U38AH.T KMOftL % //< XAA~«* &/+, >x • ; : * „ V 1 e> , '4/ USBAHY •CHOttL USBAKY SCHOfL >|f §nm itiimt nl fnnim^ U3BARY KHOftL THE INVENTION OF PRINTING % €olkttxon oi Jfacts attir Opinions DESCRIPTIVE OF EARLY PRINTS AND PLAYING CARDS, THE BLOCK-BOOKS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, THE LEGEND OF LOURENS JANSZOON COSTER, OF HAARLEM, AND THE WORK OF JOHN GUTENBERG AND HIS ASSOCIATES. KHustratetr . WITH FAC- SIMILES OF EARLY TYPES AND WOOD-CUTS. BY THEO. L. DE VINNE. Second <£Dition. * SUrebp. tongues arc ftnotone, fctiofolebgc grotoctb, jubgment cncreasrtfj, boobs arc bisperscb, the Scripture is scene, tfjc boctors be rcab, stories be opencb, times compare*!, truth biscerrtcb, fals= boob beteeteb, anb Snittj finger pointcb, anb all, as S saib, tbrougfj tfje benefit Of printing. Fox's Acts and Monuments. NEW-YORK: FRANCIS HART A.N D CO. 63 & 65 MURRAY STREET, LONDON: TRUBNE'R 'AND COMPANY. 1878. L I W R A u v UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. & ENTERED, ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1876, BY Theodore L. De Vinne, IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON. TO DAVID WOLFE BRUCE, IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INSTRUCTION ABOUT TYPES, NOT TO BE HAD BY READING, OF ASSISTANCE IN STUDIES, NOT TO BE FOUND IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, OF COMPANIONSHIP MORE PLEASANT THAN BOOKS, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED BY HIS FRIEND, THEO. L. DE VINNE. CONTENTS. I The Different Methods of Printing 17 II Antique Methods of Impression and their Failure 29 III ... . The Key to the Invention of Typography 49 IV The Image Prints of the Fifteenth Century 69 V Printed and Stenciled Playing Cards 88 VI The Chinese Method of Printing 109 VII . . . The Early Printing of Italy 122 VIII . . .The Introduction of Paper in Europe 133 IX The Book-makers of the Middle Ages 146 ■X The Preparations for Printing 171 • XI Block-Books of Images without Text 193 . XII . . . .Block- Books of Images with Text 230 XIII . . .The Donatus, or Boy's Latin Grammar 254 XIV. . . .The Speculum Salutis, or Mirror of Salvation 264 XV ....The Works and Workmanship of an Unknown Printer. .. .282 XVI The Period in which the Speculum was Printed 308 XVII . . . The Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster 326 XVIII. .The Growth of the Legend 347 XIX . . .The Downfall of the Legend 360 XX . . . John Gutenberg at Strasburg 375 XXI . . . Gutenberg and his Earlier Work at Mentz 403 XXII . .The Later Work of Gutenberg 431 XXIII. .The Work of Peter Schceffer and John Fust 449 XXIV . .Alleged Inventors of Printing 480 XXV . . . The Spread of Printing 492 XXVI . .The Tools and Usages of the First Printers 514 Authorities Consulted 543 I NDEX 547 ILLUSTRATIONS. Statue of John Gutenberg. . .Frontispiece. Surface Exposed to Impression by Copper-plate method 21 Surface Inked and Exposed to Im- pression by Typographic method. 21 Surface Exposed to Impression by Lithographic method 21 Face of a large Type, showing how the Letter is placed on the body. . 24 Side view of Canon body 25 Small Pica, Agate and Diamond body 25 View of body inclined to show the face 25 Stamped Brick from Babylon 30 Fac-simile of Impression on brick. . . 31 Egyptian Stamp for impressing bricks 32 Assyrian Cylinder 34 Old Roman Stamps 37 Roman Stamps 38 Roman Scrinium and rolls of papyrus 43 Types of Irregular Body 52 Punch 55 Matrix 55 Illustrations of Type-bodies 56 Type-Mould, without matrix 57 O ne-half of the Mould 57 The other half of the Mould 57 Type-casting as practised in 1683. . . 59 Type-casting as practised in 1564. . . 62 Print of St. Christopher 70 Print of the Annunciation 72 Print of St. Bridget 74 Flemish Indulgence Print 76 Brussels Print '. 79 Berlin Print 81 Playing Card of the fifteenth century 93 Print Colorer 94 Engraver on Wood 95 Chinese Playing Cards 99 Early French Playing Cards 103 French and German Playing Cards of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 105 Fac-simile of part of a Chinese Book. 117 Chinese Types made in London. . . . 117 Mark of Jacobus Arnoldus, 1345 123 Mark of Johannes Meynersen, 1435. 123 Mark of Adam de Walsokne, 1349. . 125 Mark of Edmund Pepyr, 1483 125 Mark of an unknown person 125 Japanese Method of Making Paper. 135 Paper-Mill of the sixteenth century. 140 Scriptorium of the middle ages 149 Penmanship of the ninth century. . . 150 Manuscript of the fifteenth century. . 152 Medieval Bookbinding 153 Medieval Illuminator 154 Sumptuously Bound Book 156 Medieval Book with covers of oak. . . 157 Book Cover in Ivory, Byzantine style 158 Seal of the University of Paris 161 English Horn-Book 174 English Clog 175 Holbein's Dance of Death 183 Dance of Death, as shown in the Nuremberg Chronicle 185 Last page of the Bible of the Poor. 197 First page of the Bible of the Poor, as made by Walther and Hurning 209 First page of the Apocalypse 213 First page of the Canticles 217 Story of the Blessed Virgin 221 Exercise on the Lord's Prayer 223 Illustration from the Book of Kings 225 Letter K of Grotesque Alphabet... 227 Page from the Apostles' Creed 228 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page from the Eight Rogueries 229 Page from' the Antichrist 232 Page from the Ars Memorandi 234 Page from the Ars Moriendi 237 Chiromancy of Doctor Hartlieb 240 Calendar of John of Gamundia 242 Page from the Wonders of Rome. . . 243 Pomerium Spirituale 244 Temptations of the Devil 245 Life of St. Meinrat 246 Heidelberg Dance of Death 247 German Donatus, from a block in the National Library at Paris 258 Fragment of an early Donatus 259 Early Dutch Horarium 260 Imprint of Conrad Dinckmut 262 First page of Speculum Salutis 266 Last page of Speculum Salutis 268 Types of Speculum Salutis 277 Types in third edition of Speculum. 285 Types of Fables of Lorenzo Valla. . . 286 Types of Peculiarities of Criminal Law 287 Types of Epitaphs of Pope Pius 11 . . . 288 The Enschede Abecedarium 290 Experimental Letters drawn on wood 294 Types from Experimental Letters. . . 295 Frisket, Tympan and Bed of an early European Printing Press 307 Paper-marks: seven illustrations, 309, 310 Types of Jacob Bellaert 319 Types of John Brito 321 Map of the Netherlands 323 Scriverius' Portrait of Coster 333 Statue of Coster in Doctors' Garden. 351 Medals in honor of Coster 353, 354 Statue of Coster on the monument. . 359 Autograph of Laurens Janszoon 361 House of Coster 370 Portrait of Laurens Janszoon Coster 371 Spurious Portrait by Van den Berg. . 372 Portrait attributed to Van Oudewater 372 The Laurens Janszoon of Meerman . . 373 Medieval Press 395 Type-mould of Claude Garamond. . 399 Types of the Donatus attributed to Gutenberg at Strasburg 401 Types of Donatus of 1451 405 De la Borde's Illustration of Types. . 406 Holbein's Satire on the Indulgences. 407 Letter of Indulgence dated 1454 409 Types of Bible of 36 Lines 413 Abbreviations of Bible of 36 Lines . . 414 Portrait of John Fust 417 Types of Bible of 42 Lines 423 Portrait of John Gutenberg 429 Types of Letter of Indulgence of 1461 433 Types of Catholicon of 1460 435 Types of Celebration of the Mass. . . 437 Types of Mirror of the Clergy 438 Colophon written by Peter SchcefFer. 450 Types of the Psalter of 1457 453 Colophon of the Psalter of 1457 455 Types of the Rationale Durandi .... 461 Types of the Bible of 1462 462 Trade-mark of Fust and SchcefFer. . . 462 Types of Constitutions of Clement v 463 Portrait of Peter SchcefFer 469 Types of the Grammar of 1468 470 Illustration from the Book of Fables . 483 Arms of the Typothetae 489 Part of Koburger's Map of Europe. 496 The Birth of Eve, Zainer's 497 Statue of Gutenberg at Strasburg. . . 509 Type of the fifteenth century 520 Printing Office of sixteenth century. 523 Hand Press of Jodocus Badius 528 Inking Balls of sixteenth century. . . . 530 Large wood-cut of fifteenth century. 535 The Fall of Lucifer, Zainer's 537 A Print of 1475 539 I PREFA CE. Z*HE Invention of Printing has always been recognized by educated men as a subject of importance : there is no mechanical art, nor are there any of the fine arts, about whose early history so many books have been written. The subject is as mysterious as it is inviting. There is an unusual degree of obscurity about the origin of the first printed books and the lives and works of the early printers. There are records and traditions which cannot be reconciled of at least three distinct inventions of printing. Its early history is entangled with a controversy about rival inventors which has lasted for more than three centuries, and is not yet fully determined. In the management of this controversy, a subject intrinsic- ally attractive has been made repulsive. The history of the invention of printing has been written to please national pride. German authors assert the claims of Gutenberg, and discredit traditions about Coster. DutcJi authors insist on the priority of Coster, and charge Gutenberg with stealing the invention. Partisans on each side say that their opponents have perverted the records and suppressed the truth. The quarrel has spread. English and French authors, who had no national prejudices to gratify, and who should have considered the question without passion, have wrangled over the subject with all the bitterness of Germans or Hollanders. In this, as in other quarrels, there are amusing features, but to the general reader the controversy seems unfortunate and is certainly wearisome. It is a greater misfortune that all the early chronicles of printing were zvritten in a dead language. Wolf's collection 10 PREFACE. of Typographic Monuments, which includes nearly every paper of value written before 1740, is in Latin ; the valuable books of Mcerman, Maittaire, and Schoepflin are also in Latin. To the general reader these are sealed books: to the student, who seeks exact knowledge of the methods of the first printers, they are tiresome books. Written for the information of librarians rather than of printers, it is but proper that these books should devote the largest space to a revietv of the controversy or to a description of early editions ; but it is strange that they should so imperfectly describe the construction and appearance of early types and the usages of the early printers. The mechanical features of typography were, apparently, neglected as of little importance, and beneath the dignity of history. A failure to present accurate illustrations of early printing is not the fault of modern authorities. Many of them are full of facsimiles bearing the marks of minute and conscientious care ; but they are in foreign languages, and are seldom found in our largest American libraries. There are, it is true, a few books in English on early printing wJiicJi have accurate fac- similes ; but high prices and limited editions put them out of the reach of the ordinary book-buyer. They zvcre written by and for librarians only. Valuable as all these books are, they disappoint the printer. Some of them, though presenting fac-similes in profusion, are not accompanied with proper explanations in the text : others are devoted to one branch only of early printing, such as block- books, or the printed work of one nation only. Two of them are untrustworthy as authorities. Neither from one book, nor from all the books, can a printer get a clear description of the mechanical development of typography. This incompleteness was frankly acknowledged by Dr. Dibdin, when lie said that there was no work in the English language which deserved to be considered as a complete general history of printing. This was an old complaint. Nearly a hundred years before, Prosper Mare ha ud had said that the history of printing, voluminous as it then seemed, was but history in fragments. PREFA CE. I I The first attempt to supply this great deficiency was made by August Bernard, in the disquisition published at Paris, in the year 1853, under the title, De l'origine et des debuts de l'imprimerie en Europe. His was the first book in which the printed work attributed to Coster and Gutenberg was critically examined from a typographic point of view. To readers who were not content with the vague descriptions of popular books °f typography, tne explanations of Bernard were of peculiar value. I had reason to think that a translation of the history of this eminent printer would be received by American printers with some measure of the favor which the original had met with in Europe. Impressed with this belief, I began the work. I found it necessary to consult many of Bernard's authori- ties. My admiration of the superior method and forcible style of Bernard, an admiration still unabated, was increased by the reading of the new books ; but the esteem in which I hold his valuable work does not prevent the regret that, in his entire neglect of the block-books, he should have overlooked the most significant feature of early printing. The facsimiles of early prints, subsequently shown in The Infancy of Book Printing of Weigel and in The Typographic Monuments of Holtrop, convinced me that the earliest practice of typography had its beginning in a still earlier practice of printing from blocks, and that a description of block-books should precede a descrip- tion of the invention of types. Since these books were written, all the old theories about the origin of typography have been examined with increased interest, and discussed with superior critical ability, by many eminent European scholars. Discoveries of great importance have been made; old facts have been set forth in new lights; traditions accepted as truthful history for three hundred years have been demolished. Of the many able men who have been engaged in this task of separating truth from fiction, no one has done more efficient service than Dr. A. Van der Linde of The Hague, whose papers on the traditions of typography are masterpieces of acute and scholarly criticism. His researches 12 PREFA CE. and reasoning convinced me that it would be unwise to offer a translation of any previously pnblislied book as a fair exponent of modern knowledge about early typograpliy. The newly dis- covered facts were opposed to early teachings ; there could be no sewing of the new cloth on the old garment. I was led away from my first purpose of translation, and, almost uncon- sciously, began to collect the materials for the present volume. Until recently, the invention of printing has been regarded as a subject belonging almost entirely to bibliographers. The opinions of type-founders and printers who had examined old books have been set aside as of no value, whenever they were opposed to favorite theories or legends. This partial treatment of the subject is no longer approved: a new school of criticism invites experts to examine the books, and pays respect to their conclusions. It claims that the internal evidences of old books are of higher authority than legends, and that these evidences are conclusive, not to be ignored nor accommodated to the state- ments of the early chroniclers. European critics do not hesitate to say that the confusing and contradictory descriptions of the origin of printing are largely due to the improper deference Jieretofore paid to the statements of men who tried to describe processes wliich they did not understand. They say, also, that too little attention has been paid to the types and mechanics of early printing. Criticisms of this character led me to indulge the hope that I might find gleanings of value in the old field, and that it would be practicable to present them, with tin- newly discovered facts, in a form which would be acceptable to the printer and the general reader. In this belief and for this purpose, this book was written. I would not have begun this work, if I had not felt assured that a thorough revision of the subject was needed. The books and papers on typography which are most popular, and are stilt accepted as authoritative by the ordinary reader, repeat legends which have recently been proved untrue; they narrate, as established facts of history, methods of printing wliich are not only incorrect but impossible. It is time that the results of PREFACE. 