Week 3: Chapter 5-Chapter 8

Week 3: Chapter 5-Chapter 8

Chapter 5: Printing Comes to Europe

One thing about this chapter that I thought was really interesting was learning that playing cards were the first printed pieces available to the common people, who were mostly illiterate.  This was originally the game of Kings, who would play it with cards made of ivory.  Now peasants and craftsmen would play cards in taverns.  The cards were block printed.  One sentence really stuck with me: "Because these cards introduced the masses to symbol recognition, sequencing, and logical deduction, their intrinsic value transcended idle entertainment."

The earliest known copperplate engravings were created by an unidentified artist known as the Master of the Playing Cards.  His best work was considered, wait for it...a set of playing cards.  His set contained cards with images of birds, animals, and wild men.

A very influential person in this chapter was Johann Gutenberg.  He invented the systems necessary to print typographic books.  He made the design for the printing press, developed inks for relief printing, developed punch cutting and casting metal type.  He almost completed the first printing of the forty-two line bible, but the night of completion he lost his printing business to Johann Fust, to whom he owed money.  Fust officially finished printing that Bible.  

Chapter 6: The German Illustrated Book

This picture is of William Catxton's printers mark.  He was the person who made the first typographic book in English.  It was a translation of Raoul le Feure's 'Recuyell of the Histories of Troy.'  In the epilogue, Caxton writes "my pen is worn, my hand is weary and shaky, my eyes are dimmed from too much looking at white paper" so he learned how to print it instead.  He went on to print the first book in England.

Chapter 7: Renaissance Graphic Design

Early printers often used trademarks to claim their books, similar to the stamps on clay pots from Chapter 1.  These symbols were compared to Egyptian Hieroglyphics.  

 In 1476 Erhard Ratdolt printed what was most likely the first book printed in more than one color.  It was called 'Calendarium', and it contained printed images of solar and lunar cycles and eclipses, as well as a mathematical wheel chart for calculating them.  It was a small beginning to people having access to scientific knowledge and fact, instead of just having access to religious stories.  As a result of this, science was becoming common knowledge and religion was losing some of it's power.

Geoffroy Tory was an interesting person to read about in this chapter.  He is the person who invented the apostrophe and the accent.  He was a professor, scholar, translator, poet, author, printer, publisher, bookseller, calligrapher, designer, illustrator and engraver.  He was a true "renaissance man."  

Tory's book series "Horae (Book of Hours)" was considered a milestone in graphic design and set the style for this era.  This book was visually beautiful, with borders and illustrations surrounding the text.  Tory was honored by King Francis I and was named "printer to the king."

Tory's most influential work  was "Champ Fleury", which consisted of three books.  The first book is pronunciation and speech rules of the french language.  The second book is about the history of roman letters and their proportions to the human figure and face.  The third book contains grids of the Latin alphabet and instructions on the geometric construction of the 23 letters.  It also has designs for thirteen other alphabets, including his "fantastic alphabet" as pictured above.

Chapter 8: An Epoch of Typographic Genius

Typography changed the world.  It gave every day people access to books and knowledge.

For me, some of the most interesting learning from this module has been about developing fonts that we still use today; Garramond, Serif and Baskerville to name a few.  John Baskerville was a printer and bookmaker who developed types and italic fonts.  He did not use the floral borders and decorations in his books that was widely used in other books, his were solely typographic.  His types were smooth and refined.  His types were quite controversial, many people claimed that reading his books gave them a head ache because of the sharpness of his type.  Benjamin Franklin was a huge fan of Baskerville, and stood up for his type style.  

In closing, this Module was information packed, but very educational.  It really made me appreciate the printed books we have today.  Growing up in this generation, it is easy to take books for granted and move on to the digital universe.  Before this Module, I was a pretty firm believer in the efficiency and ease of having information at my fingertips on the Internet. I now realize this is all possible because of the hard work of the people who developed the alphabet, printing presses and types.  Without books, we would never have the knowledge we have today.  From now on, I will appreciate books in a different way.