Description
Winner of the Apollo Magazine 2016 “Book of the Year” award.
A landmark publication—beautifully illustrated with over 300 prints from the British Museum’s renowned collection—which traces the history of printmaking from its earliest days until the arrival of photography.
Copperplate printmaking, developed alongside Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type, used to be an enormous business employing thousands of people, and dominating image production for just about four centuries across the entire of Europe. Its techniques and influence remained very stable until the nineteenth century, when this world used to be displaced by new technologies, of which photography used to be by far crucial.
Print Before Photography examines the unrivaled importance of printmaking in its golden age, illustrated throughout the British Museum’s outstanding selection of prints. This unique and significant book is destined to be a leading reference in print scholarship, and might be of interest to any person with an interest on this era of art history.