World Book Heritage. 19. The birth of western printing.

World Book heritage A series of talks on the history of the written word 19. The birth of of western printing.

Early woodcuts
Sources: A. M. Hind Introduction to the history of the woodcut (19335, also reprinted)
Catalogue by W.L.Schreiber [reference to verify].

Textile printing was widespread in Europe,possibly from as early as the sixth century Until the 14th century it mainly consisted of decorative stamps repeatedly applied but from the later 14th century larger patterns including representational figures appeared, for example on the Sion printed textile, which probably originated in southern France or northern Italy about 1390. Vignette scenes of daily life are surrounded by knot-work borders. There is also evidence that printed patterns were used as a guide for embroiderers. Examples of the are in the museum in Nuremberg where the needlwork has worn away.

Pulling of textile patterns on paper is impossible to prove without examples on both media but a cut of a griffin within a wreath in the British Museum which is on paper was probably intended as an element in a decorative pattern, as is suggested by the broad scale of the design. As they were often used for picture hangings, themes were often religious, such as the crucifixion or the Virgin and child.

Other uses of woodblocks include blind stamping on leather for bookbindings or printing on vellum, again for bindings, although most examples of this are definitely post-printing, dating from Italy in the 1480s and 1490s. Prints could also be pasted inside bindings, inside deed boxes or travel chests where they could serve as an amulet, on the backs of choir stalls, on doors - an Italian cut of the Virgin and Child in the V&A survives on the wood of a door. They were also used for house decoration - the earliest English wallpaper in Christ's College, Cambridge, dates from about 1509. It is printed on the back of a proclamation and has been assigned to the printer Hugo Goes of York. In Exeter wooden tillet blocks were used into the 18th century to stamp a design onto the wrappers (or tillets) of bundles of cloth as a proof of quality.

Tillet block showing weaver at work, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

Earliest surviving woodblock is the Bois Protat. Named after its owner, it was probably intended for textiles and was discovetered in 1898 when the convent of La Ferte sur Grosne (Seine et Loire) was demolished. It was cut on both sides, on one a fragment of the crucifixion and on the other a fragment of the annunciation. The size of the block is 60 x 23 cm but is probably only one of a set of three or four, the full size being 60 x 69 cm, as when printed only three figures to the right of the cross are shown. It is too large for contemporary paper, which was also rare at the time, so it was probably intended for wall hangings. It is thought to have originated in Burgundy about 1400.

Printing on paper must have depended on supplies from Italy until 1390 when the first German paper mill was opened in Nuremberg. It is possible that an earlier use for wooden stamps for signing documents was used as early as the time of Charlemagne; it was certainly used by Henry VI in 1436, but the use of the seal impressed in wax was more widespread. It is also possible but not proven that stamps of initials could be used to guide illuminators.

Early references to block cutters and block printing show the terms used and also the fields of activity:
1393. Payment for works in the chartreuse in Dijon to "Jehan Baudet charpentier, pour avoir fait et taille des moles et tables pour la chapelle de mon seigneur". The moles were probably blocks for textiles.
1395. Frederico de Germania sold in Bologna "cartas figuratas ad imagines et figuras sanctorum".
1398. use of the word Formschneider (cutter of form or design) at Ulm.
1417. Jan de printere mentioned in Antwerp records as owing money
1417 Wilheml Kegler, Briefdruker mentioned in Noerdlingen. The use of Briefmaler, Heiligenmaler is also found about this time but this may refer to the colourer rather then the designer who would be described as Reisser.
1441. Woodblock cutters of Venice petitioned the council for protection against all kinds of prints, including playing cards and textiles.

Playing cards are first mentioned in 1377 and by 1400 their production was a thriving industry, despite decrees to fight the addiction in Nuremberg in 1380 and Augsburg in 1400. The earliest surviving set is line-engraved by the Master of the Playing Cards before 1446, but several sets survive from the later 15th century.
1402. The term Kartenmacher is used in Ulm.
1424. St Bernardino preaches against cards in Bologna. One card maker turned to cutting the sacred monogram under the saint's direction "If you know how to paint, paint this image".
1430. Antonio di Giovanni declares thirty woodblocks for playing cards and saints to the tax office in Florence.

