История письма и чтения. Асафова Г.К. - 124 стр.

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Buckinck in 1478. But because engravings required a different press and

introduced a separate process into printing, and because experiments with woodcut

illustrations were so satisfactory, there was no extensive use of engravings before

1550.

Once a picture was prepared for printing, it could be repeated an indefinite

number of times with little loss in detail, accuracy, form, or original vigour. When

great artists such as Albrecht Dürer designed woodcuts the result was books of

high aesthetic value that could be produced in great numbers. Hypnerotomachia

Poliphili, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1499, is a monument to the early

perfection of the woodcut and to book illustration in general. Equally as important

as the reproduction of great art was the opportunity that printed illustrations

offered for the faithful reproduction of pictures and diagrams in scientific books.

The dawning scientific scholarship profited from the development of printed

illustration; it is significant that studies in both anatomy, with its need for precise

illustration of the human body, and cartography greatly expanded after

development of printed illustrations.

THE BOOK TRADE

The book trade during this early period showed enormous vitality and

variety. Competition was fierce and unscrupulous. A printer of Parma in 1473,

apologizing for careless work, explained that others were bringing out the same

text, and so he had to rush it through the press “more quickly than asparagus could

be cooked.” Though most of the early firms were small printer-publishers, many

different arrangements were made and at least one businessman, Johann Rynmann

of Augsburg, published nearly 200 books but printed none of them. Publishing

companies, which both financed and guided the printing enterprise, were also tried,

as at Milan in 1472 and at Perugia in 1475. Publishers were not slow to promote

their books. The medieval scribes had placed their names, the date when they

finished their labours, and perhaps a prayer or a note on the book, at the end of