The earliest movable books appear in the Middle East and in Europe. They often employ volvelles to convey information about relationships between time or the seasons, and astronomy and astrology.
The publication of movable books continues in Europe. Many of these incorporate volvelles or flaps to present cosmography, human anatomy, mathematics, and other scientific information.
Flap books for children appear. Initially published by Robert Sayer of London in 1765, they become wildly popular and soon Sayer's books complete with those of rival publishers. Flap books continue to be popular into the 1800s.
Most genres of movable books have emerged and are now produced and marketed in Europe and in the United States. If they are in color, all are hand-painted until approximately mid-century, when commercial chromolithography becomes practical.
Books with moving parts may seem like modern novelties specifically made for children, but they were originally produced for adults and conveyed scholarly or otherwise serious information. The first known movable book published in Europe, Chronica Majora, dates to thirteen-century England. The work of a Benedictine monk, the book’s movable component, a volvelle, could be turned to calculate holy days. Other early movable books were usefully put to other purposes through dynamic features that could depict human anatomy, aspects of astronomy, the arcana of astrology, and approaches to landscape architecture.
PUSS ‘N BOOTS
New York City, ca. 1880
OLD WOMAN AND HER SILVER PENNY
London, 1859
DEAN’S NEW BOOK OF DISSOLVING VIEWS
London, 1860
The books on this page represent a range of movable books published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Like earlier movable books, these encompass “practical” works with moving parts that convey information. An Analysis of Horsemanship, for example, relies on a movable element to illustrate the use of a bridle. And Outlines of Anatomy and Physiology typifies how flaps were used to illustrate the human body.
Other items from the same period suggest a growing market for children’s movable books. Published at London between 1765 and 1790, the various “Harlequinades” (here represented by the 1772 Harlequin Skeleton) are thought to be the first children’s books with moving parts.
And Dean’s New Book of Dissolving Views is one of many publications put forward by Thomas Dean and his son George, who were the first publishers to mass produce movable books.
