diff options
Diffstat (limited to '44890-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 44890-0.txt | 7317 |
1 files changed, 7317 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/44890-0.txt b/44890-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f52d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/44890-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7317 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44890 *** + + THE PRINTED BOOK, + + Its History, Illustration, and Adornment, + + _FROM THE DAYS OF GUTENBERG TO THE + PRESENT TIME._ + + BY + HENRI BOUCHOT, + OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY, PARIS. + + _Translated and Enlarged by_ + EDWARD C. BIGMORE. + + WITH ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS OF FACSIMILES + OF EARLY TYPOGRAPHY, PRINTERS' MARKS, COPIES OF BOOK + ILLUSTRATIONS, AND SPECIMENS OF BINDINGS OF ALL AGES. + + NEW YORK: + SCRIBNER AND WELFORD, + 743 and 745, BROADWAY. + 1887. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Considering that this short study can claim to be nothing more than a +rapid and somewhat summary survey of the history of THE BOOK, it eschews +all controversial matter, nor does it pretend to convey much fresh +information to those already possessing a special knowledge of the +subject. It is rather a condensed, but at the same time, it may be +hoped, a useful, compendium of the thousand unknown or now forgotten +essays, involving endless contradictory statements, that have been +issued on this theme. The mere enumeration of such works would simply +suffice to fill a volume. We have accordingly no intention to attempt a +bibliography, satisfying ourselves with the modest avowal of having +found so many documents in all languages, that the very abundance has +been at least as embarrassing to us as the lack of materials may have +been to others. + +The Book appealing in its present form to a special public interested +more in artistic than in purely typographical topics, our attention has +been more particularly given to the illustrators, the designers, +engravers, etchers, and so forth. Such graphic embellishment seemed to +us of more weight than the manufacture of the paper, the type-casting, +the printing properly so called. This technical aspect of the subject +has been very briefly dealt with in a separate chapter, and has also +been enlarged upon in the early section. To the binding also we have +devoted only a single chapter, while fully conscious that a whole volume +would not have sufficed merely to treat the subject superficially. + +At the same time, we would not have the reader conclude from all this +that our book abounds in omissions, or has overlooked any important +features. The broad lines, we trust, have been adhered to, while each +section has been so handled as to give a fair idea of the epoch it deals +with. This is the first attempt to comprise within such narrow limits an +art and an industry with a life of over four centuries, essaying to +describe its beginnings and its history down to our days, without +omitting a glance at the allied arts. + +The engravings selected for illustration have, as far as possible, been +taken from unedited materials, and have been directly reproduced by +mechanical processes, while fifteen new illustrations, having special +relation to the history of the Book in England, have been added to this +edition, which is also considerably enlarged in the text on the same +subject. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + + 14.. TO 1462 1 + +Origin of the Book--Engravers in relief--The St. Christopher of +1423--Origin of the Xylographs--The Xylographs, _Donatus_, and +_Speculum_--The Laurent Coster legend--From block books to movable +characters--John Gaensefleisch, called Gutenberg--The Strasbourg +trial--Gutenberg at Mayence--Fust and Schoeffer--The letters of +indulgence--The Bible--The "Catholicon"--The Mayence Bible--Causes of +the dispersion of the first Mayence printers--General considerations. + +CHAPTER II. + + 1462 TO 1500 33 + +The Book and the printers of the second generation--The German workmen +dispersed through Europe--Caxton and the introduction of printing into +England--Nicholas Jenson and his supposed mission to Mayence--The +first printing in Paris; William Fichet and John Heinlein--The +first French printers; their installation at the Sorbonne and their +publications--The movement in France--The illustration of the Book +commenced in Italy--The Book in Italy; engraving in relief and metal +plates--The Book in Germany: Cologne, Nuremberg, Basle--The Book in +the Low Countries--French schools of ornament of the Book; Books of +Hours; booksellers at the end of the fifteenth century--Literary taste +in titles in France at the end of the fifteenth century--Printers +and booksellers' marks--The appearance of the portrait in the +Book--Progress in England--Caxton and his followers. + +CHAPTER III. + + 1500 TO 1600 98 + +French epics and the Renaissance--Venice and Aldus Manutius--Italian +illustrators--The Germans; _Theuerdanck_, Schäufelein--The Book in +other countries--French books at the beginning of the century, before +the accession of Francis I.--Geoffroy Tory and his works--Francis +I. and the Book--Robert Estienne--Lyons a centre of bookselling; +Holbein's Dances of Death--School of Basle--Alciati's emblems and +the illustrated books of the middle of the century--The school of +Fontainebleau and its influence--Solomon Bernard--Cornelis de la Haye +and the _Promptuaire_--John Cousin--Copper plate engraving and metal +plates--Woériot--The portrait in the Book of the sixteenth century--How +a book was illustrated on wood at the end of the century--Influence +of Plantin on the Book; his school of engravers--General +considerations--Progress in England--Coverdale's Bible--English +printers and their work--Engraved plates in English books. + +CHAPTER IV. + + 1600 TO 1700 151 + +Tendencies of the regency of Marie de Medicis--Thomas de Leu and +Leonard Gaultier--J. Picart and Claude Mellan--Lyons and J. de +Fornazeris--The Book at the beginning of the seventeenth century in +Germany, Italy, and Holland--Crispin Pass in France--The Elzevirs +and their work in Holland--Sebastian Cramoisy and the Imprimerie +Royale--Illustration with Callot, Della Bella, and Abraham Bosse--The +publishers and the Hotel de Rambouillet--The reign of Louis XIV.; +Antoine Vitré syndic at his accession--His works and mortifications; +the Polyglot Bible of Le Jay--Art and illustrators of the grand +century--Sébastien Leclerc, Lepautre, and Chauveau--Leclerc preparing +the illustration and decoration of the Book for the eighteenth +century--The Book in England in the seventeenth century. + +CHAPTER V. + + THE BOOK IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 184 + +The regency--Publishers at the beginning of the eighteenth +century--Illustrators in France; Gillot--The school of Watteau +and Boucher--Cars--The younger Cochin; his principal works in +vignettes--French art in England; Gravelot--Eisen--Choffard--The +_Baisers_ of Dorat; the _Contes_ of La Fontaine--The publisher +Cazin and the special literature of the eighteenth century--The +younger Moreau and his illustrations--The Revolution--The school of +David--Duplessis-Bertaux--The Book in Germany; Chodowiecki--In England; +Boydell and French artists--Caslon and Baskerville--English books +with illustrations--Wood engraving in the eighteenth century; the +Papillons--Printing offices in the eighteenth century. + +CHAPTER VI. + + THE BOOK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 218 + +The Didots and their improvements--The folio Racine--The school of +Didot--Fine publications in England and Germany--Literature and art +of the Restoration--Romanticism--Wood engraving--Bewick's pupils, +Clennell, etc.--The illustrators of romances--The generation of +1840--The Book in our days in Europe and America. + +CHAPTER VII. + + TYPES, IMPRESSION, PAPER, INK 239 + +CHAPTER VIII. + + BOOKBINDING 253 + +The binding of the first printed books--Ancient German +bindings--Binding in the time of Louis XII.--Italian +bindings--Aldus--Maioli--Grolier--Francis I.--Henry II. and +Diane de Poitiers--Catherine de Medicis--Henry III.--The +Eves--The "fanfares"--Louis XIII.--Le Gascon--Florimond +Badier--Louis XIV.--Morocco leathers--Cramoisy--The bindings +of the time of Louis XIV.--The regency--Pasdeloup--The +Deromes--Dubuisson--Thouvenin--Lesné--The nineteenth century--English +binders--Roger Payne--Francis Bedford. + +CHAPTER IX. + + LIBRARIES 290 + + INDEX 305 + + + + +THE PRINTED BOOK. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +14.. TO 1462. + + + Origin of the Book--Engravers in relief--The St. Christopher of + 1423--Origin of the Xylographs--The Xylographs, _Donatus_, and + _Speculum_--The Laurent Coster legend--From block books to movable + characters--John Gaensefleisch, called Gutenberg--The Strasbourg + trial--Gutenberg at Mayence--Fust and Schoeffer--The letters of + indulgence--The Bible--The Catholicon--The Mayence Bible--Causes of + the dispersion of the first Mayence printers--General + considerations. + + +Like its forerunner, Painting, the Book has ever been the most faithful +reflection of the times when it was written and illustrated. Natural and +genuine from the first, and simply embellished with crude illustrations, +it assumed in the sixteenth century the grand airs of the Renaissance, +gay or serious according to circumstances, decked in what were then +called _histoires_--that is to say, wonderful engravings--and daintily +printed in Gothic, Roman, or choice Italic characters. But at the close +of the century it had already abandoned _wood_ for line engravings, +heightening its mysticism or its satire at the whim of passing politics +and religious wranglings. Then, under the influence of the painters and +courtiers of the _Grand Monarque_, it becomes completely transformed, +donning the peruke, so to speak, indulging in allegory and +conventionalities, pompous and showy, tricking itself out in columns and +pilasters instead of the old arabesques and scroll work of the +Renaissance, thus continuing amid the coquetries of the regency, the +pastorals and insipidities of the following reigns, until at last it +suddenly assumes with the heroes of the Revolution the austere mien and +airs of classic art. The Book has always been as closely connected with +the manners of our predecessors as art itself. The artist submits more +than he thinks to the tendency of his surroundings; and if he at times +makes his taste appreciated, it is because he has more or less received +his first influence from others. + +In the sixteenth century the fashion of emblematic representation placed +under the portrait of Gaston de Foix a figure of a young plant in full +bloom; and the inscription in Latin was "Nascendo maturus"--"Mature at +birth." The Book deserves the same device; from its first day up to now +it is a marvel of simplicity and harmony. The tentative efforts which +preceded the discovery of printing were but few; it may be said that +from the moment that Gutenberg conceived the idea of separating the +characters, of arranging the words in the forme, of inking them, and of +taking a proof on paper, the Book was perfect. At best we see in +following times some modifications of detail; the art of printing was +mature, mature from its birth. + +But before arriving at the movable type placed side by side, and forming +phrases, which appears to us to-day so simple and so ordinary, many +years passed. It is certain that long before Gutenberg a means was found +of cutting wood and metal in relief and reproducing by application the +image traced. Signs-manual and seals were a kind of printing, inasmuch +as the relief of their engraving is impressed upon a sheet by the hand. +But between this simple statement and the uncritical histories of +certain special writers, attributing the invention of engraving to the +fourteenth century, there is all the distance of legendary history. +Remembering that the numerous guilds of _tailleurs d'images_, or +sculptors in relief, had in the Middle Ages the specialty of carving +ivories and of placing effigies on tombs, it can be admitted without +much difficulty, that these people one day found a means of multiplying +the sketches of a figure often asked for, by modelling its contour in +relief on ivory or wood, and afterwards taking a reproduction on paper +or parchment by means of pressure. When and where was this discovery +produced? We cannot possibly say; but it is certain that playing cards +were produced by this means, and that from the year 1423 popular figures +were cut in wood, as we know from the St. Christopher of that date +belonging to Lord Spencer. + +It is not our task to discuss this question at length, nor to decide if +at first these reliefs were obtained on wood or metal. It is a +recognised fact that the single sheet with a printed figure preceded the +xylographic book in which text and illustration were cut in the same +block. This process did not appear much before the second quarter of +the fifteenth century, and it was employed principally for popular works +which were then the universal taste. The engraving also was nothing more +than a kind of imposition palmed off as a manuscript; the vignettes were +often covered with brilliant colours and gold, and the whole sold as of +the best quality. + +The first attempts at these little figures in relief discovered by the +image-makers and diffused by the makers of playing cards were but +indifferent. The drawing and the cutting were equally unskilful, as may +be seen in the facsimiles given by M. H. Delaborde in his _Histoire de +la Gravure_. An attempt had been made to put some text at the foot of +the St. Christopher of 1423, and the idea of giving more importance to +the text was to the advantage of the booksellers. At the mercy of the +writers who fleeced them, obliged to recoup themselves by the +exaggerated prices of the most ordinary books, they hoped to turn +engraving to account in order to obtain on better terms the technical +work needed for their trade. At the epoch of the St. Christopher, in +1423, several works were in vogue in the universities, the schools, and +with the public. Among the first of these was the Latin Syntax of Ælius +Donatus on the eight parts of speech, a kind of grammar for the use of +young students, as well as the famous _Speculum_, a collection of +precepts addressed to the faithful, which were copied and recopied +without satisfying the demand. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Part of a _Donatus_ taken from a xylograph, the +original of which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.] + +To find a means of multiplying these treatises at little cost was a +fortune to the inventor. It is to be supposed that many artisans of the +time attempted it; and without doubt it was the booksellers themselves, +mostly mere dealers, who were tempted to the adventure by the sculptors +and wood-cutters. But none had yet been so bold as to cut in relief a +series of blocks with engravings and text to compose a complete work. +That point was reached very quickly when some legend was engraved at the +foot of a vignette, and it may be thought that the _Donatus_ was the +most ancient of books so obtained among the "Incunabuli," as we now call +them, a word that signifies origin or cradle. + +The first books then were formed of sheets of paper or parchment, +laboriously printed from xylographic blocks, that is to say wooden +blocks on which a _tailleur d'images_ had left in relief the designs and +the letters of the text. He had thus to trace his characters in reverse, +so that they could be reproduced as written; he had to avoid faults, +because a phrase once done, well or ill, lasted. It was doubtless this +difficulty of correction that gave the idea of movable types. If the +cutter seriously erred, it was necessary to cancel altogether the faulty +block. This at least explains the legend of Laurent Coster, of Haarlem, +who, according to Hadrian Junius, his compatriot, discovered by accident +the secret of separate types while playing with his children. And if the +legend of which we speak contains the least truth, it must be found in +the sense above indicated, that is in the correction of faults, rather +than in the innocent game of a merchant of Haarlem. However, we shall +have occasion to return to the subject of these remarks. It should be +well established that engraving in relief on wood alone gave the idea of +making xylographic blocks and of composing books. Movable type, the +capital point of printing, the pivot of the art of the Book, developed +itself little by little, according to needs, when there was occasion to +correct an erroneous inscription; but, in any case, its origin is +unknown. Doubtless to vary the text, means were found to replace entire +phrases by other phrases, preserving the original figures; and thus the +light dawned upon these craftsmen, occupied in the manufacture and sale +of their books. + +According to Hadrian Junius, Laurent Janszoon Coster (the latter name +signifying "the discoverer") published one of the celebrated series of +works under the general title of _Speculum_ which was then so popular +(the mystic style exercising so great an attraction on the people of the +fifteenth century), the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_. Written before +the middle of the fifteenth century, made popular by manuscripts, in +spite of its fantastic Latinity and of its false quantities, this +ascetic and crude poem was easy of access to the xylographists. Junius, +as we see, attributes to Laurent Coster the first impression of the +_Speculum_, no longer the purely xylographic impression of the _Donatus_ +from an engraved block, but that of the more advanced manner in movable +types. In point of fact, this book had at least four editions, similar +in engravings and body of letters, but of different text. It must then +be admitted that the fount was dispersed, and typography discovered, +because the same cast of letters could not be adapted to different +languages. On the other hand, the vignettes do not change, indicating +sufficiently the mobility of the types. In comparison to what may be +seen in later works, the illustrations of the _Speculum_ are by no means +bad; they have the appearance, at once naïve and picturesque, of the +works of Van Eyck, and not at all of the style of the German +miniaturists; properly illuminated and gilded, they lent themselves to +the illusion of being confounded with the _histoyres_, drawn by the +hand, and this is what the publisher probably sought. + +All the xylographic works of the fifteenth century may be classed in two +categories: the xylographs, rightly so called, or the block books, such +as the _Donatus_, and the books with movable types, like the _Speculum_, +of which we speak. This mystic and simple literature of pious works for +the use of people of modest resources found in printing the means of +more rapid reproduction. Then appeared the _Biblia Pauperum_, one of the +most celebrated and the most often reproduced, and the _Ars Moriendi_, a +kind of dialogue between an angel and a devil at the bedside of a dying +person, which, inspired no doubt by older manuscripts, retained for a +long time in successive editions the first tradition of its designs. On +labels displayed among the figures are found inscribed the dialogue of +the demons and angels seeking to attach to themselves the departing +soul, the temptations of Satan on the subject of faith, and the +responses of the angel on the same subject. + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Xylographic figure from the _Ars Moriendi_, +copied in reverse in the _Art au Morier_.] + +We can see what developments this theme could lend to the mysticism of +the fifteenth century. Composed in eleven designs, the _Ars Moriendi_ +ran up to eight different editions. From the middle to the end of the +fifteenth century, the text was in Latin, then in French, under the +title _L'Art au Morier_. In the French edition will be found the blocks +that served for the second impression of the work. About 1480, more than +fifty years after the first essays, the _Ars Moriendi_ enjoyed so much +vogue that it employed all the resources of typography as much as in its +earliest days. The original subjects, copied in a very mediocre manner, +adorned the text, which was composed in Gothic letters, with a new and +more explicit title: _Tractatus brevis ac valde utilis de Arte et +Scientia bene moriendi_ (4to, s.l.n.d.), but the order is inverted, +figure 5 of the xylograph becoming No. 3 of the edition of 1480. + +The _Ars Memorandi_, another xylographic work, of which the subject, +taken from the New Testament, was equally well adapted to the +imagination of the artists, had also a glorious destiny. The work +originally comprised thirty blocks, the fifteen blocks of text facing +the fifteen engravings. The designs represented the attributes of each +of the Evangelists, with allegories and explanatory legends. Thus, in +that which relates to the Apostle Matthew, + + No. 1 represents the birth and genealogy of Jesus Christ, + No. 2 the offerings of the Magi, + No. 3 the baptism of St. John, + No. 4 the Temptation of Christ, + No. 5 the Sermon on the Mount, + No. 6 the parable of the birds. + +The angel that supports the whole is the emblem of St. Matthew the +Evangelist. + +[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Figure of the school of Martin Schongauer, taken +from the _Rationarium Evangelistarum_ of 1505, and copied from the +corresponding plate of the _Ars Memorandi_.] + +This mnemonic treatment of the Gospels began with symbols of which we +have no means of finding the origin, but which without doubt were +employed many centuries earlier. However that may be, their success was +as great as that of the already-quoted works. In 1505 a German publisher +put forth an imitation, under the title of _Rationarium Evangelistarum_; +and this time the copier of the illustrations, retaining the tradition +of the first xylographers, no less reveals an artist of the first order, +at least a pupil of Martin Schongauer. Some of the conceptions of the +_Rationarium_ recall exactly the engravings of the great German master, +among others that of the Infant Jesus (plate 12), which nearly +approaches the style of the Infant Jesus of Schongauer; besides, the +principal figures leave but little doubt on the subject. The same wings +are on the angels and on the eagles, the same coiffures on the human +characters, often the same attitudes. + +From the preceding can be judged the extraordinary favour these +productions enjoyed. From their origin they were diffused through the +whole of Europe, and attracted the attention of excellent artists. +Nevertheless their beginnings were difficult. The movable types used, +cut separately in wood, were not constituted to give an ideal +impression. We can understand the cost that the execution of these +characters must have occasioned, made as they were one by one without +the possibility of ever making them perfectly uniform. Progress was to +substitute for this irregular process types that were similar, +identical, easily produced, and used for a long time without breaking. +Following on the essays of Laurent Coster, continuous researches bore on +this point; but as the invention was said to be his, and it being of +importance to him not to divulge it, so that he should not lose his +profit, much time was lost over it in his workshop without much success. +Here history is somewhat confused. Hadrian Junius positively accuses one +of Laurent Coster's workmen of having stolen the secrets of his master +and taken flight to Mayence, where he afterwards founded a printing +office. According to Junius, the metal type was the discovery of the +Dutchman, and the name of the thief was John. Who was this John? Was it +John Gaensefleisch, called Gutenberg, or possibly John Fust? But it is +not at all apparent that Gutenberg, a gentleman of Mayence, exiled from +his country, was ever in the service of the Dutch inventor. As to Fust, +we believe his only intervention in the association of printers of +Mayence was as a money-lender, from which may be comprehended the +unlikelihood of his having been with Coster, the more so as we find +Gutenberg retired to Strasbourg, where he pursued his researches. There +he was, as it were, out of his sphere, a ruined noble whose great +knowledge was bent entirely on invention. Doubtless, like many others, +he may have had in his hands one of the printed works of Laurent Coster, +and conceived the idea of appropriating the infant process. In 1439 he +was associated with two artisans of the city of Strasbourg, ostensibly +in the fabrication of mirrors, which may be otherwise understood as +printing of _Speculums_, the Latin word signifying the same thing. These +men needed to surround themselves with precautions; printing was as yet +only a practical means of multiplying manuscripts, to impose a little on +the innocent, and fortune awaited him who, without saying anything, made +this invention serve him. The following will prove this, as well as its +tendency. + +A legal document discovered in 1760 by Wencker and Schoepflin in the +Pfennigthurm of Strasbourg, and afterwards translated into French by +M. Leon de Laborde, makes us at length acquainted with the work of +Gutenberg and of his associates Andrew Dritzehen and Andrew Heilmann. +Apparently these three men were, as we have said, _Spiegelmacher_, +that is makers of mirrors. They had jointly entered into a deed by +the terms of which, if one of the partners died in the course of +their researches, his heirs would have no rights beyond an indemnity +corresponding to the amount invested by him. It happened that +Andrew Dritzehen did die, and that one of his brothers aspired to +occupy his place in the partnership. The dead man left debts behind +him; he had squandered his florins by hundreds in his experiments. +Gutenberg having offered to pay the amounts expended, the heirs of +Dritzehen, who wanted more, summoned him before the courts to show +why he should not make place for them in the work of experiments and +making of mirrors. The witnesses in their testimony before the court +told what they knew of the inventions of the partnership. One among +them deposed that after the death of Dritzehen, Gutenberg's servant +went to the workshop and begged Nicholas Dritzehen, brother of the +deceased, to displace and break up four formes placed in a press. +A second testified that the works of Andrew had cost him at the +least three hundred florins, an enormous sum for those days. Other +witnesses painted Gutenberg in a curious light: they made him out +to be a savage, a hermit, who concealed from his associates certain +arts of which the deed stipulated nothing. One fact proved that the +experiments referred to the manufacture of metallic characters. A +goldsmith, named Dünne, maintained that he had received more than a +hundred florins for printing material "das zu dem trucken gehoret." +"Trucken!"--"Typography!" The word was found, and from that day usage +has consecrated it. + +Before 1439, then, John Gaensefleisch, or Gutenberg, was devoted to the +art of reproduction of texts, and had consecrated his life and feeble +resources to it. Three problems presented themselves to him. He wanted +types less fragile than wooden types and less costly than engraving. He +wanted a press by the aid of which he could obtain a clear impression on +parchment or paper. He desired also that the leaves of his books should +not be anopistograph, or printed only on one side. There were many +unknown things to vex his soul, of which he himself alone could have a +presentiment. Until then, and even long after, the xylographs were +printed _au frotton_ or with a brush, rubbing the paper upon the forme +coated with ink, thicker than ordinary ink. He dreamed of something +better. + +In the course of his work John Gutenberg returned to Mayence. The idea +of publishing a Bible, the Book of books, had taken possession of his +heart. The _Spiegelmacher_ of Strasbourg was on the road to loss. The +cutting of his types had ruined him, and on his arrival in his native +town, his stock in trade, transported by him, was of no great weight: +some boxes of type, an inconvenient forme, and perhaps an ordinary +press, a wine-maker's press, with a wooden screw. The idea of using this +unwieldy instrument for the impression of his formes had already +occurred to him; but would not the _frotton_ serve still better? The +force of the blow from the bar would break the miserable type, the +raised parts of which could not resist the repeated strokes. In this +unhappy situation, Gutenberg made the acquaintance of a financier of +Mayence, named Fust, who was in search of a business, and who put a sum +of eleven hundred florins at his disposal to continue his experiments. +Unfortunately this money disappeared, it melted away, and the results +obtained were absolutely ludicrous. + +It is certain that John Fust did not enter on the engagement without +protecting himself. From the first he bound his debtor in a contract for +six per cent. interest, besides a share in the profits. In addition he +stipulated repayment in case of failure. Gutenberg, improvident, as is +the way of inventors, had signed away all that he possessed to procure +funds. It is presumed, besides, that during the continuance of his +investigations, he composed some current books with the resources at his +disposal, that served a little to lighten his debts. But the printing +house of the Zum Jungen at Mayence was far from shining in the world, +because the association of Fust concerned itself only with the +publication of a Bible, and not at all with the _Speculums_ and +_Donatuses_ that were so much in vogue at this time. Besides, the +money-lender made a point of pressing his debtor, and did not allow him +any leisure to labour outside the projected work. About this time a +third actor enters on the scene. Peter Schoeffer, of Gernsheim, a +writer, introduced into the workshop of Gutenberg to design letters, +benefited by the abortive experiments, and taking up the invention at +its deadlock, conducted it to success. John of Tritenheim, called +Trithemius, the learned abbot of Spanheim, is the person who relates +these facts; but as he got his information from Schoeffer himself, too +much credence must not be given to his statements. Besides, Schoeffer +was not at all an ordinary artisan. If we credit a Strasbourg manuscript +written by his hand in 1449, he was a student of the "most glorious +university of Paris." In the workshop of Gutenberg, his industrious and +inventive intellect found a fecund mine, and this caligraphist dreamt +of other things than shaping letters for the use of wood engravers. +Gutenberg, arrested in his career by the wants of life, the worries of +business, and perhaps also the fatigues of his labours, may have let the +new-comer know something of his experiences. One cannot know, but it is +certain that, shortly after, John Fust was so fascinated by Schoeffer, +so attracted by his youth and his application, that he resolved to put +new capital into the business. He did more: to permanently attach him, +he gave him his grand-daughter in marriage, not his daughter, as was +thought until M. Auguste Bernard rectified this mistake. + +We have now come to 1453, the year preceding the first dated monument of +printing in movable types: _the letters of indulgence_. It may be +acknowledged that the sudden affection of Fust for his workman depended +on some interested motive, and not at all on attraction of the heart. +Had this former student of the university of Paris found the means of +rapidly founding metallic types, the search for which had cost Gutenberg +many sleepless nights? Had he completed it by applying to it the matrix +and punch which had then and for centuries served the makers of seals +and the money-coiners? Perhaps, as was most probable, the two associates +had agreed, and putting their experiences together, had conquered +hitherto insurmountable difficulties. + +The year 1454 witnessed the diffusion throughout Christendom of letters +of indulgence, accorded by Pope Nicholas V., who wished to aid in funds +the King of Cyprus against the Turks. These circular letters, scattered +by thousands to every corner of the world, employed numerous copyists. +Arrived at Mayence, the distributers found a workshop ready prepared to +furnish copies in the shortest possible time. They set to work and +brought together all the type they possessed, cast or engraved, to set +up these famous letters. Among the impressions was that of which we give +a reproduction, which belongs to the edition called that of thirty-one +lines. The original was delivered for a consideration to Josse Ott von +Mospach on the 31st of December, 1454. + +It is not without interest, for the history of the Book and of printing, +to note here that these letters of indulgence, the clandestine traffic +in which was largely accelerated by rapidity of production and the small +cost of each copy, formed one of the causes of the religious reform of +Martin Luther. They afforded a means of raising money, and were so +generally resorted to that in the register of the Hotel de Ville of +Paris preserved in the Archives Nationales (H 1778) it may be seen that +the sheriffs requested the Pope to allow them to employ them in the +reconstruction of the bridge at the Hotel de Ville. + +The ice once broken, Fust and Schoeffer found it hard to nourish a +useless mouth. For them Gutenberg was more of a hindrance than a profit, +and they sought brutally to rid themselves of him. Fust had a most easy +pretext, which was to demand purely and simply from his associate the +sums advanced by him, and which had produced so little. Gutenberg had +probably commenced his Bible, but, in face of the claims of Fust, he had +to abandon it altogether, types, formes, and press. + +[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Letters of indulgence, from the so-called +edition of thirty-one lines, printed at Mayence in the course of 1454.] + +In November, 1455, he had retired to a little house outside the city, +where he tried his best, by the aid of foreign help, to establish a +workshop, and to preserve the most perfect secrecy. Relieved of his +company, Fust and Schoeffer were able to take up the impression of the +Bible and to complete it without him. If matters did so happen, and +Schoeffer had not the excuse that he had previously discovered the +casting of type, there is but one word to designate his conduct: +robbery, and moral robbery, the worst of all. But what can be said +to-day of these people? + +One thing is certain: that the Bible of Schoeffer, commenced by +Gutenberg or not, put on sale by Fust and Schoeffer alone about the end +of 1455 or beginning of 1456, proves to be the first completed book. +Retired to his new quarters, Gutenberg was taking courage, so as not +to appear too much behindhand, but the reconstitution of his workshop +cost him enormous time. And, besides, he missed the letter-maker +Schoeffer, his own Gothic letters, engraved on steel with a punch, not +having the same elegance. When his work appeared, it could not sustain +comparison. The Bible of Schoeffer was more compact, the impression was +more perfect, the ink better, the type less irregular. The original +inventor, in his business with Fust, made an unhappy competition for +himself. We give here a fragment of this celebrated book, a kind of +mute witness of the science and mortifications of the first printer. +It is now called the Mazarine Bible, from the fact that the copy in +the Mazarin Library was the first to give evidence concerning it. The +book was put on sale at the end of 1455 or beginning of 1456, for a +manuscript note of a vicar of St. Stephen at Mayence records that +he finished the binding and illuminating of the first volume on St. +Bartholomew's Day, 1456, and the second on the 15th of August. St. +Bartholomew's Day is the 13th of June, and not the 24th of August, as +the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale has it. + +[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Fragment of the Mazarine Bible, printed in two +columns. Beginning of the text in the second column; original size.] + +All these remarks show that the printers did not proclaim themselves, +and were making pseudo-manuscripts. They did not make known their names +or address. The rubricators sided with them, for many of the copies are +illuminated with as much care and beauty as if they were the finest +manuscripts. + +There is no record extant of the number of copies printed, but it was +done on both vellum and paper. Copies are by no means uncommon, most of +the great libraries having one, and many are in private collections. One +is shown among the typographical monuments in the King's Library of the +British Museum, and there is a finely illuminated copy in the show-room +of the Bibliothèque Nationale. From its very great importance as the +first book that is known to have been printed, its value has a constant +increase. Of the copies recently sold, one at the Perkins sale in 1873 +on vellum sold for £3,400, another on paper at the same sale fetched +£2,900, while one on paper in the Syston Park Library sold in December, +1884, for £3,900. It has been asserted that the copies on paper were the +first issued by Gutenberg and his partners, and those on vellum +subsequently printed by Fust and Schoeffer, after they had obtained +possession of the inventor's stock. + +But so many copies absolutely similar in aspect, and of so regular a +style, put in the market from day to day by Fust and Schoeffer, gave +rise to protests from the caligraphists. Criticism always attends upon +success, but having obtained the result, the two associates did not +hesitate to proclaim themselves the printers of the Bible. On the +publication of the Psalter, which followed the Bible at a year's +interval, they gave their names and added a date, 1457, the first +instance of a date being recorded in a book. This second work was of so +skilful a typography, that it might have been shown as the work of an +expert penman; the faults remarked in the letters of indulgence are no +longer seen; type had attained perfection; in two years printing had +reached its culminating point. + +In spite of his disappointments, Gutenberg did not rest idle. If he had +seen his two enemies rob him of his claim of priority in the invention, +he had to show that, reduced to his own exertions and to the restricted +means furnished him by charitable people, he also could print well. Two +years after the Bible a dated book, composed in Gothic letters, appeared +at Mayence; this was the _Catholicon_ of John Balbus, of Genoa. It had +not yet occurred to these first printers to exercise their art otherwise +than on religious works. It is admitted by general opinion that the +_Catholicon_ issued from the press of Gutenberg; on the other hand, M. +Bernard believes that it ought to be attributed to a printer of Eltvil, +who published in 1467 a vocabulary called the _Vocabularium ex quo_ with +the same types. The former theory may be sustained by the words of the +colophon of the book, which is a sort of hymn to God and a recognition +of the city of Mayence without any mention of the name of the printer. +Now in the situation in which Gutenberg found himself, in the face of +his rivals, had he not some claim to regard the great discovery as his +own? But if M. Bernard is mistaken, and if our supposition has no +foundation, what a beautiful act of humility, what a noble idea of his +character, Gutenberg gives us in writing, "With the aid of the Most +High, Who releases the tongues of infants and often reveals to babes +that which is sealed to learned men, this admirable book the +_Catholicon_ was finished in the year of the incarnation of our Saviour +MCCCCLX. in the mother-country of Mayence, famous city of Germany, which +God, in His clemency, has deigned to render the most illustrious and the +first of cities; and this book was perfected without the usual help of +pen or style, but by the admirable linking of formes and types"! + +[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Colophon of the _Catholicon_, supposed to have +been printed by Gutenberg in 1460.] + +The history of these men, it is easy to understand, has to be regarded +with caution, people of so little consequence then that the authentic +documents relating to them have for ever disappeared. If we except that +of the Pfennigthurm of Strasbourg, of which we have before spoken, and +the deed of claim for money from Fust to Gutenberg dated 1455, we are +forced to quote from authors living long afterwards, who submitted, +without knowing better, to the miserable errors of oral tradition. It is +nearly always the same with men who have occupied a large place in the +history of art; posterity only knows of their genius at the time when no +one knows anything of them. For Gutenberg the situation was still more +terrible; a rival, Peter Schoeffer, survived him, and he did not for his +own reputation care to preserve his rival's memory; and if, as is +believed, Gutenberg left pupils and heirs, Henry Bechtermuncze, Ulrich +Zell, and Weigand Spyes, his misfortune is crowned by Bechtermuncze +being now reputed to be the printer of the _Catholicon_, of which we +have just given the history. Even Albert Pfister, one of his workmen, +dismissed at the end of his work, having obtained from his master some +rejected types, was presumed later to have invented printing. We find +this artisan established at Bamberg about 1460, composing Bibles in +movable types, the first known being that published in 1461. But Albert +Pfister showed that he was not at all an inventor by the mediocrity of +his work, and more by the old types that he used. If he had known the +secret of engraving the punches, he would have cast new letters and have +given a better aspect to his work. + +[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Colophon of the Bible printed in 1462 by Fust +and Schoeffer, which is the first dated Bible. There are two different +editions with this signature. The above is from the second edition.] + +In these statements all is supposition and contradiction. That which is +certain--and the dates are there to prove it--is the enormous progress +in the productions of Peter Schoeffer. In 1459 he published his third +book, Durand's _Rationale Divinorum Officiorum_, in folio. As in the +Psalter, Schoeffer employed initial letters printed in red, which the +rival workshop could not do in the _Catholicon_, the rubrics of which +are painted by hand, as in manuscripts. In time he put forth a second +edition of the Psalter, always with Fust's name joined to his own. A +great number of types were broken at the beginning, but he dreamed of +doing yet better. In 1460 he gave the _Constitutiones_ of Pope Clement +V., with a gloss and commentaries by John André; here was the first +example of a process much employed in manuscripts, but of which the +typographical composition was very difficult. Again, in 1462 a new Latin +Bible issued from their workshops in two folio volumes. It is the first +dated edition. The first volume has two hundred and forty-two folios in +double columns, the second two hundred and thirty-nine. It commences +with an epistle of St. Jerome, and on the last leaf of the second volume +is the colophon on the preceding page. + +This book, one of the first worthy of the name, and which is called by +preference the Mayence Bible, appeared in one of the most troubled +epochs that the episcopal city had had to go through. Subject to its +archbishops, who were at the head of all