A Brief History
of
Printing
For Students in Printing Classes of Public SchoolsSPECIAL COLLECTIONS
THE LIBRARY OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELESA BRIEF
HISTORY OF PRINTING
PREPARED FOR STUDENTS IN THE PRINTING CLASSES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY JOHN MCINTYRE MURRAY INSTRUCTOR IN PRINTING LOS ANGELES SCHOOLSCopyright, 1923, by John M. MurrayA Brief History of Printing
The desire to perpetuate human thought and action brought about the earliest known initiative of human endeavor. Before the thought of a permanent record had begun to take shape in men’s minds, oral tradi-tion, passing from father to son, and from generation to generation, sought to keep alive the memory of great achievements and valorous deeds. But tradi-tion proved itself untrustworthy. Reports were often imperfect, misleading, exaggerated. As the races advanced in learning and civilization, they realized that something more permanent and accur-are was necessary; that without written records of some sort there could be little, if any, progress, since each generation must begin practically where the preceding one had begun, and pass through the same stages of ignorance and inexperience.
Primitive Methods of Recording
In this strait, men sought help from Nature, and found in the huge rocks and boulders, shaped by her mighty forces, a means of perpetuating notable events in the histories of nations and the lives of individuals. From the setting up of stones to commemorate great deeds and solemn covenants, it was but a step to the hewing of obelisks, upon which the early races carved their hieroglyphs. Most of the ancient obelisks have crumbled away to dust, but a few fragmentary specimens are still in existence.
As the obelisk had taken the place of the rude stones and unwieldly boulders which marked man’s first effort to solve an ever-recurring problem, so it in turn was superseded. The temples were sacred places, especially fitted to become the repositories of the records that were to preserve for coming
[3]A Brief History of Printing
generations the great deeds of kings and priests. Accordingly, the pictured stories of great events were graven on stone panels in the temple walls, or on slabs or tablets of the same enduring material.
Introduction of Tablets
Then came a forward step to the easier and cheaper method of writing on soft clay. A careful baking, either by artificial heat or in the burning rays of a tropic sun, rendered the clay tablets very enduring, so that many which have been dug from ancient ruins are now in a very remarkable state of preservation, bearing letters and figures as clear as any of the inscriptions on marble, stone, or metal that have come to us from the splendid days of Greece and Rome. The people of Assyria, Babylonia and Chaldea recorded almost every transaction, whether public or private in character, upon tablets of clay, forming thus a faithful transcript of their daily lives and occupations, which may be read today by those who hold the key.
We get a glimpse of another side of that ancient life in a tablet of Nile clay, preserved in the British Museum, which is one of the earliest specimens of writing now in existence. It is a proposal of marriage, and was written about 1530 B.C., more than thirty-four hundred years ago, by a Pharaoh asking for the hand of a daughter of the Babylonian king. Forty years later, in 1491 B.C., the ten commandments were graven on tablets of stone.
The works of Homer, preserved in one of the Egyptian libraries in the days of the Ptolemies, were written in letters of gold on skins of serpents. Ivory was used, also wood and the bark of trees. In the early days of Rome, the reports of notable events were engraved on wooden tablets, which
[4]A Brief History of Printing
were then exposed to view in public places, and citizens of all classes, mingling freely, according to custom, in the great Forum that was the center of the city’s life, were easily and quickly informed of the important happenings of the day. The greatest defect in this method was remedied when, later on, wax was used to form a surface upon the wood, thus admitting of corrections and erasures, and making it possible to use the same tablet indefinitely, simply by scraping off the coating after it had served its purpose, and supplying other coatings as they were needed. But the first real advance toward modern writing materials came in the use of the leaves of olive, palm, poplar and other trees, which were prepared by being cut into strips, soaked in boiling water and then rubbed over wood to make them soft and pliable.
It will be readily understood, however, that these crude materials and primitive methods could not long keep pace with the steady march of progress. The peoples of the earth were increasing rapidly; they were advancing in the arts and sciences, and in the experiences that inspire thought, poetry and philosophy; they had a heritage of knowledge to which they were constantly adding, while business transactions, together with other deeds worthy of record, had greatly multiplied. It was but natural that the materials which had once been entirely adequate should now be discarded as cumbersome and unfitted to the new conditions.
