Alessandro Segalini

After the semitic invention of the alphabet, the invention of the word is the single most important invention that I know. The word – and with it reading – is what has made western civilization possible. I want to take stock of this turning point in the story of civilization, but I cannot find reference to it in the history books, nor in the paleographic corpus. Even in cultural-historical literature the concept of the word does not make an appearance. I had to seek out the invention of the word on my own from reproductions of old manuscripts. If I can rely upon the dating of their origins, then the word appears to have been invented in Ireland in the first half of the seventh century.