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Warren Chappell & Robert Bringhurst

A SHORT HISTORY OF T H E P R IN T E D WORD ,

Second Edition Revised and Updated

Hartley & .Marks P~U

b lT

S H £ R s

A S H O R T H IS T O R Y OF T H E P R I N T E D W ORD

published by H A RT LE Y & MARKS P U B L IS H E R S IN C . p o Box 147 Point Roberts, w a 98281

3661 West Broadway Vancouver, b c v 6 r 2b 8

Original text copyright © 1970 The N ew York Times N ew text © 1999 by Robert Bringhurst All rights reserved. Except for brief reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission o f the p ublisher.

Chappell, Warren, 1904-1991 A short history o f the printed word / Warren Chappell. - 2nd ed. rev. and updated / by Robert Bringhurst. p. cm. Includes index. i s b n 0 -88179-154-7 1. Printing - History. 1. Bringhurst, Robert, 1946-. n. Title, z 124x47 1998 98-11931 6 8 6 .2 'o 9 -d c2 ii c ip Printed in Canada m 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21

In memoriam ALFRED A• KNOPF (1 8 9 2 - 1 9 8 4 )

CONTENTS

Preface to the Revised Edition by R obert B ringhurst

p. ix Preface to the First Edition by W arren Chappell p.xi List o f Illustrations p.xv C

I • Prologue to Discovery

hapter

P -3 C

C

hapter

hapter

I I • The Alphabet p.22

I I I • Type: Cutting and Casting

P- 43 C

hapter

IV

- Incunabula: 1440-1500

p.65 C

hapter

V - The Sixteenth Century

P-93 C h a p te r VI

- The Seventeenth Century

P - 123 C

hapter

V II

- The Eighteenth Century

P. 158

C

C

C

hapter

hapter

hapter

C

V I I I - The Nineteenth Century p.191

IX * The Early Twentieth Cen tury: 19 o 0-1940 p. 227 X • The Second World War and After: 1940-19 7 0 p. 255 X I * The Digital Revolution and the Close o f the Twentieth Century

hapter

P- 275 Index * p. 301

Preface to the Revised Edition

was bom i n 1904 and died i n 1991. He published his Short History of the Printed Word in 1970, after a lifetime of devotion to the world of printing and publishing. Chappell spent his whole life designing and illustrating books, and making texts and blocks and metal type and other components, out of which to make die books he made. There was, in 1970, no process of type manufacture, no medium of illustration, and no technique of printing widi which he was not personally and viscerally familiar. Yet not one of those techniques was merely a tech­ nique so far as Chappell was concerned. For him as for his teacher Rudolf Koch, every tool, every letter, every move in the making of a book had a moral and spiritual dimension. Dishonest moves were false; honest moves were on their way to being true. This came out clearly in his writing. His plain elucidations of the complex inter­ actions between humans and materials brought his story of the printed word alive. Like everyone who loves and serves a craft, Chappell cared about its history, and he saw that history not as the private concern of a few professionals but as the substance of public value. The his­ tory of each and every craft links the crafts to one another, and to all of their practitioners and all their beneficiaries, past, present and to come. Though his dates and names were not always correct, he was the ideal person to unfold that history. He knew why.it mattered. It lived in his hands. .Lately, it appears to be the fashion to revise the books of the arren

chappell

a

5ft.ort Jrlistory of th e Trinted W ord

deceased instead of writing new ones. Saul Steinberg’s Five Hundred Years of Printing and Geoffrey Dowding’s Introduction to the History of Printing Types, both revised by other hands in recent years, are examples close to home. This is a third. I disapprove in principle. We ought in decency to leave the old books as they are - and if we can and when we must, we ought to write some new ones, to stand beside the best ones of the past. Yet I have broken my own rule. There is a reason. Chappell had a rock-solid knowledge of proce­ dures and techniques that had been current for half a millennium when he was writing - and have all but disappeared in the past three decades. He knew some of the things that historians know, but mostly he knew wThat historians don't know, I wanted the names and dates set straight, insofar as that was possible, and yet to hear the story told as Chappell told it, from a workbench rather than a key­ board, with silences in place of self-advertisements, and graver marks and acid stains in place of any footnotes. Much in the book has changed - but the “I” in the first ten chap­ ters is always Chappell speaking, though the third-person state­ ments are often my own. Chappell’s original plan, in fact, was to make this book a collaboration. It is now, in its second life, exactly that. The design is also his, but aged in boards for thirty years and somewhat mellowed. And the type is one he loved, but it is digital type now. It was metal in the first edition. Fm grateful to Warren Chappell’s original publisher, the firm of Alfred Knopf, who gave permission for this revision, and I am grateful to my friends - Kay Arnert and John Downer in Iowa City; Sjaak Hubregtse in Amsterdam; Gerald Lange in Los Angeles; Dan Carr in Ashuelot, New Hampshire; Scott & Corky McIntyre in Vancouver; and Sydney Shep in Wellington, New Zealand, among others - who shared their knowledge freely where mine failed. ROBERT BRI NGHURST

London / Vancouver • 1999 x

Preface to the First Edition

1922, h a r v a r d u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s publishedPrintmgTypes: Their History, Forms and Use, by Daniel Berkeley Updike, the outstanding American printer-scholar. The work is so thoroughly admirable that it has seemed an impertinence for anyone to offer another history of printing, if only out of fear of comparison. I ac­ quired my copy of Printing Types in 1927, during the time 1 was working with a New York printer in order to learn about type and impression firsthand. More than forty years later, I am struck by the timeliness of Updike’s brilliant presentation, and his conclusion that printing can be

I

n

a broad and humanizing employment which can indeed befollowed merely as a trade, but which i f perfected into an art, or even broadened into a pro­ fession., willperpettially open new horizons to our eyes and opportunities to our hands. Updike was not a believer in the good old days. He knew that it has always been hard to do fine work. The glowing examples that mark the history of printing do not represent their periods so much as their dedicated producers, who managed to perfect their trade into an art. The breadth and depth and specialization of Printing Types make it overpowering for most laymen, and I would venture to say that like Cervantes’s Don Quixote it is better known by its title than its text. The possibility that this is true provides a reasonable excuse for a simpler work, which could serve as an introduction.

A Short History ot the Printed Word In 1927, when I was reading Printing Types, I had finished col­ lege, studied at the Art Students League, and had several years of contact with printmaking. By the spring of 1932, I had added punchcutting to my experience. Since then I have had some inti­ mate acquaintance with almost every aspect of the graphic arts and publishing. I have also been privileged to know a very large number of the artists, founders, printers and publishers who have helped to shape the printing of my time. Now, nearly a half century after the first edition of Printing Types, a bibliographic friend of the staff of the New York Times has insisted that I write a book for laymen about the printed word. The number of visitors to the pressroom of the Times and its small typo­ graphic museum have convinced him of the need for such a book. It is the mark of a good editor that he can be both persuasive and sustaining. I hope that my friend is right, and that my very special view of the history of printing is both valuable and communicable. Exper­ ience has convinced me that calligraphy and printing have satisfied some of the deepest human needs, in tellectually and aesthetically. A page of printed type is one of the most abstract pieces of communi­ cation I can imagine. Symbols of most ancient origin can be put to­ gether in ways that stimulate the eye, through pattern, and the mind, through thought. For this reason, I believe that the area of communication which is now served by printing can never be en­ tirely usurped by any other means. I think of printing as a medium, and I view the history of print­ ing as a combination of the story of men and materials and the story of the development of the art itself. We are not really concerned here with the greatest, rarest or most beautiful printed works be­ cause they are great, rare or beautiful. Rather, our interest lies chiefly in following the most significant developments and in­ fluences which have shaped the course of the printed word during the past five centuries. U sually, the examples of printing that are of XU

p Re

fa

c e to the First Edition

greatest aesthetic merit are also those that have contributed most to the advancement of the craft. Among the influences on printing, illustration has been an important one, because it has generated a continuing search for methods of reproduction, in turn resulting in techniques affecting the manner in which the word was printed. And, after 1814, when the London Times used the first power press, newspapers have been an important influence also, since they have played a major role in the development of production tools of the printing industry. It is my belief that both illustration and newspa­ pers deserve important consideration in any history of the printed word. The strongest feelings I have about printing always return to three simple concepts: the sculptural nature of type, the inevitable­ ness of its arrangement on the page, and the authority of its impres­ sion. I offer these to the reader not as a creed but as a working point of view.

Anyone who attempts to recapitulate the essential story of western calligraphy and printing is aware of his debt to all those who have preceded him, and who made that history or recorded it. In my case, many of those to whom I feel deeply obli gated have been my friends for the past four and a half decades. To try to name them all would impose upon tire reader. Instead, I will restrict my list to those who have been intimately involved in making this book, from its conception to production. Initially, it was the request of Allan Ullman, and the strong encour­ agement of Alfred Knopf, Sidney Jacobs and Oscar Ogg, that made me undertake the task. W hen the project was originally proposed, Oscar was asked to share it with me, and I regret that he found it necessary, because of other commitments, to withdraw. In the actual preparation of the manuscript, from typing to copy editing, I have been endlessly aided by Adelaide Sharry, Lee Foster X lll

A Short History or the Fruited Word and Judy Pomerantz, and I wish to thank them publicly for their essential contributions. I also want to express my appreciation to Alfred Fairbank for the glimpse of his friend Edward Johnston, which he wrote especially for this volume. I have thought of this as a book about an art, rather than an art book, and of the illustrations as an integral part of the text. For this reason, the printing is being done by offset, so that the plates can be shown exactly at the point where they are referred to in the text. The composition, on the other hand, is being done in metal - Lino­ type for the body matter and captions, and handset Monotype for the display half-titles, title page and chapter openings.1 The New York Times assumed the arduous job of locating and photographing most of the two hundred illustrations that are used. To those who performed that task, and to the museums, libraries, publishers and foundries that cooperated, I am very grateful. WARREN CHAPPELL

Norwalk, Connecticut -1970

i This was true for die first edition of this book. As mentioned on page x and ex­ plained in detail on pages 57-58, the type in this revised edition is digital. - rb

xiv

ILLUSTRATIONS

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:

Ashmolean Museum / b m British Museum / b n p Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris / d s f D. Stempel Foundry, Frankfurt/ e m t Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912) / f s l Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC / gm Gutenberg Museum, Mainz / h u p Harvard University Press / m b Museum van het Boek, ’s-Gravenhage / m c l The Monotype Corporation Ltd / m o m a Museum of Modern Art, New York / n l Newberry Library, Chicago / n y p l New York Public Library / n y t The New York J'imes/ p m l Pierpont Morgan Library, New York / u m l University of Michigan Library / v l Vatican Library. am

C H A P T E R ÏI

CHAPTER I

w European Scriptorium, g m PI 42-line Gutenberg Bible. Mainz, 133 L3 [5] [6]

W 18]

early 1450s. gm Printing surfaces: letterpress, intaglio, planographic. Copyright page o f a book printed in China in 1194. St Christopher. Block print d a t e d 1423. n y t 15th-century playing card, nyt Dutch papermakers wire mold for a 17" x 22" (44 x 56 cm) laid sheet. Papermaker’s watermark.

M Albrecht Dürer. Underweysung hi [3.1

W I5Î hi l7l [8] L3 M

der Messung. Trajan capitals set against square fields. T he intransitive serifs o f roman tie the letters to the line. The transitive serifs of italic link the letters to each other. Square capitals. Square capitals, e m t Rustic capitals. Rustic capitals, e m t Uncials. Uncials, e m t Semiuncials.

xv

A 5ftort History ot the .Printed Word [n]

[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

[18] [19]

[20] [21]

Semiuncials, e m t Caroline minuscules. Caroline minuscules, e m t Textura o f G u tenb erg’s tim e. Textura in a 14th-century breviary, e m t Rotunda, after Giovanni Francesco Cresci Development o f written hands from square capitals to humanistic script. Scrittura umanistka. Scrittura umanistka. p m l CanceUaresca (chancery script). Chancery script, early 16th century. chapter

[t]

[2]

[3] [4]

[5] [6] [7] [8]

[93

[10] [ti]

in

Calligraphy and completed type. Koch Antiqua, cast by the Klingspor foundry, Offenbach. Warren Chappell’s files and gravers (photographed by Philip Van Daren Stern in 1972). A typecutter’s graver. Diagram by Rudolf Koch showing the simple tools and gravers of a punchcutter. Rudolf Koch filing a punch against the pin. Diagrams of counterpunching by Rudolf Koch. Counterpunching stake. Planer. Original “Janson” matrices, struck from punches cut by Miklos Kis. ds f Handcasting mold, showing inner construction. Handcasting mold and gauges (photographed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 7972).

[12] Plan and nomenclature of a piece of t y p e , h u p [13] Font of 12-point Linotype “Janson” roman (based on Kis).

