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TYPOGRAPHY (i.e. writing by types)

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 513 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

TYPOGRAPHY (i.e. See also:writing by types)  is the See also:general See also:term for the See also:art of See also:printing movable (See also:cast-See also:metal) types on See also:paper, vellum, &c . It is distinct from See also:writing, and also from See also:wood-See also:engraving or xylography, which is the art of cutting figures, letters, words, &c., on blocks of wood and taking impressions from such blocks by means of See also:ink, or any other fluid coloured substance, on paper or vellum . I.—See also:HISTORY OF See also:TYPOGRAPHY Although the art of writing and that of See also:block-printing both differ widely from printing with movable metal types, yet this last See also:process has apparently been such a See also:gradual transition from block-printing,' and block-printing in its turn such a natural outcome of the many trials that were probably made to produce pictures, books, &c., in, some more expeditious manner than could be done with See also:handwriting, that a cursory glance at these two processes will not seem out of See also:place, especially as a discussion on the origin and progress of typography could hardly be under-stood without knowing the See also:state of the See also:literary development at the See also:time that printing appeared . The art of printing, i.e. of impressing (by means of certain forms and. See also:colours) figures, pictures, letters, words, lines, whole pages, &c., on other See also:objects, as also the First art of engraving, which is inseparably connected attempts at with printing, existed See also:long before the 15th cen- 1'''in""g• tury . Not to go back to remoter essays, there is See also:reason to suppose that See also:medieval See also:kings and princes (among others See also:William ' We do not See also:deal here with copperplate engraving (chalcography), nor with the question, raised by some authors, whether this art preceded that of wood-engraving (xylography), or See also:vice versa . The earliest known date of the former is 1446 on the small engravings of " the See also:Passion " in the See also:Berlin Royal See also:Print See also:Room, whereas the earliest known date of wood-engraving is 1418 (on the See also:Brussels See also:Mary engraving) . Both arts were naturally dependent upon See also:MSS. for the forms of their letters, but as to the question of transition from the art of writing to that of typography, xylography alone can be regarded as the intervening and connecting See also:link between those two arts, and there are See also:good reasons for assuming that the inventor of printing with movable types was a xylographer (see below) . the Conqueror) had their monograms cut on blocks of wood or metal in See also:order to impress them on their charters . Such impressions from stamps are found instead of See also:seals on charters of the 15th See also:century . See also:Manuscripts, even of the 12th century, show See also:initials which, on See also:account of their uniformity, are believed to have been impressed by means of stamps or See also:dies.' Before the invention of printing, say about 1436, bookbinders are known to have impressed names or legends or other See also:inscriptions on their bindings in two ways: (I) by means of single, insulated letters engraved reversely downwards into a See also:stamp of See also:brass, whereby the letters appeared en See also:relief on the See also:leather or See also:parchment of the binding; (2) by letters engraved reversely en relief on the brass stamp, whereby the letters sank into the binding . For this reason the term impressor, applied afterwards to the " printer," was, in the first instance, applied to the binder, whereas ligator was the proper word for him (see F . See also:Falk, Per Stempeldruck, in " Festschrift," 1900, p .

93 sqq.; Zedler, See also:

