Professional publications – Polish typographic textbooks in the nineteenth-century

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of professional publications in the vocational training of printers in the nineteenth-century. Rapid development of technology impeded the process of gaining professional experience. Although there were raised demands regarding the creation of trade schools, education was still very traditional – professional printers transmitted their knowledge to apprentices. Unfortunately, it was insufficient due to the large amount of conveyed information which proved to be too difficult to memorize for the students willing to master new skills. Therefore, in the first half of the nineteenth- -century Franciszek Ząbkowski wrote the first textbook intended for compositors and pressmen. By the end of the century, there were released three more books of that kind: Wartkotłocznie w szczególności and Słowniczek wyrażeń w zawodzie czcionkarstwa polskiego używanych i używać się mogących by Jakub Żegota Wywiałkowski as well as Podręcznik dla zecerów by Władysław Danielewicz. In the meantime, some professional magazines were published, which meant that printers felt the need for publications promoting the expertise. Owing to those texts, we are able to reconstruct the process of printing in the nineteenth-century, become acquainted with old technologies and analyse the way in which books gradually changed.