I materialli della cosa

The book's materials

The origin of the book comes from the develpment of writing and various other inventions such as paper and printing but, in fact, the earliest history of books predates what would conventionally be called "books" today, and begins with tablets, scrolls, and sheets of papyrus. The books, as we know them nowadays, are made of paper but, not only there are several different types of paper, there were also other surfaces where old civilizations would write.

Before paper:

Clay tablets


This material was used in the 3rd millennium BC. Developed in Mesopotamia, the calamus, an instrument in the form of a triangle, allowed making characters in moist clay, and then it was used fire to dry the tablets out. Due to the fact that the moist clay was easily moldable, there was no need to have highly developed instruments to write on it, and so it was easy to use this type of surface.

Bone, shells, wood and silk

Long before the 2nd century before Christ, in the east Asia, writing on bone, shells, wood and silk was prevalent in China, until paper was invented around the 1st century after Christ. This methods were less common but even so there are lots of old writings found in this basis.



Wax tablets

The wax-coated wooden tablets were very common among the romans. This surface allowed writing and erasing in the same wax because of its smooth surface that was easily moldable when using a stylus. The stylus was the instrument used to "carve" on the wax, and is pointed on one edge with a spherical or plane end on the other edge. This tablets were mostly used to teach writing to children or to everyday purproses like accounting and notes. This tablets could also be assembled similarly to a codex.



Beginning of the usage of paper:

Papyrus

In acient Egypt, papyrus was a type of paper used to write in, and its first evidence is from the account books in about 2400 before Christ. This kind of paper is similar to thick (normal) paper, and was made through the extration of the marrow from the stems of papyrus reed, and then it went through humidification, pressing, drying, gluing, and cutting to produce in different qualities, from which the best was used for sacred writing. To write on them were used calamus - the stem of a reed sharpened to a point - or bird feathers (most common). Papyrus books were in the form of a scroll of several sheets pasted together, for a total length of 10 meters or more. Some books were over 40 meters long and rolled out horizontally.

Paper from bamboo

China's first recognizable books were made of rolls of thin split and dried bamboo bound together with hemp, silk, or leather. This process envolved using the bark of the blackberry bush to create paper.Texts were reproduced by woodblock printing; the diffusion of Buddhist texts was a main impetus to large-scale production. The format of the book evolved with intermediate stages of scrolls folded concertina-style, scrolls bound at one edge ("butterfly books") and so on.

Amate paper

Between the 3rd and 8th centuries, in Mesoamerica, the information and literature was written on long strips of paper, agave fibers, or animal hides, which were after folded in a specific way and then protected by wooden covers. This codices were stored in temples and, unfortunately destroyed by the spanish explorers years after, but were thought to contain astrological information, religious calendars, knowledge about the gods, genealogies of the rulers, cartographic information, and tribute collection. All of this writings were on amate paper, which is a type of bark paper that was made in Mexico since precontact times. Its primary use was to make this codices and this type of paper was extensively produced and used for communication, records and rituals. As said before, with the Spanish conquest, the usage of this type of paper begin to fade as its production was banned and replaced by the european paper. In remote areas in Mexico we can still find this type of paper, but is not in use anymore.

Common paper

The paper that we use nowadays is a thin and versatile material that is produced by pressing together moist fibers of cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets. This type of paper production was based on the previous papers already developed when, in 1844, a canadian man named Charles Fenerty and a german man named F. G. Keller independently developed the processes for pulping wood fibers in order to create thinner sheets. This process was heavily adopted in China, which is still currently the leading producer, followed closely by the United States.

Recycled paper

Recycled paper is a type of paper that is becoming very popular in modern times. With a growing need for more sustainable products, people tend to want more enviromental friendly things and, therefore, recycled paper is a market that is growing quickly. The recycling of paper is simply the process by which waste and used paper is turned into new paper products. Besides saving more trees, it also spends less energy and water and, obviously, saves waste paper from heavily occupy landfill and produce methane as it breaks down. This paper can be recycled more than once, though after repeated processing the fibers tend to become too short for the production of new paper.


-------


Raw Materials

Books are made from a variety of different coated and uncoated paper stocks that differ in weight and size. In addition, different color inks may be used. Also, while front and back covers are generally made from a heavier stock of paper, they will vary in terms of weight. For example, hardback books have a durable cardboard stock cover while paperback books are made from a thinner paper stock. Usually, cover stocks are coated with different colors or designs.

Since the nineteenth century, book production has entailed the use of sophisticated machinery, including typesetting machines, a web or sheet-fed printing press, and book binding machines.