A vision with purpose

OCT19.2016

THINKING OUT LOUD
Such class ... back in "those days" ... why not reform to some sort of modesty, so that you are not distracted and can ACTUALLY see the true person behind this ... YOU CAN READ more on my "The Publisher" blog at blogspot.ca (here you are) ....

Listen along
I'm on the continual rediscovery of a superb collection of music that I even surprised, if not completely amazed at myself at the great eclectic collection of "LOVELY" music.    Right now, Clay Aitken is singing "Because you love me".

https://itun.es/ca/lipes?i=303100592

I find it a little ironic that I never watched American Idol during the season Clay Aitken was in it.  Then, I think, I became a fan of his after watching him on The Celebrity Apprentice.  I was a disciple of The Celebrity Apprentice.  I maybe watched three 20 segments, if that, of the original Apprentice.

I really liked watching the show.  Primarily, I was fascinated by the interpersonal dynamics.  It was particularly fascinating when it was compounded by theatrics and power drama with a few.   If a person is trying to evaluate their own value system, it was a great show to watch.  

The ego driven drivers of the series were not the stars, to my way of thinking.  It was Brett Michaels and Clay Aitken whom I became fans of.  

My intent tonight was to come to write this blog's purpose.  You see, the very first paragraph I ever blogged was what I published about 6 years ago.  It was for optioneerJM, whom i created just to fiddle and experiment with expanding from Linked In commenting (where I was asked often whether I had a blog).  I swear, my most loyal followers or readers on that blog were the ones at the very beginning.

A vision with purpose

I've written recently about defining your purpose.  I know that I've been struggling with that.    Sticking yourself under your very own microscope is excruciatingly painful.  More so than Mindfulness and that is pretty hard, only the very very disciplined are able to achieve that perfect balance in the NOW.

Creating a vision

Defining the path that you would like to take is not an easy exercise.    If you are able to stop reading this for five minutes, not including the time to open a separate wordpad or a pad of paper with pen.  Go ahead.  Take five minutes.  Define your vision?  Stuck?  Okay, here's a hint:  where do you see yourself in five to 10 years ... if you're in your 20s, do it in 10 year increments x 4 (so in 40 years).  

Envision

Where will you be standing or what will you be doing in your vision?  I know, I know.  It goes against the grain of the "mindfulness" gurus.  Bad gal am I?  Wait, I can explain.

Defined goals

Are what you have around you.  The specifics.  Are you in a house, big and fancy or tasteful and just the right size (for your gardening, your dog, your yard, if that is something that you really enjoy doing).  Are you on a boat somewhere, coming to grasp you are on a cruise with your partner or soon to be found partner, or dear me, a yacht you own and the man by your side isn't your partner, he is your Captain!  

Struggle between mindfulness & goals

I know I've said I'm trying to work on being #mindful.    I am a beginner I even admit.  In fact, I will share where it's coming from for me:

Jon Kabat-zinn

MINDFULNESS FOR BEGINNERS

I bought the CD set at a big box store in person (nobody will take away my love to drift around in bookstores for hours .... except Indigo, who took away the magic that Chapters captured, becoming lost in a bookstore.  The CEO of Indigo, I don't remember her name, shut down my book club close to my home.  My link to sanity when I was at home with babies, my husband escaping to his "work" was this book club.  She also took the comfy chairs all away.  Kinda sad that she took the one thing that anything online cannot compete with.   My first attempt at poetry:

The printed word

 The smell of ink,

 the rustling of pages

 turning.  

Quieter than

 a library.    

When one hour can be

 enveloped by three. 

 Not lost. 

 Just not willing to be found. 

 Hush.  No cell phones around.

In the moment
I AM trying to come up with my vision statement and purpose to this blog.  It is starting to disperse the cloud of uncertainty.  

The struggle between the NOW and the GOALS dissipate once the vision has been created.  It becomes a piece of artwork, a travel destination, a decor, a fashion statement, a museum, with headphones on, who knows.  Only I will know what that VISION statement will have in its picture.  Right now, its a pretty crowded collage.

So, to keep in the PRESENT NOW in keeping with my mindfulness training, I will work on collecting images that form a vision.  After that, I'm hopeful, while optimistic that a purpose will float out.

