The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates

In Short

The Invention of Printing is a rigorous, technical examination of how typography actually came into being. Writing as a master printer rather than a mere romantic historian, Theodore Low De Vinne strips away centuries of local pride, national myth, and sloppy bibliographical assumptions to uncover the mechanical steps that made movable type possible. The work sweeps through ancient stamping methods, medieval manuscript production, early woodcuts, playing cards, and Dutch block-books before tackling the central historical controversy: the rival claims of Lourens Janszoon Coster of Haarlem and John Gutenberg of Mainz. Through painstaking analysis of metalcasting, presswork, and surviving legal documents, De Vinne demonstrates that true typography required far more than carving letters on wood—it demanded an adjustable metal type-mould, oil-based ink, and a practical press. The book remains an enduring authority because it grounds high intellectual history in the practical, unyielding realities of the print shop floor.

The Story

De Vinne opens his inquiry by clarifying fundamental definitions. Printing, he stresses, is not a single act but a family of arts. He carefully distinguishes between lithography, copper-plate engraving, xylography (woodblock printing), and typography (printing with movable, interchangeable metal types). To demonstrate why earlier civilization failed to produce books in quantity, he reviews ancient impression techniques. Ancient Roman hand-stamps, clay seals, and brick-stamping methods in Babylon proved that humanity understood the principle of pressure for thousands of years. Yet these techniques remained unpractical for literature because ancient craftspeople lacked suitable paper, proper fluid ink, and, above all, a system for rapidly casting uniform, interchangeable types in large numbers.

The narrative shifts to the Middle Ages, tracing the rise of image-prints and block-books in Central Europe. Woodcuts of saints, such as the famous St. Christopher print, and cheap playing cards began circulating widely in Germany and the Netherlands during the early fifteenth century. Craftspeople soon carved brief explanatory texts alongside these illustrations on single wooden blocks. This technique produced popular block-books like the Biblia Pauperum (Bible of the Poor), the Ars Memorandi, and tales of Antichrist. De Vinne analyzes these primitive works with a practitioner's eye, describing how early printers rubbed dry paper against inked wood blocks using water-based inks—a tedious, inefficient process that prevented true mass production.

Turning to the long-standing international dispute over who invented movable type, De Vinne subjects the popular legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster of Haarlem to relentless scrutiny. Dutch tradition asserted that Coster carved movable wooden types from beech bark around 1430, only to have his secret stolen by a treacherous servant who fled to Germany. De Vinne meticulously dissects the source of this story—the late sixteenth-century chronicle Batavia by Hadrianus Junius—and compares it against Dutch church registers and town archives. He exposes how the historical Coster was actually an innkeeper and tallow-chandler, that the Coster family pedigree had been falsified, and that the crude Dutch fragments attributed to him were printed long after Gutenberg's death using cast metal types rather than carved wood.

The true breakthrough occurred in Germany through the persistence of John Gutenberg. De Vinne traces Gutenberg’s early experiments in Strasbourg during the 1430s, as revealed in the testimony of the Dritzehen lawsuit. There, witnesses spoke of mysterious presswork and a mysterious tool made of "four pieces" lying in a press—the early adjustable type-mould. Moving to Mainz, Gutenberg perfected the complete typographic system: cutting steel punches, driving them into copper to form matrices, and casting type in a two-part adjustable mould that ensured exact alignment and uniform body size. To make these metal types transfer clear images, he adopted oil-based inks derived from linseed oil and adapted the mechanical screw press.

Gutenberg's success was financially tragic. Partnering with the wealthy capitalist John Fust to finance the magnificent 42-line Bible, Gutenberg found himself sued for unpaid loans before the work could yield a profit. Fust foreclosed, seizing Gutenberg's workshop and taking on Gutenberg's talented young foreman, Peter Schœffer. Fust and Schœffer published the celebrated Psalter of 1457, claiming the glory of the invention for themselves. Meanwhile, Gutenberg persevered in relative obscurity, producing other works like the 36-line Bible.

De Vinne concludes his narrative by following the explosive spread of printing across Europe after the sack of Mainz in 1462. Printers carried the art into Italy, France, Spain, and England. The author closes with a detailed examination of early press construction, type-founding tools, and ink formulas, proving that modern scholarship and human knowledge rest entirely upon this practical mechanical foundation.

How It Unfolds

The nature of the craft De Vinne defines the technical differences between woodblock engraving, copper-plate printing, and true typography. He establishes that impression alone is not typography, which requires interchangeable, reusable types.

Failure of the ancients The author surveys Roman seals, Babylonian stamped bricks, and early coin dies. He explains why these early methods never produced books, citing the lack of cheap paper and flexible type-casting systems.

Image prints and playing cards Wood-engraving emerges in Europe through cheap religious prints and playing card suites. Moralists attempt to turn card games into educational tools, while monks preserve early saint cuts in religious houses.

The era of block-books Craftspeople carve entire book pages—both pictures and Latin texts—onto solid blocks of wood. Works like the Ars Memorandi use bizarre symbolic imagery to teach religious texts, but rubbing impressions remains slow and clumsy.

Dissecting the Coster myth De Vinne investigates the Dutch claim that Lourens Coster invented movable type in Haarlem. By examining historical archives, town records, and the text of Junius's Batavia, he reveals the story to be a romantic invention built on bad history.

Gutenberg's early secrets Court testimony from Strasbourg in 1439 reveals Gutenberg quietly working on a mechanical invention. Witnesses describe secret presses and a mysterious tool of four pieces used to make metal types.

The invention perfected in Mainz Gutenberg returns to Mainz and brings together all the required components: steel punches, copper matrices, the adjustable metal type-mould, oil-based ink, and the screw press.

