PRINTING. 



___, UM at in printing ny one psge might, with the mem 



UoubU of re-arraniremrtit, be nude to serve for printing any other. 

 Here waawhaiwe may osll quite a new principle. Logographjr was imlt od 

 UK> employment to certain extent of moveable types; but the prin- 

 ciple of raonable type printing ww no more there than we can my the 

 principle of alphabetic writing is to bo found in the ^14 radical charac- 

 (not theChinese. The univereality which U the ssaenoe of a principlu 

 U equally wanting in buth cases. 



Yet, whether it inay have been arrived at through the medium <>f 

 logography or not, it may be lately aftinncil that, where alphabetic 

 writing wa known, alphabetic printing could not be long in being 

 found oat. It wan in fact, in a manner, already invented, in 

 existence of pigment printing on the one baud, tuid of alphabetic 

 writing on the other; fur it wu the mere resultant, without the 

 -nrrt-r~ of any third element, of the combination of these two ideas. 

 ..it even this simple combination would of necessity Iw imme- 

 diately made; the history of discovery sufficiently attests that it will 

 often be a considerable time before a third thing is thought of which 

 would be at once accomplished by the mere bringing together, and 

 into simultaneous and accordant action, of two things already familiarly 

 known and practised ; but still, fortuitously, or through reflection and 

 experiment, the new idea is much more likely to be struck out in 

 these circumstances than if a more complex combination were required 

 to produce it, and, especially where the state of society supplies any 

 considerable stimulus to the attainment of it, cannot be very long in 

 being arrived at. 



The common art of printing, in essentially the same degree of com 

 plotenesB in which we now possess it, had certainly been discovered 

 before the middle of the 15th century; but when, where, and by 

 whom each successive improvement of the original pigment-printing by 

 means of engraved blocks was discovered and first put in practice is 

 not so easily settled. The employment of moveable types, the pro- 

 duction of Mich tv|wa by the process of casting them in metal, and the 

 formation of the 'matrix, or mould, by means of the punch, or stamp 

 of hfinl+tyj steel by which the matrix is impressed or hollowed out ; 

 these, disregarding mere mechanical facilitations, may be considered ns 

 the three great organic changes by which block-printing was trans- 

 formed into the art as it now exists. They are far, indeed, from being 

 upon a level in point of importance ; they descend in value in Un- 

 order in wliirh we h;ivc enumerated them, which must also have been 

 ili. . nl' r in which they followed each other; and the third contributes 

 -.1 little to the CMiu|ili-tii'ii of tin' invention, as compared with either 

 the tirxt or second, that we might perhaps without much injustice omit 

 it altogether. Pigment stamping, the breaking up of the block-page 

 into single letters, the substitution of letters of cast metal for those of 

 cut wood, and the production of many inatrio - limn one punch, the 

 four successive steps constituting the invention of printing, have thus 

 all one end and aim. This very circumstance might enable one of 

 them in a great measure to suggest the next. 



Simple as the first of the four successive discoveries stamping or 

 printing with a pigment may be thought, it was perhaps both the moat 

 iini-.rt.int and the most difficult to achieve of the whole. As for the. 

 three subsequent improvements, which constitute the whole portion of 

 the art of printing indisputably invented in Europe in the 15th century, 

 and to which alone the claims of the several individuals to whom the 

 invention has been attributed have any reference, even the chief of 

 tin-ill, the substitution of types containing each a single letter for 

 blocks containing an entire page, must, we apprehend, be considered as 

 inferior to the primary Chinese discovery in novelty, or reul originality 

 ption. as it undoubtedly is in importance. That wonderful 

 instrument, the alphabet, being already invented, this improvement 

 consisted merely in chopping down the engraved wooden block into as 

 many separate pieces as there were letters cut upon it. The casting 

 al types again was only an application of the art of found- 

 ing, which is one of the most ancient of the arts practised by men ; 

 and the fabrication of the matrix by a punch was merely an example 

 of the familiar practice of receiving the impression of a stamp or seal 

 upon a substance softer than itself, and precisely the same thing with 

 the very common mode of stamping coins by hammering. 



Kour names have principally figured in the controversy that has 

 been raised about the invention of printing: JOHN UUTF.NHKKU 

 (paternally Oansfleisch), of Strasburg ; JOHN FIST (or Faust), of 

 Mains; I'KTEK ScoorritR (in Latin. Opili..), ..f Uernsheim ; ami 

 KXCK KOBTKB (or Janszoon), of Haarlem. (If all these, and of 

 tlieir elaiim to ilie in-., i. 1 . n. accounts will l- found iii tho l'.io>i:\ 

 ' HI. u. DIVISION under their respective names. 



An ancient chronicle, first printed at Cologne in 1499 (' Chronica, 



mciculus Temporum.' *c., commonly called the ' Cologne Chro- 



nielu '), notes that, after ten years had been spent in preparation, tho 



.irt .-I (printing began to be practiwl le.eptiim e*t imprinii) in the year 



The knowledge of the art was first made public and carried 



into other countries by the dispenion of many of the workmen on tho 



ng of Mainz by Adolpbus of Nnxmu, in 1468. Printing was first 



practised in Italy, in tho town of Hiibiavo, in the Roman territory, in 



I l'i/i ; in France, at I'.ui-, in 14'IH; in Kn^l'ind, at Westminster, in 



171: and in Spain, at Barcelona, in 117:.. It u said that by the year 



here were already about 200 printing presses in I"' - 



The following works relating to the invention of printing may be 



consulted with advantage : H. Junius, ' Itatavia,' 155*. .. li.ch Contains 

 the claim for Koster; P. Marchand. ' lint. .ire de 1'Origine et des 

 Progroa de 1'Imprimerie.' 171'.' II . Dissertation sur 



rorigine de I'lmprinwrif. 1 1 7 :.'.' : M V . t uire. ' Annales Typographic*!,' 