Please let me know if you have a poem or short story that you would like to publish.  Anyone who shares their poem or short story on here will be accredited and all social media links included.  Anonymous submissions whereby no name is required and confidentiality enforced, can be made to my "aCOMMENTary" blog:

Commentary COMMENTS course

MUSIC CHOICE RIGHT NOW:

LINK

https://itun.es/ca/coXS3?i=934482842

"I told you so" 

with Carrie Underwood

 and Randy Travis

I hope you will take a look at my other blogs, if you don't already.  I've already shared the link above for aCOMMENTary.  Then there is meanderingsABOUT where I reflect on life, love, family, living as who I am:  "a fabulous fashionista fighting her fifties."

meanderingsABOUT <<-- LINK

optioneerJM <<-- LINK

The following is an excerpt from a website I delightfully discovered when looking for stuff on publishing, writing, for the images portion of this blog or help with defining my purpose.  Not sure which.

Book History

LINK  http://eduscapes.com/bookhistory/artifact/6.htm

The term bibliogony is used to describe the production of books. In The Evolution of the Book, Kilgour (1998, 4) states that there have been

"three major transformations in method and power application in reproducing the codex: machine printing from cast type, powered by human muscle (1455-1814); nonhuman power driving both presses and typecasting machines (1814-1970); and computer-driven photocomposition combined with offset printing (1970-)."

Book design involves a wide range of processes related to planning the physical appearance of the book including paper and type selection, layout, and structure of the book. At first, most of these decisions were made by the printer. However over time, publishers developed specifications that were applied by the printer.

You'll find that many of the well-known book designers and printers were men. However many women also made important contributions. Unfortunately, their names are often overlooked in history.

Try It!
Explore Womens Printers, Binders & Book Designers. As you work your way through this page, consider how women may have played important roles that weren't recorded in primary sources of the times or the history of printing books.

This page will explore the printing process and the role of the printer in book production.

Printing involves the production of identical copies of a work using a printing press or other mechanical device. The printer is an individual, family, or business that prints books and other print materials. In the first few centuries of printing, the printer also acted as publisher offering books for sale.

Try It!
Go to The Atlas of Early Printing.
Spend some time exploring the early history of printing and the book.

Understanding Printers through Primary Sources

By examining the book as a physical artifact, researchers can learn about how the book was printed including the particular type of ink, press, and printing process.

Analyzing the account books and correspondence of printers, reading autobiographies by printers, exploring legal records and newspapers of the time period, and reading printers' manuals of the time period, help book historians gain insights into the role of the printer in Darnton's "communication circuit." Darnton (1982, 77) suggests that researchers ask question such as

"How did printers calculate costs and organize production, especially after the introduction of machine-made paper in the first decade of the nineteenth century and Linotype in the 1880s?
How did technological changes affect the management of labor?
And what part did journeymen printers, an unusally articulate and militant sector of the working class, play in labor history?"

To better understand how books were printed, it's fascinating to examine books that contain small mistakes.

For lots of examples, read the blog entry Learning from Mistakes by Sarah Werner (February 23, 2012).

The Printing Press

The mid-fifteenth century marked a tremendous change in book production and ultimately print culture. The invention of the printing press around 1440 changed the book from a single object to an industrial age commodity. Books were no longer an item owned exclusively by the rich. By lowering the cost of production, the printing press allowed an enormous increase in production and distribution of books. The physical book we know today originated to this time period.

The printing press and activities of individual printers had a tremendous impact on the availability of books from the mid-1400s to the present. Although hand-written manuscripts continued to be produced, the printed book quickly overtook the manuscript because of its quick production and low relative cost.

The Printing Press

A printing press is a machine used to evenly transfer ink to paper or cloth. By applying pressure to an inked surface, the image is transferred to the paper. The device is able to make impressions quickly and efficiently.

The press itself stood from 5 to 7 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 7 feet tall.

The image on the right shows a 3D reconstruction of a common press used from around 1650 to 1850.

