Faheem in Wonderland: Mainz and Houston Print Museums

On the third day of Print Fair, Faheem Agboatwala, director at Hi-Tech Printing Services and founder and chairman of BMPA’s Share to Benefit Forum, gave the audience a pictorial tour of two print museums; The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz and the Museum of Printing History Building in Houston

According to Agboatwala, as a technology, the printing press has its origins in Asia, where it existed for centuries before making its way to the West. "The Chinese and Korean inventors had been producing printed books for centuries before Gutenberg was born," he said

Agboatwala continued, "Bi Sheng's experimentation with the wooden movable type was discarded as wood was judged to be an unsuitable material to use." This, as he says, resulted in other experiments, with the bronze movable type being developed by 1490 by Hua Sui

Thus, the world's earliest known book printed from movable type, Jikji, is said to be have printed over two centuries prior to Gutenberg's invention

Johannes Gutenberg was born in 1395. He started experimenting with printing by 1438. "Gutenberg adapted the technology for a Western market, and capitalised on a few quirks of the Roman alphabet to bring printed books to the mainstream." Agboatwala added, "He was definitely the father of modern mass printing using the movable type."

Located in the hometown of Gutenberg, Mainz, the Gutenberg Museum, was founded in 1900, on the inventor's 500th birth anniversary

Gutenberg obtained backing in 1450 from the financier Johann Fust. Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever printed from movable type, the “Forty-Two-Line” Bible, is closely guarded in the Bible vault. The Bible was completed in 1455.

A page from the Bible; The red highlights, Agboatwala added, were done manually for each copy

On display: some of the print masterpieces

The Gutenberg press in operation: The museum has dedicated time slot during which the visitors are can catch a glimpse of the press in action. It is a part of Agboatawala's must-do list for visitors

As they call it: some of the 'modern' equipment on display

Located in the vicinity is the Mainz cathedral; a 1,000+ years-old structure

Peter Schoeffer, a skilled calligrapher and manuscript copyist, is considered to have contributed greatly to the establishment of the printing. "He has received his due worth with its inclusion in the museum," said Faheem

The often-missed museum has a repertoire of unusual print work such as the Dharani Scroll, which dates from AD 764 and is one of the oldest printed works in existence

The museum of Printing History Building in Houston also has guided tours and demonstration of the Gutenberg press for the visitors. A Gutenberg bible on display.

Of typesets and makeready

The limited type and font available then, demanded meticulous planning for the print and the content produced

Some of the earliest workhorses of print

Equipment on display at the Houston print museum

The printed guidelines to get the print just right...

In his concluding slide, Agboatwala mentions Abraham Lincoln's words - To emancipate the mind is the great task which printing came into the world to perform