While the text was re-set since then, this was the bible for establishing a printing concern for at least a century, and for the first 20 years of its publication, the only such book of its kind in any language. With original drawings, it described for a blacksmith or joiner how to make a “common press,” so named because they were as alike as hand-made machines could be before the assembly line was invented. The technology persisted after newer ways were being implemented, simply because it’s the way it had always been done.
My copy is a Dover Press book, with a different looking cover, but it’s a safe bet every edition is the same inside.
