How Books were Published

The first printed 'books' were beautiful illustrated manuscripts. Around 1455 AD, the first bound manuscript was...the Gutenberg Bible. Images of a modern day replication of this Bible is below, by Cooper Square Publishers. Producing that work pivoted society into modern day printing.

Books from this time to about mid 1900s, were bound in one or more of the following ways:

• crafted by hand with tools

• covered in leather skin

• written on parchment or vellum paper

• adorned with precious jewels

• dusted pages with gold

• covered with dust jackets

• covers that were works of art

• biographies of authors no longer printed on later versions

These types of books are rare now! The follow elements can make them even rarer:

• scarcity to find

• few in remaining copies

• a first edition

• any misprints (mistakes in the work)

• author's popularity

• its physical condition

• any historical significance

• any inscriptions to a famous figure

Now, rare books stores being replaced by chain book stores that sell masses of modern material printed in modern ways, with machinery that can handle huge loads of printing. For more insight on what's occurring to antiquarian book world, watch the documentary, The Booksellers 2020.

Please note, this is not a Christian film. There are some book dealers that sell occultish books and the like that are featured. It is a documentary on rare books and its passing world. Of course some rare books are diametrically opposed to the values found in Scripture, like the concept of 'evolution' by Charles Darwin, which they NEVER reveal the full title, hinted to what is was really all about: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Yet books like these go for thousands, if not millions of, dollars. The Word of God, to me, is worth more than pearls, rubies, and diamonds, let alone those books! But the art of discovering decent rare books, excites me.