Renaissance printing presses

Renaissance Printing Presses

This article explores the form and function of Renaissance printing presses.  It is difficult to overestimate just what an impact the print revolution had on Renaissance Europe – it had an impact as significant if not greater than the digital revolution. In this article, I want to use some interesting visual evidence to understand how Renaissance printing presses operated.

Renaissance printing presses

Printers and skilled salesmen

The evidence is the woodcut shown above from an edition of Livy’s History of Rome published in Paris in 1516.   It was printed as a joint enterprise by the two major Parisian printers of the age: Jehan Petit (who used the alias Joanne Paruo) and Jodocus van Ashe Badius.  Although they jointly funded the printing of this book and, as the title page suggests, they sold the book in both of their respective shops, the Colophon of the book makes it clear that Badius printed the book in his print shop, which was called the Praelum Ascensianum – the Ascension Press.  

In a canny bit of salesmanship in the book’s colophon, Petit and Badius claim that this edition was a new, improved edition of Livy’s History and was the most accurate available to the academics of Paris!  I say Petit and Badius were printers, but they were not press men; they wouldn’t have gotten their hands dirty. They were print shop proprietors, speculators, Publishers, if you like. Petit and Badius, Badius particularly, were men of considerable intellect and learning (see sources below) who could produce accurate texts of important Classical works.  

Frontispiece of Livy's History.
Frontispiece of Livy's History.

Collaboration within the print trade

Renaissance printing presses
Renaissance printing presses

The frontispiece of title page of this book is wonderful, full of detail and meaning; the text is set within a lovely little classical structure with pilasters and profile heads in medallions hanging from them, evoking the architecture of Ancient Rome.  Around the classical frame are many marginal details: Renaissance Putti, suits of armour eluding to the martial history of the Roman Emperors and various mythical creatures.  At the top is a man in a roundel flanked by two lions, busy writing away at a book on a lectern – is this Livy himself?  This wood engraved surround is used in other printed works coming off the presses of Petit and Badius.  So clearly, the two men were sharing their resources when there was a call to do so.   

Inside a Renaissance print shop

Back to the copy of Livy’s History and on the frontispiece of this collaboration, the printer’s mark this time is that of Badius. It’s a wonderful representation of the interior of Badius’ print shop, the Praelum Ascensianum.  At the centre of the image is the very printing press that this book was printed on, with the print shop’s name printed in red.  At the bottom is the monogram of Badius: A(VA)B – for Jodocus van Asche Badius.   

The Ascension press in Paris
The Ascension press in Paris

Operating Renaissance printing presses

A lot is going on in this image, and we can learn a much from it about Renaissance printing presses and the process of printing a book.    As I said, the press is in the middle, a wooden press with a rigid screw mechanism. The pressman is on the right-hand side of the press. With his right arm, he is pulling the handle that will turn the screw and apply pressure to the ‘platten’, which will ‘press’ the inked type onto the paper.  With his left hand, he is about to turn the ‘rounce’, a handle connected to a windlass, that operates the ‘bed’ of the press, or as they called it in the sixteenth century, the ‘coffin’. This ‘coffin’ contains the ‘form’ into which the cast metal type (the letters) is set, and over this is placed the ‘tympan’, which contains the paper that is to be printed.    The man behind the pressman is his assistant, who is holding two ink balls in his hand.  These ink balls had wooden handles, were made of leather stuffed with wool, and were used to spread the ink evenly on the metal type. When the pressman draws out the ‘coffin’ and as he removes the newly printed piece of paper, the assistant jumps in quickly and inks the type using the balls before another piece of paper is put in and the press is pulled again.   Two men working the press, a pressman and an assistant, significantly increased the press’s output.  

Inside the Ascension press in Paris
Inside the Ascension press in Paris

Setting type for Renaissance printing presses

Now on the right of the press is another man seated on a bench; he is the typesetter or compositor.  He has a composing stick in his right hand, and with his left hand, he is reaching out to pick out the metal type, the individual metal letters.  He transfers the metal type into the stick in readiness for its transferal to the form.  Notice how his eyes are focused not on the type or the stick but on the text hung up before him; this is the proof text he is copying.  An experienced compositor could set type without looking at the trays containing it. For Petit and Badius, the accuracy of the texts they produced for the French academic market was an important selling point. The accuracy of the text produced by such Renaissance printing presses, was in the hands of a skilled type compositor, and the clarity of the printed text was in the hands of the skilled pressman.

The book details

T. Liuij Patauini historici clarissimi quae extant Decades : ad decem diuersa exempla acri iudicio repositae  – Paris, Venundantur ab Joanne Paruo et Iodoco Badio Ascensio, 1516.

The book is in the collection of the Roderic Bowen Library at the University of Wales Trinity St David, Wales.

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