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Why didn't Europeans before Gutenberg print with woodblocks?
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Before the invention of the printing press and movable type (and some related innovations) by Johannes Gutenberg, books in Europe were generally only reproduced if someone copied them by hand.
In China, woodblock printing had existed for hundreds of years at that time. There was a flourishing industry of printed books, most of which did not use movable type.
Woodblock printing was known in Europe, and examples of pictures made with that technique exist from before Gutenberg's time. Books became widespread after Gutenberg, so there was a market for them.
Why didn't Europeans create books with woodblocks? If some examples of such books exist, why didn't they become widespread?
europe cultural-history printing
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
Before the invention of the printing press and movable type (and some related innovations) by Johannes Gutenberg, books in Europe were generally only reproduced if someone copied them by hand.
In China, woodblock printing had existed for hundreds of years at that time. There was a flourishing industry of printed books, most of which did not use movable type.
Woodblock printing was known in Europe, and examples of pictures made with that technique exist from before Gutenberg's time. Books became widespread after Gutenberg, so there was a market for them.
Why didn't Europeans create books with woodblocks? If some examples of such books exist, why didn't they become widespread?
europe cultural-history printing
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
up vote
5
down vote
favorite
Before the invention of the printing press and movable type (and some related innovations) by Johannes Gutenberg, books in Europe were generally only reproduced if someone copied them by hand.
In China, woodblock printing had existed for hundreds of years at that time. There was a flourishing industry of printed books, most of which did not use movable type.
Woodblock printing was known in Europe, and examples of pictures made with that technique exist from before Gutenberg's time. Books became widespread after Gutenberg, so there was a market for them.
Why didn't Europeans create books with woodblocks? If some examples of such books exist, why didn't they become widespread?
europe cultural-history printing
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
Before the invention of the printing press and movable type (and some related innovations) by Johannes Gutenberg, books in Europe were generally only reproduced if someone copied them by hand.
In China, woodblock printing had existed for hundreds of years at that time. There was a flourishing industry of printed books, most of which did not use movable type.
Woodblock printing was known in Europe, and examples of pictures made with that technique exist from before Gutenberg's time. Books became widespread after Gutenberg, so there was a market for them.
Why didn't Europeans create books with woodblocks? If some examples of such books exist, why didn't they become widespread?
europe cultural-history printing
europe cultural-history printing
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
asked 3 hours ago
KWeiss
26615
26615
I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago
I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
2
active
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up vote
3
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Partial answer
In fact, the earliest printing technology wasn’t for written text at all. There are silk fragments from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China that have flowers printed on them using a woodcut illustration. Woodblock printing, aka xylography, can be used for printing words as well, but it has a number of downsides: it’s hard to create very precise images, and the block degrades over time from use, the wood softening and wearing down. Plus it’s all well and good to carve a page of text into wood . . . but when it comes time to print page two, you have to start all over again. And while there are ways to edit if you make a mistake, on the whole, it’s pretty inflexible. M. Brennan
There is a tension between what Ms. Brennan (Dr. Brennan?) states and OP's question - she implies that xylography was not used for books, but for art. (and elsewhere in her essay she suggests that the nature of ideographic writing is ill suited to xylography.
Wikipedia suggests that many copies of a few books were printed - which reconciles some of the tension between OP & Brennan.
I don't have an answer, but I'm posting this in the hopes that it may help someone else to develop a better answer.
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
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up vote
3
down vote
First I would say that in medieval period the demand for books was lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out woodblock that could only be used for one page whereas you already mentioned the crucial innovation for European book printing Gutenberg represents: moveable type! Xylography is expensive. Although that is just one societal pre-condition for a breakthrough, or in this case: explosion.
For the demand part, cf Lotte Hellinga: "The Gutenberg Revolutions", p207–219, in: Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds): "A Companion to
The History of the Book", Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 2007. And:
The emergence of a literate middle class in the later Middle Ages created a demand for new types of books. These tended to be popular works of a recreational or technical nature, which were often in the vernacular. We know very little about the beginnings of the book trade outside of the monasteries and universities, but certainly there was an independent trade by the late twelfth century. University stationers were free to engage in outside trade and no doubt did so. Books seem most often to have been made to order, but also occasionally for speculation--with no specific buyer in mind. Some orders were large: in 1437 a wholesale bookseller sent an order to a scriptorium in the Low Countries for 200 copies of the Seven Penitential Psalms, 200 copies of Cato's Disticha in Flemish, and 400 copies of a small prayer book.
