page_title: History of books
section_title: Copying and conserving books
hierarchical_section_title: History of books / Middle Ages / Copying and conserving books
context_page_description: The history of the books became an acknowledged academic discipline in the 1980s, Contributors to the discipline include specialists from the fields of textual scholarship, codicology, bibliography, philology, palaeography, art history, social history and cultural history. Its key purpose is to demonstrate that the book as an object, not just the text contained within it, is a conduit of interaction between readers and words.
  Prior to the evolution of the printing press, made famous by the Gutenberg Bible, each text was a unique hand crafted article, personalized through the design features incorporated by the scribe, owner, bookbinder and illustrator. Analysis of each component part of the book reveals its purpose, where and how it was kept, who read it, ideological and religious beliefs of the period and whether readers interacted with the text within. Even a lack of evidence of this nature leaves valuable clues about the nature of that particular book.
context_section_description: Despite this ambiguity, monasteries in the West and the Eastern Empire permitted the conservation of a certain number of secular texts, and several libraries were created: for example, Cassiodorus ('Vivarum' in Calabria, around 550), or Constantine I in Constantinople. There were several libraries, but the survival of books often depended on political battles and ideologies, which sometimes entailed massive destruction of books or difficulties in production (for example, the distribution of books during the Iconoclasm between 730 and 842). A long list of very old and surviving libraries that now form part of the Vatican Archives can be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
  To help preserve books and protect them from thieves, librarians would create chained libraries, which consisted of books attached to cabinets or desks with metal chains. This eliminated unauthorised removal of books. One of the earliest chained libraries was in England during the 1500s. Popular culture also has examples of chained libraries, such as in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling.
caption: An author portrait of Jean Miélot writing his compilation of the Miracles of Our Lady, one of his many popular works.
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