The first recorded printing press in Europe was owned by Johannes Gutenberg. The technology of early presses was fairly simple. Individual blocks with reversed letters were placed together to form words. These words and sentences were then set in a frame and the blocks were then inked. When the frame was pressed down onto a piece of paper, the ink was transferred and a page of print was created.
This technology which allowed around 250 pages an hour to be printed, remained the same for nearly 300 years. In the last 150 years technology has developed much more quickly. In the 1800s cylinder and rotary presses replaced flat plates and allowed for continuous printing. The introduction of linotype and monotype machines in the late 1800s also meant that letters no longer had to be individually placed by hand.
The Schoolmaster Printer
An element of mystery surrounds the identity of St Albans' first printer and where the press was actually located. The most likely identity of the printer was a schoolmaster employed by St Albans Grammar School. A reprint of the English Chronicles in 1497 by Wynkin de Worde states that the original work was 'compiled in a boke and also emprynted by one sometyme scolemaster of Saynt Albons on whoos soule God have mercy '.
The exact location of this early printing press is unknown, but tradition holds that it was in the Abbey Gateway, part of the monastery of St Albans and now part of St Albans School. The St Albans press was in use from 1479 until 1486. We do not know why the printing stopped but presses in Oxford also paused at this time. In 1534 printing in St Albans started again under John of Hertford but only for five years. In 1539 when the Abbey was stripped of its financial power and influence during the Reformation and printing stopped again.
St Albans was home to the third printing press in England. Between 1479 and 1486 books were printed in the Abbey Gateway. Editions of eight books printed on this press have survived. Two of the books were in English but the other six were in Latin. Cambridge University did not have its own printing press at this time so it is possible that this, and the other Latin books, were printed for use by students at Cambridge.
This Display Contained the eight surviving books:
Elegantiolae by Augustini Dacti (1479)
Margarita eloquentiae, sive Rhetorica nova by Laurentius Gulielmus Traversanus de Saona (1480)
Liber modorum significandi by Eccardus Albertus (1480)
Exempla Sacrae Scripturae ex utroque Testamento collecta by Nicolaus de Hanapis (1481)
Quaestiones super Physica Aristotelis by Johannes Canonicus (1481)
Scriptum in logica sua by Antonius Andreae (1482)
Chronicles of England compiled by Thomas Walsingham (1483 or 1486)
The Boke of St Albans or Book of Hawking, Hunting, and Heraldry by Juliana Berners (1486)
The Boke of St Albans
The Boke of St Albans was printed in 1486. There is a debate over who wrote the book. The author is usually named as Dame Juliana Berners, the prioress of Sopwell Priory in St Albans and there is a reference in the book to her writing the final section.
The book contains three sections: The Book of Hawking, The Book of Hunting and The Book of Heraldry.
The Book of Hawking provides information regarding the capture and rearing of hawks, the illnesses that afflict hawks and how to treat them. It ends with hawk-related vocabulary including a list of which hawks are appropriate to which ranks of the nobility: for an earl a "fawken peregryne", for a lady a "merlyon".
The Book of Hunting describes all aspects of hunting. Some of the text is presented in the form of poetry and also includes a medieval list of collective nouns for the various human and animal participants in hunting, which you can see in this case.
The final section is Book of Heraldry which describes and illustrates the coats of arms of English families at the time using colour printing for the first time in England.
A Compositor’s job
The compositor was the person who set all of the movable letters of type into a “forme” which could be transferred to the press for printing.
They used tweezers to pick up the tiny metal letters and place them into composing sticks of various lengths to form words. They would also have a chisel for removing any extra metal from the edges of the letters and a key for locking the forme into place once it had been finished.
Tools from St Albans Museums’ collection many donated to the museum by Vic Frost and Roger Shepherd
This Display Contained:
1 Completed forme
In this forme you can see the type that has been set (in reverse) and the spacers that have been added to hold them in place.
2 Hempel key
Compositor's key
These keys were used to lock the type and spacers into place once a forme was complete ready for printing.
These tools were used to ensure the type was sitting properly in the forme. The chisel and shears could remove any excess metal or sharp edges.
3 Compositor's ruler
4 Metal tweezers
5 Compositor's lens
6 Compositor's shears
7 Compositor's bodkin
8 Compositor's chisel
Image of tools - 1.6 image of tools (credit Wellcome Collection) (in First Impressions/To Jim)
This illustration shows printers’ tools from the 1700s. Comparing them to the tools in this case which were used in the 1960s and 70s you can see that many stayed the same. The printer’s ink ball in this illustration is also the same as the one in the St Albans crest showing the Schoolmaster Printer from the 1480s.
9 Metal Composing sticks
These composing sticks, sometimes known as compositor’s set squares, range in length from 6 to 12 inches. You would need the different lengths depending on the length of the line you were putting together. You can see letters in one of them, the letters are back to front so that they will be the right way round when they are printed.
10. Practical Printing and Binding
11. Authors' & Printers' Dictionary
Type Cases
When we talk about “UPPER CASE” and “lower case” letters, the names come from the way that the letters were stored in wood frames or cases. All of the capital letters would be in a case above the small letters and so they were known as the upper case.
One popular design of type case was the Caslon case. This was designed to put the most used letters in easy reach of the compositor. A compositor would have to know where to find the right letters without searching each time, just as someone using a computer today learns where the keys on a keyboard are without looking.
This Display Contained:
Caslon type case with metal sorts
Wooden type case with wooden sorts, labelled size 12 Times New Roman.
To print images, they had to be carved or etched onto a block. This block would then be set into the forme between the lines of text. Large or decorative letters would also be created in the same way.
A selection of image printing blocks
We do not know the books these printing blocks were created for. They show a range of images including a religious scene, a calendar and a musician.
A selection of large letters and numbers
These letters and numbers might have been used for printing posters or to print a large letter at the start of a piece of text.
The Lithographic Process
Lithography is a printing process that uses an image engraved on a flat stone or metal plate. A greasy substance is put onto the parts of the image you want to print so that the ink will stick to it. The areas you don’t want to print are made ink-repellent. Using this process, layers of colour can be applied to create complicated designs.
This Display Contained:
Proof prints from the lithographic printing process (Victoria & Albert Museum)
These copies of proof prints show the process of printing a six colour lithograph poster. The four prints are from different stages in the process:
Second stone (yellow)
First, Second and Third stones (yellow, green and red)
Fourth stone (black)
First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth stones
The final poster is an advertisement for the London General Omnibus Company, with a view of Ye Olde Fighting Cocks in St Albans. The poster was designed by Edward McKnight Kauffer who designed many transport posters.