A new album is now up on our Flickr page: samplings from our collection of 17th-20th century Italian pamphlets.
The majority of the pamphlets have decorated papers made by block printing, a process of painting papers developed in the mid 17th century. To create block printed papers, a large wooden block is engraved with a design, and inked with paint and then pressed into the paper. One carved block is required for each colour on the page, so it is necessary to use several blocks for the more ornate patterns. The process was long, and required fine artistic skills. Other forms of decorated papers include marbled, sprinkled, embossed and paste papers, some of which can be found in this collection.
This digital collection was created by Victoria College undergraduate intern Iona Whatford. The entire album can be accessed via this link.