Gutenberg-Forschungen, 19o1, p . 6) . But the See also:idea of " multiplying " representations from one engraved See also:plate or block or stamp, or other See also:form, was unknown to the ancients, whereas it is predominant in what we See also:call the art of block-printing, and especially in that of typography, in 'which the same types can be used again and again . Block-printing and printing with movable types seem to have been practised in See also:China and See also:Japan long before they were known in See also:East See also:Asiatic See also:Europe . It is said that in the See also:year 175 the See also:text of Printing, the-See also:Chinese See also:classics was cut upon tablets, and that impressions were taken of them, some of which are supposed to be still in existence . Printing from wooden blocks can be traced as far back as the 6th century, when the founder of the Suy See also:dynasty is said to have had the remains of the classical books engraved on wood, though it was not until the loth century that printed books became See also:common . In Japan the earliest example of block-printing See also:dates from the See also:period 764–770, when the empress Shiyau-toku, in pursuance of a See also:vow, had a million small wooden See also:toy pagodas made for See also:distribution among the Buddhist temples and monasteries, each of which was to contain a dharani out of the Buddhist Scriptures, entitled " Vimala nirbhasa S6tra," printed on a slip of paper about 18 in. in length and 2 in. in width, which was rolled up and deposited in the See also:body of the See also:pagoda under the See also:spire . In a See also:journal of the period, under the year 987, the expression " printed See also:book "(suri-hon)is applied to a copy of the Buddhist See also:canon brought back from China by a Buddhist See also:priest . This must have been a Chinese edition; but the use of the term implies that printed books were already known in Japan . It is said that the Chinese printed with movable types (of See also:clay) from the See also:middle of the tlth century . The authorities of the See also:British Museum exhibit as the earliest instance of Korean books printed with movable types a See also:work printed in 1337 . To the Koreans is attributed the invention of See also:copper types in the beginning of the 15th century; and an inspection of books bearing dates of that period seems to show that they used such types, even if they did not invent them.' From such See also:evidence as we have, it would seem that Europe is not indebted to the Chinese or See also:Japanese for the'art of block-printing, nor for that of printing with movable types .

In Europe, as See also:

late as the second See also:half of the 14th century, every book and every public and private document was MS . Period. written by See also:hand; all figures and pictures, even playing See also:cards and images of See also:saints, were See also:drawn with the See also:pen or painted with a See also:brush . In the 13th century there already existed a See also:kind of book See also:trade . The organization of See also:universities as well as that of large ecclesiastical establishments was at that time incomplete, especially in See also:Italy, See also:France and See also:Germany, without a See also:staff of See also:scribes and transcribers (scriptores), illuminators, lenders, sellers and custodians of books (stationarii librorum, librarii), and pergamenarii, i.e. persons who prepared and sold the vellum or parchment required for books and documents . The books supplied were for the most See also:part theological, legal and educational, and are calculated to have amounted to above one See also:hundred different See also:works . As no book or document was approved unless it had some ornamented and illuminated 'Passavant, Le Peintre-Graveur, i . 18 (See also:Leipzig, 186o–1864) ; See also:John See also:Jackson, Wood Engraving .(See also:London, 1839) ; See also:Bruno See also:Bucher, Gesell. der techn . Kiinste, I. p . 362 seq . 2 See Ern . Satow, " On the See also:Early History of Printing in Japan," in Trans . Asiat .

See also:

Soc. of Japan, x . 48 seq.; and Stan . See also:Julien, " Documents sur''art d'imprimer," &c., in Journ . Asiat., 4m See also:ser., voL ix. p . 505.initials or See also:capital letters, there was no want of illuminators . The workmen scribes and transcribers were, perhaps without exception, calligraphers, and the illuminators for the most part artists . . Beautifully written and richly illuminated manuscripts on vellum became objects of luxury which were treasured by princes and See also:people of distinction . See also:Burgundy of the 15th century, with its See also:rich literature, its wealthy towns, its love for art and its school of See also:painting, was in this respect the centre of Europe, and the See also:libraries of its See also:dukes at Brussels, See also:Bruges, See also:Antwerp, See also:Ghent, &c., contained more than three thousand beautifully illuminated MSS . In speaking of the writing of the manuscripts of the 15th and preceding centuries it is essential to distinguish Classes of in each See also:country between at least four different writing. classes of writing, two of which must be again subdivided into two classes . r . The book hand, that is, the See also:ordinary writing of theological, legal and devotional books, used by the See also:official transcribers of the universities and churches, who had received a more or less learned See also:education, and consequently wrote or transcribed books with a certain pretence.of understanding them and of being able to write with greater rapidity than the ordinary calligrapher . Hence they produced two kinds of writing: (a) the current or cursive book hand, of which several illustrations are given in Wilh .

