Chapter I: Part 1

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THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.

A Collection of Facts and Opinions

Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates.

Illustrated with Fac-Similes of Early Types and Wood-Cuts.

by

THEO. L. DE VINNE.

* * ‹f›Hereby tongues are knowne, knowledge groweth, judgement
encreaseth, books are dispersed, the Scripture is seene, the doctors
be read, stories be opened, times compared, truth discerned, falshood
detected, and with finger pointed, and all, as I said, through the
benefit of Printing.‹/f› _Fox’s Acts and Monuments._

New-York: Francis Hart & Co. 12 & 14 College Place. 1876.

Entered, According to Act of Congress, in the Year 1876, by Theodore L. De Vinne, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

TO DAVID WOLFE BRUCE,

IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT

OF INSTRUCTION ABOUT TYPES, NOT TO BE HAD BY READING, OF ASSISTANCE IN STUDIES, NOT TO BE FOUND IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, OF COMPANIONSHIP MORE PLEASANT THAN BOOKS,

THIS WORK IS DEDICATED BY HIS FRIEND, THEO. L. DE VINNE.

CONTENTS.

I THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING . . . 17

II ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION AND THEIR FAILURE . . . 29

III THE KEY TO THE INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY . . . 49

IV THE IMAGE PRINTS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . . . 69

V PRINTED AND STENCILED PLAYING CARDS . . . 88

VI THE CHINESE METHOD OF PRINTING . . . 109

VII THE EARLY PRINTING OF ITALY . . . 122

VIII THE INTRODUCTION OF PAPER IN EUROPE . . . 133

IX THE BOOK-MAKERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES . . . 146

X THE PREPARATIONS FOR PRINTING . . . 171

XI BLOCK-BOOKS OF IMAGES WITHOUT TEXT . . . 193

XII BLOCK-BOOKS OF IMAGES WITH TEXT . . . 230

XIII THE DONATUS, OR BOY’S LATIN GRAMMAR . . . 254

XIV THE SPECULUM SALUTIS, OR MIRROR OF SALVATION . . . 264

XV THE WORKS AND WORKMANSHIP OF AN UNKNOWN PRINTER . . . 282

XVI THE PERIOD IN WHICH THE SPECULUM WAS PRINTED . . . 308

XVII THE LEGEND OF LOURENS JANSZOON COSTER . . . 326

XVIII THE GROWTH OF THE LEGEND . . . 347

XIX THE DOWNFALL OF THE LEGEND . . . 360

XX JOHN GUTENBERG AT STRASBURG . . . 375

XXI GUTENBERG AND HIS EARLIER WORK AT MENTZ . . . 403

XXII THE LATER WORK OF GUTENBERG . . . 431

XXIII THE WORK OF PETER SCHŒFFER AND JOHN FUST . . . 449

XXIV ALLEGED INVENTORS OF PRINTING . . . 480

XXV THE SPREAD OF PRINTING . . . 492

XXVI THE TOOLS AND USAGES OF THE FIRST PRINTERS . . . 514

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED . . . 543

INDEX . . . 547

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Statue of John Gutenberg . . . Frontispiece.

Surface Exposed to Impression by Copper-plate method . . . 21

Surface Inked and Exposed to Impression by Typographic method . . . 21

Surface Exposed to Impression by Lithographic method . . . 21

Face of a large Type, showing how the Letter is placed on the body . . . 24

Side view of Canon body . . . 25

Small Pica, Agate and Diamond body . . . 25

View of body inclined to show the face . . . 25

Stamped Brick from Babylon . . . 30

Fac-simile of Impression on brick . . . 31

Egyptian Stamp for impressing bricks . . . 32

Assyrian Cylinder . . . 34

Old Roman Stamps . . . 37

Roman Stamps . . . 38

Roman Scrinium and rolls of papyrus . . . 43

Types of Irregular Body . . . 52

Punch . . . 55

Matrix . . . 55

Illustrations of Type-bodies . . . 56

Type-Mould, without matrix . . . 57

One-half of the Mould . . . 57

The other half of the Mould . . . 57

Type-casting as practised in 1683 . . . 59

Type-casting as practised in 1564 . . . 62

Print of St. Christopher . . . 70

Print of the Annunciation . . . 72

Print of St. Bridget . . . 74

Flemish Indulgence Print . . . 76

Brussels Print . . . 79

Berlin Print . . . 81

Playing Card of the fifteenth century . . . 93

Print Colorer . . . 94

Engraver on Wood . . . 95

Chinese Playing Cards . . . 99

Early French Playing Cards . . . 103

French and German Playing Cards of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries . . . 105

