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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg Silvia Minguzzi Colorado State University History of Italian Renaissance Art 510H Patricia Coronel Tuesday February 21st 2012 The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg The Printing Revolution: Johanne...
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
Silvia Minguzzi Colorado State University History of Italian Renaissance Art 510H Patricia Coronel Tuesday February 21st 2012
The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg Printing is one of the most important technical advances in history. It was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, a German from Mainz, in the 1450s. Much earlier, books such as the Diamond Sutra had been produced in China and Korea with type made first of wood and later of bronze. Gutenberg's invention was different: it was possible to print many copies of the same text speedily. It had great commercial potential, but it did not make Gutenberg a rich man. It was crucial to choose the right text in order to succeed in the market: the Bible. Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of a mechanical way of making books was the first example of mass book production. Before the invention of printing, multiple copies of a manuscript had to be made by hand, a laborious task that could take many years. Books were produced by and for the Church using the process of wood engraving1. This required the craftsman to cut away the background, leaving the area to be printed raised. This process applied to both text and illustrations and was extremely time‐consuming. When a page was complete, often comprising a number of blocks joined together, it would be inked and a sheet of paper was then pressed over it for an imprint. The susceptibility of wood to the elements gave such blocks a limited lifespan.
1
Wood engraving is a technique in printmaking where the "matrix" worked by the artist is a block of wood. It is a variety of woodcut and so a relief printing technique, where ink is applied to the face of the block and printed by using relatively low pressure.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
Before books could be mass‐produced, several developments were necessary: movable type, ink, paper and press. I describe these developments below. Movable type In 1041, Bi Sheng in China invented the movable clay type (Figure 1). Since there are thousands of Chinese characters, the benefit of the technique is not as obvious as in European languages. In China, there were no texts similar to the Bible, which could guarantee a return for the printer.
Figure 1 ‐ Bi Sheng movable clay type
During the XV century, Europeans were still using woodcut to produce books and used textile makers to print patterns on fabric. Woodcut (or xylography, art of engraving on wood, block printing) is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
It is not clear whether Gutenberg knew of Chinese existing techniques or invented them independently, though the former is considered unlikely because of the substantial differences in technique. Although a number of people had previously attempted to make metal type or had experimented with individual woodcut letters, it was not until a technique was devised for producing metal types in large quantities that printing with movable type became economically feasible (Blaise Agüera y Arcas, 2003). Gutenberg, who was initially trained as a goldsmith, a worker in metals, was able to devise a means of producing metal type in sufficient quantities at a reasonable cost (Figure 2).
Figure 2 ‐ Gutenberg metal movable type
His invention, both in conception and execution, testifies to Gutenberg’s ability as a worker in metals. The concept involved the design of a type‐face and the
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
production of molds used for making the individual pieces of type, as well as the development of an alloy that was soft enough to cast yet hard enough to use for printing. Gutenberg invented a way of mass‐producing individual pieces of type in metal (roughly speaking, one for each character of the alphabet, punctuation and other signs) so they could be set up to be printed on a printing press, and then be reused. By the 1470s, type was produced in the following way, which remained unchanged for centuries. A letter was engraved onto a punch of hard metal. The punch was hammered into a softer metal, creating a matrix. The matrix was fitted into a mould, and a piece of type was made by pouring in a lead and tin alloy. A type founder could then produce hundreds of pieces of type, each with identical mirror images of the same letter or sign. A printer would have many pieces of type for each letter, all leaving the same impression on the paper. They could be put together to form words, sentences, and pages. When enough copies of a page had been printed, the types could then be taken apart and used again to form new words, sentences and pages. This proved to be one of the great advantages of printing, because it allowed printers to produce many copies of the same text at a fast pace while at the same time cutting costs. The type used by Gutenberg resembles a formal type of contemporary handwriting known as textura, because its strong vertical and horizontal lines gives the impression of the texture of a woven pattern across the page.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
The so‐called B42 (Figure 3) type included 290 characters, including 47 capitals, 63 lowercase, 92 abbreviations, 83 ligatures and 5 punctuation marks.
