Until the 1450s, the only method for obtaining a copy of a written work, short of copying it oneself, was to purchase or commission one in manuscript. While scribal workshops in monastic settings provided many of the religious texts, scribes at universities and at the major courts made copies of secular texts as well as of certain religious works. During the early years of printing, books were made chiefly for the religious and academic markets (Bibles, grammars, canon law books, patristic texts, etc.). Under the influence of humanistic studies, more attention was paid to philological standards, especially for texts and translations of the Greek and Latin church fathers and classical authors. Printing in Europe began in Germany but dispersed to Italy and France after warfare between two archbishops resulted in the Sack of Mainz in 1462. Most aristocratic collectors at first preferred manuscripts, especially those elaborately decorated with gold highlights and painted illustrations, on luxurious vellum or parchment. By the mid-1470s, however, printers were leaving spaces in their text blocks for ornamental initials to be added by hand, as well as generous margins so that at least the first page and sectional divisions of a book might have decoration added later, according to the taste of the purchaser. By the late 1470s, several printers were adding woodcut initial letters, marginal decorations, and illustrations such as maps or scientific diagrams, and a few printers were experimenting with metal cuts for illustrations. Although some 15th-century collectors were averse to acquiring printed books, the new technology was praised, especially for the durability of its ink. Here is a somewhat biased panegyric of 1466 by a writer who worked in an early print shop: “Why go to the trouble of borrowing the book [i. e., in manuscript] and paying the price for that, when the same price would. . . give you a copy to keep? This true copy cannot be transcribed into a false likeness: from one constant setting of type a thousand good copies can be produced. Again, the test of corrosive wax and acid water proves that this ink is not fugitive. No foul stream can wash away a letter, so durable is the paper” (Barker 1999, p. 198).
The German printers Sweynheim and Pannartz established a printing house near Rome in 1465 and later moved into Rome itself. Their press issued 10 first editions of Latin classical texts, using not the spiky Gothic letters of medieval hands, but rather the rounded cursive letters favored by Italian humanists. This type style, still called roman today,
Literature and Language
Perpetuated the classical style in book design and became the norm by the end of the 16th century. We probably can assume that roman letters were easier to read, and that this is one reason why they were eventually preferred to the Gothic font. By the close of the 15th century, books were being printed in runs of 1,000 and more; as a result the price of many individual titles was decreasing. Publishers in Venice were especially prolific, issuing some 4,000 editions before 1500. Other major centers of production included Lyon, Paris, Cologne, Augsburg, Nuremburg, and Basel. The early efforts at illustrating printed books blossomed into a new industry in these and other publishing centers. The market for many books issued in the vernacular languages was expanded by illustrations that made the texts more enjoyable and more accessible to the general reading public.
World History