Knave of coins of the Italia 2 playing cards deck, 1390-1410.
Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Status of woodblock cutters. Printers and block cutters were usualy required to join a guild. The terminology suggests that they did not form a separate guild but joined the carpenters (Formschneider implies a cutter, Schreiner a joiner, Schnitzer a cutter, but Afdrucker and Printere show a greater distinction). In 1452 there was a dispute before the council of Louvain. Representatives of various guilds requested that the "printsnider" Jan van den Bergh join the carpenters. He objected, claiming that his work was not normal in the town and concerned the clergy more than the carpenters. Nevertheless he was ordered to join the carpenters. Much work was done in convents, an advantage as they were exempt from guild jurisdiction, but it is uncertain what proportion of work was done there as opposed to in the main art centres. Luther in 1520 said in An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation that the Pope would grant the revenues of a convent "to some cardinal or other who would put a monk in there for five or six guilders a year to sit daily in the church selling pilgrims tokens and pictures so that singing and reading no longer take place". There was also work undertaken by itinerant crafsmen for pilgrimages and festivals.

Designer and cutter were distinct from early on. The artist usually drew the design direct on the block or if he drew the preliminary design on paper would transfer it to the block himself. The cutting would be done by a professinal guild cutter. For example the 1470 edition of the Biblia pauperum blockbook is signed by Friedrich Walther (Maler) and Hans Hurning (Schreiner). In Augsburg in 1468 the printer Gunther Zainer had opposition from the guild of cutters when he sought permission to print. He had to employ guild cutters to illustrate his works. It is also evident from divergent styles within works signed by the same cutter that designer and cutter were not usually identical.

Sources of design were normally paintings, usually in religious buildings and shrines, while others show evidence of sculpture, stained glass, brasses or plaques.

Subjects of early woodcuts were mainly religious, associated with pilgrimages, the Virgin, saints, crucifixion, cuts against the plague, new years greetings etc. Series of cuts were popular: the passion, les neuf preux, memento mori. Later in the century there was a wider range of interests under the influence of printing: proclamations, satire, popular poems, such as Sebastian Brandt's on syphilis.

Earliest dated woodcuts - there are only three before 1450:
1418. Madonna with four virgin saints in a garden. The copy in the Bibliotheque royale in Brussels is generallly considered a later copy made about 1450.
1423. St Christopher. The copy in the John Rylands Library in Manchester is in the binding of a Latin Laus virginis written in Buxheim in 1417. It has an inscription in Latin: "Every day you see this image you will meet no untimely death".


Woodcut print of St Christopher from Buxheim on the Upper Rhine dated 1423.
Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
1437. Martydom of St Sebastian, copy in Vienna.
1443. Manuscript date on Christ bearing the cross with SS Dorothy and Alexis, copy in Nuremberg.

Woodcuts dated collaterally

1410? Two cuts of the rest on the flight into Egypt and St Jerome in the binding of a blank book prepared for later writing.
1410? Two cuts of St Dorothy and the martydom of St Sebastian from the binding of a manuscript in the convent of St Zeno near Salzburg.

Study of development is difficult as the material is scattered. The evidence for dating and ordering is taken by comparison with book illustrations after 1461, comparison with line engravings and paintings and manuscript illumination, costume (men's skirts got shorter as the 15th century wore on), dates of canonisation of saints (e.g. St Catherine in 1461) and references to Popes. Styles of colouring and pigments used can be of assistance, for example colouring in Ulm was particularly bright.

Main phases of development

1. 1400-1425. Outline is broad, shading absent, a basis for colour, graceful curves, drapery in loops or hairpins. Clothes usually cover feet, except for servants and soldiers. Usually there is no background, emphasis is on the figure. The earliest cuts stylistically, dated to about 1400 are Christ before Herod, which is similar to the Bois Protat and Jesus in the garden of olives, copy in the Bibliotheque national de France.

