Assyrian bricks, with printed inscriptions--Oiron ware--Chinese
types--Block books--Costeriana--Types and stereotypes--Printing
presses.
There are numbers of instances of impressions from small devices,
cyphers and letterings cut on blocks of wood or soft metal and made
on pieces of pottery. These stamps are the forerunners of the types
with which our modern books are printed. Among these impressions those
which are made on the tablets or cylinders of baked clay, many of which
have been found among the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh, are by far
the earliest. They are covered with inscriptions printed in cuneiform
characters, and contain records of sales of slaves, loans of money,
sales of land and the like, and on the larger bricks and cylinders are
longer inscriptions of greater interest, among them stories of the
Flood. Many of these records are contained within an outer shell of
the same shape, in which is either a short title with seal or even a
duplicate inscription. These outer cases are the earliest examples of
anything in the shape of a cover or binding over written or printed
matter. Some of the cuneiform bricks are said to date from the third
thousand years B.C., and many of the later examples belonged to the
libraries of Sennacherib and Ashurhani-Pal, Kings of Assyria.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--Assyrian tablet of clay, impressed with
cuneiform inscription. With outer case.]
Similar bricks, impressed with inscriptions, have been found in North
America. The letters on these bricks, tablets, or cylinders were
printed letter by letter by hand upon the clay when it was wet and
soft, without ink, then the brick was dried either in an oven or in the
sun, so that this earliest method of printing is diametrically opposite
to the modern process, in which case the letters are inked and kept
rigid, while the paper or other substance on which the impression is to
come is lightly pressed upon them.
In the eleventh century the Chinese made types of clay or porcelain,
and set them up in a frame and printed from them, and afterwards they
cut the original types in wood and made impressions, or stereotypes
from them in porcelain, and when this had been baked they cast leaden
types from it. Chinese and Japanese letters are always most decorative,
whether in the cursive or square seal characters.
Babylonian and Assyrian tablets, cylinders, and cones of baked clay
impressed with cuneiform inscriptions have proved themselves to be the
most permanent and reliable form of record that has yet been invented
by mankind. The hammer alone seems to be able to destroy them.
The most precious faience in the world is that variously known as
“Oiron,” “Henri Deux,” “Diane de Poictiers,” or “Faience de Saint
Porchaire.” There are fewer than seventy pieces of this ware known,
and each example is a masterpiece, no two being alike.
It is said to consist mainly of clay found at Saint Porchaire, a
village in Poiton, and not far from Oiron, and at one of these places
it was probably made.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.--Italian book stamps impressed upon the faience
de St. Porchaire.]
The pieces are often ornamented with armorials and devices of Francis
I., Henri II., and Diane de Poictiers, as well as those of members of
the French nobility of about the middle of the sixteenth century.
There are jugs, covered cups, biberons, dishes, salts, flower
vases, and candlesticks, all curiously put together in sections,
and ornamented with impressions from binders’ stamps run in with
differently coloured clays.
This use of binders’ stamps is unique, and has been made with the
utmost skill and taste. Sometimes casts have been made from the stamps
so that the impression shows in reversed colours. The ornamentation
is like a book-finisher’s work, and several of the same stamps and
rolls show on contemporary Italian bookbindings. At that time there
was a strong Italian influence both in French as well as in English
decorative bookbindings.
It has already been supposed that the ware may have been sent as a
present to Henri II. from the family of Catherine de Medici, and M. H.
Delange even goes so far as to credit Girolamo della Robbia with the
work. He, as well as many other Florentine craftsmen, worked in France
for Francis I.
It is not now likely that any definite knowledge as to the maker of the
Saint Porchaire Faience will ever be obtained, but it will always be a
notable example of the high decorative importance of binders’ stamps,
which are designed upon certain principles, especially with regard to
their combination in groups or lines of groups.
Attempts to imitate this ware have often been made, but so far they
have failed; the original seems to possess qualities and peculiarities
that are impossible to imitate closely. Art forgeries are now so common
and so excellent that there are really very few things that cannot
be copied so exactly that it is difficult to distinguish between the
original and the copy, but the Saint Porchaire ware is so far one of
the very few things that completely baffle the cleverest artist, and
this is largely due to the curious use of the binders’ stamps.
Engraved wooden blocks were used in China, Corea, and Japan as early
as the sixth century, and quite likely long before. These blocks were
cut in the same manner as the European block books, except that type
and illustrations were not shown on the same block. In Thibet similar
blocks were cut and charms were printed from them.
