1.
Woodcut
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Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that the artist cuts away carry no ink, while characters or images at surface level carry the ink to produce the print, the block is cut along the wood grain. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with a roller, leaving ink upon the flat surface. Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks, single-leaf woodcut is a term for a woodcut presented as a single image or print, as opposed to a book illustration. Among these the best known are the 16th century Hieronymus Andreae, Hans Lützelburger and Jost de Negker, all of whom ran workshops, the formschneider in turn handed the block on to specialist printers. There were further specialists who made the blank blocks and this is why woodcuts are sometimes described by museums or books as designed by rather than by an artist, but most authorities do not use this distinction. The division of labour had the advantage that a trained artist could adapt to the medium relatively easily, there were various methods of transferring the artists drawn design onto the block for the cutter to follow. Either the drawing would be made directly onto the block, or a drawing on paper was glued to the block, either way, the artists drawing was destroyed during the cutting process. Other methods were used, including tracing, in both Europe and the Far East in the early 20th century, some artists began to do the whole process themselves. In Japan, this movement was called sōsaku-hanga, as opposed to shin-hanga, in the West, many artists used the easier technique of linocut instead. Compared to intaglio techniques like etching and engraving, only low pressure is required to print, as a relief method, it is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. In Europe a variety of woods including boxwood and several nut and fruit woods like pear or cherry were commonly used, in Japan, there are three methods of printing to consider, Stamping, Used for many fabrics and most early European woodcuts. Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the fifteenth century, also used for many Western woodcuts from about 1910 to the present. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top, the back is rubbed with a hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton. A traditional Japanese tool used for this is called a baren, later in Japan, complex wooden mechanisms were used to help hold the woodblock perfectly still and to apply proper pressure in the printing process. This was especially helpful once multiple colors were introduced and had to be applied with precision atop previous ink layers, printing in a press, presses only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. Printing-presses were used from about 1480 for European prints and block-books, simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe before the print-press, but firm evidence is lacking
2.
Nuremberg
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Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre
3.
Hartmann Schedel
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Hartmann Schedel was a German physician, humanist, historian, and one of the first cartographers to use the printing press. He was born and died in Nuremberg, matheolus Perusinus served as his tutor. Schedel is best known for his writing the text for the Nuremberg Chronicle, known as Schedelsche Weltchronik and it was commissioned by Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister. Maps in the Chronicle were the first ever illustrations of many cities and countries, with the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1447, it became feasible to print books and maps for a larger customer basis. Because they had to be handwritten, books were previously rare, Schedel was also a notable collector of books, art and old master prints. An album he had bound in 1504, which contained five engravings by Jacopo de Barbari. Hartmann Schedel, Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum cu figuris et imagibus ab inicio mudi, - CCXCIX, S. ISBN 3-935293-04-6 Hartmann Schedel, Register des Buchs der Croniken und geschichten mit figuren und pildnussen von anbeginn der welt bis auf dise unnsere Zeit. München, Reprint-Verlag Kölbl,1991. -, CCLXXXVI Bl, einleitung und Kommentar von Stephan Füssel. -680 S. ISBN 3-8289-0803-9 Stephan Füssel, Schedelsche Weltchronik, ISBN 3-7913-0876-9 Stephan Füssel,500 Jahre Schedelsche Weltchronik. ISBN 3-418-00372-9 Peter Zahn, Hartmann Schedels Weltchronik, in, Bibliotheksforum Bayern 24, 230-248 Christoph Reske, Die Produktion der Schedelschen Weltchronik in Nürnberg. ISBN 3-447-04296-6 Michael Zellmann-Rohrer, Constantine Hadavas, Selim S. Nahas, wilhelm Wattenbach, Schedel, Hartmann, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,30, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, pp. 661–662 Herbermann, Charles, ed. Hartmann Schedel. Nuremberg, Anton Koberger,23 Dec.1493, from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
4.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
5.
Incunable
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An incunable, or sometimes incunabulum, is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed—not handwritten—before the year 1501 in Europe. Incunable is the singular form of incunabula, Latin for swaddling clothes or cradle. A former term for incunable is fifteener, referring to the 15th century, but since 2009 we know that this lexical invention should no more be assigned to Mallinckrodt, dated 1569, it has to be credited to the Dutch Physician Hadrianus Junius. The term came to denote the printed books themselves in the late 17th century, post-incunable typically refers to books printed after 1500 up to another arbitrary end date such as 1520 or 1540. As of 2014, there are about 30,000 distinct incunable editions known to be extant, many authors reserve the term incunabula for the typographic ones only. The spread of printing to cities both in the north and in Italy ensured that there was great variety in the chosen for printing. Printers congregated in urban centres where there were scholars, ecclesiastics, lawyers, nobles, standard works in Latin inherited from the medieval tradition formed the bulk of the earliest printing, but as books became cheaper, works in the various local vernaculars began to appear. Other printers of incunabula were Günther Zainer of Augsburg, Johannes Mentelin and Heinrich Eggestein of Strasbourg, Heinrich Gran of Haguenau and William Caxton of Bruges, the first incunable to have woodcut illustrations was Ulrich Boners Der Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg in 1461. The data in this section were derived from the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue, printing towns, The number of printing towns and cities stands at 282. These are situated in some 18 countries in terms of present-day boundaries, illustrations, Only about one edition in ten has any illustrations, woodcuts or metalcuts. Survival, The commonest incunable is Schedels Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, very many incunabula are unique, but on average about 18 copies survive of each. This makes the Gutenberg Bible, at 48 or 49 known copies, a complete incunable may consist of a slip, or up to ten volumes. Formats, In terms of format, the 29, 000-odd editions comprise,2,000 broadsides,9,000 folios,15,000 quartos,3,000 octavos,18 12mos,230 16mos,20 32mos, and 3 64mos. Caxton, ISTC at present cites 528 extant copies of books printed by Caxton, dispersal, Apart from migration to mainly North American and Japanese universities, there has been remarkably little movement of incunabula in the last five centuries. None were printed in the Southern Hemisphere, and the latter appears to less than 2,000 copies – i. e. about 97. 75% remain north of the equator. However many incunabula are sold at auction or through the book trade every year. The British Librarys Incunabula Short Title Catalogue now records over 29,000 titles, studies of incunabula began in the 17th century. Hain was expanded in subsequent editions, by Walter A, North American holdings were listed by Frederick R. Goff and a worldwide union catalogue is provided by the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
6.
Guilder
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Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German gulden, originally shortened from Middle High German guldin pfenninc gold penny. This was the term became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empire for the Fiorino doro. Hence, the name has often been interchangeable with florin, the term gulden was used in the Holy Roman Empire during the 14th to 16th centuries in generic reference to gold coins. Currency became more standardized with the reform of 1559. In the early period, the value of a gulden was expressed in standardized form. The Rhenish gulden was issued by Trier, Cologne and Mainz in the 14th and 15th centuries, basel minted its own Apfelgulden between 1429 and 1509. The Netherlands Indies gulden was introduced in 1602, at the start of the United East Indies Company, the Dutch guilder originated in 1680 as a 10. 61g.910 silver coin, minted by the States of Holland and West Friesland. The British Guianan guilder was in use in British Guiana,1796 to 1839, in 1753, Bavaria and Austria-Hungary agreed to use the same conventions. The result was the Austro-Hungarian gulden, and the Bavarian gulden, a Danzig gulden was in use 1923 to 1939. The Dutch guilder remained the currency of the Netherlands until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2002. Surinamese guilder Netherlands Indies gulden Netherlands New Guinean gulden The Caribbean guilder is a currency for Curaçao. Other coin names that are derived from the gold of which they were once made, Öre, øre Złoty Hungarian forint
7.
Anton Koberger
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He established in 1470 the first printing house in Nuremberg. Anton Koberger was born to an established Nuremberg family of bakers, in 1470 he married Ursula Ingram and after her death he remarried another member of the Nuremberg patriciate, Margarete Holzschuher, in 1491. In all he fathered children, of whom thirteen survived to adulthood. Koberger was the godfather of Albrecht Dürer, whose family lived on the same street, in the year before Dürers birth in 1471 he ceased goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher. At the supply end, he obtained two papermills and his printing house survived his death only until 1526, and the family continued as goldsmiths and jewelers. Of Kobergers many different printed editions which he produced from the late 15th century to the early 16th century and he printed an illustrated edition of the Bible in High German in 1483, complete with many remarkable woodcut illustrations. The text is from the first German Bible printed by Günther Zainer in the 1470s and his most celebrated project is the so-called Nuremberg Chronicle of 1492, or Liber Chronicarum, probably the most extensively illustrated edition of the incunabula period, c.1450 –1500. Editions were produced in both Latin and German, the work was so popular, it is believed by scholars to have had one of the largest print-runs of the Incunabula Period. Because of the popularity, pirated editions appeared almost immediately after Kobergers edition, example of Anton Kobergers printing style Biblia latina. Nuremberg, Anton Koberger,30 July 1477, from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress Bible Collection From the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the Library of Congress
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