Figure 3 ‐ Textura B42
It measures 146 or 147 mm per 20 lines on the pages that have 40 lines to the page. It was filed down to measure 138‐140 mm per 20 lines on the pages that have 42 lines per page. Ink It became soon necessary to develop suitable inks for printing with the new metal type. Many ancient cultures around the world have independently discovered and formulated inks for the purposes of writing and drawing. For instance, the history of Chinese inks can be traced back to the 18th century BC. Two types of ink were prevalent at the time: the Greek and Roman writing ink and the 12th century variety. Neither of these handwriting inks could adhere to printing surfaces without creating blurs and soaking the paper. Indeed, these water‐ based inks used for hand lettering and for block printing will not stick to metal type.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
After much experimentation, Gutenberg managed to overcome the difficulties and found the formula for an oily, viscous, varnish‐like ink made of soot, turpentine, and walnut oil created specifically for the printing press, and suitable for high‐quality printing with metal type. Research (R. N. Schwab, 1983 and 1985) has shown that high contents of lead, copper, and sulfur were in his carbon black ink. Paper A courtier named Ts’ai‐Lun (Figure 4), from Lei‐yang in China, was the first recorded inventor of paper circa 105 A.D. Ts’ai‐Lun presented paper and a papermaking process to the Chinese Emperor and that was noted in the imperial court records. There may have been papermaking in China earlier than the above date, but inventor Ts’ai‐Lun did much for the spread of papermaking technology in
Figure 4 ‐ Ts'ai Lun, Inventor of Paper
China, which spread slowly from China along the silk road. Papermaking was introduced to Korea and Vietnam during the 3rd century and reached Europe from the Muslim world to the West around the 8th century. Before paper was introduced to Europe books were written on specially prepared animal skins, vellum or parchment. Vellum was also used for printed books.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
Because vellum was thought to last longer than paper, it was quite often used for schoolbooks but it was more expensive so it was also used for more luxurious copies. As an example of the use of vellum for high‐end printing, consider that there are 48 copies of the Gutenberg Bible still in existence, not all of them complete, some being only substantial fragments of one of the two volumes. Of these, 12 are printed on vellum, in this case calf's skin. The vellum surface is uneven, but had the advantage that if the skin got damaged during preparation it could simply be sown together again Figure 5 – Gutenberg Bible printed on Vellum.
(Figure 5).
The skin has been repaired with a needle and a thread
The skin of about 170 calves would have been required for each copy of the Bible printed on vellum. The introduction of papermaking techniques and the development of a European papermaking industry was a necessary condition for the widespread adoption of print technology. Papermaking centers began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy, reducing the price of paper to one sixth relative to parchment and then falling further; papermaking centers reached Germany a century later.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
Paper was not necessary for the invention of printing, but printing would not have been a commercial success without paper. At the same time the commercial success of printing meant an explosive expansion of papermaking in Europe. European paper was made from recycled linen clothes. Linen was made from flax plants. There was a thread in linen rags, which were soaked and beaten into a thick pulp. The pulp was scooped up in a frame with a wire‐mesh bottom, allowing the water to run out while at the same time keeping a thin layer of linen fibers. Most 15th‐century paper is of a very high quality, as is the paper used for the Gutenberg Bible. Later the quality of paper declined ‐ most disastrously in the 19th century when papermakers began using wood pulp.
Figure 6 ‐ Watermark of a bunch of grapes Figure 7 ‐Watermark of an ox head
The paper used in the Gutenberg Bible was imported from Caselle in Piedmont, Northern Italy. Caselle was one of the most important centers for papermaking in the 15th century. The paper can be identified because it has watermarks2 (Figure 6 and 7).
2A
watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light, caused by thickness or density variations in the paper.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
About 70% of the paper has the watermark of an ox head, 20% show a bunch of grapes; 10% show a walking ox. The particular sheet size is known as royal folio, already at that time a fairly standard size for paper. Each sheet measures about 430 x 620 mm (Paul Needham, 1985b). Press One of Gutenberg’s most innovative ideas was to use a press for printing (Figure 8). Presses had been around for a long time, but for other purposes. Precedents existed in the presses used for making wine, cheese and paper and one of Gutenberg’s intuitions was to adapt these presses for the printing process. Figure 8 ‐ Gutenberg Press
An operator worked a lever to increase
and decrease the pressure of the block against the paper. Impressions had long been made from stamps or wood blocks either by pressing them onto paper or cloth or by putting paper on top of them and then rubbing to get an impression3.
