Influence of the printing press

Royal typewriter, 1919. Source: Emory Adams, The New Knowledge Library (Chicago: The S. A. Mullikin Company, 1919)159
The invention of movable type printing had massive influence on society. As I have said previously the effect was monumental. The proliferation of printing presses, paper mills, the growth of public libraries, and the availability of knowledge changed virtually every aspect of life, especially in Europe and Britain, and from there slowly influencing the entire world.
The development of metallurgical knowledge had far reaching effects on industry and inventions.

The printing of laws and regulations led to the masses understanding the mechanism of government, standardized legislation, and lead eventually to a democratic system.

The Humanist ideas of secular scholars saw man as noble, and a part of the natural world. The beginnings of the understanding of environmentalism were sewn at that moment, whereas before that humans thought they were here to dominate nature while exorcising their original sin! (some still believe it!). The Humanists inspired philosophical and scientific inquiry as opposed to the Catholic Church's authoritative stance. The availability of so much knowledge broadened the minds of all readers. The logic of scientific process tended to negate the superstitious beliefs of the masses, and society applied these principles of logic to philosophical issues.

Exploration was helped by the printing of more and more reliable maps, as well as printed travelogues which taught people about geography, anthropology, and science.

Science grew in leaps and bounds through the building up of knowledge through being able to read what others were doing even if they lived hundreds or thousands of miles away. Also each generation could build their knowledge by ‘standing on the shoulders’ of the previous generation.

Knowledge became an affordable commodity unlike the middle ages where it was a luxury of the upper classes. This has forever changed the balance of power from an elite few to the direct influence of the citizens of each country. The previous level of ignorance before the printing press, the almost total illiteracy of the majority of people, is almost unimaginable today. The consequences of the common person being able to read and have the reading materials available are incalculable, changing the very nature of thought and decision-making forever. Every technology benefitted from the availablity of knowledge in each field.

The need to find better, faster, more economical ways to print, to make paper, and to cast typeface accelerated invention of these processes. The consequences of the invention of movable-type printing is possibly too great to list here. For instance the proliferation of readers and authors, of both fiction and non-fiction, engravers, cartoonists, journalists, librarians, printers, typesetters, paper makers, inkmakers, booksellers, etc. created a general upsurge of employment in these areas, usually in large towns or cities, and the nouveau riche became patrons of artists, as well as creating more markets for goods and services, and this modernization of society turned the status quo of the church-based culture of the middle ages upside down.

The printing of music gave musicians an unprecedented access to the works of great composers, so that musicians and composers could study these printed music scores and learn from them, inspiring both more music and innovative composing, and the distributing of new works.

The Ottoman Empire from Istanbul to the east and from the Balkans to Egypt, was a fairly enlightened society, for instance having a religious tolerance. (Their skirmishes with Persians, the area of present day Iran, stopped the western expansion of the Ottomans into Europe.)
But the Turks and Arabs banned the printing of books in Turkish or Arabic. This civilization showed little interest in other cultures outside their borders, and only paid attention to innovations in the military and naval fields. Many Turkish officials were illiterate. This disinterest in and suppression of new knowledge and inventions and ideas caused the middle east area to fall behind Europe in development for centuries. It was the French influence in Egypt in the 1800's that changed this, beginning printing in Arabic and Turkish, and a secularization and modernizing of Middle-Eastern culture started from there.

My process
Once again, I read to inform myself, and also at this point, with the amount of accumulated knowledge, could summarize from all my readings and notes, referring back to the reference books listed on past blogs as well as this new addition to my resources listed below.
I decided to decorate the side bar with clipart, and to do this I had to cut and paste the clipart, then the description, then figure out what order to put them in to the side bar, then upload them from last to first, as this seemed the only way to get them in the order I want. The blog's sidebar doesn't seem to let you move the order of the pictures around once it is in place. Also you can't just cut and paste an image, it must be either a webpage or downloaded onto your computer first.

Resources
Mansfield, P 1991, A History of the Middle East, Viking, London.

