1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996248096103316

Autore

Bloom Jonathan (Jonathan M.)

Titolo

Paper before print : the history and impact of paper in the Islamic world / / Jonathan M. Bloom

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven : , : Yale University Press, , [2001]

ISBN

0-300-25773-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 270 p. ) : ill. (some col.), col. maps ;

Disciplina

676/.0917/671

Soggetti

Paper - History

Paper - Middle East - History

Paper

History

Middle East

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-261) and index.

Nota di contenuto

; 1. The invention of paper -- Clay tablets and papyrus rolls -- Wooden tablets and parchment codices -- Bamboo strips and silk cloth -- The invention of paper -- The diffusion of paper -- The introduction of paper in the Islamic lands -- ; 2. The spread of papermaking across the Islamic lands -- Iraq -- Syria -- Iran and Central Asia -- Egypt -- The Maghrib (North Africa and Spain) -- ; 3. Paper and books -- The Koran and oral culture -- Written Arabic -- An explosion of books -- Collections and libraries -- A culture of writing -- ; ch. 4. Paper and systems of notation -- Mathematics -- Commerce -- Cartography -- Music, genealogy, and battle plans -- ; 5. Paper and the visual arts -- Before the thirteenth century -- From the thirteenth century -- ; 6. The transfer of paper and papermaking to Christian Europe -- Byzantium -- Spain -- Italy -- Europe north of the Alps -- ; 7. Paper after print.

Sommario/riassunto

"Like the printing press, typewriter, and computer, paper has been a crucial agent for the dissemination of information. This ... book presents an important new chapter in paper's history: how its use in Islamic lands during the Middle Ages influenced almost every aspect of medieval life. Focusing on the spread of paper from the early eighth century, when Muslims in West Asia acquired Chinese knowledge of



paper and papermaking, to five centuries later, when they transmitted this knowledge to Christians in Spain and Sicily, the book reveals how paper utterly transformed the passing of knowledge and served as a bridge between cultures. Jonathan Bloom traces the earliest history of paper--how it was invented in China over 2,000 years ago, how it entered the Islamic lands of West Asia and North Africa, and how it spread to northern Europe. He explores the impact of paper on the development of writing, books, mathematics, music, art, architecture, and even cooking. And he discusses why Europe was so quick to adopt paper from the Islamic lands and why the Islamic lands were so slow to accept printing in return"--Publisher's description.

2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910783670303321

Autore

Berry Mary Elizabeth

Titolo

Japan in print : information and nation in the early modern period / / Mary Elizabeth Berry

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [2006]

©2006

ISBN

1-282-36046-9

1-4237-5264-3

9786612360466

0-520-94146-2

1-59875-928-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (347 p.)

Collana

Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes ; ; 12

Disciplina

686.209520909032

Soggetti

Printing - Japan - History - 17th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-308) and index.

Nota di contenuto

List of figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1. A traveling clerk goes to the bookstores -- 2. The library of public information -- 3. Maps are strange -- 4. Blood right and merit -- 5. The freedom of the city -- 6. Cultural custody, cultural literacy -- 7. Nation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.



Sommario/riassunto

A quiet revolution in knowledge separated the early modern period in Japan from all previous time. After 1600, self-appointed investigators used the model of the land and cartographic surveys of the newly unified state to observe and order subjects such as agronomy, medicine, gastronomy, commerce, travel, and entertainment. They subsequently circulated their findings through a variety of commercially printed texts: maps, gazetteers, family encyclopedias, urban directories, travel guides, official personnel rosters, and instruction manuals for everything from farming to lovemaking. In this original and gracefully written book, Mary Elizabeth Berry considers the social processes that drove the information explosion of the 1600's. Inviting readers to examine the contours and meanings of this transformation, Berry provides a fascinating account of the conversion of the public from an object of state surveillance into a subject of self-knowledge. Japan in Print shows how, as investigators collected and disseminated richly diverse data, they came to presume in their audience a standard of cultural literacy that changed anonymous consumers into an "us" bound by common frames of reference. This shared space of knowledge made society visible to itself and in the process subverted notions of status hierarchy. Berry demonstrates that the new public texts projected a national collectivity characterized by universal access to markets, mobility, sociability, and self-fashioning.