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Books printed before 1500. The art of printing with movable types was preceded early in the 15th century by the production of single pictures printed from wood blocks. Lines of descriptive text were added to these woodcuts and the so-called 'block-book' came into existence, consisting of pictures and text cut on the same wood block. These block-books, of which some 30 separate works have been recorded, were produced chiefly in the Netherlands and Germany. They were popular in character and mainly concerned with religious instruction. Examples include the Biblia Pauperum, the Apocalypse and the Ars Moriendi. It is not known for certain who was responsible for the invention of movable type, though the discovery is generally attributed to Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, c. 1440-50.
The immense superiority of movable type lay in the fact that while the earliest blocks could be used only for the particular work for which they had been cut, the movable type, being composed of separate letters, could be used over and over again for any book. The earliest extant piece of printing is an Indulgence printed at Mainz in 1454. Three names are connected with it: Gutenberg, Fust and Schocffer. The first printed edition of the Bible was issued before 1456 and is known as the Gutenberg Bible. In 1457 Fust and Schoeffer, working together, brought out their famous Psalter, the first printed book to contain the names of its printers and the date of printing. By 1461 the new art had been carried to Strassburg and Bamberg and a few years later presses were set up at Augsburg, Cologne and Nuremberg.
The invention soon spread to other countries. More printers worked in Venice during the 15th century than in any other town. Of these, about 150 in number, the most famous at the end of the century was Aldus Manutius. Paris had become a busy centre of the craft by 1470, and there were important centres of early printing at Deventer in Holland and Louvain in Belgium. William Caxton, England's first printer, worked at Bruges before returning to his native land to introduce the new art. He produced the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book to be printed in the English language. Incunabula look so much like manuscripts that an unpractised eye might find some difficulty in distinguishing between them. It was customary for the 15th-century printer to leave blank spaces for head-lines and initial letters which were afterwards added by an illuminator. In size, too, early printed books closely resembled manuscripts.
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