THE PRINTING ART

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1787, 27 July 1926, Page 2

THE PRINTING ART

Because the Mongols who invaded Europe in the thirteenth century reached the shores of the Adriatic and are known to have made use of printing in their Persian kingdom, while Syrian 'Christians in the ninth and tenth centuries in Turfan and other cities of Turkestan were surrounded with printing, Mr Thomas Francis Carter, in 'his book, " The Invention of Printing and Its .Spread Westward," infers that printing probably reached Europe from China, where it is known to have been employed about 700 A.D. There is a story extant that printing in China was invented in 593 A.D.; but this is an error through misunderstanding of a Chinese writer by Julien, the French orientalist. The error was corrected, in 1919 by an English periodical. Dr Carter again exposes it in his work. Whether the Chinese were the originators of printing, of gunpowder, and! of the compass is not in absolute roof, but that these were in use in China centuries before they ,were in Europe is well known; and it is also known that many Europeans travelled in China at various times. The fact of existence, the movements of men, provide (strong groujnds for new assumptions in regard to printing. For instance, Arabic block prints found in Egypt some fifty years ago, consisting, of prayers and passages from the Koran, seem to range in date from 900 A.D. to 1350 A.D., and as the Times Literary Supplement comments, political conditionis at that period favoured the spread of arts known to the Arabs. The long gaps in historical connection are explained by the conservatism of most peoples. Printing seems ,to have been known in Japan, in Chinese form for SOO years before it occurred to anyone to print in Japanese! There is an apparent exception in the British Museum, a book of poetry bearing the date 1353, printed with movable type, in appearance like specimens of early teeventeenth-century printing.