Origin of Paper
What was to take the place of the old and cumbersome materials ? Even at a very early date men were asking this question, and it was the good fortune of Egypt to give answer. Along the marshy
[5]A Brief History of Printing
banks of the Nile grew a graceful water-plant, the papyrus, now almost extinct, which was peculiarly fitted to meet the new demands. The discovery of its value led to an extensive industry, through which the land of the Pharaohs was enabled to take high rank in letters and learning, and to maintain a position of wealth, dignity, power and influence that otherwise would have been impossible, even in those remote days when printing was still many centuries beyond the thoughts or dreams of men.
As early as 2000 B. C., or five hundred years before Moses led the children of Israel out of bondage, there was made from its smooth green stems a material called by the same name, papyrus, a kind of crude paper, which came into universal use. The papyrus, a tall, smooth-stemmed reed of triangular form, grew to a height of from six to ten feet and terminated in a tufted plume of leaves and flowers. The early Egyptians split the stock of the plant in two, peeled off the pellicle in layers; and after drying and overlapping them, they glued them together with an adhesive, thus producing sheets or leaves.
Parchment and Vellum
Following the making of papyrus came the manufacture of parchment (sheepskin) and vellum (calfskin), the use of which in diplomas and certain public documents continues to the present time.
The finest vellum is prepared from the youngest and smallest calves, and it is the most beautiful and suitable material for writing or printing that has ever been found. The surface is singularly even offering little or no resistance to a pen, so that every sort of handwriting, square and round, is put upon it with equal ease. Vellum has one fault alone, particularly when bound in book form as distinct
[6]
A Brief History of Printing
from a roll, and this is that the edges are apt to cockle, and by so doing they not only make the pages look ugly, but they also admit the dust.
Parchment and vellum were both well-known to the ancients, but their value as material for writing upon does not seem to have been fully acknowledged until the second century B. C., until which period papyrus had held undisputed pre-eminence for that purpose.
As the age of stone, the carved obelisk, the clay tablet, and other crude materials was outgrown, so was that of papyrus, parchment and vellum. With the next step forward came paper, and the improvements in its manufacture with regard to the quality, variety and increase of production, have kept pace with the varying and growing demands. It is not given us to know what the future may bring forth, but paper seems likely to hold sway until the end of time.
Early Specimens of Writing
From the sixth to the thirteenth century the ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic church held all the keys of scholastic knowledge. The work of copying manuscripts and increasing libraries was made a life-long business in all the monasteries.
The demand for books was so great, and increasing so rapidly, that all sorts of men endeavored to make books by some other method than slowly and toilsomely writing, on parchment or vellum, one book at a time.
Some of these men took blocks of wood, perhaps ash, cherry, pine or basswood, cut letters and pictures on them and printed them in cider or cheese presses. These were called block-books. Wood-carvers took the page blocks and cut out the words and with
71־1A Brief History of Printing
them made up other pages. Then they cut out the letters separately and combined them into words and pages again.
These words and letters were very uneven and awkward to handle. When composed into pages they did not hang together very well. So, some men cut out square blocks of wood — little pegs — and cut letters on them. Others used square pegs of lead or other metal.
A few books were printed in these crude ways and some of them were very beautiful, because the men who did the work were artistic in temperament and very careful. Probably the books were much cheaper than the written ones, and a number could be printed quite rapidly (for those times) from one set of blocks.
Historically, the block-books are traced to China, where they are found dating back to the tenth century. In 1295 some of these tablets or blocks were brought to Venice; but printing from blocks was already familiar to the manufacturing people of Europe in the preparation of fabrics.
In the Low Countries, as early as 1418, playing cards were printed from blocks, also figures of saints and the accompanying legends or texts.
