The earliest books in Europe were handwritten on parchment or vellum. Parchment is animal skin, usually sheep or goat, while vellum is the skin of young animals, like calves and lambs. Scribes would spend countless hours writing and decorating these works. The Connolly Book of Hours, written in France during the 14th century, is a beautiful example in the collections of Burns Library pictured below.

The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 revolutionized the production of books. An incunable, from the Latin word for “cradle,” is a book printed in Europe before 1501, and represents a transition period between the handwritten texts of the past, and the printed works that we recognize today. The text layout of print books was often similar to those in manuscripts, and frequently space was left in the printing process for later hand-illumination. With improvements in technology, printed books transitioned from individual works of art to utilitarian, mass-produced objects.