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diff --git a/40250-8.txt b/40250-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 23d2f02..0000000 --- a/40250-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5194 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old -and New, by Walter Crane - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New - 3rd ed. - -Author: Walter Crane - -Release Date: July 16, 2012 [EBook #40250] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Linda Hamilton, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -THE EX-LIBRIS SERIES. EDITED BY GLEESON WHITE. - -THE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS. BY WALTER CRANE. - - - - -[Illustration: G Bell and Sons] - - - - - OF THE DECORATIVE - ILLUSTRATION OF - BOOKS OLD AND NEW - BY WALTER CRANE - - [Illustration] - - LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS - YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. - NEW YORK: 66 FIFTH AVENUE - MDCCCXCV - - - - - PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS BY - CHARLES WHITTINGHAM & CO. TOOKS - COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON, E.C. - AND FIRST PUBLISHED DECEMBER, 1896 - SECOND EDITION, REVISED, FEB. 1901 - THIRD EDITION, REVISED, JAN. 1905 - - - - -PREFACE. - - -This book had its origin in the course of three (Cantor) Lectures given -before the Society of Arts in 1889; they have been amplified and added -to, and further chapters have been written, treating of the very active -period in printing and decorative book-illustration we have seen since -that time, as well as some remarks and suggestions touching the general -principles and conditions governing the design of book pages and -ornaments. - -It is not nearly so complete or comprehensive as I could have wished, but -there are natural limits to the bulk of a volume in the "Ex-Libris" -series, and it has been only possible to carry on such a work in the -intervals snatched from the absorbing work of designing. Within its own -lines, however, I hope that if not exhaustive, the book may be found -fairly representative of the chief historical and contemporary types of -decorative book-illustration. - -In the selection of the illustrations, I have endeavoured to draw the -line between the purely graphic aim, on the one hand, and the ornamental -aim on the other--between what I should term the art of _pictorial -statement_ and the art of _decorative treatment_; though there are many -cases in which they are combined, as, indeed, in all the most complete -book-pictures, they should be. My purpose has been to treat of -illustrations which are also book-ornaments, so that purely graphic -design, as such, unrelated to the type, and the conditions of the page, -does not come within my scope. - -As book-illustration pure and simple, however, has been treated of in -this series by Mr. Joseph Pennell, whose selection is more from the -graphic than the decorative point of view, the balance may be said to be -adjusted as regards contemporary art. - -I must offer my best thanks to Mr. Gleeson White, without whose most -valuable help the book might never have been finished. He has allowed me -to draw upon his remarkable collection of modern illustrated books for -examples, and I am indebted to many artists for permission to use their -illustrations, as well as to Messrs. George Allen, Bradbury, Agnew and -Co., J. M. Dent and Co., Edmund Evans, Geddes and Co., Hacon and Ricketts -(the Vale Press), John Lane, Lawrence and Bullen, Sampson Low and Co., -Macmillan and Co., Elkin Mathews, Kegan Paul and Co., Walter Scott, -Charles Scribner's Sons, and Virtue and Co., for their courtesy in giving -me, in many cases, the use of the actual blocks. - -To Mr. William Morris, who placed his beautiful collection of early -printed books at my disposal, from which to choose illustrations; to Mr. -Emery Walker for help in many ways; to Mr. John Calvert for permission to -use some of his father's illustrations; and to Mr. A. W. Pollard who has -lent me some of his early Italian examples, and has also supervised my -bibliographical particulars, I desire to make my cordial acknowledgments. - -WALTER CRANE. - -KENSINGTON: _July 18th, 1896_. - - - - -NOTE TO THIRD EDITION. - - -A reprint of this book being called for, I take the opportunity of adding -a few notes, chiefly to Chapter IV., which will be found further on with -the numbers of the pages to which they refer. - -As touching the general subject of the book one may, perhaps, be allowed -to record with some satisfaction that the study of lettering, -text-writing, and illumination is now seriously taken up in our -craft-schools. The admirable teaching of Mr. Johnston of the Central -School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal College of Art in this connection -cannot be too highly spoken of. We have had, too, admirable work, in each -kind, from Mr. Reuter, Mr. Mortimer, Mr. Treglown, Mr. Alan Vigers, Mr. -Graily Hewitt, and Mr. A. E. R. Gill; and Mrs. Traguair and Miss -Kingsford are remarkable for the beauty, delicacy, and invention of their -work as illuminators among the artists who are now pursuing this -beautiful branch of art. - -So that the ancient crafts of the scribe and illuminator may be said to -have again come to life, and this, taken in connection with the revival -of printing as an art, is an interesting and significant fact. - -As recent contributions to the study of lettering we have Mr. Lewis F. -Day's recent book of Alphabets, and Mr. G. Woolliscroft Rhead's sheets -for school use. - -I have to deplore the loss of my former helper in this book, Mr. Gleeson -White, since the work first appeared. His extensive knowledge of, and -sympathy with the modern book illustrators of the younger generation was -remarkable, and as a designer himself he showed considerable skill and -taste in book-decoration, chiefly in the way of covers. As a most -estimable and amiable character he will always be remembered by his -friends. - -WALTER CRANE. - -KENSINGTON: _June, 1904_. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I.--OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE AND - DECORATIVE IMPULSE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES; AND OF THE - FIRST PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE - ILLUMINATED MSS. OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 1. - - CHAPTER II.--OF THE TRANSITION, AND OF THE SECOND PERIOD - OF DECORATIVELY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF - PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ONWARDS. 45. - - CHAPTER III.--OF THE PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF DECORATIVE - FEELING IN BOOK DESIGN AFTER THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND OF - THE MODERN REVIVAL. 125. - - CHAPTER IV.--OF RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATIVE BOOK - ILLUSTRATION, AND THE MODERN REVIVAL OF PRINTING AS AN - ART. 185. - - CHAPTER V.--OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN DESIGNING BOOK - ORNAMENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS: CONSIDERATION OF ARRANGEMENT, - SPACING AND TREATMENT. 279. - - INDEX. 329. - -[Illustration] - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - GERMAN SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. PAGE - - "Leiden Christi." (Bamberg, 1470) 3 - Boccaccio, "De Claris Mulieribus." (Ulm, 1473) 7, 11 - "Buch von den sieben Todsünden." (Augsburg, 1474) 15 - "Speculum Humanæ Vitæ." (Augsburg, _cir._ 1475) 17 - Bible. (Cologne, 1480) 21 - Terrence: "Eunuchus." (Ulm, 1486) 27 - "Chronica Hungariæ." (Augsburg, 1488) 35 - "Hortus Sanitatis." (Mainz, 1491) 39 - "Chroneken der Sassen." (Mainz, 1492) 41 - Bible. (Lübeck, 1494) 47 - "Æsop's Fables." (Ulm, 1498) 53 - - - FLEMISH AND DUTCH SCHOOLS, XVTH CENTURY. - - "Spiegel onser Behoudenisse." (Kuilenburg, 1483) 25 - "Life of Christ." (Antwerp, 1487) 31 - - - FRENCH SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. - - "La Mer des Histoires." Initial. (Paris, 1488) 37 - "Paris et Vienne." (Paris, _cir._ 1495) 51 - - - ITALIAN SCHOOL, XVTH CENTURY. - - "De Claris Mulieribus." (Ferrara, 1497) 54 - Tuppo's "Æsop." (Naples, 1485) 55 - P. Cremonese's "Dante." (Venice, 1491) 56 - "Discovery of the Indies." (Florence, 1493) 57 - "Fior di Virtù." (Florence, 1498) 58 - Stephanus Caesenas: "Expositio Beati Hieronymi in - Psalterium." (Venice, 1498) 59 - "Poliphili Hypnerotomachia." (Venice, 1499) 63, 65 - Ketham's "Fasciculus Medicinæ." (Venice, 1493) 295 - Pomponius Mela. (Venice, 1478) 297 - - - ITALIAN SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. - - Artist Unknown. Bernadino Corio. (Milan, Minuziano, - 1503) 67 - School of Bellini: "Supplementum Supplementi - Chronicarum, etc." (Venice, 1506) 69 - "The Descent of Minerva": from the Quatriregio. - (Florence, 1508) 71 - Aulus Gellius. (Venice, 1509) 73 - Quintilian. (Venice, 1512) 75 - Ottaviano dei Petrucci. (Fossombrone, 1513) 77 - Ambrosius Calepinus. (Tosculano, 1520) 121 - Artist unknown: Portrait title: Ludovico Dolci, - 1561. (Venice, Giolito, 1562) 133 - - - GERMAN SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. - - Albrecht Dürer: "Kleine Passion." (Nuremberg, - 1512) 81, 83, 85 - Albrecht Dürer: "Plutarchus Chaeroneus." - (Nuremberg, 1513) 87 - Albrecht Dürer: "Plutarchus Chaeroneus." - (Nuremberg, 1523) 89 - Hans Holbein: "Dance of Death." (Lyons, 1538) 91, 92 - Hans Holbein: Title-page: Gallia. (Basel, _cir._ - 1524) 93 - Hans Holbein: Bible Cuts. (Lyons, 1538) 95, 96 - Ambrose Holbein: "Neues Testament." (Basel, 1523) 97 - Hans Burgmair: "Der Weiss König." (1512-14) 99 - Hans Burgmair: "Iornandes de Rebus Gothorum." - (Augsburg, 1516) 101 - Hans Burgmair: "Pliny's Natural History." - (Frankfort, 1582) 103 - Hans Burgmair: "Meerfahrt zu viln onerkannten - Inseln," etc. (Augsburg, 1509) 105 - Hans Baldung Grün: "Hortulus Animæ." (Strassburg, - 1511) 107, 108, 109, 110 - Hans Wächtlin: Title Page. (Strassburg, 1513) 111 - Hans Sebald Beham: "Das Papstthum mit seinen - Gliedern." (Nuremberg, 1526) 113 - Reformation der bayrischen Landrecht. (Munich, - 1518) 117 - Fuchsius: "De Historia Stirpium." (Basel, 1542) 123 - Virgil Solis: Bible. (Frankfort, 1563) 131 - Johann Otmar: "Pomerium de Tempore." (Augsburg, - 1502) 147 - - - FRENCH SCHOOL, XVITH CENTURY. - - Oronce Finé: "Quadrans Astrolabicus." (Paris, 1534) 127 - - - MODERN ILLUSTRATION. - - William Blake: "Songs of Innocence," 1789 137 - William Blake: "Phillip's Pastoral" 139 - Edward Calvert: Original Woodcuts: "The Lady and - the Rooks," "The Return Home," "Chamber Idyll," - "The Flood," "Ideal Pastoral Life," "The Brook," - 1827-29 141, 143 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti: "Tennyson's Poems," 1857 151 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti: "Early Italian Poets," 1861 153 - Albert Moore: "Milton's Ode on the Nativity," 1867 155 - Henry Holiday: Cover for "Aglaia," 1893 157 - Randolph Caldecott: Headpiece to "Bracebridge - Hall," 1877 158 - Kate Greenaway: Title Page of "Mother Goose" 159 - Arthur Hughes: "At the Back of the North Wind," - 1871 160, 161 - Arthur Hughes: "Mercy" ("Good Words for the - Young," 1871) 304 - Robert Bateman: "Art in the House," 1876 162, 163, 164, 165 - Heywood Sumner: Peard's "Stories for Children," - 1896 167, 170 - Charles Keene: "A Good Fight." ("Once a - Week," 1859) 169 - Louis Davis: "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" ("English - Illustrated Magazine," 1892) 171 - Henry Ryland: "Forget not yet" ("English - Illustrated Magazine," 1894) 173 - Frederick Sandys: "The Old Chartist" ("Once a - Week," 1861) 175 - M. J. Lawless: "Dead Love" ("Once a Week," 1862) 177 - Walter Crane: Grimm's "Household Stories," 1882 179 - Walter Crane: "Princess Fiorimonde," 1880 181 - Walter Crane: "The Sirens Three," 1886 183 - Selwyn Image: "Scottish Art Review," 1889 187 - William Morris and Walter Crane: "The Glittering - Plain," 1894 191, 290, 291 - C. M. Gere: "Midsummer" ("English Illustrated - Magazine," 1893) 195 - C. M. Gere: "The Birth of St. George" 197 - Arthur Gaskin: "Hans Andersen," 1893 199 - E. H. New: "Bridge Street, Evesham" 201 - Inigo Thomas: "The Formal Garden," 1892 204, 205 - Henry Payne: "A Book of Carols," 1893 209 - F. Mason: "Huon of Bordeaux," 1895 211 - Gertrude, M. Bradley: "The Cherry Festival," 213 - Mary Newill: Porlock 215 - Celia Levetus: A Bookplate 217 - C. S. Ricketts: "Hero and Leander," 1894 219 - C. S. Ricketts: "Daphnis and Chloe," 1893 223 - C. H. Shannon: "Daphnis and Chloe," 1893 224 - Aubrey Beardsley: "Morte d'Arthur," 1893 225, 226, 227 - Edmund J. Sullivan: "Sartor Resartus," 1898 228 - Patten Wilson: A Pen Drawing 229 - Laurence Housman: "The House of Joy," 1895 231 - L. Fairfax Muckley: "Frangilla" 233 - Charles Robinson: "A Child's Garden of Verse," - 1895 235, 237, 239 - J. D. Batten: "The Arabian Nights," 1893 241, 242 - R. Anning Bell: "A Midsummer Night's Dream," 1895 243 - R. Anning Bell: "Beauty and the Beast," 1894 245 - R. Spence: A Pen Drawing 247 - A. Garth Jones: "A Tournament of Love," 1894 249 - William Strang: "Baron Munchausen," 1895 251, 253 - H. Granville Fell: "Cinderella," 1894 254 - John Duncan: "Apollo's Schooldays" ("The Evergreen," - 1895) 255 - John Duncan: "Pipes of Arcady" ("The Evergreen," - 1895) 257 - Robert Burns: "The Passer-By" ("The Evergreen," - 1895) 259 - Mary Sargant Florence: "The Crystal Ball," 1894 261 - Paul Woodroffe: "Ye Second Book of Nursery - Rhymes," 1896 263 - Paul Woodroffe: "Ye Book of Nursery Rhymes," 1895 265 - M. Rijsselberghe: "Dietrich's Almanack," 1894 266 - Walter Crane: "Spenser's Faerie Queen," 1896 269, 281, 283, 285 - Howard Pyle: "Otto of the Silver Hand" 271, 273 - Will. H. Bradley: Covers for "The Inland Printer," - 1894 274 - Will. H. Bradley: Prospectus for "Bradley His - Book," 1896 275 - Will. H. Bradley: Design for "The Chap Book," - 1895 277 - Alan Wright: Headpieces from "The Story of My - House," 1892 309, 341 - - The untitled tailpieces throughout this volume are from Grimm's - "Household Stories," illustrated by Walter Crane. (Macmillan, 1882.) - - - APPENDIX OF HALF-TONE BLOCKS. - - I. Book of Kells. Irish, VIth century. - - II., III., IV. Arundel Psalter. English, XIVth century. - (Arundel MSS. 83 B. M.) - - V. Epistle of Phillipe de Comines to Richard II. French, - - XIVth century. (Royal MSS. 20 B. vi. B. M.) - - VI., VII. Bedford Hours. (MSS. 18, 850 B. M.) - - VIII. Romance of the Rose. English, late XVth century. - (Hast. MSS. 4, 425.) - - IX. Choir Book. Siena. Italian, XVth century. - - X., XI. Hokusai. Japanese, XIXth century. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER I. OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIVE AND DECORATIVE IMPULSE -FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES; AND OF THE FIRST PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY -ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE ILLUMINATED MSS. OF THE MIDDLE AGES. - - -My subject is a large one, and touches more intimately, perhaps, than -other forms of art, both human thought and history, so that it would be -extremely difficult to treat it exhaustively upon all its sides. I shall -not attempt to deal with it from the historical or antiquarian points of -view more than may be necessary to elucidate the artistic side, on which -I propose chiefly to approach the question of design as applied to -books--or, more strictly, the book page--which I shall hope to illustrate -by reproductions of characteristic examples from different ages and -countries. - -I may, at least, claim to have been occupied, in a practical sense, with -the subject more or less, as part of my work, both as a decorator and -illustrator of books, for the greater part of my life, and such -conclusions as I have arrived at are based upon the results of personal -thought and experience, if they are also naturally coloured and -influenced from the same sources. - -All forms of art are so closely connected with life and thought, so bound -up with human conditions, habits, and customs; so intimately and vividly -do they reflect every phase and change of that unceasing movement--the -ebb and flow of human progress amid the forces of nature we call -history--that it is hardly possible even for the most careless stroller, -taking any of the by-paths, not to be led insensibly to speculate on -their hidden sources, and an origin perhaps common to them all. - -The story of man is fossilized for us, as it were, or rather preserved, -with all its semblance of life and colour, in art and books. The -procession of history reaching far back into the obscurity of the -forgotten or inarticulate past, is reflected, with all its movement, gold -and colour, in the limpid stream of design, that mirror-like, paints each -passing phase for us, and illustrates each act in the drama. In the -language of line and of letters, of symbol and picture, each age writes -its own story and character, as page after page is turned in the book of -time. Here and there the continuity of the chapters is broken, a page is -missing, a passage is obscure; there are breaks and fragments--heroic -torsos and limbs instead of whole figures. But more and more, by patient -research, labour, and comparison, the voids are being filled up, until -some day perhaps there will be no chasm of conjecture in which to plunge, -but the volume of art and human history will be as clear as pen and -pencil can make it, and only left for a present to continue, and a future -to carry to a completion which is yet never complete. - -[Sidenote: ILLUMINATED MSS.] - -If painting is the looking-glass of nations and periods, pictured-books -may be called the hand-glass which still more intimately reflects the -life of different centuries and peoples, in all their minute and -homely detail and quaint domesticity, as well as their playful fancies, -their dreams, and aspirations. While the temples and the tombs of ancient -times tell us of the pomp and splendour and ambition of kings, and the -stories of their conquests and tyrannies, the illuminated MSS. of the -Middle Ages show us, as well as these, the more intimate life of the -people, their sports and their jests, their whim and fancy, their work -and their play, no less than the mystic and religious and ceremonial side -of that life, which was, indeed, an inseparable part of it; the whole -worked in as with a kind of embroidery of the pen and brush, with the -most exquisite sense of decorative beauty. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -LEIDEN CHRISTI. (BAMBERG, ALBRECHT PFISTER, 1470.)] - -Mr. Herbert Spencer, in the course of his enunciation of the philosophy -of evolution, speaks of the book and the newspaper lying on the table of -the modern citizen as connected through a long descent with the -hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Egyptians, and the -picture-writing of still earlier times. We might go (who knows how much -further?) back into prehistoric obscurity to find the first illustrator, -pure and simple, in the hunter of the cave, who recorded the incidents of -his sporting life on the bones of his victims. - -We know that the letters of our alphabet were once pictures, symbols, or -abstract signs of entities and actions, and grew more and more abstract -until they became arbitrary marks--the familiar characters that we know. -Letters formed into words; words increased and multiplied with ideas and -their interchange; ideas and words growing more and more abstract until -the point is reached when the jaded intellect would fain return again to -picture-writing, and welcomes the decorator and the illustrator to -relieve the desert wastes of words marshalled in interminable columns on -the printed page. - -In a journey through a book it is pleasant to reach the oasis of a -picture or an ornament, to sit awhile under the palms, to let our -thoughts unburdened stray, to drink of other intellectual waters, and to -see the ideas we have been pursuing, perchance, reflected in them. Thus -we end as we begin, with images. - -Temples and tombs have been man's biggest books, but with the development -of individual life (as well as religious ritual, and the necessity of -records,) he felt the need of something more familiar, companionable, and -portable, and having, in the course of time, invented the stylus, and the -pen, and tried his hand upon papyrus, palm leaf, and parchment, he wrote -his records or his thoughts, and pictured or symbolized them, at first -upon scrolls and rolls and tablets, or, later, enshrined them in bound -books, with all the beauty that the art of writing could command, -enriched and emphasized with the pictorial and ornamental commentary in -colours and gold. - -As already indicated, it is my purpose to deal with the artistic aspects -of the book page, and therefore we are not now concerned with the various -forms of the book itself, as such, or with the treatment of its exterior -case, cover, or binding. It is the open book I wish to dwell on--the page -itself as a field for the designer and illustrator--a space to be made -beautiful in design. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -FROM BOCCACCIO, DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS. (ULM, JOHANN ZAINER, 1473.)] - -[Sidenote: THE TWO GREAT DIVISIONS.] - -Both decorated and illustrated books may be divided broadly into two -great periods: - -I. The MS., or period before printing. - -II. The period of printed books. - -Both illustrate, however, a long course of evolution, and contain in -themselves, it might be said, a compendium--or condensation--of the -history of contemporary art in its various forms of development. The -first impulse in art seems to answer to the primitive imitative impulse -in children--the desire to embody the familiar forms about them--to -characterize them in line and colour. The salient points of an animal, -for instance, being first emphasized--as in the bone scratchings of the -cave men--so that children's drawings and drawings of primitive peoples -present a certain family likeness, allowing for difference of -environment. They are abstract, and often almost symbolic in their -characterization of form, and it is not difficult to imagine how letters -and written language became naturally evolved through a system of -hieroglyphics, starting from the unsystemized but irrepressible tendency -of the human to record his linear ideas of rhythm on the one hand, or his -impressions of nature on the other. It would seem that the illustrator or -picture writer came first in the order of things, and the book -afterwards--like the system we have heard of under modern editors of -magazines, of the picture being done first and then written up to, or -down to, by the author. - -Side by side with the evolution of letters and calligraphic art went on -the evolution of the graphic power and the artistic sense, developing on -the one hand towards close imitation of nature and dramatic incident, and -on the other towards imaginative beauty, and systematic, organic -ornament, more or less built upon a geometric basis, but ultimately -bursting into a free foliation and flamboyant blossom, akin in inventive -richness and variety to a growth of nature herself. The development of -these two main directions of artistic energy may be followed throughout -the whole world of art, constantly struggling, as it were, for the -ascendancy, now one and now the other being paramount; but the history of -their course, and the effect of their varying influences is particularly -marked in the decoration and illustration of books. - -Although as a rule the decorative sense was dominant throughout the -illuminated books of the Middle Ages, the illustrator, in the form of the -miniaturist, is in evidence, and in some, especially in the later MSS., -finally conquers, or rather absorbs, the decorator. - -There is a MS. in the Egerton collection in the British Museum (No. 943), -"The Divina Commedia" of Dante, with miniatures by Italian artists of the -fourteenth century, which may be taken as an early instance of the -ascendancy of the illustrator, the miniatures being placed somewhat -abruptly on the page, and with unusually little framework or associated -ornament; and although more or less decorative in the effect of their -simple design, and frank and full colour, the main object of their -artists was to illustrate rather than to decorate the text. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -FROM BOCCACCIO, DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS. (ULM, JOHANN ZAINER, 1473.)] - -[Sidenote: THE BOOK OF KELLS.] - -The Celtic genius, under the influence of Christianity, -and as representing the art of the early Christian Western -civilization--exemplified in the remarkable designs in the Book -of Kells--was, on the other hand, strictly ornamental in its -manifestations, suggesting in its richness, and in the intricacy and -ingenuity of its involved patterns, as well as the geometric forms of -many of its units, a relation to certain characteristics of Eastern as -well as primitive Greek art. - -The Book of Kells derives its name from the Columban Monastery of Kells -or Kenlis, originally Cennanas, a place of ancient importance in the -county of Meath, Ireland, and it is supposed to have been the Great -Gospel brought to the Christian settlement by its founder, St. Columba, -and perhaps written by that saint, who died in the year 597. The original -volume is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. - -In one of the pages of this book is represented the Greek monogram of -Christ, and the whole page is devoted to three words, Christi Autem -Generatio. It is a remarkable instance of an ornamental initial spreading -over an entire page. The effect of the whole as a decoration is perhaps -what might be called heavy, but it is full of marvellous detail and -richness, and highly characteristic of Celtic forms of ornamental design -(_see_ No. 1, Appendix). - -The work of the scribe, as shown in the form of the ordinary letters of -the text, is very fine. They are very firm and strong in character, to -balance the closely knit and firmly built ornamentation of the initial -letters and other ornaments of the pages. We feel that they have a -dignity, a distinction, and a character all their own. - -There is a page in the same book where the symbols of the evangelists are -inclosed in circles, and panelled in a solid framing occupying the whole -page, which suggests Byzantine feeling in design. - -The full pages in the earlier illuminated MSS. were often panelled out in -four or more compartments to hold figures of saints, or emblems, and in -the twelfth and thirteenth centuries such panels generally had small -patterned diapered backgrounds, on dark blue, red, green, or burnished -gold. - -The Anglo-Saxon MSS. show traces of the influence of the traditions of -Classic art drawn through the Byzantine, or from the Roman sources, which -naturally affected the earliest forms of Christian art as we see its -relics in the catacombs. These classical traditions are especially -noticeable in the treatment of the draperies clinging in linear and -elliptical folds to express the limbs. In fact, it might be said that, -spread westward and northward by the Christian colonies, this classical -tradition in figure design lingered on, until its renewal at the dawn of -the Renaissance itself, and the resurrection of classical art in Italy, -which, uniting with a new naturalism, grew to that wonderful development -which has affected the art of Europe ever since. - -The Charter of Foundation of Newminster, at Winchester, by King Edgar, -A.D. 966, written in gold, is another very splendid early example of book -decoration. It has a full-page miniature of the panelled type above -mentioned, and elaborate border in gold and colours by an English artist. -It is in the British Museum, and may be seen open in Case 2 in the King's -Library. - -[Sidenote: ANGLO-SAXON MS.] - -"The Gospels," in Latin. A MS. of the eleventh century, with initials and -borders in gold and colours, by English artists, is another fine specimen -of the early kind. Here the titles of each gospel, boldly inscribed, are -inclosed in a massively designed border, making a series of full title -pages of a dignified type. