(Actually this blog has nothing to do with assonance ;)
In reality, this entry has to do with dry rot like punctuation & spelling, but never fear because I intend to make it interesting and informative.
Early into the Middle Ages, books were extremely rare. This was because they were usually printed on calf and lamb skin and the reproduction on books was a very expensive, time consuming, and crude one. That is, reproduction was crude in an undeveloped way. Books of this age were typically quite beautiful, the traditional way consisting of a number of specialized monks converging on one work and beautifying it in every aspect. Therefore, a reader in this time period was either a member of the religious community, well off, or very lucky. In today's world of course, any member of any class, especially in the developed world has access to a plethora of books. Even e-books or books online are available to anyone with a library membership.
Correct spelling and punctuation were not high on the priority list back then as there was no real unifying authoritative work. Dr. Johnson's Dictionary, of course did a lot for punctuation, but unified spelling did not come about until Johann Gutenberg's printing press. In today's world, by contrast, correct spelling and punctuation is of the utmost importance. Documents containing errors are hard to take seriously and are usually the object of ridicule.
For additional information; feel free to check out this page.
Posted by JohnHaddad at January 25, 2004 04:50 PM