Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. There is still some controversy among scholars as to whether their introduction preceded or, the majority view, followed the introduction of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 14.
These were all short heavily illustrated works, the bestsellers of the day, repeated in many different block-book versions: the Ars moriendi and the Biblia pauperum were the most common. These prints produced in very large numbers from about 1425 onward.Īround the mid-fifteenth-century, block-books, woodcut books with both text and images, usually carved in the same block, emerged as a cheaper alternative to manuscripts and books printed with movable type. When paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the technique transferred very quickly to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate. The earliest known woodcut, 1423, Buxheim, with hand-colouringīlock printing first came to Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300. The printing technique in Egypt was embraced by reproducing texts on paper strips and supplying them in different copies to meet the demand. Block printing later went out of use during the Timurid Renaissance. There is some evidence to suggest that these print blocks were made from non-wood materials, possibly tin, lead, or clay. In Middle East īlock printing, called tarsh in Arabic, developed in Arabic Egypt during the ninth and tenth centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. This technique was transmitted to Europe by around 1400 and was used on paper for old master prints and playing cards. This technique then spread to Persia and Russia. Printing spread early to Korea and Japan, which also used Chinese logograms, but the technique was also used in Turpan and Vietnam using a number of other scripts. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day.
By the tenth century, 400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed, and the Confucian classics were in print. The earliest examples of woodblock printing on paper appear in the mid-seventh century in China.īy the ninth century, printing on paper had taken off, and the first extant complete printed book containing its date is the Diamond Sutra ( British Library) of 868. They are of silk printed with flowers in three colours from the Han Dynasty (before 220 A.D.). The earliest surviving woodblock printed fragments are from China. Main article: History of printing in East Asia
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