Essay on Summary of History of Graphic Design by Meggs

Words: 14951
Pages: 60

Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing
- From the early Paleolithic to the Neolithic period (35,000 BC to 4,000 BC), early Africans and Europeans left paintings in caves, including the
Lascaux caves in Southern France.
- Early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. - Petroglyphs are carved or scratched signs on rock.
- These images became symbols for what would be the first spokenlanguage.
- Cuneiform – Wedged shaped writing, created in 3000BC. Started as pictographs. - With the discovery of cuneiform, there was a knowledge explosion, where libraries were organized filling with tablets about religion, mathematics, and history. Writing enabled society to stabilize itself, and laws were
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This allowed the transportation and portability of ideas.
- The earliest surviving illustrated manuscript is the Vatican Vergil, created in the late 4th century by Publius Vergilius.
- After the Western Roman Empire collapse in 476 AD, an era of dislocation and uncertainty ensued.
- The thousand year medieval era lasted from the fifth century fall of Rome until the fifteenth century Renaissance.
- In the 700’s, with the exception of Celtic pattern-making, book design and illumination had sunk to a low in most of Europe.
- Many people feared that the year 1000 AD would be the end of the world.
- On New Years Ever, 999 AD, many people stripped naked, and lay on their roofs waiting for final judgment.
- By 1150 AD, Bibles were becoming massively produced.
- During the 1200’s, the rise of universities created an expanding market for books. - The Book of Revelation had a surge of unexplained popularity in England and France during the 1200s.
- The Douce Apocalypse written in 1265 AD, is one of the many masterpieces of Gothic Illumination.
- The Qu’ran is one of the most printed Islamic works ranging from pocket sized editions, to imperial works.
- Figurative illustrations were not utilized because Islamic society embraced the principle of aniconsim, the religious opposition to representations of living animals.
- AS the medieval era yielded to the Renaissance, illuminated manuscripts became increasingly important.
- The Limbourg