The beginning of book printing in Western Europe. Moscow State University of Printing Arts

The first printed books appeared in the Far East - in China and Korea. Woodcut forms were first used to print books there. Each time before printing, it was necessary to engrave a new form (VIII-IX centuries). Bi Sheng began to produce clay types, from which he typed text printing forms. In Korea, letters cast from bronze were used (XI-XIII centuries).

In Europe, these achievements of the peoples of the East, apparently, were not known. Woodblock printed products appeared there at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th centuries. Printing from woodcut forms was carried out without a printing press, and pressure was applied with the edge of the palm. Along with woodblock printing, the following printing processes were used in Europe: inkless embossing and textile printing. Sometimes typesetting forms were also used there, for example, for embossing ornaments typed using separate small stamps on binding covers. The processes of engraving on metal and casting processes also came into use, and the extraction of grapes for wine was carried out with special squeezing presses. All this formed the basis for the invention of printing.

There was also an objective need for the invention of printing, associated with the spread of trade, crafts, and the developing need for education. A cheap material for the production of books began to be produced - paper. In the 15th century, handwritten books on paper became available to wide circles of the wealthy population. Along with public ones, small private libraries appeared. The requirements for the quality of books have increased, and the question of unifying texts, the main reason for the distortion of which was manual correspondence, came to the forefront. It was possible to combat such distortions only with the help of printing. Only printing made it possible to reproduce text in the form of hundreds and thousands of completely identical copies.

The invention of printing in Europe: background, prerequisites, essence of I. Gutenberg’s invention.

The first thing that contributed to the emergence of printing was paper, invented in China by Tsai Lun and brought to Europe. By the beginning of European book printing, at least two-thirds of handwritten books were already produced on paper, which was of different types and different qualities.

Manuscript production was expensive and slow. In Europe, woodcut books appeared after the Crusades. Its emergence and flourishing was facilitated by the massive demand for paper money, printed icons and papal indulgences, as well as playing cards (“Bible of the Poor”). Neither method was suitable for large books, but both of them can be considered as prerequisites for the invention of typographic printing.

The essence of the invention: The technical essence is that, having decomposed the letter into its component elements, he provided a method for producing each character, the ability to compose a printed form in any sequence, the ability to replace letters by size (height) and height (length). He created the first printing equipment, invented a new method of making type and made a type casting mold. Stamps (punchons) were made from hard metal, carved in a mirror image. Then they were pressed into a soft and pliable copper plate: a matrix was obtained, which was filled with a metal alloy. The alloy developed by Gutenberg included tin, lead, and antimony. The essence of this method of making letters was that they could be cast in any quantity. In book production, this is of significant importance, considering that the average book page requires approximately two hundred letters. Equipment for the printing house required not just a press, but a printing press and a typesetting cash desk (an inclined wooden box with cells). They contained letters and punctuation marks.

Advantages of book printing:

1) facilitating the production of a printing form, which is made up of pre-prepared technical elements and parts

2 possibility of repeated reuse

3) general simplification of the entire process of accumulation and transmission of information.

The life and work of Gutenberg. Causes and essence Gutenberg question (literature review).

Real name: Hans Gensfleisch (Gutenberg is his mother's surname). Born in Mainz at the end of the 14th century. Son of patrician Friele Gensfleisch.

The family had to leave for Strasbourg due to political strife between the patricians and the church. All children, following their father, were engaged in professions related to metal (mainly coinage). In 1434, Hans became a member of the jewelers' guild.

There is no information about Gutenberg's education. He could study at a parish or city lower school.

In 1440 the first books were a Latin grammar, papal indulgences, astrological calendars.

In 1444 leaves for Mainz. There he is developing a complete Bible in Latin (At that time they were afraid that errors would creep into the printed copies, that the monks-scribes. The printed Bible was even burned in Cologne).

1445 – the first printed poem in German, “The Book of the Sibylline” (in 1892, scraps from the pages of the book were found and identified)

1448 – astronomical calendar printed

1450g. – Gutenberg borrows money from the wealthy Mainz burgher I. Fust as collateral to improve his equipment.

1452 – Fust becomes a partner and contributes another 800 guilders (subsequently from Fust a claim for 2400 francs)

1450-1455 – the largest book – the 42-line Bible (text in 2 columns, 1282 pages, part on paper, part on parchment, hand illustrations)

At the end of 1456, when the Bible was almost printed, Fust filed a lawsuit and demanded the return of the money. Gutenberg lost the case. The printing house passed to Fust. Fust's companion (and later owner) was Gutenberg's student, Peter Schaeffer.

Gutenberg lost his monopoly on the machine he invented and did not work for many years.

In 1459-1462. gets to work (36-line Bible).

In 1465 the Archbishop of Mainz provided Gutenberg with financial support and a court rank

The main documents about Gutenberg have reached us only in extracts and fragments. The honor of his invention of printing has been repeatedly challenged, starting with Fust, by various printing companies, and then by historians of various countries, in particular. Dutch in favor of Laurence Coster (even before Gutenberg, who published the book “The Mirror of Human Salvation”), and this led to the emergence in science of the so-called “Gutenberg question.” The matter was aggravated by the fact that publications in which the name of the inventor would appear as the printer of this book , has not survived. However, a careful study of the materials showed that there is no reason to doubt that the invention belonged to Gutenberg. As for the publications he published, they can only be established by indirect data (from fonts, dated inscriptions), and in some cases remain controversial.

In the Gutenberg Question, a special place is occupied by the “Catholicon” - its features - the colophon (afterword, contains imprint, 1460).

I. Gutenberg invented printing in 1440. The following three aspects of this invention should be noted. 1) The letter casting process is the production of the same letters in sufficiently large quantities. 2) Typesetting process - the production of a text printing form made up of individual pre-cast letters. 3) Printing process - producing many identical prints by transferring ink under pressure from a printing plate to paper or other material. Within 50 years after the invention of I. Gutenberg, more than 1000 printing houses were created in different countries, which produced a total circulation of about 10 million copies of printed books.