Origin of the Alphabet
It is interesting to know that our alphabet was also used by the people of the Orient and the East and West Mediterranean thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The small country that was once Aramaea, receives most of the credit for originating the alphabet. The seafaring people of that period were the Phoenicians, who introduced the alphabet to the Greeks. As civilization moved westward the alphabet followed its course and in reach-A Brief History of Printing
ing the Romans it was revised and with a few corrections is the same alphabet that we use today.
Development of the Alphabet
Our present types show two alphabets: One, the capital letters, are of Roman origin; the other, the small or lower-case letters, are an evolution from the upper-case or capital letters. Use of the pen and brush in lettering and the tendency to letter rapidly finally gave us the lower-case characters. Early printers copied these from Latin manuscripts.
Roman capitals, with the exception of J, U, and W, are the letters which were used for inscriptions on stone by the Romans, and have come down to us without change. The J, U, and W were added to the alphabet later when their introduction was found expedient. Roman capitals have a single height and many features in common, among which may be mentioned the slightly decorative finials with which the lines are finished. This part of a letter is called the serif.
Our capital letters have developed themselves on different lines. They are like the ancient Roman types, which in the twelfth century had modified themselves somewhat and become very clear, and these forms commended themselves to the scribes of the Renaissance period, and underwent still more improvement in details. The early type-cutters who formed their letters directly after the shapes of letters written by hand, soon saw that these capitals were not only easy to cut but were in every way the best they could find to copy.
It should be noted that the forms of letters have always been much influenced by the manner in which they could be most easily made. It is easier to cut a square form of letter on stone than a
[9]A Brief History of Printing
cursive form, so we find that the majority of rock or stone inscriptions favor the square form rather than the rounded form of letter. We derive our angular forms of letters from the distant past, but the rounded forms are adapted from the later times of papyrus or vellum, when reed or pen writing was practised.
The Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, like other characters used by the printer, have passed through an evolutionary process. These signs were first introduced into Europe in the twelfth century by the Arabians. They were not, however, invented by that people, but were derived by them from Hindustan. The characters were originally the initial letters of Sanskrit names for the nine digits, one, two, three, etc., but have undergone considerable changes of form. The cipher was originally a dot, it being used as a mere arbitrary sign to mark a place of local value.
Invention of Printing
By the invention of printing we mean particularly the invention of movable metal type. This invention is generally attributed to Johann Gutenberg in the city of Mainz, Germany, about 1445. It was with the discovery of this step in the process of development of the art that the industry became of real value to the world.
Some Dutch historians have advanced the tale that Laurens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, Holland, printed books; one day a servant left him, carrying the ideas to Germany. But this story was not told until after Gutenberg had passed away. Coster is first mentioned in a history of Batavia, printed in the year 1566, one hundred years after the death of Gutenberg. The fact remains that before the first
[10]A Brief History of Printing
century of the invention had elapsed Gutenberg was accepted everywhere as the inventor by authoritative historians.
Gutenberg as an Engraver
As a youth Gutenberg became skilled in the cutting of precious stones and fashioning of metals and wood. He took a piece of metal and engraved a letter on one end of it. This was the letter-punch.* The punch was tempered and then the end with the letter was hammered into a piece of copper about an eighth of an inch thick. This, after dressing, became a matrix or mould for the face of a type.
The type-caster would fasten the matrix below the type-mould, after adjusting the mould to the proper width of the letter to be cast. Then the type-metal was poured in and the pieces of the mould loosened a little so the type could be thrown out with a little jerk of the hand.
Here was another trouble. Most metals shrink when cooling after being melted. Other minerals were then added to the lead to harden and make it swell when cooling. Tin hardened it, and antimony swelled it. The swelling made it fill all the comers of the mould and gave a clear, sharp printing surface to the type.
A good illustration of the type-mould can be made by bending two pieces of brass rule at right angles, and placing them together like this:
*For hundreds of years every letter of type was made by means of a punch.
[11]A Brief History of Printing
By sliding the ends closer together or farther apart, type cast between them would be the same size up and down, but of different widths, like the letter I and the letter W.
With type cast in these moulds from the new alloy, it was easy to set straight lines of type and make them up into nice even pages.