Fac-simile of part of a Chinese Book . . . 117

Chinese Types made in London . . . 117

Mark of Jacobus Arnoldus, 1345 . . . 123

Mark of Johannes Meynersen, 1435 . . . 123

Mark of Adam de Walsokne, 1349 . . . 125

Mark of Edmund Pepyr, 1483 . . . 125

Mark of an unknown person . . . 125

Japanese Method of Making Paper . . . 135

Paper-Mill of the sixteenth century . . . 140

Scriptorium of the middle ages . . . 149

Penmanship of the ninth century . . . 150

Manuscript of the fifteenth century . . . 152

Medieval Bookbinding . . . 153

Medieval Illuminator . . . 154

Sumptuously Bound Book . . . 156

Medieval Book with covers of oak . . . 157

Book Cover in Ivory, Byzantine style . . . 158

Seal of the University of Paris . . . 161

English Horn-Book . . . 174

English Clog . . . 175

Holbein’s Dance of Death . . . 183

Dance of Death, as shown in the Nuremberg Chronicle . . . 185

Last page of the Bible of the Poor . . . 197

First page of the Bible of the Poor, as made by Walther and Hurning . . . 209

First page of the Apocalypse . . . 213

First page of the Canticles . . . 217

Story of the Blessed Virgin . . . 221

Exercise on the Lord’s Prayer . . . 223

Illustration from the Book of Kings . . . 225

Letter K of Grotesque Alphabet . . . 227

Page from the Apostles’ Creed . . . 228

Page from the Eight Rogueries . . . 229

Page from the Antichrist . . . 232

Page from the Ars Memorandi . . . 234

Page from the Ars Moriendi . . . 237

Chiromancy of Doctor Hartlieb . . . 240

Calendar of John of Gamundia . . . 242

Page from the Wonders of Rome . . . 243

Pomerium Spirituale . . . 244

Temptations of the Devil . . . 245

Life of St. Meinrat . . . 246

Heidelberg Dance of Death . . . 247

German Donatus, from a block in the National Library at Paris . . . 258

Fragment of an early Donatus . . . 259

Early Dutch Horarium . . . 260

Imprint of Conrad Dinckmut . . . 262

First page of Speculum Salutis . . . 266

Last page of Speculum Salutis . . . 268

Types of Speculum Salutis . . . 277

Types in third edition of Speculum . . . 285

Types of Fables of Lorenzo Valla . . . 286

Types of Peculiarities of Criminal Law . . . 287

Types of Epitaphs of Pope Pius II . . . 288

The Enschedé Abecedarium . . . 290

Experimental Letters drawn on wood . . . 294

Types from Experimental Letters . . . 295

Frisket, Tympan and Bed of an early European Printing Press . . . 307

Paper-marks: seven illustrations . . . 309, 310

Types of Jacob Bellaert . . . 319

Types of John Brito . . . 321

Map of the Netherlands . . . 323

Scriverius’ Portrait of Coster . . . 333

Statue of Coster in Doctors’ Garden . . . 351

Medals in honor of Coster . . . 353, 354

Statue of Coster on the monument . . . 359

Autograph of Laurens Janszoon . . . 361

House of Coster . . . 370

Portrait of Laurens Janszoon Coster . . . 371

Spurious Portrait by Van den Berg . . . 372

Portrait attributed to Van Oudewater . . . 372

The Laurens Janszoon of Meerman . . . 373

Medieval Press . . . 395

Type-mould of Claude Garamond . . . 399

Types of the Donatus attributed to Gutenberg at Strasburg . . . 401

Types of Donatus of 1451 . . . 405

De la Borde’s Illustration of Types . . . 406

Holbein’s Satire on the Indulgences . . . 407

Letter of Indulgence dated 1454 . . . 409

Types of Bible of 36 Lines . . . 413

Abbreviations of Bible of 36 Lines . . . 414

Portrait of John Fust . . . 417

Types of Bible of 42 Lines . . . 423

Portrait of John Gutenberg . . . 429

Types of Letter of Indulgence of 1461 . . . 433

Types of Catholicon of 1460 . . . 435

Types of Celebration of the Mass . . . 437

Types of Mirror of the Clergy . . . 438

Colophon written by Peter Schœffer . . . 450

Types of the Psalter of 1457 . . . 453

Colophon of the Psalter of 1457 . . . 455

Types of the Rationale Durandi . . . 461

Types of the Bible of 1462 . . . 462

Trade-mark of Fust and Schœffer . . . 462

Types of Constitutions of Clement V . . . 463

Portrait of Peter Schœffer . . . 469

Types of the Grammar of 1468 . . . 470

Illustration from the Book of Fables . . . 483

Arms of the Typothetæ . . . 489

Part of Koburger’s Map of Europe . . . 496

The Birth of Eve, Zainer’s . . . 497

Statue of Gutenberg at Strasburg . . . 509

Type of the fifteenth century . . . 520

Printing Office of sixteenth century . . . 523

Hand Press of Jodocus Badius . . . 528

Inking Balls of sixteenth century . . . 530

Large wood-cut of fifteenth century . . . 535

The Fall of Lucifer, Zainer’s . . . 537

A Print of 1475 . . . 539

_PREFACE._

_The Invention of Printing has always been recognized by educated men as a subject of importance: there is no mechanical art, nor are there any of the fine arts, about whose early history so many books have been written. The subject is as mysterious as it is inviting. There is an unusual degree of obscurity about the origin of the first printed books and the lives and works of the early printers. There are records and traditions which cannot be reconciled of at least three distinct inventions of printing. Its early history is entangled with a controversy about rival inventors which has lasted for more than three centuries, and is not yet fully determined._

