Editing Table of contents (section)

==History==
[[Pliny the Elder]] credits [[Quintus Valerius Soranus]] (d. 82 BC) as the first author to provide a table of contents to help readers navigate a lengthy work.

=== Classical Origins ===
The Roman writer '''Quintus Valerius Soranus''' (d. 82 BCE) is credited as the first to attach a list of contents to a written work, according to the Roman historian '''Pliny the Elder'''. In his ''Natural History'', Pliny writes: "Soranus was the first to include a list of his book’s chapters to help the reader understand its content."<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/7*.html Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book VII]</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=[[Pliny the Elder]] |title=[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia naturalis]] |at=Preface 33 |trans-title=Natural History}} Quoted in {{cite journal |last=Henderson |first=John |date=July 2002 |title=Knowing Someone Through Their Books: Pliny the Younger on Uncle Pliny (''Epistles'' 3.5) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1215524 |journal=Classical Philology |volume=97 |issue=3 |page=275 |doi=10.1086/449587 |jstor=1215524 |s2cid=162007417 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref group="note">Pliny's own table of contents for his encyclopedic [[Natural History (Pliny)|''Historia naturalis'']] ("Natural History") may be viewed online [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/1*.html in Latin] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137 in English] (following dedication).</ref>

=== In Indian and Chinese Civilizations ===
In ancient Sanskrit literature, works such as the ''Sushruta Samhita'' and the ''Charaka Samhita'' (1st century BCE) were systematically divided into books and chapters, which were often listed at the beginning.
In China, during the Han to Tang dynasties (206 BCE – 907 CE), classification catalogues began to appear in official records. One example is the ''Hanshu'' (Book of Han), which organized works by topic and included early content tables.<ref>Harwit, ''Knowledge Systems in Ancient India'', Journal of Historical Epistemology, 1997.</ref><ref>Joseph Needham, ''Science and Civilization in China'', Vol. III.</ref>

=== Byzantine and Early Christian Contributions ===
Early Christian tradition employed reference tables known as ''Canon Tables'', compiled by '''Eusebius of Caesarea''' in the 4th century CE. These helped readers navigate between the four Gospels and are considered among the earliest tools resembling tables of contents.<ref>Michael Cameron, ''Intertextuality in Early Christian Literature'', Oxford, 2001.</ref>

=== In Islamic Civilization ===
With the flourishing of writing and scholarship during the Abbasid era (9th century CE), Muslim scholars began dividing their books into chapters and sections, often listed in the preface or at the beginning of each chapter. Notable examples include works by [[Avicenna]], [[al-Jahiz]], and [[Ibn al-Nadim]] in his encyclopedic ''[[Al-Fihrist]].'' [[Taha Hussein]] referred to this structure as a precursor to the modern table of contents: "Al-Jahiz would often include tentative headings for his chapters, offering readers a glimpse into the discussion—a primitive form of the contents page."<ref>Taha Hussein, ''Hadith al-Arbi'a’'', Vol. 1, p. 122.</ref>

=== Influence on Europe ===
The transmission of knowledge during the Islamic Golden Age, particularly through [[Al-Andalus]] and [[Sicily]], exposed Latin Europe to Arab methods of organizing texts. Historian [[George Saliba]] notes that Europeans not only translated scientific content but also adopted Arab formatting and presentation methods.<ref>[https://www.caus.org.lb/Home/article/515 George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, p. 88]</ref>

=== Europe After the Printing Press ===
After the invention of the printing press by [[Johannes Gutenberg]] in the 15th century, it became increasingly necessary to organize printed texts with clear tables of contents, which became standard in the following centuries.

As printing technology expanded beyond Europe, the structural organization of books—including the use of tables of contents—was transmitted through colonial, commercial, and intellectual exchanges.