With type so cast, Johann Gutenberg and his assistant, Peter Schoeffer, set up and partly printed two massive volumes of the so-called “forty-two-line” or Mazarin Bible.*
Inventor; Improver; Promoter
Three men, Gutenberg, the scientist, engraver and mechanic; Schoeffer, the scholar, copyist and hand-illuminator; and Fust, the promoter, produced four things which made possible the manufacture of movable metal type that was accurate enough to be set quite easily, beautiful in design, and durable enough to print a large number of impressions. These four things were:
1.	The letter-punch.
2.	The type-mould.
3.	The matrix.
4.	The type-metal (an alloy).
Some of the books printed by the early printers were as finely composed and as well printed as the best work of the modern masters of the craft. These old masters, with infinite care and skill, and a consuming love for their art, gave to posterity matchless volumes of printing, which are today an inspiration for all printers who love their work.
*A few copies of this precious book may be found in the libraries of Europe and America today.
[12]A Brief History of Printing
Gutenberg is believed to have been born at Mainz, Germany, about 1399. His name is found in the records of Strasbourg in 1434-1436. In that city he is supposed to have worked on his invention of typography, and certain fragments of printing (and perhaps the beginning of his great Bible) are supposed to have been done by him before he entered into a partnership in Mainz in 1450, which ended 1455 in a law suit, decided adversely to Gutenberg. We are on firm ground here, as the record of the law suit is the first absolute proof that Gutenberg was actually printing.
Although of noble birth Gutenberg was comparatively a poor man. He interested a promoter, named Fust, with the importance of the work, who loaned 2,000 florins to carry on improvements in the new discovery. Dissension arose in the partnership; Fust foreclosed the mortgage and through intrigue had Gutenberg banished from the country for political and religious reasons.
Fust and his son-in-law, Peter Schoeffer, continued the work of Gutenberg and it is possible that they completed the Bible of “forty-two-lines” begun by Gutenberg.
Upon his return Gutenberg started another printing house, using types cast from the same matrices he had used in his partnership with Fust. In 1465 his second plant was in operation at Eltvill, a village near Mainz.
Strange to say, Gutenberg’s name does not appear on any printed work, and only in one book ascribed to him do we find any allusion to the invention and in that his name is not mentioned. We think of him as a man of large ideas and small means, accomplishing much, credit of which was begrudged him by those who in the end achieved wealth and
[13]A Brief History of Printing
fame through their connection with him and his wonderful invention.
Gutenberg’s failure in self-advertisement may be explained by assuming that he, like many other inventors, did not fully realize the vast future importance of its economy with the pen-made and (sometimes) hand-illuminated books, which in the fifteenth century were produced by influential guilds in those few regions of Europe which had received a stimulus from the new birth of learning that began in Italy a half century before. Typography was to be a substitute for the old method of making books, which in Gutenberg’s time had reached its highest and still unapproached standard of good taste and beauty. Gutenberg could claim that his method made the cheaper books better, but probably thought that typographic books could not equal the better pen-made books.
In 1465 Gutenburg was made one of the gentlemen of the court to Adolph II., Archbishop of Mainz, and presumably abandoned his printing on acceding to this dignity. He died in 1468.
Printing — The Bridge of Time
Printing with movable metal types divulged to the masses the ancient classics, which had been locked up in monasteries for centuries and accessible only to clerics and the nobility. The common people began to read. Education then became popularized.
As an art per se printing is doubtless inferior to painting or sculpture, but the latter arts are merely evidences of civilization, while printing, an art which antedates both, is the creator of civilization. The type-printed book is an evolution from the palm-leaf book of the earliest Aryan civilization, the paper-
[14]A Brief History of Printing
leaf book of the Chinese civilization, the clay-leaf book of the Assyrian civilization, the papyrus-leaf book of the Egyptian, Grecian and Roman civilization, and the parchment-leaf book of the medieval period. Each land had progressed towards printed literature, obedient to its natural limitations.