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"BUCH VON DEN SIEBEN TODSÜNDEN UND DEN SIEBEN TUGENDEN." (AUGSBURG, -BÄMLER, 1474.)] - -As examples of illustrated books, according to the earlier Mediæval -ideas, we may look at twelfth and thirteenth century "Herbals," wherein -different plants, very full and frank in colour and formal in design, are -figured strictly with a view to the ornamentation of the page. There is a -very fine one, described as written in England in the thirteenth century, -in the British Museum. Decoration and illustration are here one and the -same. - -A magnificent specimen of book decoration of the most splendid kind is -the "Arundel Psalter" (Arundel MS. 83, Brit. Mus.), given by Robert de -Lyle to his daughter Audry, as an inscription in the volume tells us, in -1339. Here scribe, illuminator, and miniaturist are all at their best, -whether one and the same or different persons. It is, moreover, English -work. There is no doubt about the beauty of the designs, and the variety -and richness of the decorative effect. Like all the Psalters, the book -commences with a calendar, and full pages follow, panelled out and filled -in with subjects from the life of Christ. A particularly splendid -full-page is that of the Virgin and Child under a Gothic canopy, with -gold diapered background. There are also very interestingly designed -genealogical trees, and fine arrangements of double columned text-pages -with illuminated ornament (_see_ Nos. 2, 3, and 4, Appendix). - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -SPECULUM HUMANÆ VITÆ. (AUGSBURG, GÜNTHER ZAINER, _circa_ 1475.) - -(_Size of original, 6-5/8 in. × 10-5/16 in._)] - -[Sidenote: XIIITH AND XIVTH CENTURY MSS.] - -The Tenison Psalter (Addit. MS. 24686) is a specimen of English -thirteenth century work. "Probably executed for Alphonso, son of Edmund -I., on his contemplated marriage with Margaret daughter of Florentius, -Count of Holland, which was frustrated by the prince's death on 1st -August, 1224." - -The full-page miniatures arranged in panels--in some instances four on a -page, with alternate burnished gold and dark blue diapered backgrounds -behind the figures, and in others six on a page, the miniature much -smaller, and set in a larger margin of colour, alternate red and -blue--are very full, solid, and rich in colour with burnished gold. The -book is further interesting, as giving excellent and characteristic -instances of another and very different treatment of the page (and one -which appears to have been rather peculiarly English in style), in the -spiny scrolls which, often springing from a large illuminated initial -letter upon the field of the text, spreads upon and down the margin, or -above and below, often holding in its branching curves figures and -animals, which in this MS. are beautifully and finely drawn. Note the one -showing a lady of the time in pursuit of some deer. - -In the thirteenth century books the text is a solid tower or column, from -which excursions can be made by the fancy and invention of the designer, -up and down and above and beneath, upon the ample vellum margins; in some -cases, indeed, additional devices appear to have been added by other and -later hands than those of the original scribe or illuminator. - -There is a very remarkable Apocalypse (Brit. Mus. MSS. 17353; formerly -belonging to the Carthusian house of Vau Dieu between Liège and Aix) by -French artists of the early fourteenth century, which has a series of -very fine imaginative and weird designs (suggestive of Orcagna), highly -decorative in treatment, very full and frank in colour, and firm in -outline. The designs are in oblong panels, inclosed in linear coloured -borders at the head of each page, and occupying about two-thirds of it, -the text being written in double columns beneath each miniature, with -small illuminated initials. The backgrounds of the designs are diapered -on grounds of dark green and red alternately. - -The imaginative force and expression conveyed by these designs--strictly -formal and figurative, and controlled by the ornamental traditions of the -time--is very remarkable. The illustrator and decorator are here still -one. - -Queen Mary's Psalter (Brit. Mus. MS. Royal 2, B. VII.), again, is -interesting as giving instances of a very different and lighter treatment -of figure designs. We find in this MS., together with illuminations in -full colours and burnished gold, a series of pale tinted illustrations in -Bible history drawn with a delicate pen line. - -The method of the illuminators and miniaturists seems always to have been -to draw their figures and ornaments clearly out first with a pen before -colouring. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -BIBLE, HEINRICH QUENTEL. (COLOGNE, 1480.)] - -In the full-coloured miniatures the pen lines are not visible, but in -this MS. they are preserved with the delicate tinted treatment. The -designs I speak of are placed two on a page, occupying it entirely. They -are inclosed in vermilion borders, terminated at each corner with a leaf. -There is a very distinct and graceful feeling about the designs. The same -hand appears to have added on the lower margins of the succeeding text -pages a series of quaint figures--combats of grotesque animals, hunting, -hawking, and fishing scenes, and games and sports, and, finally, -Biblical subjects. Here, again, I think we may detect in the early -illustrators a tendency to escape from the limitations of the book page, -though only a tendency. - -A fine ornamental page combining illumination with miniature is given in -the "Epistle of Philippe de Comines to Richard II." at the end of the -fourteenth century. The figures, interesting historically and as examples -of costume, are relieved upon a diapered ground. The text is in double -columns, with square initials, and the page is lightened by open -foliation branching out upon the margin from the straight spiney border -strips, which on the inner side terminate in a dragon. - -[Sidenote: THE BEDFORD BOOK OF HOURS.] - -As a specimen of early fifteenth century work, both for illuminator, -scribe, and miniaturist, it would be difficult to find a more exquisite -book than the Bedford Hours (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 18850), dated 1422, said -to be the work of French artists, though produced in England. The -kalendar, which occupies the earlier pages, is remarkable for its small -and very brilliant and purely coloured miniatures set like gems in a very -fine, delicate, light, open, leafy border, bright with burnished gold -trefoil leaves, which are characteristic of French illuminated books of -this period (_see_ Nos. 5 and 6, Appendix). - -There is an elaborate full-page miniature containing the Creation and -Fall, which breaks over the margin here and there. The thirteenth and -fourteenth century miniaturists frequently allowed their designs to break -over the framework of their diapered grounds or panels in an effective -way, which pleasantly varied the formality of framed-in subjects upon -the page, especially where a flat margin of colour between lines inclosed -them; and some parts of the groups broke over the inner line while -keeping within the limits of the outer one. Very frequently, as in this -MS., a general plan is followed throughout in the spacing of the pages, -though the borders and miniatures in detail show almost endless -variation. In such splendid works as this we get the complete and -harmonious co-operation and union between the illustrator and the -decorator. The object of each is primarily to beautify his page. The -illuminator makes his borders and initial letters branch and bud, and put -forth leaves and flowers spreading luxuriantly up and down the margin of -his vellum pages (beautiful even as the scribe left them) like a living -growth; while the miniaturist makes the letter itself the shrine of some -delicate saint, or a vision of some act of mercy or martyrdom; while the -careless world plays hide and seek through the labyrinthine borders, as -the seasons follow each other through the kalendar, and the peasant -ploughs, and sows, and reaps, and threshes out the corn, while gay -knights tourney in the lists, or, with ladies in their quaint attire, -follow the spotted deer through the greenwood. - -[Sidenote: MERRY ENGLAND.] - -In these beautiful liturgical books of the Middle Ages, as we see, the -ornamental feeling developed with and combined the illustrative function, -so that almost any illuminated Psalter or Book of Hours will furnish not -only lovely examples of floral decoration in borders and initials of -endless fertility of invention, but also give us pictures of the life and -manners of the times. In those of our own country we can realize how -full of colour, quaint costume, and variety was life when England was -indeed merry, in spite of family feuds and tyrannous lords and kings; -before her industrial transformation and the dispossession of her people; -ere Boards of Works and Poor-law Guardians took the place of her -monasteries and abbeys; before her streams were fouled with sewage, and -her cities blackened with coal smoke--the smoke of the burning sacrificed -to commercial competition and wholesale production for profit by means of -machine power and machine labour; before she became the workshop and -engine-room of the world. - -[Illustration: DUTCH SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -SPIEGEL ONSER BEHOUDENISSE, KUILENBURG. (JAN VELDENER, 1483.)] - -These books glowing with gold and colour tell of days when time was no -object, and the pious artist and scribe could work quietly and lovingly -to make a thing of beauty with no fear of a publisher or a printer before -his eyes, or the demands of world market. - -In the midst of our self-congratulation on the enormous increase of our -resources for the rapid and cheap production of books, and the power of -the printing press, we should do well not to forget that if books of -those benighted centuries of which I have been speaking were few, -comparatively, they were fit, though few--they were things of beauty and -joys for ever to their possessors. A prayer-book was not only a -prayer-book, but a picture-book, a shrine, a little mirror of the world, -a sanctuary in a garden of flowers. One can well understand their -preciousness apart from their religious use, and many have seen strange -eventful histories no doubt. The Earl of Shrewsbury lost his prayer-book -(the Talbot prayer-book) and his life together on the battle-field at -Castillon (about thirty miles from Bordeaux) in 1453. This book, as Mr. -Quaritch states, was carried away by a Breton soldier, and was only -re-discovered in Brittany a few years ago. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"DEUTSCHE UEBERSETZUNG DES EUNUCHUS DES TERENTIUS." (ULM, DINCKMUT, -1486.)] - -[Sidenote: MISSALS.] - -It has been suggested that the large coloured and illuminated initial -letters in liturgical books had their origin as guides in taking up the -different parts of the service; and, as I learn from Mr. Micklethwaite, -in some of the Missals, where the crucifixion is painted in an -illuminated letter, a simple cross is placed below for the votary to kiss -instead of the picture, as it was found in practice, when only the -picture was there, the tendency was to obliterate it by the recurrence of -this form of devotion. - -As an example of the influence of naturalism which had begun to make -itself felt in art towards the end of the fifteenth century, we may cite -The Romance of the Rose (Harl. MSS. 4425), in the British Museum, which -has two fine full-page miniatures with elaborate borderings, full of -detail and colour, and which are also illustrative of costume (_see_ No. -8, Appendix). The text pages show the effect of double columns with small -highly-finished miniatures (occupying the width of one column) -interspersed. The style of work is akin to that of the celebrated Grimani -Breviary, now in the library of St. Mark's, Venice, the miniatures of -which are said to have been painted by Memling. They are wonderfully rich -in detail, and fine in workmanship, and are quite in the manner of the -Flemish pictures of that period. We feel that the pictorial and -illustrative power is gaining the ascendancy, and in its borders of -highly wrought leaves, flowers, fruit, and insects, given in full relief -with their cast shadows--wonderful as they are in themselves as pieces of -work--it is evident to me, at least, that whatever graphic strength and -richness of chiaroscuro is gained it is at the distinct cost of the -beauty of pure decorative effect upon the page. After the delicate -arabesques of the earlier time, these borders look a little heavy, and -however great their pictorial or imitative merits, they fail to satisfy -the conditions of a page decoration so satisfactorily. - -Perhaps the most sumptuous examples of book decoration of this period are -to be found in Italy, in the celebrated Choir Books in the cathedral of -Siena. They show a rare union of imaginative form, pictorial skill, and -decorative sense in the miniaturist, united with all the Italian richness -and grace in the treatment of early Renaissance ornament, and in its -adaptation to the decoration of the book page (_see_ No. 9, Appendix). - -These miniatures are the work of Girolamo da Cremona, and Liberale da -Verona. At least, these two are described as "the most copious and -indefatigable of the artists employed on the Corali." Payments were made -to them for the work in 1468, and again in 1472-3, which fixes the date. - -[Illustration: FLEMISH SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"LIFE OF CHRIST." (ANTWERP, GHERAERT LEEU, 1487.) - -(_Original, 7-3/8 in. × 5-1/8 in._)] - -[Sidenote: ILLUMINATED MSS.] - -I am not ignoring the possibility of a certain division of labour in the -illuminated MS. The work of the scribe, the illuminator, and the -miniaturist are distinct enough, while equally important to the result. -Mr. J. W. Bradley, who has compiled a Dictionary of Miniaturists, -speaking of calligrapher, illuminator, and miniaturist, says:--"Each of -these occupations is at times conjoined with either or both of the -others," and when that is so, in giving the craftsman his title, he -decides by the period of his work. For instance, from the seventh to the -tenth centuries he would call him calligrapher; eleventh to fifteenth -centuries, illuminator; fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, miniaturist. -Transcription he puts in another category as the work of the copyist -scribe. But whatever division of labour there may or may not have been, -there was no division in the harmony and unity of the effect. If in some -cases the more purely ornamental parts, such as the floral borders and -initials, were the work of one artist, the text of another, and the -miniatures of another, all I can say is, that each worked together as -brethren in unity, contributing to the beauty of a harmonious and organic -whole; and if such division of labour can be ascertained to have been a -fact, it goes to prove the importance of some co-operation in a work of -art, and its magnificent possibilities. - -The illuminated MS. books have this great distinction and advantage in -respect of harmony of text and decoration, the text of the calligrapher -always harmonizing with the designs of the illuminator, it being in like -manner all through the Middle Ages a thing of growth and development, -acquiring new characteristics and undergoing processes of transformation -less obvious perhaps, but not less actual, than the changes in the style -and characters of the devices and inventions which accompanied it. The -mere fact that every part of the work was due to the hand, that manual -skill and dexterity alone has produced the whole, gives a distinction and -a character to these MS. books which no press could possibly rival. - -The difficulty which besets the modern book decorator, illustrator, or -designer of printers' ornaments, of getting type which will harmonize -properly with his designs, did not exist with the mediæval illuminator, -who must always have been sure of balancing his designs by a body of text -not only beautiful in the form of its individual letters, but beautiful -and rich in the effect of its mass on the page, which was only enhanced -when the initials were relieved with colour on gold, or beautiful pen -work which grew out of them like the mistletoe from the solid oak stem. - -The very pitch of perfection which penmanship, or the art of the -calligrapher had reached in the fifteenth century, the calculated -regularity and "purgation of superfluities" in the form of the letters, -the squareness of their mass in the words, and approximation in length -and height, seem to suggest and naturally lead up to the idea of the -movable type and the printed page. - -Before, however, turning the next page of our subject, let us take one -more general and rapid glance at the MS. books from the point of view of -design. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"CHRONICA HUNGARIÆ." (AUGSBURG, RATDOLT, 1488.)] - -While examples of the two fields into which art may be said to be always -more or less divided--the imitative and the inventive, or the -illustrative and the decorative--are not altogether absent in the books -of the Middle Ages, the main tendency and prevailing spirit is decidedly -on the inventive and decorative side, more especially in the work of the -illuminators from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, and yet this -inventive and decorative spirit is often allied with a dramatic and -poetic feeling, as well as a sense of humour. We see how full of life is -the ornament of the illuminator, how figures, birds, animals, and insects -fill his arabesques, how he is often decorator, illustrator, and -pictorial commentator in one. - -[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -INITIAL FROM "LA MER DES HISTOIRES." (PARIS, PIERRE LE ROUGE, 1488.)] - -[Sidenote: THE BEAUTIFUL PAGE.] - -Even apart from his enrichments, it is evident that the page was regarded -by the calligrapher as a space to be decorated--that it should at least, -regarded solely as a page of text, be a page of beautiful writing, the -mass carefully placed upon the vellum, so as to afford convenient and -ample margin, especially beneath. The page of a book, in fact, may be -regarded as a flat panel which may be variously spaced out. The -calligrapher, the illuminator, and the miniaturist are the architects who -planned out their vellum grounds and built beautiful structures of line -and colour upon them for thought and fancy to dwell in. Sometimes the -text is arranged in a single column, as generally in the earlier MSS.; -sometimes in double, as generally in the Gothic and later MSS., and these -square and oblong panels of close text are relieved by large and small -initial letters sparkling in gold and colour, inclosed in their own -framework, or escaping from it in free and varied branch work and -foliation upon the margin, and set with miniatures like gems, as in the -Bedford Hours, the larger initials increasing to such proportions as to -inclose a more important miniature--a subject-picture in short--a book -illustration in the fullest sense, yet strictly a part of a general -scheme of the ornamentation of the page. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"HORTUS SANITATIS." (MAINZ, JACOB MEIDENBACH, 1491.)] - -[Sidenote: THE MINIATURISTS.] - -Floral borders, which in some instances spread freely around the text and -fill the margins, unconfined though not uninfluenced by rectangular lines -or limits from a light and open, yet rich and delicate tracery of leaves -and fanciful blossoms (as in the Bedford Hours); are in others framed in -with firm lines (Tenison Psalter, p. 11); and in later fifteenth century -MSS. with gold lines and mouldings, as the treatment of the page becomes -more pictorial and solid in colour and relief. Sometimes the borders form -a distinct framework, inclosing the text and dividing its columns, as in -"The Book of Hours of René of Anjou" (Egerton MS. 1070), and the -same design is sometimes repeated differently coloured. Gradually the -miniaturist--the picture painter--although at first almost as formally -decorative as the illuminator--asserts his independence, and influences -the treatment of the border, which becomes a miniature also, as in the -Grimani Breviary, the Romance of the Rose, and the Choir Books of Siena, -until at last the miniature or the picture is in danger of being more -thought of than the book, and we get books of framed pictures instead of -pictured or decorated books. In the Grimani Breviary the miniature -frequently occupies the whole page with a single subject-picture; or the -miniature is superimposed upon a pictured border, which, strengthened by -rigid architectural lines and tabernacle work, form a rich frame. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"CHRONEKEN DER SASSEN." (MAINZ, SCHÖFFER, 1492.)] - -All these varieties we have been examining are, however, interesting and -beautiful in their own way in their results. In considering any form of -art of a period which shows active traditions, real life and movement, -natural growth and development, we are fascinated by its organic quality, -and though we may detect the absorption or adaptation of new elements and -new influences from time to time leading to changes of style and -structure of design, as well as changed temper and feeling, as long as -this natural evolution continues, each variety has its own charm and its -own compensations; while we may have our preferences as to which -approaches most nearly to the ideal of perfect adaptability, and, -therefore, of decorative beauty. - -In the progressive unfolding which characterizes a living style, all its -stages must be interesting and possess their own significance, since all -fall into their places in the great and golden record of the history of -art itself. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER II. OF THE TRANSITION, AND OF THE SECOND PERIOD OF DECORATIVELY -ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, FROM THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH -CENTURY ONWARDS. - - -We have seen to what a pitch of perfection and magnificence the -decoration and illustration of books attained during the Middle Ages, and -the splendid results to which art in the three distinct -forms--calligraphy, illumination, and miniature--contributed. We have -traced a gradual progression and evolution of style through the period of -MS. books, both in the development of writing and ornament. We have noted -how the former became more and more regular and compact in its mass on -the page, and how in the latter the illustrative or pictorial size grew -more and more important, until at the close of the fifteenth century we -had large and elaborately drawn and naturalistic pictures framed in the -initial letters, as in the Choir Books of Siena, or occupying the whole -page with a single subject, as in the Grimani Breviary. The tree of -design, springing from small and obscure germs, sends up a strong stem, -branches and buds in the favourable sun, and finally breaks into a -beautiful free efflorescence and fruitage. Then we mark a fresh change. -The autumn comes after the summertide, winter follows autumn, till the -new life, ever ready to spring from the husk of the old, puts forth its -leaves, until by almost imperceptible degrees and changes, and the -silent growth of new forces, the face of the world is changed for us. - -So it was with the change that came upon European art towards the end of -the fifteenth century, the result of many causes working together; but as -regards art as applied to books, the greatest of these was of course the -invention and application of printing. Like most great movements in art -or life, it had an obscure beginning. Its parentage might be sought in -the woodcuts of the earlier part of the fifteenth century applied to the -printing of cards. The immediate forerunners of printed books were the -block books. Characteristic specimens of the quaint works may be seen -displayed in the King's Library, British Museum. The art of these block -books is quite rude and primitive, and, contrasted with the -highly-finished work of the illuminated MS. of the same time, might -almost belong to another period. These are the first tottering steps of -the infant craft; the first faint utterances, soon to grow into strong, -clear, and perfect speech, to rule the world of books and men. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -FROM THE LÜBECK BIBLE. (LÜBECK, STEFFEN ARNDES, 1494.)] - -[Sidenote: THE EARLIEST PRINTERS.] - -Germany had not taken any especial or distinguished part in the -production of MSS. remarkable for artistic beauty or original treatment; -but her time was to come, and now, in the use of an artistic application -of the invention of printing, and the new era of book decoration and -illustration, she at once took the lead. Seeing that the invention itself -is ascribed to one of her own sons, it seems appropriate enough, and -natural that printing should grow to quick perfection in the land of -its birth; so that we find some of the earliest and greatest triumphs of -the Press coming from German printers, such as Gutenberg, Fust, and -Schoeffer, not to speak yet of the wonderful fertility of decorative -invention, graphic force, and dramatic power of German designers, -culminating in the supreme genius of Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein. - -The prosperous German towns, Cologne, Mainz, Frankfort, Strassburg, -Augsburg, Bamberg, Halberstadt, Nuremberg, and Ulm, all became famous in -the history of printing, and each had its school of designers in black -and white, its distinctive style in book-decoration and printing. - -Italy, France, Switzerland, and England, however, all had their share, -and a glorious share, in the triumph of printing in its early days. The -presses of Venice, of Florence, and of Rome and Naples, of Paris, and of -Basel, and of our own William Caxton, at Westminster, must always be -looked upon as in the van of the early progress of the art, and the -richness of the decorative invention and beauty, in the case of the -woodcut adornments used by the printers of Venice and Florence -especially, gives them in the last years of the fifteenth century and the -early years of the sixteenth a particular distinction. - -1454 appears to be the earliest definite date that can be fixed on to -mark the earliest use of printing. In that year, the Mainz "Indulgences" -were in circulation, but the following year is more important, as to it -is assigned the issue, from the press of Gutenberg and Fust at Mainz, of -the famous Mazarin Bible, a copy of which is in the British Museum. Mr. -Bullen says, "The copy which first attracted notice in modern times was -discovered in the library of Cardinal Mazarin"--hence the name. - -It is noticeable as showing how transitional was the change in the -treatment of the page. The scribe has been supplanted--the marshalled -legions of printed letters have invaded his territory and driven him from -his occupation; but the margin is still left for the illuminator to -spread his coloured borders upon, and the initial letters wait for the -touch of colour from his hand. The early printers evidently regarded -their art as providing a substitute for the MS. book. They aimed at doing -the work of the scribe and doing it better and more expeditiously. No -idea of a new departure in effect seems to have been entertained at -first, to judge from such specimens as these. - -[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -FROM PARIS ET VIENNE. (PARIS, JEHAN TREPEREL, C. 1495.)] - -[Sidenote: THE MAINZ PSALTER.] - -Another early printed book is the Mainz Psalter. It is printed on vellum, -and comes from the press of Fust and Schoeffer in 1457. It is -remarkable not only as the first printed psalter and as the first book -printed with a date, but also as being the first example of printing in -colours. The initial letter B is the result of this method, and it -affords a wonderful instance of true register. The blue of the letter -fitted cleanly into the red of the surrounding ornament with a precision -which puzzles our modern printers, and it is difficult to understand how -such perfection could have been attained. Mr. Emery Walker has suggested -to me that the blue letter itself might have been cut out, inked, and -dropped in from the back of the red block when that was in the press, and -so the two colours printed together. If this could be done with -sufficient precision, it would certainly account for the exactitude of -the register. Apart from this interesting technical question, however, -the page is a very beautiful one, and the initial, with its solid shape -of figured blue, inclosed in the delicate red pen-like tracery climbing -up and down the margin, is a charming piece of page decoration. The -original may be seen in one of the cases in the King's Library, British -Museum. We have here an instance of the printer aiming at directly -imitating and supplanting by his craft the art of the calligrapher and -illuminator, and with such a beauty and perfection of workmanship as must -have astonished them and given them far more reason to regard the printer -as a dangerous rival than had (as it is said) the early wood engravers, -who were unwilling to help the printer by their art for fear his craft -would injure their own, which seems somewhat extraordinary considering -how closely allied both wood engraver and printer have been ever since. -The example of the Mainz Psalter does not seem to have been much -followed, and as regards the application of colour, it was as a rule left -as a matter of course to be added by the miniaturist, who evidently -declined as an artist after he had got into the way of having his designs -in outline provided for him ready-made by the printer; or, rather, -perhaps the accomplished miniature printer, having carried his art as -applied to books about as far as it would go, became absorbed as a -painter of independent pictures, and the printing of books fell into -inferior hands. There can be no doubt that the devices and decorations of -the early printers were intended to be coloured in emulation of -illuminated and miniatured MSS., and were regarded, in fact, as the pen -outlines of the illuminator, only complete when filled in with colours -and gold. It appears to have been only by degrees that the rich and -vigorous lines of the woodcut, as well as the black and white effect, -became admired for their own sake--so slowly moves the world! - -[Sidenote: GERMAN ILLUSTRATION.] - -A good idea of the general character of the development of the wood (and -metal) cut in book and illustration and decoration in Germany, from 1470 -(Leiden Christi, Pfister, Bamberg, 1470) to (Virgil Solis' Bible) 1563, -may be gained from a study of the series of reproductions given in this -and the preceding chapter, in chronological order, with the names, dates, -and places, as well as the particular characteristics of the style of the -different designers and printers. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -"DAS BUCH UND LEBEN DES HOCHBERÜHMTEN FABELDICHTERS ÆSOPI." (ULM, -1498.[1])] - - [1] This is the date of the copy from which the illustration is - reproduced. The first edition of the book was, however, probably - issued about 1480. - -[Sidenote: ITALIAN ILLUSTRATIONS.] - -The same may be said in regard to the Italian series which follows, and -those from Basel and Paris. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS. (FERRARA, 1497.)] - -Perhaps the most interesting examples of the use of early printing as a -substitute for illumination and miniature are to be found in the Books of -Hours which were produced at Paris in the later years of the fifteenth -and the early years of the sixteenth centuries (1487-1519 about) by -Vérard, Du Pré, Philip Pigouchet, Kerver, and Hardouyn. - -Specimens of these books may be seen in the British Museum, and at the -Art Library at South Kensington Museum. The originals are mostly printed -on vellum. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -TUPPO'S ÆSOP. (NAPLES, 1485.)] - -[Sidenote: BORDERS AND ORNAMENTS.] - -The effect of the richly designed borders on black dotted grounds is -very pleasant, but these books seem to have been intended to be -illuminated and coloured. We find in some copies that the full-page -printed pictures are coloured, being worked up as miniatures, and the -semi-architectural borderings with Renaissance mouldings and details are -gilded flat, and treated as the frame of the picture. There is one which -has the mark of the printer Gillet Hardouyn (G. H. on the shield), on the -front page. In another copy (1515) this is painted and the framework -gilded; the subject is Nessus the Centaur carrying off Deianira, the -wife of Hercules; a sign of the tendency to revive classical mythology -which had set in, in this case, in curious association with a Christian -service-book. It is noticeable how soon the facility for repetition by -the press was taken advantage of, and a design, especially if on -ornamental borderings of a page, often repeated several times throughout -a book. These borderings and ornaments being generally in separate -blocks as to headings, side panels, and tail-pieces, could easily be -shifted and a certain variety obtained by being differently made up. Here -we may see commercialism creeping in. Considerations of profit and -economy no doubt have their effect, and mechanical invention comes in to -cheapen not only labour, but artistic invention also. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -P. CREMONESE'S "DANTE." (VENICE, NOVEMBER, 1491.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -THE DISCOVERY OF THE INDIES. (FLORENCE, 1493.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -FIOR DI VIRTÙ. 1498 (FLORENCE, 1493?)] - -[Sidenote: THE RENAISSANCE.] - -It took some time, however, to turn the printer into the manufacturer or -tradesman pure and simple. Nothing is more striking than the high -artistic character of the early printed books. The invention of printing, -coming as it did when the illuminated MSS. had reached the period of its -greatest glory and perfection, with the artistic traditions of fifteen -centuries poured, as it were, into its lap, filling its founts with -beautiful lettering, and guiding the pencil of its designers with a still -unbroken sense of fitness and perfect adaptability; while as yet the -influence of the revival of classic learning and mythology was only felt -as the stirring and stimulating breath of new awakening spring--the aroma -of spice-laden winds from unknown shores of romance--or as the mystery -and wonder of discovery, standing on the brink of a half-disclosed new -world, and fired with the thought of its possibilities-- - - "Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes - He stared at the Pacific." - -Had the discovery of printing occurred two or three centuries earlier, it -would have been curious to see the results. But after all, an invention -never lives until the world is ready to adopt it. It is impossible to say -how many inventions are new inventions. "Ask and ye shall have," or the -practical application of it, is the history of civilization. Necessity, -the stern mother, compels her children to provide for their own physical -and intellectual necessities, and in due time the hour and the man (with -his invention) arrives. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -STEPHANO CAESENATE PEREGRINI INVENTORE (S.C. P.I.). (VENICE, DE -GREGORIIS, 1498.)] - -Classical mythology and Gothic mysticism and romance met together in the -art and books of the early Renaissance. Ascetic aspiration strives with -frank paganism and nature worship. The gods of ancient Greece and Rome -seemed to awake after an enchanted sleep of ages, and reappear again unto -men. - -Italy, having hardly herself ever broken with the ancient traditions of -Classical art and religion, became the focus of the new light, and her -independent republics, such as Florence and Venice, the centres of -wealth, culture, refinement, and artistic invention. Turkish conquest, -too, had its effect on the development of the new movement by driving -Greek scholars and the knowledge of the classical writers of antiquity -Westward. These were all materials for an exceptional development of art, -and, above all, of the art of the printer, and the decoration and -illustration of books. - -The name of Aldus, of Venice, is famous among those of the early -Renaissance printers. Perhaps the most remarkable book, from this or any -press, for the beauty of its decorative illustration, is the _Poliphili -Hypnerotomachia_--"The Dream of Poliphilus"--printed in 1499, an -allegorical romance of love in the manner of those days. The authorship -of the design has been the subject of much speculation. I believe they -were attributed at one time to Mantegna, and they have also been ascribed -to one of the Bellini. The style of the designer, the quality of the -outline, the simplicity yet richness of the designs, their poetic -feeling, the mysticism of some, and frank paganism of others, places the -series quite by themselves. The first edition is now very difficult to -obtain, and might cost something like 100 guineas. - -My illustrations are taken from the copy in the Art Library at South -Kensington Museum, and are from negatives taken by Mr. Griggs, for the -Science and Art Department, who have issued a set of reproductions in -photo-lithography, by him, of the whole of the woodcuts in the volume, -of the original size, at the price, I believe, of 5_s._ 6_d._ Here -is an instance of what photographic reproduction can do for us--when -originals of great works are costly or unattainable we can get -reproductions for a few shillings, for all practical purposes as good -for study as the originals themselves. If we cannot, in this age, -produce great originals, we can at least reproduce them--perhaps the -next best thing. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -POLIPHILUS. (VENICE, ALDUS, 1499.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. =TERTIVS= XVTH CENTURY. - -POLIPHILUS. (VENICE, ALDUS, 1499.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -ALESSANDRO MINUZIANO. (MILAN, DESIGNER UNKNOWN, 1503.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -SCHOOL OF GIOV. BELLINI. - -(VENICE, GEORGIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1506.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -THE DESCENT OF MINERVA, FROM THE QUATRIREGIO. (FLORENCE, 1508.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -AULUS GELLIUS, PRINTED BY GIOV. TACUINO. (VENICE, 1509.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -QUINTILIAN. (VENICE, GEORGIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1512.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -OTTAVIANO DEI PETRUCCI. (FOSSOMBRONE, 1513.)] - -There is a French edition of Poliphilus printed at Paris, by Kerver, in -1561,[2] which has a frontispiece designed by Jean Cousin. The -illustrations, too, have all been redrawn, and are treated in quite a -different manner from the Venetian originals--but they have a character -of their own, though of a later, florid, and more self-conscious type, as -might be expected from Paris in the latter half of the sixteenth century. -The initial letters of a series of chapters in the book spell, if read -consecutively, Francisco Columna (F.R.A.N.C.I.S.C.O. C.O.L.V.M.N.A.)--the -name of the writer of the romance. - - [2] The first French edition is dated 1546. - -Whether such designs as these were intended to be coloured is doubtful. -They are very satisfactory as they are in outline, and want nothing else. -The book may be considered as an illustrated one, drawings of monuments, -fountains, standards, emblems, and devices are placed here and there in -the text, but they are so charmingly designed and drawn that the effect -is decorative, and being in open line the mechanical conditions are -perfectly fulfilled of surface printing with the type. - -[Sidenote: CAXTON.] - -After the beautiful productions of the German, Italian (of which some -reproductions are given here), and French printers, our own William -Caxton's first books seem rather rough, though not without character, -and, at any rate, picturesqueness, if they cannot be quoted as very -accomplished examples of the printer's art. The first book printed in -England is said to be Caxton's "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers," -printed by him at Westminster in 1477. - -A noticeable characteristic of the early printed books is the development -of the title page. Whereas the MSS. generally did without one, with the -advent of printing the title page became more and more important, and -even if there were no other illustrations or ornaments in a book, there -was often a woodcut title. Such examples as some here given convey a good -idea of what charming decorative feeling these title page designs -sometimes displayed, and those greatest of designers and book decorators -and illustrators, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, showed their power and -decorative skill, and sense of the resources of the woodcut, in the -designs made by them for various title pages. - -The noble designs of the master craftsman of Nuremberg, Albrecht Dürer, -are well known. His extraordinary vigour of drawing, and sense of its -resources as applied to the woodcut, made him a great force in the -decoration and illustration of books, and many are the splendid designs -from his hand. Three designs from the fine series of the Little Passion -and two of his title pages are given, which show him on the strictly -decorative side. The title dated 1523 may be compared with -that of Oronce Finé (Paris, 1534). There appears to have been a return to -this convoluted knotted kind of ornament at this period. It appears in -Italian MSS. earlier, and may have been derived from Byzantine sources. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -ALBRECHT DÜRER, "KLEINE PASSION." (NUREMBERG, 1512.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. ALBRECHT DÜRER, "KLEINE -PASSION." (NUREMBERG, 1512.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -ALBRECHT DÜRER, "KLEINE PASSION." (NUREMBERG, 1512.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -ALBRECHT DÜRER. (NUREMBERG, HEINRICH STEYNER, 1513.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -DESIGNED BY ALBRECHT DÜRER. (NUREMBERG, 1523.)] - -[Sidenote: HANS HOLBEIN.] - -There is a fine title page designed by Holbein, printed by Petri, at -Basle, in 1524. It was originally designed and used for an edition of the -New Testament, printed by the same Adam Petri in 1523. At the four -corners are the symbols of the Evangelists; the arms of the city of Basle -are in the centre of the upper border, and the printer's device occupies -a corresponding space below. Figures of SS. Peter and Paul are in the -niches at each side. But the work always most associated with the name of -Holbein is the remarkable little book containing the series of designs -known as the "Dance of Death," the first edition of which was printed at -Lyons in 1538. The two designs here given are printed from the blocks cut -by Bonner and Byfield (1833). These cuts are only about 2-1/2 by 2 -inches, and yet an extraordinary amount of invention, graphic power, -dramatic and tragic force, and grim and satiric humour, is compressed -into them. They stand quite alone in the history of art, and give a -wonderfully interesting and complete series of illustrations of the life -of the sixteenth century. Holbein is supposed to have painted this "Dance -of Death" in the palace of Henry VIII., erected by Cardinal Wolsey at -Whitehall, life size; but this was destroyed in the fire which consumed -nearly the whole of that palace in 1697. - -[Illustration: GER. SCHOOL. XVITH CENT. - -HOLBEIN. "DANCE OF DEATH." - -THE NUN. (LYONS, 1538.)] - -The Bible cuts of Hans Holbein are also a very fine series, and -remarkable for their breadth and simplicity of line, as well as -decorative effect on the page. - -[Illustration: GER. SCHOOL. XVITH CENT. - -HOLBEIN, "DANCE OF DEATH." - -THE PLOUGHMAN. (LYONS, 1538.)] - -It is interesting to note that Holbein's father and grandfather both -practised engraving and painting at Augsburg, while his brother Ambrose -was also a fertile book illustrator. Hans Holbein the elder married a -daughter of the elder Burgmair, father of the famous Hans Burgmair, -examples of whose fine and vigorous style of drawing are given. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS HOLBEIN. (BASEL, ADAM PETRI, _circa_ 1524.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS HOLBEIN. HIST. VET. TEST. ICONIBUS ILLUSTRATA.] - -[Sidenote: THE GERMAN MASTERS.] - -[Sidenote: THE GERMAN TRADITION.] - -Albrecht Dürer and Holbein, indeed, seem to express and to sum up all the -vigour and power of design of that very vigorous and fruitful time of the -German Renaissance. They had able contemporaries, of course, among whom -are distinguished, Lucas Cranach (the elder) born 1470, and Hans -Burgmair, already named, who was associated with Dürer in the work of the -celebrated series of woodcuts, "The Triumphs of Maximilian;" one of the -fine series of "Der Weiss König," a noble title page, and a vigorous -drawing of peasants at work in a field, here represent him. Other notable -designers were Hans Sebald Beham, Hans Baldung Grün, Hans Wächtlin, Jost -Amman, and others, who carried on the German style or tradition in design -to the end of the sixteenth century. This tradition of convention was -technically really the mode of expression best fitted to the conditions -of the woodcut and the press, under which were evolved the vigorous pen -line characteristic of the German masters. It was a living condition in -which each could work freely, bringing in his own fresh observation and -individual feeling, while remaining in collective harmony. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS HOLBEIN. BIBLE.] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -AMBROSE HOLBEIN. "DAS GANTZE NEUE TESTAMENT," ETC. - -(BASEL, 1523.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS BURGMAIR. "DER WEISS KÖNIG" (1512-14).] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS BURGMAIR. (AUGSBURG, 1516.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS BURGMAIR. "HISTORIA MUNDI NATURALIS," PLINY. (FRANKFORT, 1582.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS BURGMAIR. "DIE MEERFAHRT ZU VILN ONERKANNTEN INSELN UND -KUNIGREICHEN." - -(AUGSBURG, 1509.)] - -[Sidenote: PRINTERS' MARKS] - -[Sidenote: EMBLEM BOOKS.] - -The various marks adopted by the printers themselves are often decorative -devices of great interest and beauty. The French printers, -Gillett Hardouyn and Thielman Kerver, for instance, had -charming devices with which they generally occupied the front page of -their Books of Hours. Others were pictorial puns and embodied the name of -the printer under some figure, such as that of Petri of Basle, who -adopted a device of a stone, which the flames and the hammer stroke -failed to destroy; or the mark of Philip le Noir--a black shield with a -negro crest and supporter; or the palm tree of Palma Isingrin. Others -were purely emblematic and heraldic, such as the dolphin twined round the -anchor, of Aldus, with the motto "_Propera tarde_"--"hasten slowly." -This, and another device of a crab holding a butterfly by its wings, with -the same signification, are both borrowed from the favourite devices of -two of the early emperors of Rome--Augustus and Titus. This symbolic, -emblematic, allegorizing tendency which had been more or less -characteristic of both art and literature, in various degrees, from the -most ancient times, became more systematically cultivated, and -collections of emblems began to appear in book form in the sixteenth -century. The earliest being that of Alciati, the first edition of whose -book appeared in 1522, edition after edition following each other from -various printers and places from that date to 1621, with ever-increasing -additions, and being translated into French, German, and Italian. Mr. -Henry Green, the author of "Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers" (written -to prove Shakespeare's acquaintance with the emblem books, and constant -allusions to emblems), said of Alciati's book that "it established, if -it did not introduce, a new style for emblem literature--the classical, -in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and -mystic." - -[Illustration: HANS BALDUNG GRÜN. "HORTULUS ANIMÆ." - -(STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 1511.)] - -[Illustration: HANS BALDUNG GRÜN. "HORTULUS ANIMÆ." - -(STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 1511.)] - -[Illustration: HANS BALDUNG GRÜN. "HORTULUS ANIMÆ." - -(STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 1511.)] - -[Illustration: HANS BALDUNG GRÜN. - -"HORTULUS ANIMÆ." - -(STRASSBURG, MARTIN FLACH, 1511.)] - -There is an edition of Alciati printed at Lyons (Bonhomme), 1551, a -reprint of which was published by the Holbein Society in 1881. The figure -designs and the square woodcut subjects are supposed to be the work of -Solomon Bernard--called the little Bernard--born at Lyons in 1522. These -are surrounded by elaborate and rather heavy decorative borders, in the -style of the later Renaissance, by another hand, some of them bearing the -monogram P.V., which has been explained to mean either Pierino del Vaga, -the painter (a pupil of Raphael's), or Petro de Vingles, a printer of -Lyons. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS WÄCHTLIN. (STRASSBURG, MATHIAS SCHÜRER, 1513.)