Development of public libraries

Biblioteque Nationale de France

National libraries developed at first as reference libraries. The right of deposit of one copy of every item printed in a country to the national library ensured the rapid expansion of national libraries in Europe and Britain. For instance the Biblioteque Royale of France had 6000 titles in 1622. By 1720 it had 80,000 printed volumes and 16,000 manuscripts.

Generally libraries were opened to the public only after 1800.

The national libraries acquired books by buying whole private collections, sometimes acquired books as the spoils of war, and also acquired the libraries of monasteries that were closing done. In England under Henry the 8th, the seizure of Catholic assets included the libraries.
In the French Revolution, the libraries of fleeing nobles ended up at the Biblioteque Nationale, as it was then named.
Unwanted volumes were sent to regional libraries.
England suffered a huge loss when there was a burning of books by censors around 1500-1550, even items from Cambridge and Oxford University libraries, which was a cultural catastrophe. Bodley revived the Oxford library beginning by donating his own collection, and leaving further funds to it after he died. That’s why its still known as the Bodleian Library.

The destruction of books by the Nazis if they were pro-communist or anti-Nazi, and later the destruction of work that was anti-communist and pro-Nazi by Russia are examples of the obstacles libraries have faced over the centuries. Whole libraries were destroyed during WW1 and WWII, though important works were sent to country locations and saved across Europe and England.

Of course, the printing industry changed libraries forever. Its influence is obvious in this regard.

My process
I enjoyed reading from the book listed below. Earlier this year the library at Swinburne's Prahran campus was giving away old books, and this one was too interesting for me to pass up.

Resources
Johnson, E D 1970, History of libraries in the western world, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, N.J.

Metallurgy and typefaces

Composing stick
Compositor
I understand that typefaces were first following the way handwriting had looked, but by 1470, Jensen, a master printer previously mentioned, made changes to the roman typeface that was beginning to be developed in Venice, developing a typeface that was easily read. (He then also developing ‘Italics’ a sloping typeface which could accommodate more words to a page, and somewhat resemble writing.)

The roman typeface slowly gained popularity. It was based on the ancient Latin script, and also influenced by the Carolingian (C8th) script. "Carolingian miniscule was revived during the Renaissance and has survived as our lower case letters (the capital letters come from ancient Rome)"quoted from. (The Carolingian, or Frankish, Empire of C8th preserved the classic Roman and Greek classics, and also translated some works into the vernacular) More about roman typeface and Carolingian Empire.

The humanists preferred the roman script for their books. Generally the gothic script persisted in scholarly and legal works, and also in Germanic areas where it was better understood than the roman type. For instance, Martin Luther’s first printings were in roman script, but later he used gothic as that is what the surrounding population was familiar with.

But by the year 1550, almost all books were printed with a form of roman script, for its ease of readability. The new roman type of print soon took over Europe, and the older Gothic style we see in Gutenberg’s work became obsolete.

The design of the metal mold that created the movable type is considered by some to be Gutenberg’s greatest contribution, allowing type to be accurately cast in different sizes and in large numbers. This was the technological breakthrough that made it all possible.

Throughout the centuries, master craftsmen have created typefaces that they considered aesthetic, and my understanding now is that the art of creating a beautiful and functional typeface was painstakingly developed by artistic craftsman of exceptional ability.

As cast letters wore out, metal craftsman were constantly either adding to the typefaces at a printers workshop, or creating new typefaces. The alloy of metal used to make the cast letters and the matrices (molds) was a combination of lead, tin, antimony, copper, and iron. It took great skill to mix these metals in a satisfactory way in order to produce a lasting product. They were constantly experimenting to get the best mix for clarity and durability.

The typefaces developed are names we see every day on our computer font types, for instance Garamond, Baskerville, Bodini, Italic, New Roman.

My Process -
I needed more detailed information at this point, and turned to the authoritative resource of Britannica Online. What a great source of information it is. And very user friendly as well. I found the public Britannica Online, which needs no subscription (see citation below).
I wanted to know about the development of typefaces that had been alluded to in the books I was reading, but I had not found enough detail for me to understand the historic process. Britannica Online spelled it out clearly and in detail. At this time I also received a book I had ordered from my local library, The Coming of the Book, cited below. Between these two sources I pieced together the more complete picture of the events in play at that time.
I found this great clip art sight, Clipart Etc, which has quality educational clipart. Google images lead me to this free access site, with a citation for each piece of clipart.


