Block book

“ I think we shall do better to keep on as we have begun,” said Riffe, with the air of one who had settled the matter.
“Block-printing is by no means to be despised,” answered Gutenberg, “in books of a few pages; but in a large book of many pages, we waste time in cutting letters, as they are only of use for that book, and cannot be taken apart and used for another.”
100 “I am opposed to any change,” Dritzhn reiterated; “we are sufficiently involved without any new experiments. We cannot do better than keep on with the block books.” ”

“ The block book proper however, shows text as well as illustrations, the text gradually becoming more and more important. Block books are printed in pale coloured ink, so that they may take colour as well as possible, and are [90] usually coloured more or less, sometimes by hand and sometimes by means of stencil plates, or perhaps a combination of both methods. ”

“ These peculiarities are never produced in the workmanship of men who draw letters on a block.
It is not strange that the block-book printers should have imitated the work and the mannerisms of the typographers. It was easier to transfer the letters than to draw them; easier to cut the letters for a book of twenty or thirty pages than to cut the punches, make the moulds, and cast and compose the types. The blocks having been engraved, the block-printer had the superior advantage. His blocks, like modern stereotype plates, were always ready for use. ”

“ This is the name of an early block-book almost as famous as the Bible of the Poor, and of which there are at least six distinct xylographic editions. Some of them have fifty, and others have forty-eight leaves, printed upon one side only of the leaf. The dissimilarities in the designs and the engraving of these editions are decided and unmistakable: they are, no doubt, impressions from different suites of blocks, and each edition may be regarded as the work of a different printer.
As a literary production, the Apocalypse has small merit. ”

“ Even under the most favourable circumstances, it is much more agreeable to draw from nature in a block-book than in any other way, as ordinary sheets of paper are always being curled up and moved about by the wind. ”

“ Specimen of the early Block-books, or books printed from engraved blocks before the invention of moveable types; being the Apocalypse, represented in a series of rudely-engraved scenes, with short explanatory descriptions.
This is a copy of the edition called by Mr. S. Leigh Sotheby, in his Principia Typographica, the Second; it belonged to Mr. Douce, who bought it for thirty-one guineas at Mr. Inglis' sale [375] .
9. The first book printed from moveable types; being a very fine copy, of the grand Latin Bible, printed by Gutenberg at Mentz about 1455. See p. 202. ”

“ With blocks the printer could make copies of a book a great deal faster than a man could write them by hand. But the making of the blocks took a long time, and each block would print only one page.
Gutenberg enjoyed reading the manuscripts and block books that his parents and their wealthy friends had; and he often said it was a pity that only rich people could own books. ”

“ As I know you have an admirable talent for sketching from nature, and as I have no doubt there are some noble specimens of trees in a park so old as yours is, I would advise you by all means to provide yourself with what is called a block-book, that is, a drawing-book in which the sheets of paper are fixed together by a little gum, or some other glutinous substance, being washed over the edges, so that they are as perfectly firm and solid as though the whole book were a block of wood with a piece of paper pasted on it. ”

“ But one of the Latin editions is remarkable for having twenty pages of the text printed from wood blocks. How and why these xylographic pages appear in a book whose remaining forty-two pages are printed from types is a mystery. They are inserted at intervals among the other leaves, and for this and other reasons it is considered improbable that they were printed from blocks originally intended for a block-book, to help to eke out a not very plentiful stock of type. Moreover, no entirely xylographic Speculum exists to lend colour to such a theory. ”

“ A book that does not open flat is rather inconvenient to write in when one of its sides is in the position shown in Fig. 2. A wedge-shaped piece of metal, stone or wood, as shown in Fig. 1, will, when placed as in Fig. 3, raise the sloping half to the level of the other pages. Cover the block with rubber, wide rubber bands or felt, to prevent its scratching the desk top. The block can also be used as a paperweight. ”

“ Labor is cheap, and skill is abundant: the cutting of a block of Chinese characters which conveys as many ideas as a page of large Roman book types costs no more, often less, than the composition of the types. The block has advantages over metal types or stereotypes. It is, practically, a stereotype: correct to copy, it needs no proof-reading; light, portable, and not so liable to damage as the stereotype, it can be used for printing copies as they are needed from time to time. ”

“ The great popularity of the block-books even after 1450, when types had been invented, proves that the business of making them was then firmly established, and that it was not checked by the superior advantages offered by types. ”

“ The literary merit of the block-books was small, and their shabby mechanical execution made them contemptible. To readers accustomed to handle great books of tinted vellum, admirably written in letters that are yet as sharp and legible as modern types, these miserable little pamphlets on dingy paper, and with muddy letters, scarcely deserved the name of books. By the educated readers of the fifteenth century they were rated as literary rubbish. ”

“ The other block-books, many of which are in themselves interesting and curious, do not elucidate the history of the art, and therefore need not be discussed. It is sufficient to say that they are less valuable than those which have been described, and far ruder in design and execution. ”

“ Servatius in the Royal Library of Brussels, and that is an exceptional volume in many respects besides.’ [2] These block-books must be considered as forming a distinct group of themselves, radically different from other books, though undoubtedly they gave the idea to the inventor of movable type. They continued to be made during the whole of the fifteenth century, almost always on the same plan, and each one as archaic looking as another. The invention of movable type did not do away with the demand, and the supply was kept up. ”