Schum, Exempla Codicum Amplon . Erfurtensium; the volumes of the (London) Palaeogr . Society, &c . Quite distinct from this current writing, and much clearer and more distinct, is (b) the upright or set book hand, which was employed not only by writers who worked for universities and churches, but also by persons who may be presumed to have worked in large tides and commercial towns for See also:

schools and the people in general without university connexion . (2) In the See also:church hand (See also:Gothic or See also:black See also:letter) were produced transcripts of the See also:Bible, missals, psalters and other works intended for use in churches and private places of See also:worship and devotion . This writing we may again subdivide into two classes: (a) the ornamental or calligraphic writing; toundexclusivelyin books intended for use in churches or for the private use of wealthy and distinguished persons, and (b) the ordinary upright or set church hand, employed for less ornamental and less expensive books . (3) The letter hand may be said to be intermediate between the set literary book hand and the set literary church hand, and to differ but little from either . It was employed in all public documents of the nature of a letter . (4) The See also:court or See also:charter hand was used for charters, See also:title-deeds, papal bulls, &c.' These different kinds of writing served again, in the first instance, as See also:models for cutting the inscriptions and explanatory texts that were intended to illustrate and explain the figures in blockbooks, and afterwards as models for the types used in the printing of books and documents . Dypold Laber (Lauber), a teacher and transcriber at See also:Hagenau in Germany, is known to have carried on a busy trade in manuscripts about the time of the invention of printing . His prospectuses' in handwriting of the middle of the 15th 151b century announce that whatever books people wish B y ooks, to have, large or small, " geistlich See also:oder weltlich, Written. hflbsch gemolt," are all to be found at Dypold Lauber's the See also:scribe . He had in stock Gesta Romanorum, mit den Viguren gemolt; poetical works (Pa-rcival, See also:Tristan, See also:Freidank); romances of See also:chivalry (Der Witfarn See also:Ritter; Von eime Getruwen Ritter der See also:sin eigen Hertze gab umb einer schonen Frowen willen ; Der Ritter unter dem Zuber) ; biblical and legendary works (A Rimed Bible; A Psalter, Latin and See also:German; Episteln and Evangelien durch dos Joe; Vita See also:Christy; See also:Des gantze Passional, winterteil and summerteil; devotional books (Bellial ; Der Selen Trost ; Der Rosenkrantz; See also:Die zehn Gebot mit Glosen; Small Bette-Bucher); and books for the people (Gute bewehrte Artznien-Bucher; Gemolte Loss-Bucher, i.e. See also:fortune-telling books; Schachtzabel gemolt), The See also:lower educational books consisted for the most part of the Abecedaria, containing the See also:alphabet, the See also:Lord's See also:Prayer, the creed, and one or two prayers; the -See also:Donatus, a See also:short Latin See also:grammar extracted from the work of Aelius Donatus, a See also:Roman grammarian of the 4th century, and distinctly mentioned in a school See also:ordinance of See also:Bautzen of 1418; the Doctrinale, a Latin grammar in leonine See also:verse, compiled by See also:Alexander See also:Gallus (or De See also:Villa Dei), a minorite of See also:Brittany of the 13th century; the Summula logica of Petrus Hispanus (afterwards See also:Pope John XXI.), used in the teaching of See also:logic and dialectics ; and See also:Dionysius See also:Cato's Disticha de Moribas, and its supplement called Facetus, with the Floretus of St See also:Bernard, used in the teaching of morals .

As See also:

helps to the See also:clergy in educating the lower classes, and as a means of assisting and promoting private devotion, there were picture books accompanied with an easy explanatory text, for the most part representations of the mystic relation 2 See further See also:PALAEOGRAPHY . ' An See also:original copy of one of them is in the British Museum (Addit . MS . 28752) . between the Old and New Testaments (typology) . Among these books the Biblia pauperum i stands first . It represents pictorially the See also:life and passion of See also:Christ, and there exist MSS. of it as early as the 13th century, in some cases beautifully illuminated ? A richly illuminated MS. of it, executed in the See also:Netherlands c . 1400, is in the British Museum (See also:press-See also:mark, See also:King's 5), and also fragments of one of the 14th century (press-mark, 31,303) . A remodelling and development of this work is the famous See also:Speculum humanae salvationis, of which we shall speak when dealing with the block-books and early printed books . It was written in rhymed See also:prose before 1324, and represents, in See also:forty-five chapters, the Bible history of the fall and redemption of mankind interwoven with Mariolatry and See also:legend . Of this work alone more than 200 MSS., illuminated or without pictures, are known to exist in various libraries of Europe .

