A collection of essays on the history and early development of printing, by the bibliographer William Blades. Its title playfully borrows from biblical book names, and the volume includes a chapter on Judges along with a memoir of the author. It is worth hearing for its knowledgeable and affectionate account of early print culture.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
ST. CHRISTOPHER. EARLIEST DATED WOODCUT. 1423.
THE PENTATEUCH OF PRINTING WITH A CHAPTER ON JUDGES. BY WILLIAM BLADES. With a Memoir of the Author, and List of his Works, BY TALBOT B. REED. CHICAGO: A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY. 1891.
printer's mark Blades, East & Blades, Printers, 23, Abchurch Lane, London, E.C. a decorative title page
decorative head-band
PREFACE
The Pentateuch of Printing is not so fanciful a title for the present book as might at first sight appear. There is a self-evident analogy between the Genesis of the World and the Genesis of Printing. The spread of Typography is not inaptly typified by an Exodus; while the laws promulgated in Leviticus have a plain parallel in idea with the laws and observances necessary to be followed in making a book.
Numbers certainly is not so directly suggestive of the many great names which figure upon the Printers’ Roll of Honour; but
Deuteronomy at once suggests, by its very signification, the second birth and reinforcement of the vital conditions of Printing introduced by the steam-machine. No subject is nowadays complete without a knowledge of what specialists have previously written upon it, and the public generally are certain to form their opinions upon the published statements of the best Judges. We thus obtain six chapterheads for our book, and whether the information offered under these heads is worth reading must now be left to the only Judge, against whose verdict it is useless to appeal—the Reading Public.
TABLE OF CONTENTS. PREFACE iii. MEMOIR OF WILLIAM BLADES ix. PROLOGUE xxv. GENESIS 1 EXODUS 23 LEVITICUS 43 NUMBERS 59 DEUTERONOMY 83 A CHAPTER ON JUDGES 95
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