Pentateuch of Printing with a Chapter on Judges (page 1/3)

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The “lay” of a pair of type cases (upper case).

This is the top half of the figure, the upper case. In the actual type tray, individual sorts, or pieces of type, would be stored in the compartment indicated. Note that the actual compartments are open; a type tray generally does not have a lid, so you had to learn where the letters went. [more...] [$]

Floriated fruitbowl ornament

This woodcut design was used as a decorative ornament on the title page of the Life of William Caxton edited by John Lewis. [more...] [$]

From the Biblia Pauperum. Block Book. 15th Century.

This image is taken from a fifteenth century “Speculum humanæ salvationis”, probably from the first Latin edition of around 1470. The panels represent the fall of Lucifer and the creation of Eve from Adam, respectively. [more...] [$]

Irregular vintage border from 1712

This border of straight lines in red and back is taken from James Watson’s title page from three hundred years ago; I have kept the horizontal line so that you can erase it or duplicate it and move it as desired, and I coloured one of the two nested [...] [more...] [$]

Fifteenth Century Wooden Composing Stick

“Standing in front of the case, the compositor held in his left hand a wooden “composing-stick,” in which a rectangular trench had been cut to receive the letters. Reading and keeping in his mind a few words of his manuscript, he picked up the types letter by letter and placed them side by side until first [...] [more...] [$]