[14] Font of 12-point Linotype “Janson” italic (based on Kis). [35] Pair of printer’s cases (drawn by Rudolph Rüzicka for Updike’s Printing Types), h u p [16] Composing sticks: earliest type, single measure, made o f wood; modern style, adjustable, made o f steel. [37] Pressure system for letterpress printing. [i8 j Gutenberg workshop ( reconstruction in the Gutenberg Museum), g m {19] Chase and lock-up o f a sixteenpage form. CHAPTER IV

[1] Gutenberg Bible: the textblock. [2] Gutenberg Bible : th e type. [3] The Mainz Psalter o f Fust & Schoffer. g m [4] Mainz Psalter: initial. [5] Mainz Psalter: the type. [6] Hartm sanitatis: the type. [7] The first book with printed illustrations: Etlelstein, by Albrecht Pfister, g m [8] Lactantms, Opera. Subiaco, 1465. PML [9] First type of Sweynheym & Pannartz. 1465. [10] Roman type o f Johann van Speyer (da Spira). Venice, 1470. [irj Eusebius by Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1470. ny p l [12] Textblock from Jenson’s Eusebius {reduced). [13] Roman type of Nicolas Jenson. 1471. [14 ] Rotunda by Juan de Yciar. [15] Type of Caxton’s first book in English. [16] Caxton’s first dated work in English: The Dictes and Sayings o f the Philosophers. 1477. p m l

ILLU STRA TIO N S

[17] Ratdolt. Kakndarhis. Venice, 1476. [18] Philippe Pigouchet. Livre d ’heures. Paris, 1498. [19] St Christopher on Horseback. Metalcut executed about 1475. [20] Albrecht Durer, Woodcut. Apocalypse. 1498. n y p l [21] Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499. N Y PL

[22] Text page of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, with Francesco Griffo’s type (reduced). [23] Roman type by Francesco Griffo, from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. 1499.

[13] The Cardinal. Woodcut by Jan Lievens. [14J A page from the writing manual of Vespasiano Amphiareo. 1554. [15] Cresci. Roman upper and lower case from II Perfetto scrittore. 1556. [16] Simon de Colines. T itle page. Paris, 1539. [t 7] jean de Tournes. T itle page. Lyon, 1556. [18] Robert Estienne. Chapter opening. Text by Guillaume Budé; type by Simon de Colines; initial by Geofroy Tory. Paris, 1535. [19 j Robert Estienne’s Cicero, with type by Simon de Colines. Paris,

I543“5°- UML [20] Geofroy Tory. Horae. Paris, 1525.

c h a p te r

v

[r] Virgil, Opera. Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1501, with italic type b y Francesco Griffo. n y p l [2] Aldine italic, cut by Francesco Griffo. 1501. ^3] Letter written by Raphael, April 1508. VL [4] Chancery' cursive from Arrighi’s writing manual, 1522. [5] Arrighi. Type from the Coryciana of Palladius. 1524. [6] Chancery-’ cursive from Pa latino’s writing manual. 1545. [7] Durer. Detail from the Apocalypse. 1498. [8] Woodcutting: position o f knife; diagram o f cut line. [9 ] Positions o f knives: Ori entai an d Occidental. [10J Gouge for woodcutting. [11] Two states of a Rembrandt drawing cut on wood by Jan Lievens. [12] Diogenes, by Parmigianino. Chiaroscuro woodcut by Ugo da Carpi.

NYPL

[21] G aram ond’s grec du roi: the largest size. Paris, 1546. [22] G aram ond’s giws canon roman type. Paris, revised c. 1550. [23] G aram ond’s type, used by the H eirs of Andreas Wechel. Frankfurt, 1586. [24] Vesalius. De Hutnani corporis fabrica. Basel, 1543. n y p l I2 5] Jean de Tournes. Métamorphose d’Ovide figurée. Lyon, 1557. [26] Robert Granjon. Title page using civilité. Lyon, 1557. [27] Christophe Pîantin. Polyglot Bible. Antwerp, 1572. [28 ] Fraktur designed by Vincenz Rockner containing schwabacher alternate forms. Augsburg, 1514. [29] Montaigne’s Essais. T ide page. 1580. C H A P T E R Vî

[1] T h e K ing James Bible. 160. [2] Shakespeare. First Folio. 1623. FSL

A Short History' ot the Printed Word [3] Star Chamber decree. Tide page. 1637. [4] Cervantes. Don Quixote. 1605. NYPL

[5] Engraved illustration by Rubens for Pompa introitus Ferdmandi. 1641. N Y P L [6 ] Rubens. Woodcut by Jegher. [7] Respublica, sive Status regni Poloniae. Leiden: Elzevir, 1627. [8] The Fell types, roman and italic. [9] Pressure system for intaglio printing, [10] Title page by Poussin. Engraved by Claude Mellan. Paris, 1642. N YPL

[nj Etched illustrations by Rembrandt van Rijn. 1655. [12] Etching by Rembrandt remade as a linecut. [13] Aquatint by Francisco Goya. [14] Mezzotint by William Doughtyafter Joshua Reynolds, n y p l [15] Jacques Cailot. Illustration for Lux daustri. Paris, 1646. n y p l [16] Avisa Relation oder 7xitung. 1609. NYPL

[17! Nathaniel Butter’s Corante of 1621. BM [18] An English news sheet issued in the Netherlands. 1620. n y p l [19] The London Gazette. 1665. n y p l [20] Harris’s Publick Occurrences. 1690. NYPL [21] The first publication o f the Imprimerie Royale, Paris. [22] Roman type cut at Sedan by Jean Jannon. [23] A plate by Simonneau tor die romain du roi. b n p [24] Page from Francesco Pisani’s Tratteggiato da penna. 1640. n l [25] Handpress from Moxon’s Mecbafiick Exercises. 1683. [26] Excerpt from Chinook Texts, transcribed and translated by Franz Boas. 1894.

XV111

[27] Bay Psalm Book. Cambridge, Mass., 1640. N Y P L [28] First Bible in a Native American language (Massachusetts 1663. N YPL

[29] Title pages for Molière (1671) and Racine (1691). CHAPTER v n

ft] Title page, Médailles. 1702. [2] Ro'/nain du roi as rendered by Grandjean. 1702. [3] Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical and Romantic letterforms, showing the humanist vs the rationalist axis. [4] Casl on’s Great Primer roman. 1734. [5] Baskervitle’s Great Primer roman. 1762. [6] Tide page of Baskerville’s quarto Virgil. Birmingham, 1757. [7] Fournier’s Manuel typographique. Paris, 1764, [8] Fournier’s scale. [9] Type cut by Pierre Simon Fournier, used by François Didot. Paris, 1743. [to] Title page by F.-A. Didot. 1783. [11] Type cut by Jacques-Louis Vafflard for F.-A. Didot. 1781. ]i2j Type cut by Firmin Didot, used by his brother Pierre. 1799. [13] Bodoni. Specimen. [14] Bodoni’s posthumous Manmle tipografico. Parma, 1818. n y p l [15] Fleischman’s Text roman and italic, Amsterdam, 1739. [16] Text type o f Juan de Yriarte’s Obras sueltas. Madrid, 1774. [17] Defoe’s Weekly Review. London, 1704. NYPL [18] The Spectator. London, i y u. N YPL

[19] The New England Courant. Boston, 1721. N Y P L

I L LUST.R AT I O N S

[20] The Connecticut Courant. Hartford, 1764. n y p l [21] T he Daily Courant. London, 1702. BM [22] Thomas Bewick. Illustration for Somerville’s The Chase. 1796. N Y PL

[23] Graver for working on endgrain wood. [24] T he manner of holding a graver. [25! Moreau. Engraving for Laborde’s Chansons. Paris, 1773. [26] Hogarth. Engraving for Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. London, 1760. ch apter

v tn

}i] Pressure system for planographic printing. [2] The Times (London), the first newspaper printed on a power press. 1814. [3] The spirit of the broadnib pen and the spirit of the pointed quill: orientation and pressure. [4] Title page of specimen issued by the foundry of Pierre Didot Tame, Paris, 1819, [5] English N'° 2. Romantic face from William Thorowgood’s foundry. London, 1824. [6] Scotch Roman from Alexander Wilson & Sons. Edinburgh, ^ 33 [7] William Pickering’s revival of Caslon’s type. London, 1844. 181 Delacroix. Lithograph for Faust. Paris, 1828. [9] Daumier. Lithograph for Rue Transmian. 1834. n y p l [ioJ Blake. Wood engravings for Virgil’s Eclogues. 1821. [11] William Blake. The Book of Job. 1826. N Y PL [12) Thomas Rowlandson. Aquatint for The Vicar of Wakefield. London, 1817. n yp l

[13] Craikshank. Etched illustration for Oliver Twist. 1838. [14] Daumier. Wood engraved illustration for Robert Macaire. Paris, 1842. [15] Menzel. Wood-engraved illustration for Geschichte Friedrichs des Groszen. 1840. [16] Linotype machine, dsf [17] Linotype pattern drawing, pattern, mats and punch, dsf [18] Monotype keyboard and caster. MCL

[19] Monotype m ats and punch, m c l [20] The Yellow Book. Cover design by Aubrey Beardsley, n y p l [21] .Morris. The Kelmscott Chaucer. London, 1896. n y p l [22] Willi am Morris. Troy type. C H A P T E R IX

[1] Ashendene Press type. [2] Pissarro. Eragny Press Book of Ruth and Esther. 1896. n y p l [3] T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. Doves Press Bible. 1905. n y p l [4] Emery Walker & T J. CobdenSanderson. Doves Roman. [5] Updike. The Wedding Journey of Charles and Martha Amory. 1922. PML

[6] Bruce Rogers. Oxford Bible. 1935. n y p l [7] Rogers. Journal of Madam Knight. 1920. n y p l [8 ] Rogers. Centaur type. 1915. [9] Goudy. Opening page o f The Alphabet. Kennerley type with a handlettered title. [10] Kessler. Cranach Press Virgil. 1926. [11] Maillol. Woodcut illustration for Virgil. [12] Picasso. Illustration for Balz-ac’s Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu. 1947. N Y PL

XIX

A s n o r t History of the P rin ted Word [13] Rouauit. Wood-engraved illustrations. Cirque de l'étoile filante, 193B. h y p l [14] Manet. Lithographic illustration for Poe’s The Raven. Paris, 1875. [153 Eichenauer. Proof o f roman type designed by Warren Chappell and cut in lead by Gustav Eichenauer. 1955. [16] Jan van Krimpen’s Lutetia type. [r7] Troy and Wailau. Comparison of a rotunda type designed by William Morris and one cut by Rudolf Koch. [18] Rudolf Koch’s Wailau type. Boccaccio, Kônig Agilulf. 1932. [19] Willi Wiegand. Bremer Presse Divina Commedia. 1921. n y p l [20] Eric Gill. Golden Cockerel Press, The Four Gospels. 1931.

C H A P T E R XI [ i]

[2] [3]

[4]

[5]

[6] [7]

NYPL

[21] Limited Editions Club. Dreiser’s Sister Canie, printed by Joseph Blumenthal with illustrations by Reginald Marsh. 1939. cha pter

x

[1] Picasso. Aquatint illustration for Buffon’s Histoire naturelle. 1942. [2] Sem Hartz. Early sketch for Juliana. 1951. mb [3] Tschichold. Sabon roman. [4] Trajan us Presse. Aristophanes’ Die Frosche, with wood engravings by Imre Reiner. [5] Daumier. Detail, wood engraving in Le Monde illustré. .1869, [6] Rouault. Detail, wood engraving, for Cirque de Fétoile filante. 1939. m om a [7] Reiner. Detail, wood engraving for Die Frosche. [8] Modern production offset press printing five colors on both sides of continuous rolls.

XX

[8] [9]

[10]

[nj [12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

Sanvito, by Robert Slimbach. Adobe Systems, 1993. Caflisch, by Robert Slimbach. Adobe Systems, 1993. Four unserifed types: Eric Gill’s Gill Sans (1927), Paul Renner’s Futura (1927), Hermann Zapf’s Optima (1958), Hans-Eduard Meier’s Syntax (1969). Scala Serif and Scala Sans, by Martin Majoor. FontShop, Berlin, 1991-94. Quadraat Serif and Quadraat Sans, by Fred Smeijers. FontShop, Berlin, 1992-96. True and false small caps. Paul Blackburn, The Omitted Journals. Walter Hamady, Perishable Press, 1983. The Fragments o f ITerakleitos. Peter Koch, Berkeley, 1990. W.S. Merwin, The Real World of Manuel Cordova. Carolee Campbell, Ninja Press, 1995. Warren Lehrer & Dennis Bernstein, French Fries. Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, N ew York, 1984. Jacques Derrida, Glas. U. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1986. Avital Ronell, The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Elective Speech. U. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1989. Mark C. Taylor & Esa Saarinen, lmagohgies: Media Philosophy. Routledge, London, 1994. Ezra Pound, The Cantos. James Laughlin, N ew Directions, N ew York, 1970. Dell Hymes, Victoria Howard's ‘Gitskiix and His Older Brother,’ in Smoothing the Ground, edited by Brian Swann. Berkeley, 1983.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE

PRINTED WORD

CHAPTER I Prologue to Discovery typographic printing has been a force of immense importance. By typographic printing Ï mean impressions from master sets of characters accurately com­ posed into words, lines and pages. Such printing has been the tool of learning, the preserver of knowledge and the medium of litera­ ture. Until the electronic age, it was the great means of communica­ tion over distances in space. It remains the greatest means of communication across time. The press has also become and re­ mained a symbol of freedom, defended in Milton’s Areopagitica and protected in the US Bill of Rights. Despite the press’s role in the spread of commercial propaganda and other forms of information pollution, and its widespread use for the manufacture of mass opin­ ion in place of individual thought, freedom of die press remains a vital fact or aspiration in most societies of the world. Apart from its importance as a means of communication, print­ ing has had, and continues to have, an impressive life as an art and craft. On the lowest level diere is a childlike pleasure to be derived from stamping and duplicating, not greatly removed from the de­ light of making mud pies. On the highest level - that of the best composition and presswork - printing affords the artist the many and varied satisfacti ons of meaningful texture and form. The key that unlocked practical printing was movable metal type. This does not seem in retrospect like a very large order, tech-

F

o r n early te n cen tu ries,

3

A

S h o rt H isto ry o t the P rin te d W ord

1.1 A European scriptorium, as reconstructed a t the Gutenberg Museum, M ainz.

nically. But appreciable forces stood in the way. In Europe, for in­ stance, paper was not generally available until late in the thirteenth century. Documents were for the most part written on parchment or vellum. (Parchment is animal skin, chiefly sheep or goat, which has been scraped, dressed and prepared as a basis for writing. In the second century b c , the Greek city of Pergamon - now Bergama in western Turkey - became a center for the preparation of such skins. It is from Pergamenos that our word “parchment” is derived. Vellum is parchment made from the skin of a newborn calf, kid or lamb.) And there were, as always, vested interests which opposed change. In the early days of printing, organized calligraphers and illumina­ tors brought political pressure to bear to restrict new methods of duplication. But the chief deterrent - or, more accurately, the prin­ cipal reason for apathy - was ignorance. W hen few could read, the need for books was limited. It was the great surge of the Ren­ aissance that changed this.

