Death and the Press
While writing about the Danse macabre in a recent post I remembered this, the oldest known illustration of mechanical printing. It’s from a chapbook version of the Danse macabre printed in Lyons in 1499, at the very end of the incunabula period.
By this time printing has spread across Europe and the structure of the wooden press and the workflow of the printing house are well established. On the left of the woodcut sits the compositor, filling his tray with letters from the case. Beside him, resting on the bench, is the forme which holds the type tightly together during printing; this one looks like it holds two pages, making a folio-sized book. The page sticking up is the copy that he works from.
In the middle are the two pressmen, one waving an ink ball. These were made of treated, stuffed leather and the inker worked with one in each hand to spread the special, greasy ink on the assembled type. The third man would have operated the press itself, pulling on the wooden bar to lower the heavy platen, squeezing the paper onto the inked forme. The detail here is very good—the large wooden screw in the top of the press is clear and the press stone, which holds the forme and slides in and out for easy access, is visible. The press is also accurately shown as being stabilized via beams attached to the ceiling. The image on the right is a stationer’s shop, which were sometime attached to printing houses.
On a side note, one has to feel for the poor inker: with his colleagues dead and work at a standstill he’s loosing a day’s wages. No wonder he’s yelling.
Of course, printing hadn’t been invented when the Danse macabre became popular in the late fourteenth century. The inclusion of new technology into an old illustrative tradition shows that book designers were innovative even when copying older manuscript forms. And I imagine that it was a fun bit of self-referential black humor to the printers, known for being a bawdy, jovial lot.
This wasn’t the last time death would appear allegorically in the printing house. The illustration below is from a Danse macabre published at Lyons in 1568, nearly seventy years later, though the date of the woodcut itself is uncertain as they were often reused. It’s a copy of the 1499 image, and though this artist was less talented, he seems to have been as familiar with the print shop as was his predecessor. He has included details that are unclear or not visible in the older woodcut, such as the second ink ball, the platen, and the forme on the press stone; and he’s made the halfway finished forme next to the compositor four-pages (quarto-sized) rather than copying the two-page forme above.
Just a note: The 1499 woodcut is very well-known, but I discovered the second through a short article titled ‘An Early Picture of a Printing Press’ by William M. Ivins in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 19, 1924.
Filed under dance of death, danse macabre, handpress, incunabula, movable type, printers, printing, printing history | Comment (0)Movable Type at the Olympics
Fellow SHARPist and blogger Von Totanes has found a YouTube video of the movable type section of the Olympic opening ceremony. It’s just a film of a television, so the quality isn’t stellar, but you can get an idea of the show. No guarantees on how long this will be up, though; they’re removing Olympic videos right and left.
Filed under China, bejing, movable type, olympics, opening ceremony, youtube | Comment (0)Links
Tons of links this week!
— So, the Olympic opening ceremony! The very beautiful first half of the show featured ancient Chinese paper and printing technology, including a giant LED scroll, human calligraphy, a troop of dancers dressed as Confucian disciples carrying bamboo scrolls, and a truly amazing homage to movable type. (I certainly never thought that I would hear an NBC announcer talking about “movable printing.”) Unfortunately I, and it seems no one else, can find any video online. So check out this BBC page for photos (they captured more of the book history stuff than NBC or CNN). If you want to take a shot with video here’s the Wired guide to watching the Olympics online.
— Hoefler & Frere-Jones point out the intensely beautiful work of typographer and graphic designer Janno Hahn. Do check out the gallery on Hahn’s website. I will probably make some desktops for my computer from these images.
— Acephalous discusses the 1934 obscenity case that was decided in favour of Ulysses.
— PhiloBiblos and Upward Departure report on the sentencing of Richard Delaney, an electrician who stole £89,000 worth of rare materials from the Birmingham University Library. Apparently the guy claimed he was going to read and then return them?! Terrible.
— Morbid Anatomy shares some wonderfully creepy images from The Dances of Death Through the Various Stages by Hans Holbein the Younger reproduced as copperplate engravings by Dabid Deuchar in 1803.
— Satirical maps of World War I at BibliOdyssey.
Bookride continues a great series called “Where Do You Get These Books?” This week’s installment is on the perils and pleasures of Book Towns.
— Book Patrol farewells skilled marbler Ann Muir.
— The Exile Bibliophile gets the prize for discovering the best toy ever. If only I had several hundred extra dollars lying around.
— Hoefler & Frere-Jones also point us to an awesome pencil collection website. I have to stop looking before I drool on the keyboard.
— The New York Times presents a sideshow titled “Book Ads: The Golden Age, 1962-1973. Via Quillblog.
Filed under Ann Muir, China, Dances of Death, Hans Holbein, Richard Delaney, Ulysses, art, book ads, book history, book theft, book towns, bookmobile, books, death, design, lawsuits, links, marbeling, movable type, obscenity, olympics, pencils, printing history, scrolls, toys, typography | Comment (0)