Gutenberg, and the Art of Printing

The country of the Rhine was visited by a wintry tempest from the North Sea. Benighted, Gutenberg, wrapped in his monk’s cloak, little heeded the roaring winds and cutting blast...

“I try to have a great store,” she playfully said, “but he is so taken up with his projects that I can scarcely ever get a word from him. When he leaves his work-shop for the da...

“We are sure of both,” replied he, “Let me tell thee, wife, nothing yet invented by man, ever made such inroads on ignorance as this will effect. Almost everything we know, we h...

“Moreover,” added another, as he compared two copies, “the letters are so exact and regular; why, these two copies have just as many letters and words on a page, made precisely...

“To the glory of God, Amen. Be it known to all those who see or read this instrument, that in the year of our Lord 1455, third indiction, Thursday, 6th day of November, the firs...

“Ah,” said he, “but it is not because I have returned with much money, although I may have done as well.” And undoing a wrapper he produced the “Historia Sancti Johannis Evangel...

Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, in his “Philobiblion,” a treatise on the love of books, written by him in Latin in 1344, gives a good picture of the transcriber, or copyist o...

“An unsightly figure,” said Anna, as she examined the one in her husband’s hand, “and not to be compared to our St. Christopher,”--glancing at the wall opposite, where hung a pi...

A brass case, or very shallow, oblong pan is filled with liquid beeswax, which stands until it has hardened. The form containing the pages of type, well covered with fine black...

But in this cozy, well-lighted room, sits one whose attitude is the picture of careworn and earnest attention. No matter what the din in the building around him, his faculties a...

He was, it is true, aided by two of his old office workmen,--Martin and Hanau; but his _stucke_ was nevertheless inferior in finish to that which Schoeffer devised. He would not...

Gutenberg’s press was very simple in construction,--a board acted on by a screw, like a cheese-press. On this board the type was placed inclosed in a frame, then inked; the pape...

Text originally printed in Old English or Black Letter is indicated here by =equals signs=. Superscripts are indicated with a circumflex: “y^e”, and italics text by _underscores...

For nearly one hundred and fifty years the Estiennes of France were famous as printers. Robert Stephens, a member of this family, was the first inventor of the verses into which...

His new method of making books being perfected, Mr. Ruggles next invented an entirely new map for the blind. It was made with a raised character, similar to his type; but arrang...