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

compositor cast off copy by counting words, computing how many pages a particular work would take, given page and type size

• if accurately cast off, setting could begin anywhere in the book, with multiple sections being worked at once
• also allowed for setting by formes, as opposed to continuous setting (setting by formes largely abandoned by 1700 though)

shared setting might create irregularity in pages or section length

Setting type

compositor's apparatus:

1. type cases
2. composing stick
3. galleys

compositor's sat until mid 17c; then stood for faster work

sheets of copy set on case, or put on special clip (a visorium)

composing process:

1. composing stick in left hand (holding 3-6 lines [England]); set to measure, width of column of type in book (usually a multiple of the body size of the type);
2. lays type, feels for nick;
3. read left to right, but upside-down and mirrored
4. checks for errors, changed spaces between words to justify or fit the last word on the stick
5. empty onto galley, on the righthand side of uppercase, by holding it together evenly with pressure (if it muddled, would be pie)

two kinds of spaces:

• thick spaces: four to the "em", same as middle space
• thin spaces: what would now be called a hair space

Page and galley

after creating a whole page , compositer marked page number on copy, as well as signature; added a headline with running title and page number, as well as direction line at the bottom and possibly a signature; tied the entire page with page cord, transferred it from the galley to a paper wrapper and stored it

Signatures

each sheet signed on first page with letter of alphabet; signatures on rectos after the first of each sheet had numerical suffixes (e.g. "A2")

English printers sometimes began with "B" to account for a sheet of front matter ("A")

in 15th and 16th centuries, included a register summarizing the signatures after the colophon

Preliminaries, pagination, catchwords, etc.

preliminaries:

• title page
• prefatory matter
• table of contents

15c: no preliminaries, signed by print in colophon

first leaf blank to protect book; grew into title page, which gradually included printer's name, place and date of publication; by 17c, protected the title page with initial blank leaf, which then itself took a short title (half-title)

direction line became common in mid sixteenth century

Distribution

when type got low, took already-printed forms and replenished case

set type weighs ~.0175 kg/cm2

Output

en: half of an em in any type size; number of ens in a setting of type is proportional to number of pieces of type in it

competent workman could achieve 1,500 ens per hour or more; usually net rate of 1,000 ens/hour

how fast individual workers were, though, varied widely; labor conditions of craft printing mean jobs were variable, flowed at different paces

Paper

Manufacture

reached Europe from the East in early 12th century, expanded rapidly w/invention of printing

raw material: undyed linen or hempen rags, bought in bulk, sorted, washed, and put in wet heap for several days to rot (sweated rags)

cut into small pieces, placed in wooden mortars and pounded to pulp (stuff) by water-powered hammers -- three or four stages of pounding

Hollander machine, invented in Holland in late 17c, minced rags with knives; required less power, was faster than stamping and therefore widely used (although believed to make paper weaker)

stuff tranferred to vat (~330 gallon capacity); diluted to porridge, kept tepid

team at vat: maker (vatman), coucher and layer tools at vat: pair of moulds (wire sieves mounted on wooden frames) and deckle (removable wooden rim), pieces of felt, and standing press

1. maker fits deckle to mould
2. taking them together by the shorter sides, dip into sutff in vat
3. pull it out, shake sheets in one direction, then the next to weave the fibers and shut the sheet
4. lifts the deckle, slides to coucher, who turns onto felt
5. layer takes it to the standing press to press out water
6. newly strong paper is pulled from felt, pressed again, then hung to dry

at this stage, called a waterleaf; waterleaf is dipped in sizing, an animal gelatine made from vellum or leather shavings boiled in water and alum

sized paper is then pressed, dried, pressed again and (if writing paper) smoothed by rubbing or hammering

ream: 20 quires of 24-5 sheets each, smaller ream (480 sheets) normal in England/Holland, with larger (500 sheets) normal in French/Italian mills

each quire folded in half for packing; outer quires made of imperfect sheets and known as cassie or cording quires

at large mill, around 3,000 sheets of large size paper (royal) per vat per day, with small size (foolscap) made at 5,000 sheets per day

Paper in English printing

until 1670, white paper in England comes from foreign mills, mostly France

English mills: lack of skilled workmen, lack of linen rags (English wore wool)

Moulds and watermarks

mould side or wire side: where paper sat in mould; distinguishable by chaining pattern felt side: where paper hit the felt

deckle edges: rough, uneven, where stuff seeped between deckle and mould

tranchefiles: edge wires or water bar wires just inside the shorter edges where drops of water fell from deckle onto sheet

watermarks: fashioned in wire, sewn to surface ofmould to show image in paper; first appeared in 13c; by 15c were put in the center of one half of the oblong; supposed to be seen from the mould side

during 17c, watermarks began showing quality or size (international conventions); 18c, size and quality marks replaced trade marks

countermarks: showing maker's initials, etc.; in England, became appendages of main marks

watermarks in 15&16c have small "dots" where wire attaches mark; later, attached with running stitch

moulds would wear in ~12mo; watermarks in ~6mo

until mid-18c, all moulds were of the laid (chain and wire) pattern, wire mesh attached to frame; ~1755 James Whatman the elder made paper for Baskerville with mesh woven like cloth; more difficult to make, slow to be taken up by papermakers

Sorts of paper: quality, weight, and size

fine quality papers made from best white linen; worse quality used colored rags, rope, even wool

three kinds: fine, second, and ordinary within those standards, good, retree and broke paper; retree and broke used in cassie quires

weight of paper determined in pounds per ream

many different sizes, but in practice no more than 6 main groups of sizes at any given point in hand-press period; 14c, four sizes laid down for Bolognese paper-makers:

