Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Before Class 2/17

The reading for today's class opened up a brand new section of the book with a bang. And when I mean bang, I mean a wonderful chapter about the Gutenberg Press and moveable type.

The beginnings of movable type spanned back to Europe and early wood block printing. These types of printing would be carved into wood (the image and or letters would be either cut into the wood or cut away from the wood), then would be lathered in ink, then pressed onto the parchment or paper. Early creations made with this method were the first playing cards (originally outlawed due to gambling in nature) and religious image prints. From there, the religious prints soon turned into large block books that little text. Oddly enough, the main focus on the block books were about the Apocalypse. As time went on, the wooden blocks began to be trumped by the innovation of movable text. Oddly enough, Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg was NOT the inventor of movable type. In 1444 The Dutchman Laurens Janszoon Coster of Harlem tinkered with the idea of movable type by carving reusable letters out of wood. Because of this, many believe that the Dutch could rightfully claim that they were the earliest users of moveable type.

When it comes to Gutenberg, he had some drama when dealing with his movable type machine. From partners backstabbing Gutenberg, to lawsuits to lay claim to his invention, Gutenberg's life's work was truly a life altering device, not only for himself, but also the world.


Fact of the reading: The largest book that was created (that I read in the reading) was the Latin Gutenberg Bible that had 12x17 inch pages. That was huge!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment