A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.
Back to Main Page of the "Printmaking dictionary"
Book
Books are practically always associated with prints due to the way they are printed, due to the material they are printed on (paper), and due to the illustrations. In fact the illustrations in books were prints up until the time when photomechanical processes took over. However, some books with prints in them are still made today. In the beginning books were printed in the same way as wood blocks since the block used for printing a page was a woodcut in which the words and letters were carved in relief [* block book and xylography]. When movable type began to be used around the middle of the 15th century books mainly differed from prints because of the composition that went into the former. Instead of being prepared directly on a plate the text of a page had to be composed with individual characters. Nevertheless illustrations continued to accompany the text and were cut on plates whose height was the same as that of the characters so that both could be printed at the same time and on the same press [* wood].
Intagho printing was often associated with typeset texts but the work that went into this was made quite difficult by the fact that the two components had to be printed on different presses [ * line engraving, intaglio engravinq ]. When Senefelder invented lithography (initially in order to print his books) various attemps were made to transform lithography into a kind of typographic relief process [* lithography and typolithography]. At present, thanks to photomechanical reproduction processes, prints in books have regained their independance as prints are only found in books for bibliophiles. Such books are usually not sewn and thus simplify assembling the text and illustrations.
In many European languages the word for book is derived from the latin liber , which was the word used for "the thin layer found under the bark of a tree". The layer in question was a superficial vegetable tissue encircling the sap-wood. Before the invention of paper some people used the superficial layer of tissue found on linden trees (a practice which may be compared to the biblos of the greeks which was part of the bark of the papyrus plant). The word book got its present meaning around the year 1080. The invention of paper allowed for the multiplication of books as well as prints.[* paper ].
Back to Main Page of the "Printmaking dictionary"