1. imperialle, 74x50cm;
2. realle, 61.5x44.5cm;
3. meçane, 51.5x34.5cm,
4. reçute, 45x31.5cm

by 15c, still mostly the same;

1. forma regalis: 70x50cm
2. forma mediana: 50x30cm

most medieval paper made with ratio 1:sqrt(2) (~1:1.4), therefore remaining the same shape when folded in half; paper increasingly became 1:1.25, making long folios and squarish quartos

16c: most paper of foolscap size; ordinary size gradually increased to demy range by 18c

types:

1. super royal
2. royal
3. medium
4. demy
5. crown
6. foolscap
7. pot

Description

sheet identified by:

• major dimensions (from uncut copy of book)
• patterns of mould wire and watermark
  • spacing in mm of the chain-lines and wire-lines
  • wires per cm for woven mould
  • watermark's relationship to chain-lines
• weight and quality

Imposition

imposing:

1. compositor slides the pages for one forme onto the imposing stone, following direction lines
2. chase set around pages (chaset -- standard size for all jobs until 18c)
3. fill spaces between type and chase with wooden wedges and quoins, short wedges hammered between big wedges and chase
4. type hammer down flat
5. quoins hammered in harder with shooting stick to lock forme tightly
6. pushed it aside, made up second forme of the sheet in the same way

some chases were tightened with screws in France and Germany

Format

the format of the book: the arrangement of its formes and subsequent folding of printed sheets to make a gathering

folio: sheets foled once on longer side; two leaves and four pages to a sheet; vertical chain-lines

quarto: pairs of four-page formes folded twice; four-leaf, eight-page gatherings with horizontal chain lines

• still called quarto if sheets were cut in half first, two leaves with four pages each
• size of paper determined by watermark, etc., can say: foolscap quarto, demy quarto, etc.

octavo: three folds, eight leaves, sixteen pages

duodecimo: folded twice along second dimension and three times across the shorter; twelve leaves, twenty-four pages

long twelves: folded once along shorter side, five times across the longer, making twelve leaves and twenty-four pages

sixteenmo for more complex foldings making sixteen or more leaves

broadsheets, not folded at all

handbill might be in half-sheet or quarter-sheet

pages laid on stone in mirror image of order of printed sheet; e.g.: [1][4] (printed) [4][1] (laid out in type)

outer forme: printed onto outer side of the sheet (in folio, pages 1, 4); always contains page 1 inner forme: printed interside of sheet (in folio, pages 2, 3); always contains page 2

may impose for gatherings of several sheets quired together; e.g., three sheets, the outermost with pages 1, 12, 2, 11, then 3, 10, 4, 9, then 5, 8, 6, 7; sheets would be signed with same signature letter, then numbered to indicate position in gathering; folding designated '2° in 6s'

15c: folio gatherings consist of up to 5 sheets; quarto up to 2 sheets 16c, 17c: most folios gathered in 6s 18c: folios gathered in single sheets

half-sheet imposition: all pages for a half sheet imposed in one forme, then heap of paper turned of and printed from the same formed on the other side; then each sheet slit in half to yield two copes of the same half sheet

turned chain-lines: chain-lines run the wrong way, found in late 17c and early 18c books; can be from cutting double-sized sheets of paper in half before printing, or of sheets made in side-by-side two-sheet moulds; usually tranchefiles on one of the long edges only

Identification of format

proceedure:

1. make note of:
   1. dimension of uncut leaf (add 1-2cm for cut edges in large books, .5-1cm for small)
   2. direction of chain-lines
   3. position of watermark
   4. number of leaves per gathering
2. determine format (usually 2°, 4°, 8°, 12° or long 12°) (Key I); multiply leaf by factors appropriate to format to otain uncut sheet size (Key II)
3. for unusual dimensions, see Key II and III (85-6)

see diagrams, keys and notes, pages 85-107

Imposition in practice

preliminaries printed last; in pamphlets, preliminaries wrapped around all gatherings

small sizes of paper (pot, foolscap, demy) more common; scarcely any books printed on paper larger than royal in 16c and 17c

pages printed in wrong position were rare; caught during proofing

Stripping and skeletons

once printed, forme returned to compositor for stripping, cleaning off ink and removing chases

skeleton forme: reusable parts (rules or ornaments regularly repeated), the chase, quoins, and furniture

• could print a whole book from one skeleton, although 2 or more commonly used
• second edition of Newton's Principia, changes in skeleton pattern shows interruption of printing

Proofs and correction

compositor and corrector (could be author, printer or journeyman) work together to examine proofs

literals: mistakes in individual letters

corrector often had proofs read aloud to him, since he wasn't checking for textual details but language

• reading aloud performed in "sing-song" monotony that didn't account for accidentals, only words
• in foreign language, read letter by letter
• some errors known from corrector mishearing
• corrector read more or less automatically

conventional proofing signs in use since early 16c

compositor unlocked forme, picked out wrong letters with a bodkin and corrected on the stone

few "first proof" errors in early printed books (turned letters, etc.), showing this was a process almost never omitted from book production;

process:

1. first proof, possible with revision proofs
2. clean proof pulled for author (with possible additional revision proofs pulled)
3. press proof: forme or sheet read for residual blemishes; done in the middle of a run in early days, so corrections had to be made stop-press

Standing type

most printers couldn't afford to keep type standing; however, title pages and small specialty settings may have been set aside for re-use; short books/pamphlets may also have been set aside to be reprinted -- a collating machine can identify disturbances in type possibly caused by re-imposition in new furniture

1587-1637: in England, editions limited by decree to 1,500 copies, though there is evidence that many different impressions were made against regulations