부산대학교 도서관

Portable object for storing information—usually a text of significant length—to be transmitted by means of scripts, notations, pictures or photographs, which are either inscribed by hand (see Manuscript, §I) or printed. This article is primarily concerned with the history and development of the book in the Western tradition. For other traditions see under the heading for the relevant culture or civilization. In the West the term ‘book’ is usually associated with the codex and is regarded as a collection of (folded) sheets of paper, all of the same size, printed on both sides and held together, between covers, by glue or string. Yet the codex gained dominance over previous book forms only around ad 400; paper was little used in western Europe before the 15th century (see Paper, §III); and printing in Europe started as late as the middle of the 15th century (see §2...