the lay lords and fighting men, +the city found itself in 1462 the prey of two prelates of equal title +who refused to give way to one another: Thierry of Isembourg and Adolph +of Nassau-Wiesbaden. Adolph surprised Mayence on the 27th October, 1462, +pursuing his adversary, who scaled the walls with a rope to escape +quicker, and the city was sacked and pillaged from its foundations. In +the middle of this turmoil, what became of the obscure persons who were +then the printers of the Bible? Doubtless their insignificance saved +them from disaster, but as it was long before peace was re-established, +and the entire edition of their last volume could not be kept back, we +incline to believe that they were for a time going about the country as +itinerant booksellers. Paris was to them a well-indicated point of +travel--Paris, toward which all German commerce tended. The university +where Peter Schoeffer was instructed in letters, and that truly passed +for the first in Europe, appeared to them a market of the first order. +If we may believe Walchius (_Decas fabularum generis humani_: +Strasbourg, 1609, 4to, p. 181), John Fust himself went to that city, +where he put books on sale from sixty crowns a copy, then fifty, then +forty, according to the prevailing system in matters of discount. Fust +was above all things a merchant; he led it to be believed that he had +the marvellous establishment of a copyist beyond the Rhine, and he had +disposed of many copies, when the corporate scribes of the university, +becoming aware of the imposition, cried out furiously and declared it a +diabolical invention. We may now take this tale of Walchius as a fable, +as the registers of Parliament, on being consulted, rest silent on the +proceedings instituted against the "magician" of Mayence. Only we must +not lose sight of the fact that the booksellers had their masters, their +syndicate, if we may use the modern word, charged to prohibit fraudulent +publications. They were too much interested in the suppression of +printed books to judge the matter coldly. The Parliament had nothing to +see to in this. + +The revolution of Mayence had otherwise great results, which were not +affected by these minor reverses. The printing workshops, or at least +the successors of Gutenberg, began to be dispersed, and Fust and +Schoeffer having established a school of printers in the city, their +trade was no longer secret. Deprived of their liberties by the new +Archbishop, many of them expatriated themselves. We shall take occasion +later to name some of these exiles, through whom the art of printing +spread itself almost simultaneously throughout the world: to Cologne and +Strasbourg, to Italy and Spain, without reckoning Holland, France, +Switzerland, and the country around Mayence. We have before named the +episcopal city of Bamberg; it had the singular fortune to be the second +city to possess a printing office, but it disappeared as quickly as it +was established, with Albert Pfister, without leaving the least trace; +we do not find printing there again before 1480, more than twenty years +later. + +Gutenberg was dead before 1468. He was interred in the Church of the +Récollets of Mayence, by the pious care of a friend, who attributed the +invention of printing to him on his tomb. + +We may begin to comprehend the influence of this man upon the discovery +of which all the world was then talking, but the troubles of the +archiepiscopal city hampered the respective merit of the inventors. +Peter Schoeffer and John Fust were not much affected by the political +crisis. After two years' suspension, they reappeared with a Cicero, _De +Officiis_, 1465, quarto, always at work and always surpassing +themselves. This time they freely gave up religious publications, and, +still more extraordinary, they employed Greek types. + +Such is, detached from the incredible contradictions of writers on art, +and sketched solely on its main lines, the origin of printing as it is +established at this day. First came the image engraved in relief, which +we have not gone to China to find, with some of our predecessors. Upon +this image were often cut, by the same economical process, legends of +explanation that presented the idea of imitation of manuscript; and the +xylographs appeared with or without illustrations. Then from the +correction of errors in these books followed the discovery of movable +characters. This wooden type, possible when it was used with a _frotton_ +for printing, would quickly break under the press, the idea of which was +gained from the common press of the wine-makers. Then a kind of metallic +type had to be found which would run in a mould struck by a punch. This +punch was not invented for the purpose; it served previously for the +makers of coins and seals. The fabrication of type from the matrix was a +simple adoption. The lead thrown into the matrix gave the desired type. +Thus were made the first books, of which we have briefly related the +composition. + +As to the proportion of glory due to each one of the first printers, it +is necessary equally, to guard against error on one side or the other. +We have sought to separate from the heap of publications probable +opinions or those based on certain documents. That the origin of the +_Donatus_, the block books, was Dutch would be puerile to deny, because, +on one side, the engravings on blocks are surely of the school of Van +Eyck, and, on the other hand, Ulrich Zell, who inspired the "Cologne +Chronicle" of 1499, assigned positively to Holland the cradle of the +_Donatus_. At any rate, it was a pupil of Gutenberg, a question we have +discussed. After that we will trouble ourselves but little about Laurent +Coster. The name makes no difference in a matter of this kind. + +As to Gutenberg, we have not been able to go as far as M. E. Dutuit, who +in his _Manuel a'Estampes_ (vol. i., p. 236, etc.) doubts Gutenberg's +right to the title of inventor. It is stated that in a letter of William +Fichet, prior of the Sorbonne, of whom we shall have more to say +presently, to Robert Gaguin, which M. A. Claudin found at the beginning +of a work entitled _Gasparim Pergamensis orthographiæ liber_, published +in 1470, nearly twenty years after the first work at Mayence, Gutenberg +is proclaimed the inventor of printing. Without any other, this +testimony of a _savant_ who was the first to bring the German printers +to Paris appears to us well nigh irrefutable. + +As to John Fust and his grandson by marriage, Peter Schoeffer, they are +so well defended by their works, that there is no more to say here; +doubtless grave presumptions arise as to the delicacy of their conduct +with Gutenberg, but we are not so bold as to censure them beyond +measure. We know nothing precise either of the time or of the men. + +Let us now imagine humble workmen, the most simple of _gens de +mestiers_, to employ the French expression then in use, shut up in a +kind of dark workshop, like a country forge, formed in little groups of +two or three persons, one designing and the other cutting the wood, +having near them a table, on which is held the engraved block after its +reliefs have been rubbed with sombre ink, who afterwards, by means of +the _frotton_, apply the damped paper to the raised parts of the block; +we shall have without much stretch of thought all the economy of the +xylographic impression. If we add to this primitive workshop the matrix +in which the types are cast, the box in which they are distributed, the +forme on which they are arranged to compose the pages, and a small +hand-press, with blacker ink and paper damped to permit the greasy ink +to take better, we have a picture of the work-room of Gutenberg, Fust, +and Schoeffer, and of the first printers with movable types. + +Thus typography was born of painting, passing in its infancy through +wood-cutting, revolutionising ideas and somewhat the world. But the +mighty power of the new art was not confined to itself; it extended the +circle of engraving, which till then had suffered from the enormous +difficulties of reproduction. As if the time were ripe for all these +things, nearly at the moment when the first printers were distinguishing +themselves by serious works, a Florentine goldsmith accidentally +discovered the cutting of cast metal.[A] What would have become of this +new process if the presses of Gutenberg had not brought their powerful +assistance to the printing of engravings? It will be found then that +printing rendered a hundredfold to engraving for that which it received +from it and bore it along with its own rapid advance. + +Then reappeared, following the new processes, the figures somewhat +abandoned by the Mayence workmen during the period of transformation. +Our object is to speak at length of the Book ornamented and illustrated +according to the means of relief-cutting or casting; to demonstrate the +influence of painting, of sculpture, of art, on the production of the +Book; and thus to help the reader at the same time to understand the +almost sudden and irresistible development of typography, and to mention +its foremost representatives. + +[Footnote A: The opinion that Finiguerra was the unconscious inventor of +casting engravings is now abandoned.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +1462 TO 1500. + + The Book and the printers of the second generation--The German + workmen dispersed through Europe--Caxton and the introduction of + printing into England--Nicholas Jenson and his supposed mission to + Mayence--The first printing in Paris; William Fichet and John + Heinlein--The first French printers; their installation at the + Sorbonne and their publications--The movement in France--The + illustration of the Book commenced in Italy--The Book in Italy; + engraving in relief and metal plates--The Book in Germany: Cologne, + Nuremberg, Basle--The Book in the Low Countries--French schools of + ornament of the Book; Books of Hours; booksellers at the end of the + fifteenth century--Literary taste in titles in France at the end of + the fifteenth century--Printers and booksellers' marks--The + appearance of the portrait in the Book--Progress in England--Caxton + and his followers. + + +Considering the influence of printing on the book trade of the fifteenth +century, as referred to in the preceding pages, the dealers in +manuscripts were not disposed to give way at the first blow. An entire +class of workmen would find themselves from day to day without +employment if the new art succeeded; these were the copyists, miserable +scribes, who for meagre remuneration frequented the shops of the +merchants, where they transcribed manuscripts by the year. Before +printing the publication of books was so effected, and the booksellers +were rather intermediaries between the copyist and the buyer, than +direct dealers having shops and fittings complete. It is evident that +they would not provide themselves with these costly books long in +advance without being sure of disposing of them. + +Small as was the remuneration of the writers, it was much to them; and +they were naturally the first to protest against the new invention. At +the same time, their opposition and that of the booksellers was soon +overcome, swamped, and choked by the growing crowd of printers. Then, as +always happens in similar cases, in place of fighting against the +current, most of the former workers in manuscript followed it. The +writers designed letters for engraving in wood, the booksellers sold the +printed works, and some of the illuminators engraved in relief or cast +their _histoyres_. For a long time these last continued to decorate +books with the ornamental drawings with which they had adorned the +manuscripts, and so contributed to form the fine school of illustrators +who carried their art to so high a point from the end of the fifteenth +century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Imprint of Arnold Ther Hoernen, printer, of +Mayence.] + +As previously related, the revolution of Mayence caused the flight of a +crowd of artisans who found their liberty suddenly compromised by the +conqueror. The want of money at this time always brought a diminution of +patronage, and working printers have been at all times tenacious of +their privileges. It so happened that their guild, in place of remaining +established at Mayence many years longer, was, as it were, turned out, +scattered to the four cardinal points by the dispersion of its members, +and scattered many years before the natural time. In point of fact, in +the common order of things, a workman here and there quits the principal +workshop to try the world. He makes his way timidly, unconscious apostle +of a marvellous art. If he succeeds, he gathers some pupils round him; +if he fails, no trace of him remains; in any case invention propagates +itself more gradually. With printing it was a thunderclap. Hardly had it +made its appearance when the exodus commenced. The greater part of the +Mayence men went to Italy: to Subiaco and to Rome, Arnold Pannartz, +Conrad Sweynheim, Ulrich Hahn; to Venice, John of Spire, Vendelin of +Spire, Christopher Valdarfer, Bernard Pictor (of Augsburg), Erhardt +Ratdolt, Peter Loslein; to Ferrara, Andrew Belfort; to Foligno, John +Neumeister; Henry Alding tried Sicily; Andrew Vyel, of Worms, printed +at Palermo. Lambert Palmart was at Valencia, in Spain, in 1477; +Nicholas Spindeler at Barcelona; Peter Hagenbach at Toledo; not far from +Mayence--that is, at Cologne--Ulrich Zell, a pupil of Gutenberg, who +dated his first work 1466. It was Arnold Ther Hoernen who numbered a +book with Arabic figures; it was Koelhof who first used signatures to +indicate to the binder the order of the sheets; it was at Eltvil that +Henry Bechtermuncze, as we have already said, printed his _Vocabularium_ +in German, with the types of the _Catholicon_; at Basle, Berthold +Rüppel, of Hanau, was the first established in that city which after +Mayence did the most for printing; at Nuremberg, Koburger, who took +nearly the first rank among his contemporaries, set as many as +twenty-four presses to work, and was named by Badius the prince of +printers. And how matters went on! For instance, the very year that +followed the death of Gutenberg, monks, the Brothers of the Common Life +of Marienthal, in the Rheingau, themselves published a copy of the +indulgences accorded by Adolph of Nassau, Archbishop of Mayence. Before +1480, presses were everywhere in Germany: at Prague, Augsburg, Ulm, +Lubeck, Essling, etc. + +It is to be remarked that the Mayence men did not turn towards Holland. +Is it that they found there the descendants of Laurent Coster firmly +established in their workshops? Must the coexistence, the simultaneous +advance, of the invention in Germany and in the Low Countries be +admitted? It is a secret for us and for many others, but we know for +certain that Flemish printers were established at Utrecht in 1473, at +Delft, Bruges, Gouda, Zwoll, Antwerp, and Brussels. At Louvain there +was besides John of Westphalia, who published in 1474 a work of Peter +Crescens, and several other works. + +Colard Mansion was printing at Bruges about 1473; and was employed by +William Caxton, who had been for some years trading as a merchant in the +Low Countries, to print the "Recuyell of the Histories of Troy," by +Raoul Le Fevre, which Caxton had translated into English at the command +of Queen Margaret. This was issued in 1474, and was the first book +printed in the English language. In 1475 or 1476 Caxton returned to +England with a fount of types, which he had employed Mansion to cut and +cast for him, and established himself as a printer in the precincts of +Westminster Abbey. In 1477 he produced the first book printed in +England, "The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers," followed by a +large number of important works, many of them written or translated by +Caxton himself. Thus was typography firmly established in England; and +Caxton's immediate successors, Wynken de Worde, Richard Pynson, William +Machlinia, have had a glorious roll of followers, which has never been +broken to this day. From Westminster the art spread in England to +Oxford, where Theodoricus Rood, from Cologne, printed an _Exposicio +Sancti Jeronimi_ in 1478; and to St. Albans in 1480 by a printer who has +never been identified, and who produced the famous "Chronicle" and "Boke +of St. Albans." + +The invasion, we see, had been most rapid. In less than fifteen years, +every important city had followed the movement, and was ready to +establish printing offices. If we may credit a certain controverted +document, Charles VII. had on the 3rd of October, 1458, sent to Mayence +one of the best medal engravers of the Mint of Tours to study the +process of which marvels were spoken: "The 3rd of October, 1458, the +King having learned that Messire Guthenberg, living at Mayence, in the +country of Germany, a dexterous man in carving and making letters with a +punch, had brought to light the invention of printing by punches and +types, desirous of inquiring into such a treasure, the King has +commanded the generals of his mints to nominate persons well instructed +in the said cutting and to send them secretly to the said place to +inform themselves of the said mode and invention, to understand and +learn the art of them, in order to satisfy the said Lord King; and it +was undertaken by Nicholas Jenson, who took the said journey to bring +intelligence of the said art and of the execution of it in the said +kingdom, which first has made known the said art of impression to the +said kingdom of France" (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Hf 467, pp. 410, +411). + +Nicholas Jenson on his return met with a cool reception from Louis XI., +who did not continue the works of his father. It may be supposed that +this coolness was the cause of his expatriating himself and retiring to +a place where his industry could be better exercised. Ten years after +the above mission we find him established at Venice, his art of engraver +of letters joined to that of printer. His Eusebius, translated by +Trapezuntius, and his Justinian, were composed in 1470 with such +marvellous and clear types that from that day the best typographers have +imitated his founts. In spite of its success, he did not confine himself +to these letters, but he made use also of Gothic, in which he printed +by preference pious books. + +[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Imprint of Nicholas Jenson to a Justinian, +printed in 1470 at Venice. This type has prevailed up to now.] + +In spite of the attempts of Jenson in the name of the King of +France--that is, if these attempts ever took place in the manner +indicated above--the invention was not known to have commended itself to +the powerful university of Paris. In general, and especially for the +introduction of innovations in that learned body, it was necessary to +fight, to strike without much chance of success, save in case of having +acquaintance in the place. We have seen John Fust, obliged suddenly to +retake the road to Germany, in a fair way to find himself taxed with +sorcery, not an inconsiderable matter. For others the sale of +unauthorised books had had most unhappy consequences unless the +Parliament intervened. So ten years had passed since the journey of +Jenson, and ten or twelve since the first manifestations of typography +at Mayence, without the diabolical discovery finding admittance to the +Sorbonne. A still more extraordinary thing, a Cologne printer issued +about 1472 a small folio in Gothic type, thirty-one long lines to a +page, which was a work written in French. The _Histoires de Troyes_ of +Raoul Le Fevre, chaplain of the dukes of Burgundy, first found a +publisher in Germany, and soon after another in England, before a single +press was definitely installed at Paris. + +As we have said of Peter Schoeffer, numerous German students were in the +university, where they pursued their studies, and frequently remained +later as masters. It has been found that in 1458 a former student of +Leipzig named John Heinlein, a native of Stein, in the diocese of Spire, +entered as regent of the college of Burgundy, from whence he passed to +the Sorbonne in 1462, the year of the troubles in Mayence. After the +manner of latinising names so common at that time, he called himself +Lapidanus, from the name of his native place, which means Stone in +German. Heinlein met in Paris a Savoyard, William Fichet, born in 1433 +at Petit Bornand, who became an associate of the Sorbonne about 1461, +and finally rector in 1468. These two men were great friends, and their +particular instincts attracted them to men of elevated studies. They +divined at once the enormous help printing would bring to their work. +Besides, it grieved them to see through the whole of France, especially +in Touraine, German colporteurs carrying on their trade under cover of +other commerce, a practice from which the most grave inconveniences +might result. It occurred to them that to prevent fraud they would +themselves create a printing establishment; but if they deliberated on +it, it must have been in secret, for the registers of the Sorbonne are +silent on their enterprise. If Fichet conceived the idea, it may be +believed that, from his German origin, Heinlein put it into execution. +M. Philippe thinks that he was formerly at Basle. In all probability it +was from that city he tried to obtain his workmen. In 1468 six years had +elapsed since the craftsmen were dispersed and fled from Mayence. At all +events, it was from Basle that Ulrich Gering, Michael Freyburger, and +Martin Krantz, printers recommended to the two Sorbonnists, departed, +and in due course arrived in Paris. Of these three men, who were the +first to establish a printing office on the French side of the Rhine, +Ulrich Gering was a student as well as a printer, so was Freyburger, +originally of Colmar. Krantz was a letter-founder, and the only real +workman of the three companions. + +We have often regretted with regard to these men, as also to Gutenberg, +Fust, and Schoeffer, that no really authentic portrait has transmitted +their features to us. Every one will recall the fur cap and loose +pantaloons of the mediocre statue at Mayence, but there is really no +portrait of Gutenberg. As to Gering, M. Philippe, in his _Histoire de +l'Origine de l'Imprimerie à Paris_, publishes a grotesque figure muffled +in the ruff of the sixteenth century, after a picture preserved at +Lucerne, but for which much cannot be said. Lacaille, in his _Histoire +de l'Imprimerie_, gives a full-length portrait of Gering, said to be +taken from a painting in the College Montagu. + +The workshop of the three Germans was set up within the walls of the +Sorbonne--_in ædibus Sorbonnicis_--in 1469. There they set to work at +once, their printing establishment consisting simply of a room, none too +light, a table, a press, and formes. Krantz doubtless struck the types +chosen by the Sorbonnists, for there were then in use two sorts of +letters: German Gothic and Roman. They kept to the Roman, as being more +round and clear; and as soon as they obtained matrices and cast their +type, they entered on their task with ardour. + +[Illustration: Fig. 10.--"Letters" of Gasparin of Bergamo. First page of +the first book printed at Paris, in 1470.] + +The tendencies of Fichet and Heinlein were not towards transcendent +theology, but rather towards the literature of the ancients and +contemporary rhetorical works. Besides, it may be said, considering that +men are far from perfect, Fichet counted on making the authorised +presses serve his own purpose. We find him publishing a treatise on +rhetoric in quarto in 1471; meantime he supervised the work confided to +his artists. They commenced with a large volume of "Letters" of Gasparin +of Bergamo, which was set up in quarto with the Roman type, the form of +which had been accepted. At the end of the work, the impression of +which cost much time--possibly a year--the three printers placed a +quatrain in Latin distichs, which is at once a statement of identity and +a promise for the future. + +[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Colophon in distichs in the "Letters" of +Gasparin of Bergamo, first book printed at Paris, at the office of the +Sorbonne.] + +If we try to apportion to each of the three printers his share in the +making of the book, it may be supposed that the intellectual part of the +composition and the correction fell to Freyburger and Gering, while the +heavier work of founding, placing in formes, and press work fell to +Krantz. This essay, satisfactory as it appeared, was far from +perfection. The first Parisian printers had multiplied abbreviations and +irregular contractions, and enormous difficulties and inevitable faults +ensued. Further, either they had more than one punch, or the leaden +matrix was deformed, for the characters frequently differ. At the same +time, we must commend them for having used the _æ_ and _[oe]_, which +were uniformly written _e_ in the manuscripts, thus giving rise to +errors without number. Their punctuation was the comma, semicolon, and +full stop. + +[Illustration: Fig. 12.--_Rhetorique_ of Fichet, printed at Paris in +1471. The marginal ornaments are drawn by hand.] + +Fichet and Heinlein had become the modest librarians of the Sorbonne, +and this new employment gave them greater facilities for surveillance. +The printing office did not remain inactive. It issued successively the +"Orthography" of Gasparin of Bergamo, the "Letters" of Phalaris, two +books of Æneas Sylvius, the "Conspiracy of Catiline" of Sallust, the +"Epitome of Titus Livius" of Florus, and finally the "Rhetorics" of +William Fichet, which, if we may credit a letter addressed to Bessarion, +was finished in 1471. Following came the "Letters" of Bessarion, the +_Elegantia Latinæ Linguæ_ of Valla, the first folio volume from the +Sorbonne presses; and others, thirteen volumes in 1470-71 and seventeen +in 1472. + +At the end of 1472 the workshop was somewhat broken up, Fichet having +left for Rome and Heinlein preaching in Germany. The three printers had +shown by their works that they were in earnest; besides, they had from +the first gratuitously distributed copies among the nobles, who, being +accustomed to pay highly for manuscripts, did not fail to note the +difference. The associates then resolved to quit the Sorbonne and create +an establishment for themselves; their patrons being no longer there to +sustain them in case of failure, and in giving up their presses and +types it may be judged that they were not without anxiety on that point. + +Their oldest dated book, the _Manipulus Curatorum_ of Montrochet, was +also the first that they printed in their new quarters, at the sign of +the "Golden Sun" in the Rue St. Jacques. They remained united up to the +year 1477, when Gering alone printed at the "Golden Sun," but he +obtained associates, George Mainyal in 1480 and Berthold Rembold in +1494, who lived with him in the Rue de la Sorbonne, where he established +himself on leaving the Rue St. Jacques. Ulrich Gering died on the 23rd +of August, 1510, after a half-century of work. + +The movement inaugurated by the Sorbonne was promptly followed. German +workmen opened their shops nearly everywhere in France; then the French +themselves scattered. At Lyons in 1472 a Frenchman was established, the +same at Angers, Caen, Metz, Troyes, Besançon, and Salins. But in the +central provinces we find Henry Mayer at Toulouse, John Neumeister at +Albi; in the east Metlinger at Dijon; and Michael Wensler, of Basle, at +Macon, among others, about 1493. + +We have now arrived at an epoch of greater efforts. The Lyons printers +used ornamental letters, from which were developed engravings in the +Book. Since the block books illustration had been neglected, as the +means were wanting to distribute the plates here and there in the forme; +Schoeffer still employed initial letters in wood very like vignettes. +John Fust was now dead, but Peter Schoeffer continued to print without +intermission. + +If we search for the precise epoch in which illustration appeared in the +history of the Book, we shall perhaps have to go back to the time of +Albert Pfister, printer of Bamberg, who issued in 1461 an edition of the +"Fables of Ulrich Bohner" with a hundred and one figures on wood. This +may be said to be the unconscious combination of xylography with +typography, a kind of transformation of old elements to new things +without other importance; art had no place in this adaptation. + +Up to this time Germany had not, in its school of painters or +miniaturists, men capable of giving a personal impulse to ornament. In +the German editions of the block books the influence of Van Eyck had +made itself felt very sensibly, and the Flemish had preserved their +supremacy on this point; on the other hand, the German printers who went +to seek their fortune in Italy fell into the middle of a circle +admirably prepared to receive them and to communicate their ideas to +them. It is believed that the first book printed in Italy with woodcuts +in the text and with an ascertained date is the work of a German +established at Rome, Ulrich Hahn, in 1467. An account in the _Annuaire +du Bibliophile_, which, being without citation of authority, we quote +for what it is worth, relates that Ulrich Hahn was established as a +printer at Vienna about 1462, but was driven thence by the publication +of a pamphlet against the burgomaster of the city, and was attracted to +Rome by Torquemada, who confided to him the impression of his work the +_Meditationes_. Hahn was an engraver, as were also most of his +_confrères_ at that time--that is, he cut in relief designs to be +intercalated in the text--and Passavant relates that the designs of the +_Meditationes_ were from compositions of Fra Angelico, who died in 1455. +Be that as it may, the book, the printing of which was finished on St. +Sylvester's Day, 1467, is the first known with engravings, and only +three copies of it exist: one at Vienna, one at Nuremberg, and one in +Lord Spencer's library; it is composed in Gothic type in folio. + +[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Wood engraving of Matteo Pasti for Valturius' +_De Re Militari_: Verona, 1472.] + +Illustration found a true artist at Verona, Matteo Pasti, who furnished +designs for a volume on military art by Valturius, printed in Roman +characters in folio, at the expense of John of Verona, and dedicated to +Sigismond Pandolfi. Pasti's eighty-two figures are simple outlines, and +we here reproduce one of the principal--an archer shooting at a butt. +Published in 1472, the volume of Valturius followed soon after the +_Meditationes_, but the engravings enable us to see how the Italian +process, consisting mostly of lines without shadows, differed from the +Dutch and German. One thing to be remarked here is the purity of the +design, in spite of the roughness of the engraving; we see in these +figures Italian art at its height, despite the somewhat coarse +translation of the wood-cutter. + +At Venice the German inventors had reaped their harvest. At the end of +the fifteenth century, fifty years after the invention of typography, +the printing offices and booksellers' shops were counted by hundreds. It +was in this city that for the first time a title with frontispiece +carrying indication of the contents, the place, the date, and the name +of the printer, was given to the Book. We give here this ornamental +title, placed before a _Calendario_ of John de Monteregio, printed by +Pictor, Loslein, and Ratdolt in 1476, folio. + +The German Erhardt Ratdolt was probably the promoter of these +innovations. He soon afterwards published the first geometrical book +with figures, the "Elements of Euclid," 1482, folio; in the same year he +produced the _Poeticon Astronomicum_ of Hyginus, previously printed at +Ferrara, with illustrations on wood of excellent design, but laboriously +and unskilfully engraved. Yet the art of the Book could not remain +mediocre in this city, where the artists were creating marvels. John of +Spire and afterwards Nicholas Jenson, the emigrant from France, of whom +we have spoken above, had created, after Italian manuscripts, that Roman +letter, the primitive type of which has come down to our time very +little retouched. At the death of Jenson in 1481, his materials passed +into the hands of Andrew d'Asola, called Andrea Torresani, who did not +allow the good traditions of his master to die, and who produced among +others a book bearing signatures, catchwords, and paging ("Letters of +St. Jerome," 1488). Torresani was the father-in-law of Aldus Manutius, +who was to be for ever illustrious in the art of printing at Venice, and +raised his art to the highest perfection. + +[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Title-page of the _Calendario_, first +ornamental title known. Printed in 1476 at Venice.] + +But if decoration by means of relief blocks found a favourable reception +in Italy and, above all, a group of artists capable of carrying it to +success, there were at the same time other experiments conceived in a +different way. The discovery of Maso Finiguerra gave to the art a new +process of reproduction, and printing presses had now to render possible +and practicable the working of engraved plates. In order to make that +which follows comprehensible, we enter into a few technical details, the +whole subject having been so admirably and fully treated by MM. +Delaborde and Duplessis. + +In the engraved wood block, as in the printing type, it is a projection +in the wood or metal which, being inked and passed under a press, leaves +on paper its lines in black. Naturally then the intercalation of an +engraving of this kind in typographical composition is made without +difficulty, and the impression of both is taken at once. On the other +hand, a line engraving is obtained from incised lines on a plate of +copper; that is, an instrument called a burin traces the lines, which +are filled with greasy ink. These incised lines only are inked. The +surface of the plate is cleaned off to avoid smudging. The sheet of +paper destined for the impression has then to be made very pliable, so +that at the striking of the press it runs, so to speak, to find the ink +in the lines and hold it. It is therefore impossible to take a text from +relief characters at the same time as an engraved plate. + +[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Engraving on metal by Baccio Baldini for _El +Monte Santo di Dio_, in 1477.] + +However, this kind of reproduction, which, contrary to that from +wood, allowed of half-tints or toning down, attracted in good time +the workers at the Book. It appeared to them possible to reconcile +the two printings by the successive passage of the same sheet of +paper through the press, to receive at first the impression from the +type and afterwards to find the ink deposited in the incisions in the +copper. The first manifestation of this new method of illustration was +made at Florence, the home of line engraving, by Nicholas di Lorenzo +in 1477, for the work of Antonio Bettini, of Siena, called _El Monte +Santo di Dio_. Here the artists were never known. Common opinion has +it that Baccio Baldini borrowed from Sandro Botticelli the subjects of +his plates. Italian engraving always seeks its source in Pollajuolo, +Botticelli, and Baldini. It is not the simple work of a niellist, +but it had not yet reached perfection either in the work or in the +impression; the illustrations of the _Monte Santo_ are proof of this, +as are also those of the _Dante_, by Baldini, in 1481, for the same +Nicholas di Lorenzo. From this we reproduce the Misers. + +[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Metal engraving by Baccio Baldini from the +Dante of 1481.] + +At this epoch engravings from the burin were taken with a pale ink, the +composition of which is very different from the fine black ink of +Schoeffer as well as of the old Italian printers. And besides in most +cases the proofs were obtained with the _frotton_, like the ancient +block books, an eminently defective process. The press was not yet well +adapted to the delicate work of line engraving, and the workmen, who did +not apply the plates until after the text was printed, preferred not to +risk the loss of their sheets by the use of inappropriate presses. +These, with the insignificant attempts made by the Germans in 1479,[A] +are the beginnings of the process of line engraving in the ornamentation +of the Book. In fact, the process failed to take its due position for +want of a more convenient mode of working. Relief engraving had got +ahead; with it the sheets used for the impression did not require +working more than once to register the figures with the text; in a word, +the labour was not so great. A century had to pass before line engraving +completely dethroned the vignette on wood, a century in which the latter +attained its height, and showed what able artisans could make of a +process apparently the least flexible. + +[Footnote A: _Breviarium ecclesie Herbipolensis_: Et. Dold., 1479, +folio, copper plate engravings.] + + +Not to leave Italy, which had the honour of making the book with +engraved illustrations known to the world, we pass by some years, +during which Arnold Bucking gave at Rome a _Cosmographia_ of Ptolemy, +1478, with incised plates, which is the first printed atlas that was +produced, whilst as regards ordinary publications there appeared in all +parts classical and Italian works, such as Cicero, Virgil, Tacitus, +Pliny, Eusebius, among the ancients, and Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, +etc., among moderns. Among the editions of Dante, we may cite that of +Peter of Cremona, dated 18th November, 1491, with one engraving to +each canto, of which the earlier are after Botticelli, and perhaps +drawn by him directly on the wood. Passavant believes these figures +to be cut in relief in the metal. On some of the plates there is a +signature, a Gothic b, the signification of which leaves a free +field for conjecture, and perhaps for error. Copies of this book with +the complete series of twenty plates are extremely rare; one in the +Hamilton Palace Library sold in May, 1884, for £380; the Royal Library +of Berlin recently agreed to pay £1,200 for a proof set of the plates. + +[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Plate from the _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, +printed by Aldus Manutius, in 1499.] + +As we shall see later apropos of German vignettes of the same period, +the characteristic of Italian engraving was sobriety, the complete +absence of useless work and the great simplicity of the human figure. +This special manner will be found in the famous edition of the +_Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ of Francis Colonna, printed in 1499 by +Aldus, copied sixty years later by a French printer, and lately +reproduced in reduced size. + +[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Plate from Bonino de Bonini's Dante, at +Brescia, in 1487.] + +The Italian illustrators, whether they were working in wood, or, as some +writers have it, in metal, adroitly brought their figures forward by +contrasting some rudimentary work in the persons with the more +accentuated and often stippled ground, which formed a dark background. +This was also the ordinary process in their ornaments, among the most +interesting of which are the borders of the plates to an edition of +Dante by Bonino de Bonini, Brescia, 1487, of which a specimen is here +reproduced. + +If we return from Italy, which then took the lead, to Germany, a school +of _Formschneiders_ is found about the year 1470 at Augsburg, whose +secluded workshops were of no benefit to the booksellers. These +ill-advised artisans went still further. Apparently furious to see +printing so widely spread as to render their bad woodcuts difficult to +get rid of, they united in a body to interdict Gunther Zainer and +Schüssler from putting engravings into their books. They must +nevertheless have come to an ultimate arrangement, for Zainer printed in +1477 a book on chess by Jacopo da Cessole, with vignettes. He was one of +the few German printers who employed Roman characters in place of the +Gothic of Peter Schoeffer. At Cologne in 1474 Arnold Ther Hoernen +published a work entitled _Fasciculus Temporum_, with small +illustrations engraved on wood. A Bible without date contains most +interesting illustrations. As to the celebrated _Todtentantz_, or "Dance +of Death," published about 1485, it contains forty-one relief plates of +the most ordinary kind, the same as in the "Chronicle of Cologne" of +1499, of which the figures, though less German, less distorted, are +worth little compared with those of the Nuremberg books, more German, +but more artistic. + +[Illustration: Fig. 19.--The creation of woman, plate from the +_Schatzbehalter_, engraved after Michael Wolgemuth.] + +At Nuremberg, Antony Koburger, called by Badius the prince of +booksellers, directed an immense establishment, employing more than a +hundred workmen, without counting smaller houses at Basle and Lyons. +Koburger was a capable and a fortunate man. He had at first put forth a +Bible very indifferently illustrated with the cuts of the Cologne Bible, +but he had before him something better than copying others. Michael +Wohlgemuth, born at Nuremberg in 1434, was then in the full vigour of +his talent. To his school the young Albert Dürer came to study; and as +he was able to draw on wood as well as to engrave on copper and paint on +panel, Koburger was attracted to him, and engaged him to make a set of +illustrations for a book. The projected work was the _Schatzbehalter_, a +sort of ascetic compilation, without interest, without arrangement. +Michael Wohlgemuth set to work; and, thanks to the ability of his +engravers, of whom William Pleydenwurff was probably one, Koburger was +able to put the book on sale in the course of 1491 in three hundred and +fifty-two folios of two columns. Without being perfection, the designs +of Wohlgemuth, very German, very striking, present the vigour and merit +of the future school of Nuremberg. The figure is no longer a simple +line, in the manner of the block books, but a combination of interlaced +cuttings, intended to imitate colour. Those representing the creation of +Eve and the daughter of Jephthah are here reproduced. In the search for +harmony between the text and engravings of this curious work, we shall +find grace and gaiety laid aside, on the other hand a freedom and +boldness that interest and permit us to appreciate at their value the +Nuremberg artists and Koburger, the printer. In fact, the German artists +are more individual, each one taken by himself, than the Italian +illustrators could be, condemned as they were to the hierarchical +commonplace and to a certain form of idealism into which the art of +Italy entered little by little. The German painters, naturalists and +believers, presented their heroes in the image of that robust nature +that was before their eyes. It was in this rude and unpolished spirit +that Michael Wohlgemuth decorated the _Schatzbehalter_; he also composed +the designs for the "Nuremberg Chronicle" of Dr. Hartman Schedel, +printed by Koburger in 1493. + +[Illustration: Fig. 20.