An important fact is that the first Russian printing house was created by Ivan Fedorov in Moscow at the behest of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 1564, the first Russian, accurately dated book, “The Acts of the Holy Apostles,” was published. During his life, Ivan Fedorov and his assistants published 13 separate editions, including the first complete Slavic Bible (Ostrog Bible).

Incunabulum period of printing (Europe).

The second half of the 15th century - the spread of printing throughout Europe - Italy (1465), Switzerland (1468), France, Hungary, Poland (1470), England, Czechoslovakia (1476), Austria, Denmark, etc. Books published before December 31, 1500 are usually called incunabula, in Latin - “in the cradle,” that is, in the cradle of printing. By 1500, more than ten million copies of incunabula were published in Europe, including in the Slavic language. European books printed from 1501 to 1550 inclusive are usually called paleotypes, that is, ancient editions.

At this time, printed illustrations appeared in the book. They began to use woodcut printing - wood engraving. Engraving of various techniques began to be used for printing headbands, initials, illustrations and other decorations of the book.

The owner of a printing house in Venice, Aldus Manutius (1450-1515), a noble and wealthy man, began producing books called aldines. In the printing house of Aldus Manutius, artists, imitating ancient examples, used a simple and beautiful antiqua font. An italic and slanted font began to be used, designed to highlight a particular thought in the text.

The first incunabula printed in Cyrillic for the Orthodox Slavs appeared in Krakow at the end of the 15th century. Their printer was the German Schweipolt Fiol. The first publications were liturgical books - "Octoechos" (1491) and "Book of Hours" (1491).

The design of the incunabula font resembled the handwriting of handwritten books (texture, Gothic minuscule). The typical formats for incunabula were in-folio (1/2 sheet) and in-quarto (1/4 sheet). The circulation was small, the traditional circulation was 275 copies. Incunabula were relatively inexpensive. One bishop in a letter to the pope reports that printed books are five times cheaper than handwritten ones. Already in the incunabulum period, the first printers sought to improve the book, its typesetting techniques, and its decoration. Also in Poland: Kaspar Straube (astronomical calendar), Flovrian Ungler (in Polish prayer book “Paradise of the Soul”). Polish books were also published abroad.

In Germany: Fust and Schaeffer (“Mainz Psalter”), Johann Mentellin (Bible in colloquial German), Albrecht Pfister (illustrated Zeiner Bible), Anton Koberger (branches; multi-format books: Bible, “Apocalypse”)

In England, only in the national language and very little church literature: William Caxton (enjoyed state support; historical literature - “The History of the Capture of Troy” and modern English writers - Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”)

Netherlands: Lorenz Coster (engraved editions, used wooden type “Mirror of Human Salvation”, “Apocalypse”, “Bible of the Poor”, “The Art of Dying”), Nicholas Ketellar, Pafraat (classics in Greek type), Jacobus de Breda (textbooks) .

France: state support, Jean Heinlen and Guillaume Fichet, in the interests of students, invited Goering, Fritzeburger and Kranz (Goering and Co.), Paquier Bonhomme; popular print books - 4 pages, drawings with captions

Hungary: Hess ("Chronicles of the Hungarians").

Czech Republic: Mikulas Bakalar (Czech literature).

In Europe, woodcut books appeared after the Crusades. Its emergence and flourishing was facilitated by the massive demand for paper money and playing cards, as well as printed icons and papal indulgences. One of the first secular woodcut books was the Calendar by Regiomontanus of Königsberg.

The woodcut technique was simple: an image (text) was cut out on a wooden board in a mirror order, paint was applied to the relief, a sheet of paper was placed, pressed and smoothed with a pad (matzo). Separate sheets of paper were glued together, first in the form of a tape (scroll), and later collected into a book. The print was placed first on one side of the sheet, and such publications are called anopistographic, and later on both sides (opistographic). Printers sometimes had to cut out individual letter image elements from the board in order to replace them with others.

One of the famous woodcut publications in Europe was the “Bible of the Poor,” distributed in the Middle Ages. It consisted of large-format sheets depicting biblical scenes and characters and explanatory inscriptions. At first, woodcut books were widely distributed, but by the middle of the 16th century they disappeared from the book market.

From woodcut printing there is already one step to the invention of typesetting, the idea of which, as they say, has been in the air for more than a thousand years. Scholars agree that the credit for the invention of printing should go to Gutenberg.

A man named Hans Gensfleisch, or Johannes Gutenberg (1394/1399-1468), was born in the last years of the 14th century in the large German city of Mainz. We have no information about his training and education. The city was in a feudal feud with its overlord, the Bishop of Nassau, and young Gutenberg and his parents left for neighboring Strasbourg. There he was engaged in crafts: making jewelry and making mirrors. His first typographical experiments date back to 1440. Apparently, these were: the Latin grammar of Aelius Donatus, the astrological calendar, papal indulgences. Soon, however, he returned to his native Mainz and there began preparing to print the complete Bible in Latin.

In 1450-1455, Gutenberg is believed to have printed his first Bible, called the 42-line Bible because it had 42 lines of text typed and printed on each page in two columns. In total it has 1282 pages. Elements of the book's decoration were done by hand. Part of the edition was printed on paper, part on parchment.

Gutenberg's debt obligations led to the fact that the bookseller and moneylender I. Fust, without waiting for the completion of the work, sued him for non-payment of money and seized all his property, including the finished edition of the Bible. At this moment, Gutenberg enjoyed the support of the Bishop of Nassau, who, having won the feudal war, appreciated the merits of the master and gave him a court rank and a pension. However, the days of the tired and sick printer were numbered, and on February 3, 1468, Gutenberg passed away.

Gutenberg's students and apprentices spread the news of the great invention throughout Germany and then throughout Europe.

The essence of his invention was as follows:

1) Gutenberg invented a method of making a printing plate by setting text in individual cast characters.
2) He invented a hand-held casting device.
3) Invented a printing press (press).

It is very likely that Gutenberg’s technique differed from modern technology, but in what way it is impossible to determine.

He created the first printing equipment, invented a new method of making type and made a type casting mold.

In book production, this is of significant importance, considering that the average book page requires approximately two hundred letters. Equipment for the printing house no longer required a press, but a printing press and a typesetting cash desk (an inclined wooden box with cells). They contained letters and punctuation marks. Johannes Gutenberg built such a printing press.

Introduction

The topic of this essay is “The Development of Printing.” I chose this topic because I was interested in the history of the first printed book.

My goal is to show the history of printing.

I also have to answer the following questions: when, where, by whom, under what circumstances was it invented. This question is one of the most complex and controversial historical issues. Printing had the usual fate of great new phenomena, discoveries and inventions. To address the questions posed, I will use several sources, as well as printed publications.

The source of my work is the “Anthology on the History of Russian Books”, the afterword to the “Psalter” by Nikifor Tarasiev and Nevezha Timofeev (1568), the afterword of the “Apostle” of 1564.

The main literature was “400 years of Russian printing.” This book provides an overview of printing in a multicultural country. Shows the history of books from the time they appeared in Moscow to the present day.

In the book “History of Writing and Books,” authored by E.I. Kacprzak, I found answers to very important questions: where did printing begin and spread, who was the first printer.

Book by E.L. Nimerovsky’s “The Beginning of Slavic Printing” helped me supplement the information in which countries and when printing appeared. In the book by L.I. Vladimirov’s “General History of the Book” traces the origins of the book business from the very origin of writing to the 17th century, when many traditions of the book culture of society were formed, which are already familiar to our time.

The rest of the literature helped me supplement and expand the information about printing.

Scientists from different eras attached great importance to the invention of printing.

In Russia, book printing began in the middle of the 16th century, while in Europe it was established already in the 40-50s of the 15th century.

In the first part we will talk about the beginning of book printing, namely its origins in China and Europe. Did the Chinese invent printing before or after Gutenberg? We will dwell on interesting facts from the life history of the first printer Gutenberg. He invented the printing press, which was based on the design of the press used in winemaking and paper production. In addition, one of his main inventions was a convenient and practical device for casting type, i.e. letters

In the second part we will look at the era of incunabula and paleotypes; as well as the first Cyrillic editions.

In the third part we will trace the reasons for the emergence of book printing in Russia. In the Moscow state, book printing was a government event. The first Russian books began to be published in the Kremlin this year - hopeless or anonymous publications, as they are commonly called. We will look at the development of Moscow typographic art.

Part 1. The beginning of book printing

Humanity has been moving toward the invention of the printing press for a long time, several millennia. The idea is embedded in the brand or mark with which cattle breeders marked their horses or cows. Signs are applied in a spiral shape on the clay disk using stamps - signets. In fact, this disc is the first example of linked text printing. The next stage is printing coins.

1.1. The beginning of book printing in China.

The inventors of the printing press are the Chinese. The first method of mechanical reproduction of books was woodcut, or cut woodcut. It originated in the Buddhist monasteries of China during the Tian dynasty (618-907). Chinese writers can find several evidence of the existence of woodblock printing in China in the 9th century, which became the fastest and cheapest method of printing. Pi Shen invented printing with movable type. He sculpted clay blocks, pressed hieroglyphs onto them with a stick, then fired them on fire to secure them. The same chronicles testify to the invention of a typesetting cash register by Pi Shen, in which block letters were stored. With their help it was possible to obtain several thousand prints. Everything is logical, but the books printed by Pi Shen have not reached us. Similar information about the beginning of book printing is available in Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. Bronze letters made in the 15th century in Korea have survived.

The oldest woodblock book in history was made in China, although the earliest woodblock production is known in Japan. IN770, by order of Empress Setoku, a million spells were imprinted in this way and embedded in miniature pagodas.

The first woodcut book is called The Diamond Sutra. It was made in 868 AD. e., and was first discovered in 1900 in the “Cave of a Thousand Buddhas” in Donghuan (Western China). The book contains a message that it was cut out by master Wang Chi and printed “for the sake of commemorating his deceased parents.”

1.2. The beginning of book printing in Europe. The first printers.

Gutenberg's students and apprentices spread the news of the great invention throughout Germany and then throughout Europe.

The essence of his invention was as follows: 1) Gutenberg invented a method for making a printing form by typing text in separate cast characters. 2) He invented a hand-held casting device. 3) Invented a printing press (press). It is very likely that Gutenberg’s technique differed from modern technology, but in what way it is impossible to determine.

He created the first printing equipment, invented a new method of making type and made a type casting mold.

Stamps (punchons) were made from hard metal, carved in a mirror image. Then they were pressed into a soft and pliable copper plate: a matrix was obtained, which was filled with a metal alloy. The essence of this method of making letters was that they could be cast in any quantity. In book production, this is of significant importance, considering that the average book page requires approximately two hundred letters. Equipment for the printing house no longer required a press, but a printing press and a typesetting cash desk (an inclined wooden box with cells). They contained letters and punctuation marks. Johannes Gutenberg built such a printing press.

Part 2. The first books printed in Cyrillic

The second half of the 15th century was the time of the triumphal march of printing across Europe - Italy (1465), Switzerland (1468), France, Hungary, Poland (1470), England, Czechoslovakia (1476), Austria, Denmark, etc. Books published before 1500 are usually called incunabula, in Latin - “in the cradle,” that is, in the cradle of printing. European books printed from 1500 to 1550 inclusive are usually called paleotypes, that is, ancient editions.

By 1500, more than ten million copies of books had been published in Europe, including in the Slavic language.

