In this class we talk about the development of printing technologies.

1. Class 11.2
Making
Multiples
A r t 1 0 0
U n d e r s t a n d i n g V i s u a l C u l t u r e

2. agenda 11.3.16
• what is printing? what is a print?
• where is printing inventeD?
• recording things: how do we keep records?
• clay tablets [Sumeria]
• papyrus [Egypt]
• bamboo, silk, paper [China]
• qipu [Andes]
• parchment [Europe]

3. some of the earliest
images...

4. ...were made by "printing"

5. what is "printing"?
• Complex term:
• 1. Creation of a single controlling surface from which
multiples can be generated; the intention is that all resulting
copies are identical (though there may be differences in
practice). Just because it's possible to make multiples
doesn't mean that you are required to.
• 2. When printing, the controlling surface is covered in ink or
some other pigment, and then transferred to a receiving
surface through pressure.
• 3. "Printing" can also refer to the creation of written materials
using moveable type.

6. what is a "print"?
• An image or design impressed or stamped on a support
such as paper or fabric. The term encompasses a wide
range of techniques used to produce multiple versions of
an original design.
• There are many different techniques for printing. Today,
we'll discuss two of them:
• wood block printing
• engraving

7. early printing
• Woodblock printing
• Invented during the Tang Dynasty (618-907)
• Popularized during the Song Dynasty (960-1279)
• Moveable metal invented in Korea during the 9th century; many
extant copies of Korean metal-type printed texts from the 12th and
13th centuries.
• There were also sets of moveable wood type.

9. Buddhist text
China
c. 1300
woodblock

11. cast bronze type

12. tray of set metal type

13. what else is needed for
printing?
• a receptive surface. The Chinese were technologically
advanced in this way as well.
• Silk makes an excellent receptive surface and was used for
texts and images as well as clothing.
• Paper! Printing on paper dates to the 8th century in China.
• Buddhism, which emphasizes that sacred texts should be
produced in mass quantity, to multiply their blessings and
spread their faith, was a key force in the development of
printing.
• This is why we see paper, print, and Buddhist content joined
together in the earliest extant woodblock printed image in
global history.

14. what are some other
"receptive surfaces"

15. clay tablet
British Museum Society Tablet
Mespotamian, Late Uruk
(3100BC-3000BC)
clay with impressed cuneiform
3.7 in H x 2.7 in W x .91 in D
record of beer consumed on
account of different workers;
impressed with five different types
of numerical symbols

16. clay tablets
PROS CONS

19. Lesley Perrins, How
Paper Is Made. (Facts
on File: New York,
1985): 16.
Processing Papyrus stalks into paper

20. water, sun and pressure compact the individual strips into a single
sheet; to make larger sheets, individual sheets are glued together

22. papyrus fragment
Simonides [Greek]
epic poem about a Greek military victory

23. Fragment of Gospel
of John
3.5 x 2.5 inches
script style dates this
to 125-150
oldest surviving
fragment of New
Testament
Rylands

24. scholar examining one of the "Dead Sea Scrolls"

25. papyrus
CONSPROS

27. China
calligraphy on bamboo strips
c. 300 BCE
history text

28. Paper and Systems of Notation
• rise of paper production in Baghdad late eighth/early ninth
sparks production of books, scholarly activity, development of
libraries
• it also impacts the develop of systems of notation, new ways of
representing human knowledge in various fields
• math (numerals)
• commerce (numerals, coinage, standard accounting
procedures)
• geography (cartography)
• cooking
• music (counter-example of dance notation)
• genealogy
• battle plans

30. qipu or khipu (pronounced KEE-poo): based upon the Quechua word for "knot,"
an unique record-keeping system developed in the Inca Empire.

31. Data is stored in the position of the strings, their
length, and the number, size and position of the knots.

32. The Inca Empire expanded
rapidly in the 15th century.
Thousands of miles of roads
were built across the Empire;
soldiers needed payment;
temples required maintenance.

33. The qipu were stored and
used by “khipucamayuq”—
administrators of the Inca
Empire who used them to
encode census and tax
data.

34. In the West the
technique of printing
from woodblocks on
dates from the early
15th century. Prints of
this kind that have
survived include
religious images and
playing cards. As we
might predict, printing
in Europe was
developed after paper
began to be
manufactured there.
So what was this
monk writing on?

35. animal hides were stretched,
dried and treated to create velvety
smooth surfaces for writing

36. http://web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/parchment.html

38. “Giant” Bible of Mainz
completed July 9, 1453

39. parchment
PROS CONS

40. sheet of
playing cards
Venice
1462

42. 1454 or 1455
printed using moveable metal type; ¼ of the copies printed on parchment, the other ¾
printed on imported Italian paper

45. Jost AMMANN (1539-1591)
“The Printer's Workshop,” from The Book of Trades
woodcut
1568
114 woodcuts illustrating different trades, each with
a poem
In the background, two men are selecting letters
from a double-type case, which they would
assemble
in a line on a hand-held tray according to the
manuscripts pinned beside them.
In the foreground, the man on the right is inking the
lines of type, while the man on the left removed a
completed page from the hinged frame.
The whole assembly is then slid under the press,
which is forced down by one horizontal pull of the
handle.
Woodcut blocks can be printed in this press at the
same time as text.

46. early printed format
 broadsheet/broadside: a single sheet that was used to
print announcements or notices on one side only.
 could be posted publicly and read/viewed by all

47. Erhard Schoen,
broadsheet titled "A scary
story of the devil and a terrible
woman that happened at
Schilta during Holy Week
1533.”
woodcut

49. Georg Mack the Elder
Broadsheet recording the sighting of
a comet at Nürnberg in November
1577
woodcut, colored single leaf

51. etching
1797
France

52. design of printing press
London, 17th century

53. hand-cranked printing press,
but now in cast iron, allowing
greater pressure to be exerted
on the plates

54. early design for steam-powered printing press