Books, having appeared in the cultural life of man, undoubtedly, began to play a key role in the development of world civilization. With the invention of typography, their scope has expanded significantly. A modern person needs to remember that our ancestors always had a special cult of the book. In ancient Russia and other countries of the world, it occupied a separate place in the general culture.
Book Features
The invention of writing and printing led to the fact that for centuries the book has been a means by which all life experience accumulated by mankind is transmitted.
Through books, the people are educated. Thanks to the book, people have the opportunity to communicate with each other. To do this, they do not have to be in close proximity. Communication through the book does not depend on either spatial or temporal boundaries.
A special cult of the book in Ancient Russia, the countries of Europe, Asia led to its worldwide worship and love. There is an opinion that mankind has two main inventions - this is writing and typography. Everything else is just a consequence.
Great miracle
At all times, in any part of the world, a book was considered a miracle of miracles. After all, she could heal the soul, enrich with knowledge, give strength and wisdom. A special cult of the book in Ancient Russia and other countries of the world is confirmed, for example, by such statements:
- a book is a treasure house;
- the book is a river that fills the entire universe with life-giving moisture;
- a book that sunlight illuminates the path of everyone.
When did the first book appear
Scientists have not yet been able to establish the exact date and place of birth of the first book . But an interesting fact is that among many Slavic peoples the sound of the word is very similar. And in order to understand that we are talking about a book, a Russian, a Ukrainian, a Belarusian, a Czech, a Pole will not need a special translation: people already understand each other.
It remains to make an assumption: a man knew how to make books, it was in his everyday life even before the separation of peoples according to territorial and linguistic characteristics. And the preservation of the word in the modern language of different peoples in an unchanged form also defines a special cult of the book.
In ancient Russia, as some modern scholars suggest, books already existed in the middle of the first millennium. True, they were handwritten and did not correspond much to our ideas about them. It must be said that even then the first attempts were made to invent a printing method.
Creating manuscripts was an expensive procedure, but this did not stop people, which also indicates a special cult of the book. In ancient Russia, this treasure was rated very highly. The value of the book was equal to the value of the medium-sized estate with all the buildings, land and peasants living here.
The dominant position of the church in the rewriting of books could not be disputed in those days by anyone. The church determined the content of volumes, it was subordinated to the interests of the clergy. Most books copied in Russia were translated.
Book Publishing Development
The situation began to change after the adoption of Christianity. This has influenced the development of interstate relations. Throughout the subsequent period, a special cult of the book in Ancient Russia continued to be created.
Grade 4 of some modern educational programs contains a list of literary works created at a time when copying books was no longer just a matter of the church. The first examples of secular literary work have survived to this day. “The Word about Igor’s Regiment”, “Russian Truth”,
“The Instruction of Vladimir Monomakh” and other works that are examples of
ancient literature are studied in elementary and
high school. This fact also indicates a special cult of the book.
In ancient Russia, the determination of the status of a person took place depending on whether he can read how much he owns literacy. Therefore, not only ministers of the church, statesmen, but also potters, warriors, architects were drawn to the book. Evidence of this is the numerous birch bark letters and other written samples found by archaeologists and historians.