Richard W. Clement: "Medieval and Renaissance book production", Utah State University Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10, 1997. (Online)
Keep in mind that a woodblock in action seems like a great time and cost saver compared to a slow scribe. But that block needs to be perfect. One error and you need a whole other block to start from scratch.
Then there is a slight misconception apparent in how the question is framed. It is correct to describe Gutenberg's innovation as printing (with moveable type). But one of the things he 'stole' to combine it into something fresh was that he took a press from wine making for his purposes.
This press and its great forces is the biggest cause for wearing out a woodcut so quickly. Using much less force – doing that by hand – is called a rubbing. This technique was apparently used by ancient Egyptians and never seized to be used on a variety of materials.
That leas to the supply side of the equation. It features the materials needed. Vellum, parchment and papyrus are not really well suited for printing and paper was late to the party in Europe. Earliest book on paper, partially, and imported, seems to be the Missal of Silos, dated to 1151.
Second: but they did:
A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines … cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures … with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.
WP: Woodblock printing
Or put in another way:
The so-called wood plate printing belongs to the common printing technique of the 14th century. It was popular in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and was used to print any kind of text on paper.
Ein frühes Druckverfahren – der Holztafeldruck (my translation)
It is just that Gutenberg's invention (let's call it like that for the purpose of this question) was so disruptive that we now tend to overlook 2 centuries of printing presses in Europe, because of their small scale.
Exactly dating this block printing of whole books seems contested. But it seems to be at least accepted by some between before 1420 and 1451.
If we had as many early prints as we have Greek pots, we would ont have to guess about practically all the beginnings of printmaking
First dated prints
Few early prints can be dated precisely. A Dutch Madonna has 1418 carved on the block, but the surviving impression is too heavily painted and damaged to reproduce clearly. The next preserved date, 1423, occurs on a south German Saint Christopher, whose drapery flows in the wind as it then did in paintings. (After about 1460 northern drapery straightens out and
and breaks at angles.) The earliest datable Italian print was the subject of a miracle in 1428, when it was tacked to a schoolroom wall in Forli. There it certainly would have yellowed until it was thrown away had not the school caught fire one february day. The crowd that gathered outside saw this paper shoot up out of the flames, hover over the hot updraft, and flutter down into their hands. With cries of "Miracle!" (and who could resist?) the print was carried into the cathedral.
Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures", Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1971. (On gBooks)
That means once the demand was recognised different techniques were experimented on to improve on the works of scribes at roughly the same time. Woodblock printing was quickly diagnosed with all its problems and people realised that for quick, cheap and large volumes, woodcut just wasn't cutting it.
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
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2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
Partial answer
In fact, the earliest printing technology wasn’t for written text at all. There are silk fragments from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China that have flowers printed on them using a woodcut illustration. Woodblock printing, aka xylography, can be used for printing words as well, but it has a number of downsides: it’s hard to create very precise images, and the block degrades over time from use, the wood softening and wearing down. Plus it’s all well and good to carve a page of text into wood . . . but when it comes time to print page two, you have to start all over again. And while there are ways to edit if you make a mistake, on the whole, it’s pretty inflexible. M. Brennan
There is a tension between what Ms. Brennan (Dr. Brennan?) states and OP's question - she implies that xylography was not used for books, but for art. (and elsewhere in her essay she suggests that the nature of ideographic writing is ill suited to xylography.
Wikipedia suggests that many copies of a few books were printed - which reconciles some of the tension between OP & Brennan.
I don't have an answer, but I'm posting this in the hopes that it may help someone else to develop a better answer.
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
Partial answer
In fact, the earliest printing technology wasn’t for written text at all. There are silk fragments from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China that have flowers printed on them using a woodcut illustration. Woodblock printing, aka xylography, can be used for printing words as well, but it has a number of downsides: it’s hard to create very precise images, and the block degrades over time from use, the wood softening and wearing down. Plus it’s all well and good to carve a page of text into wood . . . but when it comes time to print page two, you have to start all over again. And while there are ways to edit if you make a mistake, on the whole, it’s pretty inflexible. M. Brennan
There is a tension between what Ms. Brennan (Dr. Brennan?) states and OP's question - she implies that xylography was not used for books, but for art. (and elsewhere in her essay she suggests that the nature of ideographic writing is ill suited to xylography.
Wikipedia suggests that many copies of a few books were printed - which reconciles some of the tension between OP & Brennan.
