From Xylographs to Lead Molds; A.D. 1440-A.D. 1921

by H. C. Forster

E-text prepared by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

FROM XYLOGRAPHS
TO LEAD MOLDS

AD 1440 AD 1921

Copyright, 1921
The Rapid Electrotype Company
Cincinnati, Ohio

FOREWORD

Printing has been called “the art preservative of all arts.” The invention of individual movable cast-metal type, between A. D. 1440 and 1446, made printing a commercial possibility.

The subsequent rapid spread of the art, in the hands of students and craftsmen, may be said to have been the centrifugal force of the Renaissance and the Revival of Learning, which age, if it can be chronologically delimited, began A. D. 1453.