The Story of Books: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Story of Books, credited to Gertrude Burford Rawlings, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Story of Books, by Gertrude Burford Rawlings. Read by LivelyHive. Rawlings follows the development of printing from the origins of writing to modern printing. Some of the earliest records are ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman recordings on papyrus and wax tablets. However, Rawlings acknowledges the sparse nature of this first fragile evidence, and limits speculation. Later, libraries of religious books grew in Europe, where monks copied individual books in monasteries. The "block printing" technique began with illustrations carved in wood blocks, while the text needed to be written by hand. Eventually, entire pages were printed as combinations of illustrations with text. The Biblia Pauperum, or “Bible of the Poor,” demonstrates this first time saving method. Later chapters focus on printing developing as an industry, especially after the invention of movable type. Two inventors are contested as the first inventor, Johann Gutenberg of Mentz in Germany, and Laurenz Coster of Haarlem in Holland. Rawlings describes the evidence for each side, along with stories and legends that grow around their names. Since many of the medieval books were meant to be admired as art by the illiterate majority and read only by an educated minority, copiers spent much time decorating manuscripts. Also, these highly decorated volumes needed to be protected. Here, Rawlings describes the techniques for binding and beautifying books. Arriving closer to the present day, Rawlings describes a few modern printing techniques that bring mass produced and cheap books to the now literate public. (Summary by LivelyHive)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Story of Books
• Author credits: Gertrude Burford Rawlings
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 8
• Listed recording duration: 5:00:32

Catalogue topics

• history
• books
• binding
• printing
• publishing

Track guide

1. 01 - I. Introductory, II. The Preservation of Literature — 36:44
2. 02 - III. Books and Libraries in Classical Times, IV. Books in Mediaeval Times — 57:08
3. 03 - V. Libraries in Mediaeval Times — 29:47
4. 04 - VI. The Beginning of Printing, VII. Who Invented Moveable Types? — 37:59
5. 05 - VIII. Gutenberg and the Mentz Press, IX. Early Printing — 38:40
6. 06 - X. Early Printing in Italy and Some Other Countries, XI. Early Printing in England — 35:42
7. 07 - XII. Early Printing in Scotland, XIII. Early Printing in Ireland — 22:59
8. 08 - XIV. Book Bindings, XV. How a Modern Book is Produced, Postscript — 41:38

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.