Itinerant printers with equipment on their shoulders or in a handcart visited monasteries, universities, and castles of feudal lords and lived there, satisfying the need for printed products. It is estimated that during the incunabula period there were a total of 1,099 printing houses. They, however, quickly went bankrupt, and by the beginning of the 16th century there were two hundred of them left in Europe. Only those who enjoyed the support of the rich and nobles survived.

The love for printed books spread throughout society. It became fashionable to be a bibliophile; dukes and archbishops engaged in book publishing or bookbinding as a form of entertainment.

The era of incunabula and paleotypes is a time of improvement in printing skills. The practice of printed illustration in a book begins. They began to use woodcut printing - wood engraving.

One of the first illustrated books - S. Brant's "Ship of Fools" (Basel, 1494) - was decorated with engravings by Albrecht Durer.

In Italy, copper engraving was invented, which became the ancestor of intaglio printing. Engraving of various techniques began to be used for printing headbands, initials, illustrations and other decorations of the book.

The owner of a printing house in Venice, a noble and wealthy man, started producing books called aldins. His name is Aldus Manutius (1450-1515). He put the matter of preparing books on a scientific basis. Thirty of the most prominent scientists gathered with him to discuss the books being published and edit them. This circle was called the “New Academy”, and its publications became famous for their careful preparation and design.

The design of the incunabula font resembled the handwriting of handwritten books (texture, Gothic minuscule).

At the Alda printing house, artists, imitating ancient examples, came up with a simple and beautiful antique font. Italic and cursive fonts began to be used. It was the Alds who introduced the custom of highlighting this or that thought in the text in different fonts.

To prevent competitors from counterfeiting his publications, Manutius sent out catalogs indicating prices and placed a publisher's stamp on the books. It depicted a dolphin entwined around an anchor. The elder Ald, his children, heirs (Paolo and Ald the younger, son-in-law of Andrea Torresano) published more than a thousand different books; these were luxury editions for wealthy buyers. For aldinas, as for incunabula in general, the typical formats were in-folio (1/2 sheet) and in-quarto (1/4 sheet). The circulation was small, the traditional circulation was 275 copies.

Incunabula were relatively inexpensive. One bishop in a letter to the pope reports that printed books are five times cheaper than handwritten ones.

The first incunabula printed in Cyrillic for the Orthodox Slavs appeared in Krakow at the end of the 15th century. Their printer was Schweipolt Fiol, originally from the German state of Franconia.

He belonged to the Krakow goldsmith workshop and arrived in Krakow in the 70s. and, using the patronage and funds of the banker Jan Thurzo, he founded a printing house. The Cyrillic font was made by R. Borsdorf, who had been to Moscow and knew Slavic books. Sh. Fiol knew well the need for liturgical books in the Slavic language, so the first publications were liturgical books - “Octoichus” (1491) and “Book of Hours” (1491). They were printed in two colors - black ink and cinnabar. Two other books - “The Lenten Triodion” and “The Colored Triodion” - were published around 1493. Persecution by the Krakow Inquisition interrupted the activities of S. Fiol, and his printing house ceased to exist.

In 1494, the Montenegrin printing house began to operate in the monastery in Cetinje, founded by Ivan Crnojevic and continued to work under the leadership of his son Djurdja Crnojevic. It was the first state printing house in the Balkans (the territory of modern Romania).

The first Orthodox book published in this printing house was “Octoechos First Glas” (1494). In addition to the canonical texts of church hymns, it contained Old Testament stories. The second Montenegrin incunabula was the “Octoechos Pentagram” (not preserved in its entirety). It contains 38 pages of text, the book is decorated with engravings printed from wooden boards, like most old printed Slavic books.

The Psalter (1495) contains, in addition to traditional texts, month books and Paschalia (tables that help calculate the day of Easter). The last edition, the Trebnik, was printed in 1496, after which the printing house was closed.

In 1516, a Slavic printing house opened in Prague, which was founded by a medical scientist, a graduate of the University of Krakow, Francis Skaryna (before 1490-1551?)

<...>Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich is the autocrat of all great Russia. And from other countries, who were enlightened by His Royal Majesty, became sons of the kingdom of God and were baptized as children of the light: let us be instructed by divine grace, so that his kingdom is adorned and fulfilled by the word of God of divine dogmas. And he commanded that in his beloved city of Moscow, the work of printed books be compiled for the purification and correction of the uneducated and unskilled scribes, to the honor and glory of all the co-workers of the Lord God and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the command of the pious Tsar and the blessing of His Holiness Metropolitan Athanasius of All Russia, This book was compiled in the seven thousand and seventy-sixth year of March, on the 8th day, and the first began to print this prophetic book, which is the fourth psalter of the Old Testament.<...>.

Soon his first Cyrillic book, The Psalter, was published (1517), printed in Church Slavonic in Cyrillic script. This book was popular among the Slavic peoples and existed mainly in handwritten form. The printed Psalter served as a tool for teaching literacy for many years.

Here in Prague, F. Skaryna had the idea to translate and publish the Bible, the Book of Judges, Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers and others. F. Skaryna was unable to carry out the plan to the end. In 1522, he moved to Vilna, where in 1523 he published the “Small Travel Book,” a collection of religious and secular works, and in 1525 he published his last edition, “The Apostle.”

Already in the incunabulum period, the first printers sought to improve the book, its typesetting techniques, and its decoration.

The skill of typographers was evident in the first printed miniature books. The prayer book, printed in Antwerp in 1487 by Gerard Leu, was 70x48 mm in size. The miniature Prayer Book of Peters Os van Breda, published in 1488 in Zwolle (Netherlands), had a format of 98x65 mm.

Bookbinders were responsible for decorating the book. The most famous were the workshops of Christopher Birk (Leipzig), Jacob Krause (Germany), and Jerg Bernhard from Görlitz.