The Origins of Printing Everyone, it seems, has heard of Johann Gutenberg, even if not everyone knows that he was born in Mainz circa 1394 and died in 1468. Many people know that Gutenberg printed a Bible, and many people know, or think they know, that he invented the process of printing from movable type. In fact, there are many books still in existence that were printed from movable type in China and Korea before Gutenberg was born. The eleventh-century (Song Dynasty) essayist Shën Kuo de­ scribes the process of printing from movable type in some detail and gives the name of the first master of the process as Bi Shëng. But printing from handset metal or ceramic type was never an un­ qualified success in China, because of the thousands of different characters required. When Gutenberg applied the same technol­ ogy to alphabetic writing, four centuries after Bf Shëng had in-

5

A Short H isto ry of the Printed Word

i.i A European scriptorium, as reconstructed at the Gutenberg Museum, Mainz.

nically. But appreciable forces stood in the way. In Europe, for in­ stance, paper was not generally available until late in the thirteenth century. Documents were for the most part written on parchment or vellum. (Parchment is animal skin, chiefly sheep or goat, which has been scraped, dressed and prepared as a basis for writing. In the second century bc, the Greek city of Pergamon - now Bergama in western Turkey - became a center for the preparation of such skins. It is from Pergamenos that our word “parchment” is derived. Vellum is parchment made from the skin of a newborn calf, kid or lamb.) And there were, as always, vested interests which opposed change. In the early days of printing, organized calligraphers and illumina­ tors brought political pressure to bear to restrict new methods of duplication. But the chief deterrent - or, more accurately, the prin­ cipal reason for apathy - was ignorance. W hen few could read, the need for books was limited. It was the great surge of the Ren­ aissance that changed this.

The Origins of Printing Everyone, it seems, has heard of Johann Gutenberg, even if not everyone knows that he was bom in Mainz circa 1394 and died in 1468. Many people know that Gutenberg printed a Bible, and many people know, or think they know, that he invented the process of printing from movable type. In fact, there are many books still in existence that were printed from movable type in China and Korea before Gutenberg was born. The eleventh-century (Song Dynasty) essayist Shën Kuo de­ scribes the process of printing from movable type in some detail and gives the name of the first master of the process as Bf Shëng. But printing from handset metal or ceramic type was never an un­ qualified success in China, because of the thousands of different characters required. W hen Gutenberg applied the same technol­ ogy to alphabetic writing, four centuries after Bi Shëng had in-

5

A Short History of the Printed Word

1.2

Forty-two-line Gutenberg Bible, M a in z, early 1450s.

vented it, a great change in the use and abuse of visible language began. Gutenberg’s extraordinarily handsome 42~line Bible - so named because a large part of th e text was set in two columns of 42 lines each - was printed between 1452 and 1455. It is far from being the earliest printed book, but it was indeed a significant step in a long, often slow, and finally worldwide typographic revolution. W hat does printing mean? It is the process of duplicating images onto or into a base, usually paper, and usually through some me­ chanical means. There are three basic methods: letterpress, intaglio and planographic printing. The first employs a raised image and pro­ duces an indented one. The second employs an engraved (lowered) image and produces one that is raised from the paper. In the third method, the principle at work is one of chemical affinity. The image printed from is level with the surface of the plate or stone, and the image that results is likewise flat on the surface of the paper. Each method requires a different kind of press, but the term impression is 6

c Ha f t e r i

*

Prologue to Discovery!

used in all three cases. One speaks of the impression of an engraver’s press, even though the image in the printing plate is graven into the surface, and the printed image therefore stands up from the surface of the paper.I

1.3 P rin tin g surfaces: letterpress, intaglio, planographic.

I believe that for understanding of the printing medium, dates and personalities are less important than changing forms and tex­ tures. It is necessary to experience prin ting by touch as well as sight. For example, a simple tactile response is apparent when a curious layman runs a finger over a calling card or announcement to find out if the lettering is indented, flat or rai sed - which is to say, letterpress, offset (planographic) or intaglio (engraved). A trained eye, figuratively speaking, feels impression, and by trained I do not nec­ essarily mean the eye of the professional designer or printer but that of the dedicated and experienced amateur as well. Goethe said it is necessary to understand the mechanical side of a craft in order to judge it - an opinion at sharp variance with the romantic belief that knowledge and craftsmanship are dangerous and can destroy intu­ ition and sensitivity. Poets, painters and others have subscribed to that romantic fear. Yet William Blake, poet and painter, and more the man of vision than most, went further even than Goethe. He said that mechanical excellence is the only vehicle of genius. We

A. S h o rt History41 of the P rin te d 'Word must keep this in mind in understanding the nature and develop­ ment of printing. The history of printed texts now seems to fail into three major phases. The first begins in the early eighth century a d in China and Korea. It involves the carving of whole pages into flat wooden blocks, and thus treating the written text like any woodcut illustration, Some handsome books were printed by this method in Europe in the fifteenth century, but the method was used much earlier - and continued in extensive use much longer - in China, Korea, Japan and Tibet. T he second phase depends on the carving and casting of indi­ vidual letters or characters. Once these units of visible language have been cast in multiple copies, they can be endlessly assembled, disassembled and reassembled into an infinite number of texts. That is what is meant by movable type. This phase began in the eleventh century in China and Korea, and blossomed suddenly in Europe in the fifteenth, when Johann Gutenberg applied this 400year-old Chinese technical advance to a far tinier character set: the gothic scribal version of the Latin alphabet. The third phase has only just begun, but clearly it involves an­ other fundamental shift. In this phase, texts and scripts alike are electronically described in forms that can be stored, transmitted, edited and printed at high speed, on complex but small devices that anyone can buy and a child can learn to operate. Each of these phases has its fundamental medium: wood for the first phase, metal for the second, electronic information for the third. Different as they are, these three approaches share an old, deep, double root. They depend upon the forms that writing takes in the two simplest technologies of all: the graphic and the glyphic: the handwritten and hand-carved. Those two manual technologies are equal in antiquity and deeply interdependent. Printed texts have been a part of human life for some twelve centuries in China, and for nearly six in Europe. But these printed texts preserve much

8

1.4 Copyright page o f a hook printed in China in 1194.

older forms. They rest on a joint heritage of manuscripts and in­ scriptions that goes hack fifty centuries or more, to the first written and carved texts. At an earlier level still - the prelinguistic level - writing and printing are one, and they require no technology at all. They both

A Short History of the Printed Word begin with the leaving of footprints. That kind of writing and printing - involuntary but eloquent - goes back to the first terrestrial animals, 35o,ooo,oooyears ago at least. It is useful to remember that the phases of printing history are not mutually exclusive. They are much more like die branches of a tree. One phase doesn’t disappear, or cease to bear its fruit, be­ cause another has begun. Printing from handcut woodblock pages remained the primary method for Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan text until the end of die nineteenth century. For nearly as long, it remained a primary means of book illustration in Europe. Photo­ polymer printing from digital type - a new artistic medium dis­ cussed in the last chapter of this book - combines the use of com­ puters with this oldest of Oriental printing techniques. Printing from movable metal type, like the making of woodcuts, also re­ mains a creative and vital artistic medium, even if commerce has all but forgotten it. Intelligent discussion of the changing directions in contempo­ rary graphic art has to be viewed against the background of past accomplishments, and especially in the context of those elements that are seminal, reappearing in every period and every technique. The continuity of printing need not, and should not, be drastically altered by what appears to be a major change of means. Although the new methods may seem to impose fewer restrictions, it is rea­ sonable to assume that the most able artists and craftsmen, regard­ less of the particular disciplines wi thin which they work, will always seek the limits of their medium. More than one such artist has con­ tended that these limits are essential. A world without boundaries is a world without art. Typographic printing did not drop into Europe from the heav­ ens, although it must have been very much in the air, an d the air was becoming increasingly charged, intellectually, with, the emerging Renaissance. All of the necessary techniques and materials were there in one form or another. It is worth noting in this regard that 10

Gutenberg, like other early European printers, was a goldsmith. His training prepared him for sculpting a letter in steel, from which a casting mold could be made. As long as type-punches were cut by hand, the methods he adapted from his earlier experience changed little in principle, and later techniques have contributed very few aesthetic improvements.

Pre-Typographic Printing in Europe In Europe and Asia alike, the earliest major use of woodblocks was for reproducing portraits of spiritual heroes: bodhisattvas and buddhas, saviors and saints. The makers of these prints were often monks working within the privileged walls of their orders. The cus­ tom surely reached Europe by the end of the fourteenth century, but the earliest dated European proofs are from early in the fif­ teenth. The St Christopher (1423) shown overleaf is perhaps the most famous and familiar of all these early prints. The popularity of card-playing also helped to stimulate the early use of block printing. Since lay woodblock cutters were often working outside the law, their cards were printed and distributed in stealth. All means of identification were avoided, thus surrounding the venture with mystery and leaving us a minimum of hard facts about time and origin. It is possible that die Venetian woodblock cutters enjoyed some form of protection by the state, for in 1441 they appealed to the Signoria for aid in the form of restrictions on the importation of cards and printed figures. In Europe at least, the devotional prints were largely a byproduct of pilgrimage, and pilgrimage was encouraged by an in­ crease in the granting of indulgences for visits to lesser shrines. The prints were linked, in other words, to the artificial business of tourism, which even then had various forms of official support. Making the prints themselves was hardly an industry. They could be printed and handcolored without the need of anything so solid1 11

i .5 S t Christopher. Block p rin t dated 1423,

and substantial, as a press. The usual method was jrotton printing ~ rubbing or burnishing the back of the sheet, as it rests on the inked block, by means of a smaller block or other suitable tool. (In Asia bamboo leaves stretched over circular forms are still in use as bur­ nishers for prints.) 12

1 .6

Fifteenth-century playing card.

Well before the fourteenth century woodblocks were also used in the decoration of textiles. Printed cloth is pre-Christian. Coptic examples are extant from the sixth century a d , and Roger of Sicily established a shop for printing cloth at Palermo in the middle of the twelfth century. Specimens of thirteenth-century cloth and the

A Short History of the Printed Word blocks with, which to print it are still in existence. Texts could have been printed from such blocks at any time, had there been readers in Europe to read them. But the earliest known European xylo­ graphie books - books in which the text is printed like a woodcut, from handcarved slabs - belong to the time of Gutenberg and later, rather than before. Europe was not, evidently, ready for printed books before Gutenberg appeared.

The Invention and Spread of Papermaking We have mentioned already that one of the limiting factors in developing European printed books lay in the lack of a satisfactory material from which to make them. Vellum was, and is of necessity, a limited and expensive surface. Paper was made in China during the Hàn Dynasty (first century b c ), and Chinese sources say that Cài Lün created an efficient, sustainable papermaking process about a d 105. Mulberry, bamboo and other fibers were soaked and beaten to a pulp. The pulp was spread on cloth to form and dry. As the process evolved, the doth was replaced by thin strips of bam­ boo, held together by hairs or threads to make a flexible bamboo matting on which the pulp could be drained and formed. T he re­ sulting sheet of paper was coarse and long-fibered. This, however, proved no obstacle to the writing instrument it served, which was the brush. It took a thousand years for Cài Lun’s process to reach Europe. In the interval paper was produced in Japan, early in the seventh century. In the eighth it appeared in Samarkand, and the Arabs may have learned of the technique from Chinese prisoners. T he Moors carried papermaking into Europe. In 1085 there was a mill at Jativa, Spain, producing a rag sheet, chiefly of linen fibers. The methods of breaking down the fibers, and the materials used for the screen, un­ dem ent improvements, and when the first Italian paper mill was es­ tablished, at Fabriano, in the latter half of the thirteenth century,

14

1.-7 Dutch papermaker’s wire moldfor a i f ' x 22" (44 x 56 cm) laid sheet.

stamping machines run by water power had replaced the cruder pounding mortars for producing pulp. In addition, more delicate round wires were substituted for the flat wires of earlier molds. Paper reflected these refinements in terms of weight, flexibility, strength and character. Nearly 700 years after the establishment of the Fabriano mill, fine handmade paper is still being produced there, in much the same way as it was around the time of Gutenberg’s birth. After the vatman dips his mold into die pulp, which is known as furnish, he shakes or oscillates the frame in such a way that the fibers cross and mesh to strength en the sheet. Thou gh the edge of the frame can be made to act as a kind of benchmark, to help determine the amount 15

à

Short History ot the Printed Word

of pulp to be dipped up, everything depends on the experience and sensitivity of the workman. After the water has run off, the remain­ der, called the water leaf, is couched ~ that is, pressed onto a woolen felt to which it adheres, freeing the mold-screen for reuse. Couched sheets are stacked, pressed and hung to dry. After that, they may be sized, which is to say coated, with a solution of starch or animal glue, to make them less absorbent. After sizing, they are pressed, then hung to dry.

i . 8 Papermaker’s watermark, ( The verticals represent the chain lines, and the horizontals the laid lines,)

g h a pT E Ri

* Prologue to Discovery

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, papermaking spread rapidly. Among the earliest manufactories were those in France, at Troyes (1338), and in Germany at Nürnberg (1389). Though it had taken ten centuries for the concept of turning reconstituted fibers into paper to travel from China to Europe, between the latter years of the thirteenth and the end of the sixteenth century more than 16,000 individual watermarks were in use throughout Europe. (The watermarks that appear in handmade paper are made from wire, which is formed into simple, flat designs and sewn onto the screen. They leave their unobtrusive trace in every sheet and so identify the maker.) Paper is used for printing, of course, but it is also used for writ­ ing and for drawing - two methods of storytelling older by far than print. It is of interest that the spread of paper in Europe coincides with a great resurgence of European literature and art. Dante was born in 1265, Petrarch in 1304, Boccaccio in 1313, Chaucer in 1340, Villon in 1431. Giotto was bom around 1276, Filippo Brunelleschi in 1377, jan van Eyck around 1390, Masaccio in 1401, Mantegna in the same year as Villon, and Leonardo in 1452, on the eve of the official birth of European printing. Apart from its importance to poetry and portraiture, paper is used for making charts and maps and keeping records, which are important to the intellect but also to the exercise of power. One of Leonardo’s contemporaries was Christopher Columbus. In France, the battle of Agincourt took place in 1415, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431, and the English were finally driven from the country in the middle of the cen tury. Masaccio’s powerful and innovative frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence were painted, and their young creator was already dead, several years before the execution of Joan of Arc. The imaginations of some in the fifteenth century were rich with the ideas of a new era; those of others were full of fear.

