Paper and Printing
The word Paper comes from the Latin papyrus, and Greek papyros, the designation of an Egyptian plant from whose reeds the earliest kind of writing material was obtained. Parchment is an Anglicized form of the French parchemin, from the Greek pergamenos, named after the ancient city of Pergamos, in Asia Minor, where the skins of goats were first prepared for writing upon at a time when Ptolemy prohibited the exportation of the papyrus from Egypt.
Hand-paper was originally so called from its watermark, which was that of a hand; Pot-Paper, of a pot; Post-paper, of a post-horn; Crown-paper, of a crown; and Foolscap, of a fool’s head with the cap and bells. India-paper formerly came from the Far East, whereas Nepaul-paper is made in the district of Nepaul, Northern India. Cap-paper is so designated because, prior to being used by grocers for wrapping up sugar and other commodities sold by weight, it is folded into a cap-like form. Among papers of a stiffer kind, that are chiefly intended for drawing upon, we have Elephant, so called from its large size (28 inches by 23), Cartridge-paper, originally manufactured for soldiers’ cartridges, and Bristol-board, formerly made only at Bristol.
By the term Folio, derived from the Latin folium, a leaf, is meant a sheet of paper folded but once, thus making two leaves or four pages; a Quarto (written 4to), is a sheet folded into quarters or four leaves, making eight pages; an Octavo (8vo), so styled in accordance with the Latin octa, eight, one folded into eight leaves or sixteen pages; a Duodecimo (12mo), the Latin for “two and ten,” one making twelve leaves or twenty-four pages, and so forth.
When Caxton set up the first printing press in this country, in the year 1476, there were many among the vulgar who regarded it as an invention of the devil; and the clergy, no doubt, fostered this idea, foreseeing that in the event of the Bible being distributed to the masses by this means, the way would be thrown open to the production of spurious editions of Sacred Writ, and the perversion of religious doctrine, which up to that period had been free to all who chose to attend daily instruction in the monasteries. Hence, printing was popularly described as “The Black Art,” while the boys who took the sheets off the press, from the fact of generally smearing their faces with ink, came to be known as Imps or Devils. This will explain why a printer’s errand-boy still bears the nickname of a Printer’s Devil.
Our Parliamentary Records, Debates, Reports of Meetings, and Accounts, have received the name of Hansards because they are printed by the large printing firm established by Luke Hansard in 1752; whereas a Blue Book is so called on account of its stiff cover of blue paper. The French Government reports are styled Yellow Books for a similar reason. The term Book comes from the Danish bog, a beech-tree, which abounds in Denmark and whose wood is much used for engraving-blocks. The Leaf of a book is in allusion to the ancient custom of writing on the bark of trees; while Volume is derived from the Latin volvo, I roll, relative to the Egyptian papyri, each one of which when rolled up formed a document or volume complete in itself. A storehouse for books is styled a Library, in accordance with the Latin librarium, a book-case, derived in the first instance from liber, a book.
A Pamphlet owes its description to Pamphila, a Greek lady who left behind her a kind of commonplace book containing notes, epitomes, and anecdotes. The French equivalent for a pamphlet is a Brochure, so called from the verb brocher, to stitch, because such a book consists only of a few pages stitched together. The word Chart comes from the Latin charta, a leaf of paper; a chart, therefore, is not printed on canvas like a map, but on a single sheet of paper. Map traces its origin from mappa, a Punic word which signified a signal-cloth, also a napkin, because in ancient times military and other landmarks were sketched upon a cloth in the absence of parchment and paper. Nowadays, a book of maps designed for school use is called an Atlas, after the fabled King of Mauritania of this name, who was believed by the ancients to support the world on his shoulders. The figure of Atlas with the globe first appeared as a frontispiece to “Mercator’s Projections,” published about the year 1560.
A Cartoon, as we understand the term, is a representation of political significance, usually coloured and printed on stiff paper. To some extent this kind of publication owes its origin to the celebrated ‘Cartoons’ of Raffaelle, now in the South Kensington Museum, so called because they were drawn upon cartone, the Italian for pasteboard. A Broadside consists of a large sheet of paper having the matter printed straight across, instead of in columns, so as to admit of being read at one broad view. The reverse side of the sheet is left blank. A Poster bears its name from the fact that formerly the sidewalks of London streets, instead of being paved as now, were distinguished from the centre, or sedan-chair and riding way, by a series of posts; and upon these, theatrical and other announcements were posted. In France, the theatre bills are exhibited upon the lamp-posts on the Boulevards in a similar manner. In conclusion, the distinction between Booksellers and Stationers was originally this: the former were itinerant sellers of books, like hawkers, and pedlars, whereas the latter had stalls at the corners of streets or in open market; and as the stationarii, or stationary booksellers, were enabled to display a more varied stock than the itinerants who carried books only, such articles as writing-paper, pens, ink, and other materials in course of time received the name of Stationery.