Part 3. The beginning of book printing in Russia

1.1. Reasons for the introduction of printing in the Moscow State

In the middle of the 16th century. book printing penetrates the Moscow state. The introduction of book printing in Moscow is the result of the socio-economic development of the feudal society of Rus' in the 16th century. The development of production and crafts created the necessary technical prerequisites for the establishment of a printing house in Moscow and the transition from the handwritten method of reproducing books to a more advanced and productive method - book printing.

Politically, the introduction of book printing in Moscow was one of those state events carried out by Ivan the Terrible in the 50s and 60s. XVI century with the aim of strengthening the autocracy (court reform, creation of the Streltsy army, provincial and zemstvo institutions, etc.).

In the first century of the eighth thousand years, when the Tsar and Grand Duke John Vasilyevich of All Russia reigned over Russia, God put into his mind the good idea of how best to organize the Russian land and create an eternal memory for himself: to produce printed books from written books, for the sake of complete correction and approval, fast execution and cheap price; and for the sake of their glory, they would arrange the same throughout all of Russia, like the Greeks and in the German lands, in Venice and in Italy and in White Rus', in the Lithuanian land and other countries there, so that every Orthodox Christian could read the saints correctly and clearly books and speak from them; and would command that they be distributed throughout the Russian land in the holy churches of God for the sake of glorifying the name of God and the Most Pure Mother of God and all the saints.

In the afterword to the Apostle of 1564 - one of the main sources on the history of the initial Moscow printing - two reasons are indicated that prompted Ivan the Terrible to introduce printing in Moscow: the need for a large number of church books for newly built churches in Moscow and other cities, especially in the city Kazan “and within its borders”, and the need to correct “corrupt” books.

In Kazan, conquered in 1552, the government of Ivan IV forcibly introduced Christianity among the Tatars and in every possible way encouraged those who were baptized. To satisfy the increased demand for church literature, Ivan the Terrible ordered that holy books be bought at auction “and placed in holy churches.”

<...>And so the blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of all Russia commanded the holy books to be placed in the merchants' cupolas and in the holy churches to place the psalters, and the gospels, and the apostles, and other holy books. In them little need was found, but the rest is all corruption from those who prescribe, those who are uneducated and unskilled in the mind, who feed on food and uncorrection. And this came to the ears of the king, and he began to think about how to set out printed books, as in the Greeks, and in Venice, and in Phrygia, and in other languages, so that henceforth the holy books would be set out righteously. But then another difficulty arose - most of the books turned out to be unusable, were distorted by “ignorant and unreasonable” copyists, and contained various errors. “Damage” of books gave rise to heresies and led to religious freethinking. In conditions of intensification of class struggle in the 16th century. faulty church service books were used for political purposes by opponents of the prevailing order. The “heresy” of the son of the boyar Matvey Bashkin and Artemy, the former abbot of the Trinity Monastery, dates back to the beginning of the “search” for printing skills. At a church council convened to expose heretics, Matvey Bashkin, using discrepancies in the handwritten text of the Apostle, interpreted it in his own, “depraved” way. Another “heretic,” Theodosius Kosoy, also freely interpreted church texts, calling for disobedience to authorities and preaching the equality of all peoples.

The issue of correcting church books was brought up at the Stoglavy Council of the highest spiritual and secular dignitaries, convened by Ivan IV and Metropolitan Macarius in 1551 to discuss the necessary reforms in state and church administration. In the resolution of the Council “On Divine Books” it was said: “Scribes write Divine books from directed translations, but having written them, they do not edit them; inventory after inventory comes with incomplete writing and points that are not straight. And from those books in the churches of God they honor and sing, and study, and write from them.” The Council decided to introduce strict spiritual censorship and confiscate faulty manuscripts. However, it was difficult to control the rewriting of books, which was carried out in many places in the Russian state. This control could only be ensured with a centralized method of reproducing books. Typography caused a functional demarcation between the printed and handwritten books:

From the middle of the 16th century. The government of Ivan IV began to find funds and people to master the art of typography. Attempts to introduce book printing in Moscow with the help of foreigners were unsuccessful. This does not mean that while mastering the difficult art of book printing and developing an original, original typesetting technology, Russian pioneer printers were not familiar with the art of book printing that existed in many European countries, including Slavic countries. Both in the field of printing technology and in the artistic design of the first Russian printed books, foreign influence is noticeable. According to Ivan Fedorov, Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich “began to think about how to present printed books, as in the Greeks, in Venice, and in Phrygia and in other languages.” The enlightened writer and publicist Maxim Grek could introduce our book printers to the experience of publishing abroad. Studying at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. in Italy, he was close to the then famous publisher Aldus Manutius. In 1518, at the request of Vasily III, he came to Russia to correct translations of church books. He also brought with him to Moscow samples of publications from the Alda printing house. Russian book printers were, of course, aware of other printed books created both in Western and Yugoslav countries. They were able to creatively, taking into account the national traditions characteristic of Russian book art, rethink the experience of others, and in some cases they introduced something new into printing technology.

1.2. Anonymous printing house and hopeless publications

The beginning of book printing in Moscow, as established by a number of studies, dates back to the mid-50s. XVI century

There is a known group of anonymous or hopeless publications (three Gospels, two Psalms and two Triodions), which were printed in Moscow in the period between 1553-1564, i.e. before the first Russian dated printed book Apostle appeared. They do not contain imprint data - the time and place of publication, the name of the printer. The printing technique is imperfect. There is no justification of lines, which makes the right vertical edge of the type uneven. The techniques of two-color printing in two colors - black and red paint, which were traditionally used by the masters of the anonymous printing house, are unique. The font graphics reproduce the features of the Moscow semi-ustav of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. The study of paper, printing technology, as well as loose-leaf entries in a number of copies dating back to the late 50s and early 60s help to date a group of anonymous books and determine the place of publication. XVI century The printer's name is unknown. It has been suggested that a certain Marusha Nefediev was involved in their publication, whom Ivan IV mentioned in his letters to Novgorod in 1556 as a “master of printed books.” Nefediev was instructed to “inspect” the stone for the construction of a temple in Moscow. Judging by the letters, Marusha Nefediev was a skilled engraver, like the Novgorod master Vasyuk Nikiforov, who was also discussed in one of the named letters from Grozny. Some researchers (A.A. Sidorov, E.L. Nemirovsky) connect the activities of the anonymous printing house with the Elected Rada of Ivan IV, Adashev and the enlightened priest Sylvester, who, as already noted, had a large manuscript workshop in Moscow.

