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1000 BCE
The Bible is Born
The birth of arguably the world's most well-known book happens around 1000 BCE when the Jews carve the Ten Commandments into stone and place them in a mobile library: the Ark of the Covenant. Iterations of the Bible will become famous throughout book and library history including becoming the first book printed with movable type in the West in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg. Many people know this early mobile library thanks to its feature in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. -
750 BCE
The Epic of Gilgamesh
While possibly written in the early 2000s BCE, the best known surviving version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is found in a series of cuneiform tablets found at the site of the Library of Ashurbanipal dating back to around 750 BCE. A well-known story from this epic tells of a great flood and is not unlike the story of Noah's ark from the Bible. This epic continues to be taught in humanities classes today and even has graphic novel versions including Seven Stories Press's 2018 version by Kent Dixon -
750 BCE
Homeric texts are written
It is believed that Homer wrote his famous works, The Iliad and The Odyssey in 750 BCE. The works were held in the Library of Alexandria, the Library of Celsus at Ephesus, as well as libraries created by Tiberius during his rule. These texts remain popular and reside on the shelves of many contemporary public, academic, and private libraries. They continue to be adapted with O Brother, Where Art Thou by the Coen Bros. and Circe by Madeline Miller being recent well-known examples. -
Period: 479 BCE to
Confucian Classics Dominate China
The Confucian Classics are more than just books; they became the foundation of Chinese politics and academics for over a thousand years. The Six Classics are Book of Changes, Book of Documents, Book of Poetry, Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. These books would become the basis for the first classification system in Chinese libraries. Chinese society was based on these classics until scholars visiting the West brought home the concept of public libraries and learning. -
Jan 1, 806
The Book of Kells
Saint Benedict began the tradition of monks reading and copying books and a shining example of their work can be seen in the Book of Kells. The book is a collaboration by the monks at the scriptorium in Iona and contains St. Jerome's four gospels. It survived Viking raids but not an enthusiastic bookbinder in the 1800s. The Book of Kells has been digitized and is on permanent display at Trinity College Dublin. The story of its creation is cleverly told in the animated film The Secret of Kells. -
May 11, 868
The Diamond Sutra
Buddhist teachings were passed down orally until they began to be recorded in palm leaf manuscripts. Once in China, the Diamond Sutra would become the first known printed book. This scroll contains an important Mahayana scripture as well as the first colophon. Colophons remain popular today in the form of About the Author sections at the back of books. Print technology would eventually travel west where it would be adapted and change the course of Western history in 1450.