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -HANS SEBALD BEHAM. "DAS PAPSTTHUM MIT SEINEN GLIEDERN." - -(NUREMBERG, HANS WANDEREISEN, 1526.)] - -These borders, as we learn from a preface to one of the editions ("Ad -Lectorem"--Roville's Latin text of the emblems), were intended as -patterns for various craftsmen. "For I say this is their use, that as -often as any one may wish to assign fulness to empty things, ornament to -base things, speech to dumb things, and reason to senseless things, -he may, from a little book of emblems, as from an excellently -well-prepared hand-book, have what he may be able to impress on the walls -of houses, on windows of glass, on tapestry, on hangings, on tablets, -vases, ensigns, seals, garments, the table, the couch, the arms, the -sword, and lastly, furniture of every kind." - -[Sidenote: EMBLEMS.] - -An emblem has been defined ("Cotgrave's Dictionary," Art. "Emblema") as -"a picture and short posie, expressing some particular conceit;" and by -Francis Quarles as "but a silent parable;" and Bacon, in his "Advancement -of Learning," says:--"Embleme deduceth conceptions intellectuall to -images sensible, and that which is sensible more fully strikes the -memory, and is more easily imprinted than that which is intellectual." - -[Sidenote: THE COPPER-PLATE.] - -All was fish that fell into the net of the emblem writer or deviser; -hieroglyphic, heraldry, fable, mythology, the ancient Egyptians, Homer, -ancient Greece and Rome, Christianity, or pagan philosophy, all in their -turn served - - "To point a moral and adorn a tale." - -As to the artistic quality of the designs which are found in these books, -they are of very various quality, those of the earlier sixteenth century -with woodcuts being naturally the best and most vigorous, corresponding -in character to the qualities of the contemporary design. Holbein's -"Dance of Death," or rather "Images and Storied Aspects of Death," its -true title, might be called an emblem book, but very few can approach it -in artistic quality. Some of the devices in early editions of the emblem -books of Giovio, Witney, and even the much later Quarles have a certain -quaintness; but though such books necessarily depended on their -illustrations, the moral and philosophic, or epigrammatic burden proved -in the end more than the design could carry, when the impulse which -characterized the early Renaissance had declined, and design, as applied -to books, became smothered with classical affectation and pomposity, and -the clear and vigorous woodcut was supplanted by the doubtful advantage -of the copper-plate. The introduction of the use of the copper-plate -marks a new era in book illustration, but as regards their decoration, -one of distinct decline. While the surface-printed block, whether woodcut -or metal engraving (by which method many of the early book illustrations -were rendered) accorded well with the conditions of the letter-press -printing, as they were set up with the type and printed by the same -pressure in the same press. With copper-plate quite other conditions came -in, as the paper has to be pressed into the etched or engraved lines of -the plate, instead of being impressed by the lines in relief of the wood -or the metal. Thus, with the use of copper-plate illustrations in printed -books, that mechanical relation which exists between a surface-printed -block and the letter-press was at once broken, as a different method of -printing had to be used. The apparent, but often specious, refinement of -the copper-plate did not necessarily mean extra power or refinement of -draughtsmanship or design, but merely thinner lines, and these were -often attained at the cost of richness and vigour, as well as -decorative effect. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -REFORMATION DER BA[:Y]RISCHEN LANDRECHT. (MUNICH, 1518.)] - -The first book illustrated with copper-plate engravings, however, bears -an early date--1477. ["El Monte Sancto di Dio." Niccolo di Lorenzo, -Florence]. In this case it was reserved for the full page pictures. The -method does not seem to have commended itself much to the book designers, -and did not come into general use until the end of the sixteenth century, -with the decline of design. - -The encyclopædic books of this period--the curious compendiums of the -knowledge of those days--were full of entertaining woodcuts, diagrams, -and devices, and the various treatises on grammar, arithmetic, geometry, -physiology, anatomy, astronomy, geography, were made attractive by them, -each section preceded perhaps by an allegorical figure of the art or -science discoursed of in the costume of a grand dame of the period. The -herbals and treatises on animals were often filled with fine floral -designs and vigorous, if sometimes half-mythical, representations of -animals. - -[Sidenote: FUCHSIUS.] - -[Sidenote: HERBALS.] - -There are fine examples of plant drawing in a beautiful herbal -("Fuchsius: De Historia Stirpium"; Basle, Isingrin, 1542). They are not -only faithful and characteristic as drawings of the plants themselves, -but are beautiful as decorative designs, being drawn in a fine free -style, and with a delicate sense of line, and well thrown upon the page. -At the beginning of the book is a woodcut portrait of the author, Leonard -Fuchs--possibly the fuchsia may have been named after him--and at the end -is another woodcut giving the portrait of the artist, the designer of -the flowers, and the draughtsman on wood and the formschneider, or -engraver on wood, beneath, who appears to be fully conscious of his own -importance. The first two are busy at work, and it will be noticed the -artist is drawing from the flower itself with the point of a brush, the -brush being fixed in a quill in the manner of our water-colour brushes. -The draughtsman holds the design or paper while he copies it upon the -block. The portraits are vigorously drawn in a style suggestive of Hans -Burgmair. Good examples of plant drawing which is united with design are -also to be found in Matthiolus (Venice, 1583), and in a Kreuterbuch -(Strasburg, 1551), and in Gerard's Herbal, of which there are several -editions. - -As examples of design in animals, there are some vigorous woodcuts in a -"History of Quadrupeds," by Conrad Gesner, printed by Froschover, of -Zurich, in 1554. The porcupine is as like a porcupine as need be, and -there can be no mistake about his quills. The drawings of birds are -excellent, and one of a crane (as I ought, perhaps, more particularly to -know) is very characteristic. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -(TOSCULANO, ALEX. PAGANINI, 1520.) - -(_Comp. Dürer's title page, Nuremberg, 1523._)] - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -"FUCHSIUS: DE HISTORIA STIRPIUM." (BASLE, ISINGRIN, 1542.)] - -[Sidenote: THE NEW SPIRIT.] - -But we have passed the Rubicon--the middle of the sixteenth century. -Ripening so rapidly, and blossoming into such excellence and perfection -as did the art of the printer, and design as applied to the printed page, -through the woodcut and the press, their artistic character and beauty -was somewhat short-lived. Up to about this date (1554 was the date of our -last example), as we have seen, to judge only from the comparatively few -specimens given here, what beautiful books were printed, remarkable -both for their decorative and illustrative value, and often uniting these -two functions in perfect harmony; but after the middle of the sixteenth -century both vigour and beauty in design generally may be said to have -declined. Whether the world had begun to be interested in other -things--and we know the great discovery of Columbus had made it -practically larger--whether discovery, conquest, and commerce more and -more filled the view of foremost spirits, and art was only valued as it -illustrated or contributed to the knowledge of or furtherance of these; -whether the Reformation or the spirit of Protestantism, turning men's -minds from outward to inward things, and in its revolt against the half -paganized Catholic Church--involving a certain ascetic scorn and contempt -for any form of art which did not serve a direct moral purpose, and which -appealed to the senses rather than to the emotions or the -intellect--practically discouraged it altogether. Whether that new -impulse given to the imagination by the influence of the revival of -Classical learning, poetry, and antique art, had become jaded, and, while -breaking with the traditions and spirit of Gothic or Mediæval art, began -to put on the fetters of authority and pedantry, and so, gradually -overlaid by the forms and cerements of a dead style, lost its vigour and -vitality--whether due to one or all of these causes, certain it is that -the lamp of design began to fail, and, compared with its earlier -radiance, shed but a doubtful flicker upon the page through the -succeeding centuries. - - - - -CHAPTER III. OF THE PERIOD OF THE DECLINE OF DECORATIVE FEELING IN BOOK -DESIGN AFTER THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, AND OF THE MODERN REVIVAL. - - -As I indicated at the outset of the first chapter, my purpose is not to -give a complete historical account of the decoration and illustration of -books, but rather to dwell on the artistic treatment of the page from my -own point of view as a designer. So far, however, the illustrations I -have given, while serving their purpose, also furnished a fair idea of -the development of style and variation of treatment of both the MS. and -printed book under different influences, from the sixth to the close of -the sixteenth century, but now I shall have to put on a pair of -seven-league boots, and make some tremendous skips. - -We have seen how, at the period of the early Renaissance, two streams -met, as it were, and mingled, with very beautiful results. The freedom, -the romance, the naturalism of the later Gothic, with the newly awakened -Classical feeling, with its grace of line and mythological lore. The rich -and delicate arabesques in which Italian designers delighted, and which -so frequently decorated, as we have seen, the borders of the early -printer, owe also something to Oriental influence, as indeed their name -indicates. The decorative beauty of these early Renaissance books were -really, therefore, the outcome of a very remarkable fusion of ideas and -styles. Printing, as an art, and book decoration attained a perfection -it has not since reached. The genius of the greatest designers of the -time was associated with the new invention, and expressed itself with -unparalleled vigour in the woodcut; while the type-founder, being still -under the influence of a fine traditional style in handwriting, was in -perfect harmony with the book decorator or illustrator. Even geometric -diagrams were given without destroying the unity of the page, as may be -seen in early editions of Euclid, and we have seen what faithful and -characteristic work was done in illustrations of plants and animals, -without loss of designing power and ornamental sense. - -[Sidenote: THE CLASSICAL INFLUENCE.] - -This happy equilibrium of artistic quality and practical adaptation after -the middle of the sixteenth century began to decline. There were -designers, like Oronce Finé and Geoffroy Tory, at Paris, who did much to -preserve the traditions in book ornament of the early Italian printers, -while adding a touch of grace and fancy of their own, but for the most -part the taste of book designers ran to seed after this period. The -classical influence, which had been only felt as one among other -influences, became more and more paramount over the designer, triumphing -over the naturalistic feeling, and over the Gothic and Eastern ornamental -feeling; so that it might be said that, whereas Mediæval designers sought -after colour and decorative beauty, Renaissance designers were influenced -by considerations of line, form, and relief. This may have been due in a -great measure to the fact that the influence of the antique and Classical -art was a sculpturesque influence, mainly gathered from statues and -relievos, gems and medals, and architectural carved ornaments, and more -through Roman than Greek sources. While suggestions from such sources -were but sparingly introduced at first, they gradually seemed to outweigh -all other motives with the later designers, whose works often suggest -that it is impossible to have too much Roman costume or too many Roman -remains, which crowd their Bible subjects, and fill their borders with -overfed pediments, corpulent scrolls, and volutes, and their interstices -with scattered fragments and attitudinizing personifications of Classical -mythology. The lavish use of such materials were enough to overweight -even vigorous designers like Virgil Solis, who though able, facile, and -versatile as he was, seems but a poor substitute for Holbein. - -[Illustration: FRENCH SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -DESIGNED BY ORONCE FINÉ. (PARIS, SIMON DE COLINES, 1534.) - -(_Comp. Dürer's title to Plutarch, 1513, and St. Ambrosius, 1520._)] - -[Sidenote: THE RENAISSANCE.] - -What was at first an inspiriting, imaginative, and refining influence in -art became finally a destructive force. The youthful spirit of the early -Renaissance became clouded and oppressed, and finally crushed with a -weight of pompous pedantry and affectation. The natural development of a -living style in art became arrested, and authority, and an endeavour to -imitate the antique, took its place. - -The introduction of the copper-plate marked a new epoch in book -illustration, and wood-engraving declined with its increased adoption, -which, in the form it took, as applied to books, in the seventeenth and -eighteenth centuries, was certainly to the detriment and final extinction -of the decorative side. - -[Sidenote: COPPER-PLATE.] - -It has already been pointed out how a copper-plate, requiring a -different process of printing, and exhibiting as a necessary consequence -such different qualities of line and effect, cannot harmonize with type -and the conditions of the surface-printed page, since it is not in any -mechanical relation with them. This mechanical relation is really the key -to all good and therefore organic design; and therefore it is that design -was in sounder condition when mechanical conditions and relations were -simpler. A new invention often has a dislocating effect upon design. A -new element is introduced, valued for some particular facility or effect, -and it is often adopted without considering how--like a new element in a -chemical combination--it alters the relations all round. - -Copper-plate engraving was presumably adopted as a method for -book-illustration for its greater fineness and precision of line, and its -greater command of complexity in detail and chiaroscuro, for its purely -pictorial qualities, in short, and its adoption corresponded to the -period of the ascendancy of the painter above other kind of artists. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. LATE XVITH CENTURY. - -VIRGIL SOLIS, BIBLE. (FRANKFORT, SIGM. FEYRABEND, 1563.)] - -[Illustration: VENETIAN SCHOOL. LATE XVITH CENTURY. - -ARTIST UNKNOWN. (VENICE, G. GIOLITO, 1562.)] - -As regards the books of the seventeenth century, while "of making many -books there was no end," and however interesting for other than artistic -reasons, but few would concern our immediate purpose. Woodcuts, headings, -initials, tail-pieces, and printers' ornaments continued to be used, but -greatly inferior in design and beauty of effect to those of the sixteenth -century. The copper-plates introduced are quite apart from the page -ornaments, and can hardly be considered decorative, although in the -pompous title-pages of books of this period they are frequently formal -and architectural enough, and, as a rule, founded more or less upon -the ancient arches of triumph of Imperial Rome. - -Histories and philosophical works, especially towards the end of the -seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, were embellished -with pompous portraits in frames of more or less classical joinery, with -shields of arms, the worse for the decorative decline of heraldry, -underneath. The specimen given is a good one of its type from a Venetian -book of 1562, and gives the earlier form of this kind of treatment. -Travels and topographical works increased, until by the middle of the -eighteenth century we have them on the scale of Piranesi's scenic views -of the architecture of ancient Rome. - -The love of picturesqueness and natural scenery, or, perhaps, landscape -gardening, gradually developing, concentrated interest on qualities the -antithesis of constructive and inventive design, and drew the attention -more and more away from them, until the painter, pure and simple, took -all the artistic honours, and the days of the foundation of academies -only confirmed and fixed the idea of art in this restricted sense in the -public mind. - -[Sidenote: HOGARTH.] - -Hogarth, who availed himself of the copper-plate and publication in book -form of his pictures, was yet wholly pictorial in his sympathies, and his -instincts were dramatic and satiric rather than decorative. Able painter -and designer as he was in his own way, the interest of his work is -entirely on that side, and is rather valuable as illustrating the life -and manners of his time than as furnishing examples of book illustration, -and his work certainly has no decorative aim, although no doubt quite -harmonious in an eighteenth century room. - -[Sidenote: STOTHARD.] - -Chodowiecki, who did a vast quantity of steel frontispieces and -illustrations for books on a small scale, with plenty of character, must -also be regarded rather as a maker of pictures for books than as a book -decorator. He is sometimes mentioned as kindred in style to Stothard, but -Stothard was much more of an idealist, and had, too, a very graceful -decorative sense from the classical point of view. His book designs are -very numerous, chiefly engraved on steel, and always showing a very -graceful sense of line and composition. His designs to Rogers' "Poems," -and "Italy," are well-known, and, in their earlier woodcut form, his -groups of Amorini are very charming. - -Flaxman had a high sense of sculpturesque style and simplicity, and great -feeling and grace as a designer, but he can hardly be reckoned as a book -decorator. His well-known series to Homer, Hesiod, Æschylus, and Dante -are strictly distinct series of illustrative designs, to be taken by -themselves without reference to their incorporation in, or relation to, a -printed book. Their own lettering and explanatory text is engraved on the -same plate beneath them, and so far they are consistent, but are not in -any sense examples of page treatment or spacing. - -[Illustration: XIXTH CENTURY. WILLIAM BLAKE. - -"SONGS OF INNOCENCE," 1789.] - -[Sidenote: WILLIAM BLAKE.] - -We now come to a designer of a very different type, a type, too, of a new -epoch, whatever resemblance in style and method there may be in his work -to that of his contemporaries. William Blake is distinct, and stands -alone. A poet and a seer, as well as a designer, in him seemed to awake -something of the spirit of the old illuminator. He was not content to -illustrate a book by isolated copper or steel plates apart from the text, -although in his craft as engraver he constantly carried out the work of -others. When he came to embody his own thoughts and dreams, he recurred -quite spontaneously to the methods of the maker of the MS. books. He -became his own calligrapher, illuminator and miniaturist, while availing -himself of the copper-plate (which he turned into a surface printing -block) and the printing press for the reproduction of his designs, and in -some cases for producing them in tints. His hand-coloured drawings, the -borderings and devices to his own poems, will always be things by -themselves. - -His treatment of the resources of black and white, and sense of page -decoration, may be best judged perhaps by a reference to his "Book of -Job," which contains a fine series of suggestive and imaginative designs. -We seem to read in Blake something of the spirit of the Mediæval -designers, through the sometimes mannered and semi-classic forms and -treatment, according to the taste of his time; while he embodies its more -daring aspiring thoughts, and the desire for simpler and more humane -conditions of life. A revolutionary fire and fervour constantly breaks -out both in his verse and in his designs, which show very various moods -and impulses, and comprehend a wide range of power and sympathy. -Sometimes mystic and prophetic, sometimes tragic, sometimes simple and -pastoral. - -Blake, in these mixed elements, and the extraordinary suggestiveness of -his work and the freedom of his thought, seems nearer to us than others -of his contemporaries. In his sense of the decorative treatment of the -page, too, his work bears upon our purpose. In writing with his own hand -and in his own character the text of his poems, he gained the great -advantage which has been spoken of--of harmony between text and -illustration. They become a harmonious whole, in complete relation. His -woodcuts to Phillip's "Pastoral," though perhaps rough in themselves, -show what a sense of colour he could convey, and of the effective use of -white line. - -[Illustration: - -WILLIAM BLAKE. - -WOODCUT FROM PHILLIP'S "PASTORAL."] - -[Sidenote: EDWARD CALVERT.] - -Among the later friends and disciples of Blake, a kindred spirit must -have been Edward Calvert, whose book illustrations are also decorations; -the masses of black and white being effectively distributed, and they are -full of poetic feeling, imagination, and sense of colour. I am indebted -for the first knowledge of them to Mr. William Blake Richmond, whose -father, Mr. George Richmond, was a friend of William Blake and Calvert, -as well as of John Linnell and of Samuel Palmer, who carried on the -traditions of this English poetic school to our own times; especially the -latter, whose imaginative drawings--glowing sunsets over remote -hill-tops, romantic landscapes, and pastoral sentiment--were marked -features in the room of the Old Water Colour Society, up to his death in -1881. His etched illustrations to his edition of "The Eclogues of -Virgil," are a fine series of beautifully designed and poetically -conceived landscapes; but they are strictly a series of pictures printed -separately from the text. Palmer himself, in the account of the work -given by his son, when he was planning the work, wished that William -Blake had been alive to have designed his woodcut headings to the -"Eclogues."[3] - - [3] A memoir of Edward Calvert has since been published by his - son, fully illustrated, and giving the little engravings just - spoken of. They were engraved by Calvert himself, it appears, and - I am indebted to his son, Mr. John Calvert, for permission to - print them here. - -[Sidenote: THOMAS BEWICK.] - -To Thomas Bewick and his school is due the revival of wood-engraving as -an art, and its adaptation to book illustration, quite distinct, of -course, from the old knife-work on the plank. Bewick had none of the -imaginative poetry of the designers just named, although plenty of humour -and satire, which he compressed into his little tail-pieces. He shows his -skill as a craftsman in the treatment of the wood block, in such works as -his "British Birds;" but here, although the wood-engraving and type may -be said to be in mechanical relation, there is no sense of decorative -beauty or ornamental spacing whatever, and, as drawings, the engravings -have none of the designer's power such as we found in the -illustrations of Gesner and Matthiolus at Basle, in the middle of the -sixteenth century. There is a very literal and plain presentment of facts -as regards the bird and its plumage, but with scarcely more than the -taste of the average stuffer and mounter in the composition of the -picture, and no regard whatever to the design of the page as a whole. - -[Illustration: XIXTH CENTURY. EDWARD CALVERT. - -THE RETURN HOME. - -THE FLOOD. - -THE CHAMBER IDYLL. - -FROM THE ORIGINAL BLOCKS DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY EDWARD CALVERT. -BRIXTON, 1827-8-9.] - -[Illustration: XIXTH CENTURY. EDWARD CALVERT. - -THE LADY AND THE ROOKS. - -IDEAL PASTORAL LIFE. - -THE BROOK. - -FROM THE BLOCKS DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY EDWARD CALVERT. BRIXTON, -1827-8-9.] - -It was, however, a great point to have asserted the claims of -wood-engraving, and demonstrated its capabilities as a method of book -illustration. - -[Sidenote: THE SCHOOL OF BEWICK.] - -Bewick founded a school of very excellent craftsmen, who carried the art -to a wonderful degree of finish. In both his and their hands it became -quite distinct from literal translation of the drawing, which, unless in -line, was treated by the engraver with a line, touch, and quality all his -own, the use of white line,[4] and the rendering of tone and tint -necessitating a certain power of design on his part, and giving him as -important a position as the engraver on steel held in regard to the -translation of a painted picture. - - [4] A striking instance of the use of white line is seen in the - title page "Pomerium de Tempore," printed by Johann Otmar, - Augsburg, as early as 1502. It is possible, however, that this is - a metal engraving. It is given overleaf. - -Such a book as Northcote's "Fables," published 1828-29, each fable having -a head-piece drawn on wood from Northcote's design by William Harvey--a -well-known graceful designer and copious illustrator of books up to -comparatively recent times--and with initial letters and tail-pieces of -his own, shows the outcome of the Bewick school. Finally "fineness of -line, tone, and finish--a misused word," as Mr. W. J. Linton says, "was -preferred to the simple charm of truth." The wood engravers appeared to -be anxious to vie with the steel engravers in the adornment of books, and -so far as adaptation was concerned, they had certainly all the advantage -on their side. The ornamental sense, however, had everywhere declined; -pictorial qualities, fineness of line, and delicacy of tone, were sought -after almost exclusively. - -[Sidenote: STOTHARD AND TURNER.] - -Such books as Rogers's "Poems" and "Italy," with vignettes on steel from -Thomas Stothard and J. M. W. Turner, are characteristic of the taste of -the period, and show about the high-water mark of the skill of the book -engravers on steel. Stothard's designs are the only ones which have -claims to be decorative, and he is always a graceful designer. Turner's -landscapes, exquisite in themselves, and engraved with marvellous -delicacy, do not in any sense decorate the page, and from that point of -view are merely shapeless blots of printers' ink of different tones upon -it, while the letterpress bears no relation whatever to the picture in -method of printing or design, and has no independent beauty of its own. -Book illustrations of this type--and it was a type which largely -prevailed during the second quarter of the century--are simply pictures -without frames. - -[Illustration: GERMAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. - -JOHANN OTMAR. (AUGSBURG, 1502.)] - -[Sidenote: W. J. LINTON.] - -No survey of book illustration would be complete which contained no -mention of William James Linton--whom I have already quoted. I may be -allowed to speak of him with a peculiar regard and respect, as I may -claim him as a very kind early friend and master. As a boy I was, in -fact, apprenticed to him for the space of three years, not indeed with -the object of wielding the graver, but rather with that of learning the -craft of a draughtsman on wood. This, of course, was before the days of -the use of photography, which has since practically revolutionized the -system not only of drawing for books but of engraving also. It was then -necessary to draw on the block itself, and to thoroughly understand what -kind of work could be treated by the engraver. - -I shall always regard those early years in Mr. Linton's office as of -great value to me, as, despite changes of method and new inventions, it -gave me a thorough knowledge of the mechanical conditions