ese essays at printing, whether from blocks or
types, with European printing. This last appears to have had an entirely
independent origin and development.

In Europe, as has already been noted, stamps were used for signatures
and other purposes. It has been observed that certain manuscripts of the
12th century show initials so uniform as to appear to be stamp or die
impressions. It can hardly be regarded as clearly established, however,
that this is the case. As early as the first half of the 15th century
bookbinders used dies both in relief and in intaglio, that is having the
design cut into the surface of the die. None of these devices, however,
appears to have been used for the purpose of multiplying impressions as
is now done with the printing press.

At a comparatively early period, probably as early as the first part of
the 12th century, there came a call for the dissemination of knowledge
in somewhat rudimentary form among the common people. At an earlier
period still this desire had expressed itself in the elaborate sculpture
and stained glass with which the churches were decorated. The church
itself was the poor man's Bible and his library the lives of saints and
martyrs. The story was told to him by the priest. It was visualized by
the artist. Conventional types or attributes of biblical and other
personages were adopted so that the peasant or the artisan could
recognize anywhere the figure of Christ, of one of the evangelists, of
Moses, or of the patron saint of his church or city.

The clergy and the lettered classes had long been accustomed to the
pictures which not only decorated but interpreted the pages of their
books. It was only natural that there should be a desire to have at
least these pictures in the hands of the people so as to reinforce in
the home the teachings of the church. The multiplication of these
pictures, so costly and so tedious in their production, was clearly out
of the question, but why not make a stamp big enough to carry a picture
of a saint or a simple biblical scene, make an impression from it on
vellum and so produce a rude but cheap picture which could be
multiplied indefinitely and sold at a low rate?

No one knows who invented this idea or who first practised making these
picture sheets. We know, however, that such sheets were printed as early
as the 12th century. Originally printed upon cloth or vellum, by the
middle of the 14th century they came to be printed on paper,