POPULAR ERRORS EXPLAINED: Effects of Printing
I requested an antique book from storage at the Van Pelt Library. A very wise decision.
Popular Errors Explained is a a 376-page tome written by John Timbs and published in 1856.
It contains hundreds of short blurbs, pointing out common misconceptions of the time on topics such as long ears, causes of left-handedness, and management of lamps. Some of the writings are quite dated, but a few are fantastically amusing and ring true today!
Printed in Longon by David Bogue, Fleet Street, 1856
Especially the following tract. It is particularly pertinent to the underpinnings of Art in the Age!
EFFECTS OF PRINTING
Many persons, in their affection for works of antiquity, are apt to rate the present generation for their neglect of ancient art, or their depreciation of its labours; forgetting that ingenuity of man is accomplishing greater wonders by other means. Speaking of that grand revolution which took place when language, till then limited to its proper organ, had its representation in the work of the hand, Sir Charles says:
"Now that a man of mean estate can have a library of more intrinsic value than that of Cicero, when the sentiments of past ages are as familiar as those of the present, and the knowledge of different empires is transmitted and common to all, we cannot expect to have our sages followed, as of old, by their five thousand scholars. Nations will not now record their acts by building pyramids, or by consecrating temples and raising statues, once the only means of perpetuating great deeds or extraordinary virtues. It is vain that our artists complain that patronage is witheld: for the ingenuity of the hand has at length subdued the arts of design - printing has made all other records barbarous, and great men build for themselves a 'live-long monument."
A live-long monument...
A live-long garment...
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