History of Bookshelves

In ancient times, "books" did not exist as we know them today. Ancient Rome manifested writings on scrolls, mostly of papyrus, called volumina. Scrolls varied in size, both in length and width, but averaged 9 to 11 inches in width and up to 20 to 30 feet in length.

Ancient Greek scrolls were similar. Homer's Illiad, would have filled a dozen of such scrolls. The library at Alexandria, around 300 BCE,  is said to have copies of all the books in the world, and is believed to have held hundreds of thousands of scrolls at one time.

The Codex

Contemporary books, as we know them evolved from the Codex. The codex arose in the early Christian era. Codex, in Latin means "tree trunk". It was constructed of folding over sheets of papyrus or parchment and sewing them together into a binding. For durability, the codex was protected by a wooden covering. The construction of the codex allowed for printing on both sides of the page.

By the beginning of the fourth century, the codex became the predominant medium for both Christian and non-Christian text, and the scroll as a medium began to disappear.

The Bookshelf

At the end of the Medieval practice of chaining books to lecterns, presses, closets, and shelving, the contemporary bookshelf evolved. Beginning in the mid-sixteenth century attention began to be paid to the spine of the book. Around 1600, in France and Italy, the addition of the author's name and title appeared on the spine. This indicates that the book was to be shelved with the spine outward. One of the first libraries to be arranged with book spines outward was that of the French politician and historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. His library is said to number around 8,ooo volumes and was so large that de Thou is credited among the earliest person to arrange his library collection.

During the Renaissance, it became increasingly popular to have a personal study, either in the corner of one's bedroom or in a small but separate room. These rooms were secure places located in a quiet and remote area of the house. Locating the study near a window was necessary.

Our contemporary bookshelf is a fairly recent innovation. The convention of storing and arranging books on horizontal shelves is considered to have begun in a library built for Spain's Philip II, called El Escorial. The construction of the library, 1563 to 1584, was characterized by bookcases fitted against the walls. The wall system was not adopted until around 1703. Sir Christopher Wren designed the first wall bookcase for Cambridge's Trinity College Library.

Arrangement of Books on the Bookshelf

A common arrangement of books in a library is to bring together on the same subject.

One early common arrangement has been to shelve according to date of acquisition. Early on, books were arranged by subject manner. Contemporary arrangement includes many methods: 1)   Author's Last Name,   2)  By Title,   3)  By Subject,   4)  By size,   5)  Horizontally,   6) By Color,   7) By Hardbacks and Paperbacks,   8) By Publisher,   9) By Read/Unread Books,   10) By Strict Order of Acquisition,   11) By Order of Publication,   12) By Number of Pages,   13) According to the Dewey Decimal System,   14) According to the Library of Congress Classification System,   15) By ISBN,   16) By Price,   17) According to New and Used,   18) By Enjoyment, 19) By Sentimental Value,   20.) By Provenance,   21) and by other individualized systems.

How to Style Your Bookshelves, According to the Experts

by Ariel Okin in Vogue Magazine          www.vogue.com/article/how-to-style-your-bookshelves