The method of making these printed blocks was most 

 simple. The scribe wrote with ink upon thin, trans- 

 parent paper, which was pasted face downwards upon 

 the wooden surface to be engraved. The engraver 

 then cut out all the spaces between the black marks, 

 leaving the type surface of the manuscript, from which 

 impressions could be taken. It is quite possible that 

 some form of movable types also was used for purposes of 

 printing at this time; but, as suggested a moment ago, 

 the Chinese method of writing by symbols instead of by 

 the use of an alphabet does not lend itself to the use of 

 movable types as do the Western languages. And even 

 to-day a great deal of the printing in China is done from 

 engraved blocks not unlike the slabs used by the uni- 

 versity students two thousand years ago. 



THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN THE WEST 



It is not an easy matter to determine who was the first 

 person in the European world to conceive the idea 

 of printing from movable types. There are several 

 claimants, most of them from among the people in the 

 north of Europe; but it seems all but certain that the 

 first book actually printed from movable types came 

 from the shop of Johannes Gutenberg, of Mainz, 

 Germany, about the year 1450. He is generally re- 

 garded, therefore, as the "father of printing"; and 

 despite the claims made on behalf of others, Gutenberg 

 is likely to retain his place in history as the first printer. 



The book he printed was very appropriately the Bible ; 

 and his press was about the simplest, as well as the first, 



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