2. Overview
The 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
3. 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).
5. Three Periods of Printing
Period One: Far East and Moveable Type
Mechanical printing started 8th century;11th century
introduced moveable type
Period Two: West and Moveable Type
Mid-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
6. 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 type
Intalgio: Engraved image (lowered) produces
a raised image (includes: etching, drypoint)
Planographic: Image is flush with surface and
produced through chemical process/oil vs.
water
7. 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
8. 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
9. Laid Paper: Chainlines
Linear wire lines created by mould
Run parallel to each other
Change direction with different formats of books
10. 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)
12. Manuscripts & Printed Books
The printed codex models the written manuscript
Alphabet: both technologies use alphabets
Letters combined into words
Words combined into sentences
Sentences into paragraphs
Paragraphs into pages – as a codex
Print is segmented into pages (vs. scrolls)
13. 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
15. Letterforms and Functions
Font form related to economics, aesthetics, legibility,
space
Square Roman capitals, difficult to write
The 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
17. Letterforms and Scripts
Lower Case letterforms
Semi-Uncials or Half-Uncial
Informal Texts
Minuscules
Artistic - Elegant
Basis for lower case typeface
Tighter, saved space, time
18. Scripts to Fonts
Scripts
Precursors of typefaces
Some majuscule, chiefly miniscule forms—
half uncials
Introduced to impose homogeneity of form
Aesthetic & harmonious rhythms, legible
Carolingian
Script
19. Scripts to Fonts
Gothic Script
Narrowed round forms
Used feet and couplings – clarity between
words, lines, paragraphs, and sections.
Variant forms associated with regions
20. Gothic Scripts
Basis 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
22. Pages and the Codex
Units of Writing
Major step in evolution of writing &
development of the codex
Crude? Chopping up a scroll?
Forming Pages
Sewing them together
Codex did for writing text what alphabet did for
writing – articulation of the text
Staged the elements of the printed book
23. Bound Manuscripts
Bound Manuscripts
Models on which printed book was designed
Mechanical printing & hand-scripted
manuscripts were not discrete separate
technologies of written expression
Early printed book aimed to replicate
manuscripts
Letterforms of first printers, including
Gutenberg, copied manuscript letterforms,
pages, size, bindings
25. 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).
27. 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
29. The Handpress
The printing press that Gutenberg invented is
known as a ―handpress‖ or moveable type
Bed of the press holds the formefor inking sorts
(cast letters) and printing
30. 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
31. 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
32. 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
33. 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
34. The Gutenberg Bible
Gutenberg Bible commercial success
All 180 copies sold immediately & many
survive today
Buyers were ecclesiastical customers near
Mainz
Wealthy gentry – the Bible was expensive
Gutenberg was the visionary
Fust &Schoeffer – firm commercial footing
Schoeffer reputed as technical talent &
typographer
36. 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
38. 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
39. 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
41. Noted Cities for Printing
Evolution of Print -- a few prominent printing
centers of the Early Printed Book included:
Paris
Basel
Venice
Rome
Nuremberg
Bruges
Westminster/London
Each city boasted a talented printer
42. Paris, Lyon: Pigouchet
Aimed to reproduce
elaborate medieval
manuscripts
through print.
Printed an
exemplary color
version of a Livre
de Heures
43. 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
44. 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
45. Jensen & Eusebius Font
Until 1465 – the
language of the
printed book
was exclusively
Latin
Eusebius Font Jensen
produced first
type in Greek
46. 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.
47. Rome: Aldus Manutius
The visionary:
Employed great typographer, Griffo
Griffo created firstitalic font—
Not cursive
Based on Chancery Cursive Script
Purpose of creating italic:
Smaller lettering
Smaller book, portable
Enabled first technology for octavo
48. Nuremburg: Koberger
Koberger printed
the extraordinary
Nuremberg
Chronicles
One of the first
lavishly
illustrated early
printed books
Some woodcuts
were created by
Albrecht Durer
49. 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
50. 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.
51. 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
53. Incunabula ends, 1501
Incunabula
Refers to any book printed before 1501
The British Library holds the international
database for 15th century European printing
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
Additional Resources:
Essays on the Diffusion of Print
The Woodcut