Calliope articles from February 2003

Calliope archives from February 2003

The world of Johann Gutenberg (c. 1450): nothing is invented and perfected at the same time. (Musings).
February 1, 2003... --An old proverb AS THE WORLD ENTERED THE NEW MILLENNIUM IN 2001, POLLSTERS everywhere asked the question: Whom do you consider the most important people of the last 1,000 years? Topping most lists was the name Johann Gutenberg. To be...

Books before printing.
February 1, 2003... TODAY, WHEN WE THINK OF A BOOK, WE AUTOMATICALLY PICTURE A PRINTED BOOK, OF WHICH THERE CAN BE HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS, or even millions (think of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) of basically identical copies. But if you had asked a reader in...

Keep it secret.
February 1, 2003... Recognize this man with what appears to be a punch in one hand and a letter mold in the other? A French engraver gave Gutenberg these features in 1584 but no one knows if they are accurate. Read this Issue, then return to the Image above and...

At odds with Mainz.
February 1, 2003... No records remain--if indeed they ever existed--that shed light on Johann Gutenberg's education or training. Nor are there any documents that suggest how and why he turned his attention to such mechanical pursuits as gemcutting and the casting...

Investing in mirrors.
February 1, 2003... The records of the 1439 lawsuit reveal that one of Gutenberg's enterprises in Strassburg was making mirrors. He and his partners intended to sell them during a holy pilgrimage to Aachen, some 200 miles north of Strassburg. Every seven years,...

Almost there.(Gutenberg's financing for printing press)
February 1, 2003... AS GUTENBERG CONTINUED HIS WORK, HE TURNED TO A NEW FINANCIAL BACKER, a Mainz lawyer named Johann Fust, who advanced him a hefty sum to pay for the making of equipment that was pledged to Fust as security. A further substantial investment...

The invention.(Gutenber's printing press)
February 1, 2003... The central idea of Gutenberg's invention was simple, but it required a fresh look at the question of how to create text. When writing, scribes thought in terms of one word or phrase at a time, not one letter at a time. As they created words...

A printing press you can build yourself. (Activity).
February 1, 2003... What made Gutenberg's printing press such a revolutionary invention? Gutenberg combined a screw-operated press with moveable metal type, so he could print fairly quickly and many times. Now you can see how this type of printing really...

Letter. (Word Origins).
February 1, 2003... More than 50 percent of English words trace their roots to Latin, and the word "letter" is one of them. Although the spelling has changed--from littera to "letter," the definition has not. Both the Latin and English term refer to "a letter of...

Print. (Word Origins).
February 1, 2003... This word quite appropriately traces its origin back to the Latin verb premere ("to press") and its participle pressus ("pressed"), since a printed letter is actually a mark pressed onto something. The English word "press," which can be used...

Bible. (Word Stories).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The ancient Greeks used the word biblia to refer to a collection of books. Biblia was, in turn, a derivative of the word biblos, Greek for "book." Biblos also meant "papyrus," a plant whose stem was used to make an early form of paper. Widely...

Incunabula. (Word Stories).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... A wonderful word to be sure: It is used to refer to the first stages of anything, especially early printed books and those printed before 1500. The work of William Caxton, the first English printer (see the image on page 31), is a good example....

"Meet the deadline". (Expressions).
February 1, 2003... Reporters and authors all know deadlines must be met for their story to be published. But today's deadlines are not a matter of "life and death" as they once were. In the 1860s, at the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia, the...

The Gutenberg Bible.
February 1, 2003... The earliest surviving examples of Gutenberg's printing are known only from small fragments, preserved in old bookbindings. Several are printings of a standard Latin grammar of the time. One fragment is from o German book of prophecies written...

Take a closer look--analyzing Gutenberg's printing.
February 1, 2003... One might imagine that a skilled printer can look at a page of Gutenberg's Bible and tell how it was made. Not so: For centuries, master printers have studied survivals from Gutenberg's press and proposed dozens of theories. Not one, however,...

The spread of printing.
February 1, 2003... In the decade after the Gutenberg Bible was published, printing spread rather slowly. Gutenberg's partnership with Johann Fust broke up as the result of a quarrel. Fust, with his son-in-law Peter Schoeffer, started his own shop, producing two...

Printing after Gutenberg. (From Past to Present).
February 1, 2003... The essential features of Gutenberg's discoveries were so well-conceived and engineered that, in the centuries after his death, few changes occurred in the processes of type-casting and printing. By the end of the 15th century, every major...

Types of print. (Activity).
February 1, 2003... As the technology of printing has evolved, so have the letters of the alphabet. The earliest hand-written letters probably took their shape from objects. The letter "A," written point down, looked like a cow. Can you see the triangular face...

Books. (Off the Shelf).(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
February 1, 2003... Artists and Artisans by Irene M. Franck and David M. Brownstone (Facts On File, 1987) includes informative and interesting chapters on bookbinders and calligraphers. Fine Print by Joann Johansen Butch (Carolrhoda Books, 1991) simply and...

On the net.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... For more information about the Scheide Library at Princeton, go to: www.princeton.edu/edu~rbsc/department/scheide/ For an information-packed site, with many links to related topics, go to the Gutenberg homepage at: ...

Cobblestone resources. (Off the Shelf).
February 1, 2003... Materials that complement this issue's theme, "Gutenberg and Printing," and are available from Cobblestone Publishing include: Monasteries in Medieval Europe (CAL9801) Magna Carta (CAL0004) The Black Death (CAL0103)

Ask Calliope.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... I was curious if you knew who killed King Tut when he was 17-18? --Kirsty, Web post Dear Kirsty, Howard Carter s discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 did provide a great deal of information, but there are still many unanswered...

The `full treatment'.(Gutenberg Bible at Sheide Library at Princeton)
February 1, 2003... One of the many wonderful features of the copy of the Gutenberg Bible in the Scheide Library at Princeton is that it is in its original 15th-century binding. Of the more than 40 Gutenberg bibles that still exist, only nine are in the bindings...

Meet Scott Husby: rare books conservator for Princeton University.
February 1, 2003... What special training did you have to become a rare book conservator? I took some lessons in basic bookbinding at a hand bindery in California in the early 1970s, and then, for several years, taught myself. In 1985, I went to the Library...

Treating the Gryphius editions. (At Work With the Conservator).
February 1, 2003... The Gutenberg Bible, as well as many of the other earliest printed books, were very large and were intended to be placed on lecterns or altars for reading. They were not designed to be held in the hand. However, it was not long before printers...

Wrap your favorite book in a four-flap wrapper. (Testing a Technique).
February 1, 2003... Because there isn't time to give full and proper treatment to every library book that needs attention, there's one fairly simple procedure that can be taken to help prevent further damage and deterioration to a particular book. By placing each...