Magyar Könyvszemle, 1971 (87. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

Borsa Gedeon: Computer-assisted examination of printing types of early printings 165

Gedeon Borsa method was Jan Willem HOLTROP whose descriptioTi of the earliest printing offices of the Netherlands was accompanied by rieh illustrations.1 The founda­tions of objective investigations based on formal éléments was laid by Henry BRADSHAW who considered the careful comparison of printing types used by the individual printing offices as the only reasonable way of completing data in the imprint.2 In his train of thoughts, BRADSHAW traces back the history of printing which, for centuries, had consisted in the following opérations. Each letter was shaped bythe puncheutter in a bar of steel.This was what is called punch or stamp which then was strucked in a pièce of some softer metal (copper or bronze) to form the mátrix or the negative image of the letter in relief. The mátrix was fixed to the bottom of the mould. Then hot lead was poured into the mould from above to fill both the grooves of the mátrix and the prismatic space of the mould above the mátrix which, after solidifying, förmed the type body with the letter face on it. These cast types were then composed into lines, and lines, set under one another, förmed what is called type-area or layout of a page. After inking the type faces, a paper sheet was placed and pressed on them which resulted in the appearance of the impression on the paper. BRADSHAW started out from the fact that each punch was a unique produet and thus two punches could never be of exactlv the same form. Therefore, he was of the opinion that the identification of 15th-century printings without imprint might only be approached by the method of comparing the charac­teristic features of printing types. This approach was further developed by Robert PROCTOR3 who, though emphasizing the importance of printing types, considered the height of lines as highly significant, too. Since several matrices may be pressed from one punch which are identical in form, at least theoretically. Being easy to transport, matrices were carried to various printing offices where types were cast on the spot. Within a printing office, a certain printing type had to be cast on bodies of identical height to produce even lines. This height was determined by the prismatic body of cast types, which, again, was a function of the height of the mould. This particular height, i.e. height of the lines, or more accurately the measurement of 20 lines, was recognized by PROCTOR as a further objective characteristic facilitating a more reliable identification of publications without imprint with the products of one or the other known printing offices. The most elaborate method of determining printers by printing types was finally worked out by Konrád HAEBLER. In his famed type-repertory,4 he systematized all the printing types of 15th-century printing offices that had become known until then. Serving as a basis for this comparison was capital M for the Gothic characters, and capital Q for the Roman types. Since thèse two letters were to show most of the characteristic variances in form. As to Gothic M, HAEBLER first distinguished 102, then together with sub-types, 1 Monuments typographiques des Pays-Bas au quinzième siècle. La Haye. 1857 —1868. It is worth while noting here that one Century later it was the Netherlands again that took the lead in the examination and methodical publication of 15th-century pi'inting types with a work by Wytze and Lotte HELLING: The Fifteenth Century Types of the Low Countries. Vol. 1—2. Amsterdam, 1966. 2 Collectée papers. Cambridge, 1889, pp. 106 — 236, 258-280. 3 An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum . . . T. 1. London, 1898. ^Typenre/pcrtorium der Wiegendrucke. 1 — 6. Halle a. S. 1905—1924.

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