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The Printing and Proofreading of Jeongyujabon Juyeokjeonuidaejeon

Jang, Won-Yoen 1

1청주고인쇄박물관

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ABSTRACT

This study is about proofreading the typeset in Korea’s metal type printing techniques. In publishing books, proofreading can be largely divided into proofreading the manuscript before printing and proofreading in the process of printing. And the proofreading of printing is the part that particularly demands the technical skills of master craftsmen, especially Gyunjajang in charge of typesetting. The best way to understand proofreading at printing is to examine the proof sheet marking the proofreading after the trial printing ; however, once the proof sheet is printed out, most of them get to be discarded or reused for another usage, so it is not easy to find a proof sheet that is complete. Fortunately, however, the recently found two volumes of proof sheet edition of Juyeokjeonuidaejeon published in Jeongyuja in 1793 provide crucial data that allow us to investigate the level of proofreading the metal type printing during late Chosun. The proof sheet edition of Juyeokjeonuidaejeon is a volume collecting all the printed paper corresponding to the second viewing of Juyeokjeonuidaejeon issued in Jeongyuja in 1793. They correspond to the first (Vol. 1～2) to the thirteenth book (Vol. 23～24) among total 23 volumes and 14 books. And each page refers to proofreading with red color. According to the examination on the aspects of proofreading the typeset based on the 1,600 cases of proofreading marked in Vol. 1, those proofread for the uneven height or horizon of the type are 825 cases which form over 50% of the total proofreading. And those ordered to be proofread for the letters leaning towards left and right are 513 cases (32%) which form the second most. Other than these, there are also cases of proofreading for misprinted, omitted, or blurred letters. If we suppose that this book ordered proofreading equivalent to the level of Vol. 1 including total 24 volumes and 1 complete catalogue, we can estimate that only on the second viewing of Juyeokjeonuidaejeon there must have been proofreading for up to 40,000 or so letters. And since at the first viewing, there must have been much more corrections than this, so we can assume the difficulty of typesetting in metal type printing. In the typesetting of the metal type, setting the type evenly is the most difficult and important task to do. Also, it has been learned that typesetting is influenced by the shape of the type most greatly. Therefore, they tried to standardize the shape of the type during late Chosun in order to enhance the efficiency of printing.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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