_In the management of this controversy, a subject intrinsically attractive has been made repulsive. The history of the invention of printing has been written to please national pride. German authors assert the claims of Gutenberg, and discredit traditions about Coster. Dutch authors insist on the priority of Coster, and charge Gutenberg with stealing the invention. Partisans on each side say that their opponents have perverted the records and suppressed the truth. The quarrel has spread. English and French authors, who had no national prejudices to gratify, and who should have considered the question without passion, have wrangled over the subject with all the bitterness of Germans or Hollanders. In this, as in other quarrels, there are amusing features, but to the general reader the controversy seems unfortunate and is certainly wearisome._

_It is a greater misfortune that all the early chronicles of printing were written in a dead language. Wolf’s collection [p010] of_ Typographic Monuments, _which includes nearly every paper of value written before 1740, is in Latin; the valuable books of Meerman, Maittaire, and Schoepflin are also in Latin. To the general reader these are sealed books: to the student, who seeks exact knowledge of the methods of the first printers, they are tiresome books. Written for the information of librarians rather than of printers, it is but proper that these books should devote the largest space to a review of the controversy or to a description of early editions; but it is strange that they should so imperfectly describe the construction and appearance of early types and the usages of the early printers. The mechanical features of typography were, apparently, neglected as of little importance, and beneath the dignity of history._

_A failure to present accurate illustrations of early printing is not the fault of modern authorities. Many of them are full of fac-similes bearing the marks of minute and conscientious care; but they are in foreign languages, and are seldom found in our largest American libraries. There are, it is true, a few books in English on early printing which have accurate fac-similes; but high prices and limited editions put them out of the reach of the ordinary book-buyer. They were written by and for librarians only._

_Valuable as all these books are, they disappoint the printer. Some of them, though presenting fac-similes in profusion, are not accompanied with proper explanations in the text: others are devoted to one branch only of early printing, such as block-books, or the printed work of one nation only. Two of them are untrustworthy as authorities. Neither from one book, nor from all the books, can a printer get a clear description of the mechanical development of typography. This incompleteness was frankly acknowledged by Dr. Dibdin, when he said that there was no work in the English language which deserved to be considered as a complete general history of printing. This was an old complaint. Nearly a hundred years before, Prosper Marchand had said that the history of printing, voluminous as it then seemed, was but history in fragments._ [p011]

_The first attempt to supply this great deficiency was made by August Bernard, in the disquisition published at Paris, in the year 1853, under the title,_ De l’origine et des debuts de l’imprimerie en Europe. _His was the first book in which the printed work attributed to Coster and Gutenberg was critically examined from a typographic point of view. To readers who were not content with the vague descriptions of popular books of typography, the explanations of Bernard were of peculiar value. I had reason to think that a translation of the history of this eminent printer would be received by American printers with some measure of the favor which the original had met with in Europe. Impressed with this belief I began the work._

_I found it necessary to consult many of Bernard’s authorities. My admiration of the superior method and forcible style of Bernard, an admiration still unabated, was increased by the reading of the new books; but the esteem in which I hold his valuable work does not prevent the regret that, in his entire neglect of the block-books, he should have overlooked the most significant feature of early printing. The fac-similes of early prints, subsequently shown in_ The Infancy of Book Printing _of Weigel and in_ The Typographic Monuments _of Holtrop, convinced me that the earliest practice of typography had its beginning in a still earlier practice of printing from blocks, and that a description of block-books should precede a description of the invention of types._

_Since these books were written, all the old theories about the origin of typography have been examined with increased interest, and discussed with superior critical ability, by many eminent European scholars. Discoveries of great importance have been made; old facts have been set forth in new lights; traditions accepted as truthful history for three hundred years have been demolished. Of the many able men who have been engaged in this task of separating truth from fiction, no one has done more efficient service than Dr. A. Van der Linde of The Hague, whose papers on the traditions of typography are masterpieces of acute and scholarly criticism. His researches [p012] and reasoning convinced me that it would be unwise to offer a translation of any previously published book as a fair exponent of modern knowledge about early typography. The newly discovered facts were opposed to early teachings; there could be no sewing of the new cloth on the old garment. I was led away from my first purpose of translation, and, almost unconsciously, began to collect the materials for the present volume._

_Until recently, the invention of printing has been regarded as a subject belonging almost entirely to bibliographers. The opinions of type-founders and printers who had examined old books have been set aside as of no value, whenever they were opposed to favorite theories or legends. This partial treatment of the subject is no longer approved: a new school of criticism invites experts to examine the books, and pays respect to their conclusions. It claims that the internal evidences of old books are of higher authority than legends, and that these evidences are conclusive, not to be ignored nor accommodated to the statements of the early chroniclers. European critics do not hesitate to say that the confusing and contradictory descriptions of the origin of printing are largely due to the improper deference heretofore paid to the statements of men who tried to describe processes which they did not understand. They say, also, that too little attention has been paid to the types and mechanics of early printing. Criticisms of this character led me to indulge the hope that I might find gleanings of value in the old field, and that it would be practicable to present them, with the newly discovered facts, in a form which would be acceptable to the printer and the general reader. In this belief, and for this purpose, this book was written._