13 the more recent researches should be published in the English language. But I offer them only as the cotnpiler of accredited facts: I have no original discoveries to announce, no specula- tive theories to uphold. Nor shall I invade the proper field of librarians and bibliographers. I propose to describe old types, prints and books as they are seen by a printer, and with refer- ence to the needs of printers and the general reader, avoiding, as far as I can, all controversies about matters which are of interest to book-collectors only. The historical part of the record will be devoted chiefly to the printed ivork of the first half of the fifteenth century. It will begin with descriptions of the earliest forms of printing, as shown in image prints, playing cards and block-books ; it will end with the establishment of typography in Germany. Believing that a verbal description of old books and prints, without pictorial illustrations, would be unsatisfactory, I have provided many facsimiles of early printing. No part of this work zvill more fully repay examination than its illustrations, which have been carefully selected from approved authorities, or from originals. Reproduced by the new process of photo- engraving, they are accurate copies of the originals, evert zvhen of reduced size. As they are printed with the descriptive text by the same method of typographic presswork, it is believed that they will more clearly illustrate the subject than lithographed fac- similes on straggling leaves. In trying to make plain whatever may be obscure about the mechanics of printing, I have thought proper to begin the explanation with a description of its different methods. An introduction of this nature is not an unwarrantable digression. It is important that the reader should have an understanding of the radical differences between typography and xylography on the one side, arid lithograpJiic and copper-plate printing on the other, as well as some knozvledge of the construction and uses of the more common tools of type-founders. I do not propose to give any extended quotations in foreign languages. Wherever an approved translation in English has 14 PREFA CE. been found, it has been substituted for the original text ; where translatio?is have not been approved, they have been made anew. Writing for the general reader, I have assumed that he would prefer, as I do, in every book to be read and not studied, a version in English rather than the original text. Believing that the frequent citation of authorities, especially in instances where the facts are undisputed, or where the books are inacces- sible, is an annoyance, I have refrained from the presentation of foot-notes which refer to books only. I have, in a few cases, deviated from this course where the matters stated were of a character which seemed to require the specification of authority. One of the greatest impediments I encountered when about to begin the compilation of this zvork was the difficulty of access to books of authority. I do not mention this in disparagement of the management of our public libraries, for I know that old books are liable to injury in the hands of the merely curious, and that librarians have little encouragement to collect scarce books on typography. To prove that there is small inquiry for treatises of this character, it is enough to say that I have had to cut open the leaves of valuable books after their rest for many years on the shelves of one of the largest libraries of this city. But if these books were ever so abundant, the proper restrictions placed on their use were a hindrance to one whose chief oppor- tunity for consulting them is at night. Here I am pleased to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. David Wolfe Bruce. He has not only accompanied and aided me in repeated examinations of his very valuable collection of fifteenth century books, but has lent me all the books I desired, and has freely given me unlimited time for their study. This collection — replete with all the books of authority I needed, with specimens of types, wood-cuts, and curiosities of type- founding, which illustrate the growth of printing front its infancy — was more admirably adapted to my needs than that of any library on this Continent. Deprived of Mr. Truce's generous assistance, my work would have been greatly restricted in its scope, and shorn of its best features of illustration. PREFACE. jc / began this work intending to describe only the mechanical development of early printing, but I could not keep the matter strictly within this limit. Hedged in this narrow space, the story would be but half told. The true origin of typography is not in types, nor in block-books nor image prints. These were consequences, not causes. The condition of society at the close of the middle ages ; the growth of commerce and manufactures ; the enlarged sense of personal liberty ; the brawls of ecclesiastics in high station, and their unworthy behavior; the revolt of the people against the authority of church and state; the neglect of duty by the self -elected teachers of the people in their monopoly of books and knowledge ; the barrenness of the edtication then given in the schools; the eagerness of all people for the mental diversion offered in the new game of playing cards; the unsat- isfied religious appetite which hungered for image prints and devotional books ; the facilities for self-education afforded by the introduction of paper, — these were among the influences which p7'oduced the invention of printing. They are causes which cannot be overlooked. My inability to describe them with the fullness which they deserve would not justify their total neg- lect. I have devoted more space to them than is customary in treatises on early printing, but I have to admit, with regret, that they have been too curtly treated. I have done but little more than record a few of the more noticeable facts — enough, perhaps, to show that the state of education and society, in its relation to the invention of printing, deserves a more extended description than it has hitherto received. If I can succeed in awakening the attention of printers, and those who look on a knowledge of printing as a proper accomplishment of the scholar, to the nature and extent of these influences, to the curiosities of literature hidden in apparently dry books of bibliography, and to the value of the lesson of patient industry and fixed purpose taught by the life of John Gutenberg, the object of this book will have been accomplished. L 1 B B UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. i|s JHlfenl Hdfpk ttf )prjnling. Impression is used in many Arts. . .Printing implies the use of Ink and Paper. . .Four Methods of Printing. . .Steel-plate or Copper-plate, the artistic method. . .Lithography, the scientific method. Typography, the useful method . . . Xylography, the primitive method . . . Illustrations of Copper- plate and Lithographic Printing Surfaces ... Process of Copper-plate Printing. . .Its Merits and its Defects ... Process of Lithographic Printing. . .Its Advantages and Limitations ... Theory of Typography, with Illustrations of the Face and Body of Types. . .Superiority of Movable Types over Engraved Letters. . .Stereotype. . .Superiority of the Typographic Method in its Presses and its Process of Inking. . .Xylography. . .Period when each Method was Introduced. . .A Meaning in their almost Simultaneous Introduction. ■punting, ujc art, art, or practiee of impressing Utters, rfjaractcrs, or figures on paper, rlotf), or otljer material ; tfje business of a printer ; tDpograpf);]). SgjjograjJijn, tlje art of printing, or tfje operation of impressing letters aritJ foor&s On forms of tgpeS. Webster. printing, tfje iusiness of a printer ; tfje art or process of impressing letters or foor&s; tjipograpfjj) ; tfje process of staining linen Mtfj figures. 2T21>ograpf)», tfje art of printing. Worcester. $rtut, to press, mark, stamp or infix letters, rfjararters, forms, or figures. Richardson. THESE definitions of printing are based on its derivation from the Latin, premo, to press, and on the supposition that its most characteristic feature is impression. From a technical point of view, the definitions are incomplete ; for printing and typography are made synonymous, while many leading, but totally different, methods of impressing letters, characters and figures, are not even noticed. Impression is employed in the manufacture of calico, paper-hangings, oil- cloth, figured crockery, and in many other arts which have no connection with each other. Under right conditions, the jg the different methods of printing. action or the impress, of light makes a photograph. Under different conditions, the pressure of the breath makes hollow glassware. Moulding, coining, stamping and embossing are other methods of impression ; but the men who practise these methods are not known as printers. The word printing has acquired a conventional meaning not entirely warranted by- its derivation. It means much more than impression. It is commonly understood as a process in which paper and ink are employed in conjunction with impression. Printing and typography are not strictly synonymous, as may be inferred from the definitions. Typography, although the most useful, is not the only form of printing. Printing on paper with ink is done by four methods. Each method is, practically, a separate art, distinct from its rivals in its theory, its process, and its application. These methods are : Steel-plate or Copper-plate printing, in which the subject is printed from an etching or engraving below the surface of a plate of steel or of copper. Lithography, in which the subject is printed from a trans- ferred engraving on the surface of a prepared stone. Typography, in which the subject is printed from a com- bination of movable metal types cast in high relief. Xylography, in which the subject is printed from a design engraved on a block of wood in high relief. The distinct nature of the substances in use for printing surfaces by the four methods should be enough to teach us that the methods are entirely different. But the manner in which the letters, designs or figures of each method are put on the respective printing surfaces will show the differences more noticeably. In typographic and xylographic work, the matter to be printed is cast or cut in high relief, or above the surface ; in lithographic work, it is put on the smooth surface of the stone, in relief so slight that it is almost level with the surface ; in steel and copper-plate, it is cut below the surface which receives the impression. The illustration on the next page shows, but in an exaggerated form, the appearance of a ^■■■nm THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. 19 single line, cut across, or in a vertical direction, when it has been prepared for printing by each of the different methods : It will be seen that the line prepared for printing by the typographic or xylographic method can be inked with facility, and that, when compared with a similar line in lithographic or copper-plate work, it presents but a small surface and a slighter resistance to impression. -B Y Typography or Xylography. A. Elevated line; the only part of a typographic or of a xylographic surface which receives the ink and impression. B. The shoulder of the type, or the field of the block; it receives neither ink nor impression. Lithography. C. Transferred surface line ; the only part of the surface which receives ink and repels moisture. D. The surface of the stone, that imbibes moist- ure and repels greasy ink ; it receives the full force of impression in every part. Copper-plate or Steel-plate. E. The line printed, which is engraved below the surface of the plate, and is filled with ink. F. The smooth face of the plate, which makes no mark on the paper, but which receives the full force of impression. The process of copper-plate printing begins with heating the plate, and rolling it with ink, until the incised lines have been filled. The face of the plate is then wiped clean, care being taken that the ink in the incised lines, is not removed. A moistened sheet of paper is then laid on the plate, and an impression is taken by forcing it under the cylinder of a rolling press. Under this pressure, the paper is forced in the sunken lines filled with ink, and the ink sticks to the paper. Copper-plate printing is, in all points, the reverse of typo- graphic printing. The engraved lines, cut below the surface, are filled with ink in a compact body, and not in a thin film, liable to spread under pressure, as it may on* a type or on a wood-cut ; the ink from a copper-plate is pressed in such a way that it re- appears on the paper in a low relief — it is not squeezed on and flatted out, but stands up with sharper line and shows a greater depth of color. The slenderness of the incised lines, the fineness and hardness of the metal, and the peculiar method by which the ink is laid on the plate and fixed to the paper, give to prints from engravings on steel or 20 THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. on copper a sharpness of line, a brilliancy of color, a delicacy of tone, and a receding in perspective, which have always won for this branch of printing the preference of artists. Yet it is a slow and expensive process. A steel-plate engraver may be engaged for many months upon a large plate, from which but forty perfect impressions can be taken in a day. On ordinary work on a large plate, three hundred impressions per day is the average performance of a copper-plate press. Steel and copper-plate printing is largely used for bank- notes, portraits, fine book illustrations, revenue and postage stamps, and sometimes for commercial formularies, but it is in every way unfitted for the printing of books. It has not been much improved since its invention. Steel plates may be duplicated by means of electrotyping, or by the process of transfer to soft steel, but these duplicates cannot be made so cheaply as typographic stereotype plates, nor so promptly as transfers by lithography. The inking and cleansing of the plate, always dirty and disagreeable work, has hitherto been done only by hand. All the manipulations of copper-plate work are slow and difficult: they present many obstacles to the use of labor-saving machinery. In lithography the design to be printed, which may be engraved on stone or copper, or written with pen on paper, is transferred by a greasy ink upon the smooth surface of a stone of peculiar fineness and firmness. This stone, which is found in its best state only in Bavaria, where the art was invented, is a variety of slate, which faithfully responds in printing to the slightest touch of a graver or a crayon, and permits the use of fine shades and tints which cannot be produced on wood or on copper. The transferred lines of the design cling to and dry upon the surface of the stone, which is then subjected to the action of a weak acid, which hardens the ink in the transferred lines, while it slightly etches and lowers the surface where it is unprotected. The process of printing begins by dampening the stone with a moist sponge, the water in which is absorbed by the unpro- utumra THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. 