Typecasting

The movable type consisted of small metal blocks with raised letters. First the typecaster would cast a punch out from hard metal using a drawing of the letter as a guide. Next, the letter is punched into soft metal like copper to leave an impression. This piece of soft metal containing the impression is called a matrix. The matrix is placed into a mold. The typecaster would make the type by mixing tin, lead, and antimony and pouring it into the mold. Although a skilled typecaster could produce 4,000 metal letters per day, many of the type pieces turned out malformed and could not be used.

The matrices as well as the pieces of type were kept in wooden boxes. The type is storied in wooden trays or drawers known as a typecase (see image below). For each letter, there are three options: capital letter (uppercase), small capital, and small letter (lowercase). In addition, the case contains punctuation marks, spaces, and other type as needed.

Typesetting

The typesetter is in charge of organizing the type pieces into pages on a frame. The composer places the type on a composing stick. The first sticks were made from wood. Later, metal sticks were replaced the wooden ones. The composer must create the text upside down and backwards for it to print correctly.

Completed composing sticks were placed on a large tray known as a gallery. Pieces of metal were placed between rows. These fillers are known as leading. A primary advantage of using movable type over carved or engraved blocks is that corrections can more easily be made. The text is carefully checked before printing. Mistakes are corrected. The type is moved from the galley to an iron frame known as thechase. When wedges and filler pieces are added and tightened up, this frame containing the text creates a tight form.

Pressing

After the typesetting is complete, the form is laid on the press stone. An oil-based ink is then evenly applied to the type surface. A damp piece of paper was attached to the tympan with pins and held in place by a frame called afrisket. The tympan is then folded down against the inked type. A handle is turned to make the press stone and coffin beneath roll under the platen. Pressure is then placed evenly on the page using a screw on a long bar called the Devil's Tail. The coffin is then pulled back out and the printed page is removed.

The image on the right from around 1568 shows a printing operation.

Most early print shops printed large sheets containing multiple pages. After a page was printed, it was hung up to dry. After one side dried, they turned the page over and printed the other side.

Read!
Read Mosley, James (2013). The Technologies of Print. In, M. Suarez & H.R. Woudhuysen, The Book: A Global History. Oxford University Press. IUPUI students can view the article online.

Try It!
Go to the Printing Press Animation.
Learn about how a printing press works.

Watch!
Have some fun learning about letterpress printing. Watch the following three videos:
Letterpress
Old Skool Printing
Upside Down, Left to Right: A Letterpress Film 

15th Century Printing

Books printed between the introduction of the printing press and January 1, 1501 are known as incunables. Also known as incunabula orfifteener, an incunable is a pamphlet, broadside, or book printed before 1501 in Europe. The term incunbula is Latin referring to the earliest stage or trace of a development. In this case, the printed book.

Many authors consider incunables to be those printed using movable type. However two types of printing co-existed during this time period.

Block Book Printing

Block book printing involved creating a single carved or sculpted wooden block for each page. The text and illustrations were cut onto the same block. They were particularly popular in the mid fifteenth century. Most of these books were less than fifty pages. Block-books were often cheaper than those produced on the new movable type printers. However they suffered from damage including worms and deformation.

As the printing press became more popular, movable type replaced woodblocks for text. However woodcuts continued to be used for reproducing images in illustrated works.

While the printing press generally printed on both sides of a sheet, block-books were printed on one side. The pages were glued together to produce the look of two sided printing.

Speculum Humanae Salvationis or Mirror of Human Salvation (image shown below) is a famous and common example of a block-book. A work of popular theology, the book portrays events from the Bible. Some editions are entirely block-book printing and others combine block-book with typographic book printing.

Ars Moriendi or The Art of Dying (image from book shown below left) was written in the early to mid 1400s and created on woodcuts for printing around 1460. The first guide to death and dying, the work was available in a short and long version that described how to prepare to die and die well.

Biblia pauperum or Pauper's Bible (image from book shown above right) was a Bible picture book published with block-book printing.

Typographic or Movable Type Book Printing

Typographic book printing was the second type of printing during this period. It was created by placing individual pieces of cast metal movable type into a printing press.

Although the invention of the printing press is credited to Johannes Gutenberg, other versions of printing devices occurred earlier. The idea for movable type was first introduced by Bi Sheng of China who made type from porcelain around 1040. During the first part of the thirteenth century, Koreans created the first metal type.