_I would not have begun this work, if I had not felt assured that a thorough revision of the subject was needed. The books and papers on typography which are most popular, and are still accepted as authoritative by the ordinary reader, repeat legends which have recently been proved untrue; they narrate, as established facts of history, methods of printing which are not only incorrect but impossible. It is time that the results of [p013] the more recent researches should be published in the English language. But I offer them only as the compiler of accredited facts: I have no original discoveries to announce, no speculative theories to uphold. Nor shall I invade the proper field of librarians and bibliographers. I propose to describe old types, prints and books as they are seen by a printer, and with reference to the needs of printers and the general reader, avoiding, as far as I can, all controversies about matters which are of interest to book-collectors only. The historical part of the record will be devoted chiefly to the printed work of the first half of the fifteenth century. It will begin with descriptions of the earliest forms of printing, as shown in image prints, playing cards and block-books; it will end with the establishment of typography in Germany._

_Believing that a verbal description of old books and prints, without pictorial illustrations, would be unsatisfactory, I have provided many fac-similes of early printing. No part of this work will more fully repay examination than its illustrations, which have been carefully selected from approved authorities, or from originals. Reproduced by the new process of photo-engraving, they are accurate copies of the originals, even when of reduced size. As they are printed with the descriptive text by the same method of typographic presswork, it is believed that they will more clearly illustrate the subject than lithographed fac-similes on straggling leaves._

_In trying to make plain whatever may be obscure about the mechanics of printing, I have thought proper to begin the explanation with a description of its different methods. An introduction of this nature is not an unwarrantable digression. It is important that the reader should have an understanding of the radical differences between typography and xylography on the one side, and lithographic and copper-plate printing on the other, as well as some knowledge of the construction and uses of the more common tools of type-founders._

_I do not propose to give any extended quotations in foreign languages. Wherever an approved translation in English has [p014] been found, it has been substituted for the original text; where translations have not been approved, they have been made anew. Writing for the general reader, I have assumed that he would prefer, as I do, in every book to be read and not studied, a version in English rather than the original text. Believing that the frequent citation of authorities, especially in instances where the facts are undisputed, or where the books are inaccessible, is an annoyance, I have refrained from the presentation of foot-notes which refer to books only. I have, in a few cases, deviated from this course where the matters stated were of a character which seemed to require the specification of authority._

_One of the greatest impediments I encountered when about to begin the compilation of this work was the difficulty of access to books of authority. I do not mention this in disparagement of the management of our public libraries, for I know that old books are liable to injury in the hands of the merely curious, and that librarians have little encouragement to collect scarce books on typography. To prove that there is small inquiry for treatises of this character, it is enough to say that I have had to cut open the leaves of valuable books after their rest for many years on the shelves of one of the largest libraries of this city. But if these books were ever so abundant, the proper restrictions placed on their use were a hindrance to one whose chief opportunity for consulting them is at night._

_Here I am pleased to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. David Wolfe Bruce. He has not only accompanied and aided me in repeated examinations of his very valuable collection of fifteenth century books, but has lent me all the books I desired, and has freely given me unlimited time for their study. This collection—replete with all the books of authority I needed, with specimens of types, wood-cuts, and curiosities of type-founding, which illustrate the growth of printing from its infancy—was more admirably adapted to my needs than that of any library on this Continent. Deprived of Mr. Bruce’s generous assistance, my work would have been greatly restricted in its scope, and shorn of its best features of illustration._ [p015]

_I began this work intending to describe only the mechanical development of early printing, but I could not keep the matter strictly within this limit. Hedged in this narrow space, the story would be but half told. The true origin of typography is not in types, nor in block-books nor image prints. These were consequences, not causes. The condition of society at the close of the middle ages; the growth of commerce and manufactures; the enlarged sense of personal liberty; the brawls of ecclesiastics in high station, and their unworthy behavior; the revolt of the people against the authority of church and state; the neglect of duty by the self-elected teachers of the people in their monopoly of books and knowledge; the barrenness of the education then given in the schools; the eagerness of all people for the mental diversion offered in the new game of playing cards; the unsatisfied religious appetite which hungered for image prints and devotional books; the facilities for self-education afforded by the introduction of paper,—these were among the influences which produced the invention of printing. They are causes which cannot be overlooked. My inability to describe them with the fullness which they deserve would not justify their total neglect. I have devoted more space to them than is customary in treatises on early printing, but I have to admit, with regret, that they have been too curtly treated. I have done but little more than record a few of the more noticeable facts—enough, perhaps, to show that the state of education and society, in its relation to the invention of printing, deserves a more extended description than it has hitherto received. If I can succeed in awakening the attention of printers, and those who look on a knowledge of printing as a proper accomplishment of the scholar, to the nature and extent of these influences, to the curiosities of literature hidden in apparently dry books of bibliography, and to the value of the lesson of patient industry and fixed purpose taught by the life of John Gutenberg, the object of this book will have been accomplished._

[p017]

I

The Different Methods of Printing.