21 Surface Exposed to Impression by the Copper-plate Method. The entire surface of the plate is covered with ink until the white lines are filled. The surface around the figures is wiped clean before the impression is taken. 1876 Surface Inked and Exposed to Impression by the Typographic Methx£f' Surface Exposed to Impression by the Lithographic Method. This surface is rolled twice : once with water, which is absorbed only by the surface here shown in dull black tint ; once with ink, which is retained only on the figures. 22 THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. tected face of the stone, while it is repelled by the hard greasy matter in the transferred lines. The inking roller is then applied to the stone with a contrary result; the moist- ened surface repels the greasy ink, but the transferred lines attract and retain it. When an impression on paper is taken, the only part of the paper which receives ink is that part which touches the transferred lines. The theory of lithog- raphy is based upon the repulsion between grease and water. Lithographic printing is chemical printing. Lithography is the most scientific and the most flexible of all methods of printing. It can imitate fairly, and it often reproduces with accuracy, a line engraving on steel, a draw- ing in crayon, the manuscript of a penman, or the painting in oil of an artist. By the aid of photography, it can repeat, in an enlarged or diminished size, any kind of printed work. It has many advantages over copper-plate and xylography. For some kinds of work, like autograph letters and rude dia- grams, engraving is unnecessary ; the design may be written with oily ink on paper, and can then be transferred direct from the written copy to a stone without the aid of a graver. The transferring process is another peculiarity of this art which allows the lithographer to duplicate small designs with greater facility and economy than a similar duplication could be effected by the stereotyper of types. These advantages are counterbalanced by one great defect : lithography is not a quick method of printing. The usual performance of the lithographic hand press when applied to ordinary work, is about four hundred impressions per day ; on the steam press, the performance is about five thousand impressions per day. The arts of lithography and copper- plate are useful and beautiful methods of printing, but they do not make books and newspapers. ' The necessity which compels them to 1 The- Daily Graphic of New paper which is done by lithography. York, may be offered as an excep- The side which gives it value as a tion to this assertion, but this news- newspaper is printed with ordinary paper really confirms its correctness, printing types, and this result could It is the illustrated side only of this be accomplished by no other method. ■^MBBBH THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. 23 make a new engraving for every new subject restricts them almost exclusively to the field of art and ornament. If no other method of printing were known, encyclopedias and newspapers would be impossibilities. "The art preservative of all arts" is not the art of lithography nor of copper-plate. This distinction rightfully belongs to Typography only. The theory upon which this method is based is that of the independence of each character, and of the mutual depend- ence of all its characters. Every character is a separate and movable type, so made that it can be arranged with others in an endless variety of combinations. The types used for this page are used for other pages in this book; they can be re-arranged for use in the printing of many other books or pamphlets ; they cease to serve only when they are worn out. All other methods of printing require, at the outset, the engraving on one piece of wood or metal of all the letters or parts of a design, which, when once combined, cannot be separated ; they can be applied only to the object for which they were first made. Typography is most successful when it is applied to the letters of the alphabet. It fails totally when applied to maps, or to any kind of printed work requiring irregularly varying lines. It is only partially successful in the representation of combined ornaments and the characters of music. Its true field is in the representation of words and thoughts, and here it is supreme. There is no other method of printing which can do this work so perfectly. Typography has a great advantage over other branches of printing in the cheapness of its materials. Type-metal is cheaper by weight than copper or steel, or the finer quality of lithographic stone : by measurement, it is cheaper than the box-wood used by engravers. Types are cheaper than engraved letters. A pound of the types by which this page is printed contains about 320 pieces of metal, the cost of which is but 48 cents. Types are made of many forms or faces, but they are always of uniform height, and are always 24 THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. truly square as to body, so that they can be fitted to each other with precision, and can be interchanged with facility. The expense of combining types in words is trivial, as compared with the cost of engraving for lithographic or for copper-plate printing. An employing printer's price for the composition of a page like this would be, at the high rates of New- York city, $1.10. The engraving of such a page, by any method, would cost at least three times as much as the types and their composition. If never so carefully done, the engraved letters would not be so uniform, nor so satisfactory to the general reader, as the types. The engraved letters would cost more, but they could be used only for the work for which they were made. In typographic printing, there is no such restriction as to use, and no such loss of labor. It is only the labor of composition which need be lost; the types remain, but little more worn, or little less perfect, than when they were first put in use. H Letter H, from a Em, or full square Face of the letter as it type of Canon body. of Canon body. appears on the body. The Face of a Large Type, showing the manner in which the Letter is placed on the Body. 1 The labor of composition is not always lost. A page of movable types can be used for a mould, from which can be made a stereotype plate of immovable letters. Stereotyping is a cheap process. A plate of this page of type can be had for about one-half the cost of the composition. The stereo- type plate has all the advantages pertaining to an engraving on a lithographic stone, and it is more durable and portable. 'This body of Canon type occu- to the square inch ; a square inch of pies about four-ninths of an American Agate, or of small advertising type, square inch. A square inch of the contains 177 ems to the square inch. Small-pica type, in which this text There are types so small that 447 is composed, contains about 44 ems ems can be put in a square inch. THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. 25 Typography has a marked advantage in the greater ease with which printing types, are inked. In the copper-plate process, the plate must be first blackened over the entire surface, and then cleansed with even greater care, before an impression can be taken. This labor cannot be intrusted to machinery, but must be done by a practised workman. The inking of a lithographic stone is as difficult : the stone must be moistened before the inking roller can be applied. This double operation of inking and cleansing, or of inking and moistening, is required for every impression. The inking of types is done by a much simpler method ; one passage, to and fro, of a gang of rollers over the surface is sufficient to coat them with ink. The types need no previous nor after application. Side view of Canon body. Small-pica body. Agate body. Diamond body. View of body inclined to show the face. Bodies of Types. The impression by which typographic surfaces are printed is comparatively slight. The sunken lines of a copper plate or the transferred lines of a lithographic stone can be repro- duced on paper only by means of violent impression, which is obtained by forcing the plate or the stone under an iron cylinder or scraper. Only a part of the surface is printed, but the entire surface must receive impression, which is, of necessity, gradually applied. A direct vertical pressure, at the same instant, over every part of the surface, would crush the stone or flatten the plate. In printing types of ordinary form, the area of impression surface is exactly the reverse of that of the lithographic stone or the copper plate. It is only the part which is printed that receives the ink and the 26 THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. impression. This printed part is the raised surface, which is rarely ever more than one-sixth of the area occupied by the types, and is often less than one-twelfth. The resistance to impression of types as compared with stones or plates is, at least, in the proportion of one to six. As relief plates or types are more quickly coated with ink, and need less impression than lithographic stones or copper plates, the typographic process is, consequently, better fitted to receive the help of labor-saving machinery. The daily performance of the typographic hand press on plain work has been, almost from its earliest employment, about fifteen hundred impressions, which is about four times greater than that of the hand lithographic press. By the use of steam and of improved machinery, this inequality is put almost beyond comparison. The typographic single-cylinder type- printing machine can print fifteen hundred impressions in an hour, and the new newspaper perfecting press can print fifteen thousand perfect sheets in an hour. The feature which gives to typography its precedence in usefulness over all other branches of the graphic arts is not so much its superior adaptation to impression as its superior facility for combining letters. Its merit is in the mobility of its types and their construction for combination. Printing is Typography. The printing which disseminates knowledge is not the art that makes prints or pictures ; it is, as Bernard has defined it, "the art that makes books." The definition is not scientifically exact, but it gives a clear idea of the great breadth of the art. In its perfect adaptation to this great object, the broad generalization of the definition in the dictionaries may be justified. The method of printing which is most useful may rightfully claim the generic name. Xylography is the scientific word for the art of making engravings on a single block of wood, in high relief, for use on the typographic printing press. A xylographic block may be an engraving of letters only, of pictures only, or of both letters and pictures, but in all cases the engraving is fixed on THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. 27 the block. The fixedness of the design on the block is the great feature which separates xylography 1 from typography. The printing surfaces of the two methods are alike. Types and xylographic engravings are printed together, by the same process, and on the same press. Printing with ink, not as an experiment, but as a practical business, is comparatively a modern art. Lithography, the most recent method, was discovered by Alois Senefelder, an actor of Munich, in 1798. Unlike other methods of printing, it was, in every detail, an entirely original invention. The introduction of copper-plate printing is attributed to Maso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence, who is supposed to have made his first print about the year 1452. It cannot be proved that Finiguerra was the inventor, for prints by this method were made in Germany as early as 1446. The period of the invention of typography may be placed between the years 1438 and 1450. There have been many claimants for the honor of the invention. Each of the follow- ing fifteen cities or towns — Augsburg, Basle, Bologna, Dor- drecht, Feltre, Florence, Haarlem, Lubeck, Mentz, Nuremberg, Rome, Russemburg, Strasburg, Schelestadt and Venice — has been specified by as many different authors as the true birth- place of typography. The names of the alleged inventors are, Castaldi, Coster, Fust, Gensfleisch, Gresmund, Gutenberg, Hahn, Mentel, Jenson, Regiomontanus, Schceffer, Pannartz and Sweinheym, and Louis de Vaelbaeske. The evidences in favor of each claimant have been fully examined, and the more foolish pretensions have been so completely suppressed that it is unnecessary to review them. The limits of the con- troversy have been greatly contracted : but four of the alleged inventors of types, Castaldi, Coster, Gutenberg and Schceffer, have living defenders. The legend of an invention of types 1 The word xylography is little used by bibliographers to distinguish used by printers or engravers, with early printed work : books printed whom the art of making engravings from types are now defined as typo- in relief is usually known as engrav- graphic, and those printed from en- ing on wood. It is most frequently graved blocks as xylographic. 