Stradanus provided the designs for a suite of engravings entitled the Nova Reperta ('New Discoveries'), depicting the technologies of the day – spectacles, gunpowder, sugar refining, clocks and so on. These two drawings show the workshop nature of printing. In no. 54, engravers work their copper plates from drawings on stands before them; in no. 55, compositors set the type from manuscript sheets pinned above their type-cases, while in both scenes men operate the screw-presses, with freshly printed sheets hung up to dry.

Nos 54-55