--The daughter of Jephthah, plate taken from the +_Schatzbehalter_, engraved after Michael Wolgemuth.] + +With Dürer, at the latter end of the fifteenth century, the Book was no +more than a pretext for engravings. Thausing, his biographer, says that +the great artist felt the necessity of designing an Apocalypse at Rome +at the time that Luther was premeditating his religious revolution in +face of the worldly splendours of the pontifical court. The +"Apocalypse," published in 1511 in Latin, with Gothic characters, was an +album of fifteen large wood engravings. The Four Horsemen is the best of +these plates, and the boldest; but in this gross fancy, in these poor +halting old hacks, the fantastic and grand idea which the artist meant +to convey can hardly be seen. It may be said the genius of Dürer was +little adapted to vignettes, however large they were, and did not easily +lend itself to the exigencies of a spun-out subject. The title of his +"Apocalypse" is of its kind a curious example of German genius, but, in +spite of its vigour, it does not please like an Italian headpiece or +like a French or Flemish frontispiece. The other works of Dürer +published in the fifteenth century, "The Life of the Virgin" and "The +Passion," were also sets of prints that received a text in the sixteenth +century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Title of the "Apocalypse," by Albert Dürer, +printed in 1498. First edition, without text.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Title of Sebastian Brandt's "Ship of Fools," +printed in 1497 at Basle by Bergman de Olpe.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 23.--The _Bibliomaniac_. Engraving from the "Ship of +Fools."] + +For the rest of his illustrations Dürer belongs to the sixteenth +century, and we shall have occasion to recur to his works. At present it +remains to speak of a curious work printed at Basle by Bergman de Olpe +in 1497, which appears to be the first comic conception of fifteenth +century artists: the _Navis Stultifera_, or "Ship of Fools," of +Sebastian Brandt. This work of the school of Basle lacks neither +originality nor vigour. At the time when it was published its success +was immense, from the strange tricks of its clowns, with fools' caps, +with which every page was adorned. Alas! the best things fall under the +satire of these jesters, even the Book and the lover of books, if we may +judge by the sarcasms against useless publications volleyed by the +personage here reproduced. "I have the first place among fools.... I +possess heaps of volumes that I rarely open. If I read them, I forget +them, and I am no wiser." Brunet sees in these humorous caricatures more +art than is really to be found in them. Their value is owing more to +their spirit and humour than to any other artistic merit. Even the +engraving is singularly fitted to the subject, with its peculiar +cutting, somewhat executed in hairlines. The designer was certainly not +a Holbein, but he is no longer the primitive artisan of the first German +plates, and his freedom is not displeasing. + +We have before spoken, apropos of engraving by the burin in Italy, of +the small share of Germany in the essay at illustration by that means, +and we do not see a real and serious attempt in the two little coats of +arms in copper plate in the _Missale Herbipolense_, printed in 1479. + +The Flemish had not taken any great flights in the midst of this almost +European movement. The school of Burgundy, whose influence was felt in +all the surrounding countries, had lost its authority in consequence of +the progress realized at Mayence. Without doubt the great Flemish +artists were there, but they were honoured painters, and their +inclination did not descend to seeking the booksellers beyond making +them offers of service. Besides, the first of these, officially +established in Flanders, were two Germans, John of Westphalia and John +Veldener, of Cologne, who established themselves in the university of +Louvain in 1473, three years after the first Paris printers. John of +Westphalia, who took his own portrait for his mark, edited the +_Fasciculus Temporum_, a book which had enormous success in the +fifteenth century. + +At Haarlem, in spite of the block books attributed to Laurent Coster, +illustration was backward. About 1485, a Dutch translation of the +_Malheurs de Troye_ of Le Fevre was put on sale. This French book was +published at Cologne before France possessed the smallest typographical +workshop. At Bruges Colard Mansion illuminated the cuts of his +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid in 1484. Simple engraving appeared to him far +remote from manuscripts of which the vogue had not yet passed away. At +Zwoll Peter van Os, the publisher, cut up and used the xylographic +plates of the _Biblia Pauperum_, while the master _à la navette_, John +of Cologne, an artist in the best sense of the word, was ornamenting +certain popular publications with his designs. At Utrecht Veldener came +from Louvain to establish a workshop. He published for the second time a +_Fasciculus_ in 1480; he created a style of decoration with flowers and +leaves, which shortly after developed into the trade of +_Rahmenschneiders_. Antwerp had attracted Gerard de Leeu from Gouda, and +he produced the romance of _Belle Vienne_. Schiedam had an inventive +engraver who illustrated an edition of the _Chevalier Delibéré_ of +Oliver de la Marche, in folio, with Gothic letters, after 1483, as we +read in the colophon:-- + + "Cet traittié fut parfait l'an mil + Quatre cens quatre vings et trois + Ainsi que sur la fin d'avril + Que l'yver est en son exil, + Et que l'esté fait ses explois. + Au bien soit pris en tous endrois + De ceulx à qui il est offert + Par celui qui _Tant a souffert_, + + La Marche." + +The French language, bright and harmonious, thus found hospitality in +other countries. For many examples of French books published abroad, we +cannot cite one German work printed in France. Spreading from the north +to the south, typography had from 1490 its two principal centres at +Paris and Lyons. After the success of the three Germans at the Sorbonne, +events took their own course. In 1474 Peter Cæsaris and John Stol, two +students who had been instructed by Gering and Krantz, founded the +second establishment in Paris, at the sign of the "Soufflet Vert;" and +they printed classical works. Ten years later appeared Antony Vérard, +Simon Vostre, and Pigouchet, the first of whom gave to French +bookselling an impulse that it has not since lost; but before them +Pasquier-Bonhomme published his _Grandes Chroniques_ in 1476, three +volumes folio, the oldest in date of books printed at Paris in French. + +The French school of illustration was at its most flourishing point at +the end of the fifteenth century, but solely in miniature and +ornamentation by the pencil. The charming figures of the manuscripts had +at this time a Flemish and naturalistic tendency. The most celebrated +of the great artists in manuscripts, John Foucquet, could not deny the +source of his talent nor the influence of the Van Eyck school, yet the +touch remained distinctly personal. He had travelled, and was not +confined to the art circles of a single city, as were so many of the +earliest painters of Flanders. He had gone through Italy, and from +thence he transported architectural subjects for his curious designs in +the _Heures_ of Etienne Chevalier, now at Frankfort; a precious fragment +of it is preserved in the National Library of Paris. Side by side with +this undoubted master, whose works are happily known, lived a more +modest artist: John Perréal, called John of Paris, painter to Charles +VIII., Louis XII., and Anne of Brittany. + +In joining with these two masters, to serve as a transition between +Foucquet and Perréal, John Bourdichon, designer to the kings of France +from Louis XI. to Francis I., we obtain already a not despicable +assemblage of living forces. Without doubt these men were not comparable +either with the admirable school of Flanders, or the Germans of +Nuremberg, or the masters of Italy; but, moderate as we may deem their +merit, they did their tasks day by day, painting miniatures, colouring +coats of arms, rendering to the kings, their masters, all the little +duties of devoted servants without conceit, and preparing, according to +their means, the great artistic movement in France of the seventeenth +century. That these men, leaving the brush for the pencil, devoted +themselves to design figures on wood, is undeniable. It is said that one +of them followed Charles VIII. to the Italian wars, and probably +sketched the battles of the campaign as they took place. Now in the +books published at this epoch in France we meet with vignettes which so +very nearly approach miniatures, that we can easily recognise in them +French taste and finish. Such are, for example, the illustrations of the +_Mer des Histoires_, printed by Le Rouge in 1488, where suppleness of +design is blended in some parts with extraordinary dexterity in +engraving. Nevertheless, others leave something to be desired; they maim +the best subjects by their unskilful line and their awkwardness of +handling. Were not these engravers on wood printers themselves: the +Commins, Guyot Marchants, Pierre Lecarrons, Jean Trepperels, and others? +We are tempted to see in certain shapeless work the hasty and light +labour of an artisan hurried in its execution. As mentioned above, the +part taken by the booksellers in the making of the plates does not make +our supposition in itself appear inadmissible. + +[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Mark of Philip Pigouchet, French printer and +wood engraver of the fifteenth century.] + +Printing had been established about twenty years in Paris when Philip +Pigouchet, printer and engraver on wood, began to exercise his trade for +himself or on account of other publishers. Formerly bookseller in the +University, he transported his presses to the Rue de la Harpe, and took +for his mark the curious figure here reproduced. At this moment a +veritable merchant, Simon Vostre, conceived the idea of putting forth +Books of Hours, until then disdained in France, and of publishing them +in fine editions with figures, borders, ornaments, large separate +plates, and all the resources of typography. The trials made at Venice +and Naples between 1473 and 1476 warranted the enterprise. Entering +into partnership with Pigouchet, the two were able on the 17th of April, +1488, to place on sale the _Heures à l'Usaige de Rome_, octavo, with +varied ornaments and figures. The operation having succeeded beyond +their hopes, thanks to the combination of the subjects of the borders, +subjects that could be turned and re-turned in all ways so as to obtain +the greatest variety, Simon Vostre reapplied himself to the work, and +ordered new cuts to augment the number of his decorations. Passavant's +idea is commonly received that the engraving was in relief on metal; the +line in it is very fine, the background stippled, and the borders +without scratches. Wood could not have resisted the force of the press; +the reliefs would have been crushed, the borders rubbed and broken. In +all the successive editions hard work and wear are not remarked, and we +are forced to admit the use of a harder material than the pear or +box-wood of ordinary blocks. + +According to his wants, Simon Vostre designed new series of ornaments. +Among them were histories of the saints, Biblical figures, even +caricatures against Churchmen, after the manner of the old sculptors, +who thought that sin was rendered more horrible in the garb of a monk. +Then there were the Dance of Death and sibyls, allying sacred with +profane, even the trades, all forming a medley of little figures in the +margins, in the borders, nestled among acanthus leaves, distorted men, +fantastic animals, and saints piously praying. The Middle Ages live +again in these bright and charming books, French in their style, imbued +with good sense and perfect toleration. + +[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Border in four separate blocks in the _Heures à +l'Usaige de Rome_, by Pigouchet, for Simon Vostre, in 1488. Small +figures from the "Dance of Death."] + +The Book rose under Simon Vostre and Philip Pigouchet to the culminating +point of ornamentation. Here design and engraving improve and sustain +each other. It is not only the stippled backgrounds of the borders that +please the eye. And who was this unknown designer, this painter of bold +conceptions, whose work is complete in little nothings? However, the +large full-page figures have not always an originality of their own, nor +the French touch of the borders. Thus that of the Passion here +reproduced is inspired line for line by the German, Martin Schongauer. +Are we to suppose, that duplicates of blocks passed between France and +Germany, or was a copy made by a French designer? It is difficult to +say. Still the coincidence is not common to all the missals of the great +Parisian bookseller. The Death of the Virgin here reproduced is an +evident proof of it. It forms part of the 1488 book, and is a truly +French work. + +[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Plate copied from Schongauer's Carrying of the +Cross, taken from the _Heures_ of Simon Vostre.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 27.--The Death of the Virgin, plate taken from the +_Heures_ of Simon Vostre, printed in 1488. The border is separate.] + +It may be said that from the artistic association of Philip Pigouchet +and Simon Vostre was born the art of illustration of the Book in France; +they worked together for eighteen years, in steady collaboration, and, +as far as we know, without a cloud. At Vostre's commencement in 1488 he +lived in the Rue Neuve Notre Dame, at the sign of "St. Jean +l'Evangeliste;" and in 1520 he was still there, having published more +than three hundred editions of the Missal, according to the use of the +several cities. + +Contemporary with Simon Vostre, another publisher was giving a singular +impulse to the Book by his extreme energy, true taste, and the aid of +first-class artists. Antony Verard, the most illustrious of the old +French booksellers, was a writer, printer, illuminator, and dealer. Born +in the second half of the fifteenth century, he established himself in +Paris on the Pont Notre Dame, both sides of which were then covered with +shops, and about 1485 commenced his fine editions with a "Decameron" in +French by Laurent de Premierfait. M. Renouvier remarks in his notice of +Verard that his first books were not good, the plates were often +unskilful, and were probably borrowed or bought from others; this may be +very well understood in a beginner whose modest resources did not permit +bold enterprises; the figures were in most cases groundworks for +miniatures, outlines and sketches rather than vignettes. + +[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Border of the _Grandes Heures_ of Antony +Verard: Paris, 1498 (?).] + +Antony Verard was accustomed to take a certain number of fine copies on +vellum or paper of each book published by him, in which authorised +painters added miniatures and ornaments. It is curious now to find what +the cost to one of the great lords of the court of Charles VIII. was of +one of these special copies in all the details of its impression, and we +find it in a document published by M. Senemaud in a provincial journal +(_Bulletin de la Société Archéologique de la Charente_, 1859, part 2, p. +91), which enables us at the same time to penetrate into a printing +office of a great French publisher of the fifteenth century. According +to this document, Verard did not disdain to put his own hand to the +work, even to carrying the book to the house of his patron if he were a +man of consequence. It is an account of Charles de Valois-Angoulême, +father of Francis I. He was then living at Cognac; and he ordered Verard +to print separately for him on vellum the romance of Tristan, the "Book +of Consolation" of Boetius, the _Ordinaire du Chrétien_, and _Heures en +François_, each with illuminations and binding. In the detail of +expenses Verard omits nothing. He reckons the parchment at three sous +four deniers the sheet, the painted and illuminated figures at one écu +the large and five sols the small. We give here the outline of one of +the plates of the Tristan, ordered by the Duc d'Angoulême, reduced by +two-thirds, and from it it may be judged that the profession of the +illuminator, even for the time, was by no means brilliant. The binding +was in dark-coloured velvet, with two clasps with the arms of the Duke, +which cost sixty sous each. The work finished, Verard took the route for +Cognac, carrying the precious volumes. He was allowed twenty livres for +carriage; and this brings the total to 207 livres 10 sous, equivalent to +£200 to £240 of present money. + +[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Plate from the Tristan published by Antony +Verard, a copy of which was illuminated for Charles of Angoulême.] + +Verard had preceded Simon Vostre in the publication of books of hours, +but his first volume dated 1487 was not successful for the want of +borders and frontispieces. At the most he had introduced figures +intended for illumination, which, as well as the vignettes, were cut in +wood. In 1488, the same year that Simon Vostre commenced his +publications, Verard put forth, by "command of the King our lord," the +book called the _Grandes Heures_, which is in quarto, Gothic letter, +without paging, twenty lines to the full page. This _Grandes Heures_ +contained fourteen engravings, large borders in four compartments, +smaller subjects and initials rubricated by hand. He also published more +than two hundred editions between 1487 and 1513, and among them the +_Mystère de la Passion_, with eighty figures; the _Grandes Chroniques_, +in three folio volumes, printed by John Maurand; the _Bataille Judaïque_ +of Flavius Josephus; the _Legende Dorée_ of Voragine, all books for +which he called to his aid rubricators, illuminators, and miniaturists. +From the first he had two shops where he put his productions on sale: +one on the Pont Notre Dame, the other at the Palace of Justice, "au +premier pilier devant la chapelle où l'on chante la messe de +messeigneurs les présidents." From 1499, when the Pont Notre Dame was +burned, Verard transported his books to the Carrefour St. Severin. At +his death in 1513 he was living in the Rue Neuve Notre Dame, "devant +Nostre-Dame de Paris." + +[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Page of the _Grandes Heures_ of Antony Verard: +Paris, fifteenth century.] + +Besides Verard, Vostre, and Pigouchet, many others will be found who +imitated them in the publication of books of hours. The first was John +du Pré, who published a Paris missal in 1481, and who was at once +printer and bookseller. Like Pigouchet, Du Pré printed books of hours on +account of provincial publishers, without dreaming of the competition he +was creating for himself. The encroachments of the publishers upon one +another, the friendly exchanges, the loans of plates and type, form one +of the most curious parts of the study of the Book. Thielman Kerver, a +German, also began to put forth books of hours in 1497 in Paris, +ornamenting them with borders and figures on wood, and modelling his +work completely upon that of Simon Vostre. But after having imitated +him, he was associated with him in the publication and sale of the Paris +Missal; the competition of these men was evidently an honest one, or the +sale of pious works was sufficient to maintain all engaged in it. +Established on the Pont St. Michel, at the sign of the "Unicorn," he +sold his stock to Gilles Remacle about the beginning of the sixteenth +century. + +Thielman Kerver in his own works shows himself as the rival of Simon +Vostre. The Hardouins, who followed the same profession, do not appear +to have attained the success of their predecessors; and, excepting in +the _Heures à l'Usage de Rome_, published in 1503 by Gilles Hardouin on +the Pont au Change, at the sign of the "Rose," they servilely imitated +them. There was also among the disciples of Vostre William Eustache, +bookseller to the King, "tenant la boutique dedans la grant salle du +palais du costé de messeigneurs les présidens, ou sur les grans degrés +du costé de la conciergerie à l'ymage St. Jean levangeliste." Eustache +made use of the work of Pigouchet and Kerver, not to mention the +printers of the end of the fifteenth century. + +We have named the principal, the fortunate ones; but what becomes of the +crowd of other publishers whose hopes vanished before the success of +Vostre and Verard? There were Denis Meslier, with his quarto _Heures de +Bourges_, and Vincent Commin, bookseller of the Rue Neuve Notre Dame, +who thus appealed to his customers:-- + + "Qui veult en avoir? On en treuve + A tres grand marché et bon pris + A la Rose, dans la rue Neuve + De Nostre-Dame de Paris." + +[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Plate from a book of hours of Simon Vostre, +representing the massacre of the Innocents.] + +There were also Robin Chaillot, Laurent Philippe, and a hundred others +whose names have died with them or are only preserved on the torn pages +of their works. + +[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Dance of Death, said to be by Verard. The Pope +and the Emperor.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Dance of Death of Guyot Marchant in 1486. The +Pope and the Emperor.] + +But if books of this kind found vogue and a large sale at this epoch, +the dealers did not keep to pious publications only. By a singular +mixture of the sacred and the profane, the bookmen put on sale on their +stalls the "Decameron" of Boccaccio as well as the "Hours of the +Immaculate Virgin," and the purchasers thought fit to make the +acquaintance of the one as well as the other. Besides, the end of the +fifteenth century had its literary preferences, its alluring titles, its +attractive frontispieces. At the commencement of the present century +double titles--"Atala; or, The Child of Mystery;" "Waverley; or, Sixty +Years Since"--were common, although now out of fashion. Since then came +books of travels--_Voyages au Pays des Milliards_, etc. In the fifteenth +century, and even since the fourteenth, a series of titles was in public +favour. There was first the _Débats_, or "Dialogues:" _Débat de la Dame +et de l'Escuyer_, Paris, 1490, folio; "Dialogue of Dives and Pauper," +London, Richard Pynson, 1493; and many other eccentric titles. There +came also thousands of _complaintes_, a kind of lay in verse or prose; +_blasons_, light pieces describing this or that thing; _doctrinals_, +that had nothing to do with doctrine. And among the most approved +subjects, between the piety of some and the gaiety of others, the Dances +of Death established themselves firmly, showing, according to the +hierarchy of classes then prevalent, Death taking the great ones of the +earth, torturing equally pope, emperor, constable, or minstrel, +grimacing before youth, majesty, and love. Long before printing +appeared, the Dances of Death took the lead; they were some consolation +for the wretched against their powerful masters, the revenge of the +rabble against the king; they may be seen painted, sculptured, +illuminated, when engraving was not there to multiply their use; they +may be seen largely displayed on walls, sombre, frightful, at Dresden, +Leipzig, Erfurt, Berne, Lucerne, Rouen, Amiens, and Chaise-Dieu. It was +the great human equality, attempted first by the French, then by the +inimitable Holbein. + +We can imagine the impression these bitter ironies made on the oppressed +and disdained lower classes. The first "Dance of Death" was produced by +Guyot Marchant in 1485, in ten leaves and seventeen engravings, in +folio, with Gothic characters. Marchant describes himself as "demeurant +en Champ Gaillart à Paris le vingt-huitiesme jour de septembre mil +quatre cent quatre-vingtz et cinq." The book must have gone off rapidly, +for it was republished in the following year, with additions and new +engravings. French illustration was already moving forward, as may be +judged by the reproductions here given from the folio edition of 1486. +Pope and emperor, glory and power, are led and plagued by Death, hideous +Death, with open body and frightful grin. + +We could wish that the tendencies and processes of what may be called +the second generation of printers were well understood. In a few years +they surmounted the difficulties of their art, and made the Book a model +of elegance and simplicity. The smallest details were cared for, and +things apparently the most insignificant were studied and rendered +practical. Speaking of titles, an enormous progress was here made in the +publications of the end of the century. In Italy the subjects of +decoration ordinarily formed a framework for the front page, wherein +were included useful indications. The most ancient specimen of this kind +has already been referred to. A model of this species is the "St. +Jerome," published at Ferrara by Lorenzo Rossi, of Valenza, in 1497, +folio; the title, much adorned, is in Gothic letters; the engraved +initial is very adroitly left in outline, so as not to burden or break +the text. + +In Germany there was already the appearance of bad taste and +prodigality, the letters crossing each other, the Gothic type covered +with bizarre appendices, the titles intricate; later they became +illegible even for the Germans. + +[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Typographical mark of Thielman Kerver.] + +In France the first page gave the most circumstantial indications of the +contents of the work, the name and abode of the printer and bookseller. +Often these titles were ornamented with movable frameworks, printed in +Gothic, sometimes in two colours, which necessitated two printings, one +for the black and one for the red ink. The mark of the printer or +publisher generally appeared, and it was nearly always a charming work. +These French marks were all more or less treated heraldically; that is +to say, the initials occupy a shield, sustained by supporters and cut +with extreme care. The first was that of Fust and Schoeffer at Mayence, +of admirable simplicity and grace. In France this early specimen of the +trade mark took with Simon Vostre and Verard the shape of delicate +illustrations, finely designed and carefully engraved; but the custom of +allusive marks did not prevail, as we shall have occasion to see, until +the sixteenth century. The mark of Pigouchet has already been given; +that of Thielman Kerver is conceived in the same principles of taste and +art. The sign of his house being the "Unicorn," Kerver took as +supporters to his shield two unicorns _affrontées_. + +In these colophons are found philosophic aphorisms, satirical remarks, +marvels of poetry. A certain bookseller paid court to the powerful +university, which dispensed glory and riches to the poor tradesmen by +buying many books. Andrew Bocard engraved on his mark this flattery as a +border:-- + + "Honneur au Roy et à la court, + Salut à l'université + Dont nostre bien procède et sourt. + Dieu gart de Paris la cité!" + +The Germans introduced into their colophons some vainglorious notices. +Arnold Ther Hoernen, already mentioned, who printed the _Theutonista_ at +Cologne in 1477, boasted in it of having corrected it all with his own +hands. Jean Treschel, established at Lyons in 1493, proclaims himself a +German, because the Germans were the inventors of an art that he himself +possessed to an eminent degree. He prided himself on being what we may +call a skilled typographer; "virum hujus artis solertissimum," he writes +without false modesty. At times, in the colophons of his books, he +attempted Latin verse, the Sapphic verse of Horace, of a playful turn, +to say that his work was perfected in 1494. + + "Arte et expensis vigilique cura + Treschel explevit opus hoc Joannes, + Mille quingentos ubi Christus annos + Sex minus egit. + + Jamque Lugduni juvenes, senesque, + Martias nonas celebres agebant + Magna Reginæ quia prepotenti + Festa parabant." + +[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Frontispiece to Terence, published by Treschel +at Lyons in 1493. The author writing his book.] + +The portrait is another element of illustration, the figure of the +author prefixed to his work. It had already been a custom in the +manuscripts to paint on the first leaf of the work the likeness of him +who composed it, frequently in the act of presenting his book to some +noble patron; and in this way is often preserved the only known portrait +of either patron or author. Printing and engraving rendered these +effigies more common, the portraits of one often served for another, and +the booksellers used them without very much scruple. As we shall see +later, this became in the sixteenth century a means of illustrating a +book plainly, but only at the time when the portrait, drawn or painted, +commenced to be more widely used. Previously the _clichés_ of which we +speak went everywhere, from the Italians to the French, from Æsop to +Accursius; these uncertain physiognomies began with the manuscript +romances of chivalry, from whence they were servilely copied in +typography. From the first the Italians mixed the ancient and the +modern. Thus in a _Breviarium_, printed in 1478, there is an engraved +portrait of Paul Florentin. On the same principle, the portrait of +Burchiello, an early Italian poet, was later reproduced in England as a +likeness of William Caxton. + +In France the author is often represented writing, and it was so up to +the middle of the sixteenth century. In an edition of _Des Cas des +Nobles Hommes_, by Jean Dupré, in 1483, Boccaccio is represented seated, +having before him his French translator, Laurent de Premierfait. This +plate is one of the oldest representations of authors in French books. +In the _Roman de la Rose_, first edition of Paris and Lyons, in folio, +probably published by William Leroy about 1485, William de Lorris, the +author, is shown in his bed:-- + + "Une nuyt comme je songeoye, + Et de fait dormir me convient, + En dormant un songe m'advint...." + +[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Woodcut from Caxton's "Game and Playe of the +Chesse."] + +There is also a portrait of Alain Chartier in his _Faits_, printed in +1489. In the Terence of Treschel, of Lyons, in 1493, we see a grammarian +of the fifteenth century in a furnished room of the time occupied in +writing at a desk; this is Guy Jouvenal, of Mans, the author of the +commentary. + +[Illustration: Fig. 37.--The Knight, a woodcut from Caxton's "Game and +Playe of the Chesse."] + +While this good work was progressing so nobly in France, Italy, and +Germany, the typographers of England were by no means idle, although the +illustration of the Book in the fifteenth century was not there so +forward. William Caxton had produced over sixty works, the colophons of +many of them revealing much of the personal life and character of the +first English printer. Some of them were ornamented with woodcuts; we +reproduce two from the "Game and Playe of the Chesse," printed in folio, +about 1476. The first represents a king and another person playing at +chess; the smaller cut is a representation of the knight, who is thus +described in Caxton's own words: "The knyght ought to be maad al armed +upon an hors in suche wise that he have an helme on his heed and a spere +in his right hond, and coverid with his shelde, a swerde and a mace on +his left syde, clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste, legge +harnoys on his legges, spores on his heelis, on hys handes hys +gauntelettes, hys hors wel broken and taught, and apte to bataylle, and +coveryd with hys armes." The other Caxton block which we reproduce is a +representation of music from the "Mirrour of the World," a thin folio +volume of one hundred leaves printed in 1481, with thirty-eight +woodcuts. These specimens will serve to show the rudimentary character +of English wood engraving in the fifteenth century. No authentic +portrait of Caxton is known, and the one that is generally accepted is +really a portrait of an Italian poet, Burchiello, taken from an octavo +edition of his work on Tuscan poetry, printed 1554; this was copied by +Faithorne for Sir Hans Sloane as the portrait of Caxton, and was +reproduced by Ames in his "Typographical Antiquities," 1749. Lewis +prefixed the portrait here given to his "Life of Mayster Willyam +Caxton," 1737, which is a copy of Faithorne's drawing with some +alterations. John Lettou and William Machlinia issued various statutes +and other legal works. + +[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Music, a woodcut from Caxton's "Mirrour of the +World."] + +[Illustration: Fig. 39.--William Caxton, from Rev. J. Lewis' "Life."] + +[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Mark of Wynken de Worde.] + +Wynken de Worde continued printing up to 1534, and issued over four +hundred works. He used no less than nine different marks, all of them +bearing Caxton's initials, evidencing the regard of the pupil for his +master; the mark which we reproduce is one of rare occurrence. Richard +Pynson began in 1493, and continued well into the sixteenth century, and +was one of the first of the "privileged" printers, authorised to issue +the legal and parliamentary publications. One of the marks used by him +is here reproduced. Julian Notary began in 1498. The only style of +illustration used by any of these early printers was the woodcut, and of +this there was very little beyond the title-page and printer's mark. The +artistic form of the Book originated on the Continent, but England was +not slow to adopt it and fashion it to her own ends. + +[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Mark of Richard Pynson.] + +Thus was printing spread abroad, carrying with it to the countries where +it was established the rules of an unchangeable principle; but, +according to its surroundings, it was so transformed in a few years that +its origin was no longer recognised. It was light in Italy, heavy in +Germany, gay in France. Painting, of which it was accidentally the +issue, returned to it under the form of illustration a short time after +its first and fruitful essays. The Gothic character, generally used in +Germany, continued in France with the Vostres, the Verards, and others +up to the middle of the sixteenth century, although the first artisans +before this used Roman type; it was also the prevailing type used in +English books. In Italy it was Jenson, a Frenchman, who gave to the +matrix the alphabet preserved to the present time; and it was the +Venetians and Florentines who learned before all others the art of +judicious ornamentation of the Book. The French came very near +perfection, thanks to their printers and booksellers, at the end of the +century; and the Germans found illustrious artists to scatter their +compositions in their large, heavy works. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +1500 TO 1600. + + French epics and the Renaissance--Venice and Aldus + Manutius--Italian illustrators--The Germans: _Theuerdanck_, + Schäufelein--The Book in other countries--French books at the + beginning of the century, before the accession of Francis + I.--Geoffroy Tory and his works--Francis I. and the Book--Robert + Estienne--Lyons a centre of bookselling; Holbein's Dances of + Death--School of Basle--Alciati's emblems and the illustrated books + of the middle of the century--The school of Fontainebleau and its + influence--Solomon Bernard--Cornelis de la Haye and the + _Promptuaire_--John Cousin--Copper plate engraving and metal + plates--Woériot--The portrait in the Book of the sixteenth + century--How a book was illustrated on wood at the end of the + century--Influence of Plantin on the Book; his school of + engravers--General considerations--Progress in England--Coverdale's + Bible--English printers and their work--Engraved plates in English + books + + +Our simple division into chapters will be understood without difficulty +as not corresponding exactly with the most momentous epochs in the +history of the Book in France and abroad. Doubtless it would be easy for +France alone to find some limits and to furnish scholastic formulæ by +which contemporary publishers might be grouped. But in order to present, +as in a synoptical table, an essential and abridged sketch of the Book +in all European countries, it appeared to us more convenient to begin +with the confused and tangled notions by centuries and to unfold in our +review the characteristic facts of each country conjointly. Moreover, +after the sixteenth century neither Italy nor Germany could compare with +France, which, less fortunate, perhaps, at the beginning than her +neighbours, surpassed them in all the pride of her genius. + +The commencement of the sixteenth century found the French army in +Italy, under the command of Louis XII. Marching from glory to glory, the +French successively saw Pisa, Capua, and Naples, and that which has +since been called the Renaissance displayed itself little by little to +the conquerors. At Venice was living Aldus Pius Manutius, then the +greatest printer of the entire world. Aldus was proprietor of the +celebrated printing office of Nicholas Jenson, through his +father-in-law, Andrea Torresani, of Asola, who acquired it on the death +of the French printer; and he had in a few years reached a position in +which he was without a rival. We have seen that he composed, at the end +of the fifteenth century, the admirable volume _Hypnerotomachia_, the +renown of which became universal. Aldus was fifty-two years of age, +having been born in 1447; and his learning was increased by daily +intercourse with learned Italians, among them the celebrated Pico de la +Mirandola. His establishment at Venice in 1488 had for its object the +creation of a chair in Greek, in which language he was well instructed +from his youth. Occupied with the idea of issuing editions of the +principal Greek writers, which up to then remained in manuscript, he +engaged himself in the formation of a printing office. He first +published the _Herone et Leandro_ of Musæus in 1494, quarto, in a Greek +character apparently designed by him, and perhaps engraved by Francisco +da Bologna; then the Greek grammar of Constantine Lascaris, with the +date of 1494; and the works of Aristotle in five folio volumes. At the +time of the Italian wars Aldus was making a revolution in typography, by +producing more practical sizes and finer characters, which would permit +a volume of the smallest height to contain the matter of a folio printed +with large type. Legend says that the new letters were copied exactly +from the handwriting of Petrarch, inclining like all cursive writing; +the name of _Italic_ was given to this character, which was also called +_Aldine_, from its inventor. It was engraved by Francisco da Bologna. +Aldus published in octavo size, with this kind of letter, an edition of +Virgil in 1501, then a Horace, a Juvenal, a Martial, and a Petrarch in +the same year. The following year, 1502, he gave an edition of the +_Terze Rime_ of Dante, and for the first time took as his typographical +mark an anchor encircled by a dolphin.[A] + +[Footnote A: Tory in his _Champfleury_ explains thus the mark of Aldus +and his device, which was in Greek the "Make haste slowly" of Boileau: +"The anchor signifies tardiness, and the dolphin haste, which is to say +that in his business he was moderate."] + +[Illustration: Fig. 42.