2. 1425-1460. Thinner line, pot-hooks for draperies, beginnings of linear shading which rpleaces the need for colouring, which was done less as quantities increased. The style of the earliest blockbooks.

3. 1460-1480. The style of the later blockbooks and early printed book illustration. Greater angularity, more shading.

4. 1480-1500. The technique is fully mastered with the introduction of cross-hatching. This leads up to the early work of Durer.

Localisation. Much is traceable to convents in southern Germany and there are also many that are traceable to the Netherlands. There is also some early work from France and Italy but nothing for England before the introduction of printing there.

Cuts in series. These are a half-way house to the blockbook. Some examples are:
1455? Les neuf preux. A French series of the nine worthies of Antiquity, Jewry and Christendom, mounted on horsebak, on three sheets.
1464. Grotesque alphabet, probably originally on three sheets, acscried to the cutter of the first edition of the Ars moriendi. It was copied in intglio by the Master of the Banderolles.
1460s. The twelve apostles, cut on one sheet with scrolls and inscriptions for each one.
A passion series exists in woodcut and maniere criblee.

Blockbooks. In all there are about 33 titles in 100 editions, all copies of popular and much used texts, so many have disappeared. Their subjects are mainly religious but also astrological. They are a development of the series of individual blocks in that most books are essentially a series of scenes with commentary, episodic and not a continuous narrative. Manuscrpts were followed closely - there was no copyright at that time. It is possible to compare manuscripts and block books of the Apocalypse in John Rylands Library to see the close copying in the layout of the various subjects of the illustrations. This may point to the conservatism of the copyists. Technique and costume point to the 1420s and 1430s.

Dating of early blockbooks. The earliest blockbook is dated 1470 but there are some earlier references to blockbooks:
1445 (January). The abbot of St Aubert at Cambrai in northern France tells that he sent to Bruges for two books "gette en moule" (cast in a mould - perhaps metal stereotypes from a woodblock or a misunderstanding of the process). The books purchased from Marquet an "escrivant" of Valenciennes and cost 20 sous Tournois.
1446. Records in Bologna show the use by Zuane de Biaxio, an illuminator, of "forme de stampar donade e salterj" - references to blocks for printing Donatuses and Psalters.
1450. In Cologne the chronicle of Weydenbach church record the bequest of "libris impressis" to a value of twenty florins.
1451. The abbot of Cambrai sent to Arras a doctrinale on paper bought at Valenciennes which was "gette en moule" but full of errors.
1452. The council of Louvain heard a petition of wheelwrights, carpenters, turners and coopers that Jan van den Berghe become a member of the carpenter's guild. Jan claimed that the work of "lettern ende beeld prynten" related to the church rather than to carpentry.

Watermark datings by Stevenson throw some light on the problem. He used beta-radiographic prints in the laboratory of the British Museum compare watermarks very closely and arrive at a series of dates:
1451. The Apocalypse was not printed before this date.
1465. Biblia pauperum, edition 1.
1466. Canticum canticorum, edition 1.
1466. Ars moriendi, edition 1.
Stevenson compared the watermarks in the blockbooks with those of the papermaking towns of Basel, Metz and Troyes in the archives of northern France. He found a unicorn mark in all three books. This was in a fresh state in mid-1465 Metz account books and a degraded state in some of the block books. Thus it can be deduced that blockbook production probably started in the Netherlands and spread back to Germany. While there may have been some experiments in the 1450s, the main production only started in the mid-1460s, probably as an attempt to imitate the earliest illustrated printed books. This is reflected in the arrangement of the listing below.

