PRINTING. 



This valuable acquisition in the art of 

 printing owes its invention to that enlight- 

 ened and patriotic statesman, the pres-.-nt 

 Earl Stanhope. The iron press, invented 

 by ihis nobleman, is capable of ten times 

 the force of the common press, with, per- 

 haps, a tenth of the labour. In working 

 upon this press, nothing is left' to the 

 judgment of the pressman but the beat- 

 ing. 



To describe the construction of the 

 Stanhope press would not only much ex- 

 ceed our limits, but would require a con- 

 siderable number of plates, as its internal 

 construction cannot be sufficiently deli- 

 neated by any general view of it. It is, 

 however, a most compact and curious ma- 

 chine, and is an invention altogether wor- 

 thy of the genius of the nobleman who 

 first constructed it. A very minute ac- 

 count of the nature and construction of 

 every part of this press is given in Mr. 

 S lower's Grammar. 



The Stanhopian principle has been ap- 

 plied in the construction of the common 

 press, but we understand not with that 

 success which was at first expected. The 

 presses, however, so formed, and first 

 made by Mr. Baker, are superior to the 

 common press, and produce a more clear 

 and strong impression, especially from 

 light forms; though the sharpness, as well 

 as smoothness of impression, produced by 

 the Stanhope press, from forms of pearl 

 and nonpareil letter, is not to be expect- 

 ed from the common presses constructed 

 on the Stanhopian principle. See Ex- 

 GHAVING, and CA.LICO PRINTING. 



In an article of this nature, it would ar- 

 gue a want of taste or discernment to omit 

 the mention of Mr. M'Creery's very ele- 

 gant and beautiful poem, entitled " The 

 Press," published as a specimen of typo- 

 graphy. It is indeed a beautiful work, 

 and does great credit both to the genius 

 of the author as a poet, and to his care 

 and talents as a printer. It is published 

 by Messrs. Cadell and Davies, in the 

 Strand. 



PKI.NTIXR, stereotype. Perhaps it would 

 not have been improper to have treated 

 of stereotype printing even before that of 

 common printing: for the first ideas of 

 this art were certainly anterior to those 

 of printing by moveable types. 



The method of printing linen and pa- 

 per for hangings has been known in the 

 east from time immemorial. Printing 

 from wooden blocks, by the Jesuits, has 

 been practised above sixteen hundred 

 years in China According to this plan, 

 when an author chuses to print his work, 



he has it fairly transcribed upon a thin 

 and transparent paper Each leaf is then 

 reversed and fastened upon a smooth 

 block of hard wood, upon which the en- 

 graver cuts the characters, in relief. 

 There must be, therefore, a separate 

 block for every page. 



At the end of the fourteenth and be- 

 ginning ot the fifteenth century, the Ita- 

 lians, Germans, Flemings, and Dutch, be- 

 gan at the same time to engrave on wood 

 and copper, but the previous advances 

 had been gradual. The inscriptions, in 

 relief, upon monuments and altars, in the 

 cloisters and over church porches, serv- 

 ed as models for block-printing. The 

 letters upon painted windows greatly re- 

 semble those in the books of images. The 

 invention of cards was an intermediate 

 step. Bullet, in his " Recherches Histo- 

 riquessurles Cartes a jouer," has proved 

 from old chronicles, in particular frqjn 

 that of Petit- Jean de Sanitre, from edicts 

 civil and ecclesiastical, and from the 

 figures of the cards, that they were in- 

 vented towards Charles the Fifth's reign, 

 about the year 1376. By the shape of 

 the crowns, and the sceptres with the 

 Jleur de Us, he infers that the French in- 

 vented them. They soon were introduc- 

 ed into Spain, Italy, Germany, and Eng- 

 land. The names of the suits seem ra- 

 ther to imply a Spanish or Italian origin. 

 At first the cards were painted ; about the 

 year 1400 a method was devised of print- 

 ing them from blocks. To this we may 

 directly trace the art of printing. The 

 books of images form the next step. 

 These also were printed from wooden 

 blocks; one side of the leaf only is im- 

 pressed, and the corresponding text is 

 placed below, beside, or proceeding from 

 the mouth of the figure. Of these scarce 

 books, M. Lambinet mentions seven : 1. 

 Figure typicse veteris atque antitypicar 

 novi testamenti. This is the work which 

 in Germany is called the Bible of the 

 Poor, because it was originally designed 

 as an abridgment of the Bible for those 

 who could not purchase the whole scrip- 

 tures in manuscript, and who probably 

 could not read. There is one copy of this 

 work in the Bodleian Library, and ano- 

 ther at Christ's College, Cambridge. 2. 

 Historia S. Joannis Evangelists, ejusque 

 visiones apocalypticx. 3. Historia seu 

 Providentia Virginis Mariae, ex cautico 

 cauticorum. 4. Ars moriendi. 5. Ars 

 memorandi notabilis per fignras Evangi- 

 listarum. 6. Donatus, seu grammatics 

 brevis in usum scholarum conscripta. It 

 is not easy to conceive how this can be. 