--The anchor and dolphin, mark of Aldus Manutius, +after the original in the _Terze Rime_ of 1502, where it appears for the +first time.] + +His marriage with the daughter of Andrea Torresani, of Asola, brought +together into his possession two printing houses. The burden became too +heavy for Manutius to think henceforth of publishing by himself. +Besides, the wars did not allow him any repose, of which he bitterly +complained in his prefaces. He attracted learned Greek scholars, who +supervised, each one in his specialty, the works in progress, and +founded a society, an Aldine academy, in which the greatest names of the +epoch were united. Aldus conveys the perfect idea of a great printer of +those times, doing honour to celebrated men, in spite of business +preoccupations and of the annoyance caused by the war. It is said that +Erasmus, passing through Venice, called on him, and not making himself +known, was badly received by the powerful printer. All at once, at the +name of the distinguished visitor, Aldus, overwhelmed for an instant, +rose in great haste and showed him how highly he appreciated men of +letters. + +The war finished by ruining this state of affairs. In 1505 Aldus quitted +Venice to travel, and on his return found it poorer than when he went +away. Andrea d'Asola, his father-in-law, came to his aid; but the great +printer had received his death-blow; and in spite of the activity which +he brought to the new establishment, he further declined until 1515, +when he expired, leaving an inextricable confusion to his son Paul. + +He had early abandoned illustration for the scientific and useful +in his publications; besides, the size of book chosen by him did +not admit of plates; but other publishers employed artists in the +ornamentation of the Book. Lucantonio Giunta, the most celebrated among +them, was printer and engraver, a striking example of the affinity +of the two trades from their origin. In 1508 Lucantonio Zonta, as he +then spelt his name, published a Roman breviary in large quarto, with +twelve engravings in the Lombardo-Venetian manner, signed "L. A.," in +very good style. The same artist-publisher cut a portrait of Virgil for +an edition of that poet about 1515. Furthermore, Giunta did not alone +illustrate the book from his own office. Other designers lent him their +assistance. We find evidence of this in the Bible printed by him in +1519 in small octavo. + +[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Mark of Lucantonio Giunta, of Venice.] + +The most meritorious of the artists of Venice at this time was John +Andrea, known as Guadagnino. He designed the vignettes for Florus's +epitome of Livy, printed at Venice for Melchior Sessa and Peter of +Ravenna (1520, folio); in 1516 he copied the plates of Dürer's +_Apocalypse_ for that of Alexander Paganini, of Venice. A Venetian work +which signalised the beginning of the sixteenth century was the _Trionfo +di Fortuna_ of Sigismond Fanti, of Ferrara, printed by Agostino da +Portese in 1527. + +Venice was the home of Titian, and at the present time the great artist +was at the height of his glory. In 1518 two brothers, Nicholas and +Dominic dal Gesù, published a translation of the celebrated "Golden +Legend" of Voragine. The plates which were added to the work were +manifestly inspired by the school of the Venetian master. Unhappily the +engravers have not always equalled the genius of the drawings. + +To resume, the city of Venice was, at the beginning of the sixteenth +century, one of the most prolific in publishers and artists of talent. +Since the first establishments of the Germans, typography had +successively employed in Venice Nicholas Jenson, a Frenchman, inventor +of the Roman character; Erhard Ratdolt, the first to employ illustration +there; and Aldus Manutius, scholar and printer, whose progress in +printing elevated that art to the highest rank among human discoveries; +there were also remarkable engravers and draughtsmen, among others +Guadagnino and Giunta, besides the anonymous masters of the school of +Titian. The part of Venice in the movement, then, was great, but it may +be explained by the riches of its citizens, the extent of its commerce, +and the genius it possessed. + +If we now return from Venice to the north, to Milan, the school of +Leonardo da Vinci will make itself apparent in the Book. In order of +date we will mention the _Mysterii Gesta Beatæ Veronicæ Virginis_, +published by Gotardo de Ponte 1518, small quarto, with figures in the +style of Luini, and Vitruvius in Italian by Cesariano. On the testimony +of the author, the wood engravings in a book of Fra Luca Pacioli, _De +Divina Proportione_, are attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. M. Delaborde +does not believe this, but M. Passavant does. + +[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Title of the _Theuerdanck_. The flourishes of +the letters are printed.] + +In Germany, Nuremberg continued, with Albert Dürer and the artists of +his school, to furnish book illustrations at the beginning of the +century. The master reprinted his valuable engravings of the "Life of +the Virgin" in 1511, and also the "Apocalypse." But after him the art +commenced to decline; a hundred years later nothing remained of the +honour and glory gained by Germany in the commencement. Among the most +interesting of the Nuremberg publications is a chivalric poem by +Melchior Pfinzfing, composed for the marriage of Maximilian and Mary of +Burgundy. As M. Delaborde in his _Débuts de I'Imprimerie_ well remarks, +this is not a book destined for sale by a bookseller; it is a work of +art destined by an emperor for his friends, and he saw that it was an +unapproachable work. + +[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Plate taken from the _Theuerdanck_, +representing Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy. Engraved on wood after +Schäufelein.] + +Bold strokes, majestic letters, intertwined ornaments, are here +multiplied. Three persons worked upon it for five years; these were, +Peutinger says, Hans Leonard Schäufelein, the painter, Jost Necker, the +engraver, and Schönsperger, the printer of Augsburg, who quitted his +native city for Nuremberg. When they were able to take a proof, +craftsmen were unwilling to believe it to be a book composed in movable +characters; they were sure, on the contrary, that it was a true +xylograph, cut in wood; and, in fact, from the title here reproduced, +the error was excusable. This work, which is now called the +_Theuerdanck_, from the name of the hero of the romance, is ornamented +with a number of wood engravings, numbered by Arabic figures. We +reproduce one of the last plates, in which Theuerdanck--Maximilian--is +introduced to the Queen--Mary of Burgundy. The designs of Schäufelein +recall very nearly the work of Albert Dürer, his master; but, as we said +of him, these works, heavy and dull, although very clever, do not always +suit as vignettes. Again, our criticism does not extend so much to the +_Theuerdanck_, whose letters, excessively ornamented and much flattened, +furnish a framework more suitable for the engravings than would a more +slender character, which would be completely overshadowed by the German +plate. + +When we have mentioned the _Passional Christi_ of Lucas Cranach, +published by J. Grünenberg at Wittemberg in 1521--twenty-six mediocre +wood engravings--we shall have cited the most important of the +interesting and rare volumes published in Germany at the commencement of +the sixteenth century. + +The Netherlands, Spain, and England were working, but without great +success. In the Low Countries Plantin and his gigantic enterprises may +be recalled. In Spain the taste had not yet developed itself; and +although the drawing of illustrations may be careful enough, the +wood-cutting is pitiable. We will mention the Seneca of Toledo in 1510, +and the "Chronicle of Aragon" in 1523. Of England we will speak later. + +In France, on the contrary, we find an enormous commerce in books at the +commencement of the sixteenth century. All the publishers mentioned in +the preceding chapter were still living, and they were feeling the +effects of the French conquests in Italy. The dithyrambic literature +then inaugurated, and which had its origin under Louis XII., exercised a +bad influence equally upon the printers and decorators of the Book. +Doubtless the composition of the text and engravings was done hastily, +for the great people did not like to wait for this kind of history. _Le +Vergier d'Honneur_, written by Octavian de St. Gelais and Andry de la +Vigne, was thus published about the end of the fifteenth century and +ornamented with hasty vignettes, probably at the expense of Antoine +Verard. Upon the accession to the throne of Louis XII., Claude de +Seyssel, his master of council, composed _Les Louenges du Roy Louis +XII._, and soon after translated it from Latin into French for the same +Verard, who printed it in 1508. + +The taste for historical works induced the publishers to produce _La Mer +des Histoires_, which had already been published in the fifteenth +century; Thielman Kerver put forth the "Compendium" of Robert Gaguin in +1500 on account of Durand Gerlier and John Petit. The French version of +this work was given in 1514 by Galliot du Pré, with vignettes, and +afterwards under the name of _Mirouer Historial_, by Renaud Chaudière in +1520, by Nyverd, and others; the same with the _Rozier Historial_, with +figures, in 1522 and 1528. Among the most popular works was the +_Illustrations de la Gaule et Singularitez de Troye_, by John le Maire +de Belges, printed in Paris and ornamented. In 1512 it was published by +Geoffroy de Marnef, in 1515 by John and Gilbert de Marnef, by Regnault, +by Philip le Noir, and others, always in the Gothic characters which +prevailed in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +We give from the curious book of John le Maire an interesting woodcut +representing Queen Anne of Brittany as Juno, in which we can without +much difficulty see a remarkable sketch by a Bourdichon or a Perréal. +The truly French style of this figure leaves no doubt as to its origin. +At the same time, it may possibly have been inspired by the Virgin of a +German master, say one of 1466, judging from the accessories, and even +from the pose. This engraving will be found in the edition of 1512 of +Gilbert de Marnef, in Gothic letter, quarto. On the reverse are the arms +and device of John le Maire de Belges. + +[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Vignette taken from the _Illustrations de la +Gaule et Singularitez de Troye_. Queen Anne of Brittany as Juno.] + +The time that elapsed from the death of Louis XI. until the accession of +Francis I.--that is to say, from 1483 to 1515--was, to employ an old +expression, the golden age of French printing and illustration. Under +Charles VIII. and Louis XII. the designers on wood were not yet affected +by the neighbouring schools; neither the accentuated Italian influence +nor the German processes had reached them; they did in their own way +that which came to them, and they did it in their own fashion and habit, +without foreign influence. Further, the kings did not ignore them, and +Louis XII. preserved to the printers of the university all their rights +and privileges in a magniloquent ordinance, in which the art of +typography was extolled in the highest terms. It restores to them all +the advantages that they had lost. It recites, "In consideration of the +great benefit that has come to our kingdom by means of the art and +science of printing, the invention of which seems more Divine than +human, which, thanks to God, has been invented and found in our time by +the help and industry of booksellers, by which our holy Catholic faith +has been greatly augmented and strengthened, justice better understood +and administered, and Divine service more honourably and diligently +made, said, and celebrated, ... by means of which our kingdom precedes +all others," etc., etc. (Blois, 9th April, 1513). Certainly Louis made +the best of himself and his kingdom in this preamble, but it must be +recognised that France already held a predominant rank in the new +industry, and that beyond the Italians she had no fear of serious +rivalry. The school of ornamentists made constant progress. Before the +books of hours, the booksellers contented themselves with miserable +blocks, placed side by side, forming a framework of good and bad +together; but after Simon Vostre, Verard, and the others they were +singularly refined. The borders, at least in the books of hours, had +become the principal part of the book; they had in them flowers, +architectural, complicated, and simple subjects, all of perfect taste +and extreme elegance; and, as we have observed in the representation of +Anne of Brittany in the _Illustrations de la Gaule_, the figure subjects +were no longer mechanical, commonplace, and tiresome blocks, but, on the +contrary, more often works specially designed and engraved by artists of +merit. + +[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Title of the _Entree d'Eléonore d'Autriche a +Paris_, by Guillaume Bochetel. Printed by Geoffroy Tory in May, 1531, +quarto.] + +Geoffroy Tory, born at Bourges in 1480, continued after Vostre and +Verard the onward march of illustration of the Book. He was a sort of +encyclopædist, who knew and foresaw everything, but with a singularly +subtler and finer genius than his predecessors. There is now very little +doubt that at first Tory was an engraver and printer. Moreover, he +published with Jean Petit one of his first volumes, the geography of +Pomponius Mela, printed by Gilles de Gourmont in 1507. Tory was then an +erudite and diffusive commentator. Later he published a book with poor +engravings (_Valerii Probi Grammatici Opusculum_, 1510), waiting until +his good star should place him on the right road. He had for his mark, +say the bibliographers, the cross of Lorraine [Symbol: double cross], +small enough to be lost in the ornamentation of his plates. Really this +sign is found in Tory's mark--the "Pot Cassé"--the broken jar--and also +sometimes in the letter G, which was his ordinary signature. This +opinion, which we will not try to contradict in a popular work like +this, appears to us to err, as others used this mark, as may be judged +from the essentially different touches of engravings bearing the cross +of Lorraine, and particularly those of Woériot in the middle of the +century. + +If M. A. Bernard[A] may be credited, Geoffroy Tory cultivated all the +sciences with equal success. For our purpose, suffice it to recognise +his right to one of the first places in the art of decoration of books +of hours. Doubtless his travels in Italy had contributed to modify his +taste and to detach him a little from the sober and simple manner that +then characterised French engraving; but he nevertheless preserved the +indelible traces of the origin of his art, in the same way as some +people cannot correct their provincial accent. The _Heures de la +Vierge_, which he designed, and which he had engraved about 1520, on +account of Simon de Colines, is marvellously surrounded by ornaments, +until then unknown in France; at the same time, and in spite of other +tendencies, it is purely a French work, and the specimen given here is a +convincing proof. + +[Footnote A: _Geoffroy Tory, Peintre et Graveur, Premier Imprimeur +Royal, Réformateur de l'Orthographe et de la Typographie_: Paris, 1857, +8vo.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Full page of the _Heures_ of Simon de Colines, +by Tory.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 49.--_Heures_ of Geoffroy Tory. The Circumcision.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 50.--_Heures_ of Simon de Colines, with the mark of +the Cross of Lorraine.] + +Geoffroy Tory composed a curious book, as poetic as learned, in which he +studied at once the form of the letter from the typographic and the +emblematic point of view, and also the French orthography of the time. +He tells us himself that he was brought to commence this book on the +fête-day of the kings, 1523, when, after a frugal repast, he was, he +says, "dreaming on my bed and revolving my memory, thinking of a +thousand little fancies, serious and mirthful, among which I thought of +some antique letters that I had made for Monseigneur the treasurer for +war, Master Jehan Grolier, councillor and secretary of our lord the +King, amateur of fine letters and of all learned personages." Tory +called his book _Champfleury, auquel est contenu l'art et science de la +deue proportion des lettres ... selon le corps et le visage humain_, and +he published it himself in small folio, putting upon it the sign of +Gilles de Gourmont, in 1529. + +At heart Tory had been fascinated by the theories of Dürer on the +proportions of the human body; and he says, "The noble German painter +Albert Dürer is greatly to be praised that he has so well brought to +light his art of painting in designing geometrical forms, the ramparts +of war, and the proportions of the human body." He wished to indicate +the true measure of letters to his contemporaries, "the number of points +and turns of the compass that each one requires." The most amusing part +of this curious treatise is his short academical preface, where, under a +playful form, the great publisher studies the orthography of his time, +and exclaims against the forgers of new words, the Latinisers of the +language, "the skimmers of Latin, jesters and gibberers, ... who mock +not only their shadows, but themselves." The entire passage was copied +by Rabelais, nearly literally, and it indicates that its author was +possessed of good sense, which, unhappily, all his contemporaries were +not. + +For the technical part, he added to his theories a number of designs of +geometrical letters, but he was carried away, after the fashion of the +time, by Greek and Roman models, perhaps a little further than he meant, +losing himself in the midst of idle dissertations. To these geometrical +engravings he added small and charming figures, said to be by Jean +Perréal, as well as emblematical letters of the nature of the Y which is +here given, with explanatory text and commentary. To him this Y had two +branches: one of virtue and one of vice; that of virtue shows palms, +crowns, a sceptre, and a book; that of vice birches, a gallows, and +fire. + +[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Emblematical letter Y, taken from the +_Champfleury_ of Geoffroy Tory.] + +With the importance that cannot be denied to his works, Geoffroy Tory +founded a school; and it was from his workshop that the plates came for +the book of Paulus Jovius on the dukes of Milan, published by Robert +Estienne in 1549, quarto. The portraits of the dukes in this work have +been attributed to Tory himself, but he died in 1533, and there is not +the least indication that he engraved these sixteen portraits with his +own hand sixteen years before their publication. Besides, our doubts as +to the cross of Lorraine being the exclusive signature of Tory, as has +been believed, lead us to think it the collective mark of a workshop, +as we meet it on works long after the death of the master. As a proof, +the mark is found on the engravings of _L'Entrée du Roi à Paris_ in +1549, which cannot be taken as a posthumous work of Tory, for these +engravings had their origin at a certain and special date. But in spite +of the absence of the monogram, the admirable block from the Diodorus +Siculus of Antoine Macault might, from its design and engraving, be +considered as by Tory himself. Holbein, who, about the same time, +designed a somewhat similar scene, the King of France seated on a +throne receiving poison from the hands of Death, never did anything +better. Within the scanty proportions of the design, all the figures +are portraits. Duprat, Montmorency and the three sons of the King may +be recognised; Macault, on the left, is reading his translation to a +circle of nobles and men of letters. This admirable page is one of the +truest and most skilful of the monuments of French engraving; it is +equal to the best inventions of Holbein, and it marks the culminating +point of the illustration of the Book before the exaggerations of the +school of Fontainebleau. Geoffroy Tory was not the publisher. The +Diodorus Siculus, doubtless prepared two or three years before, was not +published until 1535, in quarto, with his ordinary mark of the "Pot +Cassé." + +[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Macault reading to Francis I. his translation +of Diodorus Siculus. Wood engraving attributed to Tory.] + +We have now arrived through him at the reign of Francis I., who was +called the father of letters, and who for various reasons favoured the +arts. Doubtless grand paintings and the decoration of the royal palaces +interested him more than vignettes in books and the efforts of printers; +but, at the same time, books occupied him. He studied much, and in his +travels accumulated many volumes. An account in the French National +Archives shows that Claude Chappuis, his librarian, packed entire cases, +which were sent to Dauphiné at the time of the wars of Piedmont, the +carriage costing twenty livres tournois. Francis had, moreover, +following sudden impulses, curious fits of wantonness and mischief. It +was perceived a little later that the doctrines of Luther were +propagated by the Book; and the Sorbonne was up in arms, on the pretence +of imposing its own expurgated text of the Bible on the publishers and +tolerating no other. Theodore Beza, enemy of the Sorbonnists, said with +regard to this (we translate the antique French literally), "Our great +doctors with cherubic visage have forbidden men to see the Holy Bible in +vulgar language, of which every one has knowledge, because, they say, +the desire of knowing everything engenders nothing but error, fear, and +care. _Arguo sic_, if they so, for its abuse, wish to take away this +book, it is clear also that it is their duty to put away the wine with +which each of them makes himself drunk." + +[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Robert Estienne, after the engraving in the +_Chronologie Collée_.] + +This piece is only cited to show to what lengths matters had gone, +thanks to printing. It is very certain that all the pamphlets, placards, +and other horrors published to raise religious warfare, did not aid in +the progress of the Book. The King was not always disinterested on the +technical question; books merited encouragement, at least as much as +castigation, and besides, as time passed, they gradually transformed men +and ideas. In spite of apparent severities, was not the King himself a +little touched by contact with the new religion, like his sister +Marguerite, or his sister-in-law, Renée of Ferrara? However that may be, +he twice showed himself a resolute partisan of the celebrated Robert +Estienne, son-in-law and associate of Simon de Colines, whose works in +point of erudition and typography assumed day by day more importance. +Robert Estienne had the great honour of being chosen from all his +contemporaries by King Francis as the royal printer. This prince had +ordered to be engraved for him by Claude Garamond, after the design of +Ange Vergèce, the first cutter of matrices of his time, a special Greek +character in three sizes, which was used in 1544 to compose the +"Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius. These are the famous royal +types--_typi regii_--as Estienne did not fail to indicate on the +title-pages of his works. It has been said since that Francis I. founded +the Royal Printing House, but the truth is that Estienne kept these +characters in his own office for use in the royal editions; they may now +be seen in the Imprimerie Nationale at Paris. + +Robert Estienne married the daughter of Josse Badius, of Asch--Badius +Ascencianus, one of the first Parisian typographers of the time. We +reproduce the mark of Badius, representing the interior of a printing +house, and shall return in a special chapter to the functions of these +workshops. Meantime it appears proper to present to the reader a +printing office of the time of Robert Estienne and Geoffroy Tory. + +[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Printing office of Josse Badius at the +commencement of the sixteenth century.] + +Robert Estienne does not appear to have concerned himself much about the +decoration of the Book. The purity of the text and the characters were +essentials with him, erudition, and not art. He published many works in +Latin and Greek, among them the _Thesaurus_, a great Latin dictionary +published in 1532, also a Bible, with notes by Vatable, revised by Leon +de Juda. From that came trouble. Leon de Juda was a partisan of Zwingli; +the Sorbonne accused the Bible of leaning towards the Huguenots; +Francis I. took the part of Estienne, but when that prince died Estienne +fled to Geneva, where he was accused of having imported the royal types. +The truth was that he simply imported the matrices. + +[Illustration: Fig. 55.--Portrait of Nicholas Bourbon. Wood engraving of +the commencement of the sixteenth century.] + +At this time everything served for the decoration of the Book: +portraits, blazons, topographical plates, costumes, and emblems. Small +portraits engraved on wood usually ornamented the works of the poets, +like that of Nicholas Bourbon, for example, marvel of truth and skill. +The blocks of frontispieces in the folios were multiplied; large initial +letters, ingeniously engraved and stippled, like that at the +commencement of this chapter, were used. Jacques Kerver reproduced in +1545 for himself, and with plates made for him, the famous _Songe de +Poliphile_, published by Aldus in 1499. The widow of the publisher Denis +Janot, Jeanne de Marnef, published one of the most delightful books of +the time, _L'Amour de Cupidon et de Psyche_ of Apuleius, with delicious +figures in wood after Italian engravings. Many more could be named in +the extraordinary profusion of charming books. + +[Illustration: Fig. 56.--King and Death. Vignette from the "Dance of +Death" by Holbein.] + +Without entering into detail, something must be said of Lyons, then a +most extensive and prosperous centre of bookselling. Lyons had the +signal honour of publishing first in France the celebrated cuts of the +"Dance of Death" of Holbein, the Basle painter. Doubtless Treschel, the +printer, was not the first, as a copy of a German edition is known, +because in the Lyons edition the cuts are worn and broken. However, the +Cabinet d'Estampes of Paris has some of the figures of the Dance with a +German text, probably printed by Froben at Basle. Treschel's title was +_Les Simulachres et Historiées Faces de la Mort autant elegamment +pourtraictes que artificiellement imaginées_, and the volume in quarto +was printed by Frelon. The _Icones veteris testamenti_, which preceded +the publication of the "Dance of Death," had also been printed at Basle +before Lyons. + +With Holbein, as with Geoffroy Tory, we arrive at the zenith of +illustration and marvellous skill of the engraver. If we were to +institute comparisons, it was Hans Lutzelburger who cut the blocks after +the designs of the Basle master, but, contrary to what generally +happens, the translator reaches almost to the height of his model; the +line is perfection itself, it is precise and intelligent, simple, and, +above all, explicit. If the work of Lutzelburger be admitted, it must +also be admitted that Holbein designed his cuts before 1526, date of the +death of the Basle engraver; but it was precisely before 1526 that +Holbein lived in Basle, and it was after he had travelled. We will add +nothing to the universal praise of the book of Treschel, of Lyons; +everything has been written of Holbein, and repetitions are unnecessary. +We would ask the reader to compare the Francis I. of Tory and the King +in Holbein's "Dance of Death;" there is a certain family resemblance +between the two cuts, which is a singular honour for Tory. + +At the commencement of the century Basle had a school of +_Formschneiders_ working for export. Besides the numerous products used +at Lyons, it had also a trade in wood blocks, which, having been used, +were afterwards sold. Among these exchanges of engravings were many +plates of Brandt's "Ship of Fools," sold in 1520 to Galliot du Pré, +publisher, of Paris, who used them in the _Eloge de la Folie_ of +Erasmus. + +The reign of Francis I. saw a great advance in the national art of +illustration. The arrival at the court of Italian artists of the +decadence, such as Rosso and Primaticcio, produced a revolution in +taste. The exaggerated slightness of the figures brought by these +artists from beyond the Alps was considered as of supreme distinction; +in their twisted draperies and mannered poses was seen a precious beauty +that tempted the ready intelligence of the court of France. The simple +and ingenuous figures of the old French artists were ranked among the +refuse of another age, and their compositions were regarded with +contempt, and deemed antique. + +The rage for emblems and for allegories and mythological figures +generally was well suited to these eccentric and bizarre inventions. +From another side, an entire class of artists or artisans, book +illustrators first, then enamellers and jewellers, made use of these +Italian models, with which the King encumbered his galleries, and which, +at great expense, covered the walls of Fontainebleau. One can understand +what these skilful men made of such a movement and of so thoughtless an +infatuation. The publishers saw the demand, and composed works of which +the sale was assured by the subjects that they furnished to other +designers. This explains the quantity of Alciati's "Emblems" and Ovid's +"Metamorphoses" published at Lyons and Paris, and copied and recopied a +hundred times by the art industries of the time. Without it the enormous +success of mediocre productions, as the "Emblems," for example, in which +the meaning of the enigma or rebus cannot always be seized, is ill +understood. It was Alciati who made this literature the fashion. He was +a sort of Epicurean and miserly jurisconsult, who had as many lords and +masters on earth, as the kings and princes who liked to bid against each +other to engage him. He had quitted Italy, seduced by the offers of +Francis I., but when Sforza paid him a larger sum, he returned, giving +as reason for his vacillation that the sun had to travel the earth and +warm it by its rays; this was an emblematic answer, for his emblems had +all the coarse, sceptical humour which not a few had then already +discovered. At most these philosophical aphorisms, if we take them +seriously, have their droll side in that their author often practised +the reverse of his teaching. A miser, he abuses the avaricious; flying +his country for the love of gain, he blames those to whom "a better +condition is offered by strangers." Yet he is sometimes logical and +consistent, as when he assures us that "poverty hinders the success of +intelligence," and when, finally, lover of good cheer, he died of +indigestion in 1550. + +[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Page of the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid, by Petit +Bernard. Edition of 1564.] + +His book of "Emblems" had a vogue that lasted until the seventeenth +century, and repetitions were infinitely multiplied: at Paris by Wechel +in 1534; at Lyons by Hans de Tornes, of Suabia, one of the greatest +Lyons publishers; by Roville, also one of the first Lyons publishers, +and by Bonhomme; at Venice by the Alduses; in fact, everywhere, +translated into French, Spanish, and Italian. + +Bernard Salomon, called _le Petit Bernard_, born at Lyons, was one of +the designers of the school of Fontainebleau--that is to say, of the +Franco-Italian school of which we have spoken above--who furnished many +of the engravings for books printed at Lyons. He illustrated the edition +of Alciati's "Emblems" published by Bonhomme in 1560; and designed +skilful little plates, which, with the text, were surrounded by a border +from the workshop of Geoffroy Tory, for Ovid's "Metamorphoses," +published by Hans de Tornes in 1564. Bernard had all the defects and all +the qualities of those of his time, from John Cousin to the least of +them; he was a Primaticcio on a small scale, but agreeably so. His +designs for the New Testament were also very careful, but in them more +than elsewhere the manner and the affectation of the school of +Fontainebleau are apparent. + +[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Portraits of Madeleine, Queen of Scotland, and +of Marguerite, Duchess of Savoy, after the originals of Cornelis of +Lyons.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Portraits of Francis, dauphin, and of Charles, +Duke of Angoûleme, after the originals of Cornelis of Lyons. Woodcuts +taken from Roville's _Promptuaire des Médailles_.] + +The workshops of the second city of France, we see, had at this time +attained considerable importance; but before the books of which we shall +speak, Roville published two anonymous books, one _L'Entrée du Roi Henri +II. à Lyon_, in 1549, ornamented with very graceful woodcuts, the other +the _Promptuaire des Médailles_, comprising a series of charming +portraits under the pretence of reproductions from the antique. The +designs of the _Entrée_ are often attributed to John Cousin, as it is a +rule with certain amateurs to give a known name to a work; but it must +be remembered that Lyons then had celebrated artists, Petit-Bernard, +alluded to above, and Cornelis de la Haye, of whom we have more to say; +and it is not necessary to go to Paris or to Rome to find the author of +these illustrations. + +[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Captain of foot from the _Entree de Henri II. à +Lyon_ (1549).] + +Cornelis de la Haye was a painter who executed nearly the same work as +Francis Clouet in Paris, portraits on panel, in a clear and harmonious +tone, then much the fashion. During a journey of the King, he had, if +Brantôme may be credited, portrayed the entire court, keeping the +sketches for himself. Ten or fifteen years after, Catherine de Medicis, +passing through Lyons, saw these portraits and highly praised them, +recognising the old costumes, astonished at the courtiers of the day, +whom she had never seen in such dress. This artist is now known, thanks +to various works that have been found, among others two portraits of the +sons of Francis I., preserved by Gaignières, who attributed them +resolutely to Cornelis, doubtless on the faith of inscriptions that have +disappeared. Both of them were engraved on wood at Lyons and published +in Roville's book the _Promptuaire des Médailles_, mentioned above, +with small differences of detail altogether insignificant. It is not +impossible then that Cornelis designed these portraits, and that they +were drawn on wood after the cabinet models spoken of by Brantôme. The +delicate figures of the _Promptuaire_ are the work of a master; and the +differences mentioned are those of the artist, not of the copyist, who +would not be permitted to change anything. It is the first time, we +believe, that these comparisons have been made; they will perhaps help +the learned Lyonnais to pierce the mystery, but in any case our +suppositions are more honourable to Cornelis de la Haye than the fancies +of Robert Dumesnil (_Peintre-graveur Français_, tome vi., p. 343). To +judge by the four little medallions here reproduced, the art of +engraving on wood was rarely more skilful than in these portraits. It +would not be astonishing if a man like Cornelis had designed the figures +of the _Entrée de Henri II._ In any case, why should we choose John +Cousin instead of Petit-Bernard? At this time, we know, the kings +carried in their suite their ordinary painters; but we do not know that +John Cousin followed the court to Lyons in 1549. He did not hold an +official position, like Clouet. + +This artist produced well-authenticated works; one of them is signed, +and leaves no doubt: the _Livre de Perspective de Jehan Cousin Senonois, +Maistre Painctre_, published in 1560 by Jean le Royer, printer to the +King for mathematics. This profession of printer for mathematics had its +difficulties of engraving, for Le Royer tells us in his preface that he +had himself finished the plates commenced by Albin Olivier. In another +practical treatise, entitled _Livre de Portraiture_, published in 1593, +John Cousin is styled _peintre géometrien_. It is beyond doubt that this +master produced for many works figures and ornaments, but what were the +books? The manner was then to repeat the engraved borders of titles, the +_passe-partout_, in the centre of which the text was printed. Cousin +designed many of these title-pages on wood; that of the _Livre de +Portraiture_ affords a curious element of comparison; but he was not by +any means the inventor. In 1555 was sold at Antwerp a book printed from +engraved plates after John Vriedman, by Gerard Juif, which is simply a +collection of engravings for title-pages for the use of publishers. + +[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Title of John Cousin's _Livre de Portraiture_, +published in 1593 by Le Clerc. (The spot on the title is in the +original, preserved among the prints of the Bibliothèque Nationale.)] + +It is about this time that metal plates may be seen in conjunction with +wood engraving in the illustration of the Book, and the best artists +attached their names to important publications of this kind. We have +explained in a former chapter in what this process is least convenient +in the impression of a book. In fact, two successive printings, that of +the plates and that of the text, were additional trouble and a frequent +cause of errors; but wood-cutting was somewhat abandoned in the middle +of the sixteenth century, especially for separate plates, and engraved +plates took a considerable importance under different artistic +influences. The first was the facility of engraving a metal plate +compared to the difficulty of cutting a wood block. It thus naturally +happened that the artists of the burin wished to employ their art in +illustration, and taste was soon drawn to the new process. + +In France the first volume of this kind was printed in 1488 by Topie de +Pymont in folio: the _Pérégrinations en Terre Sainte_ of Bernard de +Breydenbach, with figures on engraved plates copied from the Mayence +edition of 1486. Since this manner was abandoned until about 1550, as +much for the reasons given above as for others, we only meet with a +stray plate now and again, which remains as a bait, and relates to +nothing. Under the reign of Henri II. the smallness of the volumes did +not always admit of wood engravings, and the artists in metal found a +footing among illustrators; they made attempts, such as that of the +_Histoire de Jason_ of Réné Boivin in 1563, which came out under +Charles IX. in a charming volume of engraved plates by P. Woériot. + +The "Emblems" of Georgette de Montenay were also in the burlesque style +of Alciati, but they had an advantage, as the author assures us:-- + + "Alciat fist des emblèmes exquis, + Lesquels, voyant de plusieurs requis, + Désir me prist de commencer les miens, + Lesquels je croy estre premiers chrestiens." + +This orthodoxy does not make them more intelligible, but the engravings +of Woériot, unskilful as they are, import an element of interest which +surpasses the rest. It was always at Lyons, the rival and often the +master of Paris in typography, that the author printed his work. + +By the privilege dated 1566, five years before publication, we see that +it is permitted to Peter Woériot, engraver of the Duke of Lorraine, to +portray, engrave, and cut in copper the said figures called emblems for +the time and term of five years (18th October, 1566). Peter Woériot +sometimes signed his prints with the small Lorraine cross adopted by +Geoffroy Tory's workshop, as may be seen in our engraving. + +Copper plate engraving had by this time established itself, and the +works that were so illustrated spread themselves. Du Cerceau published +his admirable collection of _Plus Beaux Bastiments de France_ in folio +1576-79, which had numerous plans and views of the royal and princely +castles. Thevet put forth his _Cosmographie Universelle_ and his _Hommes +Illustres_, the latter adorned with skilfully engraved portraits. In +Paris the publishers Mamert Patisson, who married the widow of Robert +Estienne and took his mark, Adrien le Roy, and Robert Ballard, published +the celebrated _Ballet Comique de la Royne Faict aux Nopces de Monsieur +le Duc de Joyeuse_, composed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeux, valet de +chambre to Henri III.; and in this book, in which were put hasty +etchings, the King displayed all his immodesty and depravity. The Book +has often had the unconscious mission of transmitting to posterity the +unworthiness of its author or of its heroes. From this time the Book has +left its golden age to enter into the boastings of courtiers and +political abstractions. + +[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Engraving by P. Woériot for Georgette de +Montenay's _Emblèmes_.] + +Among the publications opposed to the Government of the time, the two +associates James Tortorel and John Perrissin, of Lyons, had published a +celebrated collection of plates on the religious wars that stained the +reign of Charles IX. with blood. At first engraved on metal, these +plates were worn out, and were gradually replaced by others engraved on +wood, on which several artists worked, among them James le Challeux and +also John de Gourmont, one of the most celebrated wood-cutters of the +sixteenth century. This was a work composed of single leaves in folio +size, which had an extraordinary sale among the religious people of the +time. + +At the same time, illustration on wood did not stand still. The +portraits of authors diffused by the pencil of Clouet and his school +were commonly put at the head of their works. We cannot say whether +Clouet himself designed the portraits of Tiraqueau and of Taillemont in +1553; of Du Billon, the author of the _Fort Inexpugnable_, in 1555; +Papon and Ambroise Paré in 1561; Grevin, Ramus, and others; but the +precision of these physiognomies recalls the peculiar manner of the +French artists of the sixteenth century. The "Poems" of Ronsard in 1586 +contains a series of very clever portraits, among them that of Muret, +his commentator, one of the most perfect of its kind. Christopher de +Savigny, author of the _Tableaux Accomplis de Tous les Arts Liberaux_, +published by John and Francis de Gourmont in 1587, is represented at +full length in the frontispiece of his work, offering the book to the +Duc de Nevers, to whom it is dedicated. This plate in folio, probably +engraved by John de Gourmont, is the best finished that we have seen. +The work of Savigny, forgotten as it may be now, had a great reputation +in its own time; and Bacon took from it the idea of his "Advancement of +Learning." + +Speaking of the Duc de Nevers, it will not be without interest to our +readers to mention here a manuscript found by us in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, which enables us to give an account of the work then +necessary for the publication of an illustrated book. In 1577 the Duke +arranged for the impression of an apologetic book, of which no trace +remains; and his _intendant_ writes a long letter to him on the subject +of composition and bindings. It was necessary that the work should be +produced quickly, bound and gilt, for presents. The _intendant_ thinks +calf will be the most expeditious covering. "It would be much the best +to use black or red calf, ... well gilt above, and not vellum, which is +a thin parchment that quickly shrinks." The statements of this man of +business show that five proofs of each sheet were taken for +typographical correction, and that twelve full days were wanted for the +binding. The most interesting part of this memoir is that which treats +of the engraving on wood of the portrait. The plate was designed by an +artist who had afterwards gone away; it was not satisfactory, but the +ornaments would pass. The _intendant_ proposes to "fix a little piece of +wood in the block that could be drawn upon." Here we see correction by +elimination. The pear-wood on which the original figure was engraved was +to be cut out, and a square of boxwood substituted, "forasmuch as in +this task the pear-wood, which is the successful, well-cut block, is the +wood that is harder." + +[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Portrait of Christopher Plantin, printer of +Antwerp. Engraved by Wierix.] + +The portrait of the Duchesse de Nevers was better, yet the pear-wood had +given way under the work. "That of Madame is more passable. +Nevertheless, there is still something to say to one eye. The wood +cannot carry the subtlety of the line." Here, in a few clear and +explicit lines by a man of the time, we see the economy of a publication +of the sixteenth century, at a time when wood engraving was declining, +to give place to engraving on metal, which was soon to reign supreme, +through the most important book house of the century: the Plantins of +Antwerp. + +Christopher Plantin, like Jenson, came originally from Tours. After +having learned his art with Macé at Caen, he went to Paris, from which +the wars soon drove him. He left for the Low Countries, and there Philip +II. nominated him as chief printer--"architypographus." Established at +Antwerp in 1555, he surrounded himself, as had the Estiennes and +Alduses, with most of the learned and literary men of his time, among +them Justus Lipsius, to whom Balzac attributed the Latin prefaces signed +by Plantin. It is certain that he was neither an Estienne nor an Aldus. +His artistic probity caused him to submit the proofs of his works to +strangers, with promise of recompense for faults indicated; the +Estiennes employed the same system. Plantin, not to be behind any of his +contemporaries in typographical perfection, brought from France the +celebrated type-founder William Lebé, and charged him to furnish a +special fount.