Chapter 49: The Grand Idea: The History of Printing and Choosing the Right Method
After the dream of movable type printing sparked in little Kourosh's mind like a flash from Ahura Mazda, guiding him toward a new horizon, he delved with all his being into the boundless archives of his modern memory. He had to find a way to mass-produce knowledge, a way that would alleviate the painstaking labor of manual copying and free books from the monopoly of a few scribes and priests, so that wisdom could flow like water among the people. He pondered the long and storied history of printing in the world, the path humanity had taken to achieve this revolutionary tool, and now, he had to begin it thousands of years ahead of its time, in the heart of the Persian plateau. This grand idea was not just an invention, but a seed for a revolution of consciousness in the ancient world.
The first step in the history of printing, with its roots tracing back to ancient China centuries before the Common Era, was woodblock printing. In this method, an entire page of text or an image was meticulously and delicately carved in relief onto a block of wood. This wooden block was then inked and pressed onto paper to transfer the image or text. Its advantage was the relative simplicity of making the block and the ability to reproduce texts for a limited number, especially for religious texts, calendars, and images. But its major drawback was that with any small change in the text, a new and complete block had to be carved, and the useful life of the block was also limited, as it would wear out and get damaged after printing a large number of copies, becoming unusable.
Then, in the eleventh century AD in China, a man named Bi Sheng brought about a great revolution in this field by inventing movable type with clay characters. In this method, each letter or character was individually carved onto small pieces of clay. These clay types, after being fired in a kiln, could be used repeatedly to set different pages, which was a great step towards flexibility in printing. However, the clay types were very fragile, broke easily, and their ink absorption was also poor, which lowered the quality of the print. This method, although innovative, still had serious limitations for mass production and high-quality output.
After clay type, wooden movable type was perfected in China and especially in Korea. In this method, letters were individually and carefully carved from wood. These wooden types were more durable than clay types and could be used to print a larger number of books. Kourosh remembered that in Korea, this method was used to a considerable extent for reproducing Buddhist books and scientific texts and helped in the spread of knowledge. But still, the grain and texture of the wood could reduce the precision of the letters, and the wooden types would warp and wear out over time, affecting the quality and uniformity of the print.
Finally, he thought of metal movable type, which had been developed in ancient Korea and reached its peak in fifteenth-century Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, using an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony. This method provided the ultimate in precision, durability, and speed for mass production. Metal types did not break easily, printed very precise lines, and could be used millions of times. This method was an unparalleled revolution in the dissemination of knowledge. But their creation required advanced metallurgy, knowledge of alloy composition, and precise tools, which were very difficult and almost impossible to achieve in Kourosh's ancient era.
Kourosh, with great care, weighed the pros and cons of each method for his situation in Anshan. He thought about the work done in Korea and their advancements in wooden and metal movable type, especially in terms of precision and efficiency. Woodblock printing could be suitable for the mass production of a fixed text like the "Achaemenid Avesta," but it was inefficient for producing various different books, or for newspapers and government decrees that required constant changes to the text. Movable clay type was also not a stable or practical choice due to its fragility. Metal movable type was ideal and dreamlike, but the metallurgical challenges of that era made him wonder whether he had the necessary resources and knowledge for it.
In the end, considering the available materials and technologies of the time and the limitations ahead, Kourosh concluded that he should focus on wooden or clay movable type. Wood, due to its abundance in the Zagros mountains and the relative ease of carving, seemed the more practical option, although clay was also accessible and cheap for making molds and types. He had to devise a method that could carve the letters with sufficient precision and fix them in a frame in such a way as to allow for continuous and uniform printing, thus laying the foundations of the printing revolution in the land of Persia.