I don't have an answer, but I'm posting this in the hopes that it may help someone else to develop a better answer.
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
Partial answer
In fact, the earliest printing technology wasn’t for written text at all. There are silk fragments from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China that have flowers printed on them using a woodcut illustration. Woodblock printing, aka xylography, can be used for printing words as well, but it has a number of downsides: it’s hard to create very precise images, and the block degrades over time from use, the wood softening and wearing down. Plus it’s all well and good to carve a page of text into wood . . . but when it comes time to print page two, you have to start all over again. And while there are ways to edit if you make a mistake, on the whole, it’s pretty inflexible. M. Brennan
There is a tension between what Ms. Brennan (Dr. Brennan?) states and OP's question - she implies that xylography was not used for books, but for art. (and elsewhere in her essay she suggests that the nature of ideographic writing is ill suited to xylography.
Wikipedia suggests that many copies of a few books were printed - which reconciles some of the tension between OP & Brennan.
I don't have an answer, but I'm posting this in the hopes that it may help someone else to develop a better answer.
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
Partial answer
In fact, the earliest printing technology wasn’t for written text at all. There are silk fragments from the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) in China that have flowers printed on them using a woodcut illustration. Woodblock printing, aka xylography, can be used for printing words as well, but it has a number of downsides: it’s hard to create very precise images, and the block degrades over time from use, the wood softening and wearing down. Plus it’s all well and good to carve a page of text into wood . . . but when it comes time to print page two, you have to start all over again. And while there are ways to edit if you make a mistake, on the whole, it’s pretty inflexible. M. Brennan
There is a tension between what Ms. Brennan (Dr. Brennan?) states and OP's question - she implies that xylography was not used for books, but for art. (and elsewhere in her essay she suggests that the nature of ideographic writing is ill suited to xylography.
Wikipedia suggests that many copies of a few books were printed - which reconciles some of the tension between OP & Brennan.
I don't have an answer, but I'm posting this in the hopes that it may help someone else to develop a better answer.
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
edited 1 hour ago
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
answered 2 hours ago
Mark C. Wallace♦
22.3k868107
22.3k868107
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
First I would say that in medieval period the demand for books was lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out woodblock that could only be used for one page whereas you already mentioned the crucial innovation for European book printing Gutenberg represents: moveable type! Xylography is expensive. Although that is just one societal pre-condition for a breakthrough, or in this case: explosion.
For the demand part, cf Lotte Hellinga: "The Gutenberg Revolutions", p207–219, in: Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds): "A Companion to
The History of the Book", Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 2007. And:
The emergence of a literate middle class in the later Middle Ages created a demand for new types of books. These tended to be popular works of a recreational or technical nature, which were often in the vernacular. We know very little about the beginnings of the book trade outside of the monasteries and universities, but certainly there was an independent trade by the late twelfth century. University stationers were free to engage in outside trade and no doubt did so. Books seem most often to have been made to order, but also occasionally for speculation--with no specific buyer in mind. Some orders were large: in 1437 a wholesale bookseller sent an order to a scriptorium in the Low Countries for 200 copies of the Seven Penitential Psalms, 200 copies of Cato's Disticha in Flemish, and 400 copies of a small prayer book.
Richard W. Clement: "Medieval and Renaissance book production", Utah State University Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10, 1997. (Online)
Keep in mind that a woodblock in action seems like a great time and cost saver compared to a slow scribe. But that block needs to be perfect. One error and you need a whole other block to start from scratch.
Then there is a slight misconception apparent in how the question is framed. It is correct to describe Gutenberg's innovation as printing (with moveable type). But one of the things he 'stole' to combine it into something fresh was that he took a press from wine making for his purposes.
This press and its great forces is the biggest cause for wearing out a woodcut so quickly. Using much less force – doing that by hand – is called a rubbing. This technique was apparently used by ancient Egyptians and never seized to be used on a variety of materials.
That leas to the supply side of the equation. It features the materials needed. Vellum, parchment and papyrus are not really well suited for printing and paper was late to the party in Europe. Earliest book on paper, partially, and imported, seems to be the Missal of Silos, dated to 1151.
Second: but they did:
A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines … cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures … with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.
WP: Woodblock printing
Or put in another way:
The so-called wood plate printing belongs to the common printing technique of the 14th century. It was popular in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and was used to print any kind of text on paper.
Ein frühes Druckverfahren – der Holztafeldruck (my translation)
It is just that Gutenberg's invention (let's call it like that for the purpose of this question) was so disruptive that we now tend to overlook 2 centuries of printing presses in Europe, because of their small scale.
