Luciano Marreiro Abilio

Prof. Jim Rose

ART 250 Introduction to Graphic Design
Oct. 01, 2015
Project 05 Printing coming to Europe
For the Europeans prepare hand written manuscripts they imported paper
from China. This paper was imported during the eleventh century, along with silk and
spices.
Marco Polo was known as a great explorer, he went to China to learn the
printing technology from the Chinese. The Italians began to produce books with
woodblocks because of him. He returned from China in 1925, and after he
introduced this new technology, it spread to other parts of Europe.
This books were very expensive because they were meant for the rich
aristocrats. These editions were handwritten on very expensive vellum. To make
these books, the productions was organized and more than 50 hand-writers often
worked for one bookseller. The demand for books increased all over the world,
making booksellers in Europe began exporting books to many countries.
In the course of the time the demand for hand-written books slowly diminished
because was very expensive copying by hand. These hand written manuscripts
could not be carried around or read easily, were fragile, and awkward to handle. The
solution was the woodblock printing. It gradually became more and more popular as
the demand for books increased.
Woodblocks were being broadly used in Europe to print textiles in the early
fifteenth century. It was common playing cards, and religious pictures with simple,
brief texts.
In the 1430s Johan Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press,
because the need for books increased the need for faster, cheaper printing.