The loss of the workshop John Fust sues Gutenberg for the return of invested capital and accumulated interest. The court decides against Gutenberg, allowing Fust and Peter Schœffer to seize his equipment and reap the rewards of the 42-line Bible.

The Psalter and Schœffer's claims Fust and Schœffer issue the 1457 Psalter, featuring two-color printed initials. Schœffer claims credit for inventing type-founding, a claim De Vinne thoroughly dismantles by comparing earlier specimens.

The art spreads across Europe Following political turmoil in Mainz, itinerant German printers cross the Alps and the Rhine. Printing shops open in Rome, Venice, Paris, and London, rapidly transforming European intellectual life.

The tools of the early shop De Vinne details the early workshop setup, analyzing type-moulds, the composition of early inks from linseed oil and pitch, and the mechanics of the wooden press.

The People

• John Gutenberg: A visionary German craftsman of noble birth who spends his life and fortune perfecting the art of typography. Possessing deep mechanical ingenuity and relentless perseverance, he solves the complex problem of casting uniform metal types. Unable to navigate financial contracts effectively, he loses his workshop to his creditor just as his masterpiece is completed, dying without receiving full public credit for his genius.
• Lourens Janszoon Coster: The legendary hero of Dutch printing history, depicted by later writers as the true inventor of movable types in Haarlem. Historical records show him to have been an innkeeper, chandler, and officer of the parish church. He stands in the book as an example of how national pride and romantic tradition can build a towering historical myth out of sparse, misunderstood facts.
• John Fust: A shrewd, prosperous capitalist of Mainz who finances Gutenberg’s costly experiments and printing office. Demanding strict business returns, he loses patience with Gutenberg’s long delays and brings a devastating lawsuit to seize the workshop, subsequently forming a lucrative partnership with Peter Schœffer.
• Peter Schœffer: A skilled copyist and type-cutter who serves as Gutenberg’s foreman before allying with Fust. Highly talented in mechanics and trade, he refines type-founding techniques and builds a successful international publishing business, though he routinely downplays Gutenberg's foundational achievements in his self-serving book colophons.
• Hadrianus Junius: A learned sixteenth-century Dutch physician and author whose book Batavia popularized the Coster legend. Writing with immense pedantry and credulity, he passed down third-hand hearsay as historical fact, misleading bibliographers for nearly three centuries.

In Its Own Voice

"He was the inventor of the modern art of printing who built the first press, and printed the first book. The conclusion is illogical, as will be shown on another page. If a radical improvement had not been made in the earliest method of printing books, the art would have been as unproductive in Europe as it has been in China."

De Vinne explains why casual observers fail to recognize that the true invention lay in type-founding rather than mere pressing.

"The four Evangelists are symbolized—St. John by an eagle, St. Matthew by an angel, St. Luke by a bull, St. Mark by a lion—but they are presented to us in uncouth attitudes, and are surrounded or overlaid by some of the familiar objects frequently mentioned in the Gospels."

The author describes the bizarre graphic devices used in the block-book Ars Memorandi to help medieval readers memorize scripture.

"We see in a square at Haarlem the monument of the fictitious personage Laurens Coster. It presents a sad figure. Behind this statue, sneering in mockery, is another colossal monument, which dominates and belittles it—a statue visible to us, but to Hollanders invisible—the statue of Ridicule."

Quoting the historian Helbig, De Vinne underscores the final collapse of the Dutch claim to the origin of movable type.

What It's Really About

On its surface, De Vinne's treatise is a comprehensive history of early printing, but underneath it is an argument about the nature of mechanical invention itself. The author contends that true invention rarely consists of a single abstract idea; rather, it is the practical synthesis of diverse technical processes into a working, economical system. Many men before Gutenberg had stamped letters into clay, carved woodblocks, or printed patterns on cloth. Gutenberg’s true achievement was not the vague concept of an interchangeable letter, but the invention of the adjustable metal type-mould—a precision hand-tool that allowed thousands of identical metal types to be cast quickly and cheaply.

The book also explores the fragile nature of historical truth. De Vinne shows how easily local vanity, bad bibliographical methods, and uncritical acceptance of traditions can obscure historical facts. By setting patriotic folklore against cold evidence—such as tax registers, paper marks, and mechanical presswork imperfections—De Vinne demonstrates that history must be tested by practical knowledge. Intellectual history, he argues, cannot be separated from the history of manual labor and industrial craft.

Why Read It Today

De Vinne's work remains a masterpiece of practical scholarship. Modern readers accustomed to digital text will find a fascinating world where every letter was a physical object of cast metal, hand-set in a heavy frame, inked with sheepskin balls, and pressed into damp paper by physical leverage. The book feels grounded and authoritative because De Vinne brings his decades of practical experience as a master printer to bear on every page. When he evaluates whether a page was printed from wood or metal, or whether an ink was oil-based or water-based, he speaks with the quiet confidence of a professional who has performed those operations himself.

The reader must navigate certain period difficulties. Written in the late nineteenth century, the text contains dense technical details, bibliographical citations, and lengthy discussions of forgotten nineteenth-century scholarly disputes. It assumes a reader willing to pay close attention to details of type-body measurements, Latin grammar primers, and medieval church property records. Yet the prose is clear, direct, and entirely free of romantic fluff or dramatic exaggeration.

Anyone interested in the history of technology, the evolution of the book, or the mechanics of human communication will find De Vinne’s history deeply satisfying. It strips away the hazy mythology surrounding early printing and replaces it with something much better: a clear, respectful view of the genuine mechanical ingenuity that built the modern world.

<FollowUp label="Want to explore how Gutenberg's adjustable type-mould actually worked?" query="Explain the mechanical construction and operation of Gutenberg's adjustable type-mould based on De Vinne's account."/>