of -wood-engraving at any rate, and has implanted a sense of necessary -relationship between design, material, and method of production--of art -and craft, in fact--which cannot be lost, and has had its effect in many -ways. - -Mr. Linton, too, is himself a notable historic link, carrying on the lamp -of the older traditions of wood-engraving to these degenerate days, when -whatever wonders of literal translation, and imitation of chalk, -charcoal, or palette and brushes, it has exhibited under spell of -American enterprise--and I am far from denying its achievements as -such--it cannot be said to have preserved the distinction and -independence of the engraver as an artist or original designer in any -sense. When not extinguished altogether by some form of automatic -reproductive process, he is reduced to the office of "process-server"--he -becomes the slave of the pictorial artist. The picturesque sketcher loves -his "bits" and "effects," which, moreover, however sensational and -sparkling they may be in themselves, have no reference as a rule to the -decoration of the page, being in this sense no more than more or less -adroit splashes of ink upon it, which the text, torn into an irregularly -ragged edge, seems instinctively to shrink from touching, squeezing -itself together like the passengers in a crowded omnibus might do, -reluctantly to admit a chimney-sweep. - -While, by his early training and practice, he is united with the Bewick -school, Mr. Linton--himself a poet, a social and political thinker, a -scholar, as well as designer and engraver--having been associated with -the best-known engravers and designers for books during the middle of the -century, and having had art of such a different temper and tendency as -that of Rossetti pass through his hands, and seen the effect of many new -impulses, is finally face to face with what he himself has called the -"American New Departure." He is therefore peculiarly and eminently -qualified for the work to which he has addressed himself--his great work -on "The Masters of Wood Engraving," which appeared in 1889, and is in -every way complete as a history, learned in technique, and sumptuous as a -book. - -I have not mentioned Gustave Doré, who fills so large a space as an -illustrator of books, because though possessed of a weird imagination, -and a poetic feeling for dramatic landscapes and grotesque characters, as -well as extraordinary pictorial invention, the mass of his work is purely -scenic, and he never shows the decorative sense, or considers the design -in relation to the page. His best and most spirited and sincere work is -represented by his designs in the "Contes Drolatiques." - -[Sidenote: THE PRE-RAPHAELITES.] - -The new movement in painting in England, known as the pre-Raphaelite -movement, which dates from about the middle years of our century, was in -every way so remarkable and far-reaching, that it is not surprising that -it should leave its mark upon the illustrations of books; particularly -upon that form of luxury known as the modern gift-book, which, in the -course of the twenty years following 1850, often took the shape of -selections from or editions of the poets plentifully sprinkled with -little pictorial vignettes engraved on wood. Birket Foster, John Gilbert, -and John Tenniel were leading contributors to these collections. - -In 1857 appeared an edition of "Tennyson's Poems" from the house of -Moxon. This work, while having the general characteristics of the -prevailing taste--an accidental collection of designs, the work of -designers of varying degrees of substance, temper, and feeling, casually -arranged, and without the slightest feeling for page decoration or -harmony of text and illustration--yet possessed one remarkable feature -which gives it a distinction among other collections, in that it contains -certain designs of the chief leaders of the pre-Raphaelite movement, D. -G. Rossetti, Millais and Holman Hunt. - -[Illustration: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. - -FROM TENNYSON'S POEMS. (MOXON, 1857.)] - -I give one of the Rossetti designs, "Sir Galahad"; the "S. Cecilia" and -the "Morte d'Arthur" were engraved by the Brothers Dalziel, the "Sir -Galahad" by Mr. W. J. Linton. It seems to me that the last gives the -spirit and feeling of Rossetti, as well as his peculiar touch, far more -successfully. These designs, in their poetic imagination, their richness -of detail, sense of colour, passionate, mystic, and romantic feeling, and -earnestness of expression mark a new epoch. They are decorative in -themselves, and, though quite distinct in feeling, and original, they are -more akin to the work of the Mediæval miniaturist than anything that had -been seen since his days. Even here, however, there is no attempt to -consider the page or to make the type harmonize with the picture, or to -connect it by any bordering or device with the book as a whole, and being -sandwiched with drawings of a very different tendency, their effect is -much spoiled. In one or two other instances where Rossetti lent his hand -to book illustration, however, he is fully mindful of the decorative -effect of the page. I remember a title page to a book of poems by Miss -Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market," which emphatically showed this. The -title-page designed for his "Early Italian Poets" (given here), and his -sonnet on the sonnet too, in which the design encloses the text of the -poem, written out by himself, are other instances. - -[Illustration: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. - -DESIGN FOR A TITLE PAGE.] - -[Sidenote: DALZIEL'S BIBLE GALLERY.] - -Some of the designs made for a later work (Dalziel's Bible Gallery, about -1865-70) also show the effect of the pre-Raphaelite influence, as well -as, in the case of the designs of Sir Frederic Leighton and Mr. Poynter, -the influence of Continental ideas and training. I saw some of these -drawings on the wood at the time, I remember. For study and research, and -richness of resource in archæological detail, as well as firmness of -drawing, I thought Mr. Poynter's designs were perhaps the most -remarkable. A strikingly realized picture, and a bright and successful -wood-engraving, is Ford Madox Brown's design of "Elijah and the Widow's -Son." There is a dramatic intensity of expression about his other one -also, "The Death of Eglon." Still, at best, we find that these are but -carefully studied pictures rendered on the wood. The pre-Raphaelite -designs show the most decorative sense, but they are now issued quite -distinct from the page, whatever was the original intention, and while -they may, as to scale and treatment, be justly considered as book -illustrations, and as examples of our more important efforts in that -direction at that time, they are not page decorations. - -One may speak here of an admirable artist we have lost, Mr. Albert Moore, -who so distinguished himself for his refined decorative sense in -painting, and the outline group of figures given here shows that he felt -the conditions of the book page and the press also. - -[Illustration: ALBERT MOORE. - -FROM MILTON'S ODE ON CHRIST'S NATIVITY. (NISBET, 1867.)] - -[Sidenote: HENRY HOLIDAY.] - -Mr. Henry Holiday is also a decorative artist of great refinement and -facility. He has not done very much in book illustration, but his -illustrations to Lewis Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark" were admirable. -His decorative feeling in black and white, however, is marked, as may be -seen in the title to "Aglaia." - -[Illustration: HENRY HOLIDAY. - -COVER FOR A MAGAZINE.] - -[Sidenote: TOY BOOKS.] - -As, until recently, I suppose I was scarcely known out of the nursery, it -is meet that I should offer some remarks upon children's books. Here, -undoubtedly, there has been a remarkable development and great activity -of late years. We all remember the little cuts that adorned the books of -our childhood. The ineffaceable quality of these early pictorial and -literary impressions afford the strongest plea for good art in the -nursery and the schoolroom. Every child, one might say every human being, -takes in more through his eyes than his ears, and I think much more -advantage might be taken of this fact. - -If I may be personal, let me say that my first efforts in children's -books were made in association with Mr. Edmund Evans. Here, again, I was -fortunate to be in association with the craft of colour-printing, and I -got to understand its possibilities. The books for babies, current at -that time--about 1865 to 1870--of the cheaper sort called toy books were -not very inspiriting. These were generally careless and unimaginative -woodcuts, very casually coloured by hand, dabs of pink and emerald green -being laid on across faces and frocks with a somewhat reckless aim. There -was practically no choice between such as these and cheap German -highly-coloured lithographs. The only attempt at decoration I remember -was a set of coloured designs to nursery rhymes by Mr. H. S. Marks, which -had been originally intended for cabinet panels. Bold outlines and flat -tints were used. Mr. Marks has often shown his decorative sense in book -illustration and printed designs in colour, but I have not been able to -obtain any for this book. - -It was, however, the influence of some Japanese printed pictures given to -me by a lieutenant in the navy, who had brought them home from there as -curiosities, which I believe, though I drew inspiration from many -sources, gave the real impulse to that treatment in strong outlines, and -flat tints and solid blacks, which I adopted with variations in books -of this kind from that time (about 1870) onwards. Since then I have had -many rivals for the favour of the nursery constituency, notably my late -friend Randolph Caldecott, and Miss Kate Greenaway, though in both cases -their aim lies more in the direction of character study, and their work -is more of a pictorial character than strictly decorative. The little -preface heading from his "Bracebridge Hall" gives a good idea of -Caldecott's style when his aim was chiefly decorative. Miss Greenaway is -the most distinctly so perhaps in the treatment of some of her calendars. - -[Illustration: RANDOLPH CALDECOTT. - -HEADPIECE TO "BRACEBRIDGE HALL." (MACMILLAN, 1877.)] - -[Illustration: KATE GREENAWAY. - -KEY BLOCK OF TITLE-PAGE OF "MOTHER GOOSE." - -(ROUTLEDGE, N.D.)] - -[Sidenote: CHILDREN'S BOOKS.] - -Children's books and so-called children's books hold a peculiar position. -They are attractive to designers of an imaginative tendency, for in a -sober and matter-of-fact age they afford perhaps the only outlet for -unrestricted flights of fancy open to the modern illustrator, who likes -to revolt against "the despotism of facts." While on children's books, -the poetic feeling in the designs of E. V. B. may be mentioned, and I -mind me of some charming illustrations to a book of Mr. George -Macdonald's, "At the Back of the North Wind," designed by Mr. Arthur -Hughes, who in these and other wood engraved designs shows, no less than -in his paintings, how refined and sympathetic an artist he is. Mr. Robert -Bateman, too, designed some charming little woodcuts, full of poetic -feeling and controlled by unusual taste. They were used in Macmillan's -"Art at Home" series, though not, I believe, originally intended for it. - -[Illustration: ARTHUR HUGHES. - -FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." (STRAHAN, 1871.)] - -[Sidenote: JAPANESE INFLUENCE.] - -[Sidenote: JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION.] - -There is no doubt that the opening of Japanese ports to Western commerce, -whatever its after effects--including its effect upon the arts of Japan -itself--has had an enormous influence on European and American art. Japan -is, or was, a country very much, as regards its arts and handicrafts with -the exception of architecture, in the condition of a European country in -the Middle Ages, with wonderfully skilled artists and craftsmen in all -manner of work of the decorative kind, who were under the influence of a -free and informal naturalism. Here at least was a living art, an art of -the people, in which traditions and craftsmanship were unbroken, and the -results full of attractive variety, quickness, and naturalistic force. -What wonder that it took Western artists by storm, and that its effects -have become so patent, though not always happy, ever since. We see -unmistakable traces of Japanese influences, however, almost -everywhere--from the Parisian impressionist painter to the Japanese fan -in the corner of trade circulars, which shows it has been adopted as a -stock printers' ornament. We see it in the sketchy blots and lines, and -vignetted naturalistic flowers which are sometimes offered as page -decorations, notably in American magazines and fashionable etchings. We -have caught the vices of Japanese art certainly, even if we have -assimilated some of the virtues. - -[Illustration: ARTHUR HUGHES. - -FROM "AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND." (STRAHAN, 1871.)] - -In the absence of any really noble architecture or substantial -constructive sense, the Japanese artists are not safe guides as -designers. They may be able to throw a spray of leaves or a bird or fish -across a blank panel or sheet of paper, drawing them with such consummate -skill and certainty that it may delude us into the belief that it is -decorative design; but if an artist of less skill essays to do the like -the mistake becomes obvious. Granted they have a decorative sense--the -_finesse_ which goes to the placing of a flower in a pot, of hanging a -garland on a wall, or of placing a mat or a fan--taste, in short, that is -a different thing from real constructive power of design, and -satisfactory filling of spaces. - -[Illustration: ROBERT BATEMAN. - -FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE." - -(MACMILLAN, 1876.)] - -When we come to their books, therefore, marvellous as they are, and full -of beauty and suggestion--apart from their naturalism, _grotesquerie_, -and humour--they do not furnish fine examples of page decoration as a -rule. The fact that their text is written vertically, however, must be -allowed for. This, indeed, converts their page into a panel, and their -printed books become rather what we should consider sets of designs for -decorating light panels, and extremely charming as such. - -[Illustration: ROBERT BATEMAN. - -FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE." - -(MACMILLAN, 1877.)] - -These drawings of Hokusai's (_see_ Nos. 10 and 11, Appendix), the most -vigorous and prolific of the more modern and popular school, are striking -enough and fine enough, in their own way, and the decorative sense is -never absent; controlled, too, by the dark border-line, they do fill the -page, which is not the case always with the flowers and birds. However, I -believe these holes, blanks, and spaces to let are only tolerable in a -book because the drawing where it does occur is so skilful (except where -the effect is intentionally open and light); and from tolerating we grow -to like them, I suppose, and take them for signs of mastery and -decorative skill. In their smaller applied ornamental designs, however, -the Japanese often show themselves fully aware of a systematic plan or -geometric base: and there is usually some hidden geometric relation of -line in some of their apparently accidental compositions. Their books of -crests and pattern plans show indeed a careful study of geometric shapes, -and their controlling influence in designing. - -[Sidenote: JAPANESE PRINTING.] - -As regards the history and use of printing, the Japanese had it from the -Chinese, who invented the art of printing from wooden blocks in the -sixth century. "We have no record," says Professor Douglas,[5] "as to the -date when metal type was first used in China, but we find Korean books -printed as early as 1317 with movable clay or wooden type, and just a -century later we have a record of a fount of metal type being cast to -print an 'Epitome of the Eighteen Historical Records of China.'" Printing -is supposed to have been adopted in Japan "after the first invasion of -the Korea by the armies of Hideyoshi, in the end of the sixteenth -century, when large quantities of movable type books were brought back by -one of his generals, which formed the model upon which the Japanese -worked."[6] - - [5] Guide to the Chinese and Japanese Illustrated Books in the - British Museum. - - [6] Satow. "History of Printing in Japan." - -[Illustration: ROBERT BATEMAN. - -FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE." - -(MACMILLAN, 1876.)] - -I have mentioned the American development of wood-engraving. Its -application to magazine illustration seems certainly to have developed or -to have occurred with the appearance of very clever draughtsmen from the -picturesque and literal point of view. - -[Illustration: ROBERT BATEMAN. - -FROM "ART IN THE HOUSE." - -(MACMILLAN, 1876.)] - -[Sidenote: JOSEPH PENNELL.] - -The admirable and delicate architectural and landscape drawings of Mr. -Joseph Pennell, for instance, are well known, and, as purely illustrative -work, fresh, crisp in drawing, and original in treatment, giving -essential points of topography and local characteristics (with a happy if -often quaint and unexpected selection of point of view, and pictorial -limits), it would be difficult to find their match, but very small -consideration or consciousness is shown for the page. If he will pardon -my saying so, in some instances the illustrations are, or used to be, -often daringly driven through the text, scattering it right and left, -like the effect of a coach and four upon a flock of sheep. In some of his -more recent work, notably in his bolder drawings such as those in the -"Daily Chronicle," he appears to have considered the type relation much -more, and shows, especially in some of his skies, a feeling for a -radiating arrangement of line. - -[Sidenote: AMERICAN DRAUGHTSMEN.] - -Our American cousins have taught us another mode of treatment in magazine -pages. It is what I have elsewhere described as the "card-basket style." -A number of naturalistic sketches are thrown accidentally together, the -upper ones hiding the under ones partly, and to give variety the corner -is occasionally turned down. There has been a great run on this idea of -late years, but I fancy it is a card trick about "played out." - -However opinions may vary, I think there cannot be a doubt that in Elihu -Vedder we have an instance of an American artist of great imaginative -powers, and undoubtedly a designer of originality and force. This is -sufficiently proved from his large work--the illustrations to the -"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." Although the designs have no Persian -character about them which one would have thought the poem and its -imagery would naturally have suggested, yet they are a fine series, and -show much decorative sense and dramatic power, and are quite modern in -feeling. His designs for the cover of "The Century Magazine" show taste -and decorative feeling in the combination of figures with lettering. - -Mr. Edwin Abbey is another able artist, who has shown considerable care -for his illustrated page, in some cases supplying his own lettering; -though he has been growing more pictorial of late: Mr. Alfred Parsons -also, though he too often seems more drawn to the picture than the -decoration. Mr. Heywood Sumner shows a charming decorative sense and -imaginative feeling, as well as humour. On the purely ornamental side, -the accomplished decorations of Mr. Lewis Day exhibit both ornamental -range and resource, which, though in general devoted to other objects, -are conspicuous enough in certain admirable book and magazine covers he -has designed. - -[Illustration: HEYWOOD SUMNER. - -FROM "STORIES FOR CHILDREN," BY FRANCES M. PEARD. (ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Illustration: CHARLES KEENE. - -ILLUSTRATION TO "THE GOOD FIGHT." ("ONCE A WEEK," 1859.) - -(_By permission of Messrs. Bradbury, Agnew and Co._)] - -[Illustration: HEYWOOD SUMNER. - -FROM "STORIES FOR CHILDREN," BY F. M. PEARD. (ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Sidenote: THE "ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE."] - -"The English Illustrated Magazine," under Mr. Comyns Carr's editorship, -by its use of both old and modern headings, initials and ornaments, did -something towards encouraging the taste for decorative design in books. -Among the artists who designed pages therein should be named Henry Ryland -and Louis Davis, both showing graceful ornamental feeling, the children -of the latter artist being very charming. - -[Illustration: LOUIS DAVIS. - -FROM THE "ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE" (1892).] - -[Illustration: HENRY RYLAND. - -FROM THE "ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE" (1894).] - -But it would need much more space to attempt to do justice to the ability -of my contemporaries, especially in the purely illustrative division, -than I am able to give. - -[Sidenote: "ONCE A WEEK."] - -The able artists of "Punch," however, from John Leech to Linley -Sambourne, have done much to keep alive a vigorous style of drawing in -line, which, in the case of Mr. Sambourne, is united with great -invention, graphic force, and designing power. In speaking of "Punch," -one ought not to forget either the important part played by "Once a Week" -in introducing many first-rate artists in line. In its early days we had -Charles Keene illustrating Charles Reade's "Good Fight," with much -feeling for the decorative effect of the old German woodcut. Such -admirable artists as M. J. Lawless and Frederick Sandys--the latter -especially distinguished for his splendid line drawings in "Once a Week" -and "The Cornhill;" one of his finest is here given, "The Old Chartist," -which accompanied a poem by Mr. George Meredith. Indeed, it is impossible -to speak too highly of Mr. Sandys' draughtsmanship and power of -expression by means of line; he is one of our modern English masters who -has never, I think, had justice done to him. - -[Illustration: F. SANDYS. - -"THE OLD CHARTIST." ("ONCE A WEEK," 1861.)] - -[Illustration: M. J. LAWLESS. - -"DEAD LOVE." ("ONCE A WEEK," 1862.)] - -I can only just briefly allude to certain powerful and original modern -designers of Germany, where indeed, the old vigorous traditions of -woodcut and illustrative drawing seem to have been kept more unbroken -than elsewhere. - -On the purely character-drawing, pictorial and illustrative side, there -is of course Menzel, thoroughly modern, realistic, and dramatic. I am -thinking more perhaps of such men as Alfred Rethel, whose designs of -"Death the Friend" and "Death the Enemy," two large woodcuts, are well -known. I remember also a very striking series of designs of his, a kind -of modern "Dance of Death," which appeared about 1848, I think. Schwind -is another whose designs to folk tales are thoroughly German in spirit -and imagination, and style of drawing. Oscar Pletsch, too, is -remarkable for his feeling for village life and children, and many of his -illustrations have been reproduced in this country. More recent evidence, -and more directly in the decorative direction, of the vigour and -ornamental skill of German designers, is to be found in those picturesque -calendars, designed by Otto Hupp, which come from Munich, and show -something very like the old feeling of Burgmair, especially in the -treatment of the heraldry. - -I have ventured to give a page or two here from my own books, "Grimm," -"The Sirens Three," and others, which serve at least to show two very -different kinds of page treatment. In the "Grimm" the picture is inclosed -in formal and rectangular lines, with medallions of flowers at the four -corners, the title and text being written on scrolls above and below. In -"The Sirens Three" a much freer and more purely ornamental treatment is -adopted, and a bolder and more open line. A third, the frontispiece of -"The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde," by Miss de Morgan, is more of a -simple pictorial treatment, though strictly decorative in its scheme of -line and mass. - -[Sidenote: THE INFLUENCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.] - -The facile methods of photographic-automatic reproduction certainly give -an opportunity to the designer to write out his own text in the character -that pleases him, and that accords with his design, and so make his page -a consistent whole from a decorative point of view, and I venture to -think when this is done a unity of effect is gained for the page not -possible in any other way. - -Indeed, the photograph, with all its allied discoveries and its -application to the service of the printing press, may be said to be as -important a discovery in its effects on art and books as was the -discovery of printing itself. It has already largely transformed the -system of the production of illustrations and designs for books, -magazines, and newspapers, and has certainly been the means of securing -to the artist the advantage of possession of his original, while its -fidelity, in the best processes, is, of course, very valuable. - -Its influence, however, on artistic style and treatment has been, to my -mind, of more doubtful advantage. The effect on painting is palpable -enough, but so far as painting becomes photographic, the advantage is on -the side of the photograph. It has led in illustrative work to the method -of painting in black and white, which has taken the place very much of -the use of line, and through this, and by reason of its having fostered -and encouraged a different way of regarding nature--from the point of -view of accidental aspect, light and shade, and tone--it has confused and -deteriorated, I think, the faculty of inventive design, and the sense of -ornament and line; having concentrated artistic interest on the literal -realization of certain aspects of superficial facts, and instantaneous -impressions instead of ideas, and the abstract treatment of form and -line. - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FROM GRIMM'S "HOUSEHOLD STORIES." (MACMILLAN, 1882.)] - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FRONTISPIECE. "PRINCESS FIORIMONDE" (MACMILLAN, 1880).] - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -"THE SIRENS THREE" OPENING PAGE. (MACMILLAN, 1886.)] - -[Sidenote: A DECORATIVE IDEAL.] - -This, however, may be as much the tendency of an age as the result of -photographic invention, although the influence of the photograph must -count as one of the most powerful factors of that tendency. Thought and -vision divide the world of art between them--our thoughts follow -our vision, our vision is influenced by our thoughts. A book may be -the home of both thought and vision. Speaking figuratively, in regard to -book decoration, some are content with a rough shanty in the woods, and -care only to get as close to nature in her more superficial aspects as -they can. Others would surround their house with a garden indeed, but -they demand something like an architectural plan. They would look at a -frontispiece like a façade; they would take hospitable encouragement from -the title-page as from a friendly inscription over the porch; they would -hang a votive wreath at the dedication, and so pass on into the hall of -welcome, take the author by the hand and be led by him and his artist -from room to room, as page after page is turned, fairly decked and -adorned with picture, and ornament, and device; and, perhaps, finding it -a dwelling after his desire, the guest is content to rest in the ingle -nook in the firelight of the spirit of the author or the play of fancy of -the artist; and, weaving dreams in the changing lights and shadows, to -forget life's rough way and the tempestuous world outside. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER IV. OF THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF DECORATIVE BOOK ILLUSTRATION AND -THE MODERN REVIVAL OF PRINTING AS AN ART. - - -Since the three Cantor Lectures, which form the substance of the -foregoing chapters, were delivered by me at the rooms of the Society of -Arts, some six or seven years have elapsed, and they have been remarkable -for a pronounced revival of activity and interest in the art of the -printer and the decorative illustrator, the paper-maker, the binder, and -all the crafts connected with the production of tasteful and ornate -books. - -Publishers and printers have shown a desire to return to simpler and -earlier standards of taste, and in the choice and arrangement of the type -to take a leaf out of the book of some of the early professors of the -craft. There has been a passion for tall copies and handmade paper; for -delicate bindings, and first editions. - -There has grown up, too, quite a literature about the making of the book -beautiful--whereof the Ex-Libris Series alone is witness. We have, -besides, the history of Early Printed Books by Mr. Gordon Duff, of Early -Illustrated Books by Mr. Pollard. The Book-plate has been looked after by -Mr. Egerton Castle, and by a host of eager collectors ever since. Mr. -Pennell is well known as the tutelary genius who takes charge of -illustrators, and discourses upon them at large, and Mr. Strange bids us, -none too soon, to become acquainted with our alphabets. I have not yet -heard of any specialist taking up his parable upon "end papers," but, -altogether, the book has never perhaps had so much writing outside of it, -as it were, before. - -[Sidenote: MODERN TYPOGRAPHY.] - -A brilliant band of illustrators and ornamentists have appeared, too, and -nearly every month or so we hear of a new genius in black and white, who -is to eclipse all others. For all that, even in the dark ages, between -the mid-nineteenth century and the early eighties, one or two printers or -publishers of taste have from time to time attempted to restrain the wild -excesses of the trade-printer, with his terribly monotonous novelties in -founts of type, alternately shouting or whispering, anon in the crushing -and aggressive heaviness of block capitals, and now in the attenuated -droop of italics. Sad havoc has been played with the decorative dignity -of the page, indeed, as well as with the form and breed of roman and -gothic letters: one might have imagined that some mischievous printer's -devil had thrown the apple of discord among the letters of the alphabet, -so ingeniously ugly were so many modern so-called "fancy" types. - -We have had good work from the Edinburgh houses, from Messrs. R. and R. -Clark, and Messrs. Constable, and in London from the Chiswick Press, for -instance, ever since the old days of its connection with the tasteful and -well printed volumes from the house of Pickering. Various artists, too, -in association with their book designs, from D. G. Rossetti onwards, have -designed their own lettering to be in decorative harmony with their -designs. The Century Guild, with its "Hobby Horse" and its artists, like -Mr. Horne and Mr. Selwyn Image, did much to keep alive true taste in -printing and book decoration, when they were but little understood.[7] -There have been printers, too, such as Mr. Daniel at Oxford, and De Vinne -at New York, who have from different points of view brought care and -selection to the choice of type and the printing of books, and have -adapted or designed type. - - [7] And they elicited a response from across the water in the - shape of "The Knight Errant," the work of a band of young - enthusiasts at Boston, Mass., of which Mr. Lee and Mr. Goodhue may - be named as leading spirits--the latter being the designer of the - cover of "The Knight Errant," and the former the printer. - -[Illustration: SELWYN IMAGE. - -FROM TITLE-PAGE. "THE SCOTTISH ART REVIEW" (SCOTT, 1889).] - -[Sidenote: THE KELMSCOTT PRESS.] - -But the field for extensive artistic experiment in these directions was -tolerably clear when Mr. William Morris turned his attention to printing, -and, in 1891, founded the Kelmscott Press. - -So far as I am aware, he has been the first to approach the craft of -practical printing from the point of view of the artist, and although, no -doubt, the fact of being a man of letters as well was an extra advantage, -his particular success in the art of printing is due to the former -qualification. A long and distinguished practice as a designer in other -matters of decorative art brought him to the nice questions of type -design, its place upon the page, and its relation to printed ornament and -illustration, peculiarly well equipped; while his historic knowledge and -discrimination, and the possession of an extraordinarily rich and choice -collection of both mediæval MSS. and early printed books afforded him an -abundant choice of the best models. - -In the results which have been produced at the Kelmscott press we trace -the effect of all these influences, acting under the strongest personal -predilection, and a mediæval bias (in an artistic sense) which may be -said to be almost exclusive. - -The Kelmscott roman type ("golden") perhaps rather suggests that it was -designed to anticipate and to provide against the demand of readers or -book fanciers who could stand nothing else than roman, while the heart of -the printer really hankered after black letter. But compare this "golden" -type with most modern lower case founts, up to the date of its use, and -its advantages both in form and substance are remarkable. Modern type, -obeying, I suppose, a resistless law of evolution, had reached, -especially with American printers, the last stage of attenuation. The -type of the Kelmscott press is an emphatic and practical protest against -this attenuation; just as its bold black and white ornaments and -decorative woodcuts in open line are protests against the undue thinness, -atmospheric effect, and diaphanous vignetting by photographic process and -tone-block of much modern illustration, which may indeed _illustrate_, -but does not _ornament_ a book. The paper, too, hand-made, -rough-surfaced, and tough, is in equally strong contrast to the shiny -hot-pressed machine-made paper, hitherto so much in vogue for the finer -kinds of printing, and by which it alone became possible. The two -kinds--the two ideals of printing--are as far apart as the poles. Those -who like the smooth and thin, will not like the bold and rough; but it -looks as if the Kelmscott standard had marked the turn of the tide, and -that, judging from the signs of its influence upon printers and -publishers generally, the feeling is running strongly in that direction. -(One would think the human eyesight would benefit also.) This is the more -remarkable since the Kelmscott books are by no means issued at "popular -prices," are limited in number, and for the most part are hardly for the -general reader--unless that ubiquitous person is more erudite and -omnivorous than is commonly credited. - -[Illustration: WILLIAM MORRIS & WALTER CRANE. - -A PAGE FROM "THE GLITTERING PLAIN." (KELMSCOTT PRESS, 1894.)] - -Books, however, which may be called monumental in the national and -general sense, have been printed at the Kelmscott press, such as -Shakespeare's "Poems," More's "Utopia"; and Mr. Morris's _magnum opus_, -the folio Chaucer, enriched by the designs of Burne-Jones, has recently -been completed.[8] - - [8] Completed, indeed, it might almost be said, with the life of - the craftsman. It is sad to have to record, while these pages were - passing through the press, our master printer--one of the greatest - Englishmen of our time--is no more. - -In Mr. Morris's ornaments and initials, nearly always admirably -harmonious in their quantities with the character and mass of the type, -we may perhaps trace mixed influences in design. In the rich black and -white scroll and floral borders surrounding the title and first pages, we -seem to see the love of close-filling and interlacement characteristic of -Celtic and Byzantine work, with a touch of the feeling of the practical -textile designer, which comes out again in the up-and-down, detached bold -page ornaments, though here combined with suggestions from early English -illuminated MS. - -These influences, however, only add to the distinctive character and -richness of the effect, and no attempt is made to get beyond the simple -conditions of bold black and white designs for the woodcut and the press. - -Mr. Morris adopts the useful canon in printing that the true page is what -the open book displays--what is generally termed a double page. He -considers them practically as two columns of type, necessarily separate -owing to the construction of the book, but together as it lies open, -forming a page of type, only divided by the narrow margin where the -leaves are inserted in the back of the covers. We thus get the _recto_ -and the _verso_ pages or columns, each with their distinctive proportions -of margin, as they turn to the right or the left from the centre of the -book--the narrowest margins being naturally inwards and at the top, the -broadest those outwards and at the foot, which latter should be deepest -of all. It may be called _the handle_ of the book, and there is reason in -the broad margin, though also gracious to the eye, since the hand may -hold the book without covering any of the type. - -It is really the due consideration of the necessity of these little -utilities in the construction and use of a thing which enables the modern -designer--separated as he is from the actual maker--to preserve that -distinctive and organic character in any work so valuable, and always so -fruitful in artistic suggestion, and this I think holds true of all -design in association with handicraft. - -The more immediate and intimate--one might occasionally say -imitative--influence of the Kelmscott press may be seen in the -extremely interesting work of a group of young artists who own -their training to the Birmingham School of Art, as developed under the -taste and ability of Mr. Taylor. Three of these, Mr. C. M. Gere, Mr. E. -H. New, and Mr. Gaskin, have designed illustrations for some of Mr. -Morris's Kelmscott books, so that the connection of ideas is perfectly -sequent and natural, and it is only as might be expected that the school -should have the courage of their artistic opinions, and boldly carry into -practice the results of their Kelmscott inspirations, by printing a -journal themselves, "The Quest." - -[Illustration: C. M. GERE. - -FROM THE "ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE" (1893).] - -[Illustration: (_By permission of the Corporation of Liverpool._) C. M. -GERE. - -FROM A DRAWING FROM HIS PICTURE "THE BIRTH OF ST. GEORGE."] - -[Illustration: ARTHUR GASKIN. - -FROM "HANS ANDERSEN." (ALLEN, 1893.)] - -[Illustration: EDMUND H. NEW. - -PROCESS BLOCK FROM THE ORIGINAL PEN DRAWING.] - -[Sidenote: THE BIRMINGHAM SCHOOL.] - -Mr. Gere, Mr. Gaskin, and Mr. New may be said to be the leaders of the -Birmingham School. Mr. Gere has engraved on wood some of his own designs, -and he thoroughly realizes the ornamental value of bold and open line -drawing in association with lettering, and is a careful and conscientious -draughtsman and painter besides. A typical instance of his work is the -"Finding of St. George." - -Mr. Gaskin's Christmas book, "King Wenceslas," is, perhaps, his best work -so far as we have seen. The designs are simple and bold, and in harmony -with the subject, and good in decorative character. His illustrations to -Hans Christian Andersen's "Fairy Tales" are full of a naïve romantic -feeling, and have much sense of the decorative possibilities of black and -white drawing. Mrs. Gaskin's designs for children's books show a quaint -fancy and ornamental feeling characteristic of the school. - -Mr. New's feeling is for quaint streets and old buildings, which he draws -with conscientious thoroughness, and attention to characteristic details -of construction and local variety, without any reliance on accidental -atmospheric effects, but using a firm open line and broad, simple -arrangements of light and shade, which give them a decorative look as -book illustrations. It is owing to these qualities that they are -ornamental, and not to any actual ornament. Indeed, in those cases where -he has introduced borders to frame his pictures, he does not seem to me -to be so successful as an ornamentist pure and simple, though in his -latest work, the illustrations to Mr. Lane's edition of Isaac Walton's -"Compleat Angler," there are pretty headings and tasteful title scrolls, -as well as good drawings of places. - -[Illustration: INIGO THOMAS. - -FROM "THE FORMAL GARDEN." (MACMILLAN, 1892.)] - -The question of border is, however, always a most difficult one. One -might compare the illustrative drawings of architecture and gardens of -Mr. Inigo Thomas in Mr. Reginald Blomfield's work on gardens, with Mr. -New, as showing, with considerable decorative feeling, and feeling for -the subject, a very different method of drawing, one might say more -pictorial in a sense, the line being much thinner and closer, and in -effect greyer and darker. The introduction of the titles helps the -ornamental effect. - -[Illustration: INIGO THOMAS. - -FROM "THE FORMAL GARDEN." (MACMILLAN, 1892.)] - -Among the leading artists of the Birmingham School must be mentioned Mr. -H. Payne, Mr. Bernard Sleigh and Mr. Mason for their romantic feeling in -story illustrations; Miss Bradley for her inventive treatment of crowds -and groups of children; Miss Winifred Smith for her groups of children -and quaint feeling; Mrs. Arthur Gaskin also for her pretty quaint fancies -in child-life; Miss Mary Newill for her ornamental rendering of natural -landscape, as in the charming drawing of Porlock; and Miss Celia Levetus -for her decorative feeling. It may, at any rate, I think be claimed for -it, that both in method, sentiment, and subject, it is peculiarly -English, and represents a sincere attempt to apply what may be called -traditional principles in decoration to book illustration. - -Among the recent influences tending to foster the feeling for the -treatment of black and white design and book illustrations, _primarily -from the decorative point of view_, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition -Society may claim to have had some share, and they have endeavoured, by -the tendency of the work selected for exhibition as well as by papers and -lectures by various members on this point, to emphasize its importance -and to spread clear principles, even at the risk of appearing partial -and biased in one direction, and leaving many clever artists in black and -white unrepresented. - -[Sidenote: ILLUSTRATION AND DECORATION.] - -Now for graphic ability, originality, and variety, there can be no doubt -of the vigour of our modern black and white artists. It is the most vital -and really popular form of art at the present day, and it, far more than -painting, deals with the actual life of the people; it is, too, -thoroughly democratic in its appeal, and, associated with the newspaper -and magazine, goes everywhere--at least, as far as there are shillings -and pence--and where often no other form of art is accessible. - -But graphic power and original point of view is not always associated -with the decorous ornamental sense. It is, in fact, often its very -antithesis, although, on the other hand, good graphic drawing, governed -by a sense of style to which economy or simplicity of line often leads, -has ornamental quality. - -I should say at once that sincere graphic or naturalistic drawing, with -individual character and style, is always preferable to merely lifeless, -purely imitative, and tame repetition in so-called decorative work. - -[Illustration: HENRY PAYNE. - -FROM "A BOOK OF CAROLS." (ALLEN, 1893.)] - -[Illustration: F. MASON. - -FROM "HUON OF BORDEAUX." (ALLEN, 1895.)] - -[Illustration: GERTRUDE M. BRADLEY. - -THE CHERRY FESTIVAL. (FROM A PEN DRAWING.)] - -[Illustration: MARY NEWILL. - -PORLOCK. (FROM A PEN DRAWING.)] - -[Sidenote: DECORATIVE PRINCIPLES.] - -While I claim that certain decorative considerations such as plan, scale -balance, proportion, quantity, relation to type, are essential to really -beautiful book illustration, I do not in the least wish to ignore the -clever work of many contemporary illustrators because they only care to -be illustrators pure and simple, and prefer to consider a page of paper, -or any part of it unoccupied by type, as a fair field for a -graphic sketch, with no more consideration for its relation to the page -itself or the rest of the book, than an artist usually feels when he jots -down something from life in his sketch-book. - -[Illustration: CELIA LEVETUS. - -A BOOKPLATE.] - -I think that book illustration should be something more than a collection -of accidental sketches. Since one cannot ignore the constructive organic -element in the formation--the idea of the book itself--it is so far -inartistic to leave it out of account in designing work intended to form -an essential or integral part of that book. - -I do not, however, venture to assert that decorative illustration can -only be done in _one_ way--if so, there would be an end in that direction -to originality or individual feeling. There is nothing absolute in art, -and one cannot dogmatize, but it seems to me that in all designs certain -conditions must be acknowledged, and not only acknowledged but accepted -freely, just as one would accept the rules of a game before attempting to -play it. - -The rules, the conditions of a sport or game, give it its own peculiar -character and charm, and by means of them the greatest amount of pleasure -and keenest excitement is obtained in the long run, just as by observing -the conditions, the limitations of an art or handicraft, we shall extract -the greatest amount of pleasure for the worker and beauty for the -beholder. - -[Sidenote: THE DIAL.] - -Many remarkable designers in black and white of individuality and -distinction, and with more or less strong feeling for decorative -treatment, have arisen during the last few years. Among these ought to be -named Messrs. Ricketts and Shannon, whose joint work upon "The Dial" is -sufficiently well known. They, too, have taken up printing as an art, Mr. -Ricketts having designed his own type and engraved his own drawings on -wood. They are excellent craftsmen as well as inventive and original -artists of remarkable cultivation, imaginative feeling and taste. There -is a certain suggestion of inspiration from William Blake in Mr. Shannon -sometimes, and of German or Italian fifteenth century woodcuts in the -work of Mr. Ricketts. The weird designs of Mr. Reginald Savage should -also be noted, as well as the charming woodcuts of Mr. Sturge Moore. - -[Illustration: C S. RICKETTS. - -FROM "HERO AND LEANDER." (THE VALE PRESS.)] - -Another very remarkable designer in black and white is Mr. Aubrey -Beardsley. His work shows a delicate sense of line, and a bold decorative -use of solid blacks, as well as an extraordinarily weird fancy and -grotesque imagination, which seems occasionally inclined to run in a -morbid direction. Although, as in the case of most artists, one can trace -certain influences which have helped in the formation of their style, -there can be no doubt of his individuality and power. The designs for the -work by which Mr. Beardsley became first known, I believe, the "Morte -d'Arthur," alone are sufficient to show this. There appears to be a -strong mediæval decorative feeling, mixed with a curious weird -Japanese-like spirit of _diablerie_ and grotesque, as of the opium-dream, -about his work; but considered as book-decoration, though it is -effective, the general abstract treatment of line, and the use of large -masses of black and white, rather suggest designs intended to be carried -out in some other material, such as inlay or enamel, for instance, in -which they would gain the charm of beautiful surface and material, and -doubtless look very well. Mr. Beardsley shows different influences in his -later work in the "Savoy," some of which suggests a study of eighteenth -century designers, such as Callot or Hogarth, and old English mezzotints. - -[Sidenote: THE STUDIO.] - -[Sidenote: CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATORS.] - -"The Studio," which, while under the able and sympathetic editorship of -Mr. Gleeson White, first called attention (by the medium of Mr. Pennell's -pen) to Mr. Beardsley's work, has done good service in illustrating the -progress of decorative art, both at home and abroad, and has from time to -time introduced several young artists whose designs have thus become -known to the public for the first time, such as Mr. Patten Wilson, Mr. -Laurence Housman, Mr. Fairfax Muckley, and Mr. Charles Robinson, who all -have their own distinctive feeling: the first for bold line drawings -after the old German method with an abundance of detail; the second for -remarkable taste in ornament, and a humorous and poetic fancy; the third -for a very graceful feeling for line and the decorative use of black and -white--especially in the treatment of trees and branch work, leaves and -flowers associated with figures. - -Mr. J. D. Batten has distinguished himself for some years past as an -inventive illustrator of Fairy Tales. In his designs, perhaps, he shows -more of the feeling of the story-teller than the decorator in line, on -the whole; his feeling as a painter, perhaps, not making him quite -content with simple black and white; and, certainly, his charming tempera -picture of the sleeping maid and the dwarfs, and his excellent printed -picture of Eve and the serpent, printed by Mr. Fletcher in the Japanese -method, might well excuse him if that is the case. - -Mr. Henry Ford is another artist who has devoted himself with much -success to Fairy Tale pictures in black and white, being associated with -the fairy books of many different colours issued under the fairy -godfather's wand (or pen) of Mr. Andrew Lang. He, too, I think perhaps, -cares more for the "epic" than the "ornamental" side of illustration; he -generally shows a pretty poetical fancy. - -At the head, perhaps, of the newer school of decorative illustrators -ought to be named Mr. Robert Anning Bell, whose taste and feeling for -style alone gives him a distinctive place. He has evidently studied the -early printers and book-decorators in outline of Venice and Florence to -some purpose; by no means merely imitatively, but with his own type of -figure and face, and fresh natural impressions, observes with much taste -and feeling for beauty the limitations and decorative suggestions in the -relations of line-drawing and typography. Many of his designs to "The -Midsummer Night's Dream" are delightful both as drawings and as -decorative illustrations. - -[Illustration: CHARLES RICKETTS. - -FROM "DAPHNIS AND CHLOE." (THE VALE PRESS.)] - -The newest book illustrator is perhaps Mr. Charles Robinson, whose work -appears to be full of invention, though I have not yet had sufficient -opportunities of doing it justice. He shows quaint and sometimes weird -fancy, a love of fantastic architecture, and is not afraid of outline and -large white spaces. - -[Illustration: C. H. SHANNON. - -FROM "DAPHNIS AND CHLOE." (THE VALE PRESS.)] - -Mr. R. Spence shows considerable vigour and originality. He distinguished -himself first by some pen drawings which won the gold medal at the -National Competitions at South Kensington, in which a romantic feeling -and dramatic force was shown in designs of mediæval battles, expressed in -forcible way, consistent with good line and effect in black and white. -His design of the Legend of St. Cuthbert in "The Quarto" is perhaps the -most striking thing he has done. I am enabled to print one of his -characteristic designs of battles. - -[Illustration: AUBREY BEARDSLEY. - -FROM THE "MORTE D'ARTHUR." (J. M. DENT AND CO.)] - -Mr. A. Jones also distinguished himself about the same time as Mr. Spence -in the National Competition, and showed some dramatic and romantic -feeling. The design given shows a more ornamental side. - -[Illustration: AUBREY BEARDSLEY. - -FROM THE "MORTE D'ARTHUR." (DENT.)] - -Mr. William Strang, who has made his mark in etching as a medium for -designs full of strong character and weird imagination, also shows in his -processed pen drawings vigorous line and perception of decorative value, -as in the designs to "Munchausen," two of which are here reproduced. - -[Sidenote: THE EVERGREEN.] - -The publication of "The Evergreen" by Patrick Geddes and his colleagues -at Edinburgh has introduced several black and white designers of force -and character--Mr. Robert Burns and Mr. John Duncan, for instance, more -particularly distinguishing themselves for decorative treatment in which -one may see the influences of much fresh inspiration from Nature. - -[Illustration: AUBREY BEARDSLEY. - -FROM THE "MORTE D'ARTHUR." (DENT.)] - -[Sidenote: CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATORS.] - -Miss Mary Sargant Florence shows power and decorative feeling in her -outline designs to "The Crystal Ball." Mr. Granville Fell must be named -among the newer school of decorative illustrators; and