Printing-Press Introduced
When the printing-press was first used is not known, but the printing of block-books would no doubt have suggested some sort of board-press long before types were used in Europe. A block-book might be printed by hand only, but it would be a troublesome and laborious process, and the use of a flat padded board to put over the whole block and press upon it seems obvious enough, and the screw-press evolved itself out of some such expedient. After inking the type form with an ink-maul (a ball of leather stuffed with wool), the printer spread the paper over it, laying a piece of blanket upon the paper to soften the impression of the platen and remove inequalities. This was the machine which Gutenburg used. The mechanical principle embodied in it was found in the old cheese and wine presses common in the houses in medieval times. This simple form of wooden press, worked with a screw by means of a movable bar, continued in use for about three hundred and sixty years.
Origin of Ink
The origin of ink belongs to an era following the invention of writing, and data set forth as to this are variously ascribed to early Egyptians, who produced hieroglyphs 4000 B. C.; also to the Chinese 3000 B. C. But it is well known that the Greeks were early practitioners of this art in 1800 B. C.
[15]A Brief History of Printing
Antique ink included the use of a variety of dyes and pigmentary colors, which were also employed in the ancient art of dyeing, in which the early Egyptians excelled. The Bible often makes mention of black and brilliant hues, the original Hebrew word being deyo, so-called because of its dense blackness.
Arabian methods for the manufacture of ink were to a degree complex. Lampblack was first made by the burning of oil, tar or rosin, which was then mixed with gum and honey, afterwards being pressed into small cakes, to which water could be added when desired for use.
About 1200 B.C., the Chinese perfected an India ink for blackening the surface of raised hieroglyphs. This was obtained from a soot produced by smoke of pine and the oil in lamps, mixed with a gelatin produced from goat skins, and a musk to modify the odor from the oil.
Later, various colors were originated and developed from the manufacture of crude inks. Each of the variegated hues had a symbolical meaning in these early times, and it is remarkable how closely the religious portent clings to the colors. Green was the emblem of freshness, vigor and prosperity. Blue was the symbol of revelation—a celestial color among the heathen nations; among the Hebrews it was recognized as a Jehovah color—the symbol of a revered God, hence a predominant color in Mosaic ceremonies. Purple was generally associated with the dress of kings—with ideas both regal and majestic. Crimson and scarlet, from their resemblance to blood, were regarded as symbolical of life.
Later, in Christian times, only five colors were recognized as fitting for theological meaning and expression — these being white, red, green, violet and black. White was esteemed as being the union
[16]A Brief History of Printing
of all the rays of light—often referred to as a symbol of spotless purity and truth. Red was emblematic of both fire and love, while green, from its relation to vegetable life, was suggestive of life and hope. Violet was considered the color of penitence and sorrow. Blue was forbidden except as a color appropriate to the Virgin Mary. Black in its relationship to death and sorrow had a more mournful association and for that very good reason was far less popular.
Miscellaneous Notes on the Art
The first composing sticks were one measure and carved out of wood, hence the name ‘ ‘ stick. ’ ’
The first book bearing a date was a Latin Psalter, printed in 1455. Previous to this date no printer had either signed or dated his books.
A pulled letter on a form printed at Cologne, in 1476, left an imprint on the page which shows the side of a type. This type had a profile similar to that of present day type.
A beautiful specimen of printing done in the fifteenth century is a Latin Bible, now the property of the Santa Barbara Mission. The book is dated 1493, and was printed by Antone Koberger, in the city of Nuremberg, Germany.
A. B. McCallister, of Young & McCallister, Los Angeles, who is a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, is the owner of one leaf (two printed pages), from an original copy of Gutenberg’s Mazarin Bible, known as the “forty-two-line ’ ’ Bible. It is beautifully printed, two columns to the page, on hand-made paper with an exceedingly clear watermark.
[17]A Brief History of Printing
Joseph Moxon, the English type founder, issued the first dated specimen sheet of types in 1693, and in 1734, William Caslon issued his first broadside specimen of printing types.
Italy’s greatest printer was Aldus Manutius. After being educated in Rome he moved to Venice, and opened the most complete printing house of that period. It was here that he began his publishing career with the issue of a Greek grammar. Manutius is accredited with the introduction of italic type.
