Gaskell 1972

Book Production: The Hand-press Period 1500-1800

The Hand-printed Book

printing process:

1. compositor: type --> composing stick (several lines) --> galley (whole page); tie with string, move to the next
2. imposition: arrange many pages of type for one sheet --> fix in a pair of iron frames (chases), one for each side --> locked together, two chases of type create a forme
3. trial prints (proofs) made from formes; compared with copy; errors marked by corrector (possibly author), marked proofs used by compositor to correct type
4. formes placed on printing press: wooden frame; screw, worked by hand, to force the platen down onto the type; movable carriage for type and paper to run under platen; worked by two pressman --> one fits paper on frame, folds it down onto the type, and runs the carriage under the platen; the other inks the type; printed one side, then another
5. arranged piles of printed sheets along a bench, picking them up one by one to collate the sheets
6. collated sheets sent to binder, who folded each sheet and sewed them together into volumes

foliation: numbering leaves pagination: numbering pages

direction line: first word of the next page at the bottom of the page

head: top of book tail: bottom of book

gathering: one or more pair of leaves (conjugate paires) joined at the back, made from one folded sheet, or fraction of a sheet, or several folded sheets tucked inside one another (quired)

• identified by a signature, a letter or letters of the alphabet placed in the direction line of the first recto, often repeated on subsequent rectos, indicating order of the gatherings
• main signature series begins with the text; title page, dedication, etc., often not included because they would have been printed last -- reprints may begin signatures at the beginning

imprint: identifying printer on the title page colophon: identifying printer at the back of the book

paper:

• handmade, rough-surfaced
• of-white
• shows pattern of broad-spaced lines (chain lines) crossed by close together lines (wire lines)
• smooth edges cut by binder or rough, uncut, or unopened

binding:

• endpapers, of a different color or texture, at the front and back of book, added by binder
• then strips of paper waste to secure spine
• then boards, stiff upper and lower covers made of wood (in early days) or pasteboard, then millboard, covered with leather or rough paper
• decorated with heated brass tools, using gold leaf (gilt) or plain (blind)

Printing Type

casted in an alloy of led, antimony, and tin called type-metal which had a low melting point, didn't shrink or expand with temperature differences

height to paper varied from 24.0-27.5mm before standardization in eighteenth century (international type standards not established until late nineteenth century)

fount: group of type-cast alphabets of one body and design

making type:

1. relief patter cut by hand on the end of a steel punch (~45mm long)
2. punches were hammered into small blocks of copper (matrices), each matrix trimmed to squared and set to correct depth (process called justification -- different from justification in typesetting)
3. matrices fixed to a mould, a teel box clad in wood for insulation
4. typecaster puts two halves of mould together, holds them with left hand
5. drops molten type-metal into mouth of the mould with right hand while jerking hand to get metal into recesses of matrix
6. lays down ladle, removes spring holding matrix in place, pryes out type with iron picks
7. jets of metal from mould mouth snapped off, type planed to be smooth
8. type inspected for defects

casting type was very skilled; required precision jerks of hand for particular letters

early on, punch-cutters were specialist engravers; later (by late 15c) became independent professionals -- would strike matrices from their own punches and sell them to printers

• high trade in matrices, but not type
• printers would own matrices, and employ specialist casters to make the type
• 1560s-70s, type-founding evolved as separate trade selling cast type
• three specialist foundries developed: Guyot-Plantin foundry in Antwerp, Egenolff-Sabon-Berner-Luther foundry in Frankfurt, and Le Be foundtry in Paris

Type sizes and description

early-middle sixteenth century, standard type sizes evolved, identified by name

determining size:

• body-size: measure twenty lines of type vertically (without interlinear leads), answer given in nearest millimeter
• face size: vertical distance from top of ascending character and bottom of neighboring descender, then multiplied by twenty
  • this is the approximate 20-line measurement of the minimum body on which the face could be cast without overhangs
• x-height: height of the letter "x"
• capital height: height of capitals
• therefore, typesize: [face height x 20] x [x-height]:[capital height]; e.g.: "Body 82. Face 80 x 1.7: 2.5."

table of nine bodies most commonly used during hand-press period (double pica, great primer, english, pica, small pica, long primer, brevier, nonpareil, pearl)

Type faces

1. M S letter forms as printing types
   1. exotic alphabets
      1. greek
      2. cyrillic
      3. hebrew
      4. etc.
   2. latin alphabet
      1. gothic forms
         1. formal
            1. textura
            2. rotunda
            3. bastarda
         2. cursive
            1. civilite
      2. roman forms
         1. formal (roman)
         2. cursive (italic)

Gothic type

textura, type of the first printed books, based on formal book hand with minimum of curves

rotunda, distinguished by curved letters "c", "d", "e", etc.