A study of anonymous publications suggests that back in the mid-50s. XVI century In Moscow, a whole group of talented Russian craftsmen worked on mastering book printing. The first place among them rightfully belongs to the great Russian pioneer printer and educator Ivan Fedorov, a multi-talented person, a talented artist, engraver, progressive publicist, ideological fighter and patriot.

Conclusion

We looked at the origins of printing. Summarizing the results of this study, we can draw the following conclusions.

Humanity has been moving toward the invention of the printing press for a long time, several millennia.

The invention of the printing press itself is a turning point in the history of mankind. It had a huge impact on all areas of human activity.

Many works have been written about books and printing in different languages of the world. We can say that the history of world culture is not separate from the history of the printed book. Printing arose in a time distant from us, in complex and difficult conditions.

The first method of mechanical reproduction of books in China was woodcut, or cut woodcut. It originated in the Buddhist monasteries of China during the Tian dynasty (618-907).

The introduction of book printing in the Moscow state in the middle of the 16th century provided the basis for the implementation of great things that affected all aspects of public life.

I think that the topic I have chosen fully addresses the questions posed.

Literature

1. Barenbaum I.E. History of the book: Textbook. 2nd ed., revised. - M.: Book, 1984. - P. 248.

2. Vinogradova L.A. History of book publishing in Russia (988-1917): Textbook //Ed. A.A. Govorova. M.: MPI, 1991. 100 p.

3. Vladimirov L.I. General history of the book. – M.: Book, 1988. - P. 312.

4. Katsprzhak E.I. History of writing and books. – M.: Art, 1955. - P. 351.

5. Nimerovsky E.L. The beginning of Slavic book printing. - M.: Book, 1971. P. 269.

6. Nimerovsky E.L. Journey to the origins of Russian book printing. - M.: Education, 1991. P. 187.

During the Renaissance, the handwritten method of production could no longer satisfy the social need for a book. Finding a way to mass produce books became an urgent requirement of the era.

The invention of printing was preceded by material and technical prerequisites, and among them the production of paper should be mentioned. Paper was invented in China in the 2nd century. BC. In 105 Cai Lun improved the technology for its manufacture. For a long time, only the Chinese possessed the secret of paper production, but in the 8th century. it was lost. Legend has it that the secret was given to the Arabs by captured Chinese, and paper began to be made in Samarkand and Damascus, and then in Europe - in Spain. The oldest book written on paper that has survived to this day, the Trebnik of the early 11th century, is also located in Spain, in one of the monasteries near the city of Burgos.

First paper mills originated near Valencia, in the Arab city of Xativa. In the middle of the 13th century. The paper industry originated in Italy, in the city of Fabriano, and soon Italian paper became a serious competitor to Arabic paper. In the XIV century. Fabriano already had 40 paper mills producing paper of excellent quality. The same mills were built in Bologna, Parma, Padua, and Turin.

At the beginning of the 14th century. paper mills appeared in France - in Troyes, then in Germany - in Nuremberg, Chemnitz, Revensburg. In the middle of the 15th century. The German paper industry turned out to be a leader both in scale and in product quality. In other European countries, the paper industry emerged later. Paper, however, did not immediately replace the familiar material - parchment. It was believed that this material was unreliable, fragile, short-lived and suitable only for drafts and copies. But as the quality of paper improved, it increasingly displaced parchment from circulation.

Paper production has become an industry with rapid development capitalist relations. Paper production required the use of machinery and large capital investments. Hired labor was widely used here. The production of paper, although expensive, was a profitable business, and therefore it rapidly grew and expanded, creating, in turn, the necessary material conditions for the emergence and spread of book printing. Medieval papermakers were rightfully proud of their profession, were aware of the importance of paper production for progress and considered themselves not ordinary artisans, but artists and creators. This circumstance, as well as the desire to protect their products from counterfeits, prompted wallets to use unique brand marks - filigree, which are images made of thin wire, which were soldered to the mesh of a paper form to obtain the corresponding watermarks, clearly visible in the light. The oldest watermark was used in 1282 in Bologna. One of the oldest filigrees is the image of a cross, located in Fabriano.

A new, much cheaper and more accessible writing material - paper - made it possible to mass produce books by printing, at first woodcut, which has been successfully used for this purpose in China for many centuries. The first Chinese woodcuts were sutras dating back to the beginning of the 8th century. Woodcuts then spread throughout the countries of Southeast Asia. In 764, at the direction of the Japanese Empress Shotoku, one million spells were printed by woodblock printing. In 863, a woodcut book, the Diamond Sutra, was printed. The opportunity to become acquainted with the art of woodblock printing presented itself to Europeans during the Crusades. The Crusaders captured territories where such art was already known. Archaeological finds in El Fayoum (Egypt) showed that the Arabs used woodblock printing. By the middle of the 15th century. The woodcut technique reached a very high artistic level in Europe. Woodblock printing became especially widespread in Germany and Holland. There were three types of woodcuts. The first assumed that prints were printed on one side of the sheet, which were then glued together with the reverse unprinted sides. These woodcuts are called anopistographic. Gradually, the production of sheets sealed on both sides was established, they are called opistographic. The third type of woodcut appeared when handwritten text began to be attached to pictures - chiroxylographic publications After some time, the text, which played a supporting role, became independent. The text was cut out on the board, printed and attached to the printed picture. All these technologies had no clear advantages. In addition, the boards were worn out and deteriorated, so individual fragments were cut out again and inserted into the board. The undemanding taste of consumers made it possible for printers (as woodcut printers were called) to repeatedly use the same boards to depict various historical events and characters. For example, only 24 boards were used to print portraits of 244 monarchs. Obviously, the person of that time, due to his limited horizons, did not attach serious importance to the authenticity of the image. It was enough for the masters to follow the storyline. A simple outline drawing on topical topics was understandable even to illiterate people. Printing from wooden boards made it possible to simultaneously produce identical prints. The mass production of popular literature through woodcuts significantly reduced the cost of these publications. They were printed not on parchment, but on relatively cheap paper, and often not in Latin, but in the vernacular, which also made woodcuts more accessible. For the first time, poor people became consumers of books. Thanks to woodcut printing, a method of consuming books called reading from pictures arose.