 170; Jo. Dan. Sohopflin, < Vindiete Typographica),' 1760; Baron 

 Heineken, ' Id.<;om<raled'unCollction complete d'Estarapes,' 1771 ; 

 U. rVher, ' Typographische tMtemheiten,' 18n4 : .-;.,. i . Researches 



Engraving upon Copper and on \\ ood,' 1816 ; Dahl, 'Die Buch.I 

 kunst erfunden von .1. t;utcnl>erg, vcrlwssert und xu Vollkouimen- 

 heit gebracht durch P. Schofler.' 1 - .-_' : Jackson and Chatto. ' Treatise 

 on Wood Engraving,' 1839; C. Knight, chiefly with reference to the 

 introduction of printing into England, 'The Old Printer and the 

 Modern 1'ress,' 1854 j and W. L. Sotheby's costly work on 

 Block Books,' 1859. 



1 if the ini|K>rtant effects produced by this great discovery, and 

 progress made in civilisation by the diffusion of books, it is n 

 province to treat here. We proceed to describe the mechanical pro- 

 ceases connected with printing. Kor very many years these prooessos 

 received few improvements ; but from about the commencement of 

 the present century they have been numerous and important. 

 shall therefore treat of them in the order in which they may be said 

 to occur in their uses in a modern printing-office. These are 

 foundling; Comparing; Printing Pratn and Prini'my Machine!; and 

 pmftpAyi To these as connate subjects we shall add Priniinu for 

 Ike Blind; Katnre Printing or Autotiipograpky ; and Printing by 

 Cullinti Patent Proem. 



'I'l/i'i'-fountliny. After tho invention of Schoffer, the apparatus em- 

 ployed appears, at a very early period, to have assumed its present 

 form. The first satisfactory evidence upon this joint is allorded by 

 the device of Badius Ascenaius, an eminent printer of Paris and Lyons, 

 at the beginning of the 16th century ; which device was subsequently 

 adopted, with various modifications, by several other printers, 

 whom was an English practitioner, Anthony Scolokcr, of Ipswich. It 

 exhibits the various operations then usually carried on at a printing- 

 office, embracing type-founding as well as composing and printing; and 

 it represents the matrix and other apparatus of the type-founder in 

 tho form still used. Most of the early printers, in England as well as 

 on the Continent, cut and cast their own types ; and Aldus Manuxio, 

 towards the end of the 16th century, distinguished himself by the 

 elegance of his type, and invented that now called italic. [MANUXIO, 

 Ai ho. in BIOG. Div.] One of the earliest notices of that divi 

 labour which has tended so greatly to thoini]. 

 found in a decree of the Star Chamber, dated July 11, 1K!7, in' 

 to supprr.-s or render moro difficult the publication of seditious woik.- 

 by the Puritans and others opposed to the govi rnment. wh .., alxrnt 

 that period, established secret printing-offices for the purpose. Thi. 

 decree ordained that there should be only four founders of led 

 printing in the kingdom; and that any vacancies which might 

 in that number should be filled up by the archbishop of Cantcrlnnj M 

 the bishop of London, and six other high commissioners ; and it laid 

 the most stringent regulations upon the master-founders re.-] 

 the employment of journeymen and the taking of apprentices. These 

 oppressive restrictions v. .tod for two years, by an Ad "t' 



Parliament of the 14. th year of Charles II., and renewed" for 1 

 periods in Ids 16th and 17th years. They were- again revived for seven 

 years in the 1st year of James II., 1685, and finally expired, on the 

 termination of the last-men; ' .in 1698. 



Although t'axton and M'ynkyn dc Wordo had, in the infancy of 

 i printing, established a high character as t\ ; .this 



branch of the art long jemained in a depressed state in Knglan 

 best types being supplied by continental foundots; a oil 

 which may, perhaps, be attributed in some degree to the restri 

 imposed upon the British founders after their art was separated 

 that of printing. At the commencement of tho 38th century . 

 tali nt wa- at M low an ebb, that all the '.;. 



for superior works were imported from II. .Hand. \\'il n, who 



was originally employed in IT <> gnu-barrels, and in cu 



ornaments and letters fur the use of book-binders, has the lion 

 removing this stigma upon English in; unity. Having executed some 

 remarkably neat letters for lettering books, he was indue.. I I.. 

 attempt punch cutting; his first engagement in this way I. 



lor Promot .1 whom he execui 



Aral, ic fount about the year 17 !". < i id assisted 



by Bowyer; and he soon attained a reputation which not only put an 

 end to the importation of Dutch types, but occasioned a demand for 

 his own on the Continent. His foundry was continued by his dc^ 

 ants, and is still in operation. Another name memorable in the history 

 -h type-founding is that of John Baskerville, of Birmingham, 

 who died in 1776. His stock of beautiful types was sold to a In 

 society in Paris, and used for printing a splendid edition of tin- wik, 

 of Voltaire; his widow having failed to obtain either a punli. 

 England, or sufficient encouragement to induce her to conn mi.- In- 

 busincm. The history of the early Itiitish founder* is n,n 

 in a very rare pamphlet, published in 1788, by th. 

 Howe Mores, entitled ' A Dissertation upon English Typographical 

 Found, rs and Konndmes; ' and Hansard, in his ' Typo^i 