The use of separately engraved types which could be arranged as desired
seems to have been known in these countries at about the same time, but
it was not so suitable to their then requirements, and so it made no
headway. They soon reverted to the simple block engraving as better. No
doubt the reason of this was that the number of separate letters that
might be required was so great that it was practically prohibitive. The
letters both in China and Japan are still mainly in the syllabic stage,
and so there are a great number of them. The alphabetical stage is,
however, gradually being reached, especially in Japan.
It is very likely that the European idea of cutting block books was
borrowed from China, and here from the later half of the fifteenth
century until the earlier half of the sixteenth century such books were
produced plentifully in Germany, Holland, and England, and more rarely
in France.
Single-sheet pictures were made at first, the earliest dated example
known being the “St. Christopher” of 1423, now in the Rylands Library
in Manchester. From being cut on wood these curious prints are
generally known as xylographs. Criticism and comparison of them is a
very difficult matter, as they were designed and cut on such broad and
easy lines that they were easily copied almost exactly, but now all
the important and very early specimens are so well known and have been
so carefully listed and described by competent bibliographers like
Mr. Gordon Duff, Sir Martin Conway, Hain, Ottley, Bradshaw, Hessels,
Proctor, and others, that there is little risk of fraudulent imitation
remaining long unrecognised.
The block book proper however, shows text as well as illustrations,
the text gradually becoming more and more important. Block books are
printed in pale coloured ink, so that they may take colour as well as
possible, and are usually coloured more or less, sometimes by hand
and sometimes by means of stencil plates, or perhaps a combination of
both methods. Many of them are astronomical, but as a rule the subjects
are more or less religious, such as the “Ars Moriendi” or “Biblia
Pauperum”; the illustrations and the text being variously arranged.
Each page is cut on one block, sometimes printed page by page,
sometimes two pages at a time, and always on one side of the paper only.
Now and then, as in the case of the “Speculum Humanae Salvationis,” the
text is separately cut; this remarkable book is supposed to have been
printed at Utrecht about 1470-72. Block books are always printed on
paper of excellent quality.
Printing from moveable types in Europe is considered by many
authorities to have been invented by Laurens Janszoon Coster, of
Haarlem, during the earlier half of the fifteenth century. Actual
proofs are wanting, but there exist several books and fragments of
books, many of which have been recovered from the boards of old
bindings, which certainly are not the work of Gutenberg. These
fragments were printed in Holland, and are known as “Costeriana”;
several of the letters used correspond to the Dutch manuscript letters
of the time, and many of them are copies of the school books known as
“Donatus’.” Some of the letters look much as if they had been cut in
wood. At Avignon it is recorded that in 1444 experiments with printing
types were made.
The Coster legend appears to have been started by Adrianus Junius, who
in his _Batavia_, published at Antwerp in 1588, speaking of Haarlem,
says: “Redeo ad urbem nostram cui primam inventae ist hic artis
typographical gloriam deberi.”
There is no doubt that the Costeriana have a family likeness between
them, and the types used in them have been carefully compared by Mr.
Hessels with those found in the edition of Ælius Donatus’ grammars, and
in the _Doctrinale_ of Alex. de Villa Dei, and in his opinion they have
the same origin.
Whether the rival claims of Avignon, Haarlem, or Mainz, for the honour
of having been the first town in which printing from moveable types was
done in Europe will ever be finally settled, is questionable. But there
is no doubt that Johann Gutenberg was the first printer in Europe who
made printing with moveable type of real usefulness. In 1472, Fichet
wrote that Gutenberg, who worked in Mayence, was the first inventor
of the art of printing by means of moveable types. Curiously enough
the work credited to him shows no amateur feeling whatever. Both the
Indulgences of 1454, which may be his, and the Mazarin Bible of about
1455, which certainly is, are as finely and perfectly printed as any
books ever have been since.
It must be noted here that certain authorities still maintain that
this Bible was printed by Fust and Schöffer, but the weight of expert
opinion is nevertheless strongly in favour of Gutenberg.
But however this may be, in the case of the beautiful Mainz Psalter,
we are on absolutely safe ground. In this book appears the date 1457,
and also the names of the printers Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer. It
is in every way a magnificent specimen of typography, and the letters
are very large. It is also a fine example of colour printing, as the
initial letters are cut in wood and printed in red and blue. Peter
Schöffer was originally an illuminator of manuscripts, and no doubt we
owe the splendid initials of the Mainz Psalter to his liking for colour.
