The HISTORY of PRINTING

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com Thehistoryofprinting History \nttmt/btam KEW rrwEET. ^Bfe g. H-yi^f^M^ / mi f a / fi THE HISTORY PRINTING. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF TIIK COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION- APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS; 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; 16, HANOVER STREET, HANOVER SQUARE; AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1855. I VJ AUG1354 j LONDON: PltlNTED BY W. CLOWES AND SON'S, STAMFORD STREET. HISTORY OF PRINTING. Printing is the art of taking impressions, from characters or figures, on paper, linen, silk, and other fabrics. There are several kinds of printing ; from moveable letters, and from metal casts obtained from them, for books ; from engravings on wood and metal, for pic tures; from blocks, on which birds, flowers, and designs are cut, or from rollers on which they are impressed, for printing calico, linen, paper-hangings, &c. ; from letters and draw ings sketched upon stone, coated with grease, called lithography; and, finally, the newly- invented art of natural printing, which con sists in stamping natural objects, such as leaves, feathers, and flowers, upon sheets or rollers of metal in a softened state, and print ing from these rollers on paper. But though the above is the technical definition of print ing, a much wider meaning is generally given to the term. " The essence of printing, " we are told by an able writer, " is the production A 2 4 IHSTORY OF PRINTING. of a copy by pressure." In this sense, then, to seal a letter is to print upon wax, and to coin or stamp money is to print upon gold, or silver, or copper, or whatever may be the substance used. The early Egyptians were the earliest printers ; for they printed inscriptions on bricks ; and some of the stamps which they used for the purpose now form part of the antiquarian treasures of the British Museum. The people of Babylon also rudely practised the art more than two thousand years ago. Bricks are frequently found by persons en gaged in excavating and exploring the gigantic ruins of the fallen city, bearing the name of Nebuchadnezzar stamped upon them. The manner in which this was done is known from its simplicity. The inscription, having been engraved on a piece of wood or stone, was stamped on the wet clay ; and the brick formed by the clay was either dried in the sun or burnt in a kiln. The bricks were thus rendered so durable, that they have survived the city itself. This may be called clay print ing, and probably was the first step in the art.* The next was the use of the seal for making impressions. The earliest mention of a seal, * The oldest and most authentic of all books, the Holy Bible, speaks of printing in Leviticus xix. 28 : "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you." This refers to the custom of tattooing. Again, Job says, " Oh that my words were now written, that they were printed in a book," xix. 23. HISTORY OF PRINTING. 5 let us premise, is found in the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis. Three thousand five hundred years ago, Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, we are told, gave his seal or signet in pledge to Tamar. At that time, however, seals were not used to close letters, but instead of them. A seal was an emblem of authority, instead of the proof of the authenticity of a document. The first instance of the use of the seal in closing letters described in Holy Scripture, is in connexion with the wicked deeds of Jezebel, about nine hundred years before the birth of Christ. Ahab, king of Samaria, coveted the vineyard of Naboth, in Jezreel, desiring to make a herb garden of it, because it was near to his palace. Naboth refused to part with the vineyard, either for its worth in money or in exchange for a better one, because it was the inheritance which had descended to him from his father. Ahab was so mortified with disappointment, that he lay down upon his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat. Jezebel, his wife, asked him why he was so sad, and he con- The meaning of Job is clear from the words which follow : — " That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." He wished that they might be registered in a book of record, and inscribed on a rock or pillar, according to the custom of ancient times. The translator has used the modern word " printed " to con vey an ancient meaning ; and it is calculated to deceive. Printers sometimes quote the words of Job in proof of the high antiquity of the art ; it is obvious he meant some thing very different from modern printing. D HISTORY OF PRINTING. fessed what troubled him. Jezebel thereupon bade him arise and rejoice, promising to give him the vineyard. " So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles in his city, dwelling with Naboth."* The elders and nobles, at Jezebel's instigation, falsely accused Naboth of blas pheming God and the king ; and he was stoned to death. For this act of oppression and bloodshed, God sent Elijah to meet Ahab, when he went, having killed Naboth, to take possession, and the prophet foretold the coming punishment of the guilty king and queen : " In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine ;" and again " the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel." The prophecy, we need scarcely add, was strictly fulfilled, and where Ahab sought only his pleasure, he found death, and Jezebel a dishonorable grave. The Romans used seals at a very early period of their history. It is clear, moreover, from some Roman seals which are still in existence, that the crude principle of letter press printing was known to them. They certainly practised that rude and cruel form of printing which is not yet banished from our fields, the branding of cattle with red- hot irons, which after all is printing in hair, wool, and hide. It is not known what sub- tances the Romans used as sealing-wax ; and * 1 Kings xxi. 8. HISTORY OF PRINTING. 7 the knowledge of it having been lost by suc ceeding nations, they substituted lead. The earliest seals in Christian times were thin impressions upon lead. The Emperor Char lemagne wore his seal on the pommel of his sword, and he used to say, " I will maintain with the point that which I have engaged (i e., set his seal to) with the hilt."' The invention of money was another step in the art of printing. To stamp the figure of a head or any other device, on a piece of money, is nothing else than to print on a piece of metal. Remarkably enough, too, the method used in stamping money is the same now as it has ever been. An engraving of the device to be stamped, or die, as it is called, is cut on a punch, or handle, and the punch is forcibly driven against the metal, which is thereby stamped with the device. It is .uncertain when money was first coined. No mention of money is made in the early part of Holy Scripture,* and the earliest profane writer, Homer, says nothing whatever on the subject. * We read of skekels as early as the time of Abraham. For instance, Abraham gave 400 skekels of silver " cur rent money with the merchants," as the Scripture says, for a burial-place for Sarah his wife, and she died about 1860 years before the birth of Christ. But though the word "money," is used in the translations of the Bible, it is not found in the original Hebrew ; for what is now commonly called money did not exist amongst the Jews. Skekels were weights not coins, and consisted of ingots and wedges of metal. The word "coin," it is supposed, is derived from the Latin word for wedge. At a later period the Jews stamped their skekels with Aaron's rod 8 HISTORY OF PRINTING. Though commerce sprung up at a very early age, it was for a long time carried on by barter. Herodotus, sumamed "the Father of His tory," says that the Lydians were the first people who coined gold and silver money. The origin of it is also attributed to Pheidon, king of Argos, 895 years before the birth of Christ. The Hindoos used to possess a coin which they declared to be 4000 years old, and they reverenced it like a god. It was origi nally dug up near the royal palace of Mysore. It was afterwards found amongst the treasures of Tippoo Saib, captured by the British army at Seringapatam, and is now in the possession of the East India Company. Its age is, in all probability, fabulous. As seals were formed with a graver, and money with a die, it is obvious, that engraving preceded the primitive method of printing. Some particulars of the early history of this art may therefore not be out of place.

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