Evolution of the Book

Printing clearly revolutionized European literary culture, yet in some cases, the printing press simply accelerated developments that were already in motion within the manuscript culture of Europe during the late Middle Ages. Among such developments was the increasing use of alphabetization and indexing to help readers find desired information within a manuscript. Also important was the growing availability of paper, which had the effect of deprofessionalizing manuscript production, making writing surfaces affordable for scholars who could consequently serve as their own scribes. Individuals could use paper to keep notebooks, where they might jot key ideas from important texts rather than laboriously transcribe the entire text. A result of these trends was that cursive script became popular and writing styles proliferated, as each individual writer’s idiosyncrasies came to the fore, unrestrained by the professional standards of a guild.

• Name Indexing
• Subject Indexing
• Glossaries
• Taking Notes
• Chapter and Verse

continue to Appetite for Destruction

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