Text Technology: Blockbooks
Case Study: Diamond Sutra
Blockbooks are printed one or two pages at a time from a block of wood that has been carved in relief with text, or text and image. The block would be inked up, and many individual pages created from that one block. The Diamond Sutra (London, British Library, Or. 8210/P.2), shown here (Figure 1), was created in this way in ninth-century China. It is renowned as the oldest complete printed book. In Europe, blockbooks seem to have emerged slightly earlier than, or about the same time as, printing with moveable type, around the mid fifteenth century.
Bibliography
- Steinberg, S.H. Five Hundred Years of Printing, 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books 1961. pp. 53-56
- Edgren, J.S. “China.” A Companion to the History of the Book. Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose, Eds. West Sussex: Willey-Blackwell 2009. pp. 97-111
- On the Diamond Sutra: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/diamondsutra.html
- On woodcuts and blockbooks, see: http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/digitalimagelibrary/blockbooks_home.html
Research Questions
1. What are the characteristics of this form of textual production?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of production as compared to manuscripts? (list at least three of each)
3. In what form was the Diamond Sutra originally (scroll, codex, etc.)
4. Explore the British Library or Oxford digital image library and find one example of a blockbook. How are its physical features similar to or different from the manuscript illustrations we have looked at in class (you may wish to re-visit our PowerPoint on manuscripts)? Provide a link to the image you viewed.
- Blockbooks are printed one or two pages at a time from a block of wood that has been carved in relief with text, or text and image. The block would be inked up, and many individual pages created from that one block. The Diamond Sutra was made with seven strips of yellow-stained paper printed from carved wooden blocks and pasted together to form a scroll over 5m long. Though written in Chinese, the text is one of the most important sacred works of the Buddhist faith, which was founded in India. Most of the blockbooks are religious works or school texts. This was a cheap and easy method of printing standard texts, from woodblocks that could endure for a century or more.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this type of production as compared to manuscripts? (list at least three of each)
- Blockbooks were more uniform, they were the same almost every time. Cheap way of printing standard texts, and easier than creating a manuscript. However, there was less attention to detail, less opportunity for variation or creativity, and manuscripts required more scribes.
3. In what form was the Diamond Sutra originally (scroll, codex, etc.)
- Seven strips of yellow-stained paper were printed from carved wooden blocks and pasted together to form a scroll over 5m long. Though written in Chinese, the text is one of the most important sacred works of the Buddhist faith, which was founded in India.
4. Explore the British Library or Oxford digital image library and find one example of a blockbook. How are its physical features similar to or different from the manuscript illustrations we have looked at in class (you may wish to re-visit our PowerPoint on manuscripts)? Provide a link to the image you viewed.
- http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/detail/ODLodl~14~14~75533~134654:Eve-and-the-serpent,-the-annunciati?qvq=q:Detail_Materials_and_Techniques%3D%22Woodcut%2Bon%2Bpaper%22;lc:ODLodl~14~14&mi=0&trs=259
- There was much more color in the manuscript illustrations we have looked at in class. The blockbook listed above only uses two basic colors, brown and green, to make the nature of the page come alive. The manuscript illustrations were more of a flourish, a way to draw attention to the page. The manuscript used all sorts of bright colors as part of the “rhetoric of the page” to draw the readers attention. The blockbook illustrations are very straightforward, and intend to send a specific message. This text seems to be religious, looks like the story of Adam and Eve. The manuscript illustration is less easy to decipher.