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"If Gutenberg could see now what I am doing here , he would probably blush with envy.
I type here that is a text into the laptop and delete it - Zack - with just two keystrokes
away again . Afterwards I can go to just any printer and simply print the writing again
. What a matter of course you're thinking, maybe . However, for the 15th Century living
inventor of the printing press , Johannes Gutenberg would , at that time been a huge
sensation. Gutenberg made it possible for the text , once set in lead, could be
multiplied many times. Thus, knowledge could be spread much faster, reading became much
more popular again . Also , one can say that Gutenberg has laid the foundation for today's
computer. Without his knowledge , that in Larger items - in pixels - can break down
, it would hardly have been possible that I have previously typed line by line into
the laptop . Of course, the invention of Gutenberg has always evolved over time and developed
up to the present offset printing , in which over 18,000 sheets of paper can be produced
per hour . No one needs to put more effort lead type by hand ; Today this is happening
on the computer. One might think that with the invention of the personal computer in
the 1980s, Gutenberg's invention , and thus the art books from AZ manually print and can
produce is completely lost . But this is not like that. We met two men in the remote Vättis
produce the books still like 200 years ago. "
We are now in the canton of St. Gallen in Vättis at around 940 meters above sea level.
Vättis located 40 minutes from Bad Ragaz and has only 400 inhabitants. Here, in the
dispensary Parnassia , two of them work . Stefan Burkhardt and Hans -Ulrich Frey working here
since 2000 . Your home is also located in Vättis . The graduate theologian and botanist
print their books as 200 years ago . Books have long fascinated both .
"We were pretty much always been fascinated by books, books - collection of beautiful
books, we had a large library in our house, but had not yet produce books with the hat
. And then there was a series of coincidences , one would actually say. "-" Yes , first
we have found bookbinding material . I did as I said had a large collection of books
and always had books to bind and have given this also bookbinders and have more and more
determined that fewer bookbinders in Switzerland are capable of beautiful book covers, as they
I imagine - with leather spine and gilt - to produce , and I was a little on the lookout
for material that I can do it myself . I can even bind a large number of books, and that
is then made of a binder so bad that I thought , 'Yes , now I have to myself .' Then
I actually got lucky and had the option of an older colleagues to get a whole bunch of
Vergoldewerkzeugen - And so it has started then (ie the book covers ) . "-" The second
was then quite a small print shop . It was an old trained translators who still continue
printing after retirement in his laundry, menu cards for the Jodlerclub and so , and
looked worse and wanted to pass on in life to people who want to start with something
. And we have met , were two days to visit with him and then , in the fall of 2000 , we
are two days to teaching at this man , set and print learn , and have decided to buy
the one that bought , and on 5 December, we have curbed to Vättis in this house . And
then it started . " However, at the very beginning is not the
paper , as one might suspect , but the lead, specifically the liquid lead . This lead casting
machine is a child of the industrial era . To Gutenberg's time every single letter was poured
by hand . Since 1850, this is done by machine. The machine even manages to put all texts
automatically . Here, the machine follows the hole band. Is poured into the negative
forms , also called " matrices " . Between question : What are there for people who can
make their prints from the dispensary Parnassia ?
" Actually, all the people who want something other than what today's industry or the personal
computer will bear home . This may be a neighbor who needs 1000 pieces New Year cards , which
can be a customer from Australia, a special lead font - can pour In this case antique
Greek capital letters , this is a woman from the alternative scene, a text from their relationship
with us beautiful would have created ( printed and bound ) ... We can not say it goes back
and forth , which can be the richest industrialists, where it does not depend on a few thousand
on it, that can be very humble people who want a wedding gift just once , people are
fascinated by our craft and above all of our materials. I think it is always crucial that
want to have printed on paper or straw paper or handmade paper , which is not printable
today on a modern computer or a printer today . "
Smaller texts are not set by the depositor , but by the typesetter - letter for letter
by hand . " We can already see only these few movements
that the hand compositors working much slower than a computer translator today on
the screen , the hourly output of a normal , well-trained translator perhaps was 1,500
characters per hour , which is about half a book page , so you can calculate that one
was for a novel of 400 pages of several hundreds of hours of work, so a month of work , corresponding
to more expensive at that time were also hand- set books. For this the hand compositors are
big effort to treat the word spacing nuanced differently than the computer of today simply
calculates averages. The goal of a translator is that the direction of the text is relatively
quiet for the human eye , and can only be reached when the irregular word spacing - ie
after proportions - . Are set and not according to mathematical rules "
3700 with different alphabets Offizin Parnassia has the world 's largest collection of lead
type . The finished metal composition is then brought to the printing press . Here, it is
coated with paint, and the sheet is pressed by a roll on the metal type . The Offizin
Parnassia used mostly handmade paper to dry eight hours after printing.
(Subtitles © 2013 by Raphael Werner )