Showing posts with label printing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label printing. Show all posts

May 11 - First Printed Book (Possibly?)

    Posted on May 11, 2022

This is an update of my post published on May 11, 2011:




Sometimes people wonder when the first book was printed. They might vaguely remember something about the Gutenberg Bible, which was first printed around 1450. But there were printed books earlier than that in Asia.

The problem is, not only is the question tricky because we have to define the word printed, but it is also almost certainly impossible to answer. We have some very old books that have survived until modern times—but isn't it possible that the very FIRST printed book has fallen into ruin or otherwise been destroyed? Not only is it possible, it seems incredibly probable. Another problem is that we have some very, very old books that may be older than the first book that is dated—but those very old books are not dated, so we don't know which is oldest.


So, today's anniversary is of the first surviving, dated printed book. The honor goes to the Diamond Sutra, which was made with a 16-foot scroll with six large “pages” or sheets of text, plus one picture, and it was printed from laboriously carved wood blocks. The sheets measured 12 inches by 30 inches!

The scroll was dated “the fifteenth of the fourth moon of the ninth year of Xian Long” – which is the equivalent of May 11, 868 CE (or AD)--almost 600 years before the Gutenberg Bible! 

The Diamond Sutra is a Buddhist scripture. Even though Buddhism started in India, this scripture is written in Chinese and was discovered in a cave in Northern China. By the way, the discovery was made by a Hungarian archeologist, and the scroll is now located in the British Museum!

If you are wondering about the picture, it is thought to be an illustration of the Buddha surrounded by his disciples and two cats.


Make Prints!

Printmaking is a very interesting art form. For little kids, try string block printing or roller printing. 

Kinder Art has a variety of fascinating projects in printmaking! It would be fun to try several and compare.


 


Plan ahead:


Check out my Pinterest boards for:
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October 23 - International Print Day

Posted October 23, 2019

(Fourth Wednesday in October)

Print Media Centr (sic) puts out a website about International Print Day. Looking at this website, I learned that:

This year's theme is collaboration - in other words, working together. And on of the Twitter hashtags is #print2gether.
There are podcasts called "Podcasts from the Printerverse."

One of the memorable lines from the website is "Print Long & Prosper!"

So...what's all of that all about?

Print could be considered the original communications delivery device. 

Of course, there was talking as long as there were humans, and at some points many civilizations invented (often separately from one another) written language. But mass media means communicating on a larger scale - getting ideas out to many people at once. And the original technology for that was the printing press.



Nobody wants to go back to Gutenberg-level printing technology - but using the print technologies of today is important to a lot of people, even though they have joined in with the digital revolution for most communications. 





 
Designers can create their own unique fabrics through
new print technology!

As a matter of fact, International Print Day is a digital celebration of non-digital tech, since most of it is sharing print projects over social media!



Do you consume print media? Anyone in your family still read a newspaper printed on paper? Any paper-and-ink magazine subscriptions? 

I've heard that Teen Vogue is not just
any teen magazine - it's got really good
journalism!
Do you like coloring with markers or colored pencils on actual paper coloring books, or reading books or comic books that are physical objects rather than downloads on a tablet? 



Do you hang paper calendars up? Do you decorate your walls with art prints or posters?




Consider the continuing importance of print in a digital world...





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August 24 – Wayzgoose Day

Posted on August 24, 2014





Like so many long-standing holidays, Wayzgoose Day marked the changing of seasons—in this case, the end of the summer and the beginning of the season when people worked by candlelight.

This picture is supposed to show a
wayzgoose feast.
On Wayzgoose Day, master printers used to provide an entertainment to their workers each day on (or around) August 24.

Now the term refers to an annual outing and / or dinner for the staff of a printing house or of a newspaper.

There are several theories for how a day of merry-making and feasting came to be called wayzgoose. It may have been a reference to eating goose, of course, or it may have been a word that evolved from a Dutch term for “inn” or, figuratively, “banquet.”

Why August 24? Aside from the fact that late August is a great time to mark the end of summer, in the northern hemisphere, today is St. Bartholomew's feast day, and St. Bart is the patron saint of bookbinders (as well as others). Also, today is the historical anniversary of THE most important even in printing history:



On this date in 1456, the printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed. It's possible that this momentous event was celebrated with the very first wayzgoose party!





Nowadays some wayzgoose parties are held on other dates, even in different months and seasons. In Canada one town holds an annual wayzgoose festival every April; the festival focuses on handmade paper, handmade books, and small presses. The Letterpress Guild of New England meets in September for wayzgoose, and the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Wisconsin holds a wayzgoose in November. The wayzgoose in Tacoma, Washington, includes a Steamroller Smackdown competition that gets the community involved in the art of printmaking, and the University of California, Irvine's wayzgoose is a medieval fair.

Celebrate printing and paper making!

You, too, can explore the worlds of printmaking and paper making. 


Also on this date:


Actress Marlee Matlin's birthday 



Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:


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