!7

A Short History of the Printed Word Humanism and the Renaissance John Addington Symonds, in his Renaissance in Italy (7 volumes, London, 1875-86), writes of three stages in the history of scholar­ ship during the Renaissance: Thefirst is the age of passionate desire; Petrarch poring over a Homer he could not understand, and Boccaccio in his maturity learning Greek inorder that he might drink from the well-head of poetic inspiration, are the heroes of this period. They inspired the Italians with a thirst for antique culture. Next comes the age of the acquisitions and libraries. Nicholas V, whofounded the Vatican Library in 1453, Cosimo de' Medici, who began the Medicean Collection a little earlie?; and Poggio Bracciolini, who ran­ sacked all the cities and convents of Europefor manuscripts, together with the teachers of Greek, who in thefirst half of the lyth century escapedfrom Constantinople with preciousfreights ofclassic literature, are the heroes of this secondperiod.... Then came the third age of scholarship - the age of the critics, philologers, and printers. What had been collected by Poggio and Aurispa had now to be explained by Ficino, Poliziano, and Erasmus. They began their task by digesting and arranging the contents of the libraries. There were no short cuts to learning, no comprehensive lexicons, no dic­ tionaries of antiquities, no carefully prepared thesauri of mythology and history. Each student had to hold in his brain the whole mass of classical erudition. The text and the canon of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and the tragedians had to be decided. Greek type had to be struck. Florence, Venice, Basle, Lyons, and Paris groaned with printing presses. The Aldi, the Stephani, andFroben toiled by night and day, employing scores of scholars, men of supreme devotion and of mighty brain, whose work it was to ascer­ tain the right reading of sentences, to accentuate, to punctuate, to commit to the press, and to place beyond the reach of monkish hatred or of envious time, that everlasting solace of humanity which exists in the classics. All subsequent achievements in thefield of scholarship sink into insignificance beside the labours of these men, who needed genius, enthusiasm, and the

sympathy of Europe for the accomplishment of their titan ic task. Virgil was printed in 1430, Homer in 1.488, Aristotle in 1495, Plato in 1513. They then became the inalienable heritage of mankind. But what vigils, what anxious expenditure of thought, what agonies of doubt and expecta­ tion, were endured by those heroes of humanising scholarship, whom, we are apt to think of merely as pedants! Which of us now warms and thrills with emotion at hearing the name of Aldus Manutius, or of Henricus Stephanus [Henri Estienne], or of Johannes Froben? Yet, this we surely ought to do; for to them, we owe in a great measure the freedom of our spirit, our stores of intellectual enjoyment, our command of the past, our certainly of thefuture of human culture. This passage from Symonds voices the interest in the Renais­ sance that was reawakened in England during the latter part of the nineteenth century and culminated in the efforts of William Morris, Emery Walker, Sydney Cockerell, Bruce Rogers and oth­ ers to rediscover and reemploy the techniques of bookmaking as they were practiced in the early days of the art. This was essentially a counterrevolt against the Industrial Revolution, which had mech­ anized printing to a point where its character had been largely sac­ rificed to expediency. Few designers of the twentieth century were not influenced in some manner or to some degree by the aims and attitudes of that small dedicated group. Morris’s Kelmscott Press founded in 1891 at Hammersmith, London - marked the beginning of a strong Neohumanist movement in type design, calligraphy and the other arts of the book. The history of the printed word over the course of the twentieth century is a reminder that ideas and innova­ tions born in Song Dynasty China and the European Renaissance are anything but dead. If one thinks of industrialism as a new religion - and many have adopted it as such - then it is easy to see the analogy between William Morris and his colleagues and successors on the one hand and the fifteenth-century humanists on the other. Both groups in 19

A. Short H isto ry o f the Printed Word their way - right down to the shapes of the letterforms they drew and carved and wrote ~ extolled human values and accomplish­ ments and sought to rediscover and preserve them. They stood against the forces which had lost sight of man. in extolling the per­ fection. and the power of God or the machine. The humanism which had been the inspiration of the Renaissance, especially in Italy, came out of the classical culture and cult of antiquity of the fourteenth century. The poet-scholars who did so much to rescue and spread the literature and language of Greece and Rome exerted great influence on their times. They were leaders in cultural and political affairs. They were also the architects of new educational methods. In their persons, they were the repositories of the knowl­ edge of antiqui ty. One humanist who occupies a special place in the story of print­ ing is the Dutch-bom Desiderius Erasmus. We will meet him more than once in this brief history. Here, it is enough to say that among his publications were grammars, dictionaries, a work on Greek and Latin pronunciation, and a book on the art of letter writing. His works had wide circulation. His Colloquies, for instance, went through at least a hundred printings and a dozen different editions during his own lifetime. In addition to the linguistic disciplines developed and streng­ thened by the study and use of Greek and Latin, the letterforms of our alphabet were preserved for us by the devotion of the humanists to classical culture. We owe them not only a literature and a culture but the means to build new literatures and cultures of our own.

Benchmarks of Printing What William Morris and his associates began at the Kelmscott Press spread rapidly through Europe and North America. By the end of World War I, the precious mannerisms and medievalisms of the Pre-Raphaelites and that unfortunate manifestation known as 20

art nouveau had been sloughed off, and efforts to recapture basic values in printing craftsmanship became less self-conscious. Cen­ tral to the attitudes of the fifty years between 1890 and 1940 was a desire to return to original printing surfaces or at least to learn to understand them. That meant of course that artists and printers wanted to circumvent the camera - later the computer - and if not to circumvent it, then to control it precisely enough to maintain the integrity of impression, the tactility of the object, and the scale of the original design. In the second half of the twentieth century, the evolving tech­ nology in the field of printing far outstripped in scope and rapidity anything known during the Industrial Revolution. Now more than ever before, it is necessary to measure the new means against their contributions to human values, not in order to oppose them but to direct them effectively. W hat are the benchmarks that can serve as references and guides in tracing the history of printing? I would put first an under­ standing of the alphabet, and an appreciation of its practical as well as its aesthetic aspects. Second, a regard for the sculptural nature of type as it was produced first in eleventh-century China and then by European punchcutters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As the third and fourth benchmarks I would suggest awareness of the arrangement of type and the actual impression from it. These four to­ gether determine the form and texture of a piece of printing, and are outside the time flow of people, places, events, developments and dates. It is possible to put the best piece of contemporary print­ ing beside a page of the Gutenberg Bible, and to compare the two without asking the slightest concession for the older piece, on ei­ ther aesthetic or technical grounds, though it was made 550 years ago. The best of the old books, like the best of the old paintings, are that good.

3*

3

C H A P T E R II

i ïo

=

?

The Alphabet fos l e t t e r f o r m s w e u se stem in large part from lapidmj Roman capitals - letters incised into stone with a chisel - that came to hill flower early in the Christian era. One classic model is •'/ the inscription on the column erected in Rome about a d 114 by the Emperor Trajan. From this and other inscriptions, we derive the X T , classic forms of the twenty letters of the old Latin alphabet. Three : X more -K ,Y ,Z " come to us separately from Greek. A further three U, W - are postclassical additions, giving the minimal English total of twenty-six. The U and W are outgrowths of the V form, V. .... andtheJ is an alternate form of Ï. Other letters have been added too, of course, though not all have found a place in modem English. They include the 1?/ja (thorn) and D/9 (eth) used in Icelandic and Vietnamese ; the 0 /o (slashed 0 ) and Æ/æ (ash or aesc) used in Danish and Norwegian; the Œ /œ (ethel) used in French ; the L/I (ew or barred L), which has long been used in Polish and now is used in Navajo, Sahaptin, Kwakwala, Chipewyan and many other Native American languages; the 1 (dotless i) of Turki sh, and the 6 (eszett), which dropped from use in EmgJish at the end of the eighteenth century but is still in use in Oerman. (The capital form of fi is simply double-S.) The symbols that compose an alphabet are phonograms. This means they stand for speech sounds, not for objects or ideas. As writing systems go, they embody an extreme and convenient state : : W Ê&&

A Short History of the Printed Word of simplification, evidently first achieved by the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Other kinds of writing include syllabic scripts, such as those in use for Sanskrit, Hindi and Cree; consonantal scripts, in­ cluding those of Arabic and Hebrew; and logographic scripts, such as those used for Chinese, classical Mayan and early Egyptian. In reality, all the systems humans use are impure and imperfectly con­ sistent. Both the Chinese and the old Egyptian logographs are par­ tially phonetic; the Arabic and Hebrew scripts write long vowels but not short ones; Japanese is written nowin a mixture of scripts, logo­ graphic and syllabic; and English spelling mixes up phonetic and etymological information. For typography and printing, the important considerations include the size of the basic character set, the number and frequency of diacritics, the number of alternate character sets, and of course the style and structure of the glyphs. The English alphabet, we say, is a modest twenty-six letters, but each of these looks different in the lower case and caps, and different once again in roman and italic. Then we need some numerals, punctuation marks and other kinds of sym­ bols. This gives us several hundred graphic elements instead of twenty-six. Their number is one measure of the work involved in making and in using the materials for printing. Their frequencies and forms have powerful effects upon the texture of the page and the experience of reading. Anoth er factor of importance is the direction in which the writing moves. Chinese and Japanese are often written vertically. So was old Egyptian. There are short, early texts from the Mediterranean written in spirals, starting from the center. W hen the Greeks began to write, in. the ninth or eighth century bc , they wrote from right to left, from left to right, or alternated line by line between the two. The latter method, called boustrophedon, is still in use with Braille. The direction belongs to the script, not to the language. Turkish was always written right to left when it was written in Arabic char­ acters. W ith a government decree of 1928, requiring a shift to Latin

23

A Short History of the Printed Word characters, the direction of Turkish writing and reading was sud­ denly reversed. Latin manuscripts go back to the first century b c , and in their letterforms - in the direct, physical record of the physical and spiri­ tual act of writing - we can still see the heritage of the scripts we use today. T he tools used in making letters are formidable forces in de­ veloping their character, shape and rhythm.

The Roman Alphabet Earlier, I stressed my strong belief in the sculptural nature of type. Here, I call attention to the fact that the archetypes for our written and printed alphabets were carved letters. This heritage is echoed in the original European method of typemaking, where written forms were translated, sculpturally, into steel. The great monumental Roman letters can be thought of as hav­ ing simple geometric bones, so fleshed-out that the straights and curves relate organically. A letter should seem to be of one piece, nota sum of parts. The round forms bespeak circles and parts of cir­ cles. But despite many efforts to develop formulae for the construc­ tion of the alphabet, such as those conceived by Luca Pacioli, Albrecht Dürer and Geofroy Tory, no set of rules can be slavishly held to. The subtleties of the great Roman forms have always eluded the compass and square. The perfect expression of a letter remains in the mind of an artist as a pure concept of form, essen­ tially abstract in nature. Just as a draftsman uses a model for a figure drawing, a letter artist should respond through memory and the particular tool in his hand to the special requirements of his design. There are several ways of reaching a general understanding of the basic nature of roman. One logical and rewarding way is to think of the forms as a series of geometrical variations on a theme of square, circle and triangle. These, when set together, will become a frieze of contracting and expanding spatial interruptions. This 24

c h a p t e r ii

*

T he Alphabet

breathing quality is the very essence of the inscriptional concept, and is responsible for the liveliness as well as the nobility of die great classic carvings. Almost every lettershape carries its contained

2 .1

Albrecht D urer

U n d e rw e y su n g d e r M es su n g .

Nürnberg ,

ly a y

25

À Short History of the Prin ted Word

2 .2 Trajan capitals set against, square fields to demonstrate the proportion and rhythms o f roman.

space - like the space inside the O - which in type is called the counter. This space is related, in composition, to the spaces between letters. These counters are not only vital to tire color of a letterform

26

chapter n

* The Alphabet

hijlm rxy

h

i j l m

r

x

y

2.3 The intransitive, often bilateral serifs o f roman tie the letters to the line. The transitive and unilateral serifs o f italic link the letters to each other.