• black letter, constrast between thick and thin strokes
• widely used for all but very formal texts in 15c, fell out of fashion in 16c

bastarda, based on quickly written but not cursive book hands

• out of use by mid-sixteenth century
• although Fraktur, "cut with a contrived formality that belied its cursive origins", became most successful gothic type, surviving in Germany into the mid-twentieth century

civilite, gothic cursive type cut in mid-sixteenth century by French punch-cutter Robert Granjon

Roman and italic type

based on formal book hand perfected in Italy by humanistic scribes during first half of 15c

used chiefly for editions of classical authors, gothic types preferred for religious and vernacular works

books in English began to be set in Roman from late 1550s, although the Bible survived in black letter until 1640

two early romans set patter for development of the face:

• 114-15mm. romans introduced by Venetian printers Jenson (in 1470) and Aldus Manutius (in 1495)
• Jenson's closer to calligraphy
• Aldus's roman taken as model for French punch-cutters of 1530s and 1540s, including Claude Garamont
• Parisian romans were high quality; Garamond became very popular typeface across Europe

by early seventeenth-century, center of type production moving from Paris to Lower Rhine

• Hendrick van den Keere, Belgian punch-cutter developed successful roman
• English printers began to prefer to buy type from Dutch foundries

in 1720s, William Caslon began imitating Dutch fonts in England

• became harder to import type, English presses began using Caslon
• most English books of mid- to late-eighteenth century printed in type from Caslon foundry

first italic typ: 80mm. fount cut for Aldus by Griffo

• used initially for a series of octavo classics appearing in 1501
• widely imitated; followed by calligraphic italics based on cancellaresca hand and initiated in 1524 by Lodovico degli Arrighi (called Vicentino)
• both gradually superceded by Parisian italics, most influential coming from Robert Granjon

in the seventeenth century, fonts began being designed not based on handwriting, but specifically for print; two main trends:

• towards an increase of contrast, moving stress from oblique to vertical;
• narrower types of large x-height
• example of the new romans: by Hungarian Nicolas Kis, cut in 1680s, known by the name of Leipzig foundries of Janson and Ehrhardt which owned the matrices
• romain du roi, designed fro the Imprimerie Royale by team of Academicians under the Abbe Jaugeon

18th-century punch-cuttes increased the new features of roman type design introduced in 17c

• J. M. Fleischman
• Louis Luce and P. S. Fournier
• John Baskerville
• Alexander Wilson

in 1784s, F. A. Didot introduced new roman "at last fulfilled the logic of vertical stress" -- the ascender serifs being thin horizontal lines without brackets

• developed further by Bodoni in Italy

Greek type

Greek type the only exotic alphabet of major importance in western European typography

largely experimental in 15c

the cursive style of greek type was successful; introduced by Aldus in 1490s and perfected by Garamont and Granjon in mid-16c

accents cast separately on narrow bodies, then combined with kerned vowels to make accented sorts

Founts, cases and type-stock

fount of type: set of letters and other symbols with each sort suppled in proportion to its use frequency, all of one body-size and design; includes:

• capitals
• small capitals
• small ("lower case") letters
• accented letters
• ligatures
• punctuation marks
• figures
• special symbols
• in total, around 150 sorts, as well as spaces for between words and quads for blank lines

in 15- and 16-c, tied letters made by combining several letters in one mould

type stored systematically in cases; lay of the case follwed two traditional patterns:

• single lay: one large, squarish case holding 75 lb. of type; capitals arranged in rows along the top (same size boxes), small letters in varying-sized boxes underneath
  • normal form until mid-16c
• divided lay: two cases to a fount, smaller and more oblong than single lay case; 40-50 lb of type each
  • capitals and figures in upper case, same-size boxes
  • small letters, punctuation marks, spaces in variously-sized boxes of lower case

printers ordered fonts based on weight; early printers only kept around 200 lb. of font on hand, while 18c printers tended to have much more; differentiation within founts

"it is the combination of different founts of type in a printer's stock, each one in a particular state of revision (or mixture of various states of revision) and wear, that identifies him. Add to this his stock of unique woodcut ornaments and initials, and his finger-print is plain, a typographical equipment that belonged to him alone." (39)

Composition

Copy: preparation and organization

manuscript copy, sometimes messy although there's evidence the printer was commonly provided with a fiar copy

copy might be prepared: corrected and annotated by professional corrector; common in 17c and 18c