28 THE DIFFERENT METHODS OF PRINTING. by Castaldi, of Feltre, has never been accepted beyond Italy, and barely deserves respectful consideration. The evidences in favor of Schoeffer are more plausible, but they are not admitted by the writers who have carefully investigated the documents upon which this pretension is based. The real controversy is between Lourens Coster of Haarlem and John Gutenberg of Mentz. There is no record, nor even any tradition, concerning an invention of xylography. It is admitted by all authorities, that xylographic prints were made during the first quarter of the fifteenth century, and that xylographic books were in use before typography was introduced. Three of the four methods of printing here named were invented or developed within a period of fifty years. If the statements of some historians could be accepted, this period should be contracted to thirty years. There is no disagree- ment, however, as to the order of their introduction. Xylog- raphy, the rudest method, was the first in use ; typography, a more useful method, soon followed ; copper-plate printing, the artistic method, was the proper culmination. The order of invention was that of progressive development from an imperfect to a perfect method. The introduction of three distinct methods of printing, by different persons and in different places, but during the same period, shows that a general need of books or of printed matter had given a strong impulse to the inventive spirit of the fifteenth century. It may also be inferred that the inventors of printing had been benefited, in some way, by recent improvements or developments in the mechanical processes of which printing is composed. II jDtfitjtti fts%rb$ of f mjtrmttm atth fym T{nihn+ Transfer of Form by Impression one of the Oldest Arts... The Stamped Bricks of Assyria and Egypt ... Assyrian Cylinders of Clay ... Greek Maps... Roman Theories about Combinations of Letters. . .Roman Stamps... The Brands and Stamps of the Middle Ages. . .English Brands. Stamping is not Printing. . .Ink then used was Unsuitable for Printing. . .Printing Waited for Discovery of Ink and Paper. . .Romans did not Need Printing. . .Printing Depends on a multi- tude of Readers. . .Readers were few in the Dark Ages. . .Invention of Printing was Not purely Mechanical . . . Printing needs many Supports . . . Telegraph . . . Schools . . . Libraries . . . Expresses. Post-Offices. . .A Premature Invention would have been Fruitless. ®fie stamp*? of tfje anrients, anir the impressions from tfie seals of metal, fourth in Jiee&s anJj ronbejances of tfie loftier ages, probe nothing more ttjart tfjat mankind boalkeZj for martj eenturies upon trje tortors of trjc tfoo great inbentions of tjpograpliD anil rfialeograpfifl, fcutfjout ijabing tfic lock to oiscober either of tfjem, anir appear neither to tiabe tab an» influence on tke origin of tkese arts, nor to merit ang plaee in tfieir fcistorj . Lam/. SOME notice of the material and moral elements needed for the development of typography should precede a description of the work of the early printers. We shall form incorrect notions about the invention of printing unless we know something about the state of the arts of paper-making, ink- making and engraving at the beginning of the fifteenth century. We should also know something about the books and the book-makers of the middle ages. Nor will it be out of place to review the mechanical processes which have been used, almost from the beginning, for the preservation of written language. The review will show us what elements the inventor of typography found at his hand ready for use ; what he combined from the inventions of others, and what he invented anew. 30 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. Engraving must be regarded as the first process in every method of printing. The impression of engraved forms on metal and wax, for the purpose of making coins and seals, is of great antiquity, having been practised more than three thousand years ago, and, by some people, with a skill which cannot now be surpassed. There are old Egyptian seals with faces of such minute delicacy that the fineness of the work- manship can be fully perceived only by the aid of a magnify- ing glass. There are coins of Macedonia which are stamped in a relief as bold as that of the best pieces of modern mints. In Babylonia and Assyria, engraved forms were printed or stamped on clay specially prepared for this purpose. In the ruins of the ancient edifices of these primeval nations there is scarcely a stone or a kiln-burnt brick without an inscription or a stamp upon it. The inscriptions on stone appear to have been cut with a chisel, after the usual method of stone-cutters; but the stamps on the bricks were made from engravings on wood, or by the separate impressions of some pointed instrument. The preceding illustration is that of a stamped brick taken many years ago from the ruins of ancient Babylon. When in perfect condition, it was thirteen inches square and three inches thick. The inscription, which is in the cuneiform or arrow-headed character, is irregularly placed on the surface, but the letters or words arc arranged in parallel rows, and arc obviously made t<> be read from top to bottom. The characters of this inscription were not cu1 upon the brick, nor were thej separately impressed. That they were made A Stamped Brick from the Ruins of Babylon. [ I'toiii Ii.insard.] ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. a?** : A'.s /'/ ■v,, Fac-simile of the Impression on the Brick. [From Hansard.] 32 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. on the plastic clay by the sudden pressure of a xylographic block, is seen by the oblique position of the square inscription on the brick, 1 in the nicety of the engraving and its uniform depth, in the bulg- ing up of the clay on the side, where it was forced out- ward and upward by the impression. In old Egypt, bricks were impressed by the same method of stamping, but not to such an extent as they were in old Assyria. The cuts annexed represent the face and back of an old Egyptian stamp discovered in a tomb of Thebes. The stamp is five inches long, two and one-quarter inches broad, and half an inch thick, and is fitted to an arched handle. The characters are engraved below the surface of the wood, so that an impression taken from the stamp on the clay would show the engraved characters in relief. The inscription on the stamp 1 The accompanying translation of a tablet taken from the record room of the second Assurbanipal (according to some oriental scholars, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks), king of Assyria, B. C. 667, will give an idea of one purpose for which the impressions were made: Assurbanipal, the great king, the powerful king, king of nations, king of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, king of Back. An Egyptian Stamp for Impressing Bricks. [From Jackson.] Assyria, son of Sennacherib, king of Assyria; according to the documents and old tablets of Assyria, and Sumri and Akkadi, this tablet in the collection of tablets I wrote, I studied, I explained, and for the inspection of my kingdom within my palace I placed. Whoever my written records defaces, and his own records shall write, may Nabu all the written tablets of his records deface. Mr. Smith of the British Museum is translating some of these tablets. ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 33 has been translated, Amenoph, beloved of truth. Amenoph is supposed, by some authorities, to have been the king of Egypt at the period of the exodus of the Israelites. The characters on the Egyptian and Babylonian bricks are much more neatly executed than would seem necessary for inscriptions on so common a material as clay. But they are really coarse, when compared with the inscriptions upon the small cylinders of clay which were used by the Assyrians for the preservation of their public documents. Layard men- tions a small six-sided Assyrian cylinder that contains sixty lines of minute characters which could be read only by the aid of a magnifying glass. Antiquaries are not yet perfectly agreed as to the method by which the cylinders were made. Layard, who says that the Babylonian bricks were stamped, thinks that the inscriptions on the cylinders were cut on the clay. But there are many cylinders which show the clearest indications of impression. It is probable that they were made by both methods. The clay was prepared for writing as well as for stamping. Ezekiel, who prophesied by the river Chebar in Assyria, was commanded to take a tile, and portray upon it the city of Jerusalem. The Chaldean priests informed Callisthenes that they kept their astronomical observations on tiles that were subsequently baked in the furnace. Four large piles of tablets of unburned clay were found by Layard in the library or hall of records of Assurbanipal. Some of the tablets are the grammars and primers of the language; some are records of agreements to sell property or slaves; some are filled with astronomical or astrological predictions. On one of them was inscribed the Assyrian version of the deluge. The cylinders contained the memorials which were then considered as of most value, such as the proclamations of the king, or the laws of the empire. In the museum of the East India Company is the fragment of a clay cylinder which contains a portion of the decrees or annals of Nebuchadnezzar. For perpetuating records of this nature, the cylinders were admirably adapted. 34 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. They were convenient for reference, and their legibility, after so long an exposure, shows that they were perfectly durable. We do not know by what considerations Assyrian rulers were governed when about to choose between engraving or writing on clay ; but it is not unreasonable to assume that the inscrip- tion was written or cut on the clay, when one copy only of a record was wanted ; if numer- ous copies were wanted, a die or an engraving on wood was manufactured, from which these copies were moulded. No surer method of securing ex- act copies of an original could have been devised among a people that did not use ink and paper. These cylinders are ex- amples of printing in its most elementary form. The accompanying illustration, copied from Hansard's TypograpJiia, represents an Assyrian cylinder which presents the same indications of impression which have been noticed upon the bricks. This cylinder, which is seven inches high and three inches wide at each end, was baked in a furnace until it was partially vitrified. Around its largest circumference is a pro- truding line, about a quarter of an inch wide, which seems ![:■:■ ■;.;: , i:: !, -.-->: MMlilltllil'?! An Assyrian Cylinder. [From Hansard.] ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 35 to have been made by the imperfect meeting of two moulding stamps. If the inscription had been cut on the clay, this defect would not appear; the vertical lines would have been connected, and the ragged white line would have been made smooth. This method of printing in clay was rude and imperfect, but, to some extent, it did the work of modern typography. Writings were published at small expense, and records were preserved for ages without the aid of ink or paper. The modern printer may wonder that this skill in printing was not developed. The engraving that was used to impress clay could have been coated with ink and stamped on parchment. Simple as this application of the engraving may appear, it was never made. So far from receiving any improvement, the art of printing in clay gradually fell into disuse. It has been neglected for more than twenty-five centuries on the soil where it probably originated. For Layard tells us that an Assyrian six-sided cylinder was used as a candlestick by a reputable Turcoman family living in the village where it was found. A hole in the centre of one of the ends received the tallow candle. There is a practical irony in this base appli- cation of what may have been a praise of "the great king," which has never been surpassed by Solomon or Shakspeare in their reflections on the vanity of human greatness. Engraving was used by the ancient Greeks in a manner which should have suggested the feasibility of printing with ink. Some of the maps of the Athenians were engraved on smooth metal plates, with lines cut below the surface, after the method of copper-plate printers, from which impressions on vellum, or even on papyrus, could have been taken. But, so far as we know, the impressions were not taken : for every new map there was a new engraving. The Assyrian method of engraving stamps for impressing clay was practised by the old Roman potters, who marked their manufactures with the names of the owners or with the contents of the vessel. The potters clearly understood the 3(5 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. value of movable types. On some of their lamps of clay, the inscriptions were made by impressing, consecutively, the type of each letter. These types must have been movable, and, in appearance, somewhat like the punches or the model letters of type-founders. There were some men in ancient Rome who had a clear perception of the ease with which engraved letters could be combined. Cicero, in an argument against the hypothesis of logical results from illogical causes, has intimated that it would be absurd to look for an intelligible sentence from a careless mixing up of the engraved letters of the alphabet. 1 The phrase by which he describes the assembled letters, formes literamm, was used by the early printers to describe types. His argu- ment implies, conversely, that if proper care were exercised, it would be easy to arrange the letters in readable sentences. But the speculation of Cicero did not go beyond the idea of combination. It does not appear that he thought that the letters could be used for printing. Quintilian had speculations about engraved letters. He recommended to teachers the use of a thin stencil plate of wood, on which should be cut the letters that a boy might be required to copy when learning to write. The boy who traced the characters with his writing implement would have his hand guided and formed by the outlines of the perforated letters. The curt manner in which stencil plates are noticed should lead us to think that they were then in common use. We can see that stencils of this nature could have been used, at least as an aid, in the mechanical manufacture of books ; but it is not probable that they were so used. 