Editing Jacquard machine (section)

== The woven silk prayer book ==

A pinnacle of production using a Jacquard machine is a prayer book, woven in silk, entitled {{lang|fr|Livre de Prières. Tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Livre de Prières. Tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle |url=https://archive.org/details/92123-000001-sap-combined |website=Internet Archive |access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref> All 58 pages of the prayer book were woven silk, made with a Jacquard machine using black and gray thread, at 160 threads per cm (400 threads per inch). The pages have elaborate borders with text and pictures of saints. According to book historian Michael Laird, an estimated 106,000 to 500,000 punchcards were necessary to encode the pages.<ref name="WorldCat page of the Livre de Prières">{{cite web|title= WorldCat page of the Livre de Prières. |url= https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/948879235| website=WorldCat|access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref>

[[File:92123 000001 sap-combined-pages-1.png|thumb|A page from the ''Livre de Prières''.]]

The book was issued in 1886 and 1887 in Lyon, France, and was publicly displayed at the 1889 ''Exposition Universelle'' (World's Fair). It was designed by R.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;J. Hervier, woven by J.&nbsp;A. Henry, and published by A.&nbsp;Roux.<ref name="WorldCat page of the Livre de Prières"/>  It took two years and almost 50 trials to get correct. An estimated 50 or 60 copies were produced.

The manufacture of the volume employed the Jacquard method of using punch cards which J.A. Henry first used in {{lang|fr|Les laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn. Reproduit en caractères tissés avec license des propriétaires éditeurs}} (by [[Alphonse de Lamartine]]) in 1878. That earlier title is the true "first book 'printed' by computer".<ref>{{cite web| title=Les laboureurs : poème tiré de Jocelyn| url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3264109 |website=Gallica| access-date=17 April 2025}}</ref>