European woodcut
Grabado en madera europeo (estampas y naipes)
- Date
- c. 1400 · confidence medium
- Place
- Upper Germany (Swabia) / Burgundy
- Credited to
- Anonymous German and Flemish craftsmen
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Devotional prints and playing cards printed with wooden blocks on paper, followed by block books (Biblia pauperum). The first images reproduced in series in Europe.
Transmission from China via Mongol playing cards and printed textiles is debated; the earliest European evidence is the Bois Protat print (c. 1370–1400).
What it led to
- mass visual culture and the printed propaganda of the Reformation
- the illustration of printed books (Dürer)
- the playing-card industry and popular leisure
Built on
- Woodblock printing868
- Paper in Europe1056
- Woodblock printing
- Paper in Europe
- textile stamping
Made possible
- Copperplate engravingc. 1430-1450
- illustrated book