Chapter 5

Chapter five was all about the progression of typography in Europe and a lot about Johann Guntenberg, who is responsible for the development of the systems needed to print a typographic book. Typography is the printing of materials with independent, movable and reusable pieces of metal or wood with a raised letterform on each piece. Woodblock printing was the first kind to reach Europe from China. Playing cards were popular and devotional prints of saints became the first block printings with communicational functions, which soon became block books with religious writings and pictures that gradually left the form while literacy increased. Some were colored by hand or stencils and sometimes had tinsel, incrustations, or flocking to add luminosity to the picture. Johann Gutenberg started out as an apprentice to a goldsmith where he learned the techiniques required to make the movable type he created. His choice of letterform was a compact, square textura style and he used capital and small letters, numbers and ligatures in his printing. Each form was punched into a copper or brass matrix by steel for his type mold. He also created his own alloy of lead, tin and antimony for the type so that it would not expand and contract when heated and cooled, as well as his own linseed oil ink. His biggest project was the printing of the Bible, the first typographic book. Others that followed were a Latin psalter that displayed elaborate, two-colored initials and was the first book to have a printer's trademark, imprint and printed date of publication and a second had a small type style that conserved space as well as increased the amount of text per page. Copperplate engraving was developed around the same time as movable type by the Master of the Playing Cards, who designed a set of playing cards as his finest works. His skill showed that he had already mastered engraving and wasn't trying to perfect something new. There is some speculation as to whether or not Gutenberg also had something to do with engravings.
I found the way they added decoration to the block books was intersting. They would print with paste sprinkeled with bits of metal, colored quartz crystals, or powered wool to add interest to pictures. It would almost be like a work of art or it reminds me of those touch and feel books with different textures.
When Gutenberg printed the Bible did he copy one directly that was already written (word for word) and did he have pictures?