(the color of a letter or a page means its black-and-whiteness, not its hue); they are also integral parts of it. If, in visualizing roman, one thinks of the shapes in relation to square fields, proportion can be more dramatically understood in a structural way, and the variations from, narrow S to wide M become clear as skeletal archetypes. This is perhaps better shown than de­ scribed. In figure 2.2, several letters based on the Trajan capitals are set against square fields, which are subdivided in the cases of the narrow E and S, to show their forms against half the field. The thick-and-thin characteristics of these examples indicate their de­ velopment from written forms produced with a wide-edged took In Pompeii, which was destroyed in the first century a d , there are ex­ amples of mural writing made with a fiat brush. This is one obvious way of laying out an inscription to be incised in stone. Thus the an­ tiquity of the flat-edged instrument - the broadnib pen and all its relatives - is established in shaping the appearance of Western al­ phabets. The history of letterforms from Trajan’s time to Guten­ berg’s is the history of calligraphy - and the history of calligraphy is the history of highly abstract, cumulative forms wri tten quickly but precisely, with reeds and quills sharpened to a flat, or wedge-shaped point. The broadnib pen is the tongue of the hand.

L I T T E R A

S C

R

I P T A

M

A

N

E

T

2.4 Latin square capitals.

27

A Short History o f th e Printed Word

2 .5

Square capitals.

Ameliorations of Roman The more formal written letters of the Roman period are known as square capitals (capitalis qiiadrata). These capitals were used for important works from the second century into about the fifth cen­ tury and their proportions had much in common with the lapidary capitals. The principal differences lay in their strong contrasts of thicks and thins, and the pen-derived serifs of the square capitals. An intransitive roman serif is a terminal device, functionally em­ ployed to strengthen lines which otherwise wtmld tend to fall away optically. This is especially true of incised lines. By using a chisel in such a way that the finishing cuts were wider, a craftsman produced a strong terminal with a bracketed appearance. Performing a simi­ lar function for type, roman serifs continue to be seen on the major­ ity of faces in general use. They derive in large part from the example of the chisel. Transitive italic serifs, by contrast, owe their evolution wholly to the pen.

2 .6

28

Rustic capitals.

chapter n

tvÿeu |bi 0 .C

• The Alphabet

si- S|u ?> oc ^c-Kf £ ^ 3 ui m

^ H

rG Ü /

£ l S iW A Q y

M

A » ;C y J

! AN iîfjWÂl YAC£f:iAA

3 .4

D iagram by Rudolf Koch showing the simple took and gravers o f a

pimchcntter.

46

Files are of three kinds: big, fast-cutting files used in the prelim­ inary dressing and shaping of the punch; medium size files, fine tex­ tured for the most part; and small size ones that take a minimum bite from die steel. The gravers used in typecutting are straightbellied; they do not have the sweeping keel of those used by wood engravers. Many of the early typecutters also used counterpunches. These are small steel punches which, when hardened, are struck into the face of the unhardened punch itself. The depression thus

3 .5 Rudolf Koch filin g a punch against the pin. {In the foreground: heavier files, gravers and a stake fo r counterpunching. A t the rear can he seen- a vise, a torch fo r hardening the finished punches, and the stones on which the surfaces are planed.)

47

A Short History of the Printed Word formed corresponds to the space within a letter, called the counter. The lettershape is then filed around the depression in the punch, giving maximum clarity to the inner white space of each letter. W hen a counterpunch is not used, the outer form of the letter is normally cut first, the counter afterward. The first task of the typecutter is to prepare the steel stock. The bar is planed with a heavy file so that two sides are finished, smooth and at right angles. Then a terminal is fashioned at the butt end so that the force of the strike will be delivered through the center of the punch. The face end of the punch is finished, first filed at right angles to the finished sides, then polished. Near the butt end, a mark is filed to indicate the bottom of the letter-to-be. (This corres­ ponds to the nick that is cast into the body of every finished piece of metal type and serves the same purpose: it lets the worker know by touch alone which way is up.) Among the basic pieces of equipment needed is a pin, similar to that used by a goldsmith or jeweler. It is a projection of wood, nicked to allow the work to be held and supported for filing and en­ graving, T he punchcutter’s version of this simple adjunct to his bench is placed at about chest height. There must also be a vise available to hold the punches for fast shaping with the heavy file. A

3 .6

Diagrams o f coun terpunch m g by Rudolf Koch.

low-power magnifying glass, or loupe, and a proper stand to hold it are required. A fourth basic necessity is a planer, in which the punch can be held for resurfacing its face. This resurfacing can be done with a hard stone, such as one used for sharpening tools, or with an abrasive sprinkled on a flat area. The device that keeps the punch at right angles to the planing surface is merely a block of steel with a corner angle machined into it.

The Counterpunch As an example of counterpunching techniques, a roman capital H is chosen to take through the process. This allows us to use a set of illustrations which were made by Rudolf Koch in 1932. Here the inner space - the counter of the H - is divided into two parts by the crossbar. To achieve the crossbar, the counterpunch must be shaped with a trench across the middle. This trench will leave the crossbar standing after the punch is struck. Such a trench could be shaped by filing. A11 accomplished punchcutter, however, might prefer to use a wedge-shaped counter-counterpunch to make the trench. Thus, in this case, the counterpunch starts out looking like a rectangle with a depression across it. The surface of the counter­ punch is disturbed by the strike and has to be replaned. The first, rough-shaping file cuts are made in a vise. Then the counterpunch can be worked against the pin and given its form. The face of a counterpunch shapes the floor of the final coun­ ters. The rims of these counters, at a depth equal to the strike, will form the inner margins of the letter. To test progress, the counterpunch is struck, after each revision, into a piece of lead. Such a lead surface may be hammered out, after it has been filled with strikes, and used again. W hen a counterpunch has been brought to its final form, it must be hardened before it is used for striking. First it is heated to a

49

A Short History of the Printed Word cherry red and chilled. In that stage the steel is glass-hard and brittle. It must be annealed by reheating it to a straw color in order to keep it from cracking tinder stress. To strike the counter into the face of the punch stock, it is best to have some sort of stake to hold the two steel rods steady in their re-

3 .7

Counterpunch m g stake.

lated positions. The simplest stakes are merely adjustable collars, while a more advanced version has its own heavy base to provide extra draw under the force of the hammer. When the strike into the punch is made, metal is displaced and die face of the punch is dis­ torted, just as it was when the counterpunch was made. The bar of steel must be put in the planing angle and its surface refinished. Figure 3.6 shows the face of a punch at this stage: fiat, widi a twopart rectangular depression. The letter as cut and as cast is reversed, i.e., the mirror image of the printed impression. The punch is now put into the vise and roughed down to its H form, initial shaping be­ ing made at a relatively obtuse angle. Afterwards, the type bar is worked against the pin with flat, round and triangular files. Perhaps the most useful of the file shapes is the double half-round (birds tongue). It is better than a flat file for achieving a straight stem, be­ cause a fiat file tends to bite faster at die terminals of a line. If the punchcutter has been lucky, die inner form of die letter was completed with the striki ng of the counterpunch. At any point 50

c h a pT e R i n

*

Type: C u ttin g and C asting

in. the process, a proof of the work is easily taken by bringing the punch up close to the flame of an alcohol lamp. This causes the face of the punch to sweat, and when plunged into the flame, its tip acquires a coating of lampblack. W hen touched to a piece of chalky cameo paper, the punch leaves a brilliant image.

3 .8

Planer.

The Sculpttiral Aspect At this point it is easy to understand the value of the careful preparation of the steel stock. Since two sides are squared to each other and to the face of the punch, and since these relationships have in turn been adjusted to the angle of the planer during the Anal grinding of the face, it is possible to change this angle by filing the sides of the punch. The resulting change of cant makes possible swift renewal of the surface of the metal by planing any selected part of the face. Thus correcting can be carried on without exten­ sive recutting. It is an essential virtue of the punchcutting method that the design is constantly in flux. The weight of an entire alpha­ bet may be changed simply by putting it on the planer. Although Gutenberg was interested in. imitating the appearance of manuscript books, his method differed radically from calligraphic practice. His written models were translated into steel through a sculptural process. All the refinements were carried forward by

51

A Short History of the Printed Word direct aiid plastic means. Even in the use of engraving tools, type­ cutting calls for handling that is much more related to scraping and paring than to delineating. Punchcutting as it was practiced in the earliest days of printing, coupled with the high state of calligraphy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, produced a series of faces which are still the major models for many of the types we use today. Once the smoke proofs show that the desired form has been achieved, the angle of the punch, from face to sides, is made steeper. For purposes of correction an obtuse angle was needed; for striking, a steeper one is obviously more practical. Finally, the punches are hardened and annealed. S t r i k in g a n d J u s ti fy i n g th e M a t r i x

Accuracy and strength were the characteristics which. Guten­ berg sought in developing a means for casting movable type. Accu­ racy was not just a matter of the height of the type. It was also necessary that every dimension be as compatible as possible and that the position on the body be constant so that dancing lines are avoided. To cast type consistently, a matrix had to be developed along with an adjustable hand mold that would carry it. The chief ingredient of type metal was lead, to which antimony was added for hardening and tin for its melting properties. In addition to durabil­ ity, casting quality had to be considered in choosing the compo­ nents of the m etal. For the matrix, a material which wotdd properly respond to the strike wras needed . Copper has many advantages and was preferred to brass, which, although longer-lived than copper, was harder on the punches. After the letterform is driven into the surface of the matrix, any metal which has been upset must be planed dowrn. This planing is done with a file laid fiat. The matrix, held with the fingers of both hands, is worked across the file. A nee-

52

c h a F T E R 11 î

*

Type: C u ttin g and C asting

3.9 Original “Janson" matrices, struck fro m punches cut by Miklos Kis (enlarged). die depth-gauge is used to test the floor of the strike in relation to the face of the matrix. The leveling and squaring-up of the strike, by alternate filing and testing, is known asjustification of the matrix.

The casting of type was Gutenberg’s great contribution to prac­ tical printing, and the art changed little for several centuries. There were improvements in the composition of type metal and in the de­ sign and construction of the hand mold, but the basic techniques were not greatly altered. The mold shown in figure 3.10 incorporates some improve­ ments on the first model, but it is still simple in construction and in

53

A Short Hi stow of the Printed Word use. It consists of two halves that fit togedier to form a casting box of adjustable dimensions. When the matrix is placed in this mold, it blocks one end and is held in position by a strong horseshoe-shaped spring. The other end of the mold is flared so that it forms a funnel shape when the two halves are put together. This device aids the drop of the type metal into the mold. The flared shape, known as the jet, was not present in the first molds.

3 .1 0

Handcasting mold, showing inner construction.

The mold allows numerous adjustments to position the letter on the body and to control the body width. As a protection for the typecaster, the two halves are encased in wood. The wood covers can be replaced if they become broken or badly burned out. H ot metal is dipped from a crucible with a small ladle. As it is poured into the mouth of the mold, a jerk of the instrument or a blow against the spring, often delivered by raising die thigh, gives extra thrust to the metal for sharper castings. After casting, the jets are broken off. The type is put in a dressing

54

ch a pTeR in

3 . 11

*

Type: C u ttin g and Casting

Handcasting mold and gauges. ( Bottom center: needle depth-gauge. )

stick and finished with a planelike tool. This assures that the letter is type-high (0.918 inch high in America), and it cuts the basal groove as well as smoothing the feet. The finished product is composed of

55

A Short History of the Printed Word numerous parts, more easily na med and understood in this diagram reproduced from the drawing made by Rudolph Ruzicka for D.B. Updike’s PrintingTypes: Their History, Forms and Use. Hair-line

Stem-

-Counter

Serifs

Beard of Neck Shoulder

3 .1 2

Plan and nomenclature o f a piece o f type.

In the early years, printers cast their own types. There were no uniform standards and some printers favored nonconforming typographic material to discourage pirating of their designs. The sixteenth century saw the establishment of independent type foundries, and as these increased in number there were demands for more uniformity. But there were many problems, and solutions to them were few and slow in coming, and not always happy ones. The American point system finally gave some order to typographic mea­ surements, but it was not generally adopted until the 1870s - at which point the mechanization of typecutting, through the use of standard patterns, was only a few years away. The idea of a point system originated in 1737 with Pierre Fournier, a French typefounder. In the present system, based on his, there are approximately 72 points to the inch or 28.5 points per centimetre. A point, in other words, is 0.0138 inch or 0.35 mm. Twelve points make one pica, which is 4.22 mm or a sixth of an inch.

56

Before the adoption of the American point system, type sizes were indicated by names, such as nonpareil, brevier and pica. W ith the point system, those sizes became 6-point, 8-point and 12-point. And with the shift to digital composition in the 1980s, another change was made: the typographic point, in computerized environ­ ments, was redefined as precisely the 72nd part of an inch.

