HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1940-10-03, Page 3TH7URS , OCT. 3, 1940
THE CLINTON Ni WS -RECORD
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Printing, the Mohler of Progress,
Celebrates its 500th Anniversary
The invention of printing from
movable metal type is associated, ac-
cording ' to the bestavailable evi-
dence, with . the name of Johann.
Gutenberg, who lived in the cities of
Mainz and Strasbourg, on the Rhine,
during the first half' of the fifteenth
century. Other claims for the credit
of the invention have• been made,
such as that on behalf of Lourens
Janszoon Coster, of Harlem, in the
Netherlands, but for which the evi-
dence seems, in the most part, spur-
ious. Block printing,: that is print-
ing from symbol% carved in wood
blocks, was known and .practised.
much earlier, perhaps as early as the
eighth century, in China.
Movable types of porcelain, wood
and metal were. used in. China from
1041 onwards, but knowledge of their
use does not seem to have spread
beyond the Orient. The ^hinese, too,
discovered how to make paper in the
second century — and knowledge of
this process was carried eastward at
intervals through the centuries, till
it reached Western Europe about a
thousand years later. By the fif-
teenth century the Europeans, too,
were printing from wooden blocks,
large blocks on which a picture with
a legend, or perhaps the words of a
much -used manuscript were cut in
high relief, then inked and an im-
pression taken on a sheet of vellum
or paper. A number of these sheets
printed on one or both sides and
fastened together, was called a block
book. Block books were just coming
into use, when suddenly (for a decade,
is but an instant of time in the cul-
tural history of man) between 1535
and 1545, some one invented and per-
fected a process for making individ-
ual letters of metal. These letters
could be "composted" into words,
printed, then "distributed" for fur-
ther compodition.
Prior to the invention of printing,
books had to be written by hand.
For this laborious task, scribes were
engaged by families, business firms,
schools or court officials. To own a
book was a mark of distinction, and
there would be few families who
would own more than one book. The
education of children from books was
exceedingly limited, since even the
essential Latin grammar and any
other texts would have to be written
by hand. The researches of scholars
had to be copied and recopied, with
errors creeping into every copy.
News was conveyed by word of
mouth or by written message, and
sometimes, with hazards of travel, it
arrived garbled and late, perhaps too
late. The enormous volume of print-
ed material which we now use in the
ordinary and extraordinary occupa-
tions of every day should scarcely be
taken for granted without 'a thought
of how it has come to us. It is the
product of the inventive genius and
painstaking industry of man, of the
minerals, timber and' power derived
from our earth. An accomplishment
of a relatively short period in the
'history. ofmankind, it is our inheri
tance to be cherished in further ex-
perimentation. and development,and.
in use, to extend knowledge, the per-
ception of beauty, and enjoyment of '
the comforts of modern life,
Johann Gutenberg, born about
1400, was a member of a patrician
family in Mainz 'connected with the
metal -working trade. A serious con-
flict with certain Graft Guilds (the
Trades' Unions of those days) drove
the family from Mainz, and in 1434
or earlier, Gutenberg was working
in the neighbouring city of Stras-
bourg.' He occupied himself with
mechanical inventions, and from 1436
onward he was preoccupied with their
application to printing. He -experi-
mented with metals of different
kinds for making type, cut the metal
patterns of type bodies with individ-
ual letter faces on the end. From
the patterns he struck matrices, and
constructed a mould in which to cast
accurate reproductions of the types
in large quantities. Tha principle of
the press had long been known and
applied in the making of wine and
cheese, then adapted to making im-
pressions from wood blocks. Now
Gutenberg further adapted it to
printing from movable metal types.
Probably associated with Gutenberg
in some way was one, Andrew Drit-
zehn in, whose house in Strasbourg
the press was erected and the tools
and equipment kept. That the in-
vention was regarded as potentially
of great commercial value is shown
by the fact that the processes were
guarded carefully, and by the fur-
ther fact that on the death of Drit-
zehn, his brothers, in 1539, brought
suit to claim rights in Gutenberg's
outfit—without success. It is one of
the curious ironies of history that
the records of this trial "foundation
stones in the ediface of fame erect-
ed to one of Germany's national
heroes" should have been destroyed
when the Prussians took Strasbourg
in 1870.
The inventor continued improving
his technique, and from time to time
through the 1440's, produced a few
printed pieces. These were a Latin
grammar, commonly called Donatus,
a long poem and a calendar for the
year 1448. Only fragments, the odd
page of these early productions have
survived to the present time. To-
wards the end of this experimental
period Gutenberg cast a complete
new font of type. But as his talents
turned to mechanical rather than
financial achievement, he . was oblig-
ed to pledge his possessions for a
loan of cash to Johann Fust, a man
of capital in Mainz, whither Guten-
berg returned. about 1448. With Fust,
was associated • a young technician'
named . Peter Schoeffer, who later
became his son-in-law and partner.
Fust and Schoeffer .. were, commer-
cially minded and with t h e benefit
of Gutenberg's inventive genius they
produced the first great monument
to the invention of typography, a
Bible. This, the "Gutenberg" or 42 -
line Bible," was printed on 1282 large
folio pages or two columns each, and
with 42 lines to the column. It bore
no printer's name nor date, but the
work was completed some time be-
fore August, 1456, and by that time
Fust & Schoeffer had eased Guten-
berg out of the enterprise, keeping
his equipment, which had secured the
loan.
