PRINTING 



Karnata 



Tamul 



Malayalim 



Cingalese 



Haldivian 



Javanese 



Kiousa 



New Pali (No. 1) 



New Pali (No. 2) 



Siamese 



Kambogo (with joint 



and without) 

 Laos 

 Birmeie 

 Shyan 

 Bugis 



BUaya 



Batta 



Tagala 



Mongolese 



Mandschu 



Chinese 



Coreanic 



Funnosau 



Japanese (Katakana 



No. 1) 

 Japanese (Katakana 



No. 2) 



Japanese (Firokana) 

 Tschirokisian 



Russia. The art was not introduced into Kussia till the year 1560, when it was 

 made known by aEussian merchant, who conveyed thither the materials of a printing- 

 office, with which many neat editions were printed. But as the Russians are a very 

 superstitious nation, and apt to raise scruples without any foundation, some of them, 

 apprehending that printing might make some confusion or change in their religion, 

 hired men to destroy the types and presses. No attempt was made to repair this 

 injury or to discover the perpetrators of this fact. However, since that time they 

 have admitted the press into Moscow and St. Petersburg, where until recently it made 

 but slow progress. 



Turkey. The total number of books printed in Constantinople during the years 

 1871 and 1872 were 169, of which 39 were on theology and legislation, 38 on moral 

 literature and poetry, 28 on history and biography, 26 on various sciences, and 38 on 

 linguistic subjects. The Turkish Imperial Printing-office showed the greatest activity 

 in its publications, having turned out from its presses in the year 1871 alone 46,000 

 volumes for commercial and general purposes, and 74,000 volumes destined for the 

 use of schools, and in 1871 50,880 of the former description and 45,000 of the latter. 

 Levant Herald. 



Peculiarities of Early Printed Books. The following are the points peculiar to the 

 productions of the first printers : 



1. Their forms were generally either large or small folio, or at least quarto; the 

 lesser sizes were not in use. 



2. The leaves were without running title, direction word, number of pages, or divi- 

 sions into paragraphs. 



3. The character itself was a rude old gothic, mixed with secretary, designed on 

 purpose to imitate the handwriting of those times ; the words were printed so close to 

 one another that it was difficult and tedious to be read, even by those who were used 

 to manuscripts and to this method, and often led the inattentive reader into mistakes. 



4. Their orthography was various and often arbitrary, disregarding method. 



5. They had very frequent abbreviations, which in time grew so numerous and 

 difficult to be understood, that it became necessary to write a book to teach the mode 

 of reading them. 



6. Their periods were distinguished by no other points than double or single ones, 

 that is, the colon and full point ; but a little after they introduced an oblique stroke, 

 thus /, which answered the purpose of our comma. 



7. They used no capital letters to begin a sentence, or for proper names of men or 

 places. 



8. They left blank spaces for titles and initial letters or other ornaments, in order 

 to have them supplied by the illuminators, whose art, though in vogue before and 

 after that time, did not long survive the improvements made by the printers in this 

 branch of their art. These ornaments were exquisitely fine, and curiously variegated 

 with the most beautiful colours, and even with gold and silver; the margins likewise 

 were frequently charged with every variety of figures of saints, birds, beasts, monsters, 

 flowers, &c., which had sometimes a relation to the contents of the page, though often 

 none at all. These embellishments were costly, but for those who could not afford a 

 great price, there were inferior ornaments, which could be done at a much cheaper rate. 



9. The name of the printer, his place of residence, &c. &c., were wholly omitted, or 

 put at the end of the book, not without some pious ejaculation or doxology. 



10. The date was likewise omitted or involved in some circumstantial period, or else 

 printed either at full length, or by numerical letters, and sometimes partly one way 

 and partly the other, thus, one thousand CCCC and Ixxiii., &c., but always at the end 

 of the book. 



1 1 . There was no variety of characters, no intermixture of Koman and Italic, those 

 being of later invention, but their pages were continued in a Gothic letter of the same 

 size throughout. 



12. They printed but a few copies at once, for 200 or 300 was then esteemed a large 

 impression, but upon encouragement from the learned, they increased their numbers in 

 proportion. 



Newspapers, $c. The period of the English Revolution will be ever memorable in 

 the literary history of this country for the establishment in great part of periodical 

 literature. But English newspapers, properly so called, date from the first year of 