'Balbus, the stoic, in replying to taposition — from such a man I cannot Vellejus, the epicurean, opposes his understand why he should not also atheistical argument that the world believe that if he threw together, pell- was made by chance, and says : mell > a S reat number of the twenty-one He who fancies that a number of letters, either of gold or of some other solid and invisible bodies could be kept material, the Annals of Ennius could together by weight [gravitation?], and be legibly put together from the forms that a world full of order and beauty scattered on the ground. De Natura could be formed by their accidental jux- Deorum, book II, chap. 20. ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 17 We have some evidences that the old Romans practised, at least experimentally, the art of printing with ink. The British Museum has a stamp with letters engraved in relief, that was found near Rome, and which seems to have been made for the purpose of printing the signature of its owner. The stamp is a brass plate, about two inches long and not quite one inch wide. A brass ring is attached to the back of the plate which may have been used as a socket for the finger, or as a support when it was suspended from a chain or girdle. On the face of the stamp are engraved two lines of capital letters, huddled together in the usual style of all old Roman inscriptions, cut the reverse way, as it CICAECILI HERMIAE. SN. would now be done for printing, and enclosed by a border line. An impres- sion taken from this stamp would pro- duce the letters in the accompanying illustration, which may be translated, the signature of Cecilius Hermias. Of Cecilius Hermias we know nothing. He may have been a civic official who used this stamp to exempt himself from the trouble of writing, or a citizen who tried to hide his inability to write. If this stamp should be impressed in wax, the impression would produce letters sunk below the surface of the wax in a manner that is unlike the impressions of seals. The raised surface on the wax would be rough where it should be flat and smooth. This peculiarity is significant. As this rough field unfitted it for a neat impression on any plastic surface, the stamp should have been used for printing with ink. The accompanying illustration is that of a brass printing stamp in the British Museum, which is preserved as a specimen of old Roman work- manship. 1 The letters were cut in relief, in reverse order, and with a rough counter or field. This rough- ness proves that it could not have been used to impress wax. 1 Jackson and Chatto, Treatise on Wood Engraving, p. 8 . An Old Roman Stamp. [From Jackson.] 38 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION, fCSCrfDoI! Brass stamps of similar construction and of undetermined age have been frequently found in France and Italy. All of them are of small size, and contain names of persons only. The illustrations an- nexed, of two engraved brass stamps of eccentric shapes, were also copied from the originals in the British Museum. As the letters are roughly sunk in the metal, and are not fitted for stamping in wax, it is supposed that the stamps were made for impression with ink. They are regarded as Roman antiquities, of undoubted authenticity, [From jacksono but the meaning of the inscriptions, the special purposes for which they were made, and the period in which they were employed, are unknown. The difficulty connected with the proper fixing of ink upon these stamps of brass, of which a subsequent notice will be made, is one of many causes which prevented the develop- ment of this experimental form of printing. A favorite method of making impressions was that of branding. Virgil, in the third book of the Georgics, tells us of its application to cattle. The old laws of many European states tell us of its application to human beings. The cruel practice was kept up long after the invention of typography. During the reign of Edward VI, of England (1547— 1 553), it was enacted that, "whosoever, man or woman, not being lame or impotent, nor so aged or diseased that he or she could not work, should be convicted of loitering or idle wandering by the highwayside, or in the streets, like a servant wanting a master, or a beggar, he or she was to be marked with a hot ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 39 iron upon the breast with the letter V [for vagabond], and adjudged to the person bringing him or her before a justice, to be his slave for two years; and if such adjudged slave should run away, he or she, upon being taken and convicted, was to be marked upon the forehead, or upon the ball of the cheek, with the letter S [for slave], and adjudged to be the said master's slave forever." With these evidences before us of long continued practice in various methods of engraving and stamping, and of a fair knowledge of some of the advantages of movable letters, the question may be asked, Why did the world have to wait so long for the invention of typography? This question is based on the assumption, that the civilization of antiquity was capable of making and preserving the invention which was missed through accident or neglect. Here is a grave error. The elements of an invention are like those of a chemical mixture. All the constituents but one may be there, exact in quantity and quality, but, for the lack of that one, the mixing of the whole in a new form cannot be accomplished. Failure in one point is entire failure. The ancients failed in many points. They were destitute of several materials which we regard as indispensable in the practice of printing. They had no ink suitable for the work. Pliny and Dioscorides have given the formulas for the writ- ing ink that was used by Greek and Roman scribes during the first century. Pliny says that the ink of book- writers was made of soot, charcoal and gum. He does not say what fluid was used to mix these materials, but he does allude to an occasional use of acid, to give the ink encaustic property and to make it bite in the papyrus. Dioscorides is more specific as to the quantities. He says that one ounce of gum should be mixed with three ounces of soot. Another formula is, one-half pound of smoke-black made from burned resin, one- half ounce each of copperas and ox-glue. Dioscorides further says that the latter mixture "is a good application in cases of gangrene, and is useful in scalds, if a little thickened, and 40 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. employed as a salve." From this crude recipe one may form a correct opinion of the quality of the scientific knowledge then applied to medicine and the mechanical arts. These mixtures, which are more like liquid shoe blacking than writing fluid, were used, with immaterial modifications, by the scribes of the dark ages. Useful as they may have been for their methods of writing, they could not have been applied to the inking of a metal surface engraved in relief. If the brass stamps described on a previous page had been brushed over never so carefully with these watery inks, the metal surface would not be covered with a smooth film of color. The ink would collect in spots and blotches. When stamped on paper or vellum, the ink thereupon impressed would be of irregular blackness, illegible in spots, and easily effaced. Writing ink, thickened with gum, has but a feeble encaustic property. It will not be absorbed, unless it is laid on in little pools, and unless the writing surface is scratched by a pen to aid the desired absorption. The flat impression of a smooth metal stamp could not make a fluid or a gummy ink penetrate below the writing surface. It was, no doubt, by reason of the inferior appearance of impressions of this nature that the brass stamps described on a previous page found so limited a use. An unsuitable ink may seem but a trifling impediment to the development of printing, but if there had been no other, this would have been an insurmountable obstacle. The mod- ern printer, who sees that the chief ingredients of printing ink- are the well-known materials smoke-black and oil, may think that an ignorance of this mixture, or an inability to discover it, is ridiculous and inexcusable. Modern printing ink is but one of many inventions which could be named as illustrating the real simplicity of a long delayed improvement. Simple as it may seem, the mixing of color with oil was a great invention which wrought a revolution in the art of painting. This invention, attributed by some authors to unknown Italian painters of the fourteenth century, and by others to ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. a Y Hubert Van Eyck of Holland, at or about the beginning of the fifteenth century, immediately preceded the invention of types. The early typographic printers, who could not use the ink of the copyists, succeeded only when they mixed their black with oil. After four centuries of experience in the use of printing ink made with oil, and after repeated experimen- tation with impracticable substitutes, it may be confidently asserted that an invention of typography would have failed, if this use of oil had not been understood. The invention of types had to wait for the invention of ink. Typography had to wait for the invention of paper, the only material that is mechanically adapted for printing, the only material that supplies the wants of the reader in his requirements for strength, cheapness, compactness and dura- bility. Paper was known in civilized Europe for at least two centuries before typography was invented, but it was not produced in sufficient quantity nor of a proper quality until the beginning of the fifteenth century. The old Romans had no substitute for paper that could have been devoted to printing or book-making. The papyrus which they used was so brittle that it could not be folded, creased and sewed like modern rag paper. It could not be bound up in books; it could not be rolled up, unsupported, like a sheet of parchment. It was secure only when it had been carefully wound around a wooden roller. The scribes of Rome and the book copyists of the middle ages preferred vellum. It was preferred by illuminators after printing had been invented. But vellum was never a favorite material among printers. In its dry state, it is harsh, and wears types; it is greasy, and resists ink; in its moistened state, it is flabby, treacherous and unmanageable. The early books on vellum are not so neatly printed as those on paper. But these faults were trivial as compared with the graver fault of inordinate price. When we consider that the skins of more than three hundred sheep were used in every copy of the first printed Bible, it is clear that typography would have been a failure 42 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. if it had depended on a liberal supply of vellum. Even if the restricted size of vellum could have been conformed to, there were not enough sheep at the end of the fifteenth cen- tury to supply the demands of printing presses for a week. If the idea of printing books from movable types had been entertained by an ancient Roman bookseller, or by a copyist, during the earlier part of the dark ages, it may be doubted whether he could have devised the mechanism that is needed in the making of types. For types that are accurate as to body, and economical as to cost, can be made by one method only. It is, in the highest degree, improbable, that the scien- tific method of making types by mechanism could have been invented at an earlier date than the fifteenth century. There was mechanical skill enough for the production of any kind of ingenious hand work, but the spirit that prompted men to construct machines and labor-saving apparatus was deficient or but feebly exercised. There was no more of true science in mechanics than there was in chemistry. The construction of a suitable type-mould, with its appurtenances, during the dark ages, would have been as premature as an invention of the steam engine in the same period. The civilization of ancient Rome did not require printing. If all the processes of typography had been revealed to its scholars the art would not have been used. The wants of readers and writers were abundantly supplied by the pen. Papyrus paper was cheap, and scribes were numerous; Rome had more booksellers than it needed, and books were made • faster than they could be sold. The professional scribes were educated slaves, who, fed and clothed at nominal expense, and organized under the direction of wealthy publishers, were made so efficient in the production of books, that typography, in an open competition, could have offered few advantages. Our knowledge of the Roman organization of labor in the field of book-making is not as precise as could be wished ; but the frequent notices of books, copyists and publishers, made by many authors during the first century, teach us that ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 43 books were plentiful. Horace, the elegant and fastidious man of letters, complained that his books were too common, and that they were sometimes found in the hands of vulgar snobs for whose entertainment they were not written. Martial, the jovial man of the world, boasted that his books of stinging epigrams were to be found in everybody's hands or pockets. Books were read not only in the libraries, but at the baths, in the porticoes of houses, at private dinners and in mixed assemblies. The business of book-making was practised by too many people, and some were incompetent. Lucian, who had a keen perception of pretense in every form, ridicules the publishers as ignoramuses. Strabo, who probably wrote illegibly, says that the books of booksellers were incorrect. «nj? Tablet with Waxed Surface. Scrinium or Case for Manuscripts. Manuscript Roll, with Title on the Ticket, Papyrus Manuscript partially Unrolled. Roman Scrinium, with Rolls of Papyrus. The prices of books made by slave labor were necessarily low. Martial says that his first book of epigrams was sold in plain binding for six sesterces, about twenty-four cents of American money; the same book in sumptuous binding was valued at five denarii, about eighty cents. He subsequently complained that his thirteenth book was sold for only four sesterces, about sixteen cents. He frankly admits that half of this sum was profit, but intimates, somewhat ungraciously, that the publisher Tryphon gave him too small a share. Of the merits of this old disagreement between the author and publisher, we have not enough of facts to justify an opinion. We learn that some publishers, like Tryphon and the brothers 44 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. Sosii, acquired wealth, but there are many indications that publishing was then, as it is now, one of the most speculative kinds of business. One writer chuckles over the unkind fate that sent so many of the unsold books of rival authors from the warehouses of the publisher, to the shops of grocers and bakers, where they were used to wrap up pastry and spices; another writer says that the unsold stock of a bookseller was sometimes bought by butchers and trunk-makers. The Romans not only had plenty of books but they had a manuscript daily newspaper, the Acta Diurna, which seems to have been a record of the proceedings of the senate. We do not know how it was written, nor how it was published, but it was frequently mentioned by contemporary writers as the regular official medium for transmitting intelligence. It was sent to subscribers in distant cities, and was, sometimes, read to an assembled army. Cicero mentions the Acta as a sheet in which he expected to find the city news and gossip about marriages and divorces. In the sixth century the business of book-making had fallen into hopeless decay. Ignorance pervaded all ranks of society. 