Impression is used in many Arts . . . Printing implies the use of Ink and Paper . . . Four Methods of Printing . . . Steel-plate or Copper-plate, the artistic method . . . Lithography, the scientific method . . . Typography, the useful method . . . Xylography, the primitive method . . . Illustrations of Copper-plate and Lithographic Printing Surfaces . . . Process of Copper-plate Printing . . . Its Merits and its Defects . . . Process of Lithographic Printing . . . Its Advantages and Limitations . . . Theory of Typography, with Illustrations of the Face and Body of Types . . . Superiority of Movable Types over Engraved Letters . . . Stereotype . . . Superiority of the Typographic Method in its Presses and its Process of Inking . . . Xylography . . . Period when each Method was Introduced . . . A Meaning in their almost Simultaneous Introduction.

* * * * *

Printing, the act, art, or practice of impressing letters, characters, or figures on paper, cloth, or other material; the business of a printer; typography.

Typography, the art of printing, or the operation of impressing letters and words on forms of types.

_Webster._

Printing, the business of a printer; the art or process of impressing letters or words; typography; the process of staining linen with figures.

Typography, the art of printing.

_Worcester._

Print, to press, mark, stamp or infix letters, characters, forms, or figures.

_Richardson._

* * * * *

These definitions of printing are based on its derivation from the Latin, _premo_, to press, and on the supposition that its most characteristic feature is impression. From a technical point of view, the definitions are incomplete; for printing and typography are made synonymous, while many leading, but totally different, methods of impressing letters, characters and figures, are not even noticed. Impression is employed in the manufacture of calico, paper-hangings, oilcloth, figured crockery, and in many other arts which have no connection with each other. Under right conditions, the [p018] action or the impress of light makes a photograph. Under different conditions, the pressure of the breath makes hollow glassware. Moulding, coining, stamping and embossing are other methods of impression; but the men who practise these methods are not known as printers. The word printing has acquired a conventional meaning not entirely warranted by its derivation. It means much more than impression. It is commonly understood as a process in which paper and ink are employed in conjunction with impression.

Printing and typography are not strictly synonymous, as may be inferred from the definitions. Typography, although the most useful, is not the only form of printing. Printing on paper with ink is done by four methods. Each method is, practically, a separate art, distinct from its rivals in its theory, its process, and its application. These methods are:

_Steel-plate or Copper-plate printing_, in which the subject is printed from an etching or engraving below the surface of a plate of steel or of copper.

_Lithography_, in which the subject is printed from a transferred engraving on the surface of a prepared stone.

_Typography_, in which the subject is printed from a combination of movable metal types cast in high relief.

_Xylography_, in which the subject is printed from a design engraved on a block of wood in high relief.

The distinct nature of the substances in use for printing surfaces by the four methods should be enough to teach us that the methods are entirely different. But the manner in which the letters, designs or figures of each method are put on the respective printing surfaces will show the differences more noticeably. In typographic and xylographic work, the matter to be printed is cast or cut in high relief, or _above_ the surface; in lithographic work, it is put _on_ the smooth surface of the stone, in relief so slight that it is almost level with the surface; in steel and copper-plate, it is cut _below_ the surface which receives the impression. The illustration on the next page shows, but in an exaggerated form, the appearance of a [p019] single line, cut across, or in a vertical direction, when it has been prepared for printing by each of the different methods. It will be seen that the line prepared for printing by the typographic or xylographic method can be inked with facility, and that, when compared with a similar line in lithographic or copper-plate work, it presents but a small surface and a slighter resistance to impression.

A. Elevated line; the only part of a typographic or of a xylographic surface which receives the ink and impression.

B. The shoulder of the type, or the field of the block; it receives neither ink nor impression.]

C. Transferred surface line; the only part of the surface which receives ink and repels moisture.

D. The surface of the stone, that imbibes moisture and repels greasy ink; it receives the full force of impression in every part.]

E. The line printed, which is engraved below the surface of the plate, and is filled with ink.

F. The smooth face of the plate, which makes no mark on the paper, but which receives the full force of impression.]

The process of copper-plate printing begins with heating the plate, and rolling it with ink, until the incised lines have been filled. The face of the plate is then wiped clean, care being taken that the ink in the incised lines is not removed. A moistened sheet of paper is then laid on the plate, and an impression is taken by forcing it under the cylinder of a rolling press. Under this pressure, the paper is forced in the sunken lines filled with ink, and the ink sticks to the paper.

Copper-plate printing is, in all points, the reverse of typographic printing. The engraved lines, cut below the surface, are filled with ink in a compact body, and not in a thin film, liable to spread under pressure, as it may on a type or on a wood-cut; the ink from a copper-plate is pressed in such a way that it re-appears on the paper in a low relief—it is not squeezed on and flatted out, but stands up with sharper line and shows a greater depth of color. The slenderness of the incised lines, the fineness and hardness of the metal, and the peculiar method by which the ink is laid on the plate and fixed to the paper, give to prints from engravings on steel or [p020] on copper a sharpness of line, a brilliancy of color, a delicacy of tone, and a receding in perspective, which have always won for this branch of printing the preference of artists. Yet it is a slow and expensive process. A steel-plate engraver may be engaged for many months upon a large plate, from which but forty perfect impressions can be taken in a day. On ordinary work on a large plate, three hundred impressions per day is the average performance of a copper-plate press.