[A] Under the orders of Philip II., he printed the +celebrated Polyglot Bible, in eight folio volumes, absolutely perfect in +its execution; unfortunately the Spanish Government, having advanced +funds in the course of publication, prosecuted him with the utmost +rigour to obtain repayment. This very nearly shut up his printing house, +but he took courage and overcame his difficulties, until he became, in +1589, the year of his death, the principal publisher of Flanders. His +mark was a hand holding a compass, with the motto "Labore et +constantia." + +[Footnote A: In the Bibliothèque Nationale is a copy of an octavo _Album +de Caractères_, in which Lebé has written, "This gloss, made in Paris +(1574) by me, is my fourteenth letter, and the text is made on the +pattern of the preceding one for size, but of a better art; and from +this was printed the great Bible of Antwerp by Plantin, to whom I sold a +fount" (folio 6). On folio 20 he wrote, "I do not know whence came this +small Hebrew that I received from Plantin to make a smaller one for him. +He sent me this half-sheet, and I have not seen at Venice another +part."] + +[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Plantin's mark.] + +Plantin died at the age of seventy-four, leaving a prosperous business +to be divided between his three daughters. His first house at Antwerp +employed seventeen presses even at the time when he was in trouble, and +he had branches at Paris and Leyden, of less consequence. His second +daughter married Moretus, and to him descended the Antwerp workshop; he +and his descendants continued the printing house until recently; the +house of the great printer and publisher is now a typographical museum. +The Plantin printing office--"Officina Plantiniana"--was as well managed +by its descendants as by himself. The fashion of engraving in metal +spread itself before the death of the head of the house, and his +successors continued it. The principal engravers with the burin of the +Low Countries were employed by them: Wierix, Galle, Pass, Mallery, Van +Sichern; it was a real school of illustration, that created by degrees a +precious and sustained style, not without influence on the artists of +that epoch. It was from this particular manner that came Thomas de Leu +and Leonard Gaultier in France; and from Antwerp came those small +religious figures that have lasted to our time in their incomprehensible +mysticism. + +The title-pages of the Plantin printing office inaugurated the +_passe-partout_ engraved by the burin, overloaded and complicated, of +which the seventeenth century took advantage. To tell the truth, these +elaborate displays, blackened by ink, do not accord well with the +titles; and there is a long distance between this decadence and the +books ornamented with wood blocks by the Italians and French of the +commencement of the century. Exception must be made in favour of Rubens, +who designed many of these titles. The heavy and squat architecture of +the time was least of all appropriate to these decorations, which wanted +grace. It passed from Plantin into France through the engravers; it went +to Rome with Martin de Vos and John Sadeler; it imposed itself +everywhere; and from that day to this it has not ceased. At the time of +which we write it had taken its flight in France, and spread itself in +Europe with extraordinary success. Engraving in relief, holding its +own until then, gave way little by little before this invasion. When +Henri IV. mounted the throne wood engraving had finished its upward +movement, it still remained in the _canards_, or popular pieces sold at +low prices, but it is easy to see what these hasty vignettes are worth. + +[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Frontispiece of a book from Plantin's printing +office. Metal engraving.] + +We have now seen the history of the Book and its decoration in the +sixteenth century in France: at first French epics in Italy, books of +hours, romances of chivalry; then about 1550, with the reign of Henri +II., the religious pamphlets commenced, bookselling spread itself; the +strife between illustrations on metal plates and those in relief assumed +shape, it continued under Henri III., and terminated abruptly by the +victory of the first at the extreme end of the century. With political +passions, printing had become a weapon of warfare, which it will never +cease to be. They knew in the sixteenth century what perfidious +accusations or excessive praises were worth. The Book followed the fate +of its author. If the writer was burned, so was his book. Witness the +_Christianismi Restitutio_ of the Catholic Servetus, printed at Vienne, +in Dauphiné, and consigned to the flames with its author at Geneva in +1553. A single copy was saved from the fire, and is now preserved in the +Bibliothèque Nationale; it is the identical copy annotated by Colladon, +the accuser of the unhappy Servetus, and still bears traces of fire on +its leaves. + +Typography and the illustration of the Book in England in the sixteenth +century did not make the same progress as in France and Italy. Much good +work was done, but it was mostly with foreign material. Type was +obtained from French and Dutch founders, and most of the woodcuts had +the same origin. In the early part of the century most of the +publications were translations of popular foreign books, such as +Voragine's "Golden Legend," Caxton's translations of Cicero, Boetius, +etc. Too many restrictions and privileges obtained to encourage or allow +of the establishment of an English school, which was to come later with +the spread of wealth and education. Books were mostly printed in Gothic +type, or "black letter," and the woodcuts were of the coarsest kind. An +exception was the beautiful Prayer-book of John Day, 1578, known as +Queen Elizabeth's Prayer-book, from the fine portrait of the Queen, +which we reproduce, on the previous page; but in this the woodcuts were +designed by Albert Dürer and Hans Holbein. Pynson was the first to use +Roman type in England, in the _Oratio in pace nuperrimâ_, 1518, quarto; +and the first English Bible in Roman type was printed at Edinburgh in +1576. It is thought that until about 1600 printers were their own +type-founders, as no record exists of founding as a separate trade until +that time. + +[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Portrait of Queen Elizabeth from the "Book of +Christian Praiers," printed by John Day, 1578.] + +The greatest achievement of the sixteenth century in England was the +printing of the first English Bible, in Coverdale's translation, in +1535, folio, but even this was printed abroad, the latest investigation +giving it to Van Meteren at Antwerp. The woodcuts in it are by Hans +Sebald Beham; we reproduce one representing Cain killing Abel. Tyndall +had previously printed abroad an English New Testament. Another +importation was Brandt's "Shyp of Folys," printed by Pynson, 1509, and +John Cawood, 1570, the woodcuts in both being copied from the originals +before referred to. + +[Illustration: Fig. 67.--Woodcut from Coverdale's Bible, 1535. Cain +killing Abel.] + +Folio was the size usually adopted, and in this size the series of +chronicles appeared: Arnold, printed abroad in 1502; Fabian, in 1516; +Froissart, by Pynson, in two volumes, 1523-5; Harding, by Grafton, 1543; +Hall, by the same, 1548; Holinshed, in two volumes, 1577. In the same +size Chaucer was first given to the world entire by T. Godfrey in 1532, +and many times reprinted, and Sir Thomas More in 1557. Polemical and +religious treatises were mostly printed in quarto, as were the poets: +Spenser's _Faerie Queene_, in 1590; Langland's _Pierce Plowman_, in +1550; and Sidney's _Arcadia_, in 1590. Plays were also printed in +quarto, in which shape at the end of the century some of Shakespeare's +single plays were issued. + +From the great perfection to which the liturgies, or books of hours, had +been brought by Vostre, Verard, and others in France, it is not perhaps +extraordinary that the service books for English use should have been +mostly printed abroad. Those for Salisbury and York were produced at +Paris, Rouen, and Antwerp. A Salisbury Primer in English was printed by +John Kyngston and Henry Sutton in 1557, and Wynken de Worde printed a +York Manual in 1509. The first English Common Prayer Book, known as +Edward VI.'s, was printed by Grafton in 1549, who also printed in 1545 +Henry VIII.'s Primer in Latin and English. Edward's book is curious as +having on the last page a royal order as to the price at which it was to +be sold: "No maner of persone shall sell the present Booke vnbounde +aboue the price of two shillynges and two pence. And bound in Forell for +ii_s._ x_d._, and not aboue. And the same bound in Shepes Lether for +iii_s._ iii_d._, and not aboue. And the same bounde in paste or in +boordes, in Calues Lether, not aboue the price of iiii_s._ the pece." +Cranmer's Catechism was printed by Nicholas Hill in 1548, with +twenty-nine woodcuts by Hans Holbein, one of which we reproduce, +representing Christ casting out devils. + +Translations from the classics were popular, and in the second half of +the century arose that passion for voyage and travel which has so +largely contributed to the wealth and extension of England. This was +begun by Eden's translation of Peter Martyr's "Decades of the New World; +or, West India," London, 1555, quarto, followed by Hakluyt's "Principall +Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries," 1589, folio. Many accounts of +single voyages and discoveries were issued, and the taste thus created +culminated in the establishment of the East India Company in the last +year of the century. + +The first specimen of copper plate engraving for books in England is a +frontispiece to Galen's _De Temperamentis_, printed at Cambridge 1521, +and the number of books containing copper plates engraved before 1600 is +extremely limited, the most notable being portraits of Queen Elizabeth, +Lord Leicester, and Lord Burleigh in Archbishop Parker's Bible of 1568; +Saxton's Atlas, 1579, the first atlas in England; Harrington's +translation of Ariosto, 1591, with forty-seven engraved plates. + +[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Woodcut by Hans Holbein from Cranmer's +Catechism, 1548.] + +The first printer at Cambridge was John Siberch, 1521. Peter of Treves +established himself at Southwark in 1514. Among his productions is a +Higden's _Polychronicon_, 1527, folio. John Oswen printed at Ipswich +1538, and among the English towns in which printers established +themselves in the century were York, Canterbury, Tavistock, Norwich, and +Worcester. + +The establishment of the Reformed Church, and the diffusion of education +among the people which followed, created an original English school of +literature in the sixteenth century, and this gave employment and great +impetus to typography in England, so that by the time we reach the end +of the century we find a great improvement in the art of the Book, to be +carried to still greater perfection in the next. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +1600 TO 1700. + + Tendencies of the regency of Marie de Medicis--Thomas de Leu and + Leonard Gaultier--J. Picart and Claude Mellan--Lyons and J. de + Fornazeris--The Book at the beginning of the seventeenth century in + Germany, Italy, and Holland--Crispin Pass in France--The Elzevirs + and their work in Holland--Sebastian Cramoisy and the Imprimerie + Royale--Illustration with Callot, Della Bella, and Abraham + Bosse--The publishers and the Hotel de Rambouillet--The reign of + Louis XIV., Antoine Vitré syndic at his accession--His works and + mortifications; the polyglot Bible of Le Jay--Art and illustrators + of the grand century--Sébastien Leclerc, Lepautre, and + Chauveau--Leclerc preparing the illustration and decoration of the + Book for the eighteenth century--The Book in England in the + seventeenth century. + + +[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Letter engraved by A. Bosse.] + +Now we have arrived at a critical epoch, in which the science of the old +printers transformed itself gradually into commerce, in which taste lost +itself under the influence of religious architecture. The title of the +Book represents the portico of a cathedral, with columns, mitred saints, +and crosses, of little decorative aspect. Figures on copper plates +replaced the foliage and arabesques of the older booksellers. Through +the Plantins and their imitators, the architectural passion was far +spread. It inundated France, ran through Germany and Italy, and reigned +pre-eminent in Holland. Literary taste also underwent change; manners +were no longer those of the sixteenth century: bold, free, and gay; from +the religious wars a certain hypocrisy arose; bombast replaced the +natural; the gods were preparing, as a contemporary said, to receive +Louis and his spirit. + +It is not that artists were wanting at the opening of the seventeenth +century who could, in giving scope to their talent, show themselves +worthy successors of those who went before them. Unhappily the +booksellers no longer had a loose rein; they had the rope, for they were +hung or burned at the least infraction of political or religious +propriety. Yet the reign of Henri IV. was relatively an easier period +for the artisans of the Book, in which they were less confined to the +strict terms of excessive regulations; but after this prince severity +increased, and during the year 1626 a new law was promulgated punishing +with death the printers or distributers of prohibited books. Doubtless +the books that were thus secretly sold, and prohibited in defence of +good manners, were neither _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of typography nor art. The +author threw off the indecencies by which he hoped to make profit and +fame, regardless of type or illustration. But during the regency of +Marie de Medicis, it was not only the authors of a bad standard that +were in danger of being hung; the printer or seller of the pamphlet or +book of a reputed heterodox author was also hung, and it became +difficult to steer safely among the prohibitions. Enormous numbers of +works were made with frontispieces decorated with colonnades and mitred +saints, and bearing high-sounding titles of sound orthodoxy. A somewhat +gross mysticism, from the office of Plantin, formed the most solid stock +of every respectable dealer. + +[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Title of the _Metanealogie_, engraved by +Leonard Gaultier.] + +Under Henri IV. and the minority of Louis XIII., two French illustrators +received from the school of Antwerp their inspiration for the ornament +of the Book. Thomas de Leu, probably from Flanders, was allied with the +old Parisian painter and engraver of celebrated portraits, Antoine +Caron, in furnishing the engraved plates for the _Images de Plate +Peinture des Deux Philostrates, Sophistes Grecs_, Paris, Claude +Cramoisy, 1609, folio; and Leonard Gaultier, his contemporary, +collaborated with Jaspar Isaac and other artists in the Book. Leonard +Gaultier contributed most to spread in France the Plantinian style, and +his somewhat cold but characteristic talent suited this art more than +that of any one else then could. He was an engraver of portraits, now +rare and valuable, in the style of Wierix or Thomas de Leu; but, at the +demand of publishers and booksellers, he composed other plates, at first +historical figures representing the royal family and the nobles for the +publisher Leclerc, in a simple and true manner; he also designed pious +figures, recording a miracle or representing the ceremonies of a jubilee +and other devotional things. But he made his great success in the +composition of frontispieces to theological and pious works, printed for +nearly all the booksellers. Leonard Gaultier had a fashion of his own +with pilasters and Grecian columns, under which he boldly placed entire +councils of cardinals and bishops; witness the heading of the +_Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum_, into which he crowded nearly forty +figures. He united also with a certain grace the sacred and the profane, +placing among ideal saints the sinning fine ladies of the time, with +their large collarettes and jewels falling on naked breasts. The work of +Andrew Valladier, chaplain of the King, entitled _Métanéalogie Sacrée_, +published by Peter Chevallier in 1609, was adorned with a title of this +particular kind, in which Gaultier had no rival, and which preserves the +precision of Flemish masters in the detail of ornaments of the toilet. + +He was one of the first to work for Sebastian Cramoisy, printer and +publisher, who had established his shop in the Rue St. Jacques at the +sign of the "Stork." We shall have occasion to speak of him later in +connection with the Royal Printing House, of which he was the first +director; he is mentioned now because in 1611 Leonard Gaultier engraved +for him the frontispiece of _L'Aigle Français_, a collection of sermons +by Thomas Girault. The publisher used the same plate in 1618 for the +sermons of Raymond de Hézèque. + +Besides the publications of Sebastian Cramoisy and Chevallier, Leonard +Gaultier adorned also those of Nicholas Buon and many other publishers +of the time in Paris and Lyons. With such a profusion of works emanating +from a single artist, without reckoning those which were produced in +great quantity by men of less note, wood engraving was dead. At most it +dared to put a wood block of a printer's mark on a title; more +ordinarily this mark was not alone sufficient, and showed the disdain in +which taste then held wood-cutting. Thus goes fashion, heedless of the +most elementary rules of art. To put type within an engraved title, or +to ornament a printed text with engravings, is a heresy of principle +that was established in the eighteenth century, by the strength of its +cleverness and talent. But at the beginning of the seventeenth, in spite +of Leonard Gaultier or Thomas de Leu, these overloaded titles, +overpowering the opening of the Book, offend the eye by their excessive +blackness, and incontestably make us regret the admirable frontispiece +on wood of the preceding century. + +This is all the ornament, properly so called, of the reign of Louis +XIII. Leonard Gaultier composed also small vignettes for an edition of +Homer, but they are mediocre and unskilful, and it must be said that +there were others following the same path. John Picart made a +frontispiece with architecture and figures for the _Histoire de la +Maison de Châtillon-sur-Marne_ for account of Sebastian Cramoisy. A cold +and hard artist he was, the rival of Gaultier, and one of the most +employed of the vignette engravers of Paris. There was also Jaspar +Isaac, a mediocre craftsman, but who could design clever titles, among +them that of the continuation of the _Annales_ of Baronius for the +publisher Denis de la Noue. Then Claude Mellan, whose great and clever +talent did not disdain second-rate works, in which he gave free play to +his burin. It must be said, however, that his bold touch did not well +accommodate itself to reduced spaces, and that he was not working in the +field necessary to his inventive powers. We mention his portrait of +Louis XIV. at the head of the _Code Louis XIV._; the title of the +_Perfection du Chrestien_, in which is included a portrait of Cardinal +Richelieu, A. Vitré, 1647, folio; that of the _Instruction du Dauphin_ +for Cramoisy, 1640; that of the works of St. Bernard for the Royal +Printing House; and, perhaps the best of all, the _Poésies_ of Pope +Urban VIII., of which we here give a copy. + +[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Title engraved by Claude Mellan for Urban +VIII.'s _Poésies_, printed at the Royal Printing House, in 1642.] + +Lyons did not remain far behind in the movement, but how changed from +its great reputation of the sixteenth century! J. de Fornazeris engraved +the frontispieces to Justus Lipsius, published by Horace Cardon in 1613. +Peter Favre and Audran imitated them. C. Audran designed for Claude +Landry the _Theologia Naturalis_ of Theophilus Reynaud, and the +bookseller Picquet ordered from him the title for the _Annales Minorum_ +in 1628. Everywhere taste was modelled on the works of the capital, to +name only the principal centres, Rouen, Rheims, Sens, down to Venes, a +small town of Tarn, where William de Nautonnier published in 1603 his +curious book _Mécométrie_, whose frontispiece was bordered by views of +cities, with an equestrian portrait of King Henry. + +And if we pass to Germany, we find Mayence with mediocre engravings for +titles according to the formula and process used elsewhere, the title of +the _Droit Civil_ of Aymar Vailius, that of the works of St. Bonaventura +in 1609 for the bookseller Antoine Hiérat, and that of the _Viridarium +Virtutûm_, rather cleverly treated by the burin in 1610. What a period +had passed since Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer! There was still one +Yves Schoeffer at Mayence, but only the name lived; nothing more +remained of the old printers of the other century. It was the same at +Bamberg, Cologne, Nuremberg, and Basle, in all the cities that made the +honour of typography and the Book in former times. Cologne was neither +better nor worse favoured than others. The booksellers Boetzer, Kinck, +and De Binghy had passable engravings for their titles; and the +Commentaries of Salmeron may be mentioned, with portraits from the +German originals of the fifteenth century. At Nuremberg there was a +curious specimen treating of natural history by Basil Besler, in which +the artist gives the interior of a zoological cabinet of the time; but +the blocks and the typography of the city of Koburger are wanting. Basle +held its own later in relief engraving. Meantime there was a mediocre +set of the Dance of Death on copper, published by Miegen, 1621. + +At Jena and Frankfort-on-the-Main were prosperous printing houses, but +engravings and ornamentation were neglected. Frankfort employed the +frontispiece in the _Traité du Commerce_ of Sigismond Scaccia, published +by Zuner in 1648; it was divided into compartments, in which the Bourse, +the Exchange, and the port of the city were represented. + +It is scarcely necessary to mention the Italian cities which followed +the movement. Venice from the middle of the sixteenth century had used +engraved frontispieces, among which was that of Domenic Zenoi for the +_Portraits des Hommes Illustres_ of Nicholas Valegio. In the same city +James Piccini worked for account of Sgava in 1648, but he was equally at +the service of Roman publishers, for whom he designed a number of +titles. Along with him Frederic Greuter adorned the publications of +Alexander Zanetti, not without talent, but without individuality. +Bologna, Brescia, Florence, and Naples, had no original sentiment; they +followed indifferently the manner of the day. + +In Holland, artists were rather numerous. The family of the Passes +designed vignettes for books, and engraved frontispieces, admirably +studied and composed. The clear and truly personal style of their works +places their illustrations in the first rank among those of their time. +They had, at the same time, the genius that created and the intelligent +burin that faithfully translated an idea. They imagined with art the +scenes that they depicted without at all copying their predecessors. +From 1599, the date of the publication of the _Hortus Deliciarum_, one +of their best works, up to about 1623, they were in Holland, at Arnheim +and at Amsterdam. In 1623 we find one of them, the most celebrated, +Crispin the younger, designing figures for the _Manège Royal_ of +Pluvinel, published by Angelier in Paris, and for another edition, with +folding plates, in 1624 for William Lenoir, at the sign of the "White +Rose Crowned." This magnificent work, in which the King, Louis XIII., is +represented receiving lessons from the rider Pluvinel, had a third and +more complete reimpression in 1625 with another publisher, Michael +Nivelle. Here we see the Dutch accredited in France, in Paris, in the +city then the most ready to understand and pay for the works of eminent +artists. In 1624 Gombauld published an _Endymion_--Boileau later +associated Gombauld with other poets to declare him a maker of pitiable +sonnets--Nicholas Buon, the bookseller named above, undertook the +publication, and employed Pass, Leonard Gaultier, and J. Picart to +furnish plates in octavo size. Heavy and black as were these vignettes, +they do not the less make a good appearance in the edition of the +forgotten poet; and it is due to truth to recognise how much Pass was +above his collaborators. The following year, 1625, he engraved the +_Dionysiaques_ of Nonus, for Robert Fouet, and the _Roman des Romans_ of +Du Verdier, comprising more than ten engravings, in a very free and bold +manner. The _Berger Extravagant_ and the _Académie de l'Espée_ came in +1628, among numerous others. + +[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Title of Pluvinel's _Manège Royal_, engraved by +Crispin Pass in 1624.] + +To speak truly, Crispin Pass did not devote himself entirely to Parisian +publishers; he always preserved interests in Flanders so as to return +there from time to time; but he did not find in his own country the +ready and assured sales of Paris. Still the city of Leyden had then one +of the most renowned workshops of typography; the Elzevirs had commenced +to make a good place for themselves among the printers of Europe by the +extreme correctness of their editions, the distinctness of their work, +and their marvellous art in the taste and economy of the Book. In +reality, the sizes and characters of their books were very small, but if +the smallness of the page did not allow room for vignette or ornament, +they bore a certain practical elegance that was not without charm. The +origin of the printing house was due to Louis Elzevir, who published in +1592 an edition of Eutropius at Leyden. He left sons, who associated +themselves together, and founded a house which was unrivalled. + +[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Title of the _Imitation_ of the Elzevirs.] + +Bonaventure Elzevir, grandson of Louis, was the most illustrious of this +family, so remarkably devoted to its art. He took Abraham as partner, +and together they put forth those little Latin classics in duodecimo of +which the value is now so great. Among others, Pliny issued from their +presses in the year 1635, in three volumes, Virgil in 1636, and Cicero +in 1642. To-day amateurs, above all those afflicted with bibliomania, +hunt for unbound Elzevirs, because they have full margins. From about +1633 to 1639 these volumes were composed of paper of rather small size, +making a page of a hundred and thirty to a hundred and thirty-three +millimetres; from 1639 onwards the paper was larger, and the page from +about a hundred and thirty-five to a hundred and thirty-seven. One must +be a book-lover to understand the interest attaching to these figures, +and employ his entire activity in the discovery of these undiscoverable +books, which are concealed as soon as they are met with. + +One of the most esteemed of their works is the _De Imitatione_ of Thomas +à Kempis, printed by John and Daniel Elzevir about 1653, and known as +the edition without date. But as the association of John and Daniel is +known to have lasted from 1652 to 1654, the date 1653 appears to be very +plausible. We reproduce the entire title of this typographical _bijou_, +which merited a cleverer engraver. + +The rarest of all the numerous Elzevirs, possibly by reason of the +popularity of its subject, is the _Pastissier François_, Louis and +Daniel Elzevir, Amsterdam, 1655, of which M. Morgand had an uncut copy, +measuring a hundred and forty-three millimetres, in 1878. The Benzon +copy sold in 1875 for three thousand two hundred and fifty-five francs. + +It is to be remarked that the Elzevirs frequently avoided dating or even +signing their books, for reasons easy to comprehend. Publishing numerous +works, they were afraid of compromising themselves in the eyes of the +powerful, and they let them go forth without any trade mark. These +artists in typography were, besides, the most prudent and subtle of men. +Working at a time when bookselling had become an acknowledged commerce, +and a trade requiring all the skill and resources of others, they wisely +availed themselves of these, gathering for themselves honour and profit +without having done more than seize their opportunity. Employing the +characters of Claude Garamond, of James Sanlecques, and the papers of +Angoulême, M. Didot thence claims them as French publishers. + +In France the Elzevirs had no rivals; but a fashion was introduced from +the end of the sixteenth century of associating together publishers in +the production of important and costly books. There were, among others, +the company of the "Grand Navire" in 1610, of the "Source" in 1622, and +of the "Soleil" in 1629. In 1631 several publishers united and founded a +second company of the "Grand Navire." These were the two Cramoisys, +Sebastian and Gabriel, Denis Béchet, John Branchu, Denis Moreau, Claude +Sonnius, and Denis Thierry. The associates took a ship as their mark, +but without putting their names on the masts, as the original company of +the "Grand Navire" had done. They published, at common expense and +divided profits, great works, of which each one of them had the right of +sale, but of course reserving to themselves the right to publish such +others as they pleased. Sebastian Cramoisy passes as the chief, the +moral director of another company, formed to publish the Fathers of the +Church, with the royal types, a company affiliated to the "Grand Navire" +and signed in 1638 by Denis Moreau, Gille Morel, Stephen Richer, Claude +Sonnius, and Gabriel Cramoisy. But as regards their personal works, if +they had neither the perfection nor the aspect of those of Froben, +Aldus, the Estiennes, or even of Plantin, they at least surpassed the +French books of the time. Formerly syndic of the Corporation in 1602, +twenty-nine years before the constitution of the "Grand Navire," +Cramoisy was besides sheriff of Paris, and he exercised his trade in a +shop in the Rue St. Jacques which had been that of Father Nivelle, the +_doyen_ of booksellers, who died in 1603 at the age of eighty years. + +The position of Cramoisy made it natural for Cardinal de Richelieu to +fix his eyes on him for the direction of the Royal Printing House. This +establishment, founded by the King in 1640, was installed within the +Louvre, in a long series of rooms which formed a workshop without rival +in the world. Sublet des Noyers was named superintendent, Trichet du +Fresne corrector; and under this triple direction the presses commenced +to work. The first book was the _Imitation de Jésus-Christ_, dated 1640, +folio, a fine book enough, but not to be compared to the Elzevir +editions. The types used in this book are attributed to Claude Garamond, +founder of the sixteenth century, to whom are due the Greek types of +Francis I. With the Royal Printing House, as often happens with State +enterprises, the cost was great, and the return nothing. Only a few +years after its foundation it had swallowed up nearly 400,000 livres, a +very heavy sum for a badly balanced treasury; it had produced sixty or +seventy volumes of moderate value; and after Cramoisy the management was +so little in earnest that it turned the workshops into a stable, called +"the little stable of the King," at the commencement of the eighteenth +century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Plate taken from the _Lumière du Cloistre_. +Copper plate by Callot.] + +To return to the artists of the Book under Louis XIII. and Cardinal +Richelieu, we must go back a little, before the foundation of the Royal +Printing House, and we shall find the French school of illustration at a +time when Callot was giving it a vigorous lift and trying to do away +with its affected and hard style. It must be acknowledged that Callot +was not a vignettist, a special designer; his art aimed higher, and +ordinarily succeeded better; yet he did not disdain frontispieces, and +made them for the _Coustumier de Lorraine_, the _Harpalice_ of +Bracciolini, and for a crowd of others of which the enumeration would be +tedious. Certain of his works passed into Italy, where they raised a +little the debased level of the Book. Then he adorned several works with +etchings, among them the _Lumière du Cloistre_, published by Francis +Langlois 1646. It was one of the symbolic and sententious works with +which the public taste is never satiated, and a kind of guide for the +priest. At the bottom of the little etching here given, representing +birds falling from a tree, we read,-- + + "Ses petits hors du nid le courbeau jette en bas, + Lorsque par leur blancheur ils lui sont dissemblables. + Le bon prélat de mesme au cloistre n'admet pas + Ceux qui n'ont rien d'esgal à ses moeurs vénérables." + +Callot also made another set of emblems on the life of the Virgin Mary, +and published in 1620 a series of prints in quarto for the tragedy of +_Soliman_ of Bonarelli, for the account of Cecconnelli. France imposed +herself on fallen Italy, she got her works dispersed there, and if an +engraver arose there, he did not disdain to consecrate himself to +France. Witness Della Bella, who went from Italy to France, where he was +taken under the protection of Cardinal Richelieu. It was about the time +of the establishment of the Royal Printing House, and it was expected +that employment would be found at once for him. + +Callot was the model chosen by the young Italian artist, and this choice +might have been less happy. Della Bella took from his master the +philosophic vein, the drollery of design, which he exercised at first in +humorous frontispieces, among others that of Scarron's works, where nine +fish-women, taking the place of the Muses, dance around the poet. But he +passed from gay and pleasant to severe, and made large pages of +architecture for serious titles. In 1649 he designed the plates for the +large and undigested volume of Valdor on Louis XIII., published by +Antoine Estienne at the Royal Printing House. His success was not there; +Della Bella was a painter of groups, of ornaments, of subjects somewhat +heavy and overdrawn, but which, after numerous transformations, opened a +new way to the vignettists of the eighteenth century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Title of the _Manière Universelle_, by +Desargues, in 1643, by Abraham Bosse.] + +With Abraham Bosse the decoration of the Book took a considerable +extension. Numerous and charming ornamented letters, heads of pages, and +tailpieces appear. There are few artists that have done so much as he +for graceful illustration and harmony between the vignette and the +printed page. His prodigious fecundity made him attempt every style; and +after the gaieties of the print in which he laughed with his +contemporaries, he adopted a grave air to trace more severe subjects on +copper. However, the book entitled _La Manière Universelle_, by +Desargues, with numerous geometrical figures and an agreeable +frontispiece, bearing the dedication to the Seigneur de Noyers, +superintendent of the Royal Printing House, was a critical work, in +which Bosse, under a serious standard, did not spare an enemy. We do not +bear ill-will to the artist, however, for the following year he +published fourteen plates for the Suetonius printed at the Louvre. + +He successively designed plates for the _Histoire de St. Louis_, +numerous vignettes for pious books, figures for the _Pucelle_ of +Chapelain and for the _Larcins de la Fortune_. He was always himself, +refined and ingenious, whether in the most barren or the most +complicated subjects. + +[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Print by Abraham Bosse representing the +booksellers of the Palace under Louis XIII.] + +He has left us in a celebrated print a representation of a bookseller's +shop of his time. It is for us an interesting page, in which is shown +simply and rather naïvely the picturesque side of these stores, with the +dealer and his wife selling new works to their customers. The shop is +compact, and very much like the open-air stalls of to-day; posting-bills +above the shelves indicate the "new books;" and if the inscriptions +given by Bosse be credited, the Palace dealer offered his books with +singular eclecticism: Boccaccio, Aretin, the _Astrée_ of D'Urfé, the +Bible, and Machiavelli. In the hands of the woman is seen the romance +_Marianne_: + + "Icy les cavaliers les plus adventureux + En lisant les romans s'animent à combattre; + Et de leur passion les amants langoureux + Flattent les mouvements par des vers de théâtre," + +says the text of Bosse. What was commonly done then is still done, +shopping and rummaging the stalls, and those of the Palace were +attractive. + +If we credit Sauval, the great number of booksellers, in the middle of +the century, was due to the wits of the Hotel de Rambouillet. The +passion for novelty, for recent works, had produced that quantity of +publishers, he says, that we have seen on the Pont Neuf, and that we +still see to-day at the Palace and the University, but of which the +number is so multiplied in all these places that in the Palace they +count more than other dealers; and as to the neighbourhood of the +University, they are obliged, in order to lodge the rest, to extend the +ancient bounds from St. Yves to the river (Sauval, _Antiquités de +Paris_, viii., 354). + +In fact, each year saw an increase in the number of publishers in +corporation, with syndicate and adjuncts. Under the reign of Louis +XIII., the single year 1610 had fifty to take rank, and among them +Antoine Vitré, who was to become the most illustrious of his +contemporaries. But, as there were no more than six printers, it may be +inferred that all the rest were booksellers, in the true sense of the +word, of those who encumbered afterwards the great _salle_ of which +Sauval speaks. Antoine Vitré was syndic in May, 1643, on the accession +of Louis XIV. He had four adjuncts. With him the Book marked the solemn +style that the commencement of the century had given to it. Royal +printer for the Oriental languages from 1621, he undertook a Syriac +work, the first that was attempted in Paris. The project of a Polyglot +Bible gave him the idea of acquiring for the King the Oriental +manuscripts and matrices of Savary de Brèves. The King left to him the +care of negotiating the business, but did not reimburse him without +numerous difficulties, in the midst of which the printer was made to +lose the means of conveniently continuing his trade. The advocate Le Jay +charging himself with the enormous expenses necessitated by the Polyglot +Bible, it was composed in the hope that Cardinal Richelieu would pay the +cost. He was willing to do so, but required that his name should figure +on the book; and as Le Jay, an independent man, formally opposed it, +Vitré met with ill-will from the Minister, which increased from day to +day. In 1645 the impression was finished, but Le Jay was ruined, and if +we admire the paper, the type, and the extraordinary size of the nine +volumes of the Polyglot Bible, we find in it so many faults, errors, and +misprints that it has fallen to nearly nothing, hardly being worth its +binding. There were terrible mortifications in the business, and Vitré +had to submit to them more than any one. Nevertheless he did not let his +presses stand still, and he published successively Arabic, Turkish, and +Persian works. His action against the Savary heirs, as representing the +King, in the acquisition mentioned above, continued also after the +impression of the Bible, and hindered his progress. He struggled on; and +the assembly of clergy, of which he was the printer, sought to help him +out of his difficulties. The matter being once terminated, the Cardinal +being dead, and Vitré having been named by Colbert director of the Royal +Printing House in place of Cramoisy, he died in his turn, and was later +accused of having destroyed the types and matrices of the Polyglot +Bible, so that they should not be used after him. This fable, long +accredited, has since been ascertained to be false, for the punches and +matrices passed to the Royal Library, thence to the Royal Printing +House, reorganised in 1691. + +Antoine Vitré, in spite of his misfortunes, was a great personage. He +was painted by Champagne and engraved by Morin, as was Richelieu +himself. The portrait was reproduced in the book of M. Delaborde, _La +Gravure_ (p. 189). Such was the man whom we meet at the beginning of the +reign of Louis XIV. as syndic of booksellers; and it was by no means a +sinecure, a canonry giving honour and profit, quite the other way. With +the Draconian rules on the subject, the syndic assumed a heavy burden +towards the King, as well as towards his kinsmen. Religious quarrels +envenomed questions, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was to +have for its immediate corollary new and more severe royal ordinances. + +The reign of Louis XIV. saw the zenith of engraving with the burin, but +not that of printing or illustration. Doubtless it would be puerile to +pretend that typography had not made any material progress; it had done +so in engraving and in composition; work was done more quickly, because +the presses had been made more perfect. But the wise harmony of the old +printers, their sure taste, even in their old irregular blocks, was no +longer there to form a graceful and charming whole, which is to modern +precision as a picture by Van Eyck is to a chromo-lithograph. Under +Louis XIV., titles became regular, following, as we have said above, and +modelling themselves on, the affected and peruked people who read them. +All art entered on this path of sublimity and grandeur. The painter Le +Brun is the highest exponent of this false Olympus, where an heroic pose +became necessary for the most humble movements. Made popular by +engraving by Pesne, Audran, Poilly, Edelinck, and a hundred others, this +tendency overran everything: art and industry, painting and tapestry, +illustration and typography itself. All was grand, in reverse of other +times, when all was small and mean. The embellishments of the Book were +full of gods in perukes and goddesses in armour, Louis XIV. as Apollo, +as the sun illuminating the world. "Nec pluribus impar" was not the +device of one man; it was the mighty and glorious cry of a whole people, +from great to small, from the sublime painter to the modest printer. + +Ordinarily these exaggerations are not useful to the arts. Here they +were. But, for the matter that specially occupies us, it does not appear +that the Book was much advanced. It approached a marvellous epoch of a +delicate and graceful art; but it did not find its form; it dragged +painfully after the Plantinian works, heavily throwing its etchings and +burins in the middle of texts, gross and in bad taste. Yet taste in +literature had an onward tendency; Molière and La Fontaine produced on +their contemporaries the effect that in our day the naturalists have +produced on the romanticists; but this was not for long. Majesty +recovered its rights with Bossuet, Boileau, and the others. + +[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Tailpiece of Sébastien Leclerc for the +_Promenade de St. Germain_.] + +Sébastien Leclerc was one of the rare artists of the end of the +seventeenth century who dreamed of the vignette in the midst of this +invasion of pompous commonplace. Successor of Callot in manner, induced +by the publishers, he began this style with a romance of La Calprenède, +and continued with the _Promenade de St. Germain_ of Louis le Laboureur, +bailie of Montmorency, of whom Boileau said such curious things. This is +one of the rarest books of Leclerc, and we reproduce one of the pages, +with a charming tailpiece, which comes very near those of the eighteenth +century. There was, moreover, a charm in this ingenious designer; he +adorned the works of his contemporaries with graceful vignettes and +decorations full of suppleness. It may be believed, besides, that he did +not remain behind his _confrères_ in figure composition or allegorical +and Divine emblems. His art did not throw off the errors of the existing +school; he was content not to copy any one and to make his works truly +his own. Such were, for example, the vignettes of the _Histoire de +Turenne_, where the heads of the chapters, the ornamented letters, and +the tailpieces, harmoniously agree, and make the book, a little heavy in +impression, a most agreeable work. Leclerc then found himself ready to +design vignettes for the works of Racine for the publisher, Claude +Barbin, another name frequently encountered in Boileau. The title of +Vol. ii. merits attention. + +The same year of this last publication, 1676, Sébastien Leclerc +illustrated the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid for Benserade, the engraving of +which cost the King more than 10,000 livres. Thus adorned, the book had +not a bad appearance, but a satirist of the time, Hardin very probably, +made on it this quatrain:-- + + "Mais quant à moi j'en trouve tout fort beau: + Papier, dorure, images, caractère, + Hormis les vers qu'il fallait laisser faire + A La Fontaine." + +It may be imagined what an engraver could produce working from 1650 and +dying in 1715, that is, a life of work the longest that could be hoped +for. Leclerc was the absolute contemporary of the King. He died, like +him, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, leaving work widely +scattered among books, funeral orations, and placards. After the example +of Callot and Bosse, he did not disdain satire. One of his prettiest +vignettes served to illustrate some pamphlet of Richesource against the +journalists of his time; it represents a dandy of about 1679 offering +his