However it was Gutenberg's press that gained notoriety and was reproduced throughout Europe. Around 1440, Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany developed the European version of movable type.

Metal movable type printing much more durable and uniform than woodblock printing. In addition, it was much quicker. Printing spread rapidly across Europe with the increasing availability of the printing press.

Korean Printer

In the 14th century, a Korean printer was printing books in the Chinese language using cast bronze type. Because there was a shortage of wood for carving, metal was a logic alternative that turned out to work well. This approach was expensive and labor intensive.

The image below shows movable type from the first printed book in Korea around 1377.

Johann Gutenberg

As a goldsmith familiar with screw presses, Johann Gutenberg (c. 1399-1468) adapted existing technology to create the printing press. What made Gutenberg's movable metal type unique was his invention of a special matrix that allowed the moulding of metal type with high precision. His mould made it possible to easily and quickly create metal movable type in larger qualities. This allowed an assembly-line approach to book production.

A letterpress is the specific type of printing press used by Gutenberg. The printing surface was coated with ink and transferred to paper. The letterpress continued to be used into the 20th century.

Besides the printing press, Gutenberg is also credited with the invention of an oil-based ink that was much more durable than water-based inks.

The first major book to be printed by Gutenberg was the Bible, known as the Gutenberg Bible or 42-line Bible (book is shown below). Printed in the 1450s, the Gutenberg Bible was a Vulgate edition written in Latin. The decoration around the margins and in the headings was done by hand after the pages were printed. The book was over 1200 pages and was printed in two separate volumes. Approximately forty-eight copies survived and are considered the most valuable books in the world.

Try It!
Want to have some fun? Read a preview of Gutenberg: The Musical by Anthony King and Scott Brown. Then, explore one of the promos on YouTube.

 

Nicolas Jenson

Nicolas Jenson (c. 1430-1480) printed early classical and humanist texts, canon law, Bibles, and liturgical works. Having apprenticed at the royal mint in Paris, where he likely learned about metals. Sent to Germany to learn about the printing press, he later became a printer making his own roman type. He was a prolific printer distributing his work throughout Europe.

The image below left shows Julius Caesar works printed by Nicolas Jenson around 1471. The image on the right shows Nicolas Jenson's printer's mark.

After 1469, printing spread rapidly across Europe. According to Lommen (2012), trade in type matrices was responsible for this explosion of printing. Printers like Koberger, Ratdolt, and Leeu used their international connections to spread thousands of books throughout Europe.

Many printers were known for a particular genre of book. For instance, Bonino De Boninis (1454-1528) also known as Dobrić Dobrićević, is known for printing classics including Dante's Divine Comedy.

Gheraert Leeu

Gheraert Leeu (c. 1445-1492) was a Dutch printer best known for his printing of fables.

Printed in 1480, The Dialogus Creaturarum Moralisatus or The Dialogues of the Creatures Moralizedcontains 122 dialogues between characters found in nature. The book includes a woodcut for each tale.

The image (by Johi) left shows a status dedicated to Leeu.

Erhard Ratdolt

Erhard Ratdolt (c. 1447-c. 1528) set up a printshop in Venice in 1474 then moved to Augsburg Bavaria in 1486.

He is best known for printing a high-quality version of Euclid's Elements of Geometry in 1482. The book contains woodcut decorations and over 400 diagrams created with straight and curved metal rules.

The image on the right shows a page from Euclid's Elements notice the mixture of border, text, and illustrations.

Try It!
Go to Elements of Euclid at Wikimedia Commons. Compare various translations and printers.

Aldus Manutius

Venice became the home to many printers in the late 15th and 16th centuries.

Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) was a humanist scholar. During the Italian Renaissance, he established a print shop in Venice called Adline Press. Manutius was known for his beautifully illustrated books focusing on Greek and Latin classics. However he also published other works such as religious materials, secular texts, geography, history, and scientific treatise.

The image on the right shows Aldus Manutius.

Aldus Manutius combined metal type with woodblock illustrations. Many of his books include interesting text layouts.

Modeled after the handwriting of Venetian scribes, Manutius used the term italic for this new type because it was invented in Italy. His work inspired many of his successors.

