Museum of Arts and Crafts of the Book

The museum traces the history of the book from the birth of writing to the advent of printing: the origins of writing, from pictograms to alphabets, including cuneiform and ideographic script; the history of various materials: clay tablets of Sumerian accountants, papyrus of Egyptian scribes, parchment of copyist monks, and paper; the adventure of printing, from movable lead type invented by Gutenberg to type-casting machines, from hand presses to rotary presses; and the techniques and tools of bookbinders and engravers. The museum also offers an exploration of printmaking and printing today.