The Font A font of type is the complete collection of its characters. In dig­ ital or photographic type, the font is a set of patterns that can usually be rendered in any size. A font of foundry type, however, exists in one size only. The design may be recut in other sizes, but no two sets of handcut punches can ever be the same. Matrices for hotmetal composing machines are often cut mechanically from pat­ terns, or are made from mechanically cut punches. There may be several sets of patterns, each of which is used for several sizes. (Fount, incidentally, is an alternative spelling offont, but these two spellings have the same pronunciation.) As an example, the text of this book is set in 11-point Linotype Janson Text. This is a digital type based on a set of punches cut at Amsterdam near the end of the seventeeth century by the Hungar­ ian punchcutter Miklos Totfalusi Kis. Early in the twentieth cen­ tury these punches were acquired by the Stempel foundry in Frankfurt. They were at first misidentified as the work of the Dutch typefounder Anton janson, and unfortunately for Kis, the misidentification became a convention of typographic commerce. Until the Stempel foundry closed in the 1980s, metal type cast from matrices struck with Kis’s punches could still be purchased for handsetting. In 1954, Hermann Zapf adapted Kis’s design for hotmetal setting on the Linotype machine. (That was the typeface and composing system used for the first edition of this book.) Forty years later, Linotype commissioned Adrian Frutiger to create a dig-

57

À Short History of the Printed Word A B C D E F G H IJK L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H IJK L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abcdefghijkimnopqrstuvwxyz

Æ Œ Æ Œ æ œ hflffffiffl AÂA EÊ ÎI ÂÀÂA Ç ÉÈEË Ï 6 U

âàâââââ^âà çc éèêëëëeêê min nh ôôôoôôôô do do s§ üùûüüüûû 1234567890 1234567890 A flf>@ & &( ) . -------- [ ] U H

Ta Te To Tr Tu Tw Ty Va Ve Vo Wa We Wï Wo Wr Ya Ye Yo Pa % 3/b A % % %

2/?

Font ofiz-point Linotype “Janson ” roman ( based on Ris).

3 .1 3

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijkimnopqrstuvwxyz ÆŒæœf i f l f f f Ji f f l AAÂEÊIÎ âàâaâaâqââ çc éèêëëëeêê uîïïï rm ôoôdôôôô oô 00 s$ üùûüüüûû 12H H 1890 1234567890 Ta Te To Tr Tu Tw Ty Va Ve Vo Wa We Wî Wo Wr Ya Ye Yo g jp q y 3 .1 4

gjpqy

Font o f 12-point Linotype “Janson ” italic ( based on Kis).

ital version of the design. That (with some further handtooling and improvement) is the typeface you are reading. The type is still sold as Linotype Janson Text, though it is not Jansen’s design, it is Kis’s design, and it is set on a computer, not a Linotype machine.

chap T e R n i

» T y p e : C u t t in g a n d C a stin g

H a n d Composition F o n ts vary in size according to the language they are intended fo r an d th e special o r alternative characters involved. T h e font used in G u te n b e rg ’s 42-line Bible included no fewer than 290 charac­ te rs, th o u g h th e text is all in Latin, w hich requires a basic character se t o f on ly forty letters —tw enty lowercase and twenty caps - and som e m arks o f punctuation. T h e large num ber of extra sorts (extra glyphs o r typographic characters) was the result of G utenberg’s reso lv e to im itate th e abbreviations, ligatures and other special char­ a cte rs found in th e contem porary manuscripts that were his mod­ els. (A lig atu re is tw o o r m ore signs, such as ffi or ft, which are w ritte n as one by a scribe and cast as one in the type foundry.) T h e n u m b e r o f individual letters in a foundry font will vary as

3.15 Pair o f printer's cases (drawn by Rudolph Rüzicka fo r D.B. Updike s

Printing Types).

À Short Historys' of the Printed Word

3.16 Composing sticks: earliest type, single measure, made of wood; modem style, adjustable in measure, made of steel.

well. Letters are cast according to the frequency of their use, and this, of course, will van7with the language. In fonts that are cast for setting English, there will be more ris than cfs or ads. In a font for setting French, there will be é ’s and è:s and As. A font of type is stored in a subdivided case or, often, a pair of cases. I11 one, there are C A P IT A L S , s m a l l c a p i t a l s and vari­ ous special characters. In the other are small letters (descendants of scrittura umanistica), numerals and spacing material. W here cases are used in pairs, they are usually set one above the other on a slop­ ing frame that rests on the type cabinet, high enough so the com­ positor can work standing. From the working position of the two cases comes the now7familiar terminology: majuscules (capitals) are in the upper case and minuscules in the lower. A line of foundry type is still set, or composed, in a hand-held, ad­ justable frame called a stick, just as it has been for centuries. Since the letters read in reverse, right-to-left, they are assembled upside down, allowing left-right progression by the compositor. An ad­ justable stop on the stick is set to the line length required, and when the approximate maximum number of letters has been assembled, the line can be justified by altering the spacing between words.

60

----------------------------------------------------- i

^ 3 .1 7

y Pressure system fo r letterpress printing.

After several lines have been composed in die stick they are trans­ ferred to a long steel tray, open at one end, called a galley. Type is worked and stored in dais form until made up into pages. The first proofs, pulled on long sheets of paper, are called galley proofs.

The Handpress Handpresses, such as the one Gutenberg developed, are for the most part platen presses. Essentially, what is involved is the lowering of a heavy iron plate, the platen, under controlled pressure, against the horizontal, firmly supported type form. Although it is known that a cabinetmaker named Konrad Saspoch built Gutenberg’s press, no detailed descriptions of it or other very early models have survived. The general style of it is known, however, and is well illus­ trated in the reconstruction on exhibit at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. A complete fifteen th-centmryprintshop is also effectively reproduced there. The bed of the press is the part that holds the form for inking and printing. The type form is made up of pages locked into a metal frame, called a chase, by means of wooden or metal wedges, known

À S h o rt History o f the Printed Word

62

as quoins. Blank areas in a page or along margins are filled in with blocks known as furniture. The arrangement of the pages in the chase, with the printed pages in proper sequence for folding, is called the imposing scheme. The two sides of an octavo (16-page) sig­ nature could be locked in the chase like this:

3.19 Chase and lock-up of a sixteen-page form.. (Remember, in interpreting this diagram, that the type in the bed of the press reads backwards. W hen the paper is fed and the lever is pulled, right-reading text is imprinted into the face-down side of the sheet.) The bed is movable, on a track or forestay tit at allows it to be moved from under the platen and its lever-operated screw. T he lat­ ter, much like the screw of a wine press, is steeply7pitched to deliver its force through a minimum saving of the lever. Hinged to the bed is a frame, the tympan, on which paper can be stretched. This provides packing between the platen and the sheet which is to be

63

A Short History of the Printed Word printed. It is possible to build up areas on the tympan with thin layers of paper, to compensate for high, and low areas in the type. This is called overlay. It also is possible to build up areas beneath the form: underlay. The whole is referred to as makeready. There is a second, hinged, unit, the frisket, which protects the printed sheet and keeps it clean. It carries a paper shield with a cut­ out area equal to the type form. After the type has been inked with a pair of ink balls (or nowadays, with a roller), a sheet of paper is laid on the tympan against preset guides. The frisket is closed over it, leaving exposed only that section of the paper that is to be printed on. It should he noted that it is customary to dampen paper for handpress printing in order to counteract the sizing and soften the surface. T he bed assembly is moved under the platen and the lever pulled. Then the bed is moved out again, the tympan and frisket are lifted, and the paper is removed. This procedure is repeated for each impression. On the early presses, pressure was so inadequate that it was sometimes necessary, when forms were large, to move the work piecemeal under the platen, employing a series of pulls on the lever. It seems incredible that the numerous trials and failures, the ideas and the artifacts that led to the appearance of that first spec­ tacular book to come from a. European press - Gutenberg's 42-îine Bible - could have disappeared so completely. But it must be re­ membered that the scribes and illuminators wielded sufficient po­ litical power to have duplication of their works interdicted, except when done by hand. We have mentioned both the clandestine ex­ porting of prints and playing cards from Germany into Italy and the demand by Venetian woodblock cutters for legal protection. That was in 1441. Gutenberg by7then must already have spent some years developing his ideas.

CHAPTER IV Incunabula: 1440-1500 (plural, incunabula) comes from the Latin cunae, meaning “cradle*” It can refer to the earliest stages in the development of anything, but it has come to stand par­ ticularly for those books printed in Europe before 1500. Once more then, our attention focuses at first on Gutenberg, He was born in Mainz, about the year 1397, and was the son of a member of the gentry, Friele zum Gensfteisch. His full name was Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg. He lived in Mainz until 1428, when a dis­ pute related to his guild caused him to move to Strasbourg, There he resided between 1434 and 1444, working for a time with a gold­ smith named Hans Duenne. In 1439, in connection with a lawsuit, Duenne told a Strasbourg judge that Gutenberg had been engaged for three years on a project which had to do with printing. In 1438 he already had the press which Saspoch made for him. He was also purchasing lead; this suggests that he had reached the stage of cast­ ing. The last record of Gutenberg’s presence in Strasbourg is a tax payment in 1444.

T

he

w o rd

incunabuium

The 42~Line Bible By 1448 he had returned to Mainz and had obtained a loan of 150 gulden from a relative there. This was insufficient for his needs, and he was again seeking financial backing only two years later. This

nra.BnOfttifuomnfOij£lDuia mu* lira®ajpsnrn Bip argramo it mw ta i lîgtma :i in tumnte isq faotüm m Mm tmtmarn mmm friflaa it capita*batfcStafatsi : quoq capita nufta firat.Rümüc am tauaim tom area fiu&umt ftmamatiuiJBr* term s mu autant fanmoim : it nrfmit nmm üiaa *Mina &ioa. |E?*. mftquffl mail patmtucab aiiquo nr/ tnfiqumitapotetaiNKrrnttB «gmt totem pof&mt imp ante. S t a t e nttnten ûïuitîaa poQimn imp main mribum. Si qa iliia no» turnmnimr ■*normoiomr: ntq?ipt rsqmtût.Bimmitf anm m talita: nun mftrraüa ismmsr? nipmrJjO; nunc ntû as mTuranonretour :St mtdbtatritominr aonliltabnrJOt' bur non tmfnxbnmnnrtp otpbanis ta r FateJapiOibua Orraotelmn* ira &mroî?illotagtm i iapiort vau* rti tt argmtti : qui am relut mr a te oàus.&omô trgo rSimaOüiS am Btaoü tilos tflfeetejrtotim sram îpte rniorta non ijonorimbue ra : 4 tum auoîmnt mutu non psüf loqm offmklhm ao brl: patenta abra loqnntuart pciïint frarirequi no fjfc btantüJfrtpi mmttütptm* : t t e qutnrta. Smfummimnon babrat tpi Otj iîloo. flHulima aüt ntcûOate fumtoinmjs fiOfm:tamOta offa nlîuaq•£u mt alîqua t| ipîaa& te àaab aiiquotmnftaOmnîidt:^ mr bit rgprabrar tp m non fit signa babîra fitwiparnnp&raîa miamra* pma üUDraia aûtqur iiliabut M a funt.lDumnâ tteâsü amOimtOü t&Hloa rfir ornai jâ fabrie aûr i am ri&nl»Ma fût iHicbii aliuo mit nifi iSqti uoiôttûr fat8&ima.jjftmfitta

mâipiquiia Éariuut non finit rauln S t a t e Item s ttgo poOimtraq tatam Ê î ab tpi©fir bîi^iKdiqur' nuit aüt fairairmprabnû^poûea fii> tuna. jRamtumfupummt 1Ü10pim n raalarmgirant famûotro obifiabtaisant tumiliie.lDuomô «go frm m Stbrât quonîâ Sij funt qui ntt Dr Mis b libtâtrmtp &malmfi rapmt£ (Ham turn fmt lignrattmauram it margrataœ:lmrar psfita quia fallu &mt ab mtiûûa gentil» Kr ite qui mani&taa funt quia nonmntOq: bOopta manuüipminû*i rntllü op? mtûtlbe.BuOi ttgonotû eftqa non lusOip&Oopaa manuu boïm: % nul^ lum m op?i ipüeë.&rgërcgioni no üt&itanrrnnn pluutâ bommiluOm bunt.1|uOiciûquoqi non Oi&emcut: nttpugionmlâmabunt ab inniria: quia nnbüpolûimûrut tomîmle im mtnrmütdintnir.Jtattûinn&mt igms moomütmmiigomq^ srgm^ tmq 1aucmq:ratitcotmquibf ipfoq fugirmitiibimbunturrtpi utro finit ttabta fnuûio rôburmtur. ârgi aûr trbtilo ns n&&mr.lDuomô ttgo tftï^ manoü I am rmptüm quia Oqfûtf jRon afurfe rmp a iatromte f?lîbt^ tabûtOqügnfi 1lapiorî 1inaurari 1 margftao : quto îmqui fmtimralut. jamû tt argnrtûtt ut&îramtûquo 0# ptmfunt anfomt iUio tt abîbût : ntt übî aujdiiüftrmt.i|taq}mtims tft tsegnnsSmmmr uînutffiiâsut ma in oomo utilefquo glonabîtur qui poüitrrilluOvèSÙûW:utl oftiiïî t a mo qboifioOîr que in pacefuntrig faÉ si|.B)ol quibî tt luna arfiOtra tum fint^lmoîoa ttnnîlTa as nn£i> tarm obausîunt: ümtlirtr n fuîgur ru aqiarutrit çlprniû tü. Ijoipmaüt

4.1 Gutenberg or qx-line Bible: the textblock (reduced).

66

piuDt ftlt mt btfcïplraâpris tut tt nt htratttas Irarat rarie tutrmaiifcatur gratia rapmtuon toupttotollo tun* fftli tttUt tt laffanffîntpttQtf0:ntat? qrndtas tfe»^t OtjEtdtotot nohîfrü* 4.2 Fony-two-line Bible: the type.

time he borrowed 800 gulden, at six per cent interest, from Johann Fust, a wealthy Mainz merchant. T he loan was secured by a mort­ gage on Gutenberg’s equipment. After still another borrowing, the agreement was foreclosed. By that time, 1455, the loans and interest had reached more than 2,000 gulden, a sum Gutenberg was unable to pay. His books and tools were forfeited to satisfy the debt. The irony of this misfortune lay in the imminent appearance of his masterwork, the 42-line Bible. W ithin a few decades after his Bible was printed, presses began to produce the grammars and dictionaries that were to be the basic tools for increasing literacy. Vespasiano, with those forty-five writ­ ers in his employ, needed almost two years to finish 200 books. A crew of forty-five Renaissance editors, compositors, proofreaders and pressmen could do about the same - but they could make those books in several hundred copies each. We must turn now from Gutenberg, to contemplate the man who would help Johann Fust carry on the Gutenberg venture. His name was Peter Schôffer, and he was a calligrapher who was work­ ing in Paris at the beginning of the second half of the fifteenth century. From Paris he moved to Mainz, where he met and married Fust’s daughter. H e designed and apparently cast type, and he became at first Fust’s working partner, then his heir.