“ The number of different block-books in existence is hard to estimate, but it must approach somewhere near one hundred. Many of these are of little importance, many others of too late a date to be of much interest.
The best known of the earlier block-books are the Ars Moriendi, the Biblia Pauperum, the Apocalypse, and the Canticum Canticorum. Of these, the first and third are probably German, the second and fourth Dutch. [9] Of all these books there are a number of editions, not easily distinguishable apart, and which it is difficult to place in chronological order. ”

“ If we must grant, as the weight of authority now bids us, that these woodcuts are copies from the copper engravings of the Master E. S., it can hardly be disputed that the wood-cutter was the better artist of the two.
The block-books are a striking example of the difficulty of gleaning where the earlier collectors have reaped, a difficulty to which we shall often have to call attention. They vary greatly in positive rarity. Of the Biblia Pauperum and Ars Moriendi, which in their different issues and editions enjoyed the longest life and early attracted attention, Dr. ”

“ Block Books.—The Mediæval Block Books were the most important of the early pictorial reproductions from engraved wood blocks. They also may be traced to China, where, as early as the ninth century, they were used for decorative as well as illustrative purposes. ”

“ Many a traveller other than Marco Polo might have brought home the block-books, and some might have witnessed the process of making them. This is the less to be ascribed to Polo, because he so curiously omits to speak of the process of printing, when, in describing the block-printed paper-money of China, his subject seems absolutely to challenge a description of the art.
See the Recueil of the Paris Geographical Society (1824) , vol. i., giving the text of the fundamental MS. (Nat. Libr. Paris, Fr. 1116; see above) , as well as that of the oldest Latin version; G. Pauthier’s edition, Livre . ”

“ The success of these prints gave rise to a more extensive application of the art. Scriptural subjects, of many figures, with texts of scripture, were engraved, and impressions were taken from them on one side of the paper, two sheets being pasted together to form a leaf. Entire sets were bound up together, and thus were formed the first printed books, which, being produced entirely from wood-cuts, are known by the name of block-books. ”

“ In this universal appreciation of pictures, some of the early engravers of cards and images saw an opportunity. Men who would not buy books of letters would buy books of pictures. Books of the latter class were not only sure of sale, but they could be engraved on blocks at a comparatively small expense. They could be printed in quantities much more cheaply, and, above all, with more accuracy and uniformity than they could be drawn by hand. They could be painted or illuminated by stencil plates, and made acceptable to men of simple tastes. Here was the beginning of the block-books. ”

“ MR. BLOCK
By Joe Hill
(Air: "It Looks To Me Like a Big Time Tonight")
Please give me your attention, I'll introduce to you
A man that is a credit to "Our Red, White and Blue";
His head is made of lumber, and solid as a rock;
He is a common worker and his name is Mr. Block.
And Block he thinks he may
Be President some day.
CHORUS:
Oh, Mr. Block, you were born by mistake,
You take the cake,
You make me ache.
Tie on a rock to your block and then jump in the lake,
Kindly do that for Liberty's sake.
Yes, Mr. Block is lucky; he found a job, by gee! ”

“ It is not unusual to employ a block carved with a design of some sort which is not coloured, but serves to stamp a pattern in relief. In printing from such blocks extra pressure is resorted to. Some of the effects thus obtained are very attractive. ”

“ Some of them had grown rich by quick speculations, and got into the choicest society by the simple manoeuvre of taking a four-story brownstone front in the avenue which formed the eastern boundary of the block. Others had attained to poverty by the same process, and had migrated to cheaper lodgings in blocks remote, expecting that a lucky turn of Fortune's wheel would bring them back to fashionable life next year, as it most likely would. ”

“ Because it keeps the eyes so busy, seeing all the people that pass, one block of buildings seems very much like another the first few times the new-comer takes this walk, except, of course, for conspicuous landmarks like that of the new library on the site of the late reservoir or the Arcade on the site of the old Windsor Hotel, with its ghastly memories; but after awhile all the blocks begin to seem very different; not only the one where you saw a boy on a bicycle run down and killed, or where certain well-known people live, but the blocks formerly considered monotonous. ”

“ It is an old and good custom to put the arms of the owner of a library on the covers of the books he has bound. The traditional, and certainly one of the best ways to do this, is to have an arms block designed and cut. To design an arms [228] block, knowledge of heraldry is needed, and also some clear idea of the effect to be aimed at. A very common mistake in designing blocks is to try and get the effect of hand tooling. ”

“ It occupies no more space than an ordinary perfecting machine, and only requires four men to attend to it, while thirty men and five ‘two-feeders’ would be required to do the same amount of work by the old system.
If a block be well engraved and carefully used in printing there is practically no limit to the number of impressions that may be taken from it. The blocks in the Christmas number of the Illustrated London News of 1882 had 425,000 impressions taken from them, and they are still good for a new edition of the like number. ”

“ When the eye gazes steadily at the Pleiades, in the midnight splendor of the starlit sky, one of the blazing orbs shrinks modestly from view and only six remain to be admired by the wondering gazer below: it is the quick, casual glance that catches the brilliant sister unawares, before she can hide her face.
So, when the pioneers within the block-house looked intently at the stockade, they saw nothing but the wall of shadow and the outline of the sharp pickets above ”

“ There came seconds, and sometimes minutes, when no one spoke, and the silence within the 218 block-house was so profound that the faint sifting of the snow on the roof was heard. Then an eddy of wind would whirl some of the sand-like particles through the loopholes into the eyes and faces of those who were peering out. Men and boys gathered their blankets closer about their shoulders, and set their muskets down beside them, where they could be caught up the instant needed, while they carefully warmed their benumbed fingers by rubbing and striking the palms together. ”