The first printed date in a Dutch book is 1473, when books were printed
both at Utrecht and Alost.
The moment separate letters were cut in wood for the purpose of
printing, it must have been obvious to any workman interested in the
matter that it would be far better to use them as models only, and that
for actual use casts in soft metal would be more economical. In J. E.
Hodgkin’s “_Rariora_” there is an excellent detailed account of the
manner in which types are cast.
At first the method of casting type was probably much the same as it
is now, except that it was done slowly by hand instead of quickly
by machines. The matrix was set at the bottom of a short funnel in
a little hand press. This press was held in the left hand, funnel
upwards, then a little melted metal was run in from a ladle held in the
right hand. The metal set almost immediately, and the little letter was
jerked out, to be trimmed by hand. What the earliest metal used for
types was cannot now be known for certain, but it was probably much the
same as is now used, lead with tin and antimony, and perhaps a little
copper--a composition which expands in cooling. By this hand process a
good workman could produce two or three thousand letters in a day.
Now things are managed differently, and there are several automatic
machines which not only save the handwork of a type caster, but do the
work equally well and at a much greater speed.
For the casting of separate letters the Wick Rotary type casting
machine is perhaps one of the most ingenious. It consists of a
horizontal wheel with radiating channels in which the matrices of the
various letters are set. The wheel revolves, and as the opening of each
little channel reaches a certain point a jet of type metal is driven
into it and forms a letter. A little more revolution and the letter is
automatically ejected and caught on an endless chain. This machine is
capable of producing 50,000 letters in an hour.
The monotype is, however, even a cleverer invention because it only
casts the particular letter that is wanted. An operator translates
the manuscript, by means of a key-board, into a series of holes on a
strip of paper. This strip then moves on to the monotype machine, which
not only casts the letter indicated by each hole, but puts it in its
proper place, and jerks it forward until one line is complete. On the
completion of a line the machine has a spasm, and the line is driven
bodily upwards, leaving a space for the next line. This is probably the
printing machine of the future, as it only requires the one operator,
who translates the manuscript into dots.
The methods used in the Linotype and the Monoline are somewhat similar,
and effected by the use of a key-board, but instead of casting each
letter, like the monotype, they cast complete lines, which are more
troublesome to correct if any mistake creeps in.
When the printing press was first used is not known, but the printing
of the block books would no doubt have suggested some sort of board
press long before types were used in Europe. A block book might be
printed by hand only, but it would be a troublesome and laborious
process, and the use of a flat padded board to put over the whole
block and press upon it seems obvious enough, and the screw press
evolved itself out of some such expedient. The familiar napkin press
with a large wooden screw and cross handle is the type of the earliest
printing presses of which we possess any record, the screw presently
giving way before the more effective lever handles, and it should not
be forgotten that excellent results can be obtained from these old
presses acting with a direct downward pressure. They are, however, very
slow in action, and that is not consistent with modern requirements.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--Printing press of about 1600. From Stradanus.]
The Dutch were the pioneers in improvements in these presses, and W. J.
Blaew, of Amsterdam, a clever engraver, printer, and mechanician of the
seventeenth century, made several improvements in many of the details,
especially as regards the box, table, or forme, in which the type was
set. But until Charles, third Earl Stanhope, invented the iron printing
press with levers, in 1800, they were always made of wood, with screw
handles.
Lord Stanhope was a most remarkable man. He was not only an ardent
politician but also a notable man of science and an inventor. Among
other things we owe to him the Stanhope lens; a system of logotypes,
which was not received by the printing trade with much sympathy,
because it lessened the need for hand labour, improvements in
stereotyping, and above all the Stanhope press, which would have made a
fortune for its inventor if he had wanted it. Lord Stanhope, however,
gave his press to the Clarendon Press at Oxford, in exchange for a
pension to his assistant. This press with its levers was for a long
time the model for all printing presses used in this country.
But before the Stanhope press was invented, W. Nicholson, of London,
had patented, in 1790, a device which was destined to supersede Lord
Stanhope’s lever press and all others like it. This was the use of a
revolving iron cylinder driven by steam to carry the paper over the
inked surface of the type. Nicholson’s invention fell flat so long as
it remained in his hands, but in about 1807 it was taken up by Koenig,
of London, improved, and put upon the market, and it attracted the
attention of Mr. Walter, of _The Times_.
