East Asian Book Cover Design PDF Download

By the time the Gutenberg Bible appeared in Germany in 1456, printing had already been known in the East for some five hundred years. The Chinese had made movable type from ceramic and from wood in the eleventh century, and the Koreans developed the technique of casting type in bronze, iron, and various alloys. In East Asia, this revolutionary technology was intimately connected with the art of calligraphy, which reached supreme aesthetic heights espeically in China. It is this aspect of East Asian printing that gives it an impressive place in the history of art. [This book] carefully examines the influence of the different styles of calligraphy on the making of books both before and after the advent of printing. First exploring early forms of writing such as inscriptions on bone, bamboo strips, and bronzes, the authors go on to trace the historic stages of bookmaking, from handwritten scrolls on silk and paper to block-printed books and, finally, the products of early modern times, printined with movable metal type. Illustrated with photographs of one hundred and twenty-nine items selected for exhibition at the Art Museum, Princeton University, this book is also a catalogue of treasures from the University's Gest Library, a collection of almost half a million rare and valuable volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages.-- Book Jacket.