumination, Winchester School
1041	MOVABLE TYPE	In 1403 the earliest known book was printed from movable type in Korea, a process which had been used by the Chinese as early as 1041. In 1450 Gutenberg printed his 42-line Bible in Mainz on a quality of handmade paper which remains unsurpassed to this day. 26 Years later William Caxton brought the art of printing to England, and in 1486 the first English coloured illustrated book was printed in St. Albans.
1068	FATIMITE	Fatimite. Library of the Fatimite family (Cairo) destoyed by the Turks
1085	PAPER	Papermaking in Jativa Spain
1140	BIBLE	Winchester Bible, 1140-1190, English late Romanesque illumination
1147	UTRECHT PSALTER	Utrecht Psalter, Eadwine Psalter, copy of the Utrecht Psalter, example of Canterbury Romanesque written at Christchurch by Eadwine
1238	PAPER	Papermaking mill established in Capellades, Catalonia
1250	FORE EDGE	Fore Edge Painting, first on French psalter manuscript
1250	BLOCK PRINTING	the first record of block printing (on paper?) in Egypt.
1276	WATERMARK	The important invention of watermarking was made at one of the Fabriano Mills in Tuscany during the second half of the 13th century. One can assume that the reason for the watermark was to give the product a branded trade mark of superior quality. There exists a remarkable archive of Fabriano watermarks going back to the first one in 1276, showing a mark for each year until modern times.
1290	EDDA	Edda, Elder Edda (Saemundar Edda) written, presented to King Frederik III by the Icelandic bishop Brynjolfur Sveinsson, now in the Copenhagen Royal Library)
1313	BOCCACIO	Giovanni Boccacio (1313-1375), author of the DECAMERON.
1325	PAUPERUM	Biblia Pauperum made in Klosterneuburg near Vienna
1325	BELLEVILLE	Belleville Breviary by Jean Pucelle (Parisian manuscript painter)
1338	PAPER	Paper, oldest known papermill in France
1340	BERRY	Berry, Jean duc de (d.1416). Les Tres Riches Heures.
1373	BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE	Bibliotheque Nationale. Charles V is said to be the founder of this library. The 1373 catalogue of his library lists about 1000 volumes, housed in the Louvre
1389	BEDFORD	Bedford, John of Lancaster, Duke. The Bedford Missal, 1423
1396	BURGUNDY	Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
1399	GENSFLEISCH, GUTENBERG	Gutenberg, Johann, d.1468, born in Mainz as Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg
1400	CHAUCER	Chaucer died
1410	ELLESMERE	Ellesmere Chaucer, illustrated manuscript of the Canterbury Tales
1418	WOODCUT	Woodcut, oldest known specimen
1418	ROHAN	Rohan Book of Hours, made for Yolande of Aragon.

The Beginnings of Literature

Literature and writing, though obviously connected, are not synonymous. The first writings from ancient Sumeria by any reasonable definition do not constitute literature—the same is true of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics or the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes. Scholars always have and always will disagree concerning when the earliest records-keeping in writing becomes more like "literature" than anything else: the definition is largely subjective.

Moreover, it must be borne in mind that, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world. The problems of creating a uniform global history of literature are compounded by the fact that many texts have been lost over the millennia, either deliberately, by accident, or by the total disappearance of the originating culture. Much has been written, for example, about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 3rd century BC, and the innumerable key texts which are believed to have been lost forever to the flames. The deliberate suppression of texts (and often their authors) by organisations of either a spiritual or a temporal nature further shrouds the subject.

Certain primary texts, however, may be isolated which have a qualifying role as literature's first stirrings. Early orally transmitted tales such as the Epic of Gilgamesh (8th century BC) or the Eve story of Lilith (16th century BC) were eventually written down. The stories in The Bible most certainly qualify as early literature, as do some other orally transmitted and subsequently transcribed epics such as the stories usually attributed to Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Indian Mahabharata and other works considered in Indian literature to be "Shruti" are among the oldest known writings. Another example is the so called Egyptian Book of the Dead which was eventually written down in the Papyrus of Ani in approximately 250 BC but probably dates from about the 18th century BC. Egyptian literature was not included in early studies because the writings of Ancient Egypt were not translated into European languages until the 19th century when the Rosetta stone was deciphered. In China, a mystical collection of poems attributed to Lao Tze, the Tao te Ching was assembled. The myths and legends of the Norsemen again were an orally transmitted tradition, in a culture in which poetry was highly prized: some of this vibrant oral culture survives having been written down many centuries later (in the Elder Edda, for example).