block book

block book, book printed from wooden blocks on which the text and illustration for each page had to be painstakingly cut by hand. Such books were distinct from printed books after the invention of movable type, in which words were made up of individual letters each of which could be reused as often as necessary and in which only illustrations and special devices, such as initial letters in paragraphs, had to be carved individually in wooden blocks set in forms with metal letters.

The art of block-book printing is almost certainly of Chinese origin, probably of the 6th century ad. The first examples were produced by hand-rubbing impressions from the block. The method had spread to Europe at least by the 15th century, and early in the 15th century simple presses were probably sometimes being used to impress the “printing” from more elaborate text-illustration blocks. Block books were tedious to produce since each letter had to be carved each time it appeared on a page; the method was used most often for short, simple works—largely religious—in which the length of the text could be subordinated to illustration. Hardly any European block books are known to have been executed after the early 16th century.