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All evidence during this period suggests the only form of publication was the creation of texts, and the creation of manuscripts, which were handwritten/unpublished versions of texts.
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Around 300 BCE, the Library of Alexandria was established in Egypt by Ptolemy I. Certain reports and evidence points to as many as 700,000 texts housed inside of it. -
Julius Caesar accidentally burns the library down while fighting his civil war. Cool, cool... Bet Cleopatra was really happy about that one. -
Modern style paper, made from the pulp of hemp, wood, or other fibrous sources, is invented in China. The inventor was a court official named Ts'ai Lun. -
There is evidence of Chinese printing during period before 220 CE, but the earliest woodblock-printed book is the Tang-Dynasty version of the Buddhist text "Diamond Sutra", dated to the 11th of May, 868.
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In the year 1045 CE, a Chinese inventor named Bi Sheng allegedly invented movable type using firing and earthenware. None of his prints survived. -
Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor, independently invented movable type in Europe. New techniques, like using a matrix and different kinds of type allowed simple booklets and broadsides called incunables to be printed. -
The first publishing company, Schwabe Verlag, is founded in Switzerland. -
The first mass-printed newspapers are created. The newspaper was printed in the Low Countries, and the title translates to "New Tidings". -
The Orbus Sensualium Pictus is published -
The inventors Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule invent the first commercially viable typewriter and patented it. -
The linotype machine was invented, which was essentially a giant, mechanical typewriter. Sold by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company of New York. -
The first audio books are produced with the founding of the recording studio for The American Foundation for the Blind. -
Michael Hart creates the first e-book in history, by typing the Declaration of Independence on a computer. -
Jeff Bezos founds Amazon, one of the first online book sellers. -
Audible.com is founded, being the first ever website to download audiobooks.