BOOK

(Ger. buch.) " The general name of almost every literary composition, but in a more limited sense applied only to such compositions as are large enough to form a volume. ' ' Short and fugitive pieces are denominated pamphlets, in contradistinction to books, which are of greater length, and embrace more general or permanent topics. To the various sizes and forms in which books appear appropriate appellations have been given; as folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, . The materials of which books have been composed have been extremely different in different nations, and in different periods of the progre of civilization. Plates of lead and copper, bricks, stone, and wood were anciently employed for this purpose. At a later period the bark of trees formed the chief material in the composition of books, as is indicated by the original signification of the term book itself, and its equivalent in some some other languages. The materials of books were afterwards derived from the Egyptian plant papyrus; but as the demand for books increased, more durable materials were sought for, and leather, made chiefly from the skins of goats or sheep, was employed for this purpose. Next followed the use of parchment, on which the ancient MSS. were chiefly written: but all these systems were swallowed up by the invention of paper {quod vide), which took place about the 13th century, and facilitated the circulation of knowledge to an incalculable extent. The first books were in tlie form of blocks' and tablets; but A^hen flexible materials came into use, it was found more convenient to roll them up in scrolls, called by the Greeks xovrot^, and by the Romans volumen. [s. 166]