In the modern world literacy is almost universally taken for granted. Back in the middle ages the people of Europe had little or no education and could neither read nor write.
The educated class were the churchmen who used oral instruction and pictures as a means to influence and stimulate intellect. The monarchs of the day surrounded themselves with such people because of their accomplishments and wisdom.
The written word was painstakingly transcribed by hand, mainly by monks. These books were few in number and circulated mainly to the churches. However, this situation was to change with Europe’s discovery of the printing press and movable type in the 15th Century.
Printing can be traced back to AD 174 in China. This is linked to the invention of paper in AD 105 by Tsíai Lun of the court of Ho Ti. It was made from the bark of trees, hemp and cotton rags. It was not long before the Chinese and Koreans used paper to make prints from stone seals, wood blocks and bronze characters.
Papermaking next spread to the Arabic world in the 8th century and then to Europe about 1157 when Montolfier escaped from the Saracans, returned to France and started a paper mill, which still bears his name.
Paper was first used by Europeans for handwriting before they engaged in block printing, which involved carving images in reverse on to a block of wood. These images usually depicted biblical scenes.
The next important advance was movable type. This invention is accredited to the German printer of the famous Mazarin Bible, Johann Gutenberg in 1440, although Pi Sheng created movable type characters in clay about 1042. This achievement was celebrated recently in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
‘The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye’, 1475, the first book in the English language was printed by William Caxton and Colard Mansion in Bruges.
Gothic print was used up until 1530. Then Claude Garamond designed typefaces based on Roman, Greek and Italic letters which have been universally used to this day.
In 1551, at Pricket’s Tower, on Dublin city quays, Humphrey Powell from London produced Ireland’s first printed book, ‘The Book of Common Prayer’, the State’s official Protestant prayer book. Then in 1571, the first book using Irish characters was produced. Printers in Ireland belonged to the Guild of St Luke, although Catholics were not allowed membership until 1793. Until then the British crown controlled Irish printing, bookbinding and bookselling.
Over the centuries various processes of printing evolved. The oldest is Letterpress, which involves printing from a raised surface. Offset-lithography is a process of printing from a flat surface. Gravure is the exact opposite of Letterpress, as the image is etched below the surface. Another type of printing is the Screen Process Printing in which ink is forced through a stencil attached to a mesh of silk, or other suitable material which is stretched over a frame.
The process is still evolving with the advent of computers and the internet. The print shop of the past has been replicated in the exhibition at the National Print Museum in Beggar’s Bush and is well worth a visit.