Farinol

Movable type printing

Hi. I've done some digging myself a while ago and this is what I came up with: Cicero:

Why not believe, also, that by throwing together, indiscriminately, innumerable forms of letters of the alphabet, either in gold or in any other substance, one can print on the ground with these letters, the annals of Ennius?

There are some modern authors who believe the Romans knew movable type printing, but an expert, Brekle, has recently rebutted this supposition: Roman lead pipe inscription. On the other hand, Brekle's research has validated the existence of medieval pre-Gutenberg typography: Prüfening dedicatory inscription and Medieval letter tile. And then there is always the enigmatic Phaistos Disc.

If you can find more about European pre-Gutenberg typography, specifically the supposed find of Roman "stamps by moveable letters", that would be great. Regards Gun Powder Ma (talk) 23:05, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I just reread the article from 1767. I have it on paper but its on Google too. Just type there "Medals, which Time hath". It had Cicero in original but more. In memory I mixed the Cicero who implied movable types for book printing with the find. But that Roman stamp was solid brass and I see no evidence that it was created by movable types, looks rather the opposite.

I got this reference from someone who worked on early Gutenberg. He hold the opinion that Gutenbergs level of technology was too perfect for that short time of development we know. But there was no evidence for any transmission from Roman times except the idea of Cicero. Nevertheless I think Cicero, the Roman stamps and the most interesting Prüfening inscription should be mentioned in the history of printing. Because you can only find what you look for. May be then someone finds at Oxford a papyri with a suspicious even hand. -- Farinol (talk) 10:28, 2 September 2010 (UTC)