In the issue of this paper on the 20th of November, 1814, readers were
informed that it was printed by steam machinery driving the cylinders
holding the paper. By cylinder presses upwards of 9,600 impressions
can be made in an hour. Minor improvements since that time have been
legion, and it may safely be said that no more wonderful sight is to be
seen in the whole of London than the printing of one of our great daily
papers.
Newspapers are usually printed from stereotypes fixed on cylinders; but
books are always printed from _flat_ formes, the paper being applied by
cylinders. Paper can now be printed on both sides simultaneously. In
Rotary machines both the printing as well as the receiving surfaces are
arranged on cylinders.
The locking up of type in the case of long books was soon found to
be a great inconvenience, and the idea of making a cast of such type
in the form of a block, so as to set the original type free, was
an obvious one. It was not, however, put into practical form until
the early part of the nineteenth century, when someone unknown made
casts from book types in plaster of Paris. Lord Stanhope made several
improvements in this, and it is possible that the use of softened paper
pulp--flong--for this purpose was his invention. Whether this is true
or not, paper was certainly used for stereotyping in France about 1850,
and it has been universally used in this important connection ever
since.
The paper pulp is hammered on to the type by means of a hard brush, in
exactly the same way that antiquaries make impressions from incised
rock sculptures. The antiquaries, however, make their casts from the
paper moulds in plaster of Paris, but the printer makes his in soft
metal.
When the paper mould is properly dry and hard the melted metal is
poured over it, and makes a perfect cast. Such casts can either be used
flat for book printing, or curved to fix on cylinders for newspaper
printing. The metal used is practically the same as type metal. It sets
very quickly, and the heat necessary to melt it is so low, that several
casts can be made from one paper mould.
Another way of making a harder printing plate is by means of a galvanic
battery. In this case the mould from the type is made in wax, either
impregnated or carefully dusted with black lead, and these moulds, when
correct, are put into a galvanic bath, where a strong metallic deposit
is laid all over them, the deposit being afterwards backed up with
alloy.
Good types have always been difficult to design. The types used in
block books, and in early printed books generally, were simply copies
of the handwriting of the periods to which they belonged. Even in later
and in modern times certain founts have been designed on the lines of
cheirographic writing, for example, the “caractères de civilité,” much
liked by French printers, imitated the graceful calligraphy of the
eighteenth century.
But a certain differentiation in the direction of squareness soon
became apparent, as we have already noticed in the case of rock
inscriptions; it was found easier to cut squarely-shaped letters than
rounded or cursive forms.
So letters cut for the purpose of being printed tended gradually to
differentiate themselves from their written analogues, and a new kind
of designing came into existence. It was, however, always necessary
to preserve as much of the original form of the letters as possible,
otherwise they might fail to be recognised.
Printers have always liked to show their types, and from the catalogue
printed by Schöffer about 1469 to Caslon’s eighteenth century
specimens, there have been numbers of them made and issued. A short
study of these specimens will show, firstly, how very much they are
copied one from another, and secondly, that no designer of genius seems
ever to have appeared. All that can be said is that some are uglier
than others. It has not been for want of trying, as Geoffrey Tory shows
in his _Champfleury_, but, except as to Greek types, in which Robert
Procter has, by his counsel, met with much success, there is no doubt
that good types for printing are rare.
In the eighteenth century P. E. Fournier caused much improvement in
French types, both by his example and his writings. He was the son of
a typefounder, and began as a wood engraver, but eventually followed
in his father’s footsteps and became a typefounder himself. Fournier
published a table of types in 1737, with suggestions for designing
them, but his most important work is the _Manuel typographique_, which
is an important work on the subject, and had widespread influence.
In the matter of facsimiles of early printed books, it may be well here
to say a word or two of warning. Photography has revolutionised many
things, it has destroyed some of the minor arts, but in book production
it has had far-reaching effect, much of which is good.
It has also opened up several new industries, and now photo-lithographs,
collotypes, half-tone blocks, and prints from line blocks made by the
swelled gelatine or other processes, can be so wonderfully like the
original, that a page of old printing made by one or other of these
methods will often deceive an ordinary purchaser. There are many such
facsimiles in the market, and the best advice I can give as to them is
that very great attention should be given to the _paper_ on which they
are done, as this will often give the secret away. The texture and
appearance of old paper is worthy of careful study, because nearly all
the photo-mechanical processes need a paper which is radically different
to the thick good rag-made papers which were used before cheap modern
papers were thought of.
Type founding in England was first carried on in the sixteenth
century, when John Day made some Anglo-Saxon types for Archbishop
Parker.
