An inquiry into the nature and form of the books of the ancients; with a history of the art of bookbinding, from the times of the Greeks and Romans to the present day; interspersed with bibliographical references to men and books of all ages and countries / By John Andrews Arnett [i.e. J. Hannett].

  • Hannett, John, 1803-1893.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the nature and form of the books of the ancients; with a history of the art of bookbinding, from the times of the Greeks and Romans to the present day; interspersed with bibliographical references to men and books of all ages and countries / By John Andrews Arnett [i.e. J. Hannett]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    inorial in a hook. It is observable, that there is not the least hint to induce us to believe that writing’ was then newly invented: on the contrary, we may con- clude, that Moses understood what was meant by writing in a book; otherwise God would have in- structed him, as he had done Noah in building the ark; for he would not have been commanded to write in a book, if he ignorant of the art of writing; but Moses expressed no difficulty of comprehension, when he received this command. He may have become acquainted with the art of widting in Egypt, which country, we learn from the Old Testament, was long previously acquainted with all those arts of civilization and government, and notions of property, which usually belong to nations which have been long settled and civilized. Slight as are the notices of the writings of the early ages of the world, little can here be stated relative to ancient bookbinding, but that some mode of preser- vation of documents which must have required so .much care to execute, was early devised, cannot be doubted; and therefore the art may be dated as almost coeval with the science of composing books : and that both one and the other woidd soon follow the invention of hieroglyphic characters and letters though it must be after the latter period to which we must look for anything that can decidedly be called Astle’s Origin and Progress of Wiiting, pp. 12, 13 Sharpe’s Early History of Egypt, p. -I.