It is probable that the earliest blockbooks originate in the Netherlands. They are therefore listed in the following groups
A. Blockbooks with Netherland editions and later derivatives
B. Blockbooks probably based on missing Netherlands originals
C. German and other blockbooks probably without Netherland originals

A. Blockbooks with Netherland and derivative editions.

A1. Apocalypse of St John. This is probably the earliest blockbook. There is little text accompanying the woodcuts which appear two to a page, showing scenes from the vision of St John together with scenes from an apocryphal life of St John as an introduction to the visions. The woodcutes show the development of an angular style, somewhat reminiscent of Van Eyck. It is a simmplaer and more vigorous style than its manuscript predecessors, for example in John REylands Library, which have a similar layout. All copies are printed on one side o the paper and may are hasnd coloured. The following editionds are known:

A2. Exercitium super paternoster [details to add]

A3. Biblia pauperum

A4. Speculum humanae salvationis [details to add]

A5. Canticum canticorum [details to add]

A6. Ars moriendi [details to add]

A7. Life of St Servatius [details to add]

A8. Septem vitia mortalia [details to add]

B. Blockbooks probably based on Netherlands originals

B1. Historia Davidis [details to add]

B2. Oracula sibyllina [details to add]

B3. Historia sanctae crucis [details to add]

B4. Defensorium virginiatis Mariae

C. German and other blockbooks

C1. Symbolorum apostolorum

C2. Decalogus

C3. Septimia poenalis

C4. Dance of death

C5. Fable of the sick lion

C6. The planets

C7. Ars memorandi

C8. Salve regina

C9. Die Kunst Chiromantia

C10. Antichrist and the fifteen tokens of judgment

C11. Confessionale

C12. Vita sancti Meinradi

C13. Ars et modus contemplativae vitae

C14. De octo partibus orationis

C15. Mirabilia urbis Romae

C16. Art of wrestling

D. Miscellaneous

D1. Passions. Several small editions are known, probably they form a series of plates intended for cutting up.

D2. Calendars. These were often broadsheets. There are examples from the 1470s to the 1490s and from the early 16th century English almanacs and Bas-Breton calendars were printed on long strips of vellum for insertion in a pocket. These normally include illustrations of saints.

Origins of blockbooks. While there were probaly experiments before the invention of printing with moveable type, the main impetus seems to have been in the mid-1460s under the influence of printing.

The stage setting for typography. It will be seen from previous discussion that typography was basically an independent European development. The idea may have been transmitted from the East, but the idea is not the same as the invention. There are two preconditions for such an invention:
1. The availability of technical facilities and materials
2. The social need and mental readiness

Social setting. Society was basically feudal in structue, each individual firmly set in place within a hierarchy, owing service to the lord and receiving service from the tenants. This sevice was originally military but by now had become mainly economic or financial. The church was still important, holding much land throughout Europe.

Political setting. Europe had a population of about 65 million out of a total world population of 420 million.

France with 15 million population was the largest linguistic area, a feudal association of provinces some, such as Burgundy with lands within the Holy Roman Empire, virtually independent. Between 1428 and 1450 they were busily engaged in driving out the English, a process stared by Joan of Arc.

Germany with 10 million population was not yet a political term. There were some 300 separate principalities mainly within the Holy Roman Empire, a mere shadow compared with the era of Charlemagne.

Italy with 9 million population was also politically confused with a dozen states, some in the Holy Roman Empire. They included the Papal states and powerful city states such as Venice, the chief trading power in Europe, but threatened by the rising power of the Turks.

Spain with 7 million population was made up of four mutually hostile Christian states and the emirate of Granada, which was not conquered until 1492.

Russia with 6 million population was only a small part of eastern Europe. The Duchies of Moscow, Novgorod and other Slav states were confronting the Tatars in the east and the Ottoman empire in the south. By far the largest state was Lithuania while the Byzantine Empire was reduced to a few small fragments of territory.

England with a population of 4 million was relatively insignificant and politically was losing ground to the French with Caen captured in 1450 and Bordeaux in 1453.

The Turkish menace resumed after a brief respite in the early 15th century with further advances in the Balkans and Byzantium fell in 1453. Threatened with extinction, the Greek heritage was brought to Italy by emigrating scholars. It was the menace of the Turks on the trade routes to the East that drove Columbus to look westwards. In 1454 indulgences against the Turks were among the first items to be printed.

Geographical setting. In Europe China and India were lands of fantasy. Marco Polo had visited in 1271 but the barriers had dropped in the 14th century. Of Africa only Egypt and the northern coasts were known. America had been unknown in Europe since Viking times and Australia was completely undiscovered by Europeans.

