Printing and the Mind of Man.

John Carter, Frank Francis, Stanley Morison, et al.

Printing and the Mind of Man.

London

F.W. Bridges & Sons and the Association of British Manufacturers of Printers’ Machinery

1963

Octavo

The year 1440 was traditionally considered the year when Gutenberg first began to develop his printing method. To celebrate five hundred years since this momentous event, several British typographers began in the late 1930s to plan an exhibition. However, the world situation was not conducive to the British celebrating the German development of printing from moveable type. Therefore, the books were only exhibited for about two weeks. It would be almost a quarter century later, in 1963, that a couple of larger-scale exhibitions celebrating Gutenberg’s invention would be mounted.

The main exhibition was a stimulating selection of books which influenced the thinking and activities of mankind. A smaller satellite to illustrate the multiplication of literary texts is most pertinent to the subject of One Hundred Books Famous in Typography. Item 178 in the fine printing section is the book on Fra Luca de Pacioli published by the Grolier Club in 1933.