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The first page

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Anne-Marie Christin
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Extract

The page is defined as a textual support, whether the text be present or virtual. This phenomenon is not specific to our book- and alphabet-based civilization. The very invention of writing rests on an original means of exploiting the space inaugurated by the image, and on the questions raised by that particular kind of space. By calibrating and structuring this space, soothsayers established the laws of a system of signs specific to visual communication – divine visual communication – which was also capable of transcribing human language. Far from being the origin of writing, counting, on the other hand, was only developed and refined by being integrated into the page's space.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 2000, pp. 457 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2000

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References

Notes

1. See a summary of this topic in Christin, A.-M. (1999) ‘Les Origines de l'écritaure: image, signe, trace,’ Le Débat, 106, 09–10, pp. 28–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. See, for example, Amiet, P. (1982) ‘La Naissance de l'écriture en Sumer et en Elam,’ Naissance de l'écriture, cunéiformes et hiéroglyphes, Exhibition Catalogue (Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux) pp. 46–48.Google Scholar

3. ‘Liberté,’ in Poésie et vérité, 1942; reprinted in P. Eluard, Œuvres complètes, I, Paris: Gallimard, Pléiade, 1968, pp. 1105–1107.

4. See Syrie, mémoire et civilisation, Exhibition Catalogue, Paris: IMA-Flammarion, 1993, pp. 130–131Google Scholar. For more general commentary, see Christin, A.-M. (2000) Poétique du blanc, vide et intervalle dans la civilisation de l'alphabet (Leuven: Peeters) and ‘La Mémoire blanche,’ pp. 141–164, in particular.Google Scholar

5. Ifra, G. (1981) Histoire universelle des chiffres (Paris: Seghers), pp. 397–402.Google Scholar

6. Jacques Derrida argues, for instance, that psychology ‘could never encounter in its space that by which is constituted the absence of its signatory, not to mention the absence of the referent. But writing is the name of these two absences,’ translation ours; original De la grammatologie (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1967), p. 60.Google Scholar

7. Clement of Alexandria, Stromates, V, 4, 20–21; cited in Todorov, T. (1977) Théories du symbole (Paris: Seuil), pp. 31–32.Google Scholar

8. See Vernus, P. (1977) ‘L'Ecriture de l'Egypte ancienne’. In L'Espace et la lettre, Christin, A.-M. (ed) Cahiers Jussieu, 3 (Paris: UGE), pp. 63–64.Google Scholar

9. By stating the law of the simultaneous contrast of colours, Chevreul revealed the mechanism by which visual elements contaminate each other, a law that reigns over the whole of iconic communication. On this topic, see Roque, G. (1977) Art et science de la couleur, Chevreul et la peinture (Nîmes: Jacqueline Chambon).Google Scholar

10. For a definition of ‘idea of the screen’ (‘pensée de l'écran’), and its implications, see Christin, A.-M. (1995) L'Image écrite ou la déraison graphique (Paris: Flammarion) ‘Idées et recherches’.Google Scholar

11. Vandier-Nicolas, N. (1982) Esthétique et peinture de pay sage en Chine (Paris: Klincksieck), pp. 126–127.Google Scholar

12. Dubuffet, J. (1986) Bâtons rompus (Paris: Editions de Minuit), pp. 26–27.Google Scholar

13. Durand, J.-M. (1994) ‘Les Cieux, premier livre de lecture,’ Astrologie en Mésopotamie, Dossiers d'Archéologie, 191, 3Google Scholar; and Vandermeersch, L. (1974) ‘De la tortue à l'achillée,’ Divination et rationalité (Paris: Seuil), pp. 40–41.Google Scholar

14. Such is the case with the calcareous tablet inscribed with Sumerian pictographic writing dating to the end of the fourth millennium BCE (Paris: Musée du Louvre) AO 19936, reproduced and commented on in Naissance de l'écriture, cunéiformes et hiéroglyphes, op. cit., p. 52 (no. 7). See Fig. 1.