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.

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.

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.

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.

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.