Gutenberg retained his earlier
types and from these about 1460,
was printed another Bible, 36 lines
to the page. Fust & Schoeffer
the meantime had prepared an edi-
tion of
di-tion.of the Psalter, the most beaiiti-
ful work, it is said, ever printed—
large pages of text in black and red,
with decorative capitals of intricate
design, in three glowing colors and
perfect impression. This book bore
the date 1457, with the printers'
name and trade -mark, Their mark
Of crossed shields has been perpet-
uated as thesymbol of the Interna -
tion Association of Printing House
Craftsmen.
Gutenberg's name never appeared
upon any book printed from his types
and he died an obscure figure in
1468. But the brilliant achievements
of typography insubsequent years
have been the most gratifying eulo-
gium an inventor would desire. And,
now five hundreds years later, almost
every country in the world acclaims
him as one of the greatest modern
benefactors of mankind.
It has been stated that of all the
world's inventors, two stand out pre-
eminently in the advancement of
literature and education-Ts'ai Lun,
the inventor of paper (China, A.D.
105), and Gutenberg, the originator
of movable types (1440).
From ivlainz, printing spread into
Italy, France and the Netherlands.
In 1474, William Caxton, an Eng-
lish merchant, resident in the Low
Countries, learned how to print and
produced in his own English trans-
lation, the first book ever printed in
English: Recuyell of the Hystoryee
of Troye, a popular classic tale of
the fall of Troy. Soon afterwards he
returned to England with. printing
types and stet up shop near West-
minster Abbey. So the story of
printing in the English-speaking
world begins with Caxton. The year
after Caxton died, Columbus discov-
ered a new continent. across the At-
lantic Ocean, and the first governor
there, the Viceroy of New Spain,
had a printing . press brought to
Mexico City about 1535, the first in
America.
The next one came from England
to New England in 1638, to be set
up by Stephen Daye and his two
sons at Cambridge, Massachusetts,
under direction of Harvard College
just then opening its doors. Daye's
first . substantial work appeared in
1640. It was a book certain of sale
among the Puritan settlers in the
Colony of Maaachusetts Bay, The
Whole Book of Psalmes, or as it is
is generally known, "Thte Bay Psalm
Book". Daye printed 1700 copies of
this book and not more than a dozen
are known today. It is called the
most valuable book ever printed on.
paper. Daye's successor was Samuel
Green and Samuel's grandson, Bar-
tholemew, brought a press to Hali-
fax in 1751. Bartholemew's associ-
ate, John Bushell, carried onthe
work following the former's sudden
death, and became Canada's first
printer and the founder of its first
newspaper, the Halifax Gazette.
So far as be determined with
any certainty there was no printing
shop in Quebec, or Nouvelle France
as it was called, during the French
regime. On at least three occasions
however, requests were made of per-
sons in authority for the privilege of
establishing a press. Jesuit mission-
aries in. Quebec applied for a print-
ing press in 1665; the Sulpicians in
Montreal made the same request of
the Superior of their order in Paris,
1683. In 1749, M. de la Galission-
niere asked the Minister of Marine
and Colonies for the same privilege,
but his request like the others was
denied.
After Nouvelle France became the
British colony of Quebec in 1763, two,
young printers employed in the of-
fice of William• Dunlap, Benjamin
Franklin's brother-in-law in Phila-
'delphia, ventured into Quebee and an-
nounced the publication of a weekly-
newspaper.
eeklynewspaper. The Quebec Gazette,
published in England and French ire
parallel columns, appeared first ort.
June 21, 1764, and continued with but
two brief interruptions until 1874—a
remarkable record for a pioneer pub-
lishing firm. Brown and Gilmore•
printed many books in English or
French or both. In both they print-,
ed all the laws and government pub-
lications. One of the most interest-
ing of their productions is a Canad-
ian edition of the Stamp Act dated:
Quebec, 1766. • In the meantime -
Montreal had got its first printer,:
Fleury Mesplet, who arrived, also
from Philadelphia, in 1766, and
twelve years later launched the
Montreal Gazette.
The first printing done in Upper
Canada was at Newark, now Niag-
aro-on-the-take, where in 1793 Lieu-
tenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe,,
the Lieutenant Governor, set up a.
.French Canadian, Louis Roy, whom.
he bad brought with him from Que-
uec. Two pamphlets, one entitled'.
The Speech of His Excellency Johns
Graves Simcoe, and the other The
Acts( of the Legislature of Upper
Canada, were printed by Roy early
in the year. The first newspaper
was the Upper Canada Gazette which
appeared on April 18, 1793. The first.
publishing house in the modern sense
of the word, that is, an organization
which assumes the risk of publishing
manuscripts, and set up a sales or-
ganization to distribute them, was,
probably the Ryerson Press, which.
developed from the printing office
which Egerton Ryerson founded to
print that famous old Methodist pap-
er, the Christian Guardian.
The first press west of Ontario
was constructed at Norway House,
in Manitoba, about one hundred years
ago—one of the most ingenious ever
made. James Evans, a missionary to
the Indians, wanted a printing outfit
to further his religious and eduea-
tioanl work. He couldn't import one,.
for the Hudson Bay Co., which con-
trolled the area, declined to undertake•
its transportation. So he made what
he required: type, of lead from tea
boxes, cast in wooden moulds which
he cut for the purpose; ink, from:
chimney soot; for paper, birch -bark.
His press was the old fur press used.
in the Company's trading post. His
type is very interesting, for the face•
shows no letters of our alphabet, but
Cree syllabics which Evans himself'
invented, symbols by which he repre-
sented the sounds of the Cree dialect,
and in which he printed spelling and
hynm books for the Indians.
Local printing appeared on. the
(Continued on Page 11).
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