At first, religious themes predominated in woodcuts. Of the religious publications, the most widely read was the Bible of the Poor, which was used by ordinary priests for sermons and by laymen for teaching literacy. The workshops produced calendars, greeting cards, maps of Europe and the world, astrological forecasts, Latin textbooks - donations, images of rarities and wonders. The printed drawing aroused interest in nature, its flora and fauna. To collect new materials that were novel and of interest to readers, trips were made to different countries. Various herbs, fish, and birds became the leading subjects of woodcut publications. The topic of witchcraft and magic aroused keen interest. The theme of death was a constant motif. The block books “The Art of Dying” and “Dances of Death” became widespread among the people.

Early woodcuts were notable for their low artistic merit. The exception is the work of Albrecht Durer, who achieved special mastery in the art of engraving. Dürer started in the workshop of Wolgemut and Pleydenwurf, and even worked for some time in their engraving establishment. Having mastered the art of engraving, he began to act not only as a draftsman, but also as a carver of his works. The AD monogram served as a sign of high quality and sheets marked with these two letters were in great demand on the market, although the artist himself never pursued commercial goals. Great fame invariably accompanied Dürer throughout his life, and his works were copied and even forged.

Woodcuts have found their place in people's daily lives. They were used to decorate homes, doors, boxes, chests, served as talismans, icons, they were sewn into clothes, and worn on the body. Playing cards were in great demand; their printing brought high income to the owners of woodblock printing workshops. Card games, which penetrated into Europe from the Arab East, gained such high popularity that the rulers of many countries were forced to take strict legislative measures that limited gambling.

In the process of producing woodblock prints, specialization deepens, and the execution of individual operations is brought to automation, which paved the way for the creation of the working mechanism of the machine. With the advent of woodblock printing in European countries, the prerequisites for the development of a more capacious book market, compared to the previous period, were emerging. Printed block books, which appeared in large quantities, contributed to the development of the wholesale book trade.

Many European nations and cities disputed the honor of the invention of printing. In 1444-1446. In the French city of Avignon, a jeweler Prokop Waldfogel from Prague worked, who mastered the “art of artificial writing.” Among Gutenberg's competitors, Jean Britto, a printer from Bruges (Flanders), is also named. The Italian Pamfilio Castaldi from Feltre is also nominated as a contender for the great invention. Some historians call the resident of Haarlem (Holland) Laurens Janszoon Koster the actual inventor of printing. The basis for this version was the testimony of a Dutch historian of the 16th century. A. Junius, who believed that Koster came up with the idea of printing when he cut out the letters of the alphabet from wood and printed several books using a new method. Sources confirm that in Haarlem in 1441-1447. Indeed, there lived a certain Laurens Janszoon, nicknamed Koster, a merchant of oil, candles, soap and subsequently wine. There is no reliable information that he was engaged in book printing, as well as the surviving books he printed, so Junius’s information is very doubtful. Much closer to the truth is the version given in the book of Johann Köllhof the Younger “The Cologne Chronicle”, published in 1499. The author, relying on the testimony of contemporaries, including printers, rejects the then widespread assertion that printing was invented by Nicolas Genson, who published books in Paris and Venice. According to Koelhof, the first samples for the inventor of printing were the donuts printed “from boards” in Holland. The scientist, however, does not deny that movable type was invented by a Mainz townsman named Johann Gutenberg, and then his method spread to other European countries.

Johann Gutenberg (1399-1468) received a university education and was familiar with the craft of cutting precious stones. Due to the conflict between the patricians and the guild artisans, the family moved to Strasbourg. Here Gutenberg founded a mirror manufacturing company. In the workshop, under the guise of mirror production, book printing experiments begin, in which his companions Andreas Dritzen and Hans Riffe take part. From 1438 there are documents from the court proceedings regarding Dritzen's inheritance, which mention details of the press and printing plate. Scientists have no doubt that we are talking about printing, however, there is no certainty that Gutenberg already had a full-fledged printing house in Strasbourg. Most likely, experiments in book printing were only carried out there. In the 1440s Gutenberg returned to Mainz, where he borrowed 150 guilders to found a workshop, but there was not enough money, and he bought equipment with a loan of 800 guilders taken from Fust. The second time he turned to him for a loan in 1452 with the condition that Fust become his partner. However, he could not repay his debt, and the printing house went to Fust.

Gutenberg invented a fundamentally new way to reproduce books. His invention was based on the idea of creating a typesetting form. It was composed of individual elements - letters and was intended for long-term repeated use. The earliest mentions of the use of typesetting are in Chinese chronicles recorded at the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD, and they are associated with the name of Bi Sheng, who lived during the reign of Qin Li (1041-1048). As the records show, Bi Sheng made separate clay bars for each hieroglyph, which were then used in composing the text. To give it strength, he burned them on fire. The bars were then mounted on an iron plate with a row-dividing frame coated with a mixture of resin and wax. The typed text was leveled using a board that was pressed on top of the type. After printing, the form was brought to the fire so that the mixture melted, the hieroglyphs fell out, and they could be used to type other text. The hieroglyphs were stored in a typesetting box, which was round and rotating for ease of use. All hieroglyphs in it were numbered. When typing the text, the reader named the number of the hieroglyph, which allowed the typesetter to easily navigate and quickly type. Information about the beginning of book printing using typesetting forms has been preserved in Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.

