Making Words Last

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21908, 8 October 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

Making Words Last

(By D.G.)

TOE STORY OF WRITING AND PRINTING

■ J§ty remarkable in the history Wfphtlng is the speed with which HMRtion was reached. Improve* ;«Mt in .printing machines have mmsr affected rate of output; and aßMcthat apart from the benefits HHMHer paper and ink, and mach—il type, modern books are no ■HHg*hmeed not as good as some BKBjfifrst that were produced. IHMllileeek we learned a few facts Gutenberg’s Bible, which Is BHgjßy called the Mazarin Bible HM of a 097 found in Cardinal IMp's library at Paris. This Bp a beautiful piece of work, BBHaißn words are printed in the |BHV 'type known as Gothic or EBK jetter, modelled on the hand* ■MBar of the scribes who wrote BBHMauecript books. This style — Mla. by ttie way. le still used BHRmany for ordinary printing. HUB>■ In English is rather for or tradition. Legal print* BHBwWaetimee done in fills style* ■■HHlmx want to make sure what iHIBi like, yen will find it in the MB' "The Press Junior,'* on

will know, William Caxton was the first man to print in English, and to set up a press in England. Caxton was a cloth merchant travelling widely throughout Flanders and Hoi* land. He was also a writer, and his “History of Troy,” a French romance translated, was printed by himself at Bruges (in the Netherlands) in 1478. “I have practysed and lemed at my grete charge and dispense.” he says, “to ordeyne this said book in prynte after the mailer and forme as ye may here see, and is not wreton (written) with penne and ynke. as other bokep ben, to th' code that every man may have them attones (at onoe). M In 1476 he returned to England and set up a press under the shadow of Westminster Abbey, and in the next year produced file "Dlctes or Sayengls (sayings) of the Philosophres —the first book printed in England! The demand for church service books, and the demand for oopular books, kept Caxton busy. In three years he produced .80 books, perhaps the most famous being Chaucer's “Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims," and Malory's “Morte d’ Arthur.” (New Zealanders may feel proud that three of Carton's books are to be found in the Auckland public library, presented with his library by Sir George Grey in 1888.)

I Mi Mntiatd the hdm# of K till the city vii tacked B during one of the usual jue about nothing in particuhe printers became scattered, nr of them in other centres, daily Augsburg and Nuremand during 1488 we find i of printing at Venice. Ven- » at this tune the home of ■t and the arts, and printing tartmed to enjoy a glorious hj in her history. It was at t that John da Spire first Homan (as distinct from ) type, and so gave the into the long line of great arp» craftsmen who have ever designing countless beau-pe-faces. italic type (as at the top of this article) L Invention of the greatest i printer, Aldus ManId' is said to have been

In 1481 Csxton died. But the business was carried on by his assistant Wynkyn de Worde, who moved. In 1500, into the now famous fleet street

Caxton and de Werd<* both used the Gothic or blade letter. The Roman letter was Introduced by Pynson, a Norman, end used by itself right through a book in 1918. This typo was no doubt made in France, as Caxton’s types had been. But in England the use of the black letter continued for many yean, and was used for acts of Parliament up to 1784. There is no space to go into a history of type-designing and the many fascinating and subtle variations 11 displays. Among the gnat names, however, we must mention William Oaslon and his Pttpil Baakerville, two Englishmen of the early eighteenth century. Whose types are still in wide use to-day.

BRa on the handwriting of the great Italian poet, HHftwas not only a great craflsmi a scholar and pubweU. Living in the midst HBpaaissanee (he died in 1818), the world copies of much HQp, affndeal literature, not take the new art long HHP 'England. As most of you