The fifteenth-century printing practices of Johann Zainer, Ulm, 1473-1478 / Claire M. Bolton.

The author has brought her forty years of letterpress printing experience to the examination of the printing practices of Zainer during his first five years of operation in Ulm. The 1470s were a vital period in the development of printing ? new practitioners were taking up the trade and, as they did so, adapting existing methods and developing new ones. The two-pull press was introduced during this decade in most European centres. Zainer is a particularly good choice for this examination as he was a careless printer who left many traces on his pages, traces which today would be termed printer?s errors, and which have left a rich trail for the printing detective to follow. From her discoveries about Zainer?s practices Dr Bolton has been able to track back to the work of earlier printers, as well as to compare editions printed by some of his contemporaries, thus providing new evidence and a better understanding for incunabulists and printing historians.