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

There is a popular notion that the so-called inventions of paper and
xylographic printing were gladly welcomed by [p145] men of letters,
and that the new fabric and the new art were immediately pressed into
service. The facts about to be presented in succeeding chapters will
lead to a different conclusion. We shall see that the makers of playing
cards and of image prints were the men who first made extended use of
printing, and that self-taught and unprofessional copyists were the men
who gave encouragement to the manufacture of paper. The more liberal
use of paper at the beginning of the fifteenth century by this newly
created class of readers and book-buyers marks the period of transition
and of mental and mechanical development for which the crude arts of
paper-making and of block-printing had been waiting for centuries.
We shall also see that if paper had been ever so cheap and common
during the middle ages, it would have worked no changes in education
or literature; it could not have been used by the people, for they
were too illiterate; it would not have been used by the professional
copyists, for they preferred vellum and despised the substitute.




[p146]

IX

The Book-Makers of the Middle Ages.


 Education controlled by the Church . . . All Books in Latin . . .
 Ecclesiastics the only Scholars and Book-Makers . . . Copyists in
 Constantinople . . . In Ireland . . . Charlemagne’s Educational Policy
 . . . Copyists of France and their Work . . . The Scriptoriums of
 Monasteries . . . Errors of Copyists . . . Illuminators of Books . . .
 Bookbinders . . . Profuse Ornamentation of Books . . . Neglect of
 Books and Copying by Monks . . . Copyists and Book-Makers appear among
 the Laity . . . Regulations of the University of Paris about Copyists
 . . . Character of Medieval Books . . . Universal Appreciation of
 Pictures . . . General Use of Abbreviations . . . Paper Used only
 for Inferior Books . . . Rise of the Romance Literature . . . Its
 Luxurious Books . . . Book-Collecting a Princely Pastime . . . High
 Prices paid for Books of Merit . . . Fondness for Expensive Books
 retarded the Development of Printing.

       *       *       *       *       *

 With that of the boke losende were the claspis:
   The margent Was illumynid all With golded railles
 And byse, enpicturid with gressoppes and waspis,
   With butterflyis and freshe pecocke taylis,
   Enflorid With flowris and slymy snaylis;
 Enuyuid picturis well towchid and quikly;
 It wolde haue made a man hole that had be ryght sekely,
 To beholde how it was garnyschyd and bounde,
   Encouerde ouer with gold of tisseu fyne;
 The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde;
   With balassis and charbuncles the borders did shyne;
   With aurum mosaicum every other lyne
 Was wrytin.

 _Skelton._

       *       *       *       *       *

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

There is a popular notion that the so-called inventions of paper and
xylographic printing were gladly welcomed by [p145] men of letters,
and that the new fabric and the new art were immediately pressed into
service. The facts about to be presented in succeeding chapters will
lead to a different conclusion. We shall see that the makers of playing
cards and of image prints were the men who first made extended use of
printing, and that self-taught and unprofessional copyists were the men
who gave encouragement to the manufacture of paper. The more liberal
use of paper at the beginning of the fifteenth century by this newly
created class of readers and book-buyers marks the period of transition
and of mental and mechanical development for which the crude arts of
paper-making and of block-printing had been waiting for centuries.
We shall also see that if paper had been ever so cheap and common
during the middle ages, it would have worked no changes in education
or literature; it could not have been used by the people, for they
were too illiterate; it would not have been used by the professional
copyists, for they preferred vellum and despised the substitute.




[p146]

IX

The Book-Makers of the Middle Ages.


 Education controlled by the Church . . . All Books in Latin . . .
 Ecclesiastics the only Scholars and Book-Makers . . . Copyists in
 Constantinople . . . In Ireland . . . Charlemagne’s Educational Policy
 . . . Copyists of France and their Work . . . The Scriptoriums of
 Monasteries . . . Errors of Copyists . . . Illuminators of Books . . .
 Bookbinders . . . Profuse Ornamentation of Books . . . Neglect of
 Books and Copying by Monks . . . Copyists and Book-Makers appear among
 the Laity . . . Regulations of the University of Paris about Copyists
 . . . Character of Medieval Books . . . Universal Appreciation of
 Pictures . . . General Use of Abbreviations . . . Paper Used only
 for Inferior Books . . . Rise of the Romance Literature . . . Its
 Luxurious Books . . . Book-Collecting a Princely Pastime . . . High
 Prices paid for Books of Merit . . . Fondness for Expensive Books
 retarded the Development of Printing.

       *       *       *       *       *

 With that of the boke losende were the claspis:
   The margent Was illumynid all With golded railles
 And byse, enpicturid with gressoppes and waspis,
   With butterflyis and freshe pecocke taylis,
   Enflorid With flowris and slymy snaylis;
 Enuyuid picturis well towchid and quikly;
 It wolde haue made a man hole that had be ryght sekely,
 To beholde how it was garnyschyd and bounde,
   Encouerde ouer with gold of tisseu fyne;
 The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde;
   With balassis and charbuncles the borders did shyne;
   With aurum mosaicum every other lyne
 Was wrytin.

 _Skelton._

       *       *       *       *       *

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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