Exactly dating this block printing of whole books seems contested. But it seems to be at least accepted by some between before 1420 and 1451.
If we had as many early prints as we have Greek pots, we would ont have to guess about practically all the beginnings of printmaking
First dated prints
Few early prints can be dated precisely. A Dutch Madonna has 1418 carved on the block, but the surviving impression is too heavily painted and damaged to reproduce clearly. The next preserved date, 1423, occurs on a south German Saint Christopher, whose drapery flows in the wind as it then did in paintings. (After about 1460 northern drapery straightens out and
and breaks at angles.) The earliest datable Italian print was the subject of a miracle in 1428, when it was tacked to a schoolroom wall in Forli. There it certainly would have yellowed until it was thrown away had not the school caught fire one february day. The crowd that gathered outside saw this paper shoot up out of the flames, hover over the hot updraft, and flutter down into their hands. With cries of "Miracle!" (and who could resist?) the print was carried into the cathedral.
Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures", Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1971. (On gBooks)
That means once the demand was recognised different techniques were experimented on to improve on the works of scribes at roughly the same time. Woodblock printing was quickly diagnosed with all its problems and people realised that for quick, cheap and large volumes, woodcut just wasn't cutting it.
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
First I would say that in medieval period the demand for books was lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out woodblock that could only be used for one page whereas you already mentioned the crucial innovation for European book printing Gutenberg represents: moveable type! Xylography is expensive. Although that is just one societal pre-condition for a breakthrough, or in this case: explosion.
For the demand part, cf Lotte Hellinga: "The Gutenberg Revolutions", p207–219, in: Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds): "A Companion to
The History of the Book", Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 2007. And:
The emergence of a literate middle class in the later Middle Ages created a demand for new types of books. These tended to be popular works of a recreational or technical nature, which were often in the vernacular. We know very little about the beginnings of the book trade outside of the monasteries and universities, but certainly there was an independent trade by the late twelfth century. University stationers were free to engage in outside trade and no doubt did so. Books seem most often to have been made to order, but also occasionally for speculation--with no specific buyer in mind. Some orders were large: in 1437 a wholesale bookseller sent an order to a scriptorium in the Low Countries for 200 copies of the Seven Penitential Psalms, 200 copies of Cato's Disticha in Flemish, and 400 copies of a small prayer book.
Richard W. Clement: "Medieval and Renaissance book production", Utah State University Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10, 1997. (Online)
Keep in mind that a woodblock in action seems like a great time and cost saver compared to a slow scribe. But that block needs to be perfect. One error and you need a whole other block to start from scratch.
Then there is a slight misconception apparent in how the question is framed. It is correct to describe Gutenberg's innovation as printing (with moveable type). But one of the things he 'stole' to combine it into something fresh was that he took a press from wine making for his purposes.
This press and its great forces is the biggest cause for wearing out a woodcut so quickly. Using much less force – doing that by hand – is called a rubbing. This technique was apparently used by ancient Egyptians and never seized to be used on a variety of materials.
That leas to the supply side of the equation. It features the materials needed. Vellum, parchment and papyrus are not really well suited for printing and paper was late to the party in Europe. Earliest book on paper, partially, and imported, seems to be the Missal of Silos, dated to 1151.
Second: but they did:
A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines … cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures … with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.
WP: Woodblock printing
Or put in another way:
The so-called wood plate printing belongs to the common printing technique of the 14th century. It was popular in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and was used to print any kind of text on paper.
Ein frühes Druckverfahren – der Holztafeldruck (my translation)
It is just that Gutenberg's invention (let's call it like that for the purpose of this question) was so disruptive that we now tend to overlook 2 centuries of printing presses in Europe, because of their small scale.
Exactly dating this block printing of whole books seems contested. But it seems to be at least accepted by some between before 1420 and 1451.
If we had as many early prints as we have Greek pots, we would ont have to guess about practically all the beginnings of printmaking
First dated prints
Few early prints can be dated precisely. A Dutch Madonna has 1418 carved on the block, but the surviving impression is too heavily painted and damaged to reproduce clearly. The next preserved date, 1423, occurs on a south German Saint Christopher, whose drapery flows in the wind as it then did in paintings. (After about 1460 northern drapery straightens out and
and breaks at angles.) The earliest datable Italian print was the subject of a miracle in 1428, when it was tacked to a schoolroom wall in Forli. There it certainly would have yellowed until it was thrown away had not the school caught fire one february day. The crowd that gathered outside saw this paper shoot up out of the flames, hover over the hot updraft, and flutter down into their hands. With cries of "Miracle!" (and who could resist?) the print was carried into the cathedral.
Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures", Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1971. (On gBooks)
That means once the demand was recognised different techniques were experimented on to improve on the works of scribes at roughly the same time. Woodblock printing was quickly diagnosed with all its problems and people realised that for quick, cheap and large volumes, woodcut just wasn't cutting it.
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
First I would say that in medieval period the demand for books was lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out woodblock that could only be used for one page whereas you already mentioned the crucial innovation for European book printing Gutenberg represents: moveable type! Xylography is expensive. Although that is just one societal pre-condition for a breakthrough, or in this case: explosion.
For the demand part, cf Lotte Hellinga: "The Gutenberg Revolutions", p207–219, in: Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds): "A Companion to
The History of the Book", Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 2007. And:
The emergence of a literate middle class in the later Middle Ages created a demand for new types of books. These tended to be popular works of a recreational or technical nature, which were often in the vernacular. We know very little about the beginnings of the book trade outside of the monasteries and universities, but certainly there was an independent trade by the late twelfth century. University stationers were free to engage in outside trade and no doubt did so. Books seem most often to have been made to order, but also occasionally for speculation--with no specific buyer in mind. Some orders were large: in 1437 a wholesale bookseller sent an order to a scriptorium in the Low Countries for 200 copies of the Seven Penitential Psalms, 200 copies of Cato's Disticha in Flemish, and 400 copies of a small prayer book.
Richard W. Clement: "Medieval and Renaissance book production", Utah State University Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10, 1997. (Online)
Keep in mind that a woodblock in action seems like a great time and cost saver compared to a slow scribe. But that block needs to be perfect. One error and you need a whole other block to start from scratch.
Then there is a slight misconception apparent in how the question is framed. It is correct to describe Gutenberg's innovation as printing (with moveable type). But one of the things he 'stole' to combine it into something fresh was that he took a press from wine making for his purposes.
This press and its great forces is the biggest cause for wearing out a woodcut so quickly. Using much less force – doing that by hand – is called a rubbing. This technique was apparently used by ancient Egyptians and never seized to be used on a variety of materials.
That leas to the supply side of the equation. It features the materials needed. Vellum, parchment and papyrus are not really well suited for printing and paper was late to the party in Europe. Earliest book on paper, partially, and imported, seems to be the Missal of Silos, dated to 1151.
Second: but they did:
A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines … cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures … with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.
WP: Woodblock printing
Or put in another way:
The so-called wood plate printing belongs to the common printing technique of the 14th century. It was popular in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and was used to print any kind of text on paper.
Ein frühes Druckverfahren – der Holztafeldruck (my translation)
It is just that Gutenberg's invention (let's call it like that for the purpose of this question) was so disruptive that we now tend to overlook 2 centuries of printing presses in Europe, because of their small scale.
Exactly dating this block printing of whole books seems contested. But it seems to be at least accepted by some between before 1420 and 1451.
If we had as many early prints as we have Greek pots, we would ont have to guess about practically all the beginnings of printmaking
First dated prints
Few early prints can be dated precisely. A Dutch Madonna has 1418 carved on the block, but the surviving impression is too heavily painted and damaged to reproduce clearly. The next preserved date, 1423, occurs on a south German Saint Christopher, whose drapery flows in the wind as it then did in paintings. (After about 1460 northern drapery straightens out and
and breaks at angles.) The earliest datable Italian print was the subject of a miracle in 1428, when it was tacked to a schoolroom wall in Forli. There it certainly would have yellowed until it was thrown away had not the school caught fire one february day. The crowd that gathered outside saw this paper shoot up out of the flames, hover over the hot updraft, and flutter down into their hands. With cries of "Miracle!" (and who could resist?) the print was carried into the cathedral.
Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures", Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1971. (On gBooks)
That means once the demand was recognised different techniques were experimented on to improve on the works of scribes at roughly the same time. Woodblock printing was quickly diagnosed with all its problems and people realised that for quick, cheap and large volumes, woodcut just wasn't cutting it.
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
First I would say that in medieval period the demand for books was lesser than after the books became comparatively cheap after Gutenberg. The key here is the expense a quickly worn out woodblock that could only be used for one page whereas you already mentioned the crucial innovation for European book printing Gutenberg represents: moveable type! Xylography is expensive. Although that is just one societal pre-condition for a breakthrough, or in this case: explosion.