gazette. + +By the side of this unrivalled antagonist it is permitted to place +Lepautre, twenty years older than Leclerc, but whose studies had been +principally on architecture. In the moments that he left his special +work he devoted himself to frontispieces and vignettes; nevertheless, +although he had before him the charming designs of Leclerc, he confined +himself to a cold and hard manner, keeping, besides, as much as possible +to titles, in which his particular talent could find scope. He designed +also the Chartreux Missal of 1679, the _Gallia Christiana_ after Marot, +the _Dioptrique Oculaire_ of P. Chérubin, engraved by Edelinck, and a +thousand other works of small repute. + +[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Small figure of Sébastien Leclerc for +Richesource's pamphlet.] + +Very different was Francis Chauveau, who, without having the delicacy of +Sébastien Leclerc or his art of arrangement, treated at least with grace +little figures and illustrations. Certainly there is an enormous +distance between these correct and commonplace engraved plates and the +delightful wood engravings of the time of Geoffroy Tory, for example. +But, be their worth what it may, they suited very well; and even with +Molière they did not make such a bad figure. Chauveau was associated +with many of the works of Leclerc, who caused him often to be less +heavy, inasmuch as Leclerc corrected in engraving many of his +compositions. It was so with Molière, and still more with Racine in the +plate of the _Plaideurs_, in which Chauveau revealed himself a precursor +of the eighteenth century. Unhappily he did not always follow this +manner. Successively, and with various luck, he illustrated _Alaric_, +_Andromaque_, and the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid for Benserade, with +Leclerc; the _Pucelle_ of Chapelain, and the _Tragédies_ of Racine, to +which Le Brun did not disdain to put his hand. + +In short, the connecting link between the beginning of the seventeenth +and that of the eighteenth century in the development of illustration is +Sébastien Leclerc. He had known the artists of the first period; he was +to see at his death appear one of the precursors of the vignettists of +the following century, Claude Gillot. Thanks to him, overburdened titles +and unskilful vignettes underwent a gradual transformation. In the +delicacy and tenuity of his designs may be seen the dominant note of the +eighteenth century, coquetry, and Choffard is divined. He was nearly the +only one who did not fall into the exaggerations of the engravers of the +time; he kept beside them without touching them, and preciously +preserved his own well-accentuated personality. By the smallness and +slenderness of his figures, Leclerc recalls somewhat the school of +Fontainebleau; but he is above all the reflection of Callot, a Lorrainer +like himself. + +In Holland, a Frenchman, Bernard Picart, son of Stephen and pupil of +Leclerc, was making a great name as an illustrator. He established +himself as a print-seller at Amsterdam at the sign of "L'Etoile," and +successively designed vignettes for many works, among others the +Boileau of 1718. His vignettes and tailpieces, without possessing either +the spirit of Leclerc or the grace of the eighteenth century, express an +ingenious and inventive art that had broken with the strained traditions +of preceding epochs. + +From these two artists the decoration of the Book rapidly advanced. The +form is found, and charming designers are not wanting to apply it. + +The troubled state of England during the greater part of the seventeenth +century no doubt accounts for the fact that the art of the Book made but +very little progress. Theological controversies, the persecutions by the +Puritans, and, above all, the great civil war and its antecedents and +results, gave rise to a flood of publications of an ephemeral kind, +which from their nature were hurriedly produced; and there was little +room for pure literature and art. In the early part of the century, +under the influence which Elizabeth left, and which James fostered, some +important works were issued, with finely engraved illustrations; but +wood engraving declined further and further, until it was artistically +dead, to be revived in the next century. The works of the numerous poets +and dramatists were printed in quarto, and collected editions of them in +folio. Thus were issued the works of Shakespeare, first collected by +Jaggard and Blount, 1623, folio, with an engraved portrait by Droeshout, +the faithfulness of which was vouched in an opposite page of verse +signed by Ben Jonson. "Don Quixote" first appeared in an English dress +in 1612-20, published by E. Blount in quarto; and Jaggard, Blount's +partner in the Shakespeare, published Boccaccio's "Decameron," in two +volumes folio, 1620. Among other notable works of the early part of the +century were Drayton's "Polyolbion," 1613; Chapman's Homer, 1611-15, +folio, three volumes; Lord Bacon, whose essays and other single +publications appeared in the seventeenth, to be collected as his "Works" +in the next century; and William Prynne, whose _Histrio Mastrix_, 1633, +so offended Charles I. by its references to the Queen and the court +ladies, that the author had to undergo a severe and degrading +punishment. Many of these works were illustrated with meritorious +engravings on steel and copper by W. Hollar, P. Lombart, W. Marshall, +Hole, W. Pass, W. Faithorne, and R. Vaughan. So that here were all the +materials for the foundation of an English school, to be cruelly broken +up shortly afterwards by the distractions of civil warfare. + +In 1611 Robert Barker first printed the Authorised Version of the Holy +Bible, which has been more often reprinted than any other book, and +which exists to this day as the great standard of the English language. + +The taste for books of travel which arose in the last century was +largely increased by the voyages and discoveries of the English in North +America and the subsequent Puritan exodus there. These early accounts of +Virginia and New England, many of which are tracts of a few leaves only, +now command fabulous prices. The great collection of voyages under the +name of "Purchas: his Pilgrimes," was printed in five folio volumes, +1625-6, while De Bry, Hulsius, and Linschoten were enriching the world +with their collections of travels, printed in Germany and Holland. All +of these works were adorned with finely engraved plates, those to +"Purchas" being engraved by Elstrack, and, besides, it had a famous map +of the world, engraved by Hondius. + +The controversial spirit engendered by the religious quarrels of the +century and by the great civil war gave incessant work to the printers; +and the many tracts and pamphlets thus produced were frequently +illustrated by rude and coarse woodcuts, of no value from an artistic +point of view, but curious from the indications they afford of the +costumes and manners of the time. + +The first edition of Walton's "Angler" was printed by R. Marriott in +1653, 16mo, with plates in the text, engraved on steel by Lombart. +Butler's "Hudibras" appeared in 1663-78, and Milton's "Paradise Lost" in +1667, quarto. Fuller's "Worthies of England" was printed 1662, folio. We +have roughly mentioned the principal English books of the century, and +next approach the revival of literature and art in the eighteenth +century. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE BOOK IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. + + The regency--Publishers at the beginning of the eighteenth + century--Illustrators in France; Gillot--The school of Watteau and + Boucher--Cars--The younger Cochin; his principal works in + vignettes--French art in England; Gravelot--Eisen--Choffard--The + _Baisers_ of Dorat; the _Contes_ of La Fontaine--the publisher + Cazin and the special literature of the eighteenth century--The + younger Moreau and his illustrations--The Revolution--The school of + David--Duplessis-Bertaux--The Book in Germany; Chodowiecki--In + England; Boydell and French artists--Caslon and + Baskerville--English books with illustrations--Wood engraving in + the eighteenth century; the Papillons--Printing offices in the + eighteenth century. + + +[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Letter by Cochin for the _Mémoires d' +Artillerie_ of Suvirey de St. Remy.] + +Like experience has shown us in our time, but in another manner, the +beginning of the eighteenth century produced, in the manners and tastes +of the French, an unconscious but tenacious reaction. It seemed as if +the conceptions of romanticism had lasted long enough, and that the +cycle of Middle Age chevaliers had passed away, and that a return to +what is called nature was effected in literature and art. At the death +of Louis XIV., Olympus and its gods, majestic poses and suns, had become +wearisome. By a little half-open door, gaiety escaped from its prison +and fled. For the Book that door was the hand of Sébastien Leclerc. + +The ancient school was replaced. Constrained during three quarters of a +century, French manners began to be joyous under the regency of the Duc +d'Orleans. If the representatives of another age still lived, if Rigaud +always painted his portraits in peruke, there were new-comers, enlivened +by the new fashions, less solemn and more bewitching. Le Brun was then +far in the past, and as amusing to the ladies of the regency as are now +to us the fashions of the Second Empire. + +The Book, after its manner, followed the movement, and gradually found +the elements of its decoration in the tendencies of the day. Small sizes +were multiplied, types showed elegance, and vignettes became more and +more agreeable and intellectual. Amateurs had their _ex-libris_ +engraved. The smallest pamphlets were covered with ornamental letters, +vignettes, and tailpieces, already very clever. Costume also, in its +shorter and lighter form, gave to designers a means of agreeably +composing a page of illustration and disseminating fancy in the figures. +These revolutions worked themselves simply from day to day, as taste +became more pronounced and exacting. + +The commerce of the Book was still extending from the end of the +preceding century; and if the number of printers was limited and +arrested by certain somewhat hard laws, production in Paris was +enormous. Among regulations that weighed most heavily on publishers +figured the obligation put upon them by the ordinance of 1713 to +deposit eight copies of illustrated books. In 1725 the King issued other +regulations to affirm the rights of the university against the +corporation, forcing the masters to assist in a body at the processions +of the Sorbonne and to offer on the Day of the Purification a candle to +the rector. In spite of this ordinance, more religious than useful to +commerce, the fashion of vignettes increased. The principal shops were +searched, as they are still, for novelties; the Rue St. Jacques and the +Quai des Augustins, where they were grouped, were resorted to. The most +important booksellers in 1727 were Coignard, the Barbous--who essayed +afterwards, with Lengley Dufresnoy, to copy the Elzevirs,--Cavalier, +Robustel, Fournier, Ballard, and D'Houry. Of the two last, D'Houry +printed the calendars, and Ballard had the privilege for music. Another, +Leonord, published the books of the Dauphin. At these and other +publishers', recent works were examined, those who did not buy gave +their advice and took ideas, and so fashion slowly formed itself. It was +thus that Houdart de la Motte published with G. Dupuis in 1719 a +collection of fables, with illustrations of Claude Gillot, which was the +talk at the booksellers'. + +In this book all was original: the author, who had had, five years +before, the eccentric idea of translating the Iliad without knowing a +word of Greek; the text, a kind of imitation of La Fontaine, without +salt or savour; the size, quarto, admirably printed by Dupuis, in the +Rue St. Jacques, with plates by Coypel, Massé, and, above all, the +charming vignettes of Gillot, the most pleasing and clever of all his +collaborators, a sort of Callot fallen into the eighteenth century, and +who ought to take the first place by birthright. Gillot has been +called, not without reason, "the last pagan of the Renaissance;" and +this pagan had the honour to give us Watteau. + +[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Vignette by Gillot for the _Chien et le Chat_, +fable by Houdart de la Motte, in 1719.] + +The Count de Caylus tells the story. Gillot had quitted the pencil for +the etching needle on seeing the work of his pupil. He had no reason to +complain; his pictures were of no value, and his prints gave other +artists the idea of imitating them. The whole French school of the +eighteenth century may have had its origin in this forgotten book, +illustrated by the master of Watteau. In fact, in the manner of the +little etching here given we may easily perceive the coquetry and +affectation that were later the dominant tone of vignettes. For, it may +well be said, the graceful, feminine, and arch manner of which we speak +was, above all, conventional and false. In opposition to the designers +and engravers of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, +who reproduced naturally scenes of daily life in ideal conceptions, it +came, through the moral education of the artists, that they put forth +the ideal in the most ordinary things of life. Shepherds were no longer +the gross, rustic peasants that we find in primitive Flemish paintings +or in the "Hours" of Simon Vostre; they were coxcombs, pomaded and +adorned with ribbons, playing the bagpipes, and making love to the +shepherdesses of the court. + +At first it was Watteau who influenced all the engravers in the pretty +and the smart; Boucher did the rest; and fatally the Book followed, and +followed impetuously, surpassing, if possible, the painted works. If the +severe poses, the grave touch, of the preceding century are no longer +found, they often go a little far in the contrary sense. It may be well +said here that the arts are ordinarily the result of the manners of an +epoch. The system of Law was not without influence on the entire +eighteenth century, by the terrible manner in which he upset fortunes, +awoke appetites, gave rein to aspirations hitherto held in check. Claude +Gillot, the designer, was one of the first victims of the Scotch banker; +he lost his fortune on the Exchange; but who may say what his artistic +ambition dreamed of in the midst of all these disorders? One thing is +certain: that Watteau, his pupil, broke off very short with the style of +the seventeenth century. + +Laurent Cars was the engraver who multiplied the compositions of +Boucher, and made them the fashion. He engraved also, after the painter +of shepherds and nymphs, illustrations to Molière, the most agreeable +that there are for style and spirit. In engraving certain works of +Lemoyne, Cars did not completely desert the ancient school. He appears +at the beginning of the eighteenth century as if divided between two +manners each equally possible to him. + +The work of these engravers was almost exclusively in etching, biting +with acid a copper plate covered with varnish, on which the drawing was +made by means of a point. This process, always previously used for +sketches, served also for finishing vignettes, which up to then had been +finished by the burin. The suppleness of the work was greater, and the +artist remained more himself than he could be with the stiff cutting +instrument of the seventeenth century. + +The sizes of books had not yet all come to octavo or duodecimo. The +works of Molière published by Prault in 1734 in six volumes quarto, +under the direction of Marc Antoine Joly, give the idea of an important +work, not at all of theatrical pieces. To tell the truth, these somewhat +exaggerated dimensions allow artists more room for illustration; later, +when smaller forms predominated, text and engravings were so compressed +that they were not always clear and readable to every eye; but the +quarto was not graceful, it was not in harmony with the finikin, the +pastoral pieces, then presented, and it had to disappear as a current +size in illustrated publications. + +The class of artisans employed on the Book is not identical in the +eighteenth century with that of printers and publishers. In the +beginning, as we have seen, the cutters of wood blocks and the printers +were often the same people, preparing their characters or their blocks, +and afterwards putting them under the press. Large printing offices had +very quickly changed that. Each particular work had its special workman. +Typography had its type-founders, compositors, forwarders, inkers, and +pressmen. In the eighteenth century this was complicated by designers, +engravers, plate-printers, and these different professions occupied +themselves on the Book in manipulating the sheets in their turn. In the +midst of this crowd, the designers and engravers, esteemed as was their +collaboration, were not the most honoured. Their homes often reflected +the effect of their life as clever artists, quick to spend the money +earned during the week; and we shall have occasion to name some of the +more miserable among them. + +The booksellers, on the contrary, had become great personages. In the +preceding chapter we have seen Cramoisy and Vitré, to name only them, +acquire the greatest honours, the latter painted by Philip de Champagne, +with many others lords of the court. In the eighteenth century there +were Brunet, Ballard, Mariette, Chardon, Didot, and a host of others, +during the time of Watteau, Boucher, and Cars, of which we shall shortly +speak; and these several publishers had houses of their own, and +furnished shops and printing offices with the best apparatus. Saved from +falling into negligences by royal regulations on printing, they composed +with admirable characters, on paper of the first order, imperishable +works; and, usual consequence of their high situation, they paid the +artists badly charged with their work. It would be long and tedious to +enter into this matter in detail. They made progress by slow degrees, +and in good time they marvellously united copper plate engraving to +printed text, so marvellously, that in comparing their works to the wood +blocks of the sixteenth century, it may be asked which of the two styles +is superior in elegance and good taste. + +[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Vignette for _Daphnis et Chloe_ by Cochin, for +Coustelier's edition.] + +One of the ancestors of this group of vignettists was the younger +Cochin, who had engraved the plate of the monks in the fables of +Houdart, illustrated by Gillot. Cochin, in spite of his passion for +allegory and his very marked taste for affectation, gave, it may be +said, with the designer-engraver St. Aubin, an enormous impulse to the +art of adorning books. From the beginning of his career he worked for +the publishers, composing frontispieces, ornamented letters, and +tailpieces, or transferring to copper the drawings of others. Singular +type of artist, besides, educated, well brought up, epicurean and +spendthrift, friend of great lords, and protected by Madame de +Pompadour. When he travelled in Italy with her young brother Abel +Poisson, Cochin did everything, was ready at the least request, +inventing curious menus, giving representations of fêtes, and yet +finding the time to decorate books and design vignettes profusely. + +He worked chiefly for Jombert, a sort of learned bookseller, King's +printer for the artillery, who dates from July, 1736. Jombert was +visited by painters. He gave little private soirées, which Cochin +attended, and where he daily made numerous friends. It was in this +house, of so special a character, and, it may be said, so little +artistic at first sight, that Cochin invented his best frontispieces, +among them that of the _Calcul Différentiel_, that of the _Astronomie +Physique_, and the plates of the _Méthode de Dessin_, after Boucher. He +was one of the first to produce engraved titles, with which the +publisher Prault ornamented his dainty volumes, and which were imitated, +up to the end of the eighteenth century, by all the illustrators who +followed. In that to the works of Madame Deshoulières the letter itself +is engraved. Since then the open letter has been copied in typography. +These vignettes were used many times by publishers, sometimes simply +effacing the inscription, sometimes reproducing the original design by +a different artist. The boy with the swan had decorated in 1744 a +"Jerusalem Delivered" in Italian, by the same publisher, Prault; it was +then engraved by Aveline. Fessard engraved the second plate, which is +here reproduced. + +[Illustration: Fig. 82.--Title-page engraved by Fessard after Cochin for +the works of Madame Deshoulières, 1747.] + +Nearly all the frontispieces of the Book with vignettes of the +eighteenth century preserve this arrangement: an ornamented and draped +border, with garlands of roses, symbols, and cupids, in the middle the +title, in red and black, composed in open letter, often a scroll with +the address of the publisher, but rarely a mark. It was the time of +little winged cupids, goddesses, and gods. The goddesses were the +favourites of the kings, Madame de Pompadour or the princesses, but +rarely the virtuous Marie Leczinska, too homely and too much ignored to +tempt the artists; the kings or the princes were the gods. + +After Jombert, Prault, and Coustellier, Cochin worked for François +Didot, syndic of the printers, for whom he prepared a set of +illustrations to Molière. Unfortunately Didot died in 1757, and the +project fell with him. Of the work of Cochin there only remains the set +of _Tartufe_ etchings in octavo. + +In the vortex into which he was plunged, he successively illustrated the +works of Rousseau, published at Brussels, quarto; those of Boileau, +published by David and Durand, octavo; and Henault's "History of +France," in the same size, with numerous vignettes. One of these should +be noted in a book treating of printing; it is that in which Cochin +pretends to show to his contemporaries the interior of a workshop in +1470. Without doubt the sketch of this print was taken in one of the +houses frequented by him--at Jombert's, Didot's, or David and +Durand's--for that room in which compositors are working and printed +sheets drying was not an invention of Cochin, and served to reproduce a +printing office of the eighteenth century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Vignette taken from P. Corneille's _Théâtre_, +by Gravelot.] + +With Cochin soon worked a number of designers and aqua-fortists, too +prudent to lose the opportunity. The fashion arrived for books +beribboned, festooned, and flowered. Hubert François Gravelot had +carried to London this style of new works, which he knew how to +decorate, in his manner, better than any one, with letters, figures, and +tailpieces. He did not engrave much himself, leaving this work to lesser +artists, and contenting himself with subtle invention and graceful +subjects. With Eisen, Cochin, and Moreau, he is the French artist in the +sense of the time, free, bold, and ingenious, but perhaps a little out +of place in England. He published his plates to the "Decameron" in 1757, +one of the most curious of his sets of plates, and a hundred various +vignettes. On his return to France he designed the _Théâtre_ of P. +Corneille, from which the _Galerie de Palais_ is here reproduced, on +account of the illustration of bookselling which it gives. In 1764 the +large _salon_ of the Palace was still, as in the time of Abraham Bosse, +a place where shops were fitted up and the new books discussed. Side by +side with the dressmakers and merchants of every category, the +bookseller offers to his customer the recent products of Parisian +presses. Certain works were sold under cover and not shown; there is +here something to pique the curiosity of unoccupied young men who +strolled about and prolonged their stay in the galleries. + +[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Border designed by Choffard in 1758.] + +Eisen has a simplicity, a good taste, and a special and singularly +perfect economy of artistic effect combined with typography. It appears +hard that the designer had no consultative voice in the choice of +impression and disposition of the Book. The union of the two forces, +the vignette and the composition, is so close that it may be believed +one was made for the other, neither venturing to assert itself. In the +pretty and elaborate inventions of the artists reigned a lackadaisical +affectation that was delightfully becoming; the rock-work, which it +still had, suited admirably the borders of the first page. The _Lettres +d'une Peruvienne_ has a very agreeable title, but little different, on +the whole, from that of Madame Deshoulières, by Cochin. It is the same +with the _Lettres Turques_, published at Amsterdam in 1750, and +generally in all the frontispieces signed by him. As to the other +decorations of the Book, there were also a number of ingenious artists, +confusing cupids and flowers, imposing blazons, delighting in playing +with accumulated difficulties. Under this assuredly involuntary but real +direction, publications attained proportions of luxury and coquetry +until then unknown. The volume of _Baisers_ of Dorat would not have +lived but for Eisen and the delightful fancies with which he adorned it. + +At the same time, we find Choffard, another designer and etcher of much +repute, and sought after by the booksellers. Under his pencil the +vignette became a _chef-d'oeuvre_, the tailpiece was a delightful +compound of judicious and sportive ornament, the taste for which grew +more and more. From delicate foliage are suspended roses, shepherds' +pipes, lyres, and zithers. With the zephyrs scrolls or ribbons float, +carried by winged cupids. The initial letters are real pictures, of such +fineness and precision that the difficulties of their reproduction +prevent us from putting them before the reader. + +When the _fermiers généraux_, those great amateur financiers of the last +century, conceived the idea of an edition of the _Contes_ of La Fontaine +at their expense, their eyes naturally fell upon the artists best +prepared to illustrate the inimitable fancies of the great poet, Eisen +and Choffard. The first had for his task the composition of the plates, +Choffard the general decoration. Ficquet was added for the portrait of +the _bonhomme_ La Fontaine--Ficquet, whose specialty in this _genre_ was +dazzling in its delicacy and spirit; Diderot wrote a short introduction; +the composition was confided to a printer of the first order, and it was +put on sale by Barbou. + +[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Vignette by Eisen for the Quiproquo in the +Contes of La Fontaine, in the edition of the fermiers généraux.] + +It is not a book to be recommended from a moral point of view, but the +typographical art, joined to that of designers and engravers, never +obtained a more complete success: the size in octavo, the impression +clear, united with the dimensions of the plates in a harmonious +elegance, well calculated to please the three rich personages and the +joyous amateurs to whom the _Contes_ address themselves. True, Eisen has +dressed the greater part of the characters in the costume of his time, +which is a little hurtful to one's feelings to-day; it may be imagined, +however, that it was La Fontaine who was mistaken, so that these +delicate, risky tales appear to be created for the seigneurs of the time +of Louis XV. + +All the special literature sought for then by rich people had not the +value of the _Contes_. There was at Rheims a person, who has to-day +become the _mode_, as he was in the time of Louis XVI., who sold under +cover a quantity of licentious books of the better kind, adorned with +figures by Eisen, Marillier, or Cochin; this was Cazin, an artist in his +way, but whose good name suffered under a scandalous trial. An order of +the Council of State in 1764 enjoined him to cease his trade in the +Place Royale at Rheims, where he sold his particular merchandise. It +appears that the sentence was not without appeal, for we find Cazin at +Paris about 1785. He was one of those who were ruined by the Revolution, +after he had popularised the editions known as _Petits Formats_, printed +by Valade, of Paris. + +[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Card of the publisher Prault, uncle by marriage +of Moreau le Jeune.] + +We have come to the most beautiful illustrated books of the eighteenth +century, and to the illustrious artists of whom we shall speak in good +time should be added the younger Moreau and St. Aubin, the former nephew +by marriage of the publisher Prault, and therefrom a decorator of the +Book, the other thrown by Gravelot into full work, and rapidly becoming +the most subtle and adroit of the etchers of the time. Moreau did not +wait long after his marriage before setting to work. He began with +ornaments destined for the _Histoire de France_ of President Henault; +then he composed, in his own personal manner, titles and tailpieces for +his uncle. In the Book he is the propagator of garlands of roses, which +he grouped with an ideal grace; he twined them in the borders of his +frontispieces, and put them judiciously in his tailpieces. He excelled +in inventing subjects referring to the text which were not commonplace +ornaments suitable for anything. The tailpiece on p. 202, taken from the +works of Molière, brings forcibly to mind the _Médecin malgre Lui_, with +its wood-cutter unmercifully beaten with sticks and muffled in a +scientific robe. It is the same with other illustrations, that cannot +be displaced from the position assigned to them by the artist without +disappointment. + +[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Tailpiece from the _Médecin malgre Lui_, by +Moreau le Jeune.] + +The year 1773, which saw the publication by De Bret of the works of +Molière, may perhaps be considered as that in which the French Book of +the eighteenth century reached its culminating point. M. de Laborde, +first valet de chambre of the King and governor of the Louvre, published +with De Lormel, printer to the Academy of Music, his celebrated +collection of _Chansons_, dedicated to the young Dauphiness Marie +Antoinette, and partly illustrated by the younger Moreau. The work is +exquisite, of powerful yet simple grace. The sentimental note of the +century was struck in it, the insipid love of shepherdesses there +tenderly sighed, and the designer has delightfully rendered this arch +side of the pastoral song. + +Our task does not permit us to linger over the works of this prodigious +and charming artist, but we must mention his inimitable plates to J. J. +Rousseau, the finest and most agreeable of his compositions and +vignettes, also his _chef-d'oeuvre_, the _Histoire du Costume_. + +[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Vignette of the "Pardon Obtenu," designed by +Moreau le Jeune, for Laborde's _Chansons_, in 1773.] + +As evidencing the activity of French artists of the Book in the +eighteenth century, we cite the number of works illustrated by the +respective artists enumerated in the last edition of M. H. Cohen's +valuable _Guide de l'Amateur de Livres à Gravures du XVIII^e +Siècle_:-- + + Aliamet, 34. + Audran, 16. + Aveline, 33. + Baquoy, 87. + Basan, 9. + Binet, 48. + Borel, 29. + Boucher, 47. + Bovinet, 34. + Cars, 13. + Chedel, 21. + Chenu, 18. + Choffard, 50. + Cochin, 143. + Coypel, 24. + Dambrun, 77. + Delaunay, N., 95. + Delignon, 50. + Delvaux, 66. + Duclos, 49. + Duflos, 56. + Dunker, 15. + Duplessis-Bertaux, 22. + Eisen, 135. + Elluin, 14. + Fessard, E., 69. + Ficquet, 14. + Flipart, 24. + Fokke, 14. + Folkema, 17. + Fragonard, 10. + Freudeberg, 7. + Gaucher, 55. + Ghendt, 78. + Godefroy, 29. + Gravelot, 86. + Grignion, 13. + Gutenberg, 20. + Halbou, 58. + Helman, 22. + Ingouf, 18. + Langlois, 18. + Le Barbier, 54. + Le Bas, 39. + Lebran, 21. + Leclerc, 11. + Legrand, 45. + Lemire, 77. + Lempereur, 68. + Leveau, 31. + Longueil, 97. + Marillier, 116. + Martinet, 27. + Masquelier, 42. + Massard, 40. + Monnet, 67. + Monsiau, 22. + Moreau, 138. + Née, 48. + Pasquier, 18. + Patas, 65. + Pauquet, 23. + Petit, 23. + Picart, 62. + Ponce, 65. + Prévost, 40. + Prud'hon, 14. + Queverdo, 54. + Rigaud, 18. + Roger, 17. + Romanet, 26. + Rousseau, 24. + St. Aubin, 70. + Scotin, 27. + Sève, 29. + Simonet, 83. + Tardieu, 64. + Tilliard, 15. + Trière, 39. + +Doubtless some of these ascriptions are for frontispieces only, but as a +list of the principal book illustrators of the time, and as showing the +measure of their popularity, this table is of much interest. + +With the Revolution the decline of the Book arrives, as that of all the +arts. Moreau, friend of David, had become affected by the new ideas and +the burlesque renaissance of Greek and Roman art. He made his apology on +the altar of the gods, and engraved portraits on wood to punish himself +for having painted the elegancies of fallen tyrants. At this game, +nerve, as well as suppleness, was lost; and if he had had only the +artistic knack of the Revolution, his daughter, married to Charles +Vernet, could not have written of him, "That which can be most admired +is, at the same time, the fecundity and flexibility of Moreau's talent, +that marvellous facility of conceiving a picturesque scene and disposing +it in an interesting and truthful manner in the least extended space." +This was true before, but after? + +In spite of his passion for the ideas and men of the Revolution, Moreau +found himself at the end of his resources. Renouard, the publisher, +received him as he had received St. Aubin, to whom he advanced sum +after sum to prevent him dying of hunger. Like most of his +contemporaries, Moreau, pressed by want, "took, quitted, and retook the +cuirass and the hair-shirt." He had drawn for everybody: for Louis XVI., +for the Republic, for Napoleon I. + +The worst of it is that after his designs for Ovid, Molière, and +Rousseau, dating from the reign of Louis XVI., he should have done them +again in 1804, 1806, and 1808. The difference was great, even probably +for his publishers, Renouard and Dupréel. It does not appear that the +pontiff of the new school, David, knew of his distress; and Moreau +succumbed in 1814 to a cancerous scirrhus of the right arm, forgotten +and in the greatest misery. + +We have passed a little quickly to the end of the century because it is +of no importance to name each of the publishers and artists, but only to +sketch briefly their tastes or their manner. We have not dwelt long on +the engravers so called, because of their number; but their dexterity +remains proverbial; they handled etching with extreme suppleness, and +often interpreted the drawings of illustrators in remitting them to the +needle. Many of these, not to say all, made use themselves of the +etching needle, St. Aubin for example, who knew how to give to the work +of others his personal mark and distinction. + +[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Title designed by Moreau le Jeune in 1769 for +the publisher Prault.] + +The Revolution passed over some among those that it ruined, and, as +stated above, they followed the movement, and lost themselves in the +school of David. It was Duplessis-Bertaux who, after having furnished to +Cazin, the publisher, vignettes for his _Recueil des Meilleurs Contes +en Vers_, 1778, and many other books, after having worked for Didot, +devoted himself to patriotic engraving and to the reproduction of scenes +of the Revolution. When he published his _Tableaux Historiques_, in +three volumes folio, adorned with nearly two hundred large plates, it +was under the Consulate, that is to say far from the time when the work +was begun. Renouvier assures us, with his exclusive disdain for the +eighteenth century, that Duplessis-Bertaux was a mystifier, and that his +scenes of the Revolution were a hoax, "in the kind of spirit in vogue +under the Directory." The truth is that the artist, in place of being a +cheerful Callot, as might be thought from his manner of engraving, so +like that of the Lorraine artist, was imbued with the emphatic and +exaggerated impressions of the first Republic, its _sans-culottes_ in +the poses of the Sabines and its _tricoteuses_ apeing Penelope. + +The immense artistic advance made in France in the eighteenth century in +the manufacture and illustration of the Book made itself felt throughout +Europe. In Germany, Chodowiecki, born at Dantzic of a family of +apothecaries, developed his talent from ornamenting the boxes of his +father, and from 1758 to 1794 he designed numerous plates for books and +almanacs, a little heavy in engraving, but singularly clever in +composition. There were a few others also designing, and Kilian, +Folkema, and Ridinger produced some fine engravings, but the Book did +not make so much progress in Germany as in France and England. + +In England a vast improvement was manifested. Fine types were cast by +Baskerville and Caslon; printing machines were perfected. The +illustration of books by engraved plates was in the first half of the +century almost entirely done by foreigners, but an English school was +arising, which attained perfection in the latter half of the eighteenth +and first half of the nineteenth century. Wood engraving also, which, +with the exception of blocks for head and tailpieces, had become almost +a lost art, was revived by Bewick, to become later one of the chief +adornments of the Book. + +Before 1716 English printers obtained their best founts of type from +Holland, but the establishment of the Caslon foundry rendered them +independent. William Caslon, the first great English type-founder, was +born 1692, and died 1766. The foundry still exists, pre-eminent in the +beauty of its characters. Baskerville established a foundry about 1750, +and printed at Birmingham with his own types a number of extremely +beautiful books. The impetus given to fine printing by these two men +rapidly spread itself, and laid the foundation of the perfection which +English book-making reached. + +As mentioned above, Gravelot illustrated many English books in the early +part of the century. He designed a set of plates to Shakespeare in 12mo, +1740, and another in quarto, 1744, besides numerous frontispieces and +other plates in all kinds of books. Among other foreigners who engraved +for English publishers were Grignion, Kip, Van der Gucht, Houbraken, and +Bartolozzi. Bartolozzi, who was very prolific in the production of +engraved plates, may perhaps be called the founder of that great English +school of engraving which arose with the establishment of the Royal +Academy in 1769 and the encouragement given by Alderman Boydell. +Houbraken and Vertue engraved a set of fine portraits in folio for +Rapin's "History of England," 1736; William Hogarth designed plates for +Butler's "Hudibras," 1744; and among other curiosities of English +engraving before 1750 were Sturt's edition of the Common Prayer, +entirely engraved on copper plates, 1717, and an edition of Horace +entirely engraved by Pine, 1733. That the taste for illustrated books +soon grew to be great is evidenced by the publication of such expensive +works as Boydell's edition of Shakespeare, in nine volumes folio, +commenced in 1791, and adorned with a hundred plates from pictures +specially commissioned by the spirited publisher; Claude's _Liber +Veritatis_, with three hundred engravings by Richard Earlom 1777, Sir +Robert Strange's engravings of fifty historical prints about 1750, +collections of views in Great Britain by Kip, Buck, and Boydell; +Holbein's "Collection of Portraits" 1792, a hundred and fifty plates to +Shakespeare engraved by S. and E. Harding 1793, all of which cost great +sums to produce, and greatly contributed to the elevation of public +taste. Among the artists of the latter half of the century who +contributed to the decoration of the Book are Thomas Stothard, whose +very beautiful designs, extending into the next century, excelled those +of all his contemporaries in their grace and spirit; Robert Smirke, best +known by his plates for Shakespeare, "Don Quixote," and "Gil Blas;" +Burney; and Richard Westall. It may be said generally that the English +books of the eighteenth century were of a more solid character than the +French, although English art, especially in the decoration of the Book, +owes much to French initiation. It is curious to read now the opinion of +a contemporary French engraver on English art. Choffard, in the preface +to Basan's _Dictionnaire_ 1767, wrote, "They" (the English), "having +been supported by some foreign talent, are trying to create talent among +themselves; but they have not seized the flame of genius that vivifies +all art in France." + +[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Tailpiece engraved on wood by John Baptist +Papillon (before 1766).] + +However, what had become of engraving by cutting in reverse, the figure +in relief, from which printing could be done? It had, we may think, +nearly disappeared in the midst of the continued invasion of the burin +and etching. It only appeared from time to time in head and tailpieces, +remaining purely typographical and lost in other decorations. There were +always wood engravers, not very clever, capable only of working simple +lines without charm. One of them resolved to resuscitate the art, and +made various attempts about the end of the reign of Louis XIV. and +beginning of that of Louis XV. He was named John Papillon, and was born +at St. Quentin in 1661. His experiments did not go beyond a book of +prayers, with thirty-six figures in relief after Sébastien Leclerc. His +son, John Baptist, succeeded him, and continued to engrave without +ceasing subjects of ornament, letters, often tailpieces, of a good style +upon the whole, and taking an excellent place in an elaborate book. +Unfortunately, grace had fled; the processes that the practitioners +exhibited one after the other were lost; and the Papillons +reconstituted, we may say, a vanished art. John Baptist also published +in 1766 a theoretical treatise on wood engraving, abounding in +historical errors, but in which something to learn may be found if taken +with discernment. He says in his preface, "Now that excellent work is +done on copper, wood engraving is neglected, and the use lost of +designing and cutting the shadows of the pencil on the wood block; most +of those who work in it have neither design nor taste, and only follow +their own ideas; it is not astonishing that only very mediocre pieces +come from their hands, to say nothing stronger; the profound ignorance +of nearly all who meddle with it contrives more and more to destroy the +beauties of this art in which many people find neither pleasure nor +grace. To obviate all this, if it be possible to me, I have undertaken +to give my precepts and observations to those who wish to apply +themselves to my engraving." + +It was probably the essays of Papillon that provoked curious experiments +on the part of other wood engravers. Duplat, at the beginning of this +century, proposed to prepare a relief on stone, and as this would be +broken under pressure, he invented a mould; that is to say, he took a +leaden matrix from the stone cutting, and ran a resistant metal into +this mould, thus obtaining a relief similar to the stone. Renouard, the +publisher, made the trials; and the younger Moreau made the designs. +Moreau become an essayer of processes in 1811! One of the plates of La +Fontaine's _Fables_, published by Renouard in 1812, in two volumes, +12mo, is here reproduced. + +[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Experiment in engraving in relief by Moreau le +Jeune for Renouard's edition of La Fontaine's _Fables_.] + +It appears, however, that the publisher was thwarted by bad printing. +The printers of Didot or Mame, much as they consecrated all their care +to it, did not yet know perfect workmanship; they put the most intense +blacks into fine sheets. The great publishers trusted that better days +would leave to more clever men the task of perfecting the invention. + +[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Portrait of Thomas Bewick.] + +Wood engraving owes its revival and almost perfection in England to +Thomas Bewick, who published his first work in 1770, his "General +History of Quadrupeds" 1790, and his "Birds" 1797. In these works he not +only depicted his subjects with the most scrupulous fidelity, but in the +tailpieces of the several chapters he drew the most quaint, humorous, +and faithful representations of country life. He, with his brother, John +Bewick, and their pupils, among whom was Luke Clennell, had an influence +upon English art and the decoration of the Book in England which exists +to our day. Not alone with us, for he may be said to have repaid the +debt which we owed to France for her illustrated books of the eighteenth +century by stimulating the art of wood engraving, which was practised by +Tony Johannot and the other illustrators of the nineteenth century. + +To return to the eighteenth century, with which this chapter is +specially occupied, we have said that the Royal Printing House, after +various fortunes, still existed; and in 1788 it worked, for better or +for worse, at the Louvre. According to the budget of that year, it cost +the King 90,000 livres, of which the director had 1,400. + +There were, on the other hand, a certain number of official printing +offices, that of war, for example, which was devoted entirely to the +work of the Ministry. It was situated at Versailles, and was created in +1768. It is told of Louis XV. that, being one day in this workshop, he +found a pair of spectacles, left as if in inadvertence on a printed +sheet. As his sight was weakening, he took the spectacles and looked +through them. The sheet was a hyperbolical eulogium composed, as if at +random, by the director Bertier, in honour of the King. Louis XV., +having read the dithyramb, replaced the spectacles, and quietly said, +"They are too strong; they make objects too large." + +Who would believe that at the end of the century of Voltaire and +Rousseau a craftsman would be found desirous of leading back the +typographical art to its cradle, and of making xylographs again, under +the name of polytypes? A German was the original who conceived the plan. +He obtained an order of council for the establishment of his presses in +1785, but the same council suppressed them 1st November, 1787. His +process was to substitute for movable characters a plate of fixed +letters, and probably engraved. + +Another eccentricity of typography at the end of the century was the +introduction of "logography" by John Walter, the proprietor and printer +of the _Times_ newspaper, which consisted in casting whole the words in +most common use, in place of separate letters. The system had soon to be +abandoned, but the early numbers of the _Times_, which was started +January 1st, 1785, were printed on it. + +In the eighteenth century there was a printing establishment for each of +the constituted bodies; the King, the Queen, the princes, each had their +own. The royal lottery occupied a special printing house. + +The young inmates of the blind asylum worked under the direction of M. +Clousier, royal printer. Louis XVI. authorised the celebrated Haüy, +their master, to allow them to print; and in 1786 they composed an essay +on the education of the blind. Pierre François Didot was in 1785 printer +to the Prince, afterwards Louis XVIII.; and he published the _Aventures +de Télémaque_, in two quarto volumes, from this special printing office. + +The English colonies in North America early established printing there, +their first book, the "Book of Psalms," known as the Bay Psalm Book, +being dated 1640. By the middle of the eighteenth century literature +held a strong position in the colonies, the greater part of it being, as +might be expected, English; but the revolution and subsequent +establishment of the United States created a national American +literature, which has flourished to this day. Among the printers of +North America in the eighteenth century, the most famous was the +celebrated philosopher Dr. Benjamin Franklin, who served his +apprenticeship to the printing press in London. He returned to America +in 1726, and worked as a printer with his brother at Philadelphia. