The Invention of Printing, Chapter 2

What it is

This is the second chapter of a book on the invention of printing, published in 1876 and available as a text on Wikisource. The chapter is titled Antique Methods of Impression and their Failure. It covers ancient stamping methods, from Assyrian and Egyptian stamped bricks to Assyrian cylinder seals, Greek maps, Roman stamps and medieval brands. The text notes that unburned clay tablets were found by Layard in the library of Assurbanipal, and that some of them were grammars and primers. The facts here do not name the author.

Why it matters

The chapter argues that stamping is not printing and that printing needed ink, paper, many readers and other conditions before it could work. It treats the Assyrian library as one example of early writing and record-keeping. For students, it shows how nineteenth-century writers used ancient objects to build a history of their own technology.

Look closer

• Why does the author think ancient stamping methods did not lead to printing?
• What does the author use Ashurbanipal's library for in this argument?
• What might a book about printing in 1876 leave out about the people who made these early impressions?