Manutius was the first printer to introduce a regular system of punctuation. In the infancy of the art, the virgule, a slanting mark, supplied the comma. Colons and periods are found in the work of all the early printers. By slow degrees point after point was added by various printers, the chief signs being taken from Greek and Latin manuscripts.
William Caxton, one of England’s famous printers, was born 1421. He was sent to school, which was a very uncommon occurrence in those days. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a mercer, showing that his parents belonged to the merchant class. Ten years later he became governor of the merchants. He resigned and went into the service of the Duchess of Burgundy. While in her service he was urged to translate a book from French into English. He finished translating it in the city of Cologne. While there he came in contact with, and learned, the art of printing. The demand for these books was so great that he could not finish them by manuscript. This naturally turned him to the new art. He returned to England with type and a press, establishing a print-shop in the city of Bruges about 1474. He died in 1491.
[18]A Brief History of Printing
The art was brought to the new world in 1540, when a press was started in Mexico. The first press in the United States was set up in North Cambridge, Mass., in 1638. The first book from this press is supposed to be The Freeman’s Oath, but its most famous publication was John Elliott’s Indian Bible, a few copies of which are still in existence.
Benjamin Franklin, America’s greatest printer, born 1706, was a brilliant and versatile man, being a philosopher, scientist, statesman, printer and inventor. He printed a small pamphlet called Poor Richard’s Almanack, advertising his business, which contained many wise sayings. Later, in 1728, he founded the Pennsylvania Gazette, which developed into The Saturday Evening Post, now the oldest publication in existence in America.
Frederick Konig invented the first roller press where inking was done by rollers. This was in 1811. Later, Konig made a double-cylinder press for the London Times.
The function of the proof-reader, so often criticized and so often praised, dates almost from the beginning of printing. At first the printers, who were men of no little education themselves, revised their own proofs. After the invention of typography, however, the responsibility for textual accuracy was specifically assigned to an individual who was in no way concerned with the more mechanical processes of typesetting and presswork.
The phrase, “printer’s devil,’’ is attributed to two sources: Aldus Manutius, of Venice, printer to the Holy Church, who lived 1450-1515, brought a negro boy from Africa to work in his shop and deliver completed work. The people of Venice were
[19]A Brief History of Printing
superstitious and believed the boy was an emissary of Satan—a little black imp. Like most apprentices his face was more or less bespattered with ink. Thus he received the title of “printer’s devil.’’ To prove the boy was human, Aldus printed a placard explaining that his apprentice was a human being very much alive, that all doubters might come and converse with him and be convinced.
Another story is that William Caxton, the English printer, engaged as apprentice a French boy named DeVille. He, like other printer apprentices, usually had an inky countenance and thereby earned the title “printer’s devil.’’A Brief History of Printing
Below is the first mark known to be used by a printer and appeared in a Bible printed in 1462, by John Fust and Peter Schoeffer, printers at Mainz. There are various explanations of the meaning of the device, but it needs no other significance than that given to it by Pollard in his “Essay on Colophons, ’ ’ who wrote:
.... But here on the authority of the printer who first used one, we have a clear indication of the reason which made him put his mark in a book—the simple reason that he was proud of his craftmanship and wished it to be recognized as his.
[21]The Art Preservative
Printing is the bridge of time uniting yesterday with today, and over which passes most of the world’s history, and by which we record the world’s progress, valor, aims and great
achievements. •

[22]
Masters of Their Art
What Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt were to painting, and Verdi and Beethoven were to music, so too, were Gutenberg, Coster, Schoeffer and Fust to the art of printing. They were all masters.
[23]Acknowledgement
The compiler of this history acknowledges indebtedness to
Herbert B. Andrews (history and revision). Club of Printing House Craftsmen (cut).
A. B. McCallister (history and revision).
John S. Pinney
The Inland Printer (history).
Myrtle J. Strawn (revision).
Printing Classes of Thirtieth Street Junior High School, Los Angeles (type composition, presswork, binding).