TECHNICAL COLLECTION
The technical collection of the “Musée des Arts et Métiers du livre” will take you on a journey through the eras and continents to retrace the evolution of writing media.
The desire of human beings to leave a trace, to write or to draw goes back to prehistoric times. The supports were then “rough” (clay, sand, stone) and have slowly evolved with the appearance of various writings to meet their uses and contemporary needs (transport, durability, accessibility … of writings).
Thus, from the clay tablet incised by the calamus of cuneiform writing to the printing cylinders of the 20th century, via the block line founders of the 19th century, the improvement (or abandonment!) of techniques crosses the centuries and is chronologically reproduced by our technical collection.
The writing revolution, the printing revolution, the industrial revolution and the chemical revolution: this collection also aims to highlight all the actors in the chain of writing and books, the advances of some influencing the possibilities of others.