Gutenberg came up with a more complex and, at the same time, simpler method of printing. It consisted of several processes. The word-casting process is the production of the same type in the required quantity. Typesetting is the production of a printing form made up of individual pre-cast types. The printing process is the multiple production of impressions from a typesetting plate.

The word casting process began to develop from the moment the type was invented. As practice has shown, wood for letters is not the best material, since the wooden surface is not uniform and is deformed by moisture. Clay type did not retain strength when printed in large quantities. It was necessary to take into account not only the resistance of the material to wear, but also its ability to hold paint well. The best results were achieved when using metal. The process of making type began by making a die from hard metal, called a punch. An alphabetic sign was engraved on it in a mirror image. The punch was then pressed into a soft metal plate. The result was a concave direct image of the sign - a matrix. It was inserted into a mold and filled with molten metal. The result was a letter with a mirrored convex eye of the letter, with which it was possible to print. For casting the font, an alloy of metals was used - gart, consisting of lead, tin, and antimony. The essence of this discovery was that a rational and productive way of casting letters had been found.

The typesetting process required a typesetting cash register - an inclined flat box with cells. The upper cells contained capital letters and punctuation marks, and the lower cells contained lowercase letters. In the upper part of the printing box, the letters were arranged in alphabetical order, in the lower part - depending on the frequency of use of the letters. A typesetting tool was used as a typesetting tool, with the help of which lines were aligned. The lines typed on the typesetting board were wrapped with a harsh thread, then transferred to the form.

The printing process consisted of making impressions. For this purpose Gutenberg designed printing press, which consisted of two parts. The first part was a press driven up and down by a handle (cookie). The second part consisted of a movable table with a carriage - a thaler, driven by a cord and a rotating handle. A typesetting mold was placed on the thaler, which was then smeared with a thin layer of paint applied using matzah (a leather bag stuffed with horsehair). A moistened sheet of paper was placed on the set and covered with a leather-covered frame. Then the mold was put under the press. After printing, the sheets were left to dry. In this way, Gutenberg combined all the elements of printing into an efficient production system, a complete mechanical process. Printing presses had the same productivity, but had limited capabilities in printing speed and circulation volumes. The typographic process, fairly unified, put everyone who possessed it on an equal footing; everything else depended on the skill of the craftsmen working in the printing house. G.H. spoke very figuratively about the significance of Gutenberg’s invention. Lichtenberg: “More than gold, lead has changed the world, and more so the lead in typefaces than the lead in bullets.” In addition to its cultural and historical significance, book printing from its inception was put at the service of the young bourgeoisie, which began to use the printing press to implement its ideology.

One of Gutenberg's earliest publications is the Book of Sibylline (1445). It has been preserved in fragments and is a sheet with only 11 lines. The Sibylline Book contains a description of paintings of the Last Judgment. Calendars were small publications. In 1447, an astronomical calendar was published, during 1454-1456. a medical calendar was being prepared, published under the title “Bleeding and Laxative Calendar”, in 1455 - the Turkish Calendar. Gutenberg also published donations - Latin grammar textbooks. One of the authors of the textbook was the Roman grammarian, Aelius Donatus, who lived in the 4th century. In the period 1452-1455. The Bible was printed, representing a voluminous folio, in which the text was arranged in two columns, mostly 42 lines each. Hence its name B-42, or forty-two-line Bible.

In 1458-1460 The Bible was printed in Bamberg, possibly by Gutenberg. In this edition the text is arranged in two columns of 36 lines each. This Bible is called 36 line. In 1460, the Catholicon (Latin grammar and explanatory dictionary) appeared.

Gutenberg's most prominent edition is the 42-line Bible. It is a voluminous volume containing 1282 pages. The publication's circulation was 200 copies, of which 35 were printed on parchment. The originality of the publication lies in the fact that Gutenberg sought to recreate in printed form the beauty of a handwritten book through illustrations made by hand by skilled artists, as well as through a variety of fonts imitating the handwriting of scribes. The Bible font consisted of 290 characters.

With the invention of printing, productivity increased dramatically, although preparing a manuscript for printing took almost as much time as rewriting one copy of the manuscript. The difference was that in approximately the same period of time, not just one copy was created, but several hundred. Until the end of the 15th century. 40 thousand book titles were printed with a circulation of 12 million copies. All of them are called incunabula, which translated from Latin means “in the cradle”. Gutenberg's followers included educated people with university degrees. Perhaps this circumstance played a decisive role in the fact that printing houses were opened in those cities where there were universities. Many of the first printers, before getting into book printing, had experience working with books either in book-writing workshops, or were associated with bookbinding, or related crafts.

One of the famous woodcut publications in Europe was the "Bible of the Poor", distributed in the Middle Ages. It consisted of large-format sheets depicting biblical scenes and characters and explanatory inscriptions. At first, woodcut books were widely distributed, but by the middle of the 16th century they disappeared from the book market.

Gutenberg's students and apprentices spread the news of the great invention throughout Germany and then throughout Europe.

The essence of his invention was as follows:

) Gutenberg invented a method of making a printing plate by setting text in individual cast characters.

) He invented a hand-held typesetting device.

) Invented the printing press (press).

It is very likely that Gutenberg’s technique differed from modern technology, but in what way it is impossible to determine.

He created the first printing equipment, invented a new method of making type and made a type casting mold.

The beginning of book printing in Western Europe. Moscow State University of Printing Arts

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