A Short History of the Printed Word

4 .3

The M ainz Psalter o f Fust ix Schoffer.

Fust and Schoffer In 1457, shortly after the appearance of Gutenberg’s big Bible, the large and handsome Mainz Psalter appeared. It bore the first colophon, giving the date of publication and the names of Fust and Schoffer as its publishers. Considering the time and expertise re­ quired for such an undertaking, it wo uld seem that at least the initial work must already have been done by Gutenberg. Among the notable features of the Mainz Psalter are its large two-color printed initials. This feat was probably accomplished by preparing nested woodblocks which could be separated, inked indi­ vidually in red and blue, and reassembled to print both colors, along with the black type, in one impression. The text types used in both Bible and Psalter are texturas. The name alludes to the woven texture of a page that is written in such

68

chapter

iv

•

Incunabula: 1440-1500

letters. In both these books the types are large in size, especially in the body of the Psalter. Like all texturas, they are angular and pointed, but as texture types go, they possess an exemplary simpli­ city. The letterforms are sharp, but they are less jagged and spiky than many other fonts that followed. The lines from the Fust and Schoffer Psalter reproduced in figures 4.4 and 4.5 show two sizes of type. In both sizes, capitals ap­ pear. They are quite different from the lower case - round instead of angular, and drawn with a vertical axis instead of written with the pen held at a comfortable angle. Nonetheless, they too are charac­ teristic of the time. They are also generous in their forms, especially against the close-packed vertical rhythm of the lower case. T he lines, dots and other decorative touches often added to such capitals are not solely for ornament. These additions help to reduce the large counters which could otherwise open up holes in the overall texture and color of the type mass.

earns wr «pu non attjtmofflmîmpîoa; dintnajttaatoritnon omtnîniafttûtatitflt Imttt non ftùît.iÿct) -- ------ ifi----- in tea tenant nolfifas W m in m Itgt mis raîùïtabîtur Dît at no­ i l to, S t rat tangs Itpü qunb plàtatû ttt 4 .4

M a in z Psalter: initial and text type (reduced).

69

A Short History of the Printed Word

fifgtmapüimmum (AmîrfrmDûtinare 4 .5

M a in z Psalter: the type.

The large, decorative letters which stand out from the body of the text are known as versais. In manuscripts, they were compound, or built-up forms, drawn rather than written. Here they indicate the degree to which the early printers were committed to imitating the illuminators as well as the calligraphers. Naturally, these letters also serve quite practical purposes. They indicate textual breaks and stresses. Peter Schoffer led a long and productive life; not so his fatherin-law, Fust, who died of the plague in 1466 on a visit to Paris. Two of Schoffer?s most famous works - the Hortus sanitatis (a German herbal) and Chronik der Sachsen (a history) - did not appear until 1485 and 1492. Both were extensively illustrated with woodcuts.

*Vnb awQ affogmu^ct $w£r incCfiîcÇttftyt von^cm Per

jO §ic CcPPcrt>n5 Prcftgt tinf?cn $n c^cti macPf gcfîin ten ftangffcyt afo$an tfï^ic qeffucPt vn%t tmffcr fnS 6oVct$ic nmrmc m?cm Pud>c vn^npet fie vfi mecPrtgl fca von nutlet tyn pfttfïer atfo*Viym twtmtMttt-foi fttfp CoifgcPwnc cyn foie* vn$ cyn Coir Baft vat vitôct gemifser vf?cinpBt/W gcmacP teyt v ff^m Pad?* 3tcm wtz3m fa& fimgc $yt ge nut* 3Ûfrômen^en fafft von trermur mit snefer verm ttefitla voit $n Çant üpermut fafft gemettget mit f 4 .6

H o r t u s s a n ita tis :

the type.

The type of the Hortus sanitath is another, less formal kind of blackletter, known as schwabacher or bastarda. After his death in 1502, Peter Schoffer was succeeded by his son Johann; a younger son Peter, who had a very distinguished career as a punchcutter; and finally by a grandson, Ivo Schoffer, who contin­ ued printing until 1555. Thus, the name Schoffer was associated for a full century with the making of books.

The Death of Gutenberg Gutenberg did not outlast Fust by very long, dying in 1468, Of his later years, we know much less than we would like. In 1465 he became attached to the court of Adolf of Nassau, who was then Archbishop of Mainz. Earlier, in 1460, there appeared, printed in Mainz, the Catholicon, a Latin dictionary written two centuries ear­ lier by Johann Balbus. This may be Gutenberg’s work too. In February of 1468, D r Conrad Humery, a Mainz advocate, recorded his acquisition of some printing equipment that had be­ longed to Gutenberg at the time of his death. These articles were turned over to Humery by the archbishop, and it may be assumed that the recipient had been of some economic help to the always financially embarrassed printer.

Exodus of the Mainz Printers Nassau is now a small, old town on the Lahn River, north and west from the urban conglomeration of Wiesbaden, Frankfurt and Mainz. It was formerly a duchy, elastic in size, like most feudal states, but at times almost as large as the present state of Delaware. In 1462, Mainz was sacked and partly burned by soldiers from this duchy, under orders, it appears, from their archbishop. One conse­ quence of that attack was an exodus of printers from the city, thus hastening the spread of the infant art to other towns and countries. 71

A Short H isto ry of the Printed Word Even before the sack of Mainz, there were presses in Strasbourg and Bamberg. It was in Bamberg in 1461 that Albrecht Pfister printed Edelstein, die first book with printed illustrations. Here the type and woodcuts were printed in separate impressions. Four years later the art moved into Italy, when Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz set up a shop in the monastery at Subiaco, east of Rome. In 1466, there was printing in Kôln; in 1468, in Augsburg and in Rome itself. In 1469, another German, Johann van Speyer, became the first Venetian printer. In 1470, a particularly significant year, a printing shop was installed at the Sorbonne by three German-speaking printers whom the rector had invited to Paris, and in Venice die great French typographer Nicolas Jenson opened his own independent operation. Johann Zainer became the first printer in Ulm. In 1473, he brought out Boccaccio’s De Claris mulieribus, illustrated with woodcuts based on French manuscript illumination. Zainer distin-

4 .7

The first book with printed illustrations:

E d e ls te in ,

by Albrecht Pfister.

guished himself not only by his printing but by the quality of editing and scholarship apparent in his publications. The Mainz influence was dominant for the first fifteen years of bookmaking. Typographers and printers from other countries, such as Schoffer and Jenson from France, were apprenticed at Mainz. The exodus from that city, in 1462, must have been greatly governed by the demand for printing elsewhere. The supply of trained craftsmen was relatively small.

The Press at Subiaco For these printers, protection and financial support guaranteed success. Since the churches were among the principal customers for books, their language chiefly Latin (which the Germans were already used to), and their means ample, they offered the most ideal inducements. Just such a set of circumstances led Sweynheym and

73

A Short History of the Printed Word

agic.ut büana dtuntis mbuâc auctontate:cü pcdnsbum, buermr. Que nue (âne omittamus.ne mbdapud Ifbsagar materta^edar* Ea igr cjufiamus reftimoma.qbus tilt pôfi me cerrc non rcpugnare.SibiUas plunrtu et maxi'mi aud grjcoy: Anftoricuster Appollodorus ;Erithrcus ;noftrc neftelia*Hi om s pcipuama nobitem prjtercetms, Enri mmomu AppoUodoms jdc sitde rial ac popular! fnagl 4.9 First type ofSweynheym & Pannartz. 1465. Pannartz to Italy in 1465. Their press was set up at the Benedictine house, Santa Scholastica, Subiaco, where they lived as lay brothers. After producing a Donatus, of which no copy is extant, they printed De Divtnis institutionibus of Lactantius, which is the first Italian book to bear a date. Sweynheym had worked with Schoffer at Mainz, and Pannartz came from Koln. The two types used by Sweynheym and Pannartz were strongly influenced by the m inim i umanistica but bear gothic traces too. The lower case of both has a Carolingian structure, uniting many fea­ tures of roman and italic. (The separation of roman and italic was still hundreds of years in the future when the Caroline or Carolin­ gian script evolved.) The capitals in the Sweynheym and Pannartz faces are roman, and the lines are leaded out (vertically spaced) more generously than is usual with blackletter. In both these re­ spects, their work achieves a roman mise en page or page design. Aside from the Donatus and the Lactantius, only two other books were printed at Subiaco. These were Cicero’s De Oratore and St Augustine’s De Civitate Dei. It seems likely that the Cicero was finished first, but it is undated. After printing the St Augustine, Sweynheym and Pannartz moved their press to the palace of the Massimi family in Rome. There, they printed about fifty books, working together until 1473.

7 4

c

hapte

R iv

• Incunabula : 1440-1500

Printing in Switzerland and Germany In 1463, at Mainz, Fust and Schoffer published the first book to have a printed title page. In 1464, a Gutenberg workman named Berthold Ruppel went to Basel and became Switzerland’s first printer. The Strasbourg printer Günther Zainer (Johann Zai ner $ cousin) moved his press to Augsburg in 1468. Hans Holbein’s town - later the town of Leopold Mozart and Bertolt Brecht - became one of the great printing centers of Germany, and it was Günther Zainer who set it on its course. He encountered opposition from Augsburg woodcut makers and block-printers, who feared his competition. He also obtained sup­ port from Melchi or von Stamhaim, Abbot of St Ulrich, who offered him room for his press. Five presses were soon added, and under Zainer’s tutelage printers were trained. The first book to come from his press was Meditationes de vita Christi, Zainer used many woodcuts in his books, and it is likely that the fearful woodcarvers and playing-card makers were soon absorbed into the new opera­ tion, with greatly expanded duties and opportunities. Such de­ mands were to elevate the craft for several hundred years to come.

Printing in Venice T he first book printed in Venice was completed in 1469. It was Epistolae ad familiares by Cicero, and its printer w'as Johann van Speyer (Giovanni da Spira). It was followed by Pliny’s Historia nat~ uralis. In 1470, Johann died, leaving his brother Wendelin to finish his edition of St Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, the first European book in which page numbers are printed. The type used by the Van Speyers has extraordinary clarity. It consists of purely roman forms that are directly recognizable as such even by narrower modern standards. The brothers made great claims for their design, seeking in fact to patent it as a new inven75

A. Short History of th e Printed Word tion. They succeeded in obtaining legal if not practical protection against plagiarism for five years. The death of Johann van Speyer in 1470 put an end to this re­ striction, and in that year Eusebius’ De Praeparatione evangeiica was published by Nicolas Jenson. The Eusebius is a milestone In the de­ velopment of the roman type page. It is Jenson’s first book, but it was not, perhaps, printed in his first type- There are reasons to sus­ pect that Jenson was the author of Johann van Speyer’s roman type, and of the Greek used by Wendelin van Speyer. It may be that Jen­ son’s own fine roman and Greek are really revisions of fonts he cut for the Van Speyers.

E d ncceflccft inquiunt: ut terrena corpora natu ten eat.uct cogatad terram: &c ideo incaelo cflc non pc ilti hormis in terra erant nemorofa arque fru&uofa: obtinuit.Sedquia &ad hoc refpondendu cfl:ucl prop quo afeendit in caelum :ucl propter faneftorum qualia i funt: intucantur paulo attendus pondéra ipa terrena, efFicit: utex metallis que maquis pofttacontmuo fub 4.10 Roman type o f Johann van Speyer ( Giovanni da Spira). Venice, 2470,

NicolasJenson Jenson was bom about 1420 at Sommevoire, in northern Bur­ gundy. Between 1470 and 1480 he printed some 150 books and established a lasting reputation for his types. Before learning typemaking at Mainz, he was a mintmaster, possibly at Tours. He too, in other words, had training as a goldsmith. He already knew how to cut punches, make molds and cast metal with precision and efficiency at very small sizes. And he knew and loved letters. 76

chapter

iv

* Incunabula: 1440-1500

4.1 t Eusebius printed by NicolasJenson. Venice, 1470.

