770 likes | 868 Views
A Basic History. Signal fire. Hebrew shofar. Roman bucina. Cavalry bugle. Semaphore tower. Writing. What is writing?. Turning sound symbols (talking) into visual symbols Sound symbols are gone in an instant Visual symbols can last forever. Lascoux Cave painting ca. 17,000 BCE.
E N D
What is writing? • Turning sound symbols (talking) into visual symbols • Sound symbols are gone in an instant • Visual symbols can last forever
Lascoux Cave painting ca. 17,000 BCE • Just a noun and a verb
Marriage contract ca. 17,000 BCE -pictures reduced to essentials
ST What’s the word?
First change from handwriting to printing came in 888 CE The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, created with block printing
After the Black Death people had two things: • Lots of money • A desire to enjoy life • Fun and games like fairs and celebrations • The fanciest clothes they could afford
The rich wore silk and gold wire • The middle class wore woolens • Everyone wore linen, especially --
What this has to do with printing • What was necessary to printing was paper • The only thing available up to this time was parchment, expensive and uncommon • Linen sheets and underwear wore out and were thrown away • Linen rags can be turned into paper
Now there’s plenty of paper • Everyone uses it as trade and investing increases • Contracts • Record keeping • However, because of the Black Death there weren’t enough scribes for all the paperwork • Something had to be done