Resources
Composing Stick clipart
Source: William & Robert Chambers Encyclopaedia - A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1881)1151

Compositor clipart
Source: The Popular Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge (New York: F. M. Lupton, 1888)237

Febvre, L and Martin, H J 1997, The Coming of the Book, Verso, London.
Boise State University, Idaho, USA.
Roman typeface, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, viewed 1 May 2010.
Clipart ETC, Educational Technology Clearinghouse, Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. Last update: 10/12/09, viewed 1 May, 2010.

Paper

Woodblock print of paper-making
The discovery of the paper-making technique created huge changes as the quality of the product improved to be competitive with vellum. It had come from the Chinese via the Arab civilization to Europe by the 12th century. Paper was first made in Fabriano, Italy, then the process spread to other Italian cities and then across Europe. It was made from rags, hemp and flax.

The best quality was from Italy, but France became the best producer, and later, around 1700, Holland. The paper used for the Strasburg area (Gutenberg, Fust and Schofer etc.) incunabula (as the first moveable type books of pre-1500 are referred to) bear French watermarks. Paper mills grew in number as printing presses did. At one point there was a scarcity of rags, and laws prohibiting export to other countries were sometimes put in place to assure a supply for each country’s own paper mills.

Paper was much better suited to printing. By 1400 paper was a common commodity, and had taken over from vellum, but vellum and manuscript writing still prevailed for a while even after the invention of the printing press. Print was seen as a bit lower-class at first. The aesthetics and durability of manuscripts on vellum were still valued.

As an example, paper mills were set up in Britain, mainly by Huguenot refugees (protestants escaping persecution in Europe) and by the late 1600s Britain had one hundred. In Germany by the late 1700s there were 500 paper mills.

Printed books tried to look like manuscripts at first. The art of printing was constantly developed through the creation of beautiful fonts, illustrations, and the development of the art of bookbinding.

Woodblock printing, xylography, was already in use by the 13th century in Europe (from the influence of Asia), they were usually illustrations, pictures, and often of the saints or scenes from the Bible. With an illiterate population pictures were a means of passing on information, and the pictures were also used as amulets. The illustrations came to incorporate text to tell something of the subject, and after a while the text expanded.

The themes became more secular, eg the development of playing cards which started at this time. They were printed in black, then hand-painted, as were many block-prints. Satirical posters, business forms,and calendars began to appear.

Block prints were in the vernacular language, and began to be made into small books, which were still being produced after the printing press.

To beautify books, these woodblock prints were used, and this art developed into copper engravings which could give more subtle and detailed renderings, and was better suited for use in a printing press.

Interestingly, because of the travelling printers who spread out from Germany into other European countries, the art of xylography was distinctly German in style, which was influenced by the style of the various in which it was introduced.

Paper made of wood helped to accelerate paper production from the early 1800's. The sheer amount of industry involved in papermaking is a small piece of the Industrial Revolution that swept the world.

There was a backlash to all the mechanization on papermaking and printing, and craftsman such as William Morris brought back the art of handprinting on handmade paper as an artform.

My process
I wanted to find out about the development of paper at this time, as I had the feeling that there must have been dramatic changes in that industry as well. The book below had a lot of interesting information on this subject. Looking up the Encyclopedia Britannica Online was also helpful. I have used the public version of Britannica Online as it can be linked, whereas the subscription version of the Encyclopedia Britannica can't be linked as it is not available to the general public. This is also true of other subscription databases on the web.
I have realized that when dealing with historic subject matter, modern journals/online journals and articles may be of interest, but for my purposes of perceiving the overall trends of society due to the invention and development of the printing press, the development of paper, and of typefaces, my best resources have been books, encyclopedias, and some youtube videos on this history.

Resources
Febvre, L and Martin, HJ 1997, The Coming of the Book, Verso, London
Papermaking, Encyclopedia Britannica online, viewed 12 May 10