1 The books that had been written were neglected, and the number of readers and scholars diminished with every succeeding generation. 2 The treasures of literature at Rome, Constantinople and Alexandria which were destroyed by fire or by barbaric invasion were not replaced. Books were so scarce at the close of the seventh century, that Pope Martin requested one of his bishops to supply them, if possible, from Germany. The ignorance of ecclesiastics in high station was 'The emperor Justin (518-527) to them, were reduced to abandon could not write, and was obliged to pursuits that could only be cultivated sign state papers with a stencil. through a kind of education not 2 When Latin ceased to be a liv- easily within their reach. Schools ing language, the whole treasury of confined to cathedrals and monas- knowledge was locked up from the teries, and exclusively designed for eyes of the people. The few who the purposes of religion, afforded no might have imbibed a taste for lit- encouragement or opportunities to erature, if books had been accessible the laity. Hallam, Middle Ages. ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 45 alarming. During this century, and for centuries afterward, there were many bishops and archbishops of the church who could not sign their names. It was asserted at a council of the church held in the year 992, that scarcely a single person was to be found in Rome itself who knew the first element of letters. Hallam says, "To sum up the account of ignorance in a word, it was rare for a layman of any rank to know how to sign his name." Charlemagne could not write, and Frederic Barbarossa could not read; John, king of Bohemia, and Philip the Hardy, king of France, were ignorant of both accomplish- ments. 1 The graces of literature were tolerated only in the ranks of the clergy; the layman who preferred letters to arms was regarded as a man of mean spirit. When the crusaders took Constantinople, in 1204, they exposed to public ridicule the pens and inkstands that they found in the conquered city as the ignoble arms of a contemptible race of students. During this period of intellectual darkness, which lasted from the fifth until the fifteenth century, a period sometimes described, and not improperly, as the dark ages, there was no need for any improvement in the old method of making books. The world was not then ready for typography. The invention waited for readers more than it did for types; the multitude of book- buyers upon which its success depended had to be created. Books were needed as well as readers. The treatises of the old Roman sophists and rhetoricians, the dialectics of Aristotle and the schoolmen, and the commen- taries on ecclesiastical law of the fathers of the church, were the works which engrossed the attention of men of letters for many centuries before the invention of typography. Useful as these books may have been to the small class of readers for whose benefit they were written, they were of no benefit to a people who required the elements of knowledge. We may imagine the probable fate of a premature and unappreciated invention of typography by thinking of results that might have been and have not been accomplished by printing among a people who were not prepared \q Jsfif Jit \^s A j v * \ 'Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. ill, pp. 286, 287. \ XI VKKS IT V () CALIFOUXJ 46 ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. it should be used. Printing has been practised in China for many centuries, but there can be no comparison between the fruits of printing in China and in Europe. The remarkable inefficiency of the Chinese method is the result not so much of clumsiness of the process, as of the perverseness of a people who are unable to improve it, and unwilling to accept the improvements of Europeans. The first printing press brought to the New World was set up in the City of Mexico about one hundred years before a printing office was established in Massachusetts. Books were printed in Constantinople, per- haps as early as 1490, certainly before types were thought of in Scotland. And now Scotland sends types and books to Turkey, and Boston sends printing paper and presses to Mexico. If the people of Turkey and Mexico are receiving benefits from printing, the benefits have been derived from the practice of the art abroad and not at home. In making an estimate of the service that printing has done for the world, we frequently overlook the supports by which it has been upheld. It is a common belief that the diffusion of knowledge which was so clearly manifested in the fifteenth century was due to the invention of printing. This belief reverses the proper order, and substitutes the effect for the cause. It was the broader diffusion of knowledge that made smooth the way for the development of typography. In its infancy, the invention was indebted for its existence to improvements in liberal and mechanical arts; in its maturity, it is largely indebted for its success to discoveries in science, and to reforms in government. The magnetic telegraph is the most recent discovery, and of the most importance, in its services to the daily newspaper press. The circulation of leading American daily newspapers has more than trebled since the invention of the telegraph. The free public schools of America have done much to promote the growth of printing. If the State did not offer free books and free education, a large portion of the people would grow up in ignorance. Every scholar in a public school ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. 47 becomes for life a reader, and to some extent, a purchaser of books. The value of the school-books manufactured in the United States annually, has been estimated at fifteen million dollars. Of Webster's Spelling- Book alone, thirty-five million copies have been sold, and a million copies are printed every year. If printing were deprived of the support it receives from public schools, there would at once follow a noticeable decrease in the production of printed matter, and a corres- ponding decrease in the number of readers and book-buyers. To foster the tastes which have been cultivated by public schools and newspapers, some States have established public libraries in every school district. There are, also, a great many valuable libraries which have been established by vol- untary association or by individual bequest. These libraries create books as well as readers. Railroads, steamboats and package expresses are aids of as great importance. The New- York daily newspaper, printed early in the morning, is sold within a radius of three hundred miles before sunset of the same day. Newspapers now find hundreds of eager purchasers in places where they would not have found one in the days of stage-coaches. The benefits of cheap and quick transportation are also favorable to the sale of books. A bookseller's package, weighing one hundred pounds, will be carried from New York to St. Louis, on the Mississippi, within sixty-five hours, at an average expense of three dollars. When there was no railroad from St. Louis to San Francisco, the overland charges on one hundred pounds of books were one hundred dollars. The long delays and great expenses of stage-coach transportation would operate almost as a prohibition to the sale of periodicals and new books. The greatest legislative aid that printing has received is through the facilities which are furnished by post-offices and mails. They create readers. Weekly newspapers are now sent, for one year, for twenty cents, to subscribers in the most remote corner of the Union. Books are sent three thousand miles at the rate of one cent per ounce. The improvement ^g ANTIQUE METHODS OF IMPRESSION. of postal facilities has increased the number of readers and purchasers of newspapers to an amount unforeseen by the most sanguine projector. All these aids are, comparatively, of recent introduction. The beginnings of the telegraph, the railroad and the express are within the memory of the men of the present generation. The systematic establishment of free schools and libraries is the work of the present century. Public mails and post-offices were introduced in 1530, but it is only within the past forty years that their management has been more liberal for the benefit of the people. It is by aids like these, and not by its intrinsic merits alone, that printing has received its recent development. It was for the want of these aids that printing languished for many years after its invention. One has but to consider the many supports printing has received to see that its premature invention would have been fruitless. If, even now, when books and readers and literary tastes are as common as they were infrequent, it is necessary to the success of printing that there shall be schools and libraries, cheap and rapid methods of travel, generous postal facilities, a liberal government and a broad toleration of the greatest differences in opinion, what but failure could have been expected when the world was destitute of nearly all? Print- ing not only had to wait many centuries for improvements in mechanical appliances, without which it would have been worthless ; it had to wait for a greater number of readers, for liberal governments, for instructive writers, for suitable books. It came at the proper time, not too soon, not too late. "Not the man, the age invents." Ill iljt \$y la % Jmtttttttm uf l>ij{iagrnjt}pj + Conflicting Theories about the Invention of Typography. . .Was it an Invention or a Combination? Errors of Superficial Observers ... Merit of the Invention is not in Impression. . .Not altogether in Types or Composition ... Types of no value unless they are Accurate ... Hand-made Types Impracticable. . .Merit of Invention is in the Method of Making Types... Is but One Method. Description . . . Counter-Punch . . . Punch. . . Matrix . . . Mould. . Illustrations . . . Type-Making as Illustrated by Moxon in 1683. . .As Illustrated by Amman in 1564. . .Notices of Type-Making by Earlier Authors. . .Type-Mould the Symbol of Typography. . .Inventor of the Type-Mould the Inventor of Typography. . .A Great Invention, but Original only in the Type-Mould. St* rtararter of tupograpts is not pressing antj printing tut motivation. St* fot'ngriJ % is its SDmtoI. St* elements wutaincfr, t^e letters freeir from rberj hontl in fotut tt* pm or tfyisd of rallicjrapter or islograpter tdo" tt*m entangled ; tt* -cut xtaratter risen from its tomt of it* solitarn tatlrt into it* sutstantibe life of tte rast tr.pes— ttat is ttt inbention of printing. Van dsy £,•„&. THERE is a wide-spread belief that typography was, in all its details, a purely original invention. A popular version of its origin, hereafter to be related, says that it was the result of an accidental discovery; a conflicting version says that it was the result of more than thirteen years of secret experiment. Each version teaches us that there was no perceptible unfolding of the invention; that the alleged inventor created all that he needed, that he made his types, ink and presses, that he derived nothing of value from the labors of earlier printers. If typography was invented by Gutenberg, it was fitly introduced by the sudden appearance of the printed Bible in two folio volumes; if invented by Coster, by the unheralded publication of a thin folio of large 50 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. wood-cuts with descriptive text of type. If either of these versions is accepted in the form in which it is usually told, we must also believe that printing, in the form of perfected typography, leaped, Minerva-like, fully equipped, from the brain of the inventor. There is another belief, which is strongly maintained by a few scholars, that typography was not an original invention, that it was nothing more than a new application of the old theories and methods of impression which have already been described. According to this view, the practice of engraving is at least as old as the oldest Egyptian seal ; the publication of written language can be traced to the Babylonish bricks; printing with ink, as indicated by old Roman hand stamps, was practised as early as the fifth century; the combinations of movable letters were suggested by Cicero and St. Jerome. All that was needed for the full development of typography- was the invention of paper. Supplied with paper, the so- called inventor of typography did no more than combine the old theories and processes, and give them a new application. He really invented nothing. In this conflict of opinion, the critical reader will note an inability to perceive the difference between impression and typography. Those who believe in the entire originality of typography ascribe its merit to the mind that first thought of the combinations of types ; those who deny its originality find its vital element in pressure. With one class, the merit of the invention is in the idea of types ; with the other, it is in the impression of types. Neither view is entirely correct. A printer may see how these errors could be developed. The unreflecting observer, who, for the first time, surveys the operations of a printing office, finds in the fast presses the true vital principle of printing. With him, prcsswork is printing; type-setting and type-making are only adjuncts. He was the inventor of the modern art of printing who built the first press, and printed the first book. The conclusion is illogical, as will be shown on another page. If a radical THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 51 improvement had not been made in the earliest method of printing books, the art would have been as unproductive in Europe as it has been in China. The fast press may do its work admirably, but its only functions are those of inking and impressing, and impression is not