Pentateuch of Printing with a Chapter on Judges (page 2/3)

Front Cover, Pentateuch of Printing

The outside of the book.

Title Page, Pentateuch of Printing

Two stern figures hold up an ornate title page. [more...]

The “lay” of a pair of type cases (upper case).

This is the top half of the figure, the upper case. In the actual type tray, individual sorts, or pieces of type, would be stored in the compartment indicated. Note that the actual compartments are open; a type tray generally does not have a lid, so you had to learn where the letters went. [more...]

The “lay” of a pair of type cases (lower case).

This is the lower half of the figure, and shows (not by coincidence) how the miniscule letters, now called lower case letters, were stored in the type case. [more...]

Old Iron Composing Stick

Not mentioned in the text, but see the fifteenth century composing stick for details. [more...]

Fifteenth Century Wooden Composing Stick

“Standing in front of the case, the compositor held in his left hand a wooden “composing-stick,” in which a rectangular trench had been cut to receive the [more...] [$]

A Line of Composed Type

“When the end of a line was reached, and there was no room for more words and yet some space left, the compositor by placing a little extra space between the words made the line fill out the stick. This was called ‘justifying” the line. Each line was lifted out of the stick and placed on a wooden board; thus line after line was [...] [more...]

From the Biblia Pauperum. Block Book. 15th Century.

This image is taken from a fifteenth century “Speculum humanæ salvationis”, probably from the first Latin edition of around 1470. The panels represent the fall of Lucifer and the creation of Eve from Adam, respectively. [more...]

Bas-Relief From the Entablature, Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey

A printing office, with an engraver (I think) at left, a proof-reader, a typesetter (at the back) next to the person operating the press itself, and, at right, a boy wearing tights and I think barefoot, probably a [...] [more...]

Reproduction of title page from Watson’s History of Printing

This reproduction of the title page of The History of the Art of Printing printed by James Watson in 1713 is included in the last chapter (Judges) of the “Pentateuch of Printing.” [more...]

Irregular vintage border from 1712

This border of straight lines in red and back is taken from James Watson’s title page from three hundred years ago; I have kept the horizontal line so that you can erase it or duplicate it and move it as desired, and I coloured one of the two nested [...] [more...]