Evolution of the Printed Word

Charlemagne and an English monk named Alcuin reformed the entire writing system of Europe in the 8th century. Prior to this reform, all of Europe followed the ancient Roman system. The Roman system used all capitals (this word is derived from capitulus, meaning chapter), and no spacing or punctuation. On a quick side note, lower case and upper-case comes from the position of the casings that housed printing blocks for press.

One of the reasons to introduce a lower-case was that papyrus or vellum was very expensive and they needed a way to fit more text on a page. They also introduced spacing between words and punctuation to seperate pieces of text. Punctuation had been used to signify pauses for meditation while reading Psalms.