typography. The thoughtful observer will perceive that the merit of modern printing is not in impression; that there would be neither fast presses, nor great books, nor daily newspapers, if there were no types. With him, whatever of greatness there is in printing is due to the mind that first imagined the utility of types. The grandness of the results that have been achieved by typography seem all the grander when he thinks that these results have been accomplished with such simple tools as little cubes of metal. The making of these tools he regards as a matter of minor importance. For in these types are visible no intricacy of mechanism as in the power loom, no indications of a mysterious agency as in the magnetic telegraph, no evidences of scientific skill as in photographic apparatus. There are in types, apparently, no more evidences of genius or science than there are in pins or needles. The grotesque types of the fifteenth century are rated by him, and even by many mechanics, as rude work- manship which could have been done by a carver in wood or a founder in metal. He who could imagine them could make them. To think was to do. The merit of the invention of typography is accordingly adjudged, not to the inventive spirit which constructed the mould by which the types were made, but to the genius which first thought of the utility of types. This is a grave error. Speculations like these, which assign all the merit of the invention of typography to him who first conceived the idea of types, are opposed to many facts and probabilities. Cicero and Jerome could not have been the only men who thought of the combinations of engraved letters; nor were the old Roman lamp -makers and branders of cattle the only men who used types. The idea of stamping with detached letters 52 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. could have been entertained, and practised, by hundreds of experimenters of whom there is no tradition. It is probable that there was such a practice, but the stamping of single types by hand pressure was not typography, nor did it lead to its subsequent invention. Experimental types like these, which had been cut by hand, were of no practical value, for they could not have been used on any extensive scale. There is something more in types than is apparent at the first glance. Simple as they may seem, they are evidences of notable mechanical skill in the matter of accuracy. The page before the reader was composed with more than 2,000 pieces of metal; the large page of a daily paper may contain more than 150,000 of these little pieces. Whether the page is large or small, the types are always closely fitted to each other; they stand accurately in line, and the page is truly square. If the types of one character, The irregularity of this com- r ,i i . , i 111 1 1 poation is caused by th« as ot the letter a, should be made the of thy letters ;i and e, which ;u<- tSfcSSZSjSSZ&fe merest trifle lar S cr or smaller than its than nim-unr. thousandths of an r ,, ,1 r 11 .1 American inch. Tins min ut o fellows in the same font, all the types, "ifference Is repeated ana in- :;V,;:^::;;';:,^ l a!ni when composed, will show the consc- misuse of the large a and e quences ol the defect. I he irregularity were contm uec i through a dozen ° wouw'bf "na^'to'undSlnJ of line that is scarcely perceptible in the what has b eenco m P° sed - c j. -n u ct • 1 i* li l. • first row will be offensively distinct in Illustration of Tvpes of - . Tj ... . . , . irregular Body. the second. It will increase with each succeeding row, until the types become a heap of confusion which cannot be handled by the printer. Advantages which might be secured from movable types are made of no effect by an irregularity so slight that it would be passed unnoticed in the workmanship of ordinary trades. The illustration proves that it is not enough for types to be movable ; they must be accurate as to body ; they must fit each other with geometrical precision. The accuracy of modern printing types is due more to the nice mechanisms employed by the type-founder than to his personal skill. He could cut types by hand, but the cost of hand-cut types would be enormous, and they would be vastly THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 53 inferior to types made by the type-casting machine. He could make types by a variety of mechanical methods, but they would be imperfect and unsatisfactory. A careful survey of the impracticable inventions in type-founding, recorded in the patent offices of this country and Great Britain, proves that there is, virtually, but one method of making types. The requirements of accuracy and cheapness can be met only by making them of metal, and casting them in a mould of metal. ' Although it is clearly understood, by all persons who have a practical knowledge of the subject, that practical types can be made only by casting, many popular books repeat the old story that the first typographic books were printed with types which had been cut by hand out of wood or metal. Whether the mechanics of the middle ages could have done what modern mechanics cannot do, — cut types with bodies of satisfactory accuracy — need not now be considered. The stories about hand-made types — about types that were sawed out of wood blocks — about types that were cut out of wooden rods, and skewered together with iron wires — about types that were engraved on the ends of cubes of metal — will be examined at greater length on an advanced page. Even if these doubtful stories were verified, it would still remain to be proved that the cut types had advantages over letters engraved on wood. It would be difficult to give reasons for their introduction. Books composed with cut types could not be neatly printed; they would be inferior to good manu- scripts in appearance, but not inferior in price. Cut types 'These observations apply only wood types in practical use; but to the types used for the text letters they are much larger than our book of books and newspapers. The large types ; they are printed in smaller types made for the display lines of pages ; they are not obliged to stand posters are cut on wood, but these truly in line, nor to conform to the types of wood are used only for standards of European and Amer- printing single lines; they are not ican printers. The cheapness of combined with the compactness of types which have been cast, as corn- book types, and do not require their pared with letters which have been precision of body. The wood types engraved, has been explained on of Japan are, probably, the smallest page 23 of this work. 54 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. were as impracticable in the infancy of the art as they are now. There is no trustworthy evidence that they were ever used for any other purpose than that of experiment. Every method for making merchantable types, save that of casting, is a failure. Typography would be a great failure, if its types were not cast by scientific methods. This under- stood, we can see that the most meritorious feature in the invention does not belong to him who first thought of the advantages of types, nor even to him who first made them by impracticable methods. Its honors are really due to the man to whose sagacity and patience in experiment we are indebted for the type- mould, for he was the first to make types which could be used with advantage. It will now be necessary to explain the scientific method of making types which is practised by every type-founder. The first process is the making of model letters. The work begins with the cutting on steel of a tool which is known as the Counter-punch. The illustration represents the face of a counter-punch for the letter H, of the size usually known among type-founders as Double-English. This counter- punch is an engraving, in high relief, of the hollow or the counter of that interior part of the letter H which does not show black in the printed impression. It has apparently, no resemblance to the letter for which it is made. When the proportions of the counter-punch have been duly approved, it is stamped or impressed to a proper depth on the end of a short bar of soft steel. Properly stamped, the counter-punch finishes by one quick stroke the interior part of the model letter, and does it more quickly and neatly than it could be done by cutting tools. The short bar of soft steel is known as a Punch. When it has received the impress of the counter-punch, the punch cutter, for so the engraver of letters is called in type-foun- dries, cuts away the outer edges until the model letter is pronounced perfect. This is work of great exactness, for the millions of types that may be made by means of the punch THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 55 Punch. will reproduce all its peculiarities, whether of merit or defect. The steel of the punch is then hardened until it has sufficient strength to penetrate prepared copper. It is then punched, by quick and strong pressure, on the flat side of a narrow bar of cold rolled copper. This operation makes a reversed or sunken imprint of the letter on the punch. In this condition, the punched copper bar is known among type-founders as a Drive, or a Strike, or an Unjustified Matrix. It becomes the Matrix proper, only after it has been carefully fitted-up to suit the mould. The exterior surface of the drive must be made truly flat, and this flatness must be parallel with the face of the stamped or sunken letter in the interior. The sides of the drive must be squared, so that the interior letter shall be at a fixed distance from the sides. The depth of the stamped letter, and its distance from the sides, must be made absolutely uniform in all the matrices required for a font or a complete assortment of letters. The object of this nicety is to secure a uniform height to all the types, and to facilitate the frequent changes of matrix on the mould. The justifying and fitting of matrices to moulds is one of the most exact operations in the art of type-founding. For every character or letter really required in a full working assortment of types, the type- founder cuts a separate punch and fits up a separate matrix ; but for all the characters or letters which are made to be used together, there is but one mould. Types are of no use, as has been shown, if they cannot be arranged Matrix. > and handled with facility, and printed in lines that are truly parallel. However unlike they may be in face, they must be exactly alike in body. This uniformity of body, which is as 1 The characters D, E, 1 are the private reference marks of the type- founder. In this position they can- not be reproduced on the cast type. c£ THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. essential as variety of face, can be most certainly secured by casting all the types in one mould. All the matrices are, consequently, made with a view to being fitted to one mould. The mould forms the body, and the matrix forms the face of the type. With nearly every change of matrix there must be a new adjustment of the mould. The word Body, as used by printers and type-founders, means the measurement of a type in one direction only — in a direction at a right angle with the regular lines or rows of printed matter. The types of the accompanying illustration are of the same height, but they are of different bodies. Pica Small-pica Long-primer Bourgeois Brevier Minion Xonpareil body. body. body. body. body. body. body. (See also page ^5.) Exactness of body could be secured with little difficulty if all the types belonging to the same font were of the same width, and could be cast in one fixed and unalterable mould. But types of the same font and same body are of all widths. They vary, in the letters from the 1 to the W ; in the spaces or blanks used to separate the words, from the hair space to the three- em quadrat. The spaces in the following illustra- tion are of the same body, but they are of different widths, to suit the peculiarities of different kinds of printed matter. i i m m hb Six-in-em Fivc-in-cm Four-in-era Threc-in-cm En Em Two-era Thrce-em space. space. space. space. quadrat. quadrat. quadrat. It is not practicable to make a mould for each character ; the cost would be enormous, and the multiplicity of moulds THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 57 would lead to fatal faults in inaccuracy of body. Exactness of body can be had only by casting all the characters in one mould, but this mould must be made to suit all the matrices. The matrices must be fre- quently changed, but with such nicety that the types of every letter shall be uniform in height, in line, and truly square. Any mechanic will see that the figure i- Type-Mould, without Matrix and Construction of an adjust- with a Type in the Mould. able mould is work of difficulty, and that the fitting-up of a set of matrices for one mould is a very nice operation. The Type - Mould of modern type-founders con- sists of two firmly screwed combinations of a number of pieces of steel, making right and left halves. In the first illustration of the mould, Figure I, the halves are properly connected. In Figure 2. One Half of the Mould. this form it is not practicable to represent the interior, but it may be understood that the interior faces fit each other snugly in every part but the centre, in which provision is made for a small opening which can be increased or diminished in a lateral direction only. One end of this opening is closed by the matrix ; the other end is the jet, or the mouth-piece through which the melted metal Fi S ure 3- The Other Half of the Mould. is injected. In this opening, which is indicated by the letter H in the cut, the body of type is cast. The matrix which forms the face of the type is snugly fitted between the jaws on 58 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. either side of this letter H. It does not appear in the cut ; for the matrices, although indispensable parts, are always looked upon by founders as attachments to the mould. Figures 2 and 3 represent the interior sides of the mould. For the purpose of clearer illustration, the half of the mould, Figure 2, is shown reversed, or upside down ; but when this half is connected with its mate, the two halves appear as they do in Figure 1. These two halves differ from each other only in a few minor features. They are so constructed that, when joined, the sides which determine the body of the types are in exact parallel, and at a fixed and unalterable distance from each other. In Figure 2, the ridges which make the nicks are noticeable; in Figure 3 the cast type is shown as it appears before it is thrown from the mould, with jet attached. 