Thesis in Progress

"Transitioning from the Medieval Age to the Renaissance changed the book from an institutionalized, text-limited tool, to an individualized, illustrated public opportunity for all to read and view.
With the Renaissance came the use of the print woodcut illustration, which left its mark not only on how books were shared and emphasized, but also on society. Woodcut illustration expanded access of ideas to the illiterate and increased the social status of artists."

Let me know if you have any suggestions and ideas. I have written my complete paper and probably should have posted this earlier, but I didn't think about it until class today.

Thanks for your input!

Woodblock Printing

For about a month now, my posts have been focused on the Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians are celebrated as having developed the first writing system. So, thankfully, this has given me a wealth of information to work with in our Written Knowledge unit.

            As we are transitioning to talking about printing, I felt a little bit uncomfortable as I suddenly lacked direction in my research. However, I decided to try and find out anything I could about printing in its earliest stages. I stumbled upon the process called “Woodblock Printing”. This method emerged in China in about the year 200 and was used widely in East Asia as a method for printing on textiles, and later, paper.

            A woodblock can best be described as a type of primitive stamp. The white parts, or what you don’t want to be printed, are cut away. This leaves a design at a higher level, which is subsequently inked and then pressed onto a cloth, or whatever material is chosen. However, sometimes instead of stamping, they would use a rubbing method. In this case, the block is placed face up on a table or similar surface. The cloth, or paper in later times, is then placed on top of the block and “the back of the block is rubbed with a "hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton” (source). The process was arduous. Each block had to be hand cut, and there was no “press” available for use at the time.

A more artistic wood block