“How not to be surprised by the infinite creativity with which we have sought to transcribe the spoken language, with such different results, and by all these stories, all these characters with which these thousand and one writing systems are associated. ? “Asks Vitali Konstantinov, as an afterword to his pharaonic Great history of writing. One thing is certain, the result of his exhaustive review is spectacular. Rooted in the origins of the sign and the first languages, this journey navigates downstream of nearly 292 different writing systems – not to mention emojis – and 7,111 living languages - including Tolkien’s Elvish languages -, offering us in the impetus a compendium of cultural and political history. The content is abundant – possibly too much for a young audience – but proves to be captivating. In a large format close to the comic strip, in a black and white sometimes iridescent with red, this documentary book is as singular as it is magnificent.
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