The Art of Reading: Image and Text in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books

Introduction

The transition from manuscript to print production in Europe was slow and gradual. During the second half of the 15th century, after the invention of the printing press in Europe, books became much more widely available. However, because it took some time for printing and its processes to become widespread across Europe, for a time, traditional manuscript production existed besides the newer forms of print production. As a result, while someone like Johannes Gutenberg was printing books, traditional manuscript scribes and illuminators were still hand writing codices.

This exhibit traces some of the overlapping practices that were traditional to manuscript illumination and continued into, and ultimately were adapted to, the printing of books.

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