CHAPTER V
Materials and Methods of the First Printers
Our knowledge of Coster is much less complete than our knowledge of Gutenberg. Much, however, that could be said of one would undoubtedly be true of the other. It is reported that Coster began with wooden type. This would naturally be the first step forward from the block book, which was invariably printed from wood. Finding that wooden type was unsatisfactory in the press, he experimented with lead and with tin, we are told. Obviously he would not get satisfactory results with either of these metals unalloyed. The use of unsatisfactory material probably accounts for the number of fonts of type which he employed in his comparatively small output.
Showing Principle of a Type Mold
Gutenberg and his associates invented a more satisfactory type metal and an improved method for the making of type. The first types appear to have been carved individually by hand. This was a great task, but not as great as might appear. The early printers printed their books page by page. When one page was printed in sufficient numbers for the edition the type was distributed and another page set up, and so on. In this way a comparatively small amount of type would suffice for the equipment of a small shop. It was not long, however, before the superiority of casting was perceived.
The first mold was probably two notched blocks of brass or copper, like those shown in the accompanying illustration, a method being provided of accurately positioning the matrix under the opening in the mold and also of holding the two blocks firmly together. From the illustration it will be noted that when the blocks are forced together a square opening remains. Still keeping the blocks together, but sliding down the one at the right, one dimension of the opening does not change, but the other can be varied. This mold has been improved in detail, but not greatly altered in principle down to this day. A fairly satisfactory form of matrix very similar to the one in use today was soon devised. This was made by cutting the letter in relief on the end of a soft steel or iron punch which was then hardened and driven into a block of soft brass or copper, which became the matrix.
Type of the Mazarin Bible (exact size)
The type, as has been said, was cut to resemble the handwriting of the scribes in the locality where the book was printed. This would be the obvious method because it must be remembered that the rapid reproduction of manuscripts was the sole end which the first printers had in view. They did not think of developing a conventional book type different from handwriting or script. They simply imitated the script which was current, and consequently most legible, in their neighborhood. The school boys of that day did not have to learn two alphabets, one the script letter and the other the printed letter, as we do today. The device of spacing was immediately adopted. The letters were cast, however, upon bodies with wide shoulders at top and bottom and used without leads.
Page from the Mazarin Bible (reduced)
The types of the period were both handsome and legible. Perhaps they may not be easy for us to read, but that is because we are not familiar with the forms of the letters used and especially with the contractions and abbreviations which were common. The beauty of some of these early types will be seen from the little specimen of the type of the Mazarin Bible which is herewith reproduced in full size.
With the example of the illuminators before them the early printers paid much attention to the ornamenting of their pages. They introduced some ornaments of their own and they occasionally left space for the hand illuminator to use in supplementing their work. A full page of the Mazarin Bible greatly reduced is shown herewith. By comparing that with the specimen of full size type and imagining the whole page thrown up to natural size one can see what a really beautiful book this famous Bible was.
An Early Printing Press
The press in use was of the most simple form imaginable, as shown by the accompanying illustration. It was an adaptation of a familiar mechanical device, with no originality about it. It was made of wood and was operated by a screw turning through a nut, the moving of the screw bringing the platen and bed into contact. The form was released by the reverse movement of the screw. After a while the sliding bed and frisket shown in the accompanying illustration were introduced and there the mechanism stopped for a long time.
Bed of Hand Press Showing Tympan and Frisket
The first twenty-five years or so of printing have been described as a period of stagnation. They have also been described as the period of the workman. Apparently the vast possibilities of the new art were slow in obtaining recognition. The earliest printers were only mechanics. They had not yet got the vision of combining scholarship with their art and so unlocking the treasuries of the world to mankind generally, still less that of adding to the sum total of human knowledge. They had found out an art by which manuscripts could be rapidly produced and money made by their sale, and that was all.
They contented themselves with a slavish imitation of manuscripts, with apparently no thought of their being anything more than manuscript imitators. This condition of things, however, could not last long. It was inevitable that the scholars of the world should become interested in this new process and should begin to see its advantages. After twenty or twenty-five years of printing this took place. The period of sluggish and practically dormant infancy passed and the development of the art began, as we shall see in the next volume of this series, No. 51, A Short History of Printing, Part I.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
The Story of Books. By Gertrude Burford Rawlings. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.
The Invention of Printing. By Thedore L. De Vinne. Oswald Publishing Co., New York.
Haarlem, not Mainz. By J. H. Hesels.
Early Printed Books. By E. Gordon Duff.
Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages. Vol. I. by George Haven Putnam. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Eleventh Edition. Article on Typography.
Pupils who have access to large libraries should consult J.W. Holtrop’s Monuments Typographiques des Pays-Bas and Samuel Sotheby’s Principia, both of which contain many excellent reproductions of very early printing. Sotheby’s book is commonly referred to as above, but is published under several different names in editions which vary but little. Perhaps the best is entitled Typography of the Fifteenth Century.