The Eusebius type is a marvel, but its maker attained his mas­ tery and knowledge little by little. There are clues connecting Jenson with Frankfurt, and some which place Gutenberg there from the time he lost his equipment in Mainz until 1468. It is not at all impossible that Jenson had some direct contact with Gutenberg. Certainly, Jenson was associated with Frankfurt merchants, espe­ cially with booksellers. One of these, Peter Ugelheimer, who was involved in the book business as early as 1455, appears in Venice twenty years later, at the height of Jenson’s Italian career. It is also of interest to note that among the shareholders in Jenson’s last part­ nership were Dona Paula, the widow of Johann van Speyer, and her two children. The presence of these three lends weight to the theory thatjenson cut the types of the Van Speyers. He died in 1480 in Rome, where he had gone at the invitation of Pope Sixtus IV. Jenson was a success in his own time, both artistically and finan­ cially. Beyond his time, he has remained an inspiration. It is my be­ lief that his influence came partly from early training, which gave him even greater sensitivity to the sculptural nature of type than one would otherwise expect in a goldsmith-turned-punchcutter. In making coins and medallions, the letterforms Jenson employed

qui omnibus ui aquarum fubmcrfïs aim filiis fuis fimul ac nuribus mirabili quodi modo quafi femen h u à n i generis confèruatus efttque urina quafi uiuam quandam tmaginem imitari nobis contmgat:& hi quidem ante diluuium fucrunt:poft diluuiumautem alii quorüunus altifïimi dei facerdos iuftitix acpietatis miraculo rex mfhis lingua hebrxom appellatus efbapud quos nec dromafionis nec mofaicx legis ulla menao erat. Quare nec iudæos(pofteris enî hoc nomcn fuir)neqj gentiles :quoniam non urgentes plural itatem deorum inducebantfea hebrxos pro prie noiamus autab Hebere utdidxî cfhaut qa id nomen cranficiuos fignificat.Soii qppe a creaturis naturali rone éc lcge mata nô fcnpta ad cognitioni uen dei trifiere:& uoluptate corporis côtépca ad redam uitam puenifïe fcribuntkum quibus omibus prxdarus ille tottus generis origo Habraam numerâdus efhcui fcriptura mirabilem iuftitiâ quâ non a mofaica lege(feprima efm pofi: Habraa generatione Mopfes nafdtur)fed naturali fuit ratione confecutus fuma cum laude atteflatur. Credidic emm Habraam deo Ôdreputatû eft ei in iuftitiam. Quare multarum quoq? gentium patrem diuina oracula futurüuac m ipfo benedicédas oés genres hocutdelicSd ipfum quod iam nos uideüs aperce pnedicÆumeft:cuius ille iuftttiæ pcrfedaoém non mofaica lege fed fide côfecutus eft:qui poft muitas dei uifiones legitrimum genuic filium:quern primum omnium diuino pfuafus oraculo drcuâdit:ô£ cxteris qui ab eo nafceretur tradidit:uel ad manifeftum mulatudinis eorum future fignum:uel uthocquafi patemxuirtutis îftgnefiîù re> rinétes maiores fuos imitari conaretrauc qbufcüqj aliis decaufis.Non enim id fcrutâdum nobis modo eft,Poft Habraam films eius Ifaac in pietace fucceiïït:fœlice hac hxreditate a parétibus accxpta:q uni uxorî coniunchis quum geminos genuifiet caftitatis amore ab uxore poftea didturabftinuifTe.Ab ifto natus é Iacob qui ^pptcr cumulatu uirtutis prouetum Ifrael eriam appellatus eft duobus noibus ^ppterduphcem uirtutis ufü.Iacob efm athlerâ ôc exercécem felatinedicerepoflumus: quam appellations primû habuic:quû prafticis operaaoîbus multos pro pietate labo res ferebat.Quum autéiam uidorludando euafit:& fpecularionis fruebat bonis:tue Ifraelem ipfedeus appellauit æterna premia bearitudméqj ulrimam qux i n uifione dei confiait ei largiens: hommem enim qui deum uideat Ifrael nomen fignificat. Ab hoc.xih iudxorum tribus ,pfedtx füt.Innumerabiîia de uita îftorum uirorum forticudine prudenria pietateqj did pofïuntiquorum alia fecundum feripture uerba hiflorice confiderantur:aIia tropologice ac allegorice interprctâtîde qbus multi côfcripferût;& nos in hbro que infcnpfiûs 4.12 1'extblockfrom Jenson ’s Eusebius (:reduced ).

78

Et ptds in morem ad digitos ietitefdt habendo* Eiufmodi figuratioparumadmiTit ex feperf«îhim:nec conuenitad mittere uc aut pofïït:au t debeat cum cxteris temporibus p totam declinauonem uim incipiendi figmficare• Abfurdu i ergo ea quse funt închoatiua perfe^o tempore defm{re:6£ mox fucurum deciinando inchoadua efle demoftrare'Ncc enimpoteftcum tota uerbi fperies inchoatma dfcatur alia 4 .1 3

Roman type o f Nicolas Jenson. 1471.

were capitals, often beautiful capitals that could summon the spirit of Rome. It is reasonable to assume that Jenson’s Latin background and his proficiency in roman forms were of incalculable impor­ tance in translating humanistic script from manuscript to type. Some critics have complained that Jenson’s type lacks perfection in detail. The answer to this charge lies plainly on the page, where the even color of the type mass and the great legibility of the forms prove without a further word that the punchcutter and printer achieved his aims. Dressmaker details and elegant touches do not bear constant repetition. It is the elusive inevitability of Jenson’s forms that has made them models for over 500 years. Part of the character of a Jenson page derives from the fitting of the letters; there is sufficient space between them to match the space within the counters. In 1471 Jenson produced an excellent Greek type - the first com­ plete Greek type and still one of the best - though he used it only to print excerpts and quotations. In 1474 he began to cut a series of ro­ tundas, used in his expanding production of medical and historical works. His fame nonetheless now rests on his contribution to the form of roman type and to its mise en page, its composition and arrangement on the page. In spite of the success of the Venetian printers, Florentine bib­ liophiles remained aloof from the press. It was a time of high attain-

79

A Short History of th e Printed Word ment by their calligraphic school, well represented by the work of Antonio Sinibaldi. The first book printed in Florence was produced by another goldsmith, Bernardo Cennini, 1471, but it is indifferent in quality7. Only when Antonio Miscomini, who was trained in Venice, moved his press from Modena to Florence in 1489 did that great center of art join in the magic of Renaissance printing. Michelangelo was then in his early teens.

The Spread ofPrinting: Spain and the Low Countries From 1450 or thereabouts until. 1470, fourteen European cities could boast printing offices. From 1470 to 1480, the number grew to more than a hundred. O f that number, Italy accounted for fortyseven. In France, besides the three Swiss and Germans, Freiburger, Gering and Kranz, who had been called to the Sorbonne in 1470, there were printers at Toulouse, Angers, Vienne, Poitiers and, most importantly, at Lyon. Pri nting was introduced into Spain, at Valencia, in 1474. Before the end of that decade, presses were established in Zaragoza, Tortosa, Seville, Barcelona and Lérida. Lambert Palmart was the first Spanish printer and Matthaeus of Flanders the second. In Spain, as elsewhere, the spread of printing was carried on by itinerant north­ erners. At this date, printers who were not themselves northern Eu­ ropeans had at least been trained in the north. Yet the state of the art was no longer tentative, and a cultural industry had come into be­ ing. Regardless the nationality of the earliest printers in Spain, their works rapidly assumed a recognizably Spanish style. Palmart’s first font was a roman, but the Spaniards quickly as­ serted their preference for hlackletter type, especially rotundas. Juan de Yciar’s Arte subtilissima, a wri ting hook published in 1550 at Zaragoza, shows this form to best advantage. It would seem that foreign influences either succumbed to the strong nationalism of Spain or were at least absorbed into it. In the following' centuries, 80

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however, Spain became both the source and the preserver of some of the world’s finest roman types- And at Alcala de Henares, near Madrid, in 1510, Arnaldo Guillén de Brocar cut the Complutensian Greek: a piece of typographic art stylistically in tune and fully on par with the work of Nicolas Jenson. The earliest firm date for printing in the Netherlands is 1473. This date is established by two books, produced in Utrecht in that year, by Ketelaer and de Leempt. There are some undated works, presumed to have been printed several years before, perhaps as early as 1471. A few years after the Utrecht books appeared, printing shops were opened in Deventer, Delft, Gouda and elsewhere in the Netherlands, and printing was introduced in neighboring Belgium. Bi

A Short History of the Printed Word

in épm< of trou6D*ue Uoaitbtf anb of t$< potto fkpn§ and; t«pgnpng a« Xbtff njtf^c t-oj «ttgfottfy ant; frmmcp ao nj aft otfytr pGiatff v t tÇurgÇ t§< Utrnlfc? tfyat ie to tb tis f$« pet* of 01 tfjoufïmt? four Qjnberfe?Cjrp. 2fnb? aofbt é$î l&tfffcrônty % l h) &éw««V*SDÇi t* del intelleÔot6tcum lamia paucula fuffirie tia di fati&re aile uoftre pkqeuole perittonc, non riftaroal pocere.Lcquale femota qualuque hefïtationc epiêpiuche ft congruerebbealtronde/lignamentemeritino piu uberrimo fluuio di doquentia .cumtroppo piurdhmdaefeganaa&cum piu exornatapoli 4.23 Roman type by Francesco Griffo. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. 1499. Bembo’s De Aetna, published by Aldus in 1495. A revised version of the same font appears in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The italic was used to print the poems of Virgil in 1501. Griffo’s contributions to roman type include an improved bal­ ance between capitals and lower case, achieved by cutting the capi­ tals slightly shorter than ascending letters such as b and dy and by slightly reducing the stroke weight of the capitals. As the fifteenth century ended, printing was well established, but calligraphy was not by any means a dying trade or waning in­ fluence. Some of its most beautiful examples lay ahead. As more people learned to read, so more learned to write, and often with great style and distinction. The sixteenth century was the age of the great manuals of handwriting.

92

CHAPTER V The Sixteenth Century o f t h e p h y s i c a l a n d m a t e r i a l progress of printing until the year 1500 would reveal more than 1,100 shops in 200 cities, in which some 12,000,000 books, in some 30,000 editions, had been produced. On the aesthetic side, the high state of calligraphy during that period provided an atmosphere of understanding and taste for letterforms that has been of lasting benefit in establishing the classic models for type families. Mechan­ ically, very little had changed since the time of Gutenberg. The ap­ pearance of technical progress stemmed from increased skill in the craft. Peter Schôffer the elder, as an example, died in 1502, though he had relinquished control of his shop a few years earlier. He rep­ resented, in one lifespan, the full course of printing history, with all the experience that implies. In 1500, however, presses still used wooden screws to deliver the force for the impression. It was not until 1550 that a Nürnberg mechanic fitted a press with a metal thread for the power action. In the new century, printing was to spread to many countries: Turkey, 1503; Rumania, 1508; Mexico, 1534; Ireland, 1550; Russia, 1553; India, 1556; Palestine, 1563; Peru, 1584. Mexico had a printing press a full century before the first in the British colonies, at Cam­ bridge, Massachusetts ~ and along with the press had a substantive culture of publishing. The religious, political, social and economic ferment that ï in v e n to r y

93

I

A Short History of the Printed Word

5,1 Virgil, Opera. Venice: Aldus, 1501, with italic type by Francesco Griffo. marked the sixteenth century in Europe is well known; the eco­ nomic and social, structure of the Middle Ages was being challenged in almost every respect. It was die century of Luther and Calvin, of the Peasants’ War and the Knights’ War. The first printing of Alartin Luther’s translation of the New Testament, with illustrations by Lucas Cranach the elder, was completed in 1522. It is not too much to say diat the tool of change was the press, and that diis change, in turn, helped to spread printing. Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, whose father Federigo “would have been ashamed to own a printed book,” collected books himself and evidently loved them dearly. Aldus’s edition of the Flypnerotomachia Poliphili - one of the loveliest, most light-hearted of all printed books and one of the last of the incunabula - is dedicated to Guidobaldo.

94

c Ha p t

er

* The Sixteenth Century

v

The Introduction ofItalic W hen Aldus commissioned a cursive type based on the cancellaresca, or chancery script, imitating Italian vernacular handwriting, one purpose was to produce a condensed letter for use in small for­ mats which might “more conveniently be held in the hand and learned by heart.” Another purpose was perhaps to bridge the vast difference in typographic texture between his roman and his cursive Greek fonts (grown, of course, from different manuscript models). The chancery script was being written with greatest distinction at the time of the first books printed in italic type, and italic was re­ garded as an independent face, not a helpmeet to roman. Whole hooks - the works of Virgil, Petrarchs poems, the Satires of Juvenal and Persius - were printed in italic type, while artists, poets and scholars wnote italic script with great pleasure and great style. One of its master practitioners was Raphael. Shortly before his appoint­ ment as painter at the palace of Pope Julius II, he had in fact been proposed as a papal secretary. GEORGÏCOR.VM, L I B E R QV A .R.TV 5-

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6.2 Shakespeare, First Folio. 1623.

Censorship in England In 1637 the number of print shops and foundries in England had been limited by decree. In the cradle years of printing, opposition came chiefly from organized calligraphers and illuminators whose livelihood was threatened. The content of manuscripts was seldom in question; most were classics or ecclesiastical writings and many were in Greek or Latin, which made them inaccessible to all but a few scholars and churchmen. But with the coming of the seven­ teenth century, printing was seen as a threat to established power,

I25

A Short History of the Printed Word both religious and political. The opposition took the form of cen­ sorship. Miltons words did not bear immediate fruit, hut Parlia­ m ents Declaration of Rights in 1689, issued just before the proclamation of William and Mary as King and Queen, foretold his triumph. In 1694 the Licensing Act expired. It was not renewed, and censorship of the press ended. As the debates over censorship continued, typographic printing continued its expansion. It was introduced to the Philippines in 1602, Lebanon in 1610, Bolivia in 1612, Ecuador in 1626, the notyet-formed United States in 1639, Iran in 1640, Finland in 1642, Norway in 1643, Guatemala in 1660, Indonesia in 1668.

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