Chiroxylographic copies or editions which are usually consisting of 50 or fewer leaves and this early form of printing was very popular in the second half of the 15th century.
The chiroxylographic technique offered a cheaper alternative to the normally printed book, which at the time was still very expensive to produce.
Block books were printed using wood blocks in which the text and illustrations were both cut in relief, and the impression was taken from the solid block instead of using Gutenberg’s invention of movable metal type.
Some block books, called chiro-xylographic, from the Greek chir-, “hand” and xilo, “wood” contain only the woodcut illustrations, with the text written by hand.
The appearance of chiro-xylographic books using this technology began in the 1450’s and extended into the 1470’s when it proved ideal for the printing of small editions without incurring the labor cost of setting the type.
The content of the chiroxylographic books was for the most part consisting of religious iconography.