Facsimile - Facsimiles in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Facsimiles in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Advances in the art of facsimile are closely related to advances in printmaking. Maps, for instance, were the focus of early explorations in making facsimiles, although these examples often lack the rigidity to the original source that is now expected. An early example being the Abraham Ortelius map (1598). Innovations during the 18th century, especially in the realms of lithography and aquatint saw an explosion in the number of facsimiles after old master drawings that could be studied from afar.

At the present time, facsimiles are generally made by the use of some form of photographic technique. For documents, a facsimile most often refers to document reproduction by a photocopy machine in modern times. In past times a technique such as the photostat, hectograph, or lithograph may have been used to create the facsimile. And in the digital age, an image scanner, a personal computer, and a desktop printer can be used to make a facsimile.

Read more about this topic:  Facsimile

Famous quotes containing the words age, mechanical and/or reproduction:

    “Young people of high school age can actually feel themselves changing. Progress is almost tangible. It’s exciting. It stimulates more progress. Nevertheless, growth is not constant and smooth. Erik Erikson quotes an aphorism to describe the formless forming of it. “I ain’t what I ought to be. I ain’t what I’m going to be, but I’m not what I was.””
    —Stella Chess (20th century)

    “Prejudices are so to speak the mechanical instincts of men: through their prejudices they do without any effort many things they would find too difficult to think through to the point of resolving to do them.”
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)

    “It is so characteristic, that just when the mechanics of reproduction are so vastly improved, there are fewer and fewer people who know how the music should be played.”
    —Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)