Rescuing Books

Abstract

Throughout history, people have preserved textual information using a range of materials, including pieces of slate, clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, and eventually paper. From the seventeenth century onward, the latter established itself as the predominant medium for manuscripts and all forms of printed documents. The demand for paper was huge, and grew rapidly at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Rapid economic development and growing bureaucracy led to a burgeoning need for an affordable writing and printing Teresa Urszula Szmigielska, PhD