The Art & Practice of Typography / A Manual of American Printing, Including a Brief History up to the Twentieth Century, with Reproductions of the Work of Early Masters of the Craft, and a Practical Discussion and an Extensive Demonstration of the Modern Use of Type-faces and Methods of Arrangement

by Edmund G. Gress

IMAGE PRINT OF 1423
The first block print with a date

As the desire for knowledge outgrew the productive resources of the russet-gowned scribes, men with a mechanical turn of mind began to engrave pages of books on wooden blocks, a process which, tho extremely tedious, afforded a means of partly satisfying the need, and which became the stepping stone to the invention of printing with separate types. The block books, as they were called, sometimes contained whole pages of reading matter, each letter cut in relief on the face of the wood, and frequently the page included a large illustration carelessly drawn and crudely engraved. The early method of printing block books was by placing the paper on the inked surface and rubbing the back. Only one side was printed and a brown distemper ink (a kind of watercolor) was used. Simply constructed presses, prototypes of the modern hand press, were employed by block-book makers in later years. Playing cards and image prints were popular products of the block-book period, and after being printed were colored by means of stencils. A French playing card of the fifteenth century is reproduced on the preceding page, as well as a print illustrating the old legend of St. Christopher carrying the infant Jesus across a river. This last-mentioned print is dated 1423, is 8⅛ × 11¼ inches in size, and is the oldest dated specimen of printing.

The invention of printing really dates from the time books were printed from wooden blocks, altho the more important invention, that of typography (printing with separate types), is also known by the general word “printing.” The first block books, probably Donatuses, may have been printed in Holland. The “Donatus” is a Latin grammar, and received its name from its author, Ælius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the fourth century. It is a small book of not more than thirty-four pages printed on parchment, and had a large sale.

BIBLE OF THE POOR
Famous block book of the fifteenth century

There is a morbid side to human nature, and it has been with us since the beginning. Today it finds delight in perusing in the sensational newspapers detailed descriptions of murders, train wrecks, and other happenings in which blood is spilled. During the Middle Ages it prevailed, and is reflected in the pictures that have come down to us in the block books. A doleful atmosphere is present in the block book, “Ars Moriendi” (Art of Dying), whose illustrations show weeping angels and leering demons, weird settings that are magnified by the crudeness of the engravings.

TEXT PAGE FROM A BLOCK BOOK
“Ars Moriendi,” printed in the fifteenth century

The “Biblia Pauperum” ( Bible of the Poor) is another block book very popular in the days preceding the invention of typography. It is a book of about forty pages, consisting principally of illustrations of the important happenings as told in the Scriptures. The book was for the use of illiterate monks and those that did not have access to the elaborate manuscript Bibles.