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The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Romans all produced innovations that led up to the creation of something that looked roughly like what we think of as a book. It all began some five thousand years ago, in ancient Sumeria (Mesopotamia) and Egypt, where people first experimented with alphabets. Initially, they drew pictorial symbols, or hieroglyphics, on wood strips or pressed these symbols into clay tablets, then tied or stacked these objects together to form the first “books.”

Then, in 2400 B.C.E., the Egyptians began gathering reeds from plants found along the Nile River and rolling the plants into scrolls they could write on—called papyrus (from which our word paper is derived). Between 650 and 300 B.C.E. the Greeks and Romans adopted papyrus as well. Gradually, parchment—treated animal skin—replaced papyrus in Europe. Parchment was stronger, smoother, more durable, and less expensive than papyrus. Around 105 C.E., the Chinese began making paper from cotton and linen, though paper did not replace parchment in Europe until the thirteenth century because of questionable durability.

The first protomodern book was probably produced in the fourth century by the Romans, who created the codex, sheets of parchment sewn together along one edge, then bound with thin pieces of wood and covered with leather. Whereas scrolls had to be rolled and unrolled for use, a codex could be opened to any page, and people could write on both sides of a page.