The First Infancy of Printing.

Incunabula

The term stared to use in the late 17th century for printed books. It was first used in Bernard von Mallinckrodt's pamphet "Of the riseand progress of the typographic art", published in Cologne in 1639. The phrase was  prima typographicae incunabula, "the first infancy of printing".

A single sheet that is not handwritten or printed image. They are usually very difficult to find and it is needed an expert to verify the nature of the sheet.

Rag Paper

First paper was made of Papyrrus was expensive so parchment replaced it. In China bamboo or silk were alternatives for paper but they were also not convenient. So books or newspapers were rare luxury objects and there was illiteracy. 

Steam-driven paper making machines made it really easy to produce paper and it become very cheap. These machines are the basis for most modern papermaking. Fiber from wood pulp is used to make paper.

By the introduction of cheap paper all book and newspapers become reachable for everybody. It is possible to say that new paper technology was the part of Industrial Revolution.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468)

His invention of the technology of printing with movable types was so efficient that it led to a boom in the production of texts in Europe.

Block printing was an existing method and it was used in Chinese texts but Gutenberg used it in more efficiant way and discovered metal typography that could be reproduced much more quikly. As a result, first mass-produced work published, Gutenberg Bibles in 1455. This was a cultural revolution because demonstrated the power of the printing press by selling copies of a two-volume Bible (Biblia Sacra) for 300 florins each. This was the equivalent of approximately three years' wages for an average clerk.

metal types

Medieval Europe's Beautiful Book Designs

Illuminated Manuscripts

Manuscripts decorated with gold or silver or now we can call just any decorated manuscriptas illuminated manuscript. 

Earliest examples are from the period AD 400 to 600 but the majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages.

Scriptorium was a room for professional copying of manuscripts. A separate class of specialists were adding rubrics and illumination to manuscripts.

Technique

• The text was usually written first
• General layout of the page was planned
• The page was lightly ruled with a pointed stick
• The scribe went to work with ink-pot

After the invention of printing press, these beautiful hand written books gave their places to books that aremass produced and became everyday objects.

Initials and Diminuendo

What makes these manuscripts so beautiful and captivating is probably initials and the diminuendo. Diminuendo is the arrangement of type in which a large letter or word leads the eye. Letters starting with a large initial and 

progressively diminishing the point size of the type. It provides a smooth transitio between initial and body text.

Large initial L from a Romanesque Bible

Opening of main text, with large illuminated initial, rubric, and 1-line red initial. (12th century)

diminuendo

A set of sixteenth-century initial capitals, which is missing a few letters

Today, that is also an important  part of editorial design and sometimes used to lead the reader into a chapter of a book or a section of an article.

Designed by Deb Pang Davis for Natioanal Geographic Traveler Magazine

Diminuendo, quote from 'Blade Runner'
Marker and pen on bristol board 19x24"

Starting Point of Type Design

The Alphabet

Started around 2000 BC in Ancient Egypt as a representation and continued  in Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Egyptian prototype  ->  The Proto-Canaanite alphabet  ->  Phoenician  -> The Aramaic alphabet  -> nearly all alphabets can be traced 

                              

Phoenician (Phoenician empire, ancient kingdom that was located on the territory of modern-day Syria, Lebanon and Israel)

-> The Aramaic alphabet ->the 7th century BC as the official script of the Persian Empire -> ancestor of nearly all the modern alphabets of Asia.

->  Greek and Berber alphabets

-> Romans -> 9th century BC -> used the Greek alphabet as the basis for the uppercase 

alphabet that we know today.

“Dark Age”  (from 1100 BC to the 8th century) no primary texts survive, only archaeological evidence

From about 800 BC written records begin to appear.

Roman Script

They scribed a rigid, formal script for important manuscripts and official documents and a quicker, more informal style for letters and routine types of writing.

                                                 Square capitals were used
                                         to write inscriptions.

The Romans further important contributions to type design: 

You may find David Lance Goines’ A Constructed Roman Alphabet. 

The book won, among other awards, the 1982 AIGA Book Show Award and the 1983 American Book Award (for typography)

Q A Constructed Roman AlphabetThe instructions to draw the letter Q,

Serif

Originated with the carving of words into stone in ancient Italy.

Baseline

The line upon which most letters "sit" and under which descenders extend.

Book industry (By A.D. 100)

-> lower case letters (developed in the Middle Ages)

-> Codex: A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book

 

Type Design

An example of Roman Capitals written with a square-cut brush with strokes showing. The basis of the typeface Stevens Titling.

I find this brush writing demontration very interesting.