The See also:

National and See also:Arsenal Libraries in See also:Paris each possess one written some time after 1324; the British Museum has sixteen MSS. of it (eleven of which are illuminated) of the 14th and 15th centuries, written in the Netherlands, Germany, France and See also:England, one (press-mark, 16,578) bearing the distinct date 1379 and another (press-mark, See also:Egerton, 878) that of 1436 . A work of a similar nature is the Apocalypsis, of which at least two recensions with illustrations may be pointed out . One gives the text as we know it, with or without commentary, for which cf . Brit . See also:Mus . 17,333 (See also:French), 18,633 (French, but written in England), Reg . 2 D. xiii. and 22,493 (French)—all four early 14th century . Another is more a short history or See also:biography of St John, but the illustrations follow those of the former work very closely; cf . Brit . Mus . 19,896 (15th century, German) . It is this last recension which agrees with the blockbook to be mentioned hereafter .

Other devotional works are the Ars Moriendi, the See also:

Antichrist and other works which will be mentioned below among the blockbooks . Block-printing or Xylography.—When all this writing, transcribing, illustrating, &c., had reached their period of greatest development, the art of printing from wooden blocks (block-printing, xylography) on See also:silk, See also:cloth, vellum, .paper, &c., made its See also:appearance in Europe . This art was already a See also:great advance on writing, in that it enabled any one with a few See also:simple tools to multiply impressions from any block of wood with text or pictures engraved on it, and so produce a number of single (paper) leaves or sheets with text or pictures printed on them in almost the same time that a scribe produced a single copy of them . It seems to have been practised, so far as we have evidence, on cloth, vellum and other stuffs as early as the 12th century (Weigel, Anfange, i. to) ; and on paper as far back as the second half of the 14th century; while it began to be largely employed in the early part of the 15th all over Germany, See also:Flanders and See also:Holland in the See also:production of (I) See also:separate leaves (called briefs, from breve, scriptum), containing either a picture (print, Arent, shortened from the Fr. emprint, empreinte, and already used by See also:Chaucer, C.T . 6186, six-text, D . 604, printe, prente, preente, and in other early See also:English documents; also called in colloquial German Helge, Helglein, or Halge), or a piece of text, or both together; and of (2) whole sheets (two leaves), a number of which, arranged like the MSS. in quires or gatherings, formed what are called " blockbooks," sometimes consisting of half picture and half text, or wholly of text, or altogether of picture . The earliest dated woodcut that we know of is the Mary engraving, discovered at See also:Malines, and now preserved in the Brussels Royal Library . It bears the date mccccxviii . Some authors Early dated have asserted that an l has been scratched out between wood- the See also:fourth c and the x; that, therefore, the date is 1468 . Engravings . But there is no ground for such an assertion (cf . H .

Hymans, L'Estampe de 1481, Brussels, 1903) . A slightly modified See also:

reproduction of it, on a reduced See also:scale, which could hardly be placed later than 1460, is preserved in the St See also:Gall Library . The next date is 1423 found on the St See also:Christopher, preserved in the John See also:Rylands Library (See also:Spencer collection) at See also:Manchester . In the third place comes the woodcut of 1437 preserved in the Imperial Library at See also:Vienna, which was discovered in 1779 in the monastery of St Blaise in the Black See also:Forest, and represents the martyrdom of St See also:Sebastian, with fourteen lines of text . The date, however, is said by some to refer to a concession of indulgences . A woodcut, preserved in the same library in Vienna, which represents St See also:Nicolas de See also:Tolentino, has the date 1 This title is applied to at least three works: (1) the well-known blockbook, of which we speak below, (2) a See also:treatise " in qua de vitiis et virtutibus agitur," and (3) a work in See also:rhyme by Alexander Gallus . See Laib and See also:Schwarz, Biblia pauperum (See also:Zurich, 1867).1440, but written in by hand; as the See also:saint was canonized in that year it may refer to that event . Another in the Weigel collection, representing the bearing of the See also:cross, St Dorothea and St See also:Alexis, has the date 1443, also written in. by hand, though the woodcut is considered to belong to that period . These are the only known wood-engravings with dates ranging from 1418 to 1443 . But there exist a good many woodcuts which, from the See also:style of the engraving, are presumed to be of an earlier date, and to have been printed partly in the 14th and partly in the first half of the 15th century . J . D .

