Bookend Beginnings

Bookends are first and foremost an item of function. Aindividual pages made access to information easier by
bookend's only reason to exist is to be placed at theindexing, which eventually made books more popular.
end of a row of books to keep it from falling over.Hand written on fine parchment or vellum, hand bound
While it is a simple concept, the history of bookends isin fine leather and sometimes highly decorated outside
wrapped within the very history of written languageand in, these early books were works of art in
itself.themselves. They were of such high value that books
Before books, knowledge and information was passedwere actually chained to the shelves they were stored
by word of mouth. The more the knowledge base ofon to prevent theft. They took so long to produce at
humans increased, the more the need for some waysuch great expense that a library with as few as 25
of keeping a record of things. Among the first 'books'volumes was worth a fortune. These were stored in
known are clay tablets with marks made into the wetpiles, or singly on slanted boards where they were
clay which was then fired in an oven like pottery. Thisread.
was the first known written language, called CuneiformThe development of movable type for printing them
Script, developed over 6,000 years ago. As innovativeslowly made them more affordable and numerous.
as these first writings were, it was not the mostWith so many more books available, shelving systems
practical way to record information, and carrying largeholding books vertically to save space, with the spines
clay tablets around was definitely not convenient. Thefacing outward for ease of identification were
next innovation in the written word came with thedeveloped to categorize and store them for ready
introduction of the scroll, approximately 5,000 yearsuse. The problems of a half-row of them constantly
ago. The first scrolls were made from animal skins orfalling over, sometimes off the shelf, was solved by
papyrus.the use of bookends in these Renaissance libraries.
The scroll held many advantages over the clay tablet.Bookends have been with us ever since.
They weren't as cumbersome, could hold much moreFrom plain metal bookends to highly ornate bookends,
information as the scroll could be made as long astheir function remains the same. They are a part of
was needed, and offered opportunities of editing textthe evolution of the written word that began with
that were not possible with clay tablets once they hadthose cuneiform tablets over 6,000 years ago. That
been fired. The ancient Judeans used the scroll tothere was ever a need for such an item speaks
transmit their holy texts, beginning a tradition that is stillvolumes about the ingenuity, creativity and practicality
practiced in modern Judaism with Torah scrolls.of the human mind.
The advantage that books had over scrolls was that