by Heather on April 15, 2010
Vest-Pocket Vocabulary
Xylog’raphy, n. engraving on wood.
Image from A Journey Round My Skull
Word in the Wild: The park ranger says carving your initials in trees isn’t xylography—it’s just vandalism.
Xylography refers to engravings in wood as well as the impressions made from them. The term was used in the nineteenth century to distinguish wood-block printing from that using moveable type.
The etymology of this word is from the Greek xylo, meaning wood, and graphy, meaning writing. If you think xylography sounds a little like xylophone, you’d be right. Xylophone = wood + sound.
You can find a complete listing of the Word Blog’s Vest-Pocket Vocabulary entries and learn more about where they come from here.
by Heather on January 8, 2010
My awesome parents, knowing all about my obsession with words, recorded the Empire of the Word documentary series that aired on TVO last month for me. It was developed and narrated by the very impressive Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, The Library at Night, and The City of Words among other titles.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL0G_1KAoD4]
I watched every episode in a single sitting, and I have a hunch you’ll be as fascinated as I was. So brew some tea, get comfy, and follow the links below to the Empire of the Word.
Episode one is called “The Magic of Reading” and explores the origins of the written word and our irrepressible desire to read.
Episode two is titled “Learning to Read” and considers the intellectual triumph of reading from the neurology of the human mind to the education of new readers.
Episode three is called “Forbidden Reading” and investigates the authorities who have tried to ban the creation and consumption of texts as well as the people who fight for our right to read.
Episode four, “The Future of Reading,” speculates about how technology is changing the way we read and asks what will become of bound libraries in the years to come.
If you’re still craving more programming about the wonders of language, check out the BBC’s Why Do We Talk? over at the Lingua Franca blog. When you’re done you’ll want to stick around and read some of the really fun posts you’ll find there.
Thanks for watching!
by Heather on July 26, 2009
The invention of Gutenberg’s printing press is leading in the moreintelligentlife.com poll for most the most important event of all time. I think it’s telling that even in this age of electronic publishing, 570 years after its invention, the power and influence of the printing press continues to be so keenly felt.
So for those of you wanting to know more about Gutenberg’s press, check out this fascinating program with Stephen Fry:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zqgs4iS76c]
You’ll find links to the rest of the program below:
by Heather on June 28, 2009
Recommended Read
Chappell, Warren and Robert Bringhurst. A Short History of the Printed Word. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc., 1999. [ISBN-10: 0-88179-154-7]
A Short History of the Printed Word is an impressively complete history of print and its astonishing cultural ascendency, beginning with the invention of moveable type in eleventh-century China and ending with the rise of digital printing at the end of the twentieth century.
Printing technologies, design and the thingness of the printed page are the focus of this history. It’s a dense but very readable book that’s absolutely packed with details from the histories of paper-making, type-founding, printing, and book-binding. You’ll learn about the history and aesthetics of typeface design, page layout, and illustrations. Everyone from Bí Shēng to Gutenberg to Garamond to Picasso to Alfred A. Knopf is here.
I read this one from the first page to last and was fascinated by this account of how the printed word has transformed the world. That said, this is also a book that is happy to serve as a reference to dip in and out of as needed. If you’re a student or practitioner of book design or typesetting, this really is a must-read. And those of you who love books—not just their contents but the books themselves—will delight in A Short History of the Printed Word, too.
I’ll leave you with a few words from the book’s conclusion to let the authors describe their work:
Why so much emphasis here on the physical quality of books? Durability and beauty, like intelligence, are something more than luxuries. They are tactics for survival.
