ABSTRACT
This chapter provides crucial context for the following sections by describing the technology of early printing and detailing its symbolism. I analyse instructional texts written by trade insiders: Christopher Plantin’s 1567 educational dialogue, ‘L’Ecritvre et L’Imprimerie’ (Of Calligraphy and Printing); Hieronymus Hornschuch’s 1608 compositor’s manual, Orthotypographia; and Joseph Moxon’s 1683 Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing. Literary critics have taken little notice of this material before now. I argue that the symbolism of print is broad but contradictory. I also show that printers were writing about their technology earlier than we have previously realised.
