From Cave Paintings to the Internet An Annotated Interactive Timeline on the History of Information and Media 700 to 800 Timeline

Beowulf, a traditional heroic epic poem written in Old English alliterative verse, and representing with its 3,182 lines 10% of all surviving Old English poetry, is known from one medieval manuscript that dates from between the 8th and the 11th century. The manuscript, known as the Nowell Codex, is preserved in the British Library.

"The unique copy of Beowulf is preserved in the Cottonian collection of manuscripts that suffered from a great fire in 1731. It remained in its burnt binding until the middle of the nineteenth century, when Sir Frederic Madden, Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, undertook to restore these damaged manuscripts in his care. His bookbinder first traced the outline of each burnt leaf, cut out the center of the tracing except for a retaining edge of about 2mm, and pasted and taped the vellum leaf to the paper frame. Then he rebound the framed leaves in a new cover. The method well preserved the fragile bits of text along the burnt edges of the leaves, but the retaining edges of the paper mounts, and the paste and tape used to secure the leaves to them, hide from view many hundreds of letters and bits of letters. Today they are visible only if one holds a bright light directly behind them, an ineffectual solution if one lacks the manuscript, the bright light, or the permission to use them together." (From the web page of The Electronic Beowulf project [1993])

Bishop Wealdhere of London writes a "letter close" to Archbishop Brihtwold of Canterbury. This is "the first letter known to have been written by one Englishman to another. . . .Although the letter has no dating clause, internal evidence shows that it cannot have been written earlier than 704, the year of Centred' accession to the Mercian throne, or later than 705, the year of Bishop Haedde's death." (Pierre Chaplais, "The letter from Bishop Wealdhere of London to Archibshop Brihtwold of Canterbury: the earliest original 'letter close' extant in the West" in M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson (eds.) Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries. Essays presented ot N.R. Ker [1978] 3-4) [Note: earlier letters survive from such places as Roman Britain, from the 1st Century C.E.]

Blockprinting on paper is thought to have started in China in the seventh century, but no examples survive. "The oldest surviving printing was found in 1966 in a stupa in the Buddhist temple Pulguk-sa, Kyongju, Korea. It is a small dharani scroll printed 704-751" (Schoyen Collection, 21.Pre-Gutenberg Printing).

The first newspaper, Mixed News, is published in China as a hand-written news sheet.

Under the direction of Abbot Ceolfrid, teacher of Bede, the Codex Amiatinus is completed either at Wearmouth or Jarrow, in the north of England. It is copied from MSS. brought from Italy by Ceolfrid, including most probably the Codex Grandior of Cassiodorus, whose portrait may appear on the "Ezra" page.

To offer the Codex Amiatinus as a present to Pope Gregory II, Abbot Ceolfrid, in old age, makes the journey to Rome. Though Ceolfrid dies on the journey, his associates bring the volume to the Pope. It is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate version, and is considered the most accurate copy of St. Jerome's text. It will be used in the revision of the Vulgate by Pope Sixtus V in 1585-90. The manuscript is preserved in the Laurentian Library in Florence.

"It is recorded by Bede that Ceolfrid had two other copies of the Bible made, besides that which he took as a gift to the Pope. In 1909 a single leaf, in writing closely resembling that of the Amiatinus, was discovered by the Rev. W. Greenwell in a curiosity shop in Newcastle, and within this last year eleven more leaves, which had been utilised to form the covers of estate accounts in the north of England, were . . . secured for the nation. All twelve leaves, which include parts of 1 and 2 Kings, and unquestionably form part of one of the sister codices of the Amiatinus, are now in the British Museum, where they are a monument of the time when, under the leadership of Benedict Biscop, Ceolfrid, and especially Bede, the north of England led the Western world in scholarship." (Kenyon, Our Bible & the Ancient Manuscripts 4th Ed. [1939] 175).

Date of the earliest examples of printed silk in which the date forms part of the pattern. "These dates [also 740] are the earliest examples in the world of block printed script, and it is not surprising to find that they antedate by only a few years the first block prints on paper from Japan." (Carter, Invention of Printing in China 2nd ed [1955] 195).

"Most of the surviving Greek literature was translated into Arabic by 750, and Aristotle, for example, became so widely studied that literally hundreds of books were written about him by Arabic scholars. The Moslems also obtained Greek works from Constantinople through regular trade channels and captured others in their various wars with the Eastern Empire." (Harris, History of Libraries in the Western World 4th ed [1999] 78).

"The early Abbasid Caliphs, adopting a religious philosophy that encouraged learning and debate, promoted the establishment of universities and libraries throughout their realm. Early beginnings were made under Al-Mansur (754-775) and Harun al-Rashid (785-809) of Arabian Nights fame, but was Al-Mamun the Great (813-833) who brought the "House of Learning" or university at Baghdad into prominence. With libraries, laboratories, subsidized scholars, a translating service, and even an astronomical observatory, this institution attracted scholars from Spain to India." (Harris 79).

Chinese prisoners taken at the Battle of Talas, near Samarkand, convey papermaking techniques to the Arabs.

The Gilt silver, enamel, and jeweled lower cover on the Lindau Gospels is thought to have been produced in Saltzburg about this time. The even more splendid upper cover is thought to date from about 880. The manuscript with its treasure binding was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1901, and is preserved in The Morgan Library.

The Japanese Empress Shotuku commissions one million copies of small wooden pagodas containing dharani scrolls printed on paper from woodblocks as thanks for the suppression of the Emi Rebellion by Fujiwara Nakamaro in 764. "900,000 pagodas were distributed to temples around the entire country. 100,000 were divided between the Ten Great temples in the Nara area, which erected special halls for these pagodas, known as the Small Pagoda Hall, or the Ten Thousand Pagoda Hall.
4 different texts were printed, all from the Mukujoko sutra: Kompon Dharani, Storin Dharani, Jishin-in Dharani, and Rokudo Dharani." (Shoyen Collection MS 2489).

There will be no more printing in Japan until about 1080.

The monk Alcuin becomes head of the episcopal school at the Cathedral of York. This cathedral had been destroyed by fire in 741 and then rebuilt on a grander scale. Alcuin devotes himself to teaching and to building up the library at the Cathedral. At this time the York Cathedral library is the finest north of the Alps.

How the [Hindu] numbers came to the Arabs can be read in the work of al-Qifti's 'Chronology of the scholars', which was written around the end the12th century but quoted earlier sources: ... a person from India presented himself before the Caliph al-Mansur in the year 776 who was well versed in the siddhanta method of calculation related to the movement of the heavenly bodies, and having ways of calculating equations based on the half-chord [essentially the sine] calculated in half-degrees ... Al-Mansur ordered this book to be translated into Arabic, and a work to be written, based on the translation, to give the Arabs a solid base for calculating the movements of the planets ...

This book, which the Indian scholar presented from, was probably Brahmasphutasiddhanta (The Opening of the Universe) which was written in 628 by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta and had used the Hindu Numerals with the zero sign."

The Emperor Charlemagne meets Alcuin at Parma and recognizes that Alcuin is a scholar who can help him achieve a renaissance of learning and reform of the Church. Charlemagne takes a serious effort in his and others' scholarship. He learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned how to write. His handwriting is bad, but any writing is an achievement for kings at this time, of whom most are illierate. Charlemagne induces Alcuin to move to take up residence at the royal court as Master of the Palace School at Aachen. This school is attended by members of the royal court and the sons of noble families. Alcuin establishes a great library there. For this library Charlemagne obtains manuscripts from the Imperial Library of Constantinople. Alcuin revises the church liturgy and the Bible and, along with another scholar, Theodulf of Orleans, is responsible for an intellectual movement within the Carolingian empire in which many schools are attached to monasteries and cathedrals, and Latin is restored to a position as a literary language. Along with these schools there is a flowering of libraries and manuscript book production.

By this time the Imperial Library at Constantinople is thought to have to declined to about 35,000 manuscript volumes.

Papermaking is established in Baghdad. It had reached Damascus and Cairo in about 750.

The monastery of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) and its library is sacked by the Vikings in the first recorded Viking raid on Britain.