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE BOOK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. + + The Didots and their improvements--The folio Racine--The school of + Didot--Fine publications in England and Germany--Literature and art + of the Restoration--Romanticism--Wood engraving--Bewick's pupils, + Clennell, etc.--The illustrators of romances--The generation of + 1840--The Book in our days in Europe and America. + + +Political imitators had not been found for the French Revolution in all +the neighbouring countries of Europe, but its Greco-Roman art +established itself, and by degrees was introduced into the studios of +painters and the printing offices. Prud'hon, Gerard, Girodet, and later +Desenne, without counting the younger Moreau and his contemporaries of +the older regime, rallied to the new study, forming a school of +illustrators and vignettists with which the publishers could resolutely +advance. England followed suit with Flaxman, West, Fuseli, Barry, and a +crowd of others. Among the publishers the powerful family of the Didots +took first rank, and its members, at once type-founders, printers, +booksellers, and _savants_ of the first order, were the best fitted to +direct an artistic and literary movement. When Napoleon crowned himself +emperor of the French, the elders of the family had already brought +about a number of perfections and discoveries in their profession by +which their workshops had profited. François Ambroise, who died in the +year of the Empire, had given an exact proportion to types, a free and +elegant turn, but perhaps too regular and precise to be agreeable. He +had also invented a press called the _presse à un coup_, in which the +impression was taken by a single pull instead of being produced by a +series of successive strikings. His brother, Pierre François, spoken of +in the preceding chapter, was a type-founder and paper-maker at Essones, +and counted among his official titles "printer to the Comte de +Provence," as François Ambroise was to the Comte d'Artois. + +Of these two branches equally faithful to typography, Pierre Didot, son +of François Ambroise, became the head on the death of his father. Born +in 1760, he had studied his art with passion, and had merited the +installation of his workshops in the Louvre, where he published a +celebrated collection known as the Louvre editions, the +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of which was the works of Racine. The splendid +execution of this book, in three large folio volumes, was a true +typographical revolution. Never in any country had scrupulous perfection +of detail been joined to so masterly a knowledge of disposition and form +of characters. The great artists of the Davidian school had the honour +of seeing their drawings reproduced as illustrations, and those named +above designed the fifty-seven plates with which the edition was +adorned. Pierre Didot displayed a great affectation in only printing two +hundred and fifty copies of his irreproachable and marvellous work, of +which a hundred had proofs of the plates before letters. Published by +subscription, the ordinary edition was issued at 1,200 francs, and with +proofs 1,800 francs. + +To these superb works Firmin Didot, his brother, added ingenious +discoveries. Struck with certain difficulties of printing as well as of +correction, he imagined the welding together of the types of a forme, +when once obtained without faults, so as to avoid the trouble of new +composition. This process, useless for books of small number, had a +capital importance in the case of reimpressions of popular and +successful works. He named this method stereotype, and from 1799 he +published a Racine in 18mo by this method; but the originality of the +method, which he was the first to call stereotype, ended with its name, +for the process had already been discovered by William Ged, a goldsmith +of Edinburgh, in 1725, the first book produced in this manner being an +edition of Sallust, printed in 1744, 8vo, "non typis mobilibus ut vulgo +fieri solet, sed tabellis seu laminis fusis, excudebat." + +This admirably directed house, we may indeed say this school of +typography, formed with Renouard, Claye, Rignoux, and others, the +greater number of the French publishers of the middle of the century. +When the Czar Alexander went to Paris, he wished to do honour to the +greatest French practitioners in the science of printing, in the persons +of the brothers Pierre and Firmin Didot. But these were not the only +ones. The sons of Pierre François, Henri and Pierre François II.--the +latter specially applied himself to paper-making, under the name of +Didot St. Leger--followed in the footsteps of their father and uncle. +Pierre François made at Essones an excellent paper, which he brought to +the perfection of making it in endless rolls, such as are made to-day +for rotary machines. Bernardin de St. Pierre retired to Essones about +the end of the last century, and there married the daughter of Pierre +François II. It is a curious coincidence that the same village contained +at once the man whose works at the beginning of the century had so +extraordinary a success and the great family of printers who had given +definitive impetus to typographical work. It was in this tranquil circle +that the author of "Paul and Virginia," at the age of sixty, sought +repose; that the publication of his book was resolved upon with all the +luxury due to its success, with admirable type and with plates by +Prud'hon and others. He added to it the _Chaumière Indienne_, written in +1790, on the eve of the Terror, which is one of the most delicate novels +of the time. + +The homely and sweet literature of Bernardin de St. Pierre, the heroic +inventions of Girodet, Gerard, and Chaudet in the Greek or Roman style, +the clever but severe typography of the Didots--such is the composition +of the Book at the beginning of the century, and also its avowed +tendency and good taste. Under Louis XV. the nymphs carried panniers; +Polyeucte had peruke and sword. It would be unbecoming not to give Juno +or Venus the head-dress adopted in paintings and vignettes. At the time +which now occupies us fashion in clothing directed designers also. The +hair of goddesses was _à la Titus_; the waist was under the arms; golden +circles were on the brow. Simple mortals walked naked on the roads, +with plumed casques and superb shields. There were heroes putting forth +their disproportioned arms, others raising their eyes to heaven in +impossible attitudes. Such were all the vignettes, from Girodet to the +humblest, the last, the most forgotten. + +It happens, by an oddity of which the cause is vainly sought, that this +classic and revolutionary school of David identifies itself so well with +the Napoleonic epoch, then with the people of the Restoration, that it +seems expressly made for them. At the same time, under Louis XVIII. and +Charles X. the Romans and Greeks had not the bold carriage of their +early days; they became more citizenised, and assumed the air of the +national guards of the kingdom of which later an excessive use was made. + +England also had a splendid series of publishers and printers. From +Boydell, Harding, the Murrays, Fisher; from Bulmer, Bensley, Strahan, +the Whittinghams, and Hansard, to our day, there has been an unbroken +and constantly increasing line of clever, practical men, adorning the +professions to which they devoted their energies, often realising that +fortune which properly directed energies command. In the first half of +the century a vast number of splendidly printed books were issued, +ornamented in the most lavish manner with beautiful illustrations, +engraved on steel or copper plates, and with delicate woodcuts. Book +illustration in England may be said now to have reached perfection. When +the banker-poet Samuel Rogers wished to bring out an illustrated edition +of his works, he employed the two most capable artists of the time, +Thomas Stothard and J. M. W. Turner; and they produced an admirable +series of designs, which were exquisitely engraved by Finden, Goodall, +and Pye. The work was printed by T. Davidson, in two volumes, octavo: +the "Italy" in 1830 and the "Poems" in 1834; these two volumes, from the +perfect harmony of the typography and illustration and their combined +beauty, may be referred to as the perfection of book-making. A very +charming series of volumes is found in the "Annuals," "Keepsakes," +"Amulets," and similar annual publications, illustrated with beautiful +steel plates by the best engravers. The splendidly printed and +illustrated bibliographical works of Dr. T. F. Dibdin may also be +mentioned. They extend to several volumes, and were printed by Bulmer +and his successors Nicoll and T. Bensley, illustrated by engraved plates +and woodcuts by F. C. Lewis and others. H. G. Bohn, besides the fine +series known as "Bohn's Libraries," numbering over six hundred volumes, +in every branch of literature, art, and science, published many finely +illustrated books, and as a bookseller had the largest stock of his day. +Charles Knight did marvels in popularising literature in his day. +William Pickering published a long series of very beautiful books, and +in conjunction with Charles Whittingham, printer, of the far-famed +Chiswick Press, revived the Aldine or old-faced types; one of the most +beautiful of his publications was Sir Harris Nicolas's edition of +Walton's "Angler," in two volumes, imperial octavo, with a very fine set +of steel plates, designed by Stothard and engraved by Augustus Fox and +W. J. Cooke, besides engraved vignettes and representations of fish +drawn by Inskipp. + +In Germany perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the century is the +extraordinary series of volumes of English authors, now (1887) numbering +2,500, issued by Baron Tauchnitz, of Leipzig, which, although eminently +popular in their character, are well and tastefully printed. Among the +most notable of the printing and publishing houses of Germany, many of +them combining the two trades, are J. G. Cotta, dating from 1640; +Breitkopf and Härtel, dating from 1719; Justus Perthes, founded 1796; T. +O. Weigel, 1797; F. A. Brockhaus, 1805; B. G. Teubner, 1811; W. +Drugulin, 1829; J. J. Weber, 1834, etc. Germany has advanced with +England and France in fine typography and illustration in their several +kinds. The modern school of book illustration in Germany undoubtedly has +its origin in the influence given to it by the designs of the artist +Adolph Menzel, amongst which a series of two hundred illustrations to +the works of Frederick the Great, engraved on wood by the Vogels, +Unzelman and Müller, show him to be one of the most powerful and +accurate draughtsmen of the century. + +To return to France, a new literature arose that was to react against +the Greek full of Gallicisms; but the movement, in reversing the ancient +state of things, in wishing to replace antiquity by the Middle Ages, old +Romans by old French, completely changed the physiognomy of the Book. +The engraved vignette and the copper plate of the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries were to lose their supremacy and to give way to +etching and wood engraving, also a revival of the Middle Ages. + +[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Wood engraving by Clennell after West, for the +diploma of the Highland Society.] + +It is not sufficiently known that wood engraving, after the unfortunate +attempts of Papillon in France, was restored in England by Thomas +Bewick, who founded a school, of which, at the commencement of our +century, Clennell and the brothers Thompson were members. One of the +Thompsons went to France about the middle of the Restoration, doubtless +with the hope of profiting by his art, and he offered to the Print +Department of the National Library the diploma of the Highland Society, +a large folio wood block, very adroit and very curiously cut, after the +drawing of the celebrated Benjamin West, and copied from Clennell's +original block of the same subject. M. Duchesne, then Keeper of the +Prints, speaks of this last process as of an apparition: "This print +makes apparent the long-neglected and often reappearing art of wood +engraving, which, though it could never equal copper engraving, +nevertheless merits the attention of amateurs when a capable hand is +exercised upon it." It was, we see, a curiosity then, this relief +cutting, of which the resurrection was to give an enormous impulse to +the Book from the facilities of printing and the economies realised by +the possibility of intercalation in periodicals. In fact, metal printing +necessitated so much trouble, more for engraving than for the +impression. With wood blocks surrounded by type the ordinary press +sufficed. The _Magasin Pittoresque_, which was commenced in 1833, and +the success of which from the first was very great, was born of these +new combinations. Before it the _Messager Boiteux_ of Strasbourg and +other popular almanacs progressed very well with their illustrations on +wood. A kind of firm of engravers, at the head of which were Best and +Andrew, undertook the illustrations of the _Magasin Pittoresque_. In a +few years progress was immense, other publications came into existence, +and a definitive return was made to the vignette in relief. The French +illustrated paper preceded our _Illustrated London News_ by nine years. + +Lavish use was now made of wood engraving, which had thus been suddenly +revived in the very midst of the new romantic effervescence, amid a war +of books, which, in order to please, had above all to captivate the eye, +reacting at once against the spirit and the art of the Restoration. +Never before had artists to such an extent taken active part in a purely +literary warfare. All the fantastic tendencies of young France were +embodied in the lame and halting lines of the time and similar wretched +doggerel. Doubtless the leaders of the school did not go quite so far, +and their reputation even suffered from such theories; but, as always +happens in such cases, the disciples outstripped their masters. + +[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Vignette by Devéria for the _Fiancé de la +Tombe_.] + +The brothers Johannot were the first to join in the fray, under the flag +of the poets and others of the romantic school, such as Victor Hugo, De +Vigny, Paul Lacroix, George Sand, and Devéria, most ruthless of +illustrators. The last-named had designed vignettes on wood, of all +others, for Baour-Lormian, that is to say for the foe of the new ideas, +at once the interpreter of Ossian and the bourgeois bard, full of fire +and fury against everything in turn. The _Légendes, Ballades, et +Fabliaux_, illustrated by Devéria in 1829, although a sort of compromise +with the lovesick swains of mediæval times, did not escape the shafts of +ridicule. + +In the midst of this movement the Book became democratic; it was printed +on sugar-paper for reading-rooms and scullery maids. The generation of +romancists diffused its paper-covered works, printing a thousand copies +and selling five hundred with great difficulty. Poets publishing five +hundred were happy with a sale of two hundred and fifty. Unheard-of +titles were then needed to catch the eye, ridiculous and ghastly +frontispieces to tickle the fancy of the riffraff. Paul Lacroix called +himself the "Bibliophile Jacob," and invented surprising headpieces and +foolish designs. And then, as in the fifteenth century, as in the old +times, certain signs become popular with the reading public. In the +place of the Doctrinals, Complaints, and Disputes, so common in the +titles of those epochs, new fancies spring up and have their day. +Eccentric devices recommend romantic trash, in which the assassin's +dagger, blood, and the horrors of the tomb have replaced the insipid +fantasies of the fallen regime. Pétrus Borel, the werewolf, a sort of +historic ghoul prowling about the graveyards, enjoyed a monopoly, as it +were, of the ghastly titles and contents of this charnel-house +literature; it was for his _Champavert_, published in 1833, that Gigoux +composed a kind of Bluebeard surrounded by female skeletons, that opened +the eyes of publishers to his value as a vignettist. + +Although he threw himself soul and body into the romantic movement, the +young artist did not alone design subjects called "abracadabrants," +following the neologism of the time, any more than the booksellers only +published romances. An attempt was made, by publishing them in parts, to +still further popularise the old writers at all harmonising with the +current taste. The publisher Paulin thus issued the _Gil Blas_ of Le +Sage, with illustrations in the text by the younger Gigoux, of which the +best was hoped. The history of this celebrated enterprise has been +written by the artist himself in the curious _Causeries_ published +recently by him, fifty years after his work on Gil Blas; and this +interesting view of an epoch already far distant gives us in a few words +the ordinary economy of these popular impressions in parts. + +[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Vignette by John Gigoux for _Gil Blas_.] + +It appears that Paulin, publisher in the Rue de Seine, not being very +well off, had associated himself with a man of business named Dubochet, +who had before made an enormous fortune with gas. The two represented +fifteen thousand to twenty thousand francs, and they ordered a hundred +drawings on wood from the young artist. He set to work with precaution, +for Dubochet was hard to please, without knowing much about the +business, and fined the engravers for the least faults. Gigoux set +himself to give his compositions in simple line, without complicated +shadows, so as to allow the wood-cutters to preserve a free outline. It +was nearly the same thing as the process of the old artists of the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of Vostre and Holbein: true engraving +in relief. The success of the first sheets was extraordinary; new +vignettes were ordered from Gigoux; in place of a hundred they wanted +three hundred, then four hundred; then at the end of the work they +counted six hundred at least. Money filled the chests of the firm, but +when the artist claimed a small share of the benefits, they laughed in +his face. + +Properly speaking, it was the first serious attempt at illustration by +the recovered method of engraving in relief, but it was not the only +one. Curmer, the publisher of the Rue Richelieu, prepared a Bible in +1835 and several other volumes, among which were the "Paul and Virginia" +and the _Chaumière Indienne_ of Bernardin de St. Pierre. He had also +collected around him a circle of artists that included Wattier, Devéria, +and Meissonier, who was the most perfect and correct of the designers on +wood. Meissonier designed very soberly, without effects of light, little +scenes admirably cut by an engraver named Lavoignat, a master in the +largest sense of the word. Curmer wrote in 1835 in the preface to one of +his books, "We hope we have raised a monument to wood engraving. It is +easy to judge of the resources presented by this art. We are compelled +to have recourse to England to accomplish our work. Peace to willing +publishers!" + +[Illustration: Fig. 96.--Vignette by Daumier for the _Cholera à Paris_.] + +Curmer acknowledges the importance of English specialists in this new +process for vignettes, and the willing publishers were not wanting; they +came from all parts. He himself did not stop on the way; he continued +his work on a large scale; and Charles Blanc was able to say of him +later, as well as of Furne, "He desired to illustrate books for +everybody, as the great booksellers of the last century had illustrated +their rare editions for a small number of privileged persons." But he +did not always confine himself to wood engraving; he also employed +etching and lithography. These, requiring separate printing, did not +make intercalation with the text any easier than engraving with the +burin; but they served to illustrate periodicals, the _Charivari_ and +_L'Artiste_, as well as some books, where they replaced the engraved +plates of the preceding century. At the same time, the latter process +was not altogether neglected; about 1840 it was revived, and steel was +used in place of copper, as it better resisted repeated impressions. The +publisher Furne, while he employed wood engraving, adorned with separate +plates on steel his better publications. For him worked Raffet, one of +the romanticists enamoured of the Napoleonic epic, which he had +popularised, with Charlet and Bellangé, by the pencil, wood, and +lithography. Raffet had transferred upon wood, as if in play, the three +hundred and fifty-one vignettes of the _Histoire de Napoléon_, by De +Norvins, which would to-day suffice for the glory and reputation of many +artists. In fact, the analytical and inductive spirit of the artist led +him to leave nothing to the chances of inspiration and commonplace of +illustration. He laboriously reconstituted, fragment by fragment, the +physiognomy of the "old army;" and imbued with the perfect science of +detail, he allowed his pencil full play in bold and luminous inventions, +where may be seen again, with their peculiar appearance, the heroes of +other days, the soldiers of the Rhine and Italy, of Austerlitz and +Waterloo. + +A truly lively period was that of 1840, a living and unthinking +generation. By the side of those great artists of whom we have spoken, +and who will be more admired some day, there were the fantasists Traviès +and Daumier, who adorned the illustrated journals with innumerable +sketches, and Grandville and Gavarni, one caricaturing animals in a +celebrated book, _Les Animaux Peints par Eux-mêmes_, which is more than +a _chef-d'oeuvre_; the other coolly studying the vices and faults of +his time, with the precision of an anatomist, in _Les Anglais Peints par +Eux-mêmes_ of Labedollière, in the _Diable à Paris_, without counting a +thousand other works which his penetrating imagination produced. + +[Illustration: Fig. 97.--Vignette by Gavarni for _Paris Marié_.] + +Presently photography came, which was to reverse completely the +conditions of illustration of the Book by the numerous means of +reproduction to which it gave birth. Then wood engraving entered on a +new phase, a complete transformation of its ordinary terms, under the +influence of Gustave Doré. Little by little it had been attempted to +render in relief that which engraved plates only had hitherto done. +Black, half-tints, lowered tones, were tried where formerly a simple +line, bold and spirited, signified everything. The house of Hachette, +founded by one of the normal teachers of the liberal movement, at the +beginning of the century, was, together with Lahure, the promoter of +relief so inclusive and practical. The numerous periodicals of these +publishers spread the taste afar. England, for its part, entered on the +road, followed by America and Germany. To-day wood engravings have +reached perfection, finesse, and suppleness; but they are not, properly +speaking, engravings on wood. + +[Illustration: Fig. 98.--Balzac writing his _Contes Drôlatiques_. +Vignette by Gustave Doré.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Wood block by Bewick, from his "Fables," 1818. +The fox and the goat.] + +We have seen that French publishers were largely indebted to English +wood engravers for their blocks. The school that was established by +Bewick and his pupils made enormous progress. From the "Fables," +published in 1818, we reproduce an illustration as also a specimen from +the second volume of the "British Birds." Luke Clennell was one of the +most distinguished of Bewick's pupils; and he made some excellent +blocks, among them the illustrations to an edition of Rogers's "Poems" +(1812), engraved from pen-and-ink drawings by Thomas Stothard. It was +Stothard's opinion that wood engraving best reproduced pen-and-ink +drawings. Other pupils of Bewick were J. Jackson, John Thompson, who +engraved Harvey's beautiful illustrations to Milton and Henderson's +"History of Wines," S. Williams, Orrin Smith, Robert Branston, and C. +Nesbit. The most prolific and perhaps the most popular book-illustrator +of the century in England, was George Cruikshank, who engraved most of +his own designs on wood, steel, or with the etching needle; the +catalogue of his works by Mr. G. W. Reid, formerly keeper of the Prints +in the British Museum, occupies three quarto volumes. The designs of +"Phiz," as H. K. Browne called himself, largely contributed to the +popularity of the works of Charles Dickens; and the mere mention of +Richard Doyle and John Leech will recall the palmy days of _Punch_, +although both of these artists did excellent work in book illustration. +From the days of the Bewicks to the present wood engraving has formed +the most widely used means of illustration in England and the United +States. Its adaptability to the printing machine renders it admirably +suited to the production of books in large numbers and at low expense. +Without it we could not have our _Graphics_ and _Illustrated News_, nor +the floods of cheap but splendidly illustrated magazines which are +appearing on both sides of the Atlantic. True, many of these blocks are +due to the "processes" which photography has made available, but they +are nevertheless the outcome of wood engraving. We cannot leave this +subject without mentioning the admirable "Treatise on Wood Engraving," +by W. A. Chatto, with numerous illustrations, published originally by H. +G. Bohn in 1839 and since reprinted. + +[Illustration: Fig. 100.--Wood block from Bewick's "British Birds." The +common duck.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 101.--Wood engraving by Clennell, after Stothard, +for Rogers's Poems, 1812.] + +In our days the great Paris publishers have returned to the books of the +eighteenth century, ornamented with vignettes on copper; many of them +purely and simply imitate by photographic processes the pretty editions +of Eisen and Moreau, but they do not merit the name which they bear. As +to those whose specialty is handsome books with figures by contemporary +artists, those who always are in the front, as the Mames, Quantins, +Hachettes, Plons, Jouausts, of France; the Longmans, Murrays, +Macmillans, Kegan Pauls, Cassells, and Chattos of England; the Harpers, +Scribners, Lippincotts, and Houghtons of the United States, they are to +us what the ancients of whom we have spoken were to their +contemporaries. Now the processes of illustration are without number: +wood, metal, heliogravure, phototype, and others. And if the mechanical +means, if the heliogravures, have at present the importance claimed, +they by no means add to the intrinsic value of wood engravings, but to +the rapidity and economy of their manufacture. The Book, the true Book, +has nothing to do with all these inventions, and may well confine itself +to the burin or the relief block. + +But as regards the Book, properly so called, it never was the object of +more excessive care or of more unfortunate precipitation. It may be +remarked that works least destined to live in the libraries, those +thousands of lame pamphlets on questions of small provincial erudition +or the cap-and-sword romances, are ordinarily the best and most +carefully printed, in opposition to other more important works composed +in heads of nails and on worn-out paper. There are in reading-rooms a +good number of pamphlets that will not be found in fifty years, and will +be worth their weight in banknotes, even if dirty and tattered, on +account of their intrinsic value. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TYPES, IMPRESSION, PAPER, INK. + + +After this summary, and necessarily very compressed, sketch of the +general history of the Book, it will not be without importance to place +some technical information before the reader, to explain as clearly as +possible the function of the presses, the practical side of typography, +from the engraving of the character and the founding of types up to the +binding, taking by the way composition, impression, and collation. Many +of these operations have been already sketched in the preceding part of +our work; we have spoken of engraving of the punch, of impression, of +the thousand details that constitute the typographic art, and the +knowledge of which is so little diffused. We return to it now, with more +method, on the different subjects, and shall try to point out the +principal features. + +We have seen in our first chapter what patient researches the discovery +necessitated for the Mayence printers in the founding of the character +in matrix. True, the punch and the matrix had existed from time +immemorial for coins and seals. To engrave in relief a punch of +material hard enough to strike a resisting metal, and to run into the +space obtained by this blow a melted alloy, which took at its extremity +the same form as the punch had given, is, in a few words, the whole +economy of the process. For the engraving of the punches a sort of burin +of tempered steel was used, which scooped out the part intended to +remain white in the letter. + +From the beginning the printers themselves engraved their own +characters. The most ancient, whose constant preoccupation was the +imitation of manuscript, copied the Gothic letter of ordinary writing. +Soon afterwards, Jenson, the French refugee at Venice, designed a round +letter, like that of Sweynheim and Pannartz, the Roman publishers, in +1467; and his type, absolutely perfect, is used to this day. + +In France the introducers of the invention in Paris also imitated the +Roman, but multiplied abbreviations until they became tedious. We can +imagine what the engraving of a character could be where so few letters +stood alone, where lines abridged the nasals; the words _pro_, _pre_, +figured as in manuscripts; the sign 9 signified _cum_ or _con_ in Latin +or French words, without reckoning a thousand other rigorous usages. +This truly perplexing profusion of signs as well as the want of +precision and clearness in the letter enables us now to recognise the +first Parisian _incunabula_.[A] + +[Footnote A: See above, figs. 10, 11, 12.] + +The first English printers used Gothic or black letter. Caxton brought +his first fount from Cologne, but that which he made afterwards for +himself was of the same character. Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and their +successors used the same style; and for official publications and Bibles +the black letter was used up to the seventeenth century. + +[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Type-founder in the middle of the sixteenth +century. Engraving by Jost Amman.] + +But the art of the founder-engraver was destined to specialise itself. +There were artisans in this branch, and among them in France, in the +fifteenth century, Simon de Collines, who engraved good Roman characters +about 1480. Later was Claude Garamond, of Paris, who died about 1561, a +pupil of Geoffroy Tory, the most celebrated of all of them; Tory +definitely proscribed the Gothic character, of which Vostre and Verard +had made constant use. Garamond worked in this way, producing with +microscopical precision new letters, among others those of Robert +Estienne, the most marvellous and the most distinct. It was he who was +charged by Francis I. to form the celebrated royal Greek types. He +assisted in getting up the _Champfleury_ of Geoffroy Tory. + +On his death William Lebé succeeded him, and inherited his punches. Lebé +engraved by preference Hebrew characters, of which he made a specialty. +His travels to Rome and Venice had given him a singular value in his +art; and when he died about the end of the century, he was incontestably +the first cutter of Oriental characters in the whole world. Philip II. +of Spain had begged him to engrave the letters of the Bible of which +Plantin had undertaken the impression, and Francis I. had charged him to +make types for the Estiennes. + +At the commencement of the seventeenth century we find James Sanlecque, +pupil of Lebé, and his son. During this period several women succeeded +their husbands as type-founders. In the eighteenth century Philip +Grandjean, an artist who was royal printer to Louis XIV., was keeper of +the foundry afterwards united, in 1725, to the Royal Printing House; +Fournier succeeded the Lebés, then P. S. Fournier the younger, who +engraved with great success. In our days we have seen above the Didots +themselves working their punches; and one of them, Henri, founded +microscopical characters for a La Rochefoucauld about the middle of the +nineteenth century. + +We have referred to English type-founders of the eighteenth century in +Chapter V. + +The type, or character used in printing, is a composition of lead and +pure antimony, which, melted, form a resisting and at the same time +supple mixture. Lead alone would be crushed, and the first printers +often suffered in making their experiments. The proportion of the +mixture is four of lead to one of antimony. + +The matrix is combined in such manner that the _eye_--that is to say, +the part of the character intended to produce the impression--and also +the shank intended to hold the letter are cast together. + +The letters, once founded according to their different forms, are +afterwards disposed in boxes with compartments, or "cases." These cases +serve to classify the character by letters, italics, capitals, lower +case, punctuations, accents, etc. + +As we have said, the relation of letters among themselves in the +composition of a language is called the "fount." For example, it is +certain that the Italian employs the letter _a_ more than _b_, the +letter _a_ appearing in nearly every word; a compositor to compose in +this language should therefore have more of _a_ than of _b_. The +relation between these two letters and all the others is the "fount." In +French the proportion of a fount is about 5,000 _a_ for 800 _b_, 3,000 +_c_, 3,000 _d_, 11,000 _e_, etc. The fount varies with the languages. In +English the proportion is 8,500 _a_ to 1,600 _b_, 3,000 _c_, 4,400 _d_, +etc. + +Before 1789 there were in all twenty different "bodies" of letters that +bore fantastic names. The "Parisienne" was the smallest size, and the +"Grosse Nonpareille" the largest. In the sixteenth century a character +called "Civilité" was invented. It sought to imitate fine cursive +writing. In the last century this idea was reproduced, and the "Bâtarde +Coulée," which did not have great success, was made. In English types, +Joseph Moxon in 1669 had eleven sizes; Caslon in 1734 had thirty-eight. + +[Illustration: Specimen of imposition] + +When a printer wishes to compose a work, he first decides in which body +he will print it. His choice made, he places in the compositors' +"cases"--that is, in the boxes placed before each one of his +workmen--the chosen character, with its italics, capitals, signs, etc. +Then he gives them the "copy," that is to say the manuscript of the +author to be reproduced. The compositors take a "galley" according to +the size of the book; and, letter by letter, by running their fingers +through the different cases, they place side by side the words +laboriously composed, and necessarily presenting their reverse, so that +they will show their proper face when printed. + +The composition terminated, the process of "imposition" takes place. +This is the disposition by pages in an iron chase, in such manner that +the sheet of paper shall be printed on both sides, the pages exactly +following one another. + +It will be seen by the specimen on the preceding page that if the two +sheets be brought together, page 2 of II. will fall exactly opposite +page 1 of I, page 7 opposite page 8, and so on. Nothing is easier than +this combination for folio, quarto, or octavo sizes, but as the smaller +sizes are multiplied even to 128mo, tables are necessary to prevent +error. + +The imposition is completed by building up the composition in a chase by +means of pieces of metal called "furniture," which regulate the margins. +When the whole is in proper place, it is squeezed up and adjusted by +means of sunk reglets. The chase may now be placed under the press +without fear of the characters falling out or getting mixed. + +A pressman takes a "proof" after having rubbed the relief of the +characters with ink, and on this proof are corrected the author's or +compositor's faults by indications in the margin by understood signs. By +this amended proof the compositor amends his faults one by one: leaves +out superfluous characters, puts turned characters straight, spaces or +draws closer the lines, etc. + +The corrections finished, the time has come to print. In the time of +Geoffroy Tory this operation was made as we shall explain; it was the +same before and the same after. Two pressmen have tempered with water +the tympan, or more elastic part of the carriage, against which will be +directed in good time the blow from the type; they have also damped the +paper intended for the impression, so that it may retain the greasy ink +with which the characters are charged; then the formes are washed before +putting them under the press. + +In the figure which we reproduce, which dates from about 1530, we see +the workshop of Jodocus Badius, of Asch, father-in-law of two celebrated +printers, Vascosan and Robert Estienne. The press rolls--that is to say, +the formes--have been placed in the "carriage," or movable chase, which, +coming forward, receives the sheet of paper and the ink, and returns +under the press to receive the blow of the "bar." In the room, lighted +by two windows, the compositors work. In front one works at the bar, +while his comrade distributes the ink on the "balls." These balls are +leather pads, on which the greasy ink, made of lampblack and oil, is +spread, to more easily rub the forme after each blow. Ordinarily the +inker had two functions: he prepared the ink, distributed it, and kept +his eye on the printed sheets to correct faults, blots, and difference +of tint. Here the workman is simply occupied by the balls. Printed +sheets and prepared paper are on a table by the side of the press. This +press is composed of the rolling chase, the tympan, and the "frisket," a +smaller tympan, which work against one another. The tympan, we have said +above, receives directly the blow. And it was so for nearly four +centuries; the mechanical means of our days have a little changed the +work, but the principle is always the same. + +[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Mark of Jodocus Badius of Asch, representing +the interior of a printing office about 1535. Engraving _à la croix de +Lorraine_.] + +Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a press cost about a hundred +and twenty-seven crowns, with its diverse utensils, as may be seen in an +unpublished piece analysed by Dr. Giraudet, of Tours, in a very +interesting pamphlet: _Une Association d'Imprimeurs et de Libraires de +Paris Réfugiés à Tours au XVI^e Siècle_. The workshop of Jamet Métayer, +of Tours, cost a rent of eighty-three crowns--about twenty pounds of +current money. + +Workmen were then paid by the "day;" and it came to be one of the +expressions then so much used in manual labour, corresponding to the sum +of the least work of a good workman. M. Ladevèze, printer, thought that +the "day" represented the work of about twenty thousand Roman or Cicero +letters employed by a compositor. + +With us the "day" of compositors and pressmen is differently calculated. +The latter have to take a certain number of sheets. + +The sheet, composition and press work, cost nearly seven crowns, or +nearly two pounds. Jamet Métayer paid twenty crowns for four sheets in +Italics; he demanded three months for the work. + +The primitive presses were wooden screw presses, and they so remained +until the beginning of this century, when Lord Stanhope, a celebrated +electrician, author, and politician, perfected them and gave his name to +a new machine. His improvement consisted in that the bar was no longer +fixed to the vice, but to a cylinder outside. A counter-weight brought +back the platen at each blow. Pierre Didot had previously made metal +platens. In 1820 the use of the Stanhope press commenced in France. + +England had, besides, taken a preponderating place in typographical +invention. The printer of the _Times_, John Walter, at the beginning of +the nineteenth century, seeking to publish his journal quicker, +associated himself with craftsmen who constructed mechanical presses for +him. The Didots lost no time, and themselves made improvements. + +In 1848, the presses of the _Constitutionnel_, thanks to the application +of steam, produced twenty thousand papers an hour. In our time there are +machines that print only on one side, as well as double machines, +printing both sides at once. The rotary machines, with endless paper, +take thirty-five thousand impressions an hour. In the newspaper machines +of Marinoni, the great inventor, the paper is unrolled, printed, cut, +and folded without leaving the machine, and falls into a place from +which it is taken ready for the subscriber. The latest perfection of the +printing press is the Walter press and the rotary machine of R. Hoe and +Co., of New York, extensively used throughout the world. The elaborate +book has little to do with these marvellous processes, although in its +turn it largely benefits by the improvement of the printing machine. + +It is apart from our purpose to speak at length on the manufacture of +paper. It is certain that it was well made before the invention of +printing, for most of the accounts of the fifteenth century are written +on linen paper, very resisting and well sized. Later on rags were used +in this manufacture; and here, in a few words, is how paper was made in +the mould, or "hand-made" before the invention of machinery for the +purpose:-- + +[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Paper-making. Workman engaged on the tub with +the frame of wires. Engraving by Jost Amman.] + +The rags, having been thoroughly cleansed, were put into vats, where +they were worked up under a beating press until they were reduced to +pulp. This pulp was thrown into hot water and stirred until the mixture +was uniformly made. Then a mould of fine wire cloth, fixed upon a wooden +frame, and having a "deckle" to determine the size of the sheet, was +taken; in the middle of this frame was disposed, also in brass wire, a +factory mark, intended to appear in white in the sheet of paper, and +called the "water mark." This mould was dipped into the vat of pulp and +drawn out again. After gently shaking it to and fro in a horizontal +position, the fibres of the pulp became so connected as to form one +uniform fabric; and the water escaped through the wires. The deckle was +then removed from the mould, and the sheet of paper turned off upon a +felt, in a pile with many others, a felt intervening between each sheet, +and the whole subjected to great pressure, in order to absorb the +superfluous water. After being dried and pressed without the felts, the +sheets were dipped into a tub of size and again pressed to remove +surplus size. This primitive method of paper-making is represented in +fig. 104, and the same principle is still in use for the production of +hand-made paper. Machinery has effected many improvements and economies +in the production of woven paper. + +China and Japan have their special paper manufacture. In Japan the +material employed is the bark of the _morus papifera sativa_. + +[Illustration: Balance used by Jenson, at Venice.] + +According to their fineness, size, and weight, papers have received +different names, proceeding from the water mark. + +Faust at Mayence used paper marked with a bull's head. Jenson at Venice +used a balance of which the form varied. This latter came from a mill +which furnished Vicenza, Perugia, and Rome. Jenson used, besides a +crown, a cardinal's hat. + +The bull's head underwent transformations, it had stars and roses, and +was special to Germany, and it may sometimes be found in Italy. + +The wires and bridges served to determine the size of a book. Looking at +a folio leaf against the light, the wires will be seen to be +horizontal, and the bridges vertical. In quarto they will be reversed, +the paper having been folded in four instead of in two. The bridges +become horizontal. They return to the vertical in octavo, and so on. + +As for ink, it was from the beginning a composition of lampblack and oil +of different quality and nature, mixed with resin to obtain a greater +and quicker dryness. Ink for engravings was more carefully made. For +coloured inks various powders are mixed with the oil and resin, and a +title in red and black has to go through the press twice: once for the +red and once for the black. + +From the above it can be understood that illustrations in relief can +easily be introduced into the composition, whether in combination with +text or in separate pages. Another question presents itself: Did the old +printers employ casting, or did they print directly from the wood block +itself? In other words, the block having been cut, did they make with it +a mould into which melted metal could be poured to obtain a more +resistant relief? The fact is difficult to elucidate. It appears to-day +that Simon Vostre, Verard, and others printed relief engravings on +metal, but were they cut directly or obtained by casting, as they are +now? It cannot be determined yet. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +BOOKBINDING. + + The binding of the first printed books--Ancient German + bindings--Binding in the time of Louis XII.--Italian + bindings--Aldus--Maioli--Grolier--Francis I.--Henri II. and Diane + de Poitiers--Catherine de Medicis--Henri III.--The Eves--The + "fanfares"--Louis XIII.--Le Gascon--Florimond Badier--Louis + XIV.--Morocco leathers--Cramoisy--The bindings of the time of Louis + XIV.--The regency--Pasdeloup--The + Deromes--Dubuisson--Thouvenin--Lesné--The nineteenth + century--English binders--Roger Payne--Francis Bedford. + + +Leading the reader now towards the final perfection of the Book: +printing, which had stirred up and reversed so many things, created, so +to speak, the art of binding. Previously the binder was simply a workman +sewing together the leaves of a manuscript, with no science or device +but to clasp the whole together solidly with cord and string. As luxury +increased the old binder was no longer thought of. On the wooden boards +which closed the Book, jewellers encrusted their wares, lavishing ivory +and precious stones to the taste of the amateur or the bookseller. +Generally these works covered books of precious miniatures, the +_Horoe_, or manuscripts that were deemed worthy of such magnificent +clothing, rarely copies without importance. Printing at once disordered +the tribe of copyists as well as the binders did jewellers. The demand +increasing, rich bindings were soon abandoned, and each bookseller +applied himself to the work, or at least covered in his own house books +intended for sale. The fashion was not then to expose for sale, as now, +unbound books. Purchasers wanted an article easy to handle, and which +they were not obliged to return for ulterior embellishment. + +So to the public were presented the works laboriously composed by +Gutenberg, Schoeffer, and Fust, somewhat after the manner of +manuscripts, which they pretended to imitate, with their solid wooden +boards covered with pig or calfskin. At the four corners, copper nails, +with large heads, prevented rubbing against the shelves of the bookcase, +for at that time books were ranged on their sides, and not as they are +to-day. We must return to the bibliomaniac of the "Ship of Fools" to get +an idea of these depositories; before him may be seen ranged on a desk +large folios, with nails on their sides, in the shelves, so defying the +dust, in place of being placed upright on their edges, which rendered +them liable to spots and stains. (See fig. 23.) + +Unhappily the wooden sides had in themselves a germ of destruction, the +worm, capable first of reducing the sides to powder and then ravaging +the body of the work, the ligatures and cords. Certain preparations +destroy the insect, but the precaution often has no effect, and it is +thus that the disappearance of volumes formerly so abundant, but almost +impossible to find now, may be explained. + +[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Bookbinder's shop in the sixteenth century. +Engraving by Jost Amman.] + +From the beginning the operations of the binder were what they still +are, except for improvements. They consist in the collation of the +sheets of a book, folding them, beating them to bring them together and +give them cohesion, and sewing them, first together, then on the cords +or strings, which form the five or six bands seen on the backs. +Primitively these cords were united to the wooden boards, and over both +was placed a resistant skin, on which from relief or metal engravings +were struck the most pleasing decorative subjects. Pigskin, white and +fine, lent itself, especially among the Germans, to these fine +editions; and although they were issued in great number, the wooden +boards have not permitted them all to exist in our time. + +The most ancient that we are able to cite are German works of the time +of Louis XI.; they are very strong and coarse. The cords in them form an +enormous and massive projection. The inside of the board was often +without lining of paper or stuff. In the case of fine editions a sombre +velvet was sometimes used, such as Verard used to bind the books of the +father of Francis I., as we have before said. + +Art did not enter into these works of preservation until about the end +of the fifteenth century, with arms and emblems. At the beginning of the +sixteenth century, some bindings were ornamented for Louis XII. and the +Queen, Anne de Bretagne; but not more than five or six specimens remain. +They are of coarse aspect. The workman who tooled the binding here +reproduced from the curious example of M. Dutuit, of Rouen, has thrown +his subjects one upon another. Arms, porcupines, ermines, are treated so +as to be confusing, and form a medley that is not pleasing. In recalling +the delightful borders of Vostre and Pigouchet, contemporaries of this +mediocre work, it is astonishing to see the degree of inferiority +reached by a profession that should be inspired by graceful subjects of +decoration. + +[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Binding for Louis XII. Collection of M. +Dutuit, of Rouen.] + +It happened that France again found in Italy masters capable of +revealing secrets of composition and arrangement to enable her to strike +out a new road. The Italian wars would not have had these artistic +results if it had not been for the enormous sums that they swallowed up. +The curious part of the enterprise was that a war treasurer, a +financier, employed by the French kings in these expeditions, through +his relations of taste and friendship with the Alduses of Venice, +brought to France the love of sumptuous bindings, of editions superbly +clothed. He was named Jean Grolier, that bibliophile of the sixteenth +century, who was, above all others, even King Francis, the first to +appreciate the art of binding. It is not too much to say art, for if +better had not been done before, it may safely be said that nothing +better has been done since; and the books of Grolier remain as the most +perfect and most admirable types of this kind of decoration. + +Born of an Italian family established at Lyons, where most of his +relatives did a great business, Jean Grolier had the good fortune to +succeed his father, Stephen Grolier, treasurer of the Duke of Milan. He +became in his turn Minister of Finances, and was called to accompany the +kings in their expeditions in Italy. The situation of the treasurers +during these campaigns was important; they handled the pence levied with +great trouble in the cities of France "for making war." Many abused +their trust, and were punished, and among others the Lallemants, whom +documents show us to have been in connection with Grolier, and who +suffered, with Semblançay, the most terrible trials of the time. + +Italian art gave then a free course in the decoration of books. Of the +interior we have spoken in our first chapters on the wood engravings; +for the exterior, the cover of the volume, foliage, golden flowers +worked with a hot iron, and polychromatic compartments obtained by +coloured pastes were multiplied. Thus was produced on the outside that +which it was not sought to obtain on the inside, the variation of tints +so select among the Italians, and so forsaken since the invention of +printing. In the midst of these literary men was a lover of books and +fine connoisseur who, not content with choosing the best editions, such +as those of Ferrara, Venice, and Basle, bound them superbly, with +compartments of admirable tone, and had his name and device inscribed on +the sides in the fashion of the time. He was named Thomas Maioli, and +following the custom of the amateurs of the time, he offered the +enjoyment of his library to his friends. "Tho. Maioli et amicorum," he +inscribed, as did later Grolier, as also did others, but he somewhat +modified the enthusiasm of his friendship by a sceptical device, +"Ingratis servire nephas," which might very well be the cry of the owner +of books betrayed by his borrowers. + +Maioli did not alone use these devices; he had also a macaronic phrase +of which the sense is not very clear: "Inimici mei mea michi, non me +michi." He also sometimes used his monogram, which was composed of all +the letters of his name. + +The relations of Grolier with this unknown and mysterious bibliophile, +whose name is not always found outside his volumes, are not doubtful. +Brunet possessed a volume that had belonged to Maioli and had passed +through the hands of Grolier. What better proof could be wished of the +communion of ideas and tastes between the two collectors? + +But these amateurs were not alone. Beside them were princes and great +lords, lay and ecclesiastic. From the commencement of the sixteenth +century bookbinding had received an enormous impulse from the tastes and +the predilections for these lofty fancies. And it cannot be ascribed to +the simple skill of the workmen experimenting in that line. In the +century that saw Italian artists occupied in making designs for mounted +plates and painting beautiful ladies, the courtesans of Venice could not +be alarmed at finding them painting models for bindings, with +compartments of varied tone and style. Maioli affected white on a dark +background, that is to say on a background of dark leather. He made +scrolls of foliage in white or clear paste with a very happy effect. + +This was the time when Grolier travelled in Italy, in the suite of the +French, and when he began his collections. He had adopted as his +heraldic emblem the gooseberry bush, which in French came very near to +his name--_groseillier_; and his motto was "Nec herba nec arbor" +("Neither tree nor herb"), explicative of the moderation of his wealth. +He was soon in connection with the Alduses, and through them with the +principal learned men and binders of the time, for it was not in the +offices of the Manutiuses that could be found workmen, like those of the +Chamber of Accounts in France, obliged to swear that they did not know +how to read. The master was not hindered by details of difference of +language, and it followed that his workmen understood Greek and Latin, +for he often gave them instruction in those languages. How far off these +erudite and conscientious workmen appear to-day! + +Following the fashion, Grolier put his name on the upper side of his +books--"Jo. Grolierii et amicorum"--in gold letters, and on the other +side a pious motto, the sense of which was a hope often uttered by the +financiers of the sixteenth century, imprisoned and hung every instant: +"Portio mea, Domine, sit in terra viventium." Generally all the Grolier +books which came from the Alduses have the name on the upper side and +the motto on the other side; the title was placed above the name, and +often disposed in rows. Some large volumes had the cover ornamented with +an architectural design, like the Jamblichus of the Libri collection, +which had on the front the façade of a temple, with the title in rows on +the door. This volume was printed by Aldus in 1516, and probably +decorated by him for the account of the great French amateur. + +Jean Grolier is said to have himself designed some of the subjects of +his ornaments, and their perfection indicates an active and enlightened +supervision. On his return to France, where he had a house near the +Porte de Bucy, he was put in relation with Geoffroy Tory, the artist +best fitted to understand him, and who was at once painter, engraver, +printer, and binder. It was there that, in the leisure of his financial +functions, between two projects of revictualling the forts of Outre +Seine and Yonne, Grolier invented combinations, sought interlacings, and +laid out foliage. Tory himself teaches us these works in combination. He +invented antique letters for Grolier, he tells us in his _Champfleury_. +It was for him, too, that he interwove so finely his compartments for +binding, and that he reproduced the delightful ornaments of his books of +hours in golden scrolls. + +As we have said, Grolier placed his titles on the sides of his books on +account of the arrangement of the works on the shelves of the library +where they were laid. For this reason also the back was neglected, and +no ornament used upon it; thick and heavy with its projecting bands, +without decoration between the bands, this part of the bound volume was +a kind of waste in a splendidly cultivated garden. The profusion of +books brought about a revolution. There was no longer room to place on +their sides the innumerable books that were produced; they were then +placed on their edges, as now, and the back also was decorated. For this +the bands were made to disappear, and replaced by decorative subjects in +compartments like the sides. Then with Grolier the bands reappeared, and +the title was placed between them, as it still is. + +The books of Grolier have been divided, according to their production, +in four or five principal classes, in which they may always be placed. +First were the works ornamented in compartments, gilt, with scrolls in +full gold; then the same with the scrolls _azurés_, that is to say +equally gilt, but having parallel lines like the _azure_ of heraldry. +Following comes the school of Geoffroy Tory, with gilt compartments in +the style of the great French decorator; last the polychromatic +bindings, in which, by the aid of colour or mastic, the alternating +tones are mixed. Grolier also had some mosaic bindings, composed of +little pieces of leather connected by incrustation or paste, pure +Italian bindings; but these were not numerous, especially if compared +with those conceived in the manner of Geoffroy Tory. + +One of these latter works is here reproduced from one of the beautiful +books in the collection of M. Dutuit. This copy has the back flat, and +the interlacings of the decoration are most complicated and clever. + +[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Binding for Grolier in the collection of M. +Dutuit.] + +Grolier got his Levant moroccos through the dealers of Venice, to make +sure of the material he employed. + +Born in 1479, the Treasurer-general of Outre Seine lived until 1565. In +1563 an original manuscript shows him much occupied with finance at over +eighty-four years of age; but his passion for bindings had cooled down, +for few books signed with his name are found the manufacture of which +could descend to the son of Henri II. After great trials, after having +seen Semblançay suffer at Montfaucon, John Lallemand beheaded, and +himself having come nearly to losing life and fortune at one blow, +Grolier passed away quietly in his house, having collected most of the +fine books of the time and many curious medals. Christopher de Thou, his +friend and _confrère_ in the love of books, had saved his reputation +before the Parliament of Paris. After his death his library was +transported to the Hotel de Vic, and from there dispersed in 1675, a +hundred years after. + +Thus from Italian art came French binding, still remaining original. The +kings did not fail to follow the movement, and even to anticipate it, +thanks to the means at their disposal. We have seen Francis I. at work +with the energy of an artisan at least; but Geoffroy Tory was his +principal inspirer, and who knows but that he was the chief operative +for the prince, as for the great financier? + +[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Binding for Francis I., with the arms of +France and the salamander.] + +[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Mark of Guyot Marchant, printer and +bookbinder. He published the _Danse Macabre_ of 1485.] + +We have said that Louis XII. knew nothing of fine bindings. During his +travels in Italy he had received presentation copies of magnificently +covered books, and among others that of _Faustus Andrelinus_, that was +bound in calf in honour of the King. He, who was so little expert in +fine arts, purchased the entire library of the Sire de la Gruthuse, +and substituted his own emblems for those of the high and mighty lord. +Francis I., with innate sentiment for masterpieces and the powerful +protection he had given them, did not allow the experiments of Grolier +to pass unnoticed. The King did not desire to be behind the treasurer, +and the workmen were put to the task. He adopted the salamander, which +emblem he used on his castles and furniture and the liveries of his +people; he lavished it also on the sides of his books. On the side the +"F" is often seen crowned, then the emblem of France and the collar of +St. Michael. In the binding of which a facsimile is here given, Geoffroy +Tory has singularly inspired the gilder, if he did not himself make the +design. For it must not be thought that this work is done at a single +blow by means of an engraved plate or a block. On the contrary, every +line is impressed by the hot tool that the workman applies by hand to +the gold laid on in advance, making it, so to speak, enter into the skin +or morocco. There is the art; blocks serve only for commercial bindings, +quickly impressed and intended for ordinary purchasers. + +[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Binding for Henri II., with the "H" and +crescents.] + +Under the reign of Francis I. the binders were the booksellers, as +Verard and Vostre were. The King was ordinarily served by a publisher +named Pierre Roffet, and he frequently figures in accounts that have +been preserved. Roffet not only bound, but it appears that he rebound +books to patterns which the King desired. Philip Lenoir and Guyot +Marchant were also royal workmen. The latter, whose mark is here +reproduced, frequently added to it the saints Crispin and Crispinian, +patrons of the leather-dressers, who prepared the leather for the +binder. + +[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Binding for Henri II. (Mazarine Library)] + +The discoveries of Grolier did not allow the binders much time to be +idle. Thousands of volumes were then destroyed to make the boards for +sides. From this many discoveries are made in our days by pulling to +pieces sixteenth century work, unknown playing cards, and early printed +works. To mention only one example, twenty leaves of the "Perspective" +of Viator were discovered in the National Library of Paris. The board +thus formed was covered indifferently with sheepskin, parchment, calf, +morocco, or goatskin; the books were sewn on raised or sunk bands, +according to the owner's taste; the edges were gilt, sometimes +gauffered, and designs often impressed upon them to match those of the +sides. In large folios wooden boards were still used, more solid, and +protected from rubbing by nails in relief. But the inside of the cover +was as yet only covered with paper. Leather linings were very uncommon. + +The reign of Henri II. increased yet more the importance of bindings; it +was the time when Grolier collected, and clever artists came from all +parts. Geoffroy Tory had given the best models for letters and +interlacings. The Queen, Catherine, derived from her parents the taste +for decoration in gold and colours, and patronised the artists called by +her from the court of Florence; and the favourite, Diane de Poitiers, +Duchess of Valentinois, rivalled her in luxury and expenditure. Henri +II. in the decoration of his castles, as well as his books, introduced +equivocal emblems, of which the signification may be doubtful, but those +of his mistress may be recognised, not those of the legitimate Queen. He +interlaced two reversed "D's" by an "H," in the form shown in the border +on the preceding page. Strictly speaking, we ought to see there two +"C's" back to back; but as we find the "D" on all the bindings +displaying the arms of Diana, there can be no doubt, and Queen Catherine +doubted less than anybody. Other emblems of Diana are to be found in the +arcs and crescents that are plentifully displayed. The library of Diana +was large, owing to the King not hesitating to take valuable books from +the public collections for her. Two centuries after her death it was +dispersed, and the greater part of the books belonging to the national +collections were restored on the deaths of those who then purchased +them. Hence the largest number of the bindings of Henri II. and Diana of +Poitiers will be found in the National Library of Paris. + +[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Italian binding for Catherine de Medicis, with +the initials "C. C."] + +Queen Catherine also had special patterns with a monogram identical with +the double "D" mentioned above, but the branches of the "C" were a +little longer than the branches of the "H;" she also used a "K" on the +sides of her books. The specimen which we reproduce is a purely Italian +work. + +From kings and queens the fashion passed to the great lords, it having +come to the kings and queens from a private individual. The Constable +Anne de Montmorency adorned his bindings with a cross and spread +eagle. Among the amateurs of binding of the sixteenth, seventeenth, +and eighteenth centuries using distinctive marks, we may mention +Philip Desportes, the poet, who used two [phi] enlaced, as did also +Superintendent Fouquet in the seventeenth century. The brothers Dupuy +adopted the double [delta], arranged as a star. Colbert had a curled +snake (_coluber_ for Colbert!), the Gondis two masses of arms, Madame +de Pompadour three towers, etc. Fouquet beside the [phi] used a +squirrel on some of his bindings. + +[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Binding with the arms of Mansfeldt, with +_azure_ scroll work, from the Didot collection.] + +In Germany, Count Mansfeldt adopted the ornamental style with arms, of +which a specimen is here given; and Marc Laurin de Watervliet also +decorated and dedicated his books to his friends, using the motto +"Virtus in arduo." Among the lords of the French courts who favoured +polychromatic ornament and bold compositions were the young Valois, +Louis de Sainte Maure, Marquis of Nesle, and Henri de Guise, called +"Le balafré." Charles IX. had his emblems and devices, the double "C" +crowned the legend "Pietate et justitia," but his brother, Henri III., +loved the decoration of books more than he did. The passion of the King +for miniatures which he cut out of books is known; this passion for +golden things he repeated on bindings, for which he chose special +designs. Henri III. was an amateur of dances of death; he visited +cemeteries, attended funerals, and took a death's-head for his emblem. +This emblem was not his invention; long before him Marot had addressed +an epigram to a lady in which he brought love and death into close +conjunction. However that may be, the King chose skeletons and +penitents' tears to ornament his books. He also tolerated diamonds, +although he absolutely prohibited them in the clothing of ladies or +fixed the number _pro rata_ with the rank of the authorised person. +There was in this prince a singular mixture of taste and artistic +acuteness by the side of a mania or hallucination which was reflected on +the most intimate objects of his apparel or of his furniture. Thus if we +find, at the end of the sixteenth century, a death's-head on the sides +or the back of a volume, the binding is of the period of Henri III. + +The binders of his time are known by the mention that is made of them in +the royal accounts; the Eves were the most celebrated among all of them. +Nicholas Eve was charged with the binding of the Statutes of the Order +of St. Esprit, with which the King gratified his friends. Mention of +this work is found in the Clairambault manuscripts, where we read, "To +Nicholas Eve, washer and binder of books and bookseller to the King, +forty-seven and a half escus for washing, gilding, and squaring the +edges of forty-two books of statutes and ordinances of the Order, bound +and covered with orange Levant morocco, enriched on one side with the +arms of the King, fully gilt, and on the other of France and Poland, +with monograms at the four corners, and the rest flames, with orange and +blue ribbons," etc. + +[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Sixteenth century binding, called _à la +fanfare_. In the Dutuit collection.] + +Louise de Lorraine, wife of Henri III., counted for little in the life +of her husband; nevertheless she had a certain number of books decorated +with their united escutcheons. + +The bindings attributed to Eve were decorated all over the sides and +back with interlacing patterns of geometrical character, the spaces +between the parallel lines and in the middle of the figures left at +first quite blank, but afterwards filled in with palm branches and +wreaths of foliage; to these delicate and elaborate yet brilliant +toolings have been given the name of bindings _à la fanfare_. This +designation requires explanation, and is a good example of the grotesque +style adopted by modern amateurs in their appellations. + +[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Le Gascon binding.] + +The fine work of that time prepared for the coming in the seventeenth +century--about 1620--of the works of Le Gascon, or at least for the +artist with whom in our days are connected the works of the reign of +Louis XIII. Under Henri IV. the fleur-de-lys occupied most of the covers +of the royal books, from vellum to Levant morocco; works in this class +had nothing very remarkable. The first years of Louis XIII. revealed a +new process, inspired by the Eves. Le Gascon embroidered delightfully on +the fanfare ornaments; showing the fibres of the leaves, he made a new +kind of ornament, consisting of minute gold dots elaborated into lines +and curves of singular brilliancy and elegance. Of this style, called +_pointillé_, we give a specimen from the collection of M. Dutuit. The +fashion had arrived all at once; lace, banished from clothing by severe +edicts, found a refuge on the covering of books. + +The times were hard then for binders; they were constrained to live in +the university and to employ only its workmen. A binder was never his +own gilder; he employed the _gaufreurs_ of shoe-leather, more expert and +bolder, to gild his leather. Among these artisans was one named +Pigorreau, whom the edict found living in the midst of publishers and +working for them; he was compelled to choose either to remain bootmaker +or become bookseller; he chose the latter, against the syndics of the +trade, against every one, and he made enemies for himself. He revenged +himself by turning the masters into ridicule in a placard. + +[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Le Gascon binding for Cardinal Mazarin.] + +Le Gascon was probably the assumed name of an artist in this style. The +_Guirlande de Julie_, worked by him for Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, +gave him great honour in the special circle of this little literary +court. It was the fashion then for poor authors to put a fine covering +on their works and to offer them to the great for their own profit. +Tallement des Reaux notably signalises the poet Laserre, who displayed +his luxury in irreproachable bindings. And then the farmers of the +revenue, successors of Grolier in financial trusts, formed libraries for +pure fashion, never opening the volumes covered for them in sumptuous +attire. If we may believe Sauval, author of the _Antiquités de Paris_, +they went further, and on covers without books inscribed imaginary +titles and fantastic squibs to mislead their visitors. The bookcase +being carefully closed, it was difficult to discover the imposition. +Sauval writes, "In place of books, they are content with covers of +Levant morocco, on the backs of which, in gold letters, are inscribed +the names of the most celebrated authors. A binder of the university +assured me that not long since he and his _confrères_ had made them for +a single financier to the amount of 10,000 crowns!" + +The works of Le Gascon will be found more among great personages than +with the so-called collectors, which gives value to their grace and +charm. The King's brother Gaston possessed them, then Mazarin, an +example from whose library is here reproduced. On this binding Le Gascon +worked gilt compartments and elaborate arabesques; in the middle of the +sides are the arms of the Cardinal and his pretentious device: "Arma +Julii ornant Franciam!"--"The arms of Jules the ornament of France!" In +spite of the profusion of subjects, nothing could better please the eye +or indicate a man of taste. + +But if Le Gascon be a legendary personage, he had an imitator or rival, +very near to him, named Florimond Badier, whose works had at least the +advantage of being signed. At the bottom of the inside cover of an +inlaid morocco binding in the National Library at Paris is the +inscription "Florimond Badier fec., inv." The analogy between this work +and those known as Le Gascon's is palpable; inside and outside, the +cover is stippled with small tools (_au petit fer_) in the same manner. +Florimond Badier was not appointed bookseller until 1645, and so could +not have composed earlier bindings attributed to Le Gascon, but this +resemblance of style evidences the existence of a Parisian school, the +adepts of which copied one another, as they do nowadays. + +The work was soon simplified; pallets and wheel-shaped tools were +invented to produce that which was improperly called _dentelle_; this +mechanical work was done by a wheel-shaped tool, previously heated, on +gold in sized leaves, on which it impressed its projections. + +With Louis XIV. the passion for gilding increased. Charming festoons +were designed, but they were soon abused, and inundated the libraries. +On the sides were seen rising suns, arms, and golden garlands. Cramoisy +directed the royal bindings, the King having devoted large sums to the +purchase of Levant leathers. In 1666 the Director of Works ordered red +moroccos; in 1667 he received twenty-two dozen skins, amounting, with +the expenses of transport, to 1,020 livres tournois. Successive supplies +were made, and were used for the royal library, sixty-nine dozen in +1667, forty-six dozen in 1668, and three hundred and thirty-three dozen +in 1670, costing the King more than 12,000 livres. On these admirably +dressed skins, which, in spite of incessant use, still remain now as in +their first days, the King caused to be applied, according to the size, +tools of borders, having in the middle the arms of France, with the +collar of St. Esprit. + +Among the binders mentioned in the very useful work of M. J. J. Guiffrey +on the expenditure of Louis XIV., we find Gilles Dubois, who died before +1670; Levasseur, binder of Huet, Bishop of Avranches; La Tour, Mérins or +Mérius, who died before 1676; and also Ruette, the reputed inventor of +marbled paper for fly-leaves of books: to him the bindings of the +Chancellor de Séguier, with their ornament of the golden fleece, and of +Madame de Séguier, are attributed. It was probably these men who +decorated the books of the brothers Dupuy, Fouquet, and Colbert, +marvellous works of solidity, if not always of elegance, which have +resisted all assaults. Unhappily, in many instances the mechanical +_dentelle_ overburdened the work, and gave it a commonplace regularity. +In the Condé, Colbert, and perhaps even Madame de Longueville's +collections, there are many specimens of this kind with two or three +filleted borders. + +We have come to an epoch when the difficulties resulting from confusion +between the booksellers' and binders' trades began to be understood. The +revocation of the Edict of Nantes had implicitly prepared a crowd of +measures and rules in all branches of national industry. It was a good +occasion to prevent the artisans of binding unduly parading themselves +as booksellers and selling merchandise of which they understood nothing; +Louis XIV. interfered, and separated the two communities. The binders +then became the _relieurs-doreurs_ of books; they had their own +organisation, but remained subject to the university; the heads of the +fraternity were called the "guards." The principal arrangements of the +regulation of 1749 were: the members of the corporation had the sole +right to bind books, from the elegant volume to registers of blank +paper. Five years of apprenticeship and three of companionship were +necessary to obtain the brevet of freedom and to hold a shop. Moreover, +it was indispensable to read and write. One regulation ordained that +the workman should be "able to bind and ornament ordinary books or +others, to render them perfect and entire, to sew the sheets at most two +together with thread and real bands, with joints of parchment, and not +paper, and in case of infraction the said books were to be remade at the +expense of the offender, who was besides condemned to a penalty of +thirty livres for each volume." Their establishment was confined to the +quarter from the Rue St. André des Arts to the Place Maubert; they +regulated the sale of calfskin and of tools; in a word, they were +surrounded by precautions by which the production remained always under +the supervision of the masters and completely satisfied the client. This +calculating policy was, in fact, a close imitation of the royal +ordinance of 1686. + +[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Mosaic binding of the eighteenth century for +the _Spaccio de la Bestia Trionfante_.] + +The mosaic bindings used from the end of the reign of Louis XIV. were an +application of pared leathers of colours different from the background, +pasted on to the side. The binders of the regency composed a great +number, attributed now to Pasdeloup, as all the crayons of the sixteenth +century are called Clouets, and all the panels on wood Holbeins. It is +not that there was great originality in these works, or a particular +art; more often the workman did no more than transcribe Le Gascon or Eve +or the older binders, and accommodated the processes of these artists to +the fashion of his time. In this style we may cite the _Spaccio de la +Bestia Trionfante_, printed at Paris 1584, for which the binder designed +a cover of doubtful taste and, above all, an undeniable want of +proportion. The tendency was then to flowers occupying three-fourths +of the page, to compartments too large, to open pomegranates, like the +_Spaccio_ here reproduced. If Pasdeloup had discovered these mediocre +combinations, he could not be proclaimed the regenerator of a fallen +art. The bastard style of these works may be compared to their mosaics, +constructed of pieces; it is a little of everything, and together it is +nothing. However, in the midst of the quantity of mediocre things, some +pleasing decoration is from time to time met with; the design of a +volume with the arms of the Regent and his wife, Mademoiselle de Blois, +wants neither elegance nor taste; without being perfection, it has +better proportion and balance. + +[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Mosaic binding of the eighteenth century, with +the arms of the Regent. M. Morgand's collection.] + +We should, however, hesitate to give names to all these works. Besides +Pasdeloup, there were the Deromes, abandoning a little the mosaics, +devising flowers and _dentelles_ in combination, and no longer the +simple products of the fillet. They formed a dynasty; and if the +Pasdeloups were at least twelve, there were fourteen Deromes all +booksellers and binders from the reign of Louis XIV. The most celebrated +was James Anthony, who died in 1761. + +Peter Paul Dubuisson was not only a binder; he was a designer. He +invented heraldic ornaments, and composed models of gilding tools, in +which his contemporaries emulated him. He was intimate with the delicate +vignettist Eisen, and the counsels of an artist of this value could not +but be useful to him. It is an extraordinary thing that in this world of +celebrated printers, amateur financiers, and notable painters and +engravers, not a single man can be met to give a real impulse to the +art of which we speak, and to prevent the dull continuance of +experiments on the whole so poor. Doubtless the _dentelles_ of Derome +had a certain air of gaiety, to which the books of the eighteenth +century accommodated themselves perfectly; the tools of Dubuisson +produce most pleasing designs; but the old, the great binders, had +altogether disappeared. + +Besides, Derome massacred without pity the rarest works. He loved edges +very regularly cut, and he did not fail to hew down margins opposed to +his taste. He sawed books as well; that is to say, in place of sewing +the sheets on to projecting bands, he made a groove in the back, in +which the cord was embedded. The books have no resistance. + +To these celebrated names of French binders of the eighteenth century we +may add Le Monnier, who worked for the Orleans princes; Tessier, his +successor; Laferté, who decorated the small volumes of the Duc de la +Vallière as Chamot covered the large ones; in 1766 Chamot was royal +binder. There was also Pierre Engerrand, then Biziaux, an original, who +worked for Madame de Pompadour and Beaumarchais. Boyet, or Boyer, worked +(1670-80) in the style of Le Gascon, with the same minute tooling, but +simpler in character. Duseuil put very elaborate and delicate tooling on +his covers from about 1710 to 1720. + +The Revolution effaced many of the fine works which displayed the +symbols "of a royalty justly detested," and Mercier wrote certain wicked +little poems against binding. Lesné was the poet of bