Block books are short books, 50 or fewer leaves, that were printed in the second half of the 15th century from wood blocks in which the text and illustrations were both cut. Some block books, called chiro-xylographic (from the Greek cheir (χειρ) "hand") contain only the printed illustrations, with the text added by hand. Some books also were made with the illustrations printed from woodcuts, but the text printed from movable metal type, but are nevertheless considered block books because of their method of printing (only on one side of a sheet of paper) and their close relation to "pure" block books. Block books are categorized as incunabula, or books printed before 1501. The only example of the blockbook form that contains no images is the school textbook Latin grammar of Donatus.
Block books were almost exclusively "devoted to the propagation of the faith through pictures and text" and "interpreted events drawn from the Bible or other sources in medieval religious thought. The woodcut pictures in all were meaningful even to the illiterate and semi-literate, and they aided clerics and preaching monks to dramatise their sermons."
There is no hard evidence that Chinese printing technology spread to Europe. However a number of authors have advanced theories in favor of a Chinese origin for European printing based on early references and circumstantial evidence. Tsien suggests that woodblock printing may have spread from China to Europe due to communications during the Mongol Empire era and based on similarities between blockprints in both areas. He suggests that European missionaries to China during the 14th century could have borrowed the practice of creating prints to be colored manually later on, which had been prevalent in China for a long time with Buddhist prints. The block books of Europe were produced using methods and materials similar to those in China and sometimes in ways contrary to prevailing European norms: European wood blocks were cut parallel with the grain in the same way as the Chinese method rather than the prevailing European practice of cutting across the grain, water-based ink was used rather than oil-based ink, only one side of the paper was printed rather than both, and rubbing rather than pressure was employed to leave the print. Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche (1810 – 1873) held the opinion that European and Chinese block books were so similar in every way that they must have originated in China.
The question of whether printing originated in Europe or China was raised in the early 16th century by a Portuguese poet, Garcia de Resende (1470 – 1536). Paolo Giovio (1483 – 1552), an Italian historian who had come into possession of several Chinese books and maps through João de Barros (1496 – 1570), claimed that printing was invented in China and spread to Europe through Russia. Juan González de Mendoza (1545 – 1618) made similar claims about printing coming from China through Russia but also added another route through Arabia by sea and that it influenced Johannes Gutenberg. Several other authors throughout the 16th century repeated such statements.
Others such as Arthur M. Hind and Joseph P. McDermott dispute the theory of Chinese printing being transmitted to Europe. Hind believes that European block printing grew out of a single woodcut which developed from block-printing on textiles while McDermott emphasizes the lack of evidence. Although the Mongols planned to use printed paper currency in Persia, the scheme failed shortly thereafter. No books were printed in Persia before the 19th century and Chinese prints apparently made little impact on the region. There are no surviving printed playing cards from the Middle East while pre-1450 printed cards from medieval Europe contained no text. Although some elite Europeans were aware of printed paper money by the late 13th century, the earliest evidence that Europeans were aware of Chinese book printing only appeared in the early 16th century. McDermott argues that modern comparisons of techniques used in European and Chinese block books are ahistorical and that rather than direct transmission of technique, similarities between them were just as likely the result of convergent evolution.
The earlier block books were printed on only one side of the paper (anopisthographic), using a brown or grey, water based ink. It is believed they were printed by rubbing pressure, rather than a printing press. The nature of the ink and/or the printing process did not permit printing on both sides of the paper – damage would result from rubbing the surface of the first side to be printed in order to print the second. When bound together, the one sided sheets produced two pages of images and text, followed by two blank pages. The blank pages were ordinarily pasted together, so as to produce a book without blanks – the Chinese had reached the same solution to the problem. In the 1470s, an oil based ink was introduced permitting printing on both sides of the paper (opisthographic) using a regular printing press.
Block books often were printed using a single wood block that carried two pages of text and images, or by individual blocks with a single page of text and image. The illustrations commonly were colored by hand.
Block books are almost always undated and without statement of printer or place of printing. Determining their dates of printing and relative order among editions has been an extremely difficult task. In part because of their sometimes crude appearance, it was generally believed that block books dated to the first half of the 15th century and were precursors to printing by movable metal type, invented by Gutenberg in the early 1450s. The style of the woodcuts was used to support such early dates, although it is now understood that they may simply have copied an older style. Early written reports relating to "printing" also suggested, to some, early dates, but are ambiguous.
Block books printed in the 1470s were often of cheaper quality. Block books continued to be printed sporadically up through the end of the 15th century. One block book is known from about 1530, a collection of Biblical images with text, printed in Italy.
Most of the earlier block books are believed to have been printed in the Netherlands, and later ones in Southern Germany, likely in Nuremberg, Ulm, Augsburg, and Schwaben, among a few other locales.
A 1991 census of surviving copies of block books identifies 43 different "titles" (some of which may include different texts). However, a small number of texts were very popular and together account for the great majority of surviving copies of block books. These texts were reprinted many times, often using new woodcuts copying the earlier versions. It is generally accepted that the Apocalypse was the earliest block book, one edition of which Allan H. Stevenson dates to c. 1450–52. The following is a partial list of texts, with some links to digitized online copies:
Because of their popular nature, few copies of block books survive today, many existing only in unique copies or even fragments. Block books have received intensive scholarly study and many block books have been digitized and are available online.
The following institutions have important collections of block-books (the number of examples includes fragments or even single leaves and is taken from Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters, 1991, pp. 355–395, except where a footnote provides another source):
Palmer, Nigel F. "Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis cum figuris". cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk. Cambridge Digital Library. Retrieved 10 November 2014. http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00003-04245/1
Wilson, p. 109. - Adrian Wilson & Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985.
http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7v19p1w6;brand=eschol
Tsien 1985, p. 303. - Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985), Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-08690-6
Tsien 1985, p. 313. - Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985), Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-08690-6
Tsien 1985, p. 314-316. - Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1985), Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-08690-6
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 64-78. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
McDermott, Joseph P., ed. (2015). The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-988-8208-08-1. 978-988-8208-08-1
McDermott 2015, p. 19-24. - McDermott, Joseph P., ed. (2015). The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-988-8208-08-1.
Hind, Vol. I, p. 214. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 214-15. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Carter p. 46. - John Carter, An ABC for Book Collectors, Oak Knoll Books, Delaware, and British Library, London (8th ed. 2006) https://web.archive.org/web/20081203182538/http://www.ilab.org/images/abcforbookcollectors.pdf
Hind, Vol. I, p. 214. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Carter p. 46. - John Carter, An ABC for Book Collectors, Oak Knoll Books, Delaware, and British Library, London (8th ed. 2006) https://web.archive.org/web/20081203182538/http://www.ilab.org/images/abcforbookcollectors.pdf
Allan H. Stevenson, The Quincentennnial of Netherlandish Blockbooks, British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3/4 (Spring 1967), p. 83. /wiki/British_Museum_Quarterly
Allan H. Stevenson, The Quincentennnial of Netherlandish Blockbooks, British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3/4 (Spring 1967), p. 83. /wiki/British_Museum_Quarterly
Hind, Vol. I, p. 207. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Carter p. 46. - John Carter, An ABC for Book Collectors, Oak Knoll Books, Delaware, and British Library, London (8th ed. 2006) https://web.archive.org/web/20081203182538/http://www.ilab.org/images/abcforbookcollectors.pdf
Stevenson. - Allan Stevenson, The Problem of the Blockbooks, in Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters, 1991, pp. 229-262, based on a typewritten text from 1965-1966.
Carter p. 46. - John Carter, An ABC for Book Collectors, Oak Knoll Books, Delaware, and British Library, London (8th ed. 2006) https://web.archive.org/web/20081203182538/http://www.ilab.org/images/abcforbookcollectors.pdf
A Catalog of Gifts of Lessing J. Rosenwald to the Library of Congress, 1943 to 1975, Library of Congress, Washington, 1977, no. 28.
List of block books from several Bavarian libraries http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/ausgaben/uni_ausgabe.html?recherche=ja&ordnung=sig&projekt=1236933450&l=en
Blockbücher als Mittelalters, pp. 396-412. - Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen als Lektüre:Gutenberg-Museum, Mainz, 22. Juni 1991 bis 1. September 1991 , Verlag Philipp Von Zabern, 1991.
Wilson, p. 91 n.4. - Adrian Wilson & Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985.
http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7v19p1w6;brand=eschol
Stevenson, pp. 239-341. - Allan Stevenson, The Problem of the Blockbooks, in Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters, 1991, pp. 229-262, based on a typewritten text from 1965-1966.
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 216-253. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 218-224. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 224-230. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Wilson, p. 98. - Adrian Wilson & Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985.
http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7v19p1w6;brand=eschol
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 230-242. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 243-45. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, pp. 216-18. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Wilson, p. 93. - Adrian Wilson & Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum Humanae Salvationis 1324–1500, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985.
http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft7v19p1w6;brand=eschol
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 245–47. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Hind, Vol. I, pp. 250-52. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
Heidelberg University's Dance of Death http://www.dodedans.com/Eheid.htm
Richard S. Field, The Fable of the Sick Lion: a Fifteenth-Century Blockbook,, Catalog for exhibition, Davidson Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 1974.
Hind p. 262. - Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Dover Publications, New York, 1963 (reprint of 1935 ed.).
A Catalog of Gifts of Lessing J. Rosenwald to the Library of Congress, 1943 to 1975, Library of Congress, Washington, 1977, pp.9-11. Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters, 1991 records only 9 examples. - Sabine Mertens et al., Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen als Lektüre:Gutenberg-Museum, Mainz, 22. Juni 1991 bis 1. September 1991 , Verlag Philipp Von Zabern, 1991.
Bodleian Library http://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blockbooks_home
Biblioteca de Catalunya Archived 22 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine http://www.bnc.cat/fons/detall.php?id=40