Steel and copper-plate printing is largely used for bank-notes, portraits, fine book illustrations, revenue and postage stamps, and sometimes for commercial formularies, but it is in every way unfitted for the printing of books. It has not been much improved since its invention. Steel plates may be duplicated by means of electrotyping, or by the process of transfer to soft steel, but these duplicates cannot be made so cheaply as typographic stereotype plates, nor so promptly as transfers by lithography. The inking and cleansing of the plate, always dirty and disagreeable work, has hitherto been done only by hand. All the manipulations of copper-plate work are slow and difficult: they present many obstacles to the use of labor-saving machinery.

In lithography the design to be printed, which may be engraved on stone or copper, or written with pen on paper, is transferred by a greasy ink upon the smooth surface of a stone of peculiar fineness and firmness. This stone, which is found in its best state only in Bavaria, where the art was invented, is a variety of slate, which faithfully responds in printing to the slightest touch of a graver or a crayon, and permits the use of fine shades and tints which cannot be produced on wood or on copper. The transferred lines of the design cling to and dry upon the surface of the stone, which is then subjected to the action of a weak acid, which hardens the ink in the transferred lines, while it slightly etches and lowers the surface where it is unprotected. The process of printing begins by dampening the stone with a moist sponge, the water in which is absorbed by the [p022] unprotected face of the stone, while it is repelled by the hard greasy matter in the transferred lines. The inking roller is then applied to the stone with a contrary result; the moistened surface repels the greasy ink, but the transferred lines attract and retain it. When an impression on paper is taken, the only part of the paper which receives ink is that part which touches the transferred lines. The theory of lithography is based upon the repulsion between grease and water. Lithographic printing is chemical printing.

The entire surface of the plate is covered with ink until the white lines are filled. The surface around the figures is wiped clean before the impression is taken.]

This surface is rolled twice: once with water, which is absorbed only by the surface here shown in dull black tint; once with ink, which is retained only on the figures.]

Lithography is the most scientific and the most flexible of all methods of printing. It can imitate fairly, and it often reproduces with accuracy, a line engraving on steel, a drawing in crayon, the manuscript of a penman, or the painting in oil of an artist. By the aid of photography, it can repeat, in an enlarged or diminished size, any kind of printed work. It has many advantages over copper-plate and xylography. For some kinds of work, like autograph letters and rude diagrams, engraving is unnecessary; the design may be written with oily ink on paper, and can then be transferred direct from the written copy to a stone without the aid of a graver. The transferring process is another peculiarity of this art which allows the lithographer to duplicate small designs with greater facility and economy than a similar duplication could be effected by the stereotyper of types. These advantages are counterbalanced by one great defect: lithography is not a quick method of printing. The usual performance of the lithographic hand press when applied to ordinary work, is about four hundred impressions per day; on the steam press, the performance is about five thousand impressions per day.

The arts of lithography and copper-plate are useful and beautiful methods of printing, but they do not make books and newspapers.[1] The necessity which compels them to [p023] make a new engraving for every new subject restricts them almost exclusively to the field of art and ornament. If no other method of printing were known, encyclopedias and newspapers would be impossibilities. “The art preservative of all arts” is not the art of lithography nor of copper-plate.

This distinction rightfully belongs to Typography only. The theory upon which this method is based is that of the independence of each character, and of the mutual dependence of all its characters. Every character is a separate and movable type, so made that it can be arranged with others in an endless variety of combinations. The types used for this page are used for other pages in this book; they can be re-arranged for use in the printing of many other books or pamphlets; they cease to serve only when they are worn out. All other methods of printing require, at the outset, the engraving on one piece of wood or metal of all the letters or parts of a design, which, when once combined, cannot be separated; they can be applied only to the object for which they were first made.

Typography is most successful when it is applied to the letters of the alphabet. It fails totally when applied to maps, or to any kind of printed work requiring irregularly varying lines. It is only partially successful in the representation of combined ornaments and the characters of music. Its true field is in the representation of words and thoughts, and here it is supreme. There is no other method of printing which can do this work so perfectly.

Typography has a great advantage over other branches of printing in the cheapness of its materials. Type-metal is cheaper by weight than copper or steel, or the finer quality of lithographic stone: by measurement, it is cheaper than the box-wood used by engravers. Types are cheaper than engraved letters. A pound of the types by which this page is printed contains about 320 pieces of metal, the cost of which is but 48 cents. Types are made of many forms or faces, but they are always of uniform height, and are always [p024] truly square as to body, so that they can be fitted to each other with precision, and can be interchanged with facility.

The expense of combining types in words is trivial, as compared with the cost of engraving for lithographic or for copper-plate printing. An employing printer’s price for the composition of a page like this would be, at the high rates of New-York city, $1.10. The engraving of such a page, by any method, would cost at least three times as much as the types and their composition. If never so carefully done, the engraved letters would not be so uniform, nor so satisfactory to the general reader, as the types. The engraved letters would cost more, but they could be used only for the work for which they were made. In typographic printing, there is no such restriction as to use, and no such loss of labor. It is only the labor of composition which need be lost; the types remain, but little more worn, or little less perfect, than when they were first put in use.