Moxon, who wrote the “Mechanics of Printing” in 1693, issued the first
English specimen sheet of types in 1669, and in 1776 William Caslon,
“Letter-founder of London,” issued a specimen of his printing types.
[Illustration: Page from William Caslon’s “Specimen of Printing Types.”
(_London_, 1766.) [_To face p._ 98.]
John Baskerville, who lived and worked about the same period, was also
a very eminent typefounder, but Baskerville’s types were too thin in
the up-strokes to be considered equal to Caslon’s. Since that time such
sheets of types have become common.
Late in the nineteenth century William Morris revived several of the
old English block-letter types, and called them by the old names,
“Chaucer,” “Golden,” “Troy.”
WORKS TO CONSULT.
AMERICAN ART REVIEW, I.--1880, pp. 75-80. _Boston._
BERLAN, F.--La invenzione della stampa a tipo mobile fuso rivendicata
all’Italia. _Firenze_, 1882.
BLADES, W.--Who was the inventor of Printing? _London_, 1887.
BOUCHOT, H.--Le Livre. _Paris_, 1886.
BOUCHOT, H.--L’Œuvre de Gutenberg. _Paris_, 1888.
BREITKOPF, J. G. L.--Versuch die einfuhrung des Leinenpapieres, &c.
_Leipzig_, 1784-1801.
BUCHER, B.--Die Faiencen von Oiron. _Wien_, 1879.
DEGEORGE, L.--L’Imprimerie en Europe aux XV^e et XVI^e siécles.
_Paris_, 1892.
DELANGE, H. & C.--Recueil de ... la Faience dite de Henri II. _Paris_,
1861.
DELON, C.--Gutenberg et l’invention de l’Imprimerie. _Paris_, 1881.
DUPONT, P.--Histoire de l’Imprimerie. _Paris_, 1883.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA.--Typography and Printing. By JOHN SOUTHWARD.
ENTSCHEDE, C.--L. J. Coster de uitvinder van de boekdrukkunst.
_Haarlem_, 1904.
FAULMANN, C.--Illustrirte geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst. _Wien_, 1881.
FILLON, B.--Les Faïences d’Oiron. _Paris_, 1862.
FOURNIER, P. S.--Manuel typographique. _Paris_, 1764-66.
GOEBEL, T.--Fr. Koenig und die Erfindung der Schnellpresse. _Stutt._,
1883.
HESSELS, J. H.--Gutenberg. _London_, 1882.
HESSELS, J. H.--Haarlem the birthplace of Printing. _London_, 1887.
HODGKIN, J. E.--Rariora. _London_, 1902.
JULIEN.--L’Imprimerie en chine au sixième siécle de notre eré. _Paris_,
1850.
JUNIUS, A.--Batavia. _Antwerp_, 1588.
LINDE, A. V. D.--Geschichte der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst.
_Berlin_, 1886.
MAITTAIRE, M.--Annales Typographical. _Hagae_, 1719.
MALINKROT, B. A.--De ortu artis Typographical. _Col. Agripp_, 1639.
MARTENS, W. J.--Gutenberg und die Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst.
_Karlsruhe_, 1900.
MIDDLETON-WAKE, C. H.--The Invention of Printing. _London_, 1897.
MOUET.--Les machines et appareils Typographiques. _Paris_, 1879.
MONNOYER, C.--Recherches sur les origines de l’Imprimerie avant
Gutenberg. _Le Mans_, 1888.
NOBLE.--Machine Printing. _London_, 1883.
POLLARD, A. W.--Titlepages and Colophons.
RENAULT, R.--Debuts de l’Imprimerie. _Quebec_, 1905.
SCHAAFER, J. C.--Attempts towards making Paper from Plants and Wood.
(German.) _Regensburg_, 1765.
SINGER.--Researches into the History of Playing Cards.
SMITH, G.--Assyrian Discoveries. _London_, 1875.
SOLON, H. L.--History of old French Faïence. (Saint Porchaire.)
_London_, 1903.
TAINTURIER, A.--Les Faïences dites de Henri II. _Paris_, 1860.
VITU, A. C.--Histoire de la Typographie. _Paris_, 1886.
WOLFIUS, J. C.--Monumenta Typographica. _Hamburg_, 1740.
WILSON, F. J. F.--Typographic Printing Machines. _London_, 1883.
WILSON, F. J. F.--Stereotyping and Electrotyping. _London_, 1880.
* * * * *
N.B.--There are a large number of works on this subject, both general
and concerning Printing in particular countries.