Mr. Paul -Woodroffe, who also shows much facility of design and feeling for old -English life in his books of Nursery Rhymes; his recent work shows much -refinement of drawing and feeling. - -Miss Alice B. Woodward ought also to be named for her clever treatment of -mediæval life in black and white. - -More recently, perhaps the most remarkable work in book illustration has -been that of Mr. E. J. Sullivan, whose powerful designs to Carlyle's -"Sartor Resartus" are full of vigour and character. - -Force and character, again, seem the leading qualities in the striking -work of another of our recent designers in black and white, Mr. -Nicholson, who also engraves his own work. - -[Illustration: EDMUND J. SULLIVAN. - -FROM "SARTOR RESARTUS." (BELL.)] - -Mr. Gordon Craig adds printing to the crafts of black and white design -and engraving, and has a distinctive feeling of his own. - -The revival in England of decorative art of all kinds during the -last five and twenty years, culminating as it appears to be doing in -book-design, has not escaped the eyes of observant and sympathetic -artists and writers upon the Continent. The work of English artists -of this kind has been exhibited in Germany, in Holland, in Belgium -and France, and has met with remarkable appreciation and sympathy. - -[Illustration: PATTEN WILSON. - -FROM THE PEN DRAWING.] - -[Illustration: LAURENCE HOUSMAN. - -TITLE-PAGE OF "THE HOUSE OF JOY." (KEGAN PAUL, 1895.)] - -[Illustration: L. FAIRFAX MUCKLEY. - -FROM "FRANGILLA." (ELKIN MATHEWS.)] - -[Illustration: CHARLES ROBINSON. - -FROM "A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSE." (LANE, 1895.)] - -[Illustration: CHARLES ROBINSON. - -FROM "A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSE." (LANE, 1895.)] - -[Illustration: CHARLES ROBINSON. - -FROM A "CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSE." (LANE, 1895.)] - -[Sidenote: BELGIUM.] - -In Belgium, particularly, where there appears to be a somewhat similar -movement in art, the work of the newer school of English designers has -awakened the greatest interest. The fact that M. Oliver Georges Destrée -has made sympathetic literary studies of the English pre-Raphaelites and -their successors, is an indication of this. The exhibitions of the "XX^e -Siècle," "La libre Æsthetique," at Brussels and Liège, are also evidence -of the repute in which English designers are held. - -[Illustration: J. D. BATTEN. - -FROM "THE ARABIAN NIGHTS." (J. M. DENT AND CO.)] - -[Sidenote: THE CONTINENT.] - -In Holland, too, a special collection of the designs of English book -illustrators has been exhibited at the Hague and other towns under the -auspices of M. Loffelt. - -[Illustration: J. D. BATTEN. - -FROM "THE ARABIAN NIGHTS." (J. M. DENT AND CO.)] - -At Paris, also, the critics and writers on art have been busy in the -various journals giving an account of the Arts and Crafts movement, the -Kelmscott Press, and the school of English book-decorators in black and -white, and the recent exhibitions of "L'Art Nouveau" and "Le -Livre Moderne" at Paris are further evidence of the interest -taken there in English art. - -[Illustration: R. ANNING BELL. - -FROM "A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM." - -(J. M. DENT AND CO., 1895.)] - -[Illustration: R. ANNING BELL. - -FROM "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST." - -(J. M. DENT AND CO., 1894.)] - -[Illustration: R. SPENCE. - -FROM A PEN DRAWING.] - -[Illustration: ALFRED JONES. - -A TITLE-PAGE.] - -[Illustration: WILLIAM STRANG. - -FROM "BARON MUNCHAUSEN." (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN.)] - -[Illustration: WILLIAM STRANG. - -FROM "MUNCHAUSEN" (LAWRENCE AND BULLEN).] - -Without any vain boasting, it is interesting to note that whereas most -artistic movements affecting England are commonly supposed to have been -imported from the Continent, we are credited at last with a genuine home -growth in artistic development. Although, regarded in the large sense, -country or nationality is nothing to art (being at its best always -cosmopolitan and international) yet in the history of design, national -and local varieties, racial characteristics and local developments must -always have their value and historic interest. - -[Illustration: H. GRANVILLE FELL. - -FROM "CINDERELLA." (J. M. DENT AND CO.)] - -[Sidenote: BELGIUM.] - -We may, perhaps, take it as a sympathetic response to English feeling, -the appearance of such books as M. Rijsselberghe's Almanack, with its -charming designs in line, from the house of Dietrich at Brussels. M. -Fernand Knopff's work, original as it is, shows sympathy with the later -English school of poetic and decorative design of which D. G. Rossetti -may be said to have been the father, though in book-illustration proper I -am not aware that he has done much. In Holland in black and -white design there is M. G. W. Dijsselhof and M. R. N. Roland Holst. - -[Illustration: JOHN DUNCAN. - -FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] - -[Illustration: JOHN DUNCAN. - -FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] - -[Illustration: ROBERT BURNS. - -FROM "THE EVERGREEN." (GEDDES AND CO., 1895.)] - -[Illustration: MARY SARGANT FLORENCE. - -FROM "THE CRYSTAL BALL." (BELL, 1894.)] - -[Illustration: PAUL WOODROFFE. - -FROM "SECOND BOOK OF NURSERY RHYMES." (GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Illustration: PAUL WOODROFFE. - -FROM "NURSERY RHYMES." (BELL, 1895.)] - -[Sidenote: GERMANY.] - -In Germany, such original and powerful artists as Josef Sattler and Franz -Stück; the former seemingly inheriting much of the grim and stern humour -of the old German masters, as well as their feeling for character and -treatment of line, while his own personality is quite distinct. While -Sattler is distinctly Gothic in sympathy, Stück seems more to lean to the -pagan or classical side, and his centaurs and graces are drawn with much -feeling and character. We have already mentioned the "Munich Calendar," -designed by Otto Hupp, which is well known for the vigour and spirit with -which the artist has worked after the old German manner, with bold -treatment of heraldic devices, and has effectively used colour with line -work. The name of Seitz appears upon some effectively designed -allegorical figures, one of Gutenberg at his press. - -[Sidenote: "JUGEND."] - -"Jugend," a copiously illustrated journal published at Munich by Dr. -Hirth, shows that there are many clever artists with a more or less -decorative aim in illustration, which in others seems rather overgrown -with grotesque feeling and morbid extravagance, but there is an abundance -of exuberant life, humour, whimsical fancy and spirit characteristic of -South Germany. - -[Illustration: M. RIJSSELBERGHE.] - -"Ver Sacrum," the journal of the group of the "Secession" artists of -Vienna, gives evidence of considerable daring and resource in black and -white drawing, though mainly of an impressionistic or pictorial aim. - -M. Larisch, of Vienna, has distinguished himself by his works upon the -artistic treatment and spacing of letters which contain examples of the -work of different artists both continental and English. - -French artists in decoration of all kinds have been so largely influenced -or affected by the Japanese, and have so generally approached design from -the impressionistic, dramatic, or accidental-individualist point of view, -that the somewhat severe limits imposed by a careful taste in all art -with an ornamental purpose, does not appear to have greatly attracted -them. At all times it would seem that the dramatic element is the -dominant one in French art, and this, though of course quite reconcilable -with the ornament instinct, is seldom found perfectly united with it, -and, where present, generally gets the upper hand. The older classical or -Renaissance ornamental feeling of designers like Galland and Puvis de -Chavannes seems to be dying out, and the modern _chic_ and daring of a -Cheret seems to be more characteristic of the moment. - -[Sidenote: GRASSET.] - -Yet, on the other hand, among the newer French School, we find an artist -of such careful methods and of such strong decorative instinct as -Grasset, on what I should call the architectural side in -contradistinction to the impressionistic. His work, though quite -characteristically French in spirit and sentiment, is much more akin in -method to our English decorative school. In fact, many of Grasset's -designs suggest that he has done what our men have done, studied the art -of the middle ages from the remains in his own country, and grafted upon -this stock the equipment and sentiment of a modern. - -[Sidenote: LETTERING.] - -In his book illustrations he seems, however, so far as I know, to lean -rather towards illustrations pure and simple, rather than decoration, and -exhibits great archæological resource as well as romantic feeling in -such designs as those to "Les Cinq Fils d'Aymon." The absence of book -decoration in the English sense, in France, however, may be due to the -want of beauty or artistic feeling in the typographer's part of the work. -Modern French type has generally assumed elongated and meagre forms which -are not suggestive of rich decorative effect, and do not combine with -design: nor, so far as I have been able to observe, does there seem to be -any feeling amongst the designers for the artistic value of lettering, or -any serious attempt to cultivate better forms. The poster-artist, to whom -one would think, being essential to his work, the value of lettering in -good forms would appeal, generally tears the roman alphabet to tatters, -or uses extremely debased and ugly varieties. - -More recently, however, French designers and printers appear to be giving -attention to the subject, and newly designed types are appearing; one -firm at Paris having issued a fount designed by Eugene Grasset. - -The charming designs of Boutet de Monvel should be named as among the -most distinctive of modern French book illustrations, for their careful -drawing and decorative effect, although, being in colours, they hardly -belong to the same category as the works we have been considering, and -the relation of type to pictures leaves something to be desired. - -A respect for form and style in lettering, is, I take it, one of the most -unmistakable indications of a good decorative sense. A true ornamental -instinct can produce a fine ornamental effect by means of a mass of good -type or MS. lettering alone: and considered as accompaniments or -accessories to design they are invaluable, as presenting opportunities of -contrast or recurrence in mass or line to other elements in the -composition. To the decorative illustrator of books they are the unit or -primal element from which he starts. - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FROM SPENSER'S "FAERIE QUEENE." - -(GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Sidenote: ITALY.] - -The publication at Venice of "L'Arte della stampa nel Renascimento -Italiano Venezia," by Ferd. Ongania--a series of reproductions of -woodcuts, ornaments, initials, title-pages, etc., from some of the -choicest of the books of the early Venetian and Florentine printers, may -perhaps be taken as a sign of the growth of a similar interest in book -decoration in that country, unless, like other works, it is intended -chiefly for the foreign visitor. - -A sumptuously printed quarterly on Art, which has of late made its -appearance at Rome, "Il Convito," seems to show an interest in the -decorative side, and does not confine its note on illustrations to -Italian work, but gives reproductions from the works of D. G. Rossetti, -and from Elihu Vedder's designs to "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." - -Certainly if the possession of untold treasures of endlessly beautiful -invention in decorative art, and the tradition of ancient schools tend to -foster and to stimulate original effort, one would think that it should -be easier for Italian artists than those of other countries to revive -something of the former decorative beauty of the work of her printers and -designers in the days of Aldus and Ratdolt, of the Bellini and -Botticelli. - -It does not appear to be enough, however, to possess the seed merely; or -else one might say that where a museum is, there will the creative art -spring also; it is necessary to have the soil also; to plough and sow, -and then to possess our souls in patience a long while ere the new crop -appears, and ere it ripens and falls to our sickle. It is only another -way of saying, that art is the outcome of life, not of death. - -Artists may take motives or inspiration from the past, or from the -present, it matters not, so long as their work has life and beauty--so -long as it is organic, in short. - -[Illustration: HOWARD PYLE. - -FROM "OTTO OF THE SILVER HAND." (SCRIBNER.)] - -[Sidenote: HOWARD PYLE.] - -I have already alluded to the movement in Boston among a group of -cultured young men--Mr. Lee the printer and his colleagues--more or less -inspired by "The Hobby Horse" and the Kelmscott Press, which resulted in -the printing of "The Knight Errant." - -[Illustration: HOWARD PYLE. - -FROM "OTTO OF THE SILVER HAND." (SCRIBNER.)] - -Some years before, however, Mr. Howard Pyle distinguished himself as a -decorative artist in book designs, which showed, among other more modern -influences, a considerable study of the method of Albert Dürer. I give a -reproduction which suggests somewhat the effect of the famous copperplate -of Erasmus. He sometimes uses a lighter method, such as is shown in the -drawings to "The One Horse Shay." - -Of late in his drawings in the magazines, Mr. Pyle has adopted the modern -wash method, or painting in black and white, in which, however able in -its own way, it is distinctly at a considerable loss of individuality -and decorative interest.[9] - - [9] I am informed that the adoption of the wash method is not - recent with Mr. Pyle, but that he adapts his method to his matter. - This does not, however, affect the opinion expressed as to the - relative artistic value of wash and line work. - -[Illustration: WILL. H. BRADLEY. - -A COVER DESIGN. (CHICAGO, 1894.)] - -[Illustration: WILL. H. BRADLEY. - -PROSPECTUS OF "BRADLEY HIS BOOK." - -(SPRINGFIELD, MASS., 1896.)] - -[Illustration: WILL. H. BRADLEY. - -DESIGN FOR "THE CHAP-BOOK." (CHICAGO, 1895.)] - -[Sidenote: "THE INLAND PRINTER."] - -[Sidenote: AMERICAN ARTISTS.] - -Another artist of considerable invention and decorative ability has -recently appeared in America, Mr. Will. H. Bradley, whose designs for -"The Inland Printer" of Chicago are remarkable for careful and delicate -line-work, and effective treatment of black and white, and showing the -influence of the newer English school with a Japanese blend. - -[Illustration] - - - - -CHAPTER V. OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN DESIGNING BOOK ORNAMENTS AND -ILLUSTRATIONS: CONSIDERATIONS OF ARRANGEMENT, SPACING, AND TREATMENT. - - -It may not be amiss to add a few words as a kind of summary of general -principles to which we seem to be naturally led by the line of thought I -have been pursuing on this subject of book decoration. - -As I have said, there is nothing final or absolute in Design. It is a -matter of continual re-arrangement, re-adjustment, and modification or -even transformation of certain elements. A kind of imaginative chemistry -of forms, masses, lines, and quantities, continually evolving new -combinations. But each artistic problem must be solved on its merits, and -as each one varies and presents fresh questions, it follows that no -absolute rules or principles can be laid down to fit particular cases, -although as the result of, and evolved out of, practice, certain general -guiding principles are valuable, as charts and compasses by which the -designer can to a certain extent direct his course. - -To begin with, the enormous variety in style, aim, and size of books, -makes the application of definite principles difficult. One must narrow -the problem down to a particular book, of a given character and size. - -Apart from the necessarily entirely personal and individual questions of -selection of subject, motive, feeling or sentiment, consider the -conditions of the book-page. Take an octavo page--such as one of those -of this volume. - -Although we may take the open book with the double-columns as the page -proper, in treating a book for illustration, we shall be called upon -sometimes to treat them as single pages. But whether single or double, -each has its limits in the mass of type forming the full page or column -which gives the dimensions of the designer's panel. The whole or any part -of this panel may be occupied by design, and one principle of procedure -in the ornamental treatment of a book is to consider any of the territory -not occupied by the type as a fair field for accompanying or terminating -design--as, for instance, at the ends of chapters, where more or less of -the type page is left blank. - -Unless we are designing our own type, or drawing our lettering as a part -of the design, the character and form of the type will give us a sort of -gauge of degree, or key, to start with, as to the force of the black and -white effect of our accompanying designs and ornaments. For instance, one -would generally avoid using heavy blacks and thick lines with a light -open kind of type, or light open work with very heavy type. (Even here -one must qualify, however, since light open pen-work has a fine and rich -effect with black letters sometimes.) - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FROM SPENSER'S "FAERIE QUEENE." (GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FROM SPENSER'S "FAERIE QUEENE." (GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] - -[Illustration: WALTER CRANE. - -FROM SPENSER'S "FAERIE QUEENE." (GEORGE ALLEN, 1896.)] - -My own feeling--and designing must always finally be a question of -individual feeling--is rather to acknowledge the rectangular character of -the type page in the shape of the design; even in a vignette, by making -certain lines extend to the limits, so as to convey a feeling of -rectangular control and compactness, as in the tail-piece given -here from "The Faerie Queene." - -[Sidenote: OF END PAPERS.] - -But first, if one may, paradoxically, begin with "end paper" as it is -curiously called, there is the lining of the book. Here the problem is to -cover two leaves entirely in a suggestive and agreeable, but not -obtrusive way. One way is to design a repeating pattern much on the -principle of a small printed textile, or miniature wall-paper, in one or -more colours. Something delicately suggestive of the character and -contents of the book is in place here, but nothing that competes with the -illustrations proper. It may be considered as a kind of quadrangle, -forecourt, or even a garden or grass plot before the door. - -We are not intended to linger long here, but ought to get some hint or -encouragement to go on into the book. The arms of the owner (if he is -fond of heraldry, and wants to remind the potential book borrower to -piously return) may appear hereon--the book-plate. - -If we are to be playful and lavish, if the book is for Christmastide or -for children, we may catch a sort of fleeting butterfly idea on the -fly-leaves before we are brought with becoming, though dignified -curiosity, to a short pause at the half-title. Having read this, we are -supposed to pass on with somewhat bated breath until we come to the -double doors, and the front and full title are disclosed in all their -splendour. - -[Sidenote: OF FRONTISPIECES AND TITLE PAGES.] - -Even here, though, the whole secret of the book should not be let out, -but rather played with or suggested in a symbolic way, especially in any -ornament on the title-page, in which the lettering should be the chief -ornamental feature. A frontispiece may be more pictorial in treatment if -desired, and it is reasonable to occupy the whole of the type page both -for the lettering of title and the picture in the front; then, if -richness of effect is desired, the margin may be covered also almost to -the edge of the paper by inclosing borders, the width of these borders -varying according to the varying width of the paper margin, and in the -same proportions, _recto_ and _verso_ as the case may be, the broad side -turning outwards to the edge of the book each way. - -This is a plan adopted in the opening of the Kelmscott books, of which -that of "The Glittering Plain," given here, may be taken as a type. -Though Mr. Morris places his title page on the left to face the opening -of first chapter, and does not use a frontispiece, he obtains a -remarkably rich and varied effect of black and white in his larger title -pages by placing in his centre panel strong black Gothic letters; or, as -in the case of the Kelmscott Chaucer, letters in white relief upon a -floral arabesque adapted to the space, and filling the field with a -lighter floral network in open line, and enclosing this again with the -rich black and white marginal border. - -[Illustration: FROM "THE STORY OF THE GLITTERING PLAIN."] - -[Illustration: WILLIAM MORRIS AND WALTER CRANE. - -(KELMSCOTT PRESS, 1894.)] - -If I may refer again to my own work, in the designs to "The Faerie -Queene" the full-page designs are all treated as panels of figure design, -or pictures, and are enclosed in fanciful borders, in which subsidiary -incidents of characters of the poem are introduced or suggested, somewhat -on the plan of mediæval tapestries. A reduction of one of these is given -above. - -[Sidenote: OF OUTLINE AND BORDERS.] - -A full-page design may, thus inclosed and separated from the type pages, -bear carrying considerably further, and be more realized and stronger in -effect than the ornaments of the type page, just as in the illuminated -MSS. highly wrought miniatures were worked into inclosing borders on the -centres of large initial letters, which formed a broad framework, -branching into light floral scroll or leaves upon the margin and uniting -with the lettering. - -Much depends upon the decorative scheme. With appropriate type, a -charming, simple, and broad effect can be obtained by using outline -alone, both for the figure designs or pictures, and the ornament proper. - -The famous designs of the "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili," 1499, may be taken -as an instance of this treatment; also the "Fasciculus Medicinæ," 1495, -"Æsop's Fables," 1493, and other books of the Venetian printers of about -this date or earlier, which are generally remarkable for fine quality of -their outline and the refinement and grace of their ornaments. - -One of the most effective black and white page borders of a purely -ornamental kind is one dated 1478, inclosing a page of Roman type, (_see_ -illustration, Venice, 1478, Pomponius Mela). A meandering arabesque of a -rose-stem leaf and flower, white on a black ground, springing from a -circle in the broad margin at the bottom, in which are two shields of -arms. A tolerably well known but most valuable example. - -[Sidenote: OF DESIGNING TYPE.] - -The opening chapter of a book affords an opportunity to the designer of -producing a decorative effect by uniting ornament with type. He can -place figure design in a frieze-shaped panel (say of about a fourth of -the page) for the heading, and weight it by a bold initial letter -designed in a square, from which may spring the stem and leaves of an -arabesque throwing the letter into relief, and perhaps climbing up and -down the margin, and connecting the heading with the initial. The -initialed page from "The Faerie Queene" is given as an example of such -treatment. The title, or any chapter inscription, if embodied in the -design of the heading, has a good effect. - -Harmony between type and illustration and ornament can never, of course, -be quite so complete as when the lettering is designed and drawn as a -part of the whole, unless the type is designed by the artist. It entails -an amount of careful and patient labour (unless the inscriptions are very -brief) few would be prepared to face, and would mean, practically, a -return to the principle of the block book. - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -KETHAM'S "FASCICULUS MEDICINÆ." (VENICE, DE GREGORIIS, 1493.)] - -[Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. - -POMPONIUS MELA. (VENICE, RATDOLT, 1478.)] - -Even in these days, however, books have been entirely produced by hand, -and, for that matter, if beauty were the sole object, we could not do -better than follow the methods of the scribe, illuminator, and -miniaturist of the Middle Ages. But the world clamours for many copies -(at least in some cases), and the artist must make terms with the -printing press if he desires to live. It would be a delightful thing if -every book were different--a millennium for collectors! Perhaps, too, it -might be a wholesome regulation at this stage if authors were to qualify -as scribes (in the old sense) and write out their own works in -beautiful letters! How it would purify literary style! - -There is no doubt that great attention has been given to the formation of -letters by designers in the past. - -[Sidenote: THE DÜRER ALPHABETS.] - -Albrecht Dürer, in his "Geometrica," for instance, gives an elaborate -system for drawing the Roman capitals, and certainly produces by its -means a fine alphabet in that type of letter, apparently copied from -ancient Roman inscriptions. He does the same for the black letters -also.