Preface: Homo scribens: Humanity and writing
Introduction: The mystique of writing
Complement: Writing as technology, from myth to history
An age of wonder and discovery, 2500-600 BCE
An age of philosophy, 600 BCE-400 CE
Collections, histories, and forgeries, 300 BCE-400 CE
Writing and scripture, 600 BCE-650 CE
Cultural clashes and the defense of uniqueness
Part III: Writing in the Middle Ages
An age of paradoxical optimism, 650-1350
Pessimism in the age of rediscovery, 1350-1500
Part IV: Toward modernity
Alternating currents, 1450-1550
A second age of scripture, 1500-1600
The age of grand collections, 1600-1800
Skepticism and imagination, 1600-1800
The age of decipherment, 1800-1950
The age of media, 1950-2020.
