Law Library
The History of the Printed Book
Missouri artist LeRoy MacMorris painted the seven murals located on the south wall of the Law Library Reading Room. The murals, which depict the history of the printed book, were his earliest public mural project.
The first panel, on the far-left side of the wall, depicts a grey-bearded man showing a boy the carvings the man has made on a large tusk. Inspired by similar tusks found in Europe, the painting was intended to depict the earliest efforts of man to give graphic expression to his impression of nature.
The second panel takes us to the development of writing proper. In the center is a male figure depicting a Babylonian king who holds in his left hand a large tablet bearing cuneiform writing. These tablets are among civilization's earliest historic documents. Seated on the left is a female figure representing Egypt, another early literate civilization. She is writing on what appears to be a papyrus scroll. Below the painting are quotations representative of the cultures depicted. At the right and left are quotes from the Assyrian myth of the hero Gilgamesh: "I will reveal to thee, O Gilgamesh, the hidden word," and "The decision of the Gods to thee I will declare." In the center is a quotation from Egyptian sources:
I would cause thee to love books better than thy mother.
I would cause their beauty to enter into the waters of thy spirit and the working of thy mind
It [the love of knowledge] is better than the holding of any high office.
The third panel features on the left a female figure representing Chinese civilization, which contributed the idea of movable type to the evolution of the printed word. In the center is a bearded male figure representing the Jewish people, and on the right, a toga-clad male figure representing Greek culture. Both of these male figures are in recognition of the use of vellum as a writing surface and written characters by their respective cultures. The quote on the lower left is attributed to Confucius and reads:
If your fields are left untilled your granaries will be empty
If your books are left unread your children will be ignorant
The words of the mouth fly away on the wind, the written word abides
In the center is a quotation from Aristotle: "Now, reason, as all would admit, exists for the acquisition of knowledge and seeks ends; the means to which are contained in philosophy; why then should philosophy not be pursued without hesitation?"
On the right is a quotation from the Jewish prophet Habakuk: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it."
Over the door are two cherubs, representing the wisdom of the ages.
The fifth panel, to the right of the door, depicts the Byzantine, Medieval and Renaissance periods. A female figure standing on the right represents Byzantine culture. She holds a scroll, which MacMorris described as representing an old Greek vellum scroll that was scraped clean and re-used by Christian monks. Seated on the left is a woman with a book open on a table in front of her. She represents the invention of the first recognizable books: linen paper pages held between wooden boards. Behind these figures is a man operating a printing press like those used in the workshop of Aldus Manutius of Venice in 1500.
The quote at the lower left is from the Renaissance poet Petarch and reads, "Only the poet's pure immortal plan outwits the swift mortality of man." In the center is a quote from The Shepard of Hermes: "First of all, speak evil of no man, neither willingly hear him who speaks evil. For, if in truth, you lend ear to it, you become the accomplice to him who speaks evil."
On the right is a couplet from the Roman poet Virgil (who here represents the Renaissance):
Come in the last of the ages, in song Cumean foretold,
Now is the world's grand cycle begun once more from of old.
The sixth panel represents the 20th century. In the background is a large, mechanical printing press of the kind that has, MacMorris notes, "made the vast store of the wisdom of the ages common property of mankind." While previous images included kings and princesses, here the figures are of ordinary, middle-class Americans holding and surrounded by books: a man in academic robes leaning casually on the printing press while he reads, a young boy with a couple of books under his arms and a seated woman reading a large volume.
MacMorris stated that he particularly wanted this figure to highlight the education of women, an important advance in modern times. Below, on the left, is a quotation from the French writer LaFontaine: "Let ignorance talk as it will, learning has its value."
In the center is a quotation from the English writer Thomas Carlisle: "In books lies the soul of the whole past time; the articulate audible voice of the past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream." On the right is a line from the German poet Schiller, "The world's history is the world's judgment."
The final panel, on the far right, is purely allegorical. A standing female figure, with her hand resting on an open book, represents science, while a seated male figure with his arm resting on an anvil represents industry. MacMorris' point was that the scientific and technical development of the modern world depended upon the knowledge made available in printed books.