Letter H, from a Em, or full square Face of the letter as it type of Canon body. of Canon body. appears on the body.

The Face of a Large Type, showing the manner in which the Letter is placed on the Body.[2]]

The labor of composition is not always lost. A page of movable types can be used for a mould, from which can be made a stereotype plate of immovable letters. Stereotyping is a cheap process. A plate of this page of type can be had for about one-half the cost of the composition. The stereotype plate has all the advantages pertaining to an engraving on a lithographic stone, and it is more durable and portable. [p025]

Typography has a marked advantage in the greater ease with which printing types are inked. In the copper-plate process, the plate must be first blackened over the entire surface, and then cleansed with even greater care, before an impression can be taken. This labor cannot be intrusted to machinery, but must be done by a practised workman. The inking of a lithographic stone is as difficult: the stone must be moistened before the inking roller can be applied. This double operation of inking and cleansing, or of inking and moistening, is required for every impression. The inking of types is done by a much simpler method; one passage, to and fro, of a gang of rollers over the surface is sufficient to coat them with ink. The types need no previous nor after application.

Side view of Small-pica Agate Diamond View of body Canon body. body. body. body. inclined to show the face.

Bodies of Types.]

The impression by which typographic surfaces are printed is comparatively slight. The sunken lines of a copper plate or the transferred lines of a lithographic stone can be reproduced on paper only by means of violent impression, which is obtained by forcing the plate or the stone under an iron cylinder or scraper. Only a part of the surface is printed, but the entire surface must receive impression, which is, of necessity, gradually applied. A direct vertical pressure, at the same instant, over every part of the surface, would crush the stone or flatten the plate. In printing types of ordinary form, the area of impression surface is exactly the reverse of that of the lithographic stone or the copper plate. It is only the part which is printed that receives the ink and the [p026] impression. This printed part is the raised surface, which is rarely ever more than one-sixth of the area occupied by the types, and is often less than one-twelfth. The resistance to impression of types as compared with stones or plates is, at least, in the proportion of one to six.

As relief plates or types are more quickly coated with ink, and need less impression than lithographic stones or copper plates, the typographic process is, consequently, better fitted to receive the help of labor-saving machinery. The daily performance of the typographic hand press on plain work has been, almost from its earliest employment, about fifteen hundred impressions, which is about four times greater than that of the hand lithographic press. By the use of steam and of improved machinery, this inequality is put almost beyond comparison. The typographic single-cylinder type-printing machine can print fifteen hundred impressions in an hour, and the new newspaper perfecting press can print fifteen thousand perfect sheets in an hour.

The feature which gives to typography its precedence in usefulness over all other branches of the graphic arts is not so much its superior adaptation to impression as its superior facility for combining letters. Its merit is in the mobility of its types and their construction for combination. Printing is Typography. The printing which disseminates knowledge is not the art that makes prints or pictures; it is, as Bernard has defined it, “the art that makes books.” The definition is not scientifically exact, but it gives a clear idea of the great breadth of the art. In its perfect adaptation to this great object, the broad generalization of the definition in the dictionaries may be justified. The method of printing which is most useful may rightfully claim the generic name.

Xylography is the scientific word for the art of making engravings on a single block of wood, in high relief, for use on the typographic printing press. A xylographic block may be an engraving of letters only, of pictures only, or of both letters and pictures, but in all cases the engraving is fixed on [p027] the block. The fixedness of the design on the block is the great feature which separates xylography[3] from typography. The printing surfaces of the two methods are alike. Types and xylographic engravings are printed together, by the same process, and on the same press.

Printing with ink, not as an experiment, but as a practical business, is comparatively a modern art. Lithography, the most recent method, was discovered by Alois Senefelder, an actor of Munich, in 1798. Unlike other methods of printing, it was, in every detail, an entirely original invention.

The introduction of copper-plate printing is attributed to Maso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence, who is supposed to have made his first print about the year 1452. It cannot be proved that Finiguerra was the inventor, for prints by this method were made in Germany as early as 1446.

The period of the invention of typography may be placed between the years 1438 and 1450. There have been many claimants for the honor of the invention. Each of the following fifteen cities or towns—Augsburg, Basle, Bologna, Dordrecht, Feltre, Florence, Haarlem, Lubeck, Mentz, Nuremberg, Rome, Russemburg, Strasburg, Schelestadt and Venice—has been specified by as many different authors as the true birthplace of typography. The names of the alleged inventors are, Castaldi, Coster, Fust, Gensfleisch, Gresmund, Gutenberg, Hahn, Mentel, Jenson, Regiomontanus, Schœffer, Pannartz and Sweinheym, and Louis de Vaelbaeske. The evidences in favor of each claimant have been fully examined, and the more foolish pretensions have been so completely suppressed that it is unnecessary to review them. The limits of the controversy have been greatly contracted: but four of the alleged inventors of types, Castaldi, Coster, Gutenberg and Schœffer, have living defenders. The legend of an invention of types [p028] by Castaldi, of Feltre, has never been accepted beyond Italy, and barely deserves respectful consideration. The evidences in favor of Schœffer are more plausible, but they are not admitted by the writers who have carefully investigated the documents upon which this pretension is based. The real controversy is between Lourens Coster of Haarlem and John Gutenberg of Mentz.

