2007-01-04 01:12:03 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
If you mean the first book in print, it was probably done by Gutenberg, but was not the Bible. Prior to the Bible, Gutenberg published a number of religious documents for the church, as well as a Latin grammar. These date from the 1450's.
Prior to moveable type, books were published by hand manuscript. The first book has yet to be discovered, but the oldest writing discovered to date appears to be a Chinese book written on tortoise shells, from around 5000BC. The subject is unknown, but probably an accounting of some sort. Towards the end of the 4th millenium BC, Mesopotamians used a form of writing called cuniform to keep track of taxes and accounts. These writings were often done on clay tablets, and perhaps on wax as well, and stored in libraries or collections.
By the middle of the third millenium, the Egyptians were publishing books on papyrus scrolls, both for accounting and religious purposes. They invented the earliest alphabet around 2000BC. Papyrus was brought to Greece around the 10th century BC by the Phoenicians, and the Greeks were prolific publishers from that point on.
The English words Bible and book derive from he Greek word for papyrus scroll, Biblyos. Biblyos was the name of a Phoenician city.
2007-01-04 02:21:03 · answer #1 · answered by anywherebuttexas 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You've never heard of the Gutenberg Bible?
It was printed in Germany in around 1455, and was the first substantial book to be printed using movable type.
Before this, any text was hand written, or each page was laboriously carved into a single block of wood for printing (one mistake and the entire page had to be re carved.)
See the series "Connections" with James Burke for an interesting story about this.
2007-01-04 09:23:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
the Bible in 1440ish when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. for awhile, religious books were the only ones published.
2007-01-04 12:22:10 · answer #3 · answered by rinnasaurusrex 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't remember the exact year... but the Gutenburg Bible was the first mass printed book if that's what you mean...
countless others were hand written in the centuries before.
2007-01-04 09:14:21 · answer #4 · answered by J-Rod on the Radio 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first book which was actually printed was 'The Bible' by Gutenburg, a German craftsman, around 1600s.
2007-01-04 09:15:28 · answer #5 · answered by AAK 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it was Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps-The Scripts and it was published in 1389-and no,nobody watched it then either
2007-01-04 09:14:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
when you say 'published' do you mean written or printed?
2007-01-04 09:14:21 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
doomsday book
2007-01-04 09:17:08 · answer #8 · answered by beer buddy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the Bible..
well thats what I think it is...
2007-01-04 09:13:54 · answer #9 · answered by •♥•mj•♥• 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