We all remember the book of Kells fondly, it was created by Celtic Illuminators in 794-806. The amount of detail put into single pages is breathtaking. For example the page on the left, from the book of Kells has astounding amounts of detail. There was a distinct Irish style in the book of Kells that made it extremely interesting to look at. There is intricate knotwork and a lot of colors and unique shapes that are obviously formed by a skilled artist. This book would have been an extremely special object to own. Illuminated manuscripts weren't just books that you threw around and took notes in, like the way we think of books today. They were heirlooms. They were extremely important. These illuminated manuscripts would have been produced in a scriptorium with illuminators spending months and months on the book. The individuals doing the actual writing of the pages would be kept busy doing that while more skilled illuminators would just work on making the pages look beautiful. The font style they used in these manuscripts was caroline minuscules, they were extremely rounded shapes that ran together. If you look at image 4-10 in the book on page 51 you can really see that the words run together and are not extremely legible. It looks a lot like handwriting, and that's because it was done by hand. The typefaces very between each manuscript.
Another example of illuminated manuscript, or books before the printing press would be the Beatus of Fernando and Sancha. It was from Spain, in 1047. The Spanish manuscripts had a distinct style of bold colors and less intense detailing. The image on the right is part of a page that we can also see in our textbook. It is image 4-14 in the text, on page 53. In the textbook it has words underneath it. The letters are more geometric than the Irish type. The words are less uniform and look more handwritten, but seem to be slightly more legible than the The Book of Kells. Spanish design was very different because there was a mix of cultures between the Moors that settled in Spain and Islamic designs and Christian ideas. The use of bold colors makes their designs extremely interesting, even today. Books like this were not just commonplace in that time. The people illustrating these books were highly skilled, just like the Celtic illuminators.
Then it all changed. People started doing block prints, made from carving out negative space from a block of wood. The first ones weren't especially impressive, but as people developed their skill at carving blocks the prints became better and better. Woodblocks allowed for faster printing. In the year 1450 A man named Johann Gutenburg developed an extremely complex system to print a book. He has metalworking and engraving skills and put them towards his knowledge of printing. The reusable type could not be made out of wood because it would not hold up, but the metal worked very well for the just-beginning printers. In the beginning of type people liked typefaces that mimicked the handwriting commonly used in manuscripts. When printing was first being developed books were still special objects. An example of Gutenberg's printing can be seen here on the left, this is Gutenberg's bible from 1450-1455. The letters are more uniform, and it is more legible than the original manuscripts. There is still illumination, or illustration being done on the type, but not as much as there used to be. In old hand illuminated scripts the illustration would interact with the text a lot, and in this it definitely stands apart from the text. This also shows that the role of the illuminator changed, from doing large pages of illustrating or embellishing hand done text, it became more about adding color or small pictures to blocks of text.
Someone who helped out the business of printing was Pope Julius II. He was interested in typography and the art of writing. In 1492 he ordered scribes to hand letter a book of typography for his library. He was a man that really helped push along the renaissance and helped fund many arts, and printing and type were no exception. Although there was still some scribes doing lettering by hand, the demand for them went down after the development of the press. Some scribes were extremely against printing, in Genoa scribes even banded together and tried to get printing banned. Scribes and artists were sometimes necessary for the process of bookmaking to help draw up layouts and ideas for printed books, but the idea of the scriptorium changed completely. Books became more and more abundant, but it was taking less people to make them. The printing press allowed for ideas to be spread much faster than before, and therefore many more people learned how to read. Literacy went up, simply because there was more information being spread through printed word. One idea that was spread rapidly through the printing press was Martin Luther's 95 theses. After he hand wrote them out and posted his issues with the church on their door, the ideas spread because someone printed them, which contributed to the protestant reformation. Having that communication between people nationwide helped them organize. When the printing press started becoming the standard of book-making the art definitely developed. The text became more and more legible and it became more standard. It also aided in communication between nations, because the type became more universal. Although there were differences between each country it was more individual difference between artists than huge difference between countries, like we saw earlier between Celtic manuscripts and Spanish manuscripts. Woodcut illustration also took huge leaps and bounds. We can see here above and to the right, Albrecht Durer's Rhino print from 1515. He created volume and depth with his woodcuts, he became well known for his prints. He became well versed in renaissance ideas because he traveled around a lot. He helped influence ideas in Germany by bringing back things he heard in Italy. There was definitely more communication between people groups and spreading of ideas. German printers continued to develop printing and the book. Someone else who contribuited to the German book was Lucas Cranach the Elder. He introduced uniform type, so the idea of uniform and universal type was spreading.
Italy became more and more interested in printing, and in 1465 Cardinal Turrecremata invited Sweynheym and Pannartz to publish his writings and some classics. They designed types for his writings that built upon Roman letterforms. They also created a double alphabet, using capitals and lowercase(see image at right), which is the type of writing we use today. Obviously as we have gone on the type of detail and illustration we saw in the Book of Kells is not seen any more, and the book has become more and more of a commodity. By no means could everyone read, and not everyone had books, but more and more people had them and were reading.
French bookmaking took what everyone else was doing but added more flourishes, for example here we see Pigouchet's book of hours from 1498. He used a denser more gothic text, and took advantage of the borders and added a lot of detail and ornaments. Some of the best scriptoriums were in france. They integrated with illuminated manuscript style. It was more intricate than most other counties books. They also used more fine lines and Pigouchet developed "crible" technique where you punch holes into the wood to create tones. Although books were not special heirlooms anymore they were still very interesting to look at and extremely important to people, more as a way of communicating, even between counties than anything. Although we didn't have the same division of styles as stark as we did in the illuminated manuscripts you can still see how there were definite difference at least between individual printers, which kept the art of printing from becoming completely unified and the same, but as we can see now in any book store, that did not last. As time goes on type has become more and more universal and we can credit that communication and ease of spreading ideas to these early printers.
