Technology

Extending the

Handwritten

Manuscript

Early Printed Book

Technology ~ Extending the Manuscript

OverviewThe Manuscript, Model for Early Printed Book

Pages and Their Technology

Letterforms

Gutenberg and Moveable Type

Fust & Schoeffer

The Sacking of Mainz – Spread of Printing

Noted Printers of Early Printed Book

Incunabula

Written Manuscripts, Printed Books

Gutenberg did not so much start an information revolution as introduce a second technology for the creation of the familiar codex” (Brantley, 2007, p. 634).

Origins of Printing

Three Periods of Printing

Period One: Far East and Moveable TypeMechanical printing started 8th century;11th century introduced moveable type

Period Two: West and Moveable TypeMid-15th century – carving & casting of letters & characters

Mechanized press to the base (paper, vellum).

Units of “visible language” include letters, punctuation, characters, spacers)

Units are assembled and reassembled to print many texts

Period Three: Electronic text

What is Printing?

Duplicating images onto or into base through mechanical techniques – base is usually paper.

Among various techniques there is:Letterpress: Gutenberg mechanized method

Printing Press—moveable typeIntalgio: Engraved image (lowered) produces a raised image (includes: etching, drypoint)Planographic: Image is flush with surface and produced through chemical process/oil vs. water

Paper Technology

Paper, word derived from papyrus, initially created in China

Took 7-10 centuries for West to acquire

Brought to Spain by Moors

Over 2 centuries, production of rag paper spread

Technology modernized by harnessing water as energy source for stamping fiber to wet pulp

Laid Paper Production

After beating rags, wet fibrous pulp placed on mould and dried

Wet pulp shaken on mould & fibers adhere

Fibrous substance placed on a woolen felt and dried flat – (e.g. laid paper)

Sizing applied to dried sheets

Sheets hung to dry

Laid Paper: Chainlines

Linear wire lines created by mould

Run parallel to each other

Change direction with different formats of books

Laid Paper: Watermarks

Watermarks identify the paper mill

Each mill created their own design

Position on leaves varies with format – folio, quarto, etc

Folio (centered on recto)

Quarto (centered in gutter)

Octavo (top of inner margin of page)

Duodecimo (more complex)

The Manuscript, Model for the Printed Book

Manuscripts & Printed Books

The printed codex models the written manuscript

Alphabet: both technologies use alphabetsLetters combined into wordsWords combined into sentencesSentences into paragraphsParagraphs into pages – as a codex

Print is segmented into pages (vs. scrolls)

Manuscripts & Codex

Direction of writing is a feature of script – emulated in codex.

Typeface for the early printed book emulated manuscript

Manuscript page organization emulates manuscripts

Basis for letters in early printed book was Roman:

Left to right

Geometric, filled out, harmonious composition

Letterforms

Letterforms and Functions

Font form related to economics, aesthetics, legibility, space

Square Roman capitals, difficult to writeThe restraint of the form prompted simpler letterforms.

Simpler meant:Fewer strokes

Fewer pen lifts

More control over writing – faster writing

Same principle prompted changes in EPB typefaces

Letterforms and Scripts

Uncials

Characteristics (rounding off)Formal TextsMajusculesShortened capitals, less spaceSimple strokes, rounded Saved space, time, and money

Letterforms and Scripts

Lower Case letterformsSemi-Uncials or Half-Uncial

Informal TextsMinusculesArtistic - ElegantBasis for lower case typefaceTighter, saved space, time

Scripts to Fonts

ScriptsPrecursors of typefacesSome majuscule, chiefly miniscule forms—half uncialsIntroduced to impose homogeneity of formAesthetic & harmonious rhythms, legible

Carolingian Script

Scripts to Fonts

Gothic ScriptNarrowed round formsUsed feet and couplings – clarity between words, lines, paragraphs, and sections.Variant forms associated with regions

Gothic ScriptsBasis for font in Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible.

Regional Names -- Germany – Textura

Text of Gutenberg Bible

France – Lettre de Form

England – Blackletter

History & Comparison of Gothic Blackletter

Gothic Script or Blackletter History & Variations Compared

Pages ~ Technologies,

Books

Pages and the Codex

Units of WritingMajor step in evolution of writing & development of the codexCrude? Chopping up a scroll?Forming PagesSewing them togetherCodex did for writing text what alphabet did for writing – articulation of the textStaged the elements of the printed book

Bound Manuscripts

Bound ManuscriptsModels on which printed book was designedMechanical printing & hand-scripted manuscripts were not discrete separate technologies of written expressionEarly printed book aimed to replicate manuscriptsLetterforms of first printers, including Gutenberg, copied manuscript letterforms, pages, size, bindings

Technologies of the Book

Paper

Vellum

Type

Ink

Formats

Bindings

Evolution of Formats

Folio: One fold and 4 pages

Quarto: Two folds and 8 pages

Octavo: Three folds and 16 pages

Duodecimo: 24 pages. Complicated folding – One sheet is cut or folded across its long side into thirds; one of the thirds is cut away. Then the piece of 2/3’s is folded twice the other way. And then the final piece of 1/3 was folded and quired into the folded sheet. Common duodecimos were folded by removing an off-cut (one of the outer thirds).