For the demand part, cf Lotte Hellinga: "The Gutenberg Revolutions", p207–219, in: Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose (Eds): "A Companion to
The History of the Book", Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 2007. And:
The emergence of a literate middle class in the later Middle Ages created a demand for new types of books. These tended to be popular works of a recreational or technical nature, which were often in the vernacular. We know very little about the beginnings of the book trade outside of the monasteries and universities, but certainly there was an independent trade by the late twelfth century. University stationers were free to engage in outside trade and no doubt did so. Books seem most often to have been made to order, but also occasionally for speculation--with no specific buyer in mind. Some orders were large: in 1437 a wholesale bookseller sent an order to a scriptorium in the Low Countries for 200 copies of the Seven Penitential Psalms, 200 copies of Cato's Disticha in Flemish, and 400 copies of a small prayer book.
Richard W. Clement: "Medieval and Renaissance book production", Utah State University Library Faculty & Staff Publications, Paper 10, 1997. (Online)
Keep in mind that a woodblock in action seems like a great time and cost saver compared to a slow scribe. But that block needs to be perfect. One error and you need a whole other block to start from scratch.
Then there is a slight misconception apparent in how the question is framed. It is correct to describe Gutenberg's innovation as printing (with moveable type). But one of the things he 'stole' to combine it into something fresh was that he took a press from wine making for his purposes.
This press and its great forces is the biggest cause for wearing out a woodcut so quickly. Using much less force – doing that by hand – is called a rubbing. This technique was apparently used by ancient Egyptians and never seized to be used on a variety of materials.
That leas to the supply side of the equation. It features the materials needed. Vellum, parchment and papyrus are not really well suited for printing and paper was late to the party in Europe. Earliest book on paper, partially, and imported, seems to be the Missal of Silos, dated to 1151.
Second: but they did:
A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines … cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures … with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.
WP: Woodblock printing
Or put in another way:
The so-called wood plate printing belongs to the common printing technique of the 14th century. It was popular in Europe until Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and was used to print any kind of text on paper.
Ein frühes Druckverfahren – der Holztafeldruck (my translation)
It is just that Gutenberg's invention (let's call it like that for the purpose of this question) was so disruptive that we now tend to overlook 2 centuries of printing presses in Europe, because of their small scale.
Exactly dating this block printing of whole books seems contested. But it seems to be at least accepted by some between before 1420 and 1451.
If we had as many early prints as we have Greek pots, we would ont have to guess about practically all the beginnings of printmaking
First dated prints
Few early prints can be dated precisely. A Dutch Madonna has 1418 carved on the block, but the surviving impression is too heavily painted and damaged to reproduce clearly. The next preserved date, 1423, occurs on a south German Saint Christopher, whose drapery flows in the wind as it then did in paintings. (After about 1460 northern drapery straightens out and
and breaks at angles.) The earliest datable Italian print was the subject of a miracle in 1428, when it was tacked to a schoolroom wall in Forli. There it certainly would have yellowed until it was thrown away had not the school caught fire one february day. The crowd that gathered outside saw this paper shoot up out of the flames, hover over the hot updraft, and flutter down into their hands. With cries of "Miracle!" (and who could resist?) the print was carried into the cathedral.
Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: "Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures", Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, 1971. (On gBooks)
That means once the demand was recognised different techniques were experimented on to improve on the works of scribes at roughly the same time. Woodblock printing was quickly diagnosed with all its problems and people realised that for quick, cheap and large volumes, woodcut just wasn't cutting it.
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
edited 8 mins ago
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
answered 1 hour ago
LangLangC
12.6k14275
12.6k14275
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I guess I'm looking for things about woodblock printing that a) aren't also true about movable type printing and b) don't apply too woodblock printing in China. Paper was cheaper in China because they had bamboo, but you need the same amount of paper for either way of printing.
– KWeiss
3 hours ago
I would suggest that advances in printing technology is likely well correlated with paper availability. Once a resource becomes easily available than technologies using that resource typically follow the same path. As so I would argue that the problem was not with the woodblocks but with the printing medium quality/scarcity (just to be clear: I'm speculating, this is not an answer).
– armatita
1 hour ago
I read one story about Gutenberg that he was printing with woodblocks, spoiled one, and started cutting it apart to make moveable type. I don't remember where, or how accurate it is.
– David Thornley
1 hour ago