Dating in san diego over 40

In Assyria and Babylonia clay tablets were used for writing and the words were drawn with a piece of wood. They were long-lasting and some of them survived until the present day. The earliest books of the ancient world were written on papyrus and skins of young animals. These books took the form of a long strip, roiled from one cylinder to another. Though paper has been known in China since the first century, the secret of papermaking came to Europe much later. Books were popular in ancient Rome: there were many booksellers and the first public library was founded there about 39 B.C.1 Only the rich could buy books or make their slaves copy books from important libraries. By the time, of the Middle Ages all books were handwritten, beautifully decorated, but they were often chained to the shelves. First printing was invented in China and by the end of the 15th century there were more than 200 presses in Europe .