Passavant (Le Peintre-Graveur, 186o-1864, i . 27 seq.) enumerates twenty-seven of them, all of German origin and preserved in various libraries in Germany; 154 are recorded in the Colleclio Weigeliana (vol. t., 1866), and W . L . See also:

Schreiber (La Gravure sur bois, vols. i. and ii., 1891 and 1892) enumerates over 2000 of them, some of which may be ascribed to the Netherlands, exx.g . (I) representing the Virgin Mary, with Flemish inscriptions in the museum in Berlin; (2) representing the Virgin Mary (see above) in the library at Brussels; (3) representing St See also:Anthony and St Sebastian, in the Weigel collection (now in the Brit . Mus.); O a St See also:Hubert and St Eustatius, in the royal library at Brussels; (5) representing the See also:Child Jesus, in the library at Berlin; (6) the See also:Mass of St See also:Gregory, with See also:indulgence, in the Weigel collection (cf . 1, 195), now at See also:Nuremberg . In these' blocks, as in wood-engraving now, the lines to be printed were in relief . The block, after the picture or the text had been engraved, upon it, was first thoroughly wetted with a thin, watery, See also:pale See also:brown material, much resembling distemper; then a See also:sheet of See also:damp paper was laid upon it, and the back of the paper was care-fully rubbed with some kind of dabber or burnisher, usually called a frotton, till an impression from the ridges of the carved block had been transferred to the paper . In this See also:fashion a See also:leaf or sheet could only be printed on one See also:side (anopisthographic) ; and in some copies of blockbooks we find the sides of the leaves on which there is no printing pasted together, so as to give the work the appearance of an ordinary book . Any one wanting to set up as a printer of briefs or books needed no apparatus but a set of woodblocks and a See also:rubber . We know only three blockbooks which do not possess this characteristic, as the Legend of St Servatius in the royal library of Brussels, which may be called a xylo-chirograph (see below), in which the pictures occur on both sides of the paper (with some lines of text written underneath), but apparently impressed by hand from blocks without any rubbing, there being no traces of any indentures either on the rectos or the versos; Das Zeitglocklein in the See also:Bamberg Library (cf .

Falkenstein, p . 49) ; Das geistlich and weltlich Rom, in- the John Rylands Library (Spencer collection) and at See also:

Gotha (cf . Falkenstein, p . 46) ; but these belong to the end of the 15th century,. and therefore to a later period than the ordinary blockbooks: Formerly it was the general See also:opinion that playing cards had been the first products of xylography; but the earliest that have been preserved are done by hand, while the printed Bfock cards date from the 15th century, therefore from a Printers. period in which woodcuts were already used for other purposes . Some of the wood engravings and blockbooks are sup-posed to have been printed in monasteries . In a See also:necrology of the Franciscan monastery at See also:Nordlingen, which comes down to the beginning of the 15th century, this entry occurs: " VII . Id . See also:Augusti, obiit See also:Frater h . Luger, laycus, optimus incisor lignorum and on some of the engravings we find the arms of certain monasteries, which may, however, merely mean that they were printed for, not in, those monasteries . The registers of See also:Ulm mention several wood-engravers (formschneider)—in 1398 a certain See also:Ulrich; in 1441 Heinrich See also:Peter von Erolzheim, Joerg, and another Heinrich; in 1442 Ulrich and Lienhart; in 1447 Claus (Nicolas), Stoffel (Christopher) and Johann; in 1455 Wilhelm; in 1461 Meister Ulrich, &c . In a See also:register of taxes of Nordlingen we find from 1428 to 1452 a certain Wilhelm Kegeler mentioned as brieftriicker; in 1453 his widow is called all brieftruckerin; and in 1461 his See also:brother Wilhelm' is registered for the same See also:craft . At See also:Mainz there was a printer, Henne Cruse, in 1440 .

