The Art & Practice of Typography: A Manual of American Printing, Including a Brief History up to the Twentieth Century, with Reproductions of the Work of Early Masters of the Craft, and a Practical Discussion and an Extensive Demonstration of the Modern Use of Type-faces and Methods of ArrangementGress, Edmund G. (Edmund Geiger)
History
The Art & Practice of Typography: A Manual of American Printing, Including a Brief History up to the Twentieth Century, with Reproductions of the Work of Early Masters of the Craft, and a Practical Discussion and an Extensive Demonstration of the Modern Use of Type-faces and Methods of Arrangement
Gress, Edmund G. (Edmund Geiger)
Advertising layout and typography -- United States; Graphic design (Typography) -- United States; Printing -- United States -- History
lettering—Ancient Roman writing all capitals—Evolution of Roman capitals
into small or lower-case letters—The uncial and half-uncial—Minuscule
and majuscule—Development of writing toward both heavy pointed Gothic
and the Roman style used by Nicholas Jenson—Cursive, a “script” letter.
THE ORIGIN OF TYPOGRAPHY
_Page 7_
The invention of typography marked the beginning of a new civilization—
The beginning and end of the Middle Ages—Printing with separate metal
types an evolution—Demand for playing cards and sacred pictures—Engraved
wood blocks—Block books, and method of printing them—Coloring cards and
pictures by means of stencils—The oldest dated specimen of printing—The
first block books probably Latin grammars—The “Art of Dying,” the “Bible
of the Poor,” and the “Mirror of Human Salvation”—When, where and by
whom was typography invented?—The inventor failed to print his name on
his product—Almost every European country claimed the honor—All claims
disproved excepting those of Germany and Holland—Weight of evidence is
with Germany—Typography was practiced by Gutenberg at Mainz some time
during 1450–1455—Claims of priority for Coster of Haarlem—Story of the
invention by Ulrich Zell the earliest testimony on the subject—Dierick
Coornhert’s version—The unfaithful servant—Dignified gray heads point
out the house of “the first printer”—Hadrian Junius and his “Coster
Legend”—Fashioning the bark of a beech tree in the form of letters—
Changing the letters to lead and then to tin—Old wine flagons melted
into type—A workman, John Faust, steals the type-making instruments—
Cornelis, an old book binder—The story dissected—Peter Scriverius has
another version—A clap of thunder—Confusion of dates—A statue erected to
Coster in Haarlem—“True and rational account” by one Leiz—Gerard
Meerman’s story—The sheriff who printed with wooden types—Robbed by a
brother of Johann Gutenberg—Jacob Koning awarded a prize for his essay
on the invention—Makes researches in Haarlem archives—Corroborates some
details in preceding stories—For many years Coster given equal honor
with Gutenberg—Investigations by Dr. Anton Van der Linde—Forgeries and
misrepresentations revealed—Haarlem practically surrenders its claim and
alters its school books—Records of Louwerijs Janszoon and Laurens
Janszoon Coster—Van der Linde goes to Germany, alters his name and
writes a book—Hessels translates the book into English, and afterward
becomes a Haarlem advocate—Coster proofs are weak—Haarlem claimants
unable to agree as to Coster’s identity—Gutenberg a tangible human
being, and probable inventor of the art—Parentage of Gutenberg—The
family removes from Mainz presumably to Strassburg—Was the new art
practiced at Strassburg?—Records of a lawsuit—Gutenberg agreed to teach
Andrew Dritzehen certain trade secrets—Fust lends money to Gutenberg and
takes a mortgage on his printing office—Fust seizes all types, presses
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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