Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing
- From the early Paleolithic to the Neolithic period (35,000 BC to 4,000 BC), early Africans and Europeans left paintings in caves, including the
Lascaux caves in Southern France.
- Early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. - Petroglyphs are carved or scratched signs on rock.
- These images became symbols for what would be the first spokenlanguage.
- Cuneiform – Wedged shaped writing, created in 3000BC. Started as pictographs. - With the discovery of cuneiform, there was a knowledge explosion, where libraries were organized filling with tablets about religion, mathematics, and history. Writing enabled society to stabilize itself, and laws were
This allowed the transportation and portability of ideas.
- The earliest surviving illustrated manuscript is the Vatican Vergil, created in the late 4th century by Publius Vergilius.
- After the Western Roman Empire collapse in 476 AD, an era of dislocation and uncertainty ensued.
- The thousand year medieval era lasted from the fifth century fall of Rome until the fifteenth century Renaissance.
- In the 700’s, with the exception of Celtic pattern-making, book design and illumination had sunk to a low in most of Europe.
- Many people feared that the year 1000 AD would be the end of the world.
- On New Years Ever, 999 AD, many people stripped naked, and lay on their roofs waiting for final judgment.
- By 1150 AD, Bibles were becoming massively produced.
- During the 1200’s, the rise of universities created an expanding market for books. - The Book of Revelation had a surge of unexplained popularity in England and France during the 1200s.
- The Douce Apocalypse written in 1265 AD, is one of the many masterpieces of Gothic Illumination.
- The Qu’ran is one of the most printed Islamic works ranging from pocket sized editions, to imperial works.
- Figurative illustrations were not utilized because Islamic society embraced the principle of aniconsim, the religious opposition to representations of living animals.
- AS the medieval era yielded to the Renaissance, illuminated manuscripts became increasingly important.
- The Limbourg