Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-10-18

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1 Our Progress
From the New York Evening Mail
Some few of the historical and statis.i-
cal curiosities of the printers art must
conclude our disquisitions thereon. It
is curious to trace back this now wen
derful art to the rude substitutes of
ancient times; how the stamps with
which the Egyptians'an Assyrians made
the rude inscriptions upon the sun-dried
bricks of the ruins of Nineveh and on
the Nile, and the seals and signets of the
children of Israel, and the dies which
stamped upon Roman utensils the name
of their Etruscan maker, were { = rude
progenitors of our modern types The
Chinese have for many centuries avaiIed
themselves of sort of wood-cut printing,
wherein the design, transferred to tracing
paper, was pasted on block of wood,
and all Of this, other than the design,
cut away with the knife. This block was
then covered with some pigment by
means of small brush, and the paper
was srnoothed over it with'a second. The
characters were always arranged in two
parts with division line between them,
and the paper was then folded at this
line and pasted together so as to show
impressions upon each side of the page.
This same Wood-cutting was also en-
PlOyed in Germany for playing cards and
the illustrations in manuscripts.
These Chinese pages sewed together
made the first books, but the first printed
with movable type are said to have three
(undated) editions of Douatus. The
word book, by theway, is from the Sax
on word beech, the beach tree, because
on its bark they first wrote, and, simi-
larly, the root of our word library,
from the Latin liJer, book, also means
bark. Bible, bibliomania, etc, come
from the Greek bi5iion and paper from
pdPyros, both of which are names of q
reed used for writing material The
Liter@ Indulgentie Nicolai Y, Pont.
Max, was the first book printed with
date Cl455). 1t was rarely the case that
an imprint name Of printer and place.
is found in early books, although some
times the printers name was placed at
the end with the addition of a short
prayer or pious ejaculation.
The ink used in the earlist works was
of a dark brown, because this seemed
to- harmonic with the ilIuminations
usually inserted. In the old PRAYER
books, the directions were printed in red
(ruber) ink, and hence are known in the
Roman and English churches as the Ru-
brio. Before the days Of printing, the
emperors always signed their names in
purple ink, although their purple cor
responded to our scarlet.
The first book printed wholly 10 Ro-
man charcters was the Epistoloe FaH,iIiG-
res Of Cicero, at Rome, in 1857. A
Greek grammar, published at Milan, in
1476, was the first in those characters.
The early books sold at various prices,
according chiefly to the call for and sup
ply of the work. The first Bibles, printed
recently by Faust, and sold BY him to
the Universities, cost so crowns esch.
One of the most difficult tasks in pub
fishing is to attain anything approaching
typographical correctness in books.
There are three books considered abso-
lutely correct, and only three; these are
an Oxford bible, the perfection here at
tanned being By means Of the standing
reward of a guinea for the discovery of a
mistake; an edition of Horace, published
in London and Leipsic, and an American
reprint of Dante. The professors of
Edinburgh University, some time in the
last century, attempted to issue book
which should be free from alltypographi-
cal errors. Six proof-readers were en-
ployed, and each page after having been
read by them was posted in the great hall
of the University, with the announcement
of fifty guineas reward for every further
error discovered. Mono were found.
The press were delighted the book went
to press; when, as soon as it was pub
lished, an error was discovered in tho
title, another on the first page, besides
several elsewhere. The first line Of the
title was I" A Most Perfect Book" So
much for human perfection.
Some of the earlier books are distin-
guished by very funny errors, and are
thus recognized, many of them being
bought up BY bibliomaniaes at fabulous
prices. The highest price ever known
to have been given for book was at an
auction sale in London, June, 1911,
when copy considered the only one ex-
tant) of Yaldarfar's first edition Venice,
147l,) of Boeeacio's Decamerone vas
sold to the Marquis Of Blandford for two
thousand two hundred and sixty pounds.
The fancies Of bibliomaniacs vEy
strangely. Some look only for rare and
early books, others for innumerable illus
trations to one book; others for the va
rious editions of one author and so on,
indefinitely. Some seek magnificent
bindings the finest specimen of which
is said to have been a book exhibited by
VIM. Matthews at the Crystal Palace,
which cost, without jewels or anything
Of the kind, $500. Books have been
bound in gold, silver, copper, ETC.; a
celebrated copy of Fo1's works was
bound in fox skin; and one individual,
so as to have perfectly unique book,
had a copy bound in human skin.
The book trade sales, which are held |
semi-annually in this city, and also in
PhiladeIphia and Cincinnati, disposing |
annually of nearly million of dollars
worth of books, are nothing new under |
the SUM- The American institution is |
already thirty-6ve years old, but the
institution itself four centuries. There
we're book fairs" at Frankfort in the
fifteenth century to which came book
sellers from all over Europe. Afterward |
the trade met at Leipsic, which has
gradually become the publishing center