At Nuremberg we find in 1449 Hans (Spoerer?), a formschneider, while his son Junghans exercised the same See also:

industry from 1472 to 1490 . Hans von Pfedersheim printed at See also:Frankfort in 1459 ; Lienhart See also:Wolff, priefdrucker, is mentioned in the registers of See also:Regensburg of 1463 ; Peter Schott at See also:Strassburg in 1464 . A certain See also:George Glockendon exercised the same trade at Nuremberg till 1474, when he died and was succeeded by a son and afterwards by a See also:grandson . In Flanders a See also:Jan de Printere was established at Antwerp in 1417; and printers and wood engravers (houte bildsnyters) worked there in 1442 (Privileges of the See also:Corporation of St See also:Luke at Antwerp) . At Bruges printers and beeldemakers (makers or engravers of images) were enumerated in 1454 among the members of the fraternity of St John the Evangelist . The printers of playing cards seem to have constituted a separate class . All these entries show that long before the middle of the 15th century there were men who exercised the art of wood-engraving and printing as a trade or craft . It seems also certain that wealthy persons and religious institutions were wont to possess sets of blocks, and, when occasion arose, printed a set of sheets for presentation to a friend, or in the See also:case of monasteries for See also:sale to the passing See also:pilgrim . A printer of briefs or blockbooks had no need to serve an See also:apprenticeship; any neat-handed See also:man could print for himself . We learn from the See also:inventory of the possessions of See also:Jean de Hinsberg, See also:bishop of See also:Liege (1419-1455), and his See also:sister, a See also:nun in the See also:convent of See also:Bethany, near Mechlin, that they possessed " unum instrumentum ad imprimendas scripturas et ymagines, and " novem printe lignee ad imprimendas ymagines cum quatuordecim aliis lapideis printis." These entries would seem to indicate that people See also:purchased engraved blocks of wood or of See also:stone from the wood-cutter rather than books from a printer . Concurrently with these single woodcuts, with or without written or xylographic text, arose a class of books, in some of which written texts were added to pictures tO- chirography. printed from wooden blocks; in others the text was written first, and woodcuts pasted or printed in spaces reserved for them . These books, combining wood-engraving with handwriting, are now in technical See also:language called xylo-chirographs (wood-handwritten books); they may also be called semi-blockbooks, and form an intervening See also:stage between the See also:manuscript book and the blockbook (xylograph) entirely printed from wooden blocks .

They tend to show that xylography, after having been for some time confined to the production and multiplication of insulated pictures, was gradually applied to the printing of whole See also:

series of illustrations, to be added to written texts, or to have written texts added to , them . It is not possible to assign definite dates to these xylo-chirographs; they could hardly be placed after, but may, for ought we know, be contemporaries of the blockbooks . We know nine of them; the years 144o (which occurs in No . 5) and 1463 (found in No . 9) marking, for the See also:present, the period within which they can be placed . (1) Biblia Pauperum, in the See also:Heidelberg University Library, German work, MS., Latin text added to engravings (cf . Schreiber, See also:Manuel, iv . 90, c . 1460; photogr. pl. xlv.); (2) Anli-christus, one part of which is in the Paris Bibl . St Gen . (see Bernard, Orig. de l'impr. i . ,o2), another at Vienna, See also:Alb .

Bibl.; Bavarian work, MS., German text added to engravings (Schreiber iv . 231, pl. lv.); (3) Vita et Passio Jesu Christi, 48 leaves, in the Vienna Hofbibliothek, German work, the woodcuts printed on the versos, Latin prayers written on the rectos (Schreiber iv . 321, c . 145o, pl. lxxxx.); (4) Septem planetae, seven xylographically printed plates in the Berlin K . K . Library, German work, with German explanatory text written on separate leaves facing the engravings (Schreiber iv . 417, c . 1470, pl. cad.); (5) Pomerium spirituale, by Henricus de Pomerio (or See also:

Henri Vanden Bogaert), in the Brussels Royal Library, bearing the date 1440 in two places; its twelve engravings seem to have originally been published as a blockbook, without any text (see below) ; i in this co