Opening the text

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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 AssociatesDe Vinne, Theodore Low

History

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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

Name: The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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
Author: De Vinne, Theodore Low

De Vinne, Theodore Low

Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents

general unwillingness to make the acquisition of knowledge in any way
attractive.

The limitations of xylography are plainly set forth in this review of
the more famous block-books. During the first half of the fifteenth
century, labor was cheap, skill in engraving was not rare, paper was in
abundant supply, the art of block-printing was known all over civilized
Europe, and there was a growing demand for printed work, but this rude
art of block-printing was limited to the production of pictures. It was
never applied to the production of books of size or merit. The _Wonders
of Rome_, with its text of one hundred and sixty-eight pages, is its
most ambitious attempt; but large as this work may seem when it is put
in contrast with other block-books, it is really insignificant when
compared with the works of the first typographers.




[p264]

XIV

The Speculum Salutis, or the Mirror of Salvation.


 Its Popularity as a Manuscript Book . . . Made for Mendicant Friars
 . . . Description of the Text . . . Fac-similes of Wood-cuts on First
 and Last Pages . . . Its Curious Theology . . . Four Editions of the
 Book . . . Their Peculiarities . . . Twenty Engraved Pages in one
 Edition . . . Strange Blemishes . . . Opinions of Bibliographers
 concerning the Date and Printer . . . Text of the Book Printed from
 Types . . . Fac-simile of the Types . . . Different Bodies of Types
 in Different Editions . . . Engraved Pages were Transferred from
 Types . . . Book Printed in Four Kinds of Ink . . . By Two Methods of
 Impression . . . Types and Cuts could not be Printed together . . .
 Opinions about the Quality of the Presswork . . . Strange Faults of
 Presswork . . . All Editions were Printed in Holland . . . Wood-cuts
 used for the last time by Veldener in 1483 . . . Not Probable that
 Veldener Printed the Earlier Editions . . . Veldener did not use the
 Types . . . The Speculum is the Work of an Unknown Printer.

       *       *       *       *       *

 Everything about the book is uncertain. It may be that the book was
 printed from engraved blocks. There are persons who say that it was
 engraved; there is a librarian who says that it was written by hand.
 . . . . I submitted the book to a type-founder, to an engraver, and to
 a printer, who decided that the book was printed with movable metal
 types that had been cast in a mould.

 _André Chevillier._

       *       *       *       *       *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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

De Vinne, Theodore Low

Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents

general unwillingness to make the acquisition of knowledge in any way
attractive.

The limitations of xylography are plainly set forth in this review of
the more famous block-books. During the first half of the fifteenth
century, labor was cheap, skill in engraving was not rare, paper was in
abundant supply, the art of block-printing was known all over civilized
Europe, and there was a growing demand for printed work, but this rude
art of block-printing was limited to the production of pictures. It was
never applied to the production of books of size or merit. The _Wonders
of Rome_, with its text of one hundred and sixty-eight pages, is its
most ambitious attempt; but large as this work may seem when it is put
in contrast with other block-books, it is really insignificant when
compared with the works of the first typographers.




[p264]

XIV

The Speculum Salutis, or the Mirror of Salvation.


 Its Popularity as a Manuscript Book . . . Made for Mendicant Friars
 . . . Description of the Text . . . Fac-similes of Wood-cuts on First
 and Last Pages . . . Its Curious Theology . . . Four Editions of the
 Book . . . Their Peculiarities . . . Twenty Engraved Pages in one
 Edition . . . Strange Blemishes . . . Opinions of Bibliographers
 concerning the Date and Printer . . . Text of the Book Printed from
 Types . . . Fac-simile of the Types . . . Different Bodies of Types
 in Different Editions . . . Engraved Pages were Transferred from
 Types . . . Book Printed in Four Kinds of Ink . . . By Two Methods of
 Impression . . . Types and Cuts could not be Printed together . . .
 Opinions about the Quality of the Presswork . . . Strange Faults of
 Presswork . . . All Editions were Printed in Holland . . . Wood-cuts
 used for the last time by Veldener in 1483 . . . Not Probable that
 Veldener Printed the Earlier Editions . . . Veldener did not use the
 Types . . . The Speculum is the Work of an Unknown Printer.

       *       *       *       *       *

 Everything about the book is uncertain. It may be that the book was
 printed from engraved blocks. There are persons who say that it was
 engraved; there is a librarian who says that it was written by hand.
 . . . . I submitted the book to a type-founder, to an engraver, and to
 a printer, who decided that the book was printed with movable metal
 types that had been cast in a mould.

 _André Chevillier._

       *       *       *       *       *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and 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

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