Краткое содержание текста The Printed Word.

The earliest books were written on tablets of wood or pieces 
of bark. In Greeceand Rome, the tablets of wood were covered with wax, 
and writing was impressed upon them with a small stick called “stylus”. 
These tablets were held together on one side with thin strips of leather
or metal rings. In Assyria and Babyloniaclay tablets were used for 
writing and the words were drawn with a piece of wood. After baking, the
tablets were kept on shelves, just like books are kept today. Although 
the clay tablets didn’t look very beautiful, 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, rolled from one cylinder to 
another. These writings were known to the Romans as volumen 
from which comes the word volume. Though paper has been known inChina 
since the first century, the secret of papermaking came toEurope much 
later.