Illustration

Woodcuts and Woodblock

Key technologies for illustration in the printed book until the 19th century.

Woodblock printing pre-dated printed book – well before the 14th century

Also applied to other materials including textiles

What is a print?

Book Illustration Timeline

Gutenberg & Moveable Type

The Handpress

The printing press that Gutenberg invented is known as a “handpress” or moveable type

Bed of the press holds the forme for inking sorts (cast letters) and printing

Gutenberg

Born in Mainz, Germany in about 1397

Lived in Mainz until 1428 and trained as a goldsmith

Training to work metal gave him skill needed to cut and cast letterforms

Moved to Strasbourg due to a dispute with trade guild

In Strasbourg about 1439, court records indicate that he was inventing the handpress, cutting and casting letters

Gutenberg Returns to Mainz

Needed money & obtained loan from merchant – Fust

Offered his print shop & all equipment as collateral

Needed another loan – ultimately unable to repay debts & Fust foreclosed, taking the printing shop & all contents.

Fust hires craftsman, Schoeffer, to help run the press & produce Bible

Gutenberg’s Technologies

Format: Folio

Font – Blackletter, Textura

Ink – Gutenberg’s ink was new development -- oil based unlike most that was water based

Oil-based ink was necessary to cling to the press & not run off -- ink has a high metal content

Paper not necessary for invention of printing (vellum could be used), but commercial success required paper

The Gutenberg Bible

Size and format: Royal Folio (pages are 20 by 12.5 inches)

Vellum copies of the Bible survive (the Bible was produced with both paper – 135 copies – & vellum – 45 copies)

Several compositors or typesetters worked on setting the type into words, lines, columns, and pages

Gatherings vary in the number of leaves among them

The Gutenberg Bible

Gutenberg Bible commercial successAll 180 copies sold immediately & many survive todayBuyers were ecclesiastical customers near MainzWealthy gentry – the Bible was expensive

Gutenberg was the visionary

Fust & Schoeffer – firm commercial footing

Schoeffer reputed as technical talent & typographer

Fust & Schoeffer

The Mainz Psalter

In 1457, after the Gutenberg Bible appeared, Fust & Schoeffer printed illustrated psalter: The Mainz Psalter

Mainz Psalter bears first instance of their colophon

Mainz Psalter noted for two-color printed initials

Textura font used

Became archetypal model of a printed book for about 15 years following its production

Sacking Mainz

Printing Leaves Mainz

The sacking of Mainz by a neighboring duchy, forced many printers to move on

This exodus of printers from Mainz effected the spread of printing through Europe

From 1450-1470, there were only 14 cities with printing shops.

By 1480, the number grew to more than 400

The Dispersal of Print Shops

Printing arrived in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain & England among other countries

The Netherlands started printing enterprises in 1473

Netherlands important for the English speaking population

Early Printers ~ Cities

Noted Cities for PrintingEvolution of Print -- a few prominent printing centers of the Early Printed Book included:

ParisBaselVeniceRomeNurembergBrugesWestminster/London

Each city boasted a talented printer

Paris, Lyon: Pigouchet

Aimed to reproduce elaborate medieval manuscripts through print. Printed an exemplary color version of a Livre de Heures

Basel: Froben

Froben’s work is admired for his scholarship & collaboaration with Erasmus on Biblical & theological texts

Hans Holbein created illustrations

One of the earliest publishers whose objective turned on scholarship of the text &, in particular, controversial Protestant texts

Venice: Nichols Jenson

Jenson printed about 150 books & became legendary for his types or fonts

The Eusebius type is noted for its elegance, composition, arrangement of letters & close resemblance to the handwritten manuscript

Jensen & Eusebius Font

Until 1465 – the language of the printed book was exclusively Latin

Jensen produced first type in Greek

Eusebius Font

Rome: Aldus Manutius

Founded the Aldine Press in 1494.

Envisioned using print in reproducing classic texts. Supported classics scholars—Erasmus was one—employed Erasmus to edit texts.

Manutius completed Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in the vernacular, Italian.

Rome: Aldus Manutius

The visionary: Employed great typographer, Griffo

Griffo created first italic font—Not cursive

Based on Chancery Cursive Script

Purpose of creating italic:Smaller letteringSmaller book, portableEnabled first technology for octavo

Nuremburg: Koberger

Koberger printed the extraordinary Nuremberg Chronicles

One of the first lavishly illustrated early printed books

Some woodcuts were created by Albrecht Durer

Bruges: Caxton

Caxton printed first book in English in Bruges, Belgium.

Le Fevre’s, Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, issued about 1475

From: Recuyell of Histories of Troy

Westminster: Caxton

Caxton opened a print shop in Westminster (London)

Produced his first dated book: “Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers”

Issued first edition of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” 1478

Printed more than 100 books.

London: Pynson

Noted for converting blackletter to roman type.

Printed Boccaccio’s “Fall of the Princes,” translated by John Lydgate

Technical mastery, one of England’s greatest early printers

Incunabula

Incunabula ends, 1501

IncunabulaRefers to any book printed before 1501The British Library holds the international database for 15th century European printing

Incunabula Short Title CatalogueAdditional Resources:

Essays on the Diffusion of Print

The Woodcut

Thank You!Florence M. Paisey, Fall 2011