Not only was the time ripe for the invention of a new method of book-making, but the materials were ready with the vital exception of type, and that was within a step of discovery. The materials are paper, ink, presses, and type. Paper is supposed to have been invented by the Chinese about the end of the first century A. D., and to have been more or less known in the East for a long time before the knowledge of it was brought to Europe. The Arabs conquered Samarkand in 751, and from this conquest it is supposed that the knowledge of paper and paper-making came to Europe by way of Spain, the greater part of which was then in the hands of the Moors, who were themselves Arabs. As early as the eleventh century there were paper mills at Valencia, Xativa, and other Moorish towns in Spain. From Spain the art of paper-making spread to Italy where we know that there was a paper mill at Fabriano before 1340, and to France where there was a mill at Troyes about the same time. Not long after we find paper-making at Nuremberg. By the middle of the century paper was familiar throughout Europe, but the use of it was not extensive. The paper of that time did not lend itself readily to writing and the makers of the manuscripts preferred the use of parchment.
Obviously, printing can not be done with writing ink. Very different qualities are necessary for the two arts, but as early as the beginning of the century special inks were being made for printing from blocks. Those inks were not exactly like those soon to be used for printing from type, but they were near enough in their general character to indicate the improvements which were needed to produce a true printer’s ink. Who invented these inks is not known, but it is generally supposed that they were invented by artists who were accustomed to the handling of color and pigments. The invention has been attributed by some to an unknown Italian painter, by others to Hubert Van Eyck, a great Dutch painter of the period. It is not probable, however, that the invention, if it can be said to be the invention of an individual, can ever be traced to its author.
The press needed was only an adaptation of a very simple machine in common use for many different purposes. The use of the press in squeezing grapes for wine, in molding cheese and squeezing out the whey, and for a great number of other purposes was so common that the problem of the exertion of pressure was already solved. Everything was ready but the type, and when one sees how far men had gone toward the use of type one wonders that the invention was not made long before it really occurred. Probably it was only waiting for the imperious demand of necessity to spur some one to the making of the necessary experiments.
CHAPTER II
Steps Toward Typography
Typographic printing, briefly defined, is printing from movable types. That is to say, it is the impression of words upon paper or other material by the use of movable types which have first been covered with ink, the inked face of the type transferring the characters to paper and producing the printed page. This includes any printing from a type form in which movable cuts may be locked up with the type, or in some cases may be used alone on the press as in printing full-page illustrations. It was this process which was invented in the middle of the fifteenth century.
The practice of making impressions upon various substances by the use of various devices prepared for that purpose goes back to the dawn of civilization. The earliest device of this sort appears to have been a seal used for impressing a device which might stand for a personal signature or indicate the official authentication of a document or other public act. These seals are found in great numbers among the most ancient remains. Two early ones from the island of Crete are shown herewith.
Ancient Seals from Crete
There are also in existence many ancient Babylonian seals. These seals were of various sorts. Sometimes the design was cut in the flat surface, leaving a raised impression when stamped upon wax, clay, or some other yielding substance. Such seals are said to be made in intaglio. Sometimes the surface is cut away leaving the designs standing out, thus making a depressed mark in the soft surface. These seals are said to be cut in relief. Sometimes the surface of the seal, instead of being flat, was a cylinder rolling on a pivot so that the impression of whichever sort it might be was made by rolling the seal with pressure over the soft substance. It is said that the Romans came very near the discovery of typographic printing. The Roman potters stamped their names letter by letter in the soft clay of their ware before it was fired. The use of dies for stamping coins and metal seals is also very ancient.
