From Xylographs to Lead Molds; A.D. 1440-A.D. 1921
From Xylographs to Lead Molds; A.D. 1440-A.D. 1921
By H. C. Forster
18 Mar, 2019
The art of writing, and that of printing from wooden blocks, and all the subsidiary arts of illuminating, decorating and binding manuscripts and books, had long passed out of the exclusive hands of the monasteries into the hands of students and artis
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The art of writing, and that of printing from wooden blocks, and all the subsidiary arts of illuminating, decorating and binding manuscripts and books, had long passed out of the exclusive hands of the monasteries into the hands of students and artisans, before printing with individual movable cast-metal type was invented. This epoch making invention came into practical use between A. D. 1440 and 1446.
When, therefore, Johannes Koelhoff of Lubeck, Germany, printed the “Cologne Chronicle” in 1499, he used individual movable cast-metal type. Typographic printing had long before superseded Xylographic printing, that is, printing from a solid block of wood on which type of an entire page were cut individually by hand. Less