Excerpts
In her book Too Much To Know, historian Ann M. Blair provides the following information:
The Ku-chin t’u-shu chi-ch’eng (Collection of Texts and Illustrations Old and New), was printed in 1729, unusually in copper movable type (possibly under Jesuit influence), and totaling 750,000 pages. Only some sixty-four copies were produced at the time. Such a low print run was a financially sound strategy in the case of woodblock printing because the blocks, once carved, could be saved and used for more impressions later.
Read more about this topic: Gujin Tushu Jicheng