[10] - - [10] Reproduced in "Alphabets," by E. F. Strange (pp. 244-250), - Ex-Libris Series. Bell. - -For the Roman capitals he takes a square, and divides it into four equal -parts for the A. The horizontal line across the centre gives the -crossbar. The sides of the square are divided into eighths, and one -eighth is measured at the top of vertical dividing line, one eighth again -from each bottom corner of the square to these points, the limbs of the -A, are drawn; the up stroke and cross-bar being one-sixteenth, the down -stroke being one-eighth of the square in thickness. Circles of one-fourth -of the square in diameter are struck at the top of the A where the limbs -meet, and at lower corners, to form the outside serifs of the feet, the -inside serifs being formed by circles of one-sixteenth diameter; and so -the A is complete. Various sub-divisions of the square are given as -guides in the formation of the other letters less symmetrical, and two or -three forms are given of some, such as the O, and the R, Q, and S; but -the same proportions of thick and thin strokes are adhered to, and the -same method of forming the serifs. - -For the black letter (lower case German) text the proportions are five -squares for the short letters i, n, m, u, the space between the strokes -of a letter like u being one-third the thickness of the stroke, the top -and bottom one being covered with one square, set diamond-wise. Eight -squares for the long letters l, h, b; the tops cut off diagonally, the -feet turned diamond-wise. - -This is interesting as showing the care and sense of proportion which may -be expended upon the formation of lettering. It also gives a definite -standard. The division of eighths and fourths in the Roman capital is -noteworthy, too, in connection with the eight-heads standard of -proportion for the human body; and the square basis reminds one of -Vitruvius, and demonstration of the inclosure of the human figure with -limbs in extension by the square and the circle. - -Those interested in the history of the form of lettering cannot do better -than consult Mr. Strange's book on "Alphabets" in this series. - -It might be possible to construct an actual theory of the geometric -relation of figure design, ornamental forms, and the forms of lettering, -text, or type upon them, but we are more concerned with the free artistic -invention for the absence of which no geometric rules can compensate. The -invention, the design, comes first in order, the rules and principles are -discovered afterwards, to confirm and establish their truth--would that -they did not also sometimes crystallize their vitality! - -I have spoken of the treatment of headings and initials at the opening of -a chapter. In deciding upon such an arrangement the designer is more or -less committed to carrying it out throughout the book, and would do well -to make his ornamental spaces, and the character, treatment, and size of -his initials agree in the corresponding places. This would still leave -plenty of room for variety of invention in the details. - -The next variety of shape in which he might indulge would be the -half-page, generally an attractive proportion for a figure design, and if -repeated on the opposite page or column, the effect of a continuous -frieze can be given, which is very useful where a procession of figures -is concerned, and the slight break made by the centre margin is not -objectionable. - -The same plan may be adopted when it is desired to carry a full-page -design across, or meet it by a corresponding design opposite. - -[Sidenote: OF HEAD AND TAIL-PIECES.] - -Then we come to the space at the end of the chapter. For my part, I can -never resist the opportunity for a tailpiece if it is to be a fully -illustrated work, though some would let it severely alone, or be glad of -the blank space to rest a bit. I think this lets one down at the end of -the chapter too suddenly. The blank, the silence, seems too dead; one -would be glad of some lingering echo, some recurring thought suggested by -the text; and here is the designer's opportunity. It is a tight place, -like the person who is expected to say the exactly fit thing at the right -moment. Neither too much, or too little. A quick wit and a light hand -will serve the artist in good stead here. - -[Sidenote: OF TAIL-PIECES.] - -Page-terminations or tailpieces may of course be very various in plan, -and their style correspond with or be a variant of the style of the rest -of the decorations of the book. Certain types are apt to recur, but while -the bases may be similar, the superstructure of fancy may vary as much as -we like. There is what I should call the mouse-tail termination, formed -on a gradually diminishing line, starting the width of the type, and -ending in a point. Printers have done it with dwindling lines of type, -finishing with a single word or an aldine leaf. - -Then there is the plan of boldly shutting the gate, so to speak, by -carrying a panel of design right across, or filling the whole of the -remaining page. This is more in the nature of additional illustration to -carry on the story, and might either be a narrow frieze-like strip, or a -half, or three-quarter page design as the space would suggest. - -There is the inverted triangular plan, and the shield or hatchment form. -The garland or the spray, sprig, leaf, or spot, or the pen flourish -glorified into an arabesque. - -The medallion form, or seal shape, too, often lends itself appropriately -to end a chapter with, where an inclosed figure or symbol is wanted. One -principle in designing isolated ornaments is useful: to arrange the -subject so that its edges shall touch a graceful boundary, or inclosing -shape, whether the boundary is actually defined by inclosing lines or -frame-work or not. Floral, leaf, and escutcheon shapes are generally the -best, but free, not rigidly geometrical. The value of a certain economy -of line can hardly be too much appreciated, and the perception of the -necessity of recurrence of line, and a re-echoing in the details of -leading motives in line and mass. It is largely upon such small threads -that decorative success and harmonious effect depend, and they are -particularly closely connected with the harmonious disposition of type -and ornamental illustration which we have been considering. - -[Sidenote: THE END.] - -It would be easy to fill volumes with elaborate analysis of existing -designs from this point of view, but designs, to those who feel them, -ought to speak in their own tongue for themselves more forcibly than any -written explanation or commentary; and, though of making of many books -there is no end, every book must have its end, even though that end to -the writer, at least, may seem to leave one but at the beginning. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: ARTHUR HUGHES. - -FROM "GOOD WORDS FOR THE YOUNG." (STRAHAN, 1871.)] - -[Sidenote: NOTES FOR NEW EDITION.] - -Chap. IV. Of the Recent Development, etc., p. 189. In addition to the -names of the modern printers and presses mentioned in this chapter must -now be added those of several workers in the field of artistic printing -who have distinguished themselves since the Kelmscott Press. - -Mr. Cobden Sanderson has turned from the outside adornment of the book to -the inside, and, in association with Mr. Emery Walker, whose technical -knowledge and taste was so valuable on the Kelmscott Press, has founded -"The Doves Press" at Hammersmith, and has issued books remarkable for the -pure severity of their typography, founded mainly upon Jenson. - -Mr. St. John Hornby also must be named, more particularly for his revival -of a very beautiful Italian type founded upon the type of Sweynheim and -Pannartz, the first printers in Italy. The Greek type designed by the -late Robert Proctor, based on the Alcala fount used in the New Testament -of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible of 1514, should be mentioned as the -only modern attempt to improve the printing of Greek, with the exception -of Mr. Selwyn Image's, which perhaps suffered by being cut very small to -suit commercial exigences. - -Mr. C. R. Ashbee, too, has established a very extensive printery, "The -Essex House Press," which he has since transplanted to Chipping Camden. -He had the assistance of several of the workers from the Kelmscott Press, -and has produced many excellently printed books of late years, such as -the Benvenuto Cellini, and including such elaborate productions as Edward -VI.'s Prayer Book, with wood-engravings and initials and ornaments as -well as the type of his own design. - -An interesting series of the English poets, also, with frontispieces by -various artists, has been issued from this press. - -P. 218. The death of Aubrey Beardsley since the notice of his work was -written must be recorded, and it would seem as if the loss of this -extraordinary artist marked the decadence of our modern decadents. - -A perhaps equally remarkable designer, however, whose work has a certain -kinship in some features with Beardsley's, is Mr. James Syme, whose work -has not before been noticed in this book. He has a powerful and weird -imagination associated with grotesque and satirical design, and -considerable skill in the use of line and black and white effect. - -P. 267. In writing of book illustrators in France, a leading place should -be given to M. Boutet de Monvel, whose delicate drawing, tasteful -colouring, and sense of decorative effect, combined with abundant -resource in variety of costume, and skilful treatment of crowds, mediæval -battle scenes, and ceremonial groups are seen to full advantage in his -recent "Ste. Jean d'Arc," although no particular relationship between -illustration and type is attempted. - -P. 268. A recent proof of the revival of taste in book-decoration and -artistic printing in Italy may be referred to here as showing the -influence of the English movement. I mean the edition of Gabriele -d'Annunzio's "Francesca da Rimini" with illustrations or rather -decorations by Adolphus de Karolis, printed by the Fratelli Treves in -1902. This book shows unmistakable signs of study of recent English -work, as well as of the early printers of Venice, and it is strange to -think how sometimes artists of one country may come back to an -appreciation of a particular period of their own historic art by the aid -of foreign spectacles. Among the original designers of modern Italy may -be mentioned G. M. Mataloni, who shows remarkable powers of -draughtsmanship and invention, largely spent upon posters and ex-libris. - -Italy, too, has an able critic and chronicler of the work of -book-designers of all countries in Sig. Vittorio Pica of Naples, whose -"Attraverso gli Albi e le Cartelle" (Istituto Italiano d'arti grafiche -editore Bergamo) is very comprehensive. - -In Vienna Prof. Larisch recently published a book of Alphabets designed -by various artists of Europe; Germany, France, Italy, and England being -represented. The group of Viennese artists known as the "Secession" have -issued "Ver Sacrum," a monthly journal, or magazine, giving original -designs of various artists more or less in the direction of -book-decoration. Latterly the designs offered seemed to lose themselves -either in an affectation of primitiveness and almost infantine -simplicity, or the wildest grotesqueness and eccentricity. - - - - -APPENDIX. - - -[Illustration: HEADPIECE BY ALAN WRIGHT.] - -[Illustration: I. IRISH. VITH Century. - -BOOK OF KELLS. [_See page 13._] - -[Illustration: II. ENGLISH. XIVTH CENTURY. - -ARUNDEL PSALTER, 1339. [_See page 16._] - -[Illustration: III. ENGLISH. XIVTH CENTURY. - -ARUNDEL PSALTER, 1339. [_See page 16._] - -[Illustration: IV. ENGLISH. XIVTH CENTURY. - -ARUNDEL PSALTER, 1339. [_See page 16._] - -[Illustration: V. FRENCH. XIVTH CENTURY. - -EPISTLE OF PHILIPPE DE COMINES TO RICHARD II. [_See page 23._] - -[Illustration: VI. FRENCH. XVTH CENTURY. - -BEDFORD HOURS, PAGE OF CALENDAR, A.D. 1422. - -[_See page 23._] - -[Illustration: VII. FRENCH. XVTH CENTURY. - -BEDFORD HOURS, A.D. 1422. [_See page 23._] - -[Illustration: VIII. ENGLISH. LATE XVTH CENTURY. - -ROMANCE OF THE ROSE. [_See page 29._] - -[Illustration: IX. ITALIAN. XVTH CENTURY. - -INITIAL LETTER, CHOIR BOOK, SIENA (1468----1472-3). [_See page 30._] - -[Illustration: X. JAPANESE. XIXTH CENTURY. - -HOKUSAI. [_See page 163._] - -[Illustration: XI. JAPANESE. XIXTH CENTURY. - -HOKUSAI. [_See page 163._] - - - - -INDEX. - - ABBEY, Edwin, 166. - - _Æsop's Fables_ (Venice, 1493), 293. - - ---- (Ulm, 1498), 53. - - ---- (Naples, 1485), 55. - - "Aglaia," cover for, 154, 157. - - Alciati's Emblems, 109. - - Aldus, 62, 63, 65, 108. - - Alphabet (Dürer's), 299. - - _Alphabets_ (Bell, 1894), 299, 300. - - Amman, Jost, 96. - - American Wood-engraving, 148, 164. - - _Andersen's Fairy Tales_ (Allen, 1893), 199. - - Anglo-Saxon MSS., 14, _et seq._ - - Apocalypse, MS., 14th Cent., 19. - - _Arabian Nights_ (Dent, 1893), 241, 242. - - Arndes, Steffen, 47. - - _Art in the House_ (Macmillan, 1876), 160, 162-165. - - Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 207. - - Arundel Psalter, MS., 16. - - Aulus, Gellius (Venice, 1509), 73. - - - Bämler, 15. - - Bateman, Robert, 160, 162-165. - - Batten, J. D., 222, 241, 242. - - Beardsley, Aubrey, 218, 221, 225, 226, 227. - - _Beauty and the Beast_ (Dent, 1894), 245. - - _Bedford Hours_, MS., 23, 24, 38. - - Beham, Hans Sebald, 96, 113. - - Bell, R. A., 222, 243, 245. - - Bellini, Giovanni, 62, 69. - - Bernard, Solomon, 110. - - Bewick, Thomas, 140, 145. - - Bible (Cologne, 1480), 21. - - ---- (Lübeck, 1494), 47. - - ---- (Mainz, 1455), 49. - - ---- (Frankfort, 1563), 53, 131. - - Bible Cuts (Holbein), 92, 95, 96. - - Birmingham School, 203, 204, 207. - - Blake, William, 136-139. - - Block Books, 46. - - Blomfield, Reginald, 207. - - Boccaccio's _De Claris Mulieribus_ (Ulm, 1473), 7, 11; - (Ferrara, 1497), 54. - - Bonhomme, 110. - - _Book of Carols_ (Allen, 1893), 209. - - Books of Hours, 23, 24, 38, 54, 107. - - Borders, 204, 293. - - _Bracebridge Hall_ (Macmillan, 1877), 158. - - Bradley, Gertrude M., 207, 213. - - ---- Will. H., 274, 275, 277, 278. - - Brown, Ford Madox, 154. - - _Buch von den Sieben Todsünden_ (Augsburg, 1474), 15. - - Burgmair, Hans, 92, 95, 99, 101, 103, 105. - - Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 193. - - Burns, Robert, 226, 259. - - - Caesenas, Stephanus, 59. - - Caldecott, Randolph, 158. - - Calepinus, Ambrosius, 121. - - Calvert, Edward, 139-143. - - "Card-Basket Style," The, 165. - - Carroll, Lewis, 154. - - Castle, Egerton, _English Book-plates_, 185. - - Caxton, William, 49, 80. - - _Chaucer_ (Kelmscott Press, 1896), 193, 288. - - Cheret, M., 267. - - _Child's Garden of Verse_ (Lane, 1895), 235, 237, 239. - - Children's Books, 154, 156. - - China, Early Printing in, 164. - - Chiswick Press, The, 186. - - Chodowiecki, D., 136. - - _Christ, Life of_ (Antwerp, 1487), 31. - - _Chroneken der Sassen_ (Mainz, 1492), 41. - - _Chronica Hungariæ_ (Augsburg, 1488), 35. - - _Cinderella_ (Dent, 1894), 254. - - _Cinq Fils d'Aymon, Les_, 268. - - Clark, R. and R., 186. - - Columna, Francisco, 79. - - Constable, T. and A., 186. - - _Contes Drolatiques_, 150. - - "Convito," Il, 270. - - Copper-plate Engraving, 116, 129, 130. - - "Cornhill," The, 172. - - Cousin, Jean, 79. - - Craig, Gordon, 228. - - Cranach, Lucas, 95. - - Crane, Walter, 174, 179, 181, 183, 191, 269, 281, 283, 285, 288, 290, - 291. - - Cremonese, P., 56. - - _Crystal Ball, The_ (Bell, 1894), 227, 261. - - - "Daily Chronicle," Illustrations in the, 165. - - Dalziel Brothers, The, 150. - - Dalziel's _Bible Gallery_, 152. - - _Dance of Death_ (Holbein's, 1538), 91, 92, 115. - - Daniel, Rev. H., of Oxford, 189. - - Dante, _Divina Commedia_ MS., 10. - - Dante (Venice, 1491), 56. - - _Daphnis and Chloe_ (Vale Press, 1893), 223, 224. - - Davis, Louis, 170, 171. - - Day, Lewis, 166. - - _De Claris Mulieribus_ (Ulm, 1473), 7, 11; - (Ferrara, 1497), 54. - - De Colines, Simon, 127. - - De Gregoriis, 59, 295. - - _De Historia Stirpium_ (Basel, 1542), 119, 123. - - _Descent of Minerva, The_ (1508), 71. - - Destrée, Oliver Georges, 241. - - De Vinne Press, The, 189. - - "Dial," The, 218. - - _Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_ (1477), 80. - - Dijsselhof, G. W., 265. - - Dinckmut, Conrad, 27. - - _Discovery of the Indies, The_ (Florence, 1493), 57. - - Doré, Gustave, 149. - - Duff, Gordon, _Early Printed Books_, 185. - - Duncan, John, 226, 255, 257. - - Du Pré, 54. - - Dürer, Albrecht, 49, 80, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 95; - his _Geometrica_, 294. - - - _Early Italian Poets_ (Smith, Elder, 1861), 152. - - Edgar, King, Newminster Charter, 14. - - Emblem Books, 109, 110, 115, 116. - - End-Papers, 285. - - "English Illustrated Magazine," The, 170, 171, 173, 195. - - Evans, Edmund, 156. - - "Evergreen," The, 226, 255, 257, 259. - - "Ex-Libris Series," The, 185. - - - Finé, Oronce, 91, 126, 127. - - _Fasciculus Medicinæ_ (Venice, 1495), 293. - - Fell, H. Granville, 227, 254. - - Feyrabend, Sigm., 131. - - _Fior di Virtù_ (Florence, 1493?), 58. - - Flach, Martin, 108. - - Flaxman, 136. - - Flemish School, XVth Cent., 31. - - Florence, Mary Sargant, 227, 261. - - Ford, Henry, 222. - - _Formal Garden, The_ (Macmillan, 1892), 204, 205. - - Foster, Birket, 150. - - France, Modern Illustration in, 267. - - _Frangilla_ (Elkin Mathews, 1895), 233. - - French MSS., 19, 37. - - French School, XVth Cent., 37, 51, 126, 127. - - Frontispieces, 286. - - Froschover, 120. - - Fuchsius, _De Historia Stirpium_ (Basel, 1542), 119, 123. - - - Gaskin, Arthur, 199, 203. - - ---- Mrs., 203, 207. - - Georgius de Rusconibus, 69, 75. - - Gerard's Herbal, 120. - - Gere, C. M., 195, 197, 203. - - German School, XVth Cent., 3, 7, 11, 15, 17, 21, 25, 27, 35, 39, 41, - 47, 53. - - ---- XVIth Cent., 81-117, 119, 131, 147. - - Germany, Early Printing in, 46, 49. - - ---- Modern Illustration in, 172, 265. - - Gesner, Conrad, 120. - - Gilbert, John, 150. - - Giolito, G., 133. - - Giovio's Emblems, 116. - - Girolamo da Cremona, 30. - - _Glittering Plain, The_ (Kelmscott Press, 1894), 191, 288, 289. - - _Goblin Market_ (Macmillan, 1862), 152. - - "Good Words for the Young," 304. - - Gospels, The, in Latin, MS., 14. - - Grasset, M., 267, 268. - - Greenaway, Kate, 158, 159. - - Grimani Breviary, The, 29, 43, 45. - - _Grimm's Household Stories_ (Macmillan, 1882), 174, 179. - - Grün, Hans Baldung, 96, 107, 108, 109, 110. - - - Halberstadt Bible, The, 49, 117. - - Hardouyn, Gillet, 54, 107. - - Harvey, William, 145. - - Herbals, 16, 119, 120. - - _Hero and Leander_ (Vale Press, 1894), 219. - - "Hobby Horse," The, 186, 270. - - Hogarth, 135. - - Hokusai, 163. - - Holbein, Hans, 49, 80, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 115. - - ---- Ambrose, 92, 97. - - Holiday, Henry, 154, 157. - - Holland, Illustration in, 242, 265. - - Holst, R. N. Roland, 265. - - Horne, H. P., 186. - - _Hortulus Animæ_(Strassburg, 1511), 107, 108, 109, 110. - - _Hortus Sanitatis_ (Mainz, 1491), 39. - - _House of Joy, The_ (Kegan Paul, 1895), 231. - - Housman, Laurence, 222, 231. - - Hughes, Arthur, 159-161, 304. - - Hunt, Holman, 150. - - _Hunting of the Snark, The_, (Macmillan, 1876), 154. - - _Huon of Bordeaux_ (Allen, 1895), 211. - - Hupp, Otto, 174, 263. - - - Illuminated MSS., 5-10 _et seq._ - - Image, Selwyn, 187, 189. - - _Indulgences_ (Mainz, 1454), 49. - - "Inland Printer," The, 278. - - Isingrin, Palma, 108, 119, 123. - - Italian MSS., 10, 30. - - Italian School, XVth Cent., 54-65. - - ---- ---- XVIth Cent., 67-78, 121, 133. - - Italy, Modern Illustration in, 268, 269. - - - Japan, Early Printing in, 163, 164. - - Japanese Illustration, 156-164. - - Jones, A. Garth, 226, 249. - - "Jugend," 266. - - - Keene, Charles, 169, 172. - - _Kells, The Book of_, 10, 13. - - Kelmscott Press, The, 189, 190, 193, 194, 288, 290, 291. - - Kerver, Thielman, 54, 79, 107. - - _King Wenceslas_, 203. - - _Kleine Passion, Die_ (1512), 80, 81, 83, 85. - - "Knight Errant," The (Boston), 189, 273. - - Knopff, Fernand, 254. - - Kreuterbuch (Strasburg, 1551), 120. - - - Larisch, M., 266. - - Lawless, M. J., 172, 177. - - Leeu, Gheraert, 31. - - _Leiden Christi_ (Bamberg, 1470), 3, 53. - - Leighton, Sir Frederic, 152. - - Lettering, 268. - - Levetus, Celia, 207, 217. - - Liberale da Verona, 30. - - Linnell, John, 140. - - Linton, W. J., 146-149, 151. - - Lübeck Bible, The, 47. - - - Macdonald's _At the Back of the North Wind_ (Strahan, 1871), 159-161. - - Mainz, Early Printing at, 49. - - ---- Indulgences, The, 49. - - ---- Psalter, The, 50, 51. - - Margins, 194. - - Marks, H. S., 156. - - Mason, F., 207, 211. - - Matthiolus, 120. - - Mazarine Bible, The, 49. - - _Meerfahrt zu Viln Onerkannten Inseln_ (Augsburg, 1509), 105. - - Meidenbach, Jacob, 39. - - Menzel, Adolf, 172. - - _Mer des Histoires, La_, MS., 37. - - _Midsummer Night's Dream, A_ (Dent, 1895), 223, 243. - - Millais, Sir J. E., 150. - - _Milton's Ode on Christ's Nativity_ (Nisbet, 1867), 155. - - Minuziano, Alessandro, 67. - - Missals, 29. - - _Monte Santo di Dio, El_ (Florence, 1477), 119. - - Monvel, Boutet de, 268. - - Moore, Albert, 154, 155. - - Moore, Sturge, 218. - - Morris, William, 189, 191, 193, 194, 288, 290, 291. - - _Morte D'Arthur_ (Dent, 1893), 221, 225, 227, 228. - - _Mother Goose_ (Routledge), 159. - - Muckley, L. Fairfax, 222, 233. - - _Munchausen, Baron_ (Lawrence and Bullen, 1894), 226, 251, 253. - - - Neues Testament (Basel, 1523), 97. - - New, Edmund H., 201, 203, 207. - - Newill, Mary, 207, 215. - - _Newminster, Charter of Foundation of_, MS., 14. - - Niccolo di Lorenzo, 119. - - Nicholson, W., 228. - - Northcote's _Fables_, 145. - - _Nursery Rhymes_ (Bell, 1894; Allen, 1896), 227, 263, 265. - - - Omar Khayyam, 166. - - "Once a Week," 169, 172, 175, 177. - - Ongania, Ferd., 269. - - Otmar, Johann, 145, 147. - - Ottaviano dei Petrucci, 77. - - - Paganini, Alex., 121. - - Palmer, Samuel, 140. - - _Papstthum mit sienen Gliedern_ (Nuremberg, 1526), 113. - - _Paris et Vienne_, 1495, 51. - - Parsons, Alfred, 166. - - Payne, Henry, 207, 209. - - Peard's _Stories for Children_ (Allen, 1896), 167, 170. - - Pennell, Joseph, 165, 185, 221. - - Petri, Adam, 91, 107. - - Pfister, Albrecht, 3, 53. - - Philip le Noir, 108. - - _Philippe de Comines, Epistle of_, MS., 23. - - Photography, influence of, 174, 178. - - Pierre le Rouge, 37. - - Pigouchet, 54. - - Pletsch, Oscar, 174. - - Pliny's _Natural History_ (Frankfort, 1582), 103. - - Plutarchus Chæroneus (1513), 87; - (1523), 89. - - _Poliphili Hypnerotomachia_ (1499), 62, 63, 65, 293. - - ----, French Edition, 79. - - Pollard, A. W., _Early Illustrated Books_, 185. - - _Pomerium de Tempore_ (Augsburg, 1502), 147. - - Pomponius Mela, 293, 297. - - Poynter, E. J., 152. - - Pre-Raphaelites, The, 150. - - _Princess Fiorimonde, Necklace of_ (Macmillan, 1880), 174, 181. - - Printers' Marks, 96. - - Psalters, MSS., 16, 20, 24. - - Psalter (Mainz, 1457), 50, 51. - - "Punch," 170, 172. - - Pyle, Howard, 271, 273, 274. - - - _Quadrupeds, History of_ (Zurich, 1554), 120. - - Quarles' Emblems, 115, 116. - - "Quarto," The, 226. - - Quatriregio, 71. - - Queen Mary's Psalter, MS., 20. - - Quentel, Heinrich, 21. - - "Quest," The, 203. - - Quintilian (Venice, 1512), 75. - - - Ratdolt, Erhardt, 35, 297. - - _Reformation der bayrischen Landrecht_ (_Munich_, 1518), 116. - - Renaissance, The, 61. - - René of Anjou, Book of Hours of, 38. - - Rethel, Alfred, 172. - - Ricketts, C. S., 218, 219, 223. - - Rijsselberghe, M., 254, 266. - - Robinson, Charles, 222, 224, 235, 237, 239. - - Rogers' _Poems_, 136, 146. - - ---- _Italy_, 136, 146. - - _Romance of the Rose_, MS., 29, 43. - - Rossetti, Christina, 152. - - Rossetti, D. G., 150, 153. - - Rylands, Henry, 173. - - - Sambourne, Linley, 170. - - Sandys, Frederick, 172, 175. - - _Sartor Resartus_ (Bell, 1898), 228. - - Sattler, Josef, 265. - - Savage, Reginald, 218. - - "Savoy," The, 221. - - Schöffer, P., 41, 49, 50. - - Schürer, Mathias, 111. - - Schwind, M., 172. - - "Scottish Art Review," The, 187. - - Seitz, Professor A., 265. - - Shannon, C. H., 218, 224. - - Siena, Choir Books of, 30, 43, 45. - - _Sirens Three, The_ (Macmillan, 1886), 183. - - Sleigh, Bernard, 207. - - Smith, Winifred, 207. - - _Songs of Innocence_ (1789), 137. - - _Speculum Humanæ Vitæ_ (Augsburg, 1475), 17. - - Spence, R., 224, 247. - - _Spenser's Faerie Queene_ (Allen, 1896), 269, 281, 283, 285, 288, 294. - - _Spiegel onser Behoudenisse_ (Kuilenburg, 1483), 25. - - Steyner, Heinrich, 87. - - Stothard, Thomas, 136, 146. - - Strang, William, 226, 251, 253. - - Strange, E. F., _Alphabets_, 185, 300. - - Stück, Franz, 265. - - "Studio," The, 221. - - Sullivan, E. J., 227, 228. - - Sumner, Heywood, 166, 167, 171. - - - Tacuino, Giov., 73. - - Tail-pieces, 301. - - Talbot Prayer-book, The, 26. - - Tenison Psalter, The, MS., 16, 38. - - Tenniel, Sir John, 150. - - Tennyson's _Poems_ (Moxon, 1857), 150, 151. - - Terence, _Eunuchus_, German translation (Ulm, 1486), 27. - - Thomas, F. Inigo, 204, 205, 207. - - Title Page, development of the, 80. - - Tory, Geoffroy, 126. - - _Tournament of Love, The_ (Paris, 1894), 249. - - Treperel, Jehan, 51. - - _Triumphs of Maximilian, The_, 95. - - Tuppo's Æsop, 1485, 55. - - Turner, J. M. W., 146. - - Type as affecting design, 267, 280, 294. - - - Vedder, Elihu, 166. - - Veldener, Jan, 25. - - Ver Sacrum, 266. - - Vérard, 54. - - Virgil Solis, 131. - - - Wächtlin, Hans, 96, 111. - - _Walton's "Angler"_ (Lane, 1896), 204. - - Wandereisen, Hans, 113. - - _Weiss König, Der_ (1512-14), 95, 99. - - White, Gleeson, 221. - - Wilson, Patten, 221, 229. - - Witney's Emblems, 116. - - _Wood-Engraving, Masters of_ (1889), 149. - - Woodroffe, Paul, 227, 263, 265. - - Woodward, Alice B., 227. - - - Zainer, Johann, 7, 11. - - ---- Günther, 17. - -[Illustration: HEADPIECE BY ALAN WRIGHT.] - -[Illustration] - - - - -Transcriber's Note - - -Illustrations have been moved near the relevant section of the text. - -I have used "=" to denote bolded text. - -[:Y] is used in the text to represent Y with an umlaut above it. - -Page headers varied depending on the subjects under discussion. Where -the headers did not match the chapter title, I have treated the headers -as sidenotes. - -Inconsistencies have been retained in formatting, spelling, hyphenation, -punctuation, and grammar, except where indicated in the list below: - - - Right bracket added before "Augsburg" on Page x - - "Lubeck" changed to "Lübeck" on Page x - - Single quote changed to double quote before"Morte" on Page xiii - - Page number changed from "233" to "283" on Page xiii - - Page number changed from "305" and "335" to "309" and "341" on - Page xiv - - "Liege" changed to "Liège" on Page 19 - - "chiaro-oscuro" changed to "chiaroscuro" on Page 30 - - Period added after "SCHOOL" on Page 71 - - Period added after "1508" on Page 71 - - Period added after "CENTURY" on Page 73 - - Period added after "CENTURY" on Page 87 - - "Fusch" changed to "Fuchs" on Page 119 - - "fuschia" changed to "fuchsia" on Page 119 - - "Wood-cuts" changed to "Woodcuts" on Page 130 - - "caligrapher" changed to "calligrapher" on Page 138 - - Period added after "1827-8-9" on Page 143 - - Period added after "HOLIDAY" on Page 157 - - "HEAD-PIECE" changed to "HEADPIECE" to match Table of Contents on - Page 158 - - "see" italicized on Page 163 - - Double quotes changed to single quotes around "Epitome of the - Eighteen Historical Records of China." followed by a double quote - on Page 164 - - "occured" changed to "occurred" on Page 164 - - Period added after "STRANG" on Page 251 - - "opportunites" changed to "opportunities" on Page 269 - - "see" italicized on Page 293 - - "mediaeval" changed to "mediæval" on Page 306 - - "R.A" changed to "R. 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