3 Rubbing Simply by placing a fine paper over an incised or carved surface and rubbing the paper with heelball
(wax and carbon black) or daubing it with special ink.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
The printing press was essential for making the whole process fast and ultimately commercially viable. Also compared with rubbing it was more efficient economically (Lotte Hellinga, 1997), for one could use both sides of the paper. Still, the press presented its challenges as well: it would not have been possible to use a press if Gutenberg had not had a way of making his pieces of type exactly the same height. Early Printing in Italy "The introduction of printing in Italy (SubiacoRome) was almost certainly arranged by highly placed persons in the entourage of Pope Paul II. This and other similar beginnings, especially common in Italy, i.e. the establishment of presses by invitation rather than upon printers' initiative, are nevertheless a sign that the importance of printing had been recognized" (Hirsch, 1974). The new invention found more favor in Italy than in any other country, for more presses were established there than anywhere else. The printers, however, were all Germans, and before 1480 about 110 German typographers were at work in twenty‐seven Italian cities. They kept the secrets of their trade well to themselves, any printing was executed by an Italian, till 1471. (Gertrude Burford Rawlings, 1901). The first press established in Italy was that set up in the Benedictine monastery of St. Scholastica at Subiaco, a few miles from Rome, by two German typographers, Conrad Sweynheim and Arnold Pannartz. There they issued Cicero's De Oratore in 1465, the first book printed in Italy.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
In their petition to the Pope, referred to below, they say that they had printed a Donatus, presumably before the Cicero, but no such work is known, and some have thought it was only a block‐book. In the same year they issued the works of Lactantius, "the Christian Cicero," the first dated book executed in Italy. It is also one of the earliest books to adopt a more elaborate punctuation than the simple oblique line and full stop in general use. Venice was the next city of Italy to take up the new art. There, in 1469, Joannes de Spira, or John of Spires, executed Cicero's Epistolae; ad Familares. He obtained a privilege from the Venetian Senate with regard to his productions, and, more than that, a monopoly of book printing in Venice for five years. He died, however, less than a year later, and his monopoly with him. His brother Vindelinus carried on his work, and was succeeded by Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman, who, from a technical point of view, was perhaps the most skilful and artistic of early typographers. The most famous printer of Venice, however, and the most famous printer of Italy, and perhaps of the world, is Aldus Manutius, born in 1450, but his fame rests less on his actual printing, which, though good, is not unequalled, than upon the efforts he made for popularizing literature, and bringing cheap, yet well‐produced books within the reach of the many. He saw that the works printed in such numbers by the Venetian printers, who paid attention to quantity and cheapness and altogether ignored the quality of their productions, were faulty and corrupt, and that textually as well as typographically there was room for improvement.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
Conclusion The invention of printing press and movable type had an enormous cultural impact. Print Technology brought major changes to publish and knowledge production in Renaissance Europe, including standardized letterforms, new writing styles and pages designs, and a broad distribution of reproduced texts. Print promoted the revival of humanistic sensibility and classical learning, and stimulated inquiry through the diffusion of texts and images. As letterpress technology spread throughout Europe, it transformed design and production both conceptually and graphically. The modular approach of breaking down complex process into smaller units was critically distinct from traditional handcrafts and made letterpress a prototype for industrialization. Not only could text be assembled and mass‐produced, but also images could be reproduced for the first time. William Ivins, historian of graphic art said that the possibility of exactly repeated statements was crucial breakthrough far any field that depended on visual information (Johanna Drucker, Emily McVarish, 2009). Exchanges of information have never been so rapid or widespread. The cultural legacy of antiquity migrated from manuscripts to printed editions and provoked an era of unparallel intellectual vibrancy.
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The Printing Revolution: Johannes Gutenberg
References
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, 2003. Temporary Matrices and Elemental Punches in Gutenberg's DK type' In Kristian Jensen, ed. Incunabula and Their Readers: Printing, Selling and Using Books in the Fifteenth Century. London, UK: The British Library. Johanna Drucker, Emily McVarish, Graphic Design Histpry, a critical Guide, Pearson Prentice Hall ed. Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data, 2009 Lotte Hellinga, 1997, Press and Text in the First Decades of Printing In Libri tipografi biblioteche: Ricerche storiche dedicate a Luigi Balsamo ed. Biblioteca di bibliografia italiana, Florence, Italy: Leo S. Olschki. Rudolf Hirsch, 1974, Printing, Selling and Reading 14501550, Harrassowitz ed. Paul Needham, 1985b, The paper supply of the Gutenberg Bible, In The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 79. Gertrude Burford Rawlings, 1901, The Story of Books, New York D.Appleton and Company ed. R. N. Schwab, 1983. Cyclotron analysis of the ink in the 42line Bible, In The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 77. R. N. Schwab, 1985 New evidence on the printing of the Gutenberg Bible: The inks in the Doheny copy, In The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 79.
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