Continental Literature and History

The Birth of Western Printing

The birth of printing in continental Europe marked a pivotal moment in Western history, opening up a new era of unprecedented information dissemination. Johannes Gutenberg, the German inventor of metal movable type, used this technology to print his famous Bible in 1454/55, and the process was quickly adopted by contemporaries throughout Europe. Continental printing utilising this new technology quickly evolved, notably through the efforts of famous printers such as Nicolas Jenson, Peter Schöffer, Anton Koberger (of Nuremberg Chronicle fame) and Aldus Manutius. The Latin and Greek classics were, alongside works by great authors such as Boccaccio, Dante, Cervantes and Rabelais, made available on an unprecedented scale, and were often created as works of beauty in their own right.

The Art of Illustration and Typography

Woodcut illustrations and decorations would sometimes accompany the printed text in early Continental Literature and History books, before the adoption first of copper-engraving and then steel-engraving, with many leading artists of their day contributing directly or being copied by skilled etchers and engravers. Wonderful examples of continental printing that epitomise this symbiosis include the highly collectable emblem books and fabularum of the 16th and 17th centuries. The 18th century saw the popularisation of highly wrought copper-engraved plates, as exemplified by Ibarra's edition of Don Quixote (1780). Christian religion inevitably dominated the output of many printers in Europe, though some works also expanded on their readers' knowledge of world religions, most famously perhaps French engraver Picart's remarkably illustrated Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, appearing from 1723 to 1743.

The art of typography is a defining aspect for many collectors of Continental Literature and History; the fine Italian and French printers such as Giambattista Bodoni and Pierre Simon Fournier took continental printing to new heights, and to this day set the benchmark for fine printing, directly influencing the private presses of the 19th and 20th centuries.