1 Although the two sides of the mould are fixed so as to be immovable in the direction which determines the body of the type, they have great freedom of motion and nicety of adjustment in the direction which determines its width. They can be brought close together, so as to make a hair space, or can be fixed wide apart, so as to cast a three-em quadrat, but they always slide on broad and solid bearings, between guides which keep them from getting out of square. In the construction of the mould and adjustment of the matrices, every care is taken to insure exactness of body. The illustration on page 52 may be again referred to as an example of the necessity for minute accuracy. We there see that the feasibility of typography depends upon the geomet- rical exactness of its tools, and that types are of no practical use, if they cannot be readily combined and interchanged. The casting or founding of types, in a mould constructed like that of the engraving, is now accomplished by a complex machine, the invention of Mr. David Bruce, Jr., of New- York city, and by him patented in the year 1838. Before this date 1 The superfluous metal which the Jet. The finishing of the types adheres to the cast type, and is is comparatively simple work which afterward broken off, is also called does not require explanation. THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 59 all types were cast by hand, from a hand-mould, and by a process which received no noticeable improvement for two centuries. The following illustration, taken from an engraving Type-Casting as Practised in 1683. [From Moxon.] published by an early English type-founder, 1 can be offered as a substantially correct representation of the method of casting which was practised by all type-founders in the first quarter of this century. The type-caster took in his left hand the mould, which was imbedded in a wood frame, and shielded about the jet, 1 Mechatiick Exercises, or the Moxon, Member of the Royal Soci- Doctrine of Handy-Works, applied ety, and Hydrographer to the King, to the Art of Printing. By Joseph etc. London, 1683. 60 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. to protect him from accidental splashes of melted metal. Then, with his right hand, he took from the melting pot a spoonful of the hot metal, which he quickly poured into the jet or mouth of the mould. At the same instant, with a sudden jerk, he threw up his left hand, so as to aid the melted metal in making a forcible splash against the matrix at the bottom of the mould. This sudden jerk or throw was needed, in the casting of small letters, to make a good face to the type. If it was not done, the metal would cool too quickly, and would not penetrate the finer lines of the matrix. Long practice enabled the type- caster to do this work with apparent carelessness; but the trick of making this throw or cast with the left hand, at the right time and in the right manner, was slowly acquired — by some strong men, never acquired at all. In all cases, hand-casting was hard work. To face types, writes August Bernard, the type- caster must make the contortions of a maniac. It was slow work. Fournier the younger, writing in 1764, says that the performance of the type-caster of ordinary book types would vary from two thousand to three thousand types per day. When this throw was made, the type-caster removed the matrix with his right hand, and, giving the mould a toss, threw out the type. The matrix was then replaced on the mould, and the operations which have been described were repeated in the casting of every subsequent type. It must be confessed that this method of making types is not simple. It is too circuitous in its processes, and too complex in its machinery, to be regarded as the fruit of the first lucky thought of the inventor. It is a scientific process, manifestly the result of thought and protracted experiment. In its series of impressions, it is an emblem of the art which it has created. The counter-punch impresses the punch, the punch impresses the matrix, the melted metal impresses the matrix and mould. One model letter on the punch is the instrument by which millions of types are made ; one letter on a type may serve in the printing of millions of words. THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 6l The punch, matrix and mould are old inventions, but they are still in use in all type-foundries. They have not been changed in any important feature since they were explicitly described and illustrated for the first time, by Joseph Moxon. As Moxon did not claim these implements as his own inven- tion — as we find in the writings of the authors who preceded him notices of the art of cutting letters, and mention of tools "which they called matrices," and of "making types in brass" [matrices or moulds], we have some reason for the belief that there has never been any radical change in the processes of type-making. Unfortunately, we have no minute description of the art of type-making as it was practised before Moxon. Those who were competent to describe the work, refrained from description, either because they thought that the subject was trivial or technical, or because they intended to conceal the process. The authors who did undertake to describe the art were incompetent; they did not thoroughly understand the subject, and have treated it slightingly and incorrectly. But we are not entirely in the dark. Our most authentic information is contained in a queer little book by Jost Amman, which is known to modern book- collectors as The Book of Trades, 1 and which was published at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the year 1564. The title of the book, with text in German, describes it as Hans Sacks' Correct Description of all Arts, Ranks and Trades, with printed illus- 1 The Book of Trades was popu- has its representative. There are also lar. Two editions in Latin verse not a few which it would be difficult were published, one in 1568, and an- t0 reduce to an y distinct class, as they other in 1574, with descriptions by are nei * e J ^ J 101 h ° nest ?«**- tt . , ,-, . . sions. Of these heteroclytes is the Hartmann Schopper. Chattosays: „, . . . ^ . . ™ . . . rr , / Meretricicm procurator, or, as Captain Inis is, perhaps, the most curious ^ u t» 1 * n. * • ? , . . r . , -, ., • • Dugald Dalgetty says, the captain of and interesting series of cuts, exhibiting ., T , , .-,,; . . . ., . °, , ,' % the queans. [ackson and Chatto, A the various ranks and employments of ^ .■ y/r j r ., . ... , / . Ireatise on Wood Iinsrravm?, p. 409. men, that ever was published. Among T . . !■ ■ , the higher orders ...... are the Pope, J OSt Amman WaS 0ne ° f the man y Emperor, King, Princes, Nobles, Priests famous German designers on wood. and Lawyers; while almost every branch The publishers of Nuremberg and of labor or trade then known in Ger- Frankfort esteemed his ability highly many, from agriculture to pin-making, and gave him constant employment. 62 THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. trations. The descriptions, so called, which were written in verse, by Hans Sachs, the cobbler poet, are of no value for this inquiry : they describe nothing. To men seeking trust- worthy information about art or manufactures, all the merit of the book is in its numerous engravings on wood, which may be accepted as faithful illustrations of the methods and usages observed during the sixteenth century. Among the illustrations is the schriftgiesser, or the type- founder, with the accessories of his art about him. We see the furnace for melting the metal, the bellows, the tongs and the basket of charcoal. That the man is founding types is apparent, not only from the bowl of cast types on the floor before the stool, but from his position with spoon in hand. Here we begin to note dif- ferences. The type- caster of 1683 stands up to his work ; the schriftgiesser of Am- man is sitting down. The mould of 1683, like the hand moulds that were in use forty years ago, is provided with a wire spring, to keep the matrix firmly in position; the mould of Amman has no spring of iron wire and it is nested in a ... . . Type-Casting as Practised in T-r,|. pyramid-Shaped bOX, [From Jost Amman.] which seems to be used as a protection to the hand. How the mould was nested in the box, how the matrix was attached to the mould, how the cast types were dislodged from the mould, is not shown in the engraving. We have to regret THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. 63 that the wood- cut is so small, and that Amman's engraving is so coarse. There are some indications that, in its more important features, the mould of Amman was like that of Moxon. The little opening in the side of the mould which rests on the shelf may have been an opening for the insertion of matrices. That metal matrices were used is dimly shown by the three little bars resting on the top of a small nest of drawers, which has the appearance of a chest for punches and matrices. The pyramidal box was not only the nest of the mould, but served also as a support for the matrix. The sitting position of the caster permitted him to give the box a throw or jerk ; with his right hand at liberty, he could pull out the mould and dislodge the type in the usual manner. There are other features in Amman's wood-cut requiring notice. Upon the lower shelf are two crucibles, which were put in use, probably, when making the alloy of type-metal. The use of the sieves is not apparent ; they may have been needed to sift the sand for the sand moulds, in which bars of type-metal were made, and in which large initial types were cast. The crucibles, the furnace, the mould, the position of the type-caster, and the single types with jets attached, are enough to prove that types were cast, one by one, by the process subsequently described by Moxon. It is plain that the elementary principles of type-founding were as clearly understood in 1564 as they are at this day. The most obscure feature in this wood-cut is the matrix. The three little bits resting on the chest of drawers are too rudely cut to enable us to decide positively that they are matrices. We infer that they are from their surroundings and from the apparent necessity for such implements ; but it would be more satisfactory to know, and not infer, that the early type-founders used matrices of hard metal. There are no engravings of type-founding of earlier date than this cut of Amman's, but we have some evidences which point to a very early use of moulds of hard metal. We find in many of the books of the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries g. THE KEY TO THE INVENTION. occasional allusions to type-making. Considered separately, they arc of little importance ; considered together, they are ample proof that types were made of fluid metal in moulds and matrices of brass, not less than one hundred years before Amman made his wood-cuts. In 1507, Ivo Wittig put up a stone to the memory of John Gutenberg, on which he had engraved that Gutenberg was the first to make printing letters in brass. We do not find in any record of authority that Gutenberg printed books by types cut out of brass. There are difficulties connected with the cutting and use of brass types which would make such an assertion incredible. If we accept the literal trans- lation of the Latin epitaph, and supplement it with a little knowledge of type-founding, we shall then understand what Wittig meant — that Gutenberg, by using melted metal, made types in brass moulds. Trithemius, writing in 1514, observes that Gutenberg and Fust " discovered a method of founding the forms of all the letters, which they called matrices, from which they cast metal types." The statement of the bishop is somewhat confused, and his specification of Fust as an inventor is, probably, incor- rect, but every typographer who reads his description cannot fail to see that he has endeavored to describe the established method of making types — the method in use to this day. Peter Schceffer, in a book printed by him in 1466, makes the book metaphorically say, " I am cast at Mentz." He says., the types were cast, although he elsewhere praises himself as a more skillful cutter of letters than Fust or Gutenberg. Bernard Cennini, writing at Florence in 1471, says that the letters of his book were first cut and then cast. • Nicholas Jenson, who calls himself a cutter of books, says in one of them, published in 1485, that the book, meaning the types of the book, was cut and cast by a divine art. llusncr of Strasburg, in the imprint of a book made by him in 1473, says (translating his language literally) that it was printed " with sculptured letters from brass," or, as it THE KEY TO THE INVENTION, 65 could be more clearly construed, with letters in high relief, made from brass matrices. That Husner did not mean to say that his printing types were cut out of brass, is more clearly shown in the imprint of another book printed by him in 1476, in which he says, literally, that it was printed, " without doubt, with sculptured letters, scientifically begun in brass." 1 That the cutting, so frequently mentioned by the early printers, was the cutting of punches, is apparent to every modern typographer who knows that, in the manufacture of types, punch-cutting is not only the first process in order of time, but first in order of artistic importance. That the types said to be made of brass were made in brass moulds and matrices could, in the absence of other proof, be inferred from the appearance of the books of the fifteenth century. These types often show varieties of the same letter and have other peculiarities disagreeable to modern tastes, but there is strict uniformity in each variety, and an accuracy of body which could have been secured by no other method than 'The text of the Speculum Du- is here used in contradistinction to raridi, the book of 1473, \s exsculptis insculptis, sculptured in, or cut in, cere litteris ; the text of the Prcecep- as in engraving on a copper plate. torum Nideri, the book of 1476, It defines typographic work from is litteris exsculptis artificiali certe copper-plate printing. The phrase conatti ex are. The language is artificiali certe conatu ex Gere, means plain and cannot be construed to something more than skillful en- mean cut types. When these books graving; it suggests the use of were printed, the arts of typography mechanism, and of a beginning of and copper-plate printing were new the work in brass, which can be and had not yet received distinctive clearly understood only by constru- names. The reading public knew ing ex cere, from or in a brass mould, nothing of the theory or practice of The phrase here translated in brass either process, and confounded the has been rendered of brass, but the productions of one art with those of language will not bear this construc- tive other. The early printers had tion. The phrase ex