Hypernerotomachia Poliphili or Poliphili's Strife of Love in a Dream (image shown above) written by Francesco Colonna and printed by Aldus Manutius is an outstanding example of both writing and printing during this period.

Published in Venice in 1499, the allegorical romance is a typical topic for the Early Renaissance. However the use of the inverted triangle, empty whitespace, and indented paragraphs are unique to Manutius. According to Harthan (1981), the book was initially a commercial disaster, but the woodcuts were admired.

The image on the left below shows how Manutius combined woodcuts with interesting ways to present text.

In 1501 Manutius printed the first portable octavos that were pocket-sized and printed in uniform series. Known as libri portatiles, they targeted readers with a growing interest in humanism.

In 1502, Manutius began using a printer's mark that included a dolphin and anchor. The mark was intended to assure customers that his work was of high quality.

The image on the right above shows Aldus Manutius printer emblem.

William Caxton

William Caxton (c. 1422?-1491) learned the craft of printing by studying in Germany and Belgium. After learning the process, he returned to London England to set up a print shop at Westminster Abbey. Caxton was known as an excellent editor and translator in addition to his work as a printer.

Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye was the first book printed in English. Originally written in French by Raoul Lefevre, it was translated and printed by Caxton around 1475. A first edition copy was presented to Margaret of York.

The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers (1477) is one of the first book printed in England. It contained a colophon indicating the printer and place of publication.

The image on the right shows the printer's device of William Caxton.

Caxton printed Geoffrey Chaucer's poem The Canterbury Tales in 1476. Seven years later he printed a corrected text and added illustrations. It became a very popular book.

Try It!
Begin by reading a little more about Caxton's Chaucer. Go to Treasures in Full to explore two digital versions of Canterbury Tales. Notice the small changes in his printing skills over six years.

Anton Koberger

Anton Koberger (c. 1440-1513) was a printer, publisher, and goldsmith. He opened the first printing house in Nuremberg in 1470. At its height, he employed 100 workers in his printing house. He is best known for printing and publishing the Nuremberg Chronicle.

The most common incunable to survive, the Nuremberg Chronicle is a wonderful example of the early printed book with around 1250 known surviving copies. Written by Hartmann Schedel and illustrated by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, the book was published by Anton Koberger in 1493.

Based on the Bible, the book tells the story of human history. The book is also known as the Book of Chronicles andSchedel's World History. The printing was completed based on a contract with patrons. In other words, the patrons covered the cost of book production and distribution.

The book contains 1809 woodcut illustrations with 645 original to the book making it the most illustrated incunable (an image from the book is shown on the left).

The Age of Incunabula

Early printing was distributed throughout Europe. Incunabula were printed in 282 cities in 20 countries. The most books were produced in Italy, Germany, Trance, and the Netherlands.

Besides the printers mentioned, many other early printers emerged such as Gunther Zainer of Augsburg, Johannes Mentelin andHeinrich Eggestein of Strasbourg, and Heinrich Gran of Haguenau.

Early printing presses could produce 3600 pages were day. The skills were passed of from master to apprentice and often father to son. The art of printing was carefully preserved through close study.

David Pankow, author of The Printer's Manual: An Illustrated History, notes that printing innovations were kept secret during the early years of printing. His website states that:

"As printing from movable type was perfected  in the fifteenth century, the mysteries of its practice were guarded by a privileged few. Gutenberg himself took great pains to avoid disclosing the techniques he had developed for the rapid multiplication of books, only to see the fruits of his long research snatched away from him by his chief creditor, Johann Fust, in an ignominious lawsuit. To make matters worse, tradition has it that Gutenberg's apprentice Peter Schöffer took the secrets of the new craft, joined forces with Fust, and, together with his new partner, reaped the benefits of his former master's toil."

The British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue contains 27,400 incunabula editions. Many interesting statistics can be gathered using this catalog such as examining the collection by date, number of known copies, and location.

Below left shows a map of 15th century printing of incunabula. Below right shows incunabula by language.

Try It!
Go to the British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue spend some time browsing the collection.

Read!
Read Gondi, Cristina (2013). The European Printing Revolution. In, M. Suarez & H.R. Woudhuysen, The Book: A Global History. Oxford University Press. IUPUI students can view the article online.