Alonso Víctor de Paredes' Institution, and origin of the art of printing, and general rules for compositors (Madrid: ca. 1680)
By: edited and translated by Pablo Alvarez ; with a foreword by Don W. Cruickshank
Contributors: Alvarez, Pablo (Curator of rare books), editor, translator; Cruickshank, Don William, writer of introduction; Baker, Cathleen, book designer; Paredes, Alonso Víctor de, active 17th century; Paredes, Alonso Víctor de, active 17th century; Legacy Press; Thomson-Shore, Inc
Publisher: The Legacy Press
Published: 2018
Place of publication: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 449
ISBN-13: 9781940965109
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Printing; Style manuals; Early works to 1800
Other titles: Institution and origin of the art of printing, and general rules for compositors
Description: "Pablo Alvarez offers the first complete English translation of Alonso Víctor de Paredesʼ Institucion, y origen del arte de la imprenta, y reglas generales para los componedores [Institution, and Origin of the Art of Printing, and General Rules for Compositors]. This 96-page printing manual -- set and printed by Paredes himself -- was issued in Madrid around 1680. It opens with an introductory digression on the origin of writing and printing, followed by ten technical chapters on each of the tasks that are necessary to print a book, including a detailed description of the different kinds of type sizes and their use, the rules of orthography and punctuation, the setting of numeric systems, imposition, casting off, the printing of university dissertations, and the correction of proofs. Some of the chapters are of unique relevance for the understanding of early printing in Europe. Chapter 8, for example, is the first recorded, comprehensive account of the practice of printing by forms/formes. Alvarezʼ transcription, translation, and notes greatly facilitate access to this important historical work, which is in fact the earliest known printing manual published in Europe -- Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises was published in 1683 -- and an extraordinary rarity: there are only two extant copies in the world. The book also features a foreword by Don W. Cruickshank and full reproductions of the copies held in rare-book collections at the Providence Public Library and at the University of Valencia, Spain. Dr. Alvarez is Curator at the Special Collections Research Center, University of Michigan Library"--website.
Notes: Information in brackets from title page.

"Designed by Cathleen A. Baker"; title page verso.

Includes half-title page.

Graphic Arts copy: In original dust jacket.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-245) and index.

Text in Spanish with English translation on facing pages; with facsimiles of copies in Providence Public Library and the University of Valencia.