BOOK, the general name of almost every literary composition; but, in a more limited sense, is applied only to such compositions as are large enough to make a volume. As to the origin of books or writing, those of Moses are undoubtedly the most ancient that are extant: But Moses himself cites many books that belonged to be wrote before his time. See CHARACTER.
Of profane books, the oldest extant are Homer's poems, which were so even in the time of Sextus Empiricus; though we find mention in Greek writers of seventy others prior to Homer; as Hermes, Orpheus, Daphne, Horus, Linus, Musæus, Palamedes, Zoroaster, &c.; but of the greater part of these there is not the least fragment remaining; and of others, the pieces which go under their names are generally held, by the learned, to be supposititious.
Several sorts of materials were used formerly in making