Economic setting. Trade kept certain channels to the East open. The Hanse organised trade in northern Europe and new forms of finance were being developed by the Lombards in Italy. Such developments were leading towards the growth of capitalism and the rise of a more secular class of patrons of literature.

Exploration. New opportunities were being sought for trade. In Portugal Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) saw the exploration of the west African coast extend from the Azores in 1432 to Sierra Leone in 1462 and the Equator was crossed in 1481. Ships reached the Cape of Good Hope with Diaz in 1487 and the Indian Ocean with Vasco da Gama in 1497. Henry had been financing expeditions since 1415. In 1444-1446 over thrirty ships set out for Guinea.

Religious setting. The church was in a period of decadence. The Great Schism of 1378-1413 led to a falling off in piety, discipline and respect for the papacy. The church councils only brought confusion. In 1409 Pisa elected a third pope. The Council of Constance in 1418 condemned Jan Hus, deposed the previous popes and elected Martin V. The Council of Basel, which dragged on from 1431 to 1449 led to another briefer schism and proposed a union with the eastern church which was hard pressed by the Turks. This proposal which was primarily politically motivated was never fully accepted. Nevertheless the councils regenerated discussion and interest and a new activity in scriptoria.

Religious orders were aiming to produce and disseminate literature. The preacher Gerard Groote (1340-1384) founded two of these. He was a preacher who was very popular with the common folk and denounced the sins of the clergy. In 1387 he established the Congregations of Canons Regular on a site acquired at Windelsheim, an important centre for learning, and in about 1380 he set up the Brothers of the Common Life. This was founded in Deventer where Thomas a Kempis lived from 1392 to 1399. Groote aimed to set up centres where men could live devoutly without taking monastic vows with all goods held in common. These centres preached to and instructed all people, especially the poor, and one of their main tasks was copying manuscripts for distribution to the poor.

Intellectual setting. Beside the religious awakening there was generally a great intellectual inquisitiveness. Scholars were studying the classics as well as Christian texts. On the fall of Constantinople, and even before, Greek scholars arrived in the West. Aristotle had already been rediscovered through Arabic sources in the 12th and 13th centuries. The foundations of modern vernacular literature had been laid in Italy with writers such as Dante (1265-1321), Petrarch (1304-1374) and Boccaccio (1313-1375), emulated in Britain by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Universities. The number of universities had been growing since the 12th century and by 1400 there were 40 in Europe. In the British Isles three had been founded in England (Oxford, Cambridge and the short-lived university of Northampton, active 1261-1265) and one in Ireland (Dublin active 1320 to the 1530s). By 1450 there were 51. Of the eleven founded in the first half of the 15th century two were in Italy, two in Germany, two in Spain and one each in France, the Netherlands and Scotland (St Andrews 1413). There were also two established in England, Caen in 1432 and Bordeaux in 1441, although these were lost to France in 1450 and 1453 respectively. In Scotland universities were established in Glasgow (1451), Aberdeen (1495) and Edinburgh (1583). England had to wait until 1832 for its next university, Durham, followed by London in 1836. Exeter had to wait until 1893 for the Exeter Technical and University Extension College, although Exeter College, the fourth college to be founded in Oxford, was established by Bishop Stapledon in 1314 to provide an educated clergy for his diocese. These univerisites required cheaply produced text books in multiple copies, something that the stationarii had gone some way to provide.

Need for mass production. This demand was clearly growing and could not be provided by manuscripts. They lacked uniformily because of scribal errors and speed only damaged legibility, despite the use of contractions and ligatures, which themselves can affect intelligibility. Blockbooks were only a partial answer. It was laborious to cut text into wooblocks; a careless chip could ruin a text and be difficult to remedy. As has been seen, most blockbooks were mainly made up of illustrations with short texts. This was not suitable for universities, religious treatises or extended works of literature. A more mechanised form of production of large nubers of identical copies of texts was called for.

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This page last updated 18 September 2020