← Explore on the interactive map

European Letterpress Printing Press

Type Object Region Europe Time 1581–1590

Relief printing centered on wooden screw presses and removable metal type spread from Mainz across Europe in the mid-15th century, becoming the stand…

Timeline

  1. 1583–1585Antwerp · FlandersAfter the Duke of Parma captured Antwerp in 1583, Christophe Plantin returned to the city to run a printing house, using multiple wooden screw letterpresses to print multilingual books and illustrated volumes, maintaining its status as one of Europe's leading publishing centers.
  2. 1584–1588Debrecen · HungaryBetween 1584 and 1586, printers such as the Hoffhalter family operated letterpresses in places like Várad and Debrecen, printing religious texts including the New Testament in Hungarian, showing that relief printing technology had penetrated into Europe's eastern hinterland.
  3. 1587–1590Europe · EuropeBy the late 1580s, a single letterpress in a skilled printing shop could complete roughly 1,500 to 3,600 impressions per working day, with clear division of labor among typecasting, typesetting, pressing, and folding, forming the basic production model of the modern publishing industry.

Sources