The smell of the new book is a real delight for the sense of smell. Do you know that getting pleasure from this fragrance is called “bibliosmia”? Or what to buy books and not read them - a kind of trend of recent years?
Japanese word Tsundoku means "allow reading materials to accumulate in your home and never read them". Interesting, isn't it? And below you are waiting for 10 more no less interesting facts about books.
10. Papyrus Prissa - the oldest book
Papyrus Prissadating from the period of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom can be considered the earliest known book or document. This literary manuscript contains the last two pages of the Instruction addressed to Kagemni, who supposedly served the king of the 4th Snefer dynasty, and is a collection of moral principles and warnings about virtue. After the instruction addressed to Kagemni, the only surviving copy of the instruction of Ptakhotep follows.
Papyrus was obtained by the French orientalist Achilles Constant Theodore Emile Priss d'Avenne in Thebes in 1856. It is preserved in the National Library of France.
9. Book binding could be made of human skin
Now it is difficult to imagine that the binding of a book can be made of such material, but in the XVII-XIX centuries it was in the order of things and was called anthropodermic binding.
For books, mostly leather from the dead was used., for example - executed criminals. In addition, a person could indicate in his will that he donates his skin for these purposes (a kind of organ donation after death).
8. In the libraries of medieval Europe, books were chained to shelves
In the Middle Ages, books were of great value, since their production was not so massive. Public libraries had only a reading room and there was no subscription, that is, it was impossible to take something to read home, but many wanted to. To do this, they went to the crime and books were stolen, so libraries were forced to chain them.
The length of such an “anti-theft” was enough to take a book from a shelf and sit at a table, but it was difficult to take out of the room. This practice continued until the 18th century, after which it came to naught.
7. Clay books in Ancient Assyria
Ashurbanipal is the king of Ancient Assyria, who ruled from 669 to 631 BC. with the capital in Nineveh. He was known as a cruel king, especially for opponents (the Assyrian empire was vast, and the king spent most of his reign in the war.)
At the same time, he was a smart man, striving to learn new things, so he created one of the greatest libraries. She kept about 1,200 different cuneiform texts scattered over 30,000 clay tablets.
Ashurbanipal, originally trained as a scribe, knew how to read and write, which most kings could not at that time, and he was an expert in mathematics. The library had some functions that now seem common, but in ancient times were new: for example, clay tablets in separate rooms with a catalog of the contents of this room grouped by subject (history and government, geography and science, lists of literature and words, religion).
In the library of Ashurbanipal there was even a room for classified materials, buried deep under the palace in a separate room, and, of course, well guarded.
In addition, the surviving texts gave scientists a great understanding of how people lived in the Ancient Near East: their daily lives, religion, wars and their legends.
A copy of The Epics of Gilgamesh and a huge number of other tablets found in the library turned out to be useful for decoding cuneiform writing.
6. People who read fiction are prettier
According to a study conducted by Kingston University in 2017, there is a connection between reading fiction and real social abilities.
People who read fiction are more sensitive, open to the views of others, more likely to exhibit positive social behavior..
5. The heaviest book weighs 75 kg
Code gigas (Code of the Giants), also called "Bible devil"(Its pages are dotted with drawings of devils and all evil spirits), is rightfully considered the hardest book in the world.
Its binding is made of wood, and its dimensions are 92x50 cm with a thickness of 22 cm. The creators took more than 150 donkey skins to create a binding and 624 pages (just imagine this).
4. The Leicester Codex by Leonardo da Vinci - the most expensive book
Leonardo da Vinci is an outstanding man of the Renaissance: artist, architect, philosopher, musician, writer, mathematician, geologist, inventor and discoverer. A true genius, an unusual personality and self-taught, whose achievements to this day fascinate scientists and historians around the world. No wonder that the most expensive book in the world was written by him in Milan in 1506-1510. Well, like a book .. These are 18 sheets of paper scribbled on both sides and form a 72-page notebook.
Leonardo's notes are written in his signature mirror letter - you can only read them with the help of a mirror. The Codex gives an idea of the inquisitive thinking of the artist, scientist and thinker of the Renaissance, and is also an exceptional illustration of the connection between art and science and the creative potential of the scientific process.
The codex was named after Thomas Lester, who acquired it in 1719. In November 1994, at a Christie's auction in New York, Bill Gates bought it for $ 30,802,500, equivalent to about $ 53,222,000 for 2019.
3. Gutenberg Bible - the first printed book
Gutenberg Bible is a printed version of the Vulgate Bible, which was made using movable characters by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz in the fifteenth century. In fact, it was not the first one printed using a moving font system, but it became the highest quality, standard.
This is the main job of the German, and she marked the beginning of the “Gutenberg revolution” and the era of the printed book.
2. The Bible is the most popular book.
Although it is impossible to get accurate numbers, there is no doubt that The Bible is the world's best-selling and most widely distributed book..
A survey conducted by the Bible Society showed that between 1815 and 1975, about 2.5 billion copies were printed, but, according to more recent estimates, their number exceeded 5 billion. The Bible is printed in 349 languages, and 2123 languages have at least one Bible.
1. The greatest library of the world existed in Alexandria
The Alexandria Library was a miracle of the ancient world, a place of art, literature, philosophy and science. Books and scrolls, filled with the knowledge of many ancient civilizations, have found their way from all over the earth into the walls of this magnificent training center in the heart of powerful Egypt.
The Alexandria Library, created to impress and enlighten, has been a center of knowledge for many hundreds of years, until it was finally destroyed by conquerors and fanatics.
It is estimated that, prior to destruction, more than 400,000 scrolls of text were placed in it. The destruction of the Alexandria Library is one of the greatest historical cultural losses for humanity.