The Art of Written Forms
The Relationship Between Written and Printed Text
Comparing Far Eastern methods to those found in Western Europe. If printing is to be described as the multiplication of graphically stored information by mechanical means, then strictly speaking, the first type of printing occurred around the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia. Here property was stamped with seals and the type of information stored - in this case dealing with ownership - could be quite sophisticated, consisting pictures, one or a number of signs, or some text. Unlike copying by hand where texts could be (and often where) altered by copyists, printing introduced an element of authenticity, but unfortunately it also limited the creative process.
There are two traditional printing methods. The first, block printing - is when a single block of wood is carved and a print taken from it, and the second being printing with movable type, or typography. This method involves the placing together of small blocks (usually made of soft metal) each carrying a single piece of type onto a flat bed and taking a print from the assembly of the blocks. Each method became suited to printers in two different parts of the world - block printing gaining popularity in Far Eastern countries such as China, Korea and Japan, whilst typography, became the printing method of choice in Western Europe.
Far Eastern Block Printing
The principle technique in the Far East of the wood block has changed very little since it first came into use. First the text is written onto a thin sheet of paper by a professional calligrapher. This sheet is then attached face down onto a wooden block, over which a thin layer of rice paste is spread. When this has dried, the upper surface of the paper is then rubbed off and oil applied to make the rest transparent, thus enabling the engraver to see the inscribed area more clearly. Wood surrounding the characters is cut away and once the block is dry, ink is applied with a brush. Paper (which has been kept moist for several hours) is then placed on the wood block and an imprint is obtained by rubbing the paper with a tool made for this purpose. (Gaur, 1994)
By the second century AD, all the ingredients for printing were in place - paper, ink and the ability to carve text in relief onto a flat surface but printing only started to be considered seriously in China during the Tang period (618-906 AD) - when traditional calligraphy was at the height of its perfection and popularity. It also gained popularity in Korea and Japan around this time. One result of this increased use of block printing was a change in the shape of books, the scroll format giving way to thin double pages, stitched together in a way similar to that in the west.
To assume block-printing in the Far East was the only method used would be wrong as typography, favoured by printers in the west, was actually invented here. Evidence shows that in about 1313 AD, Wang Zhen, a Chinese magistrate had 60,000 characters carved on movable blocks to print a treatise on the history of technology, and also between 1441-48 AD alchemist Bi Sheng produced movable type made of clay and glue hardened by baking. In Korea, in 1403 King Htai Tjan ordered a set of around 100,000 pieces of type to be cast in bronze, and by 1516, nine further sets had been cast - two of which predate the European discovery of typography. However moveable type didn't take off in the Far East and the reason stems mainly from the Chinese script and it's many, many characters. The sheer amount of characters-signs needed meant movable type was not only impractical and labour intensive, but also expensive. Not only this, but movable type wasn't suited to the culture of calligraphy and to which block printing was - block printing maintaining a direct link between the calligrapher and the printer.
Western Typography
At the start of printing in Western Europe, printers tried to imitate the written pages as closely as possible - in fact printed pages from around 1450-80 are almost indistinguishable from manuscripts of the same time. Johann Gutenberg, often credited with the invention of printing in the West, is known to have cut as many as 300 fonts of individual letters and abbreviations, and like his contemporaries left space for the illuminator or illustrator to insert block printed or handwritten capitals in order to give the impression of manuscript text. After 1480 however, printers began to realise the freedom their craft provided from calligraphy. Two reasons can be credited for the departure of printed text from written text - the first that printing in the west had always been a commercial venture (supply and demand) and the second lay in the alphabetic script which by its design, encouraged uniformity and standardisation.
With the rapid spread of typography, it began to affect the businesses of scribes - especially the ones earning a living as copyists. However the increase in literacy that mass production of texts produced brought about new opportunities for the calligrapher. Many people now wanted to be part of the printing revolution and they needed to be instructed in the art of writing and calligraphy. In 1522, the Roman calligrapher and printer Ludovico degli Arrighi published a small booklet giving simple instructions, illustrated with wood-cut examples, about how to learn the Cancellaresca style 'in a few days'. This publication is largely responsible for the creation of a new profession - the writing master. Many scribes were soon to follow and the next fifty years saw a wave of titles produced on the subject.
The examples in the earliest printed copy-books were reproduced using wood blocks, but the second half of the sixteenth century saw some manuals starting to make use of a new method - that of 'Copperplate', with examples printed from engraved metal plates. This change in turn brought about a change in writing styles due to the way that tools and the method of engraving on metal differed from wood block. Some engravers' strokes were incredibly light whilst others dug right into the plate (and the deeper the cut, the wider the stroke). When translated to a pen on paper this meant a sharply pointed pen was required with the variations in stoke width matched by the pressure put on the pen's point. Pupils not only had to learn how to produce the shapes, but also how to control the pressure put on the pen. A key feature to copperplate writing is the loops and ascenders, which began to appear a lot at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the ultimate aim to write words with one continuous line. Writing books often also included decorated drawings of men, animals, birds, etc. made with flourishing pen-strokes. (Fairbank, 1970)
In the long run however, printing was taking far more importance over calligraphy which started to lose it's impetus in Western Europe by the end of the seventeenth century and the rigidity and lack of originality of copperplate writing is often held responsible for this final decline. As markets became more and more competitive, the need for a legible and fluent hand meant an end to the writing masters position as a calligrapher.
Conclusion
Although both traditional methods of printing were tried and tested in both regions, it is strange that each one should have become so suited to a particular region. Stranger still, that the method preferred by the west, typography, was of Far Eastern origin. In fact the we have a lot to thank the Chinese for, given they are credited with the invention of paper too! But the real reason for such a departure of the two methods lies in two principal reasons - the native scripts and cultures. In Far Eastern countries, block printing allowed a strong link to be maintained between calligrapher and engraver as the text was merely transferred, and was far cheaper and cost effective languages that are represented with such a huge amount of characters. In the West problems of interpretation existed were texts were copied rather than transferred by an engraver, but again the script, the Roman alphabet, encourages uniformity and standardisation which is good in a society driven more by market forces than by the fine arts.
Bibliography
- Gaur, A (1994) - A History of Calligraphy
- British Library
- Fairbank, A (1970) - The Story Of Writing - Origins and development
- Faber and Faber
The Art of Written Forms
Four resulting essays from my second year degree elective programme.