A 1277 copy crisis …

When he needed an extra copy of his building plans it’s a pretty safe bet that Erwin von Steinbach didn’t ask an assistant to toddle down to our print shop to run them off for him.

Steinbach, you see, was the principal architect of Strasbourg Cathedral.

The year? Circa 1277.

Back then, the nearest he’d get to a photocopier was a method called “pricking through” (*).

Not nearly as painful as it sounds, although probably about as quick as getting the parish council to agree on the plans for the new nudist beach.

Those tiny holes are still visible on one of the very few original drawings now kept at the Notre Dame Museum and are a wonderful example of some of the earliest surviving architectural drawings.

Just another reminder of how long printed stuff (well, hand drawn in this case) sticks around.

Until next week.

Alec

(*) This involves poking tiny holes in a paper pattern, then dusting powder through those holes onto the material underneath to create a dotted outline that you can trace over. It’s like using a stencil, but with dots instead of solid lines.