There is no record, nor even any tradition, concerning an invention of xylography. It is admitted by all authorities, that xylographic prints were made during the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and that xylographic books were in use before typography was introduced.

Three of the four methods of printing here named were invented or developed within a period of fifty years. If the statements of some historians could be accepted, this period should be contracted to thirty years. There is no disagreement, however, as to the order of their introduction. Xylography, the rudest method, was the first in use; typography, a more useful method, soon followed; copper-plate printing, the artistic method, was the proper culmination. The order of invention was that of progressive development from an imperfect to a perfect method.

The introduction of three distinct methods of printing, by different persons and in different places, but during the same period, shows that a general need of books or of printed matter had given a strong impulse to the inventive spirit of the fifteenth century. It may also be inferred that the inventors of printing had been benefited, in some way, by recent improvements or developments in the mechanical processes of which printing is composed.

[p029]

II

Antique Methods of Impression and their Failure.

Transfer of Form by Impression one of the Oldest Arts . . . The Stamped Bricks of Assyria and Egypt . . . Assyrian Cylinders of Clay . . . Greek Maps . . . Roman Theories about Combinations of Letters . . . Roman Stamps . . . The Brands and Stamps of the Middle Ages . . . English Brands . . . Stamping is not Printing . . . Ink then used was Unsuitable for Printing . . . Printing Waited for Discovery of Ink and Paper . . . Romans did not Need Printing . . . Printing Depends on a multitude of Readers . . . Readers were few in the Dark Ages . . . Invention of Printing was Not purely Mechanical . . . Printing needs many Supports . . . Telegraph . . . Schools . . . Libraries . . . Expresses . . . Post-Offices . . . A Premature Invention would have been Fruitless.

* * * * *

The stamps of the ancients, and the impressions from the seals of metal, found in deeds and conveyances of the lower ages, prove nothing more than that mankind walked for many centuries upon the borders of the two great inventions of typography and chalcography, without having the luck to discover either of them, and appear neither to have had any influence on the origin of these arts, nor to merit any place in their history.

_Lanzi._

* * * * *

Some notice of the material and moral elements needed for the development of typography should precede a description of the work of the early printers. We shall form incorrect notions about the invention of printing unless we know something about the state of the arts of paper-making, ink-making and engraving at the beginning of the fifteenth century. We should also know something about the books and the book-makers of the middle ages. Nor will it be out of place to review the mechanical processes which have been used, almost from the beginning, for the preservation of written language. The review will show us what elements the inventor of typography found at his hand ready for use; what he combined from the inventions of others, and what he invented anew. [p030]

[From Hansard.]]

[From Hansard.]]

[From Jackson.]]

Engraving must be regarded as the first process in every method of printing. The impression of engraved forms on metal and wax, for the purpose of making coins and seals, is of great antiquity, having been practised more than three thousand years ago, and, by some people, with a skill which cannot now be surpassed. There are old Egyptian seals with faces of such minute delicacy that the fineness of the workmanship can be fully perceived only by the aid of a magnifying glass. There are coins of Macedonia which are stamped in a relief as bold as that of the best pieces of modern mints. In Babylonia and Assyria, engraved forms were printed or stamped on clay specially prepared for this purpose. In the ruins of the ancient edifices of these primeval nations there is scarcely a stone or a kiln-burnt brick without an inscription or a stamp upon it. The inscriptions on stone appear to have been cut with a chisel, after the usual method of stone-cutters; but the stamps on the bricks were made from engravings on wood, or by the separate impressions of some pointed instrument. The preceding illustration is that of a stamped brick taken many years ago from the ruins of ancient Babylon. When in perfect condition, it was thirteen inches square and three inches thick. The inscription, which is in the cuneiform or arrow-headed character, is irregularly placed on the surface, but the letters or words are arranged in parallel rows, and are obviously made to be read from top to bottom. The characters of this inscription were not cut upon the brick, nor were they separately impressed. That they were made [p032] on the plastic clay by the sudden pressure of a xylographic block, is seen by the oblique position of the square inscription on the brick,[4] in the nicety of the engraving and its uniform depth, in the bulging up of the clay on the side, where it was forced outward and upward by the impression. In old Egypt, bricks were impressed by the same method of stamping, but not to such an extent as they were in old Assyria. The cuts annexed represent the face and back of an old Egyptian stamp discovered in a tomb of Thebes. The stamp is five inches long, two and one-quarter inches broad, and half an inch thick, and is fitted to an arched handle. The characters are engraved below the surface of the wood, so that an impression taken from the stamp on the clay would show the engraved characters in relief. The inscription on the stamp [p033] has been translated, _Amenoph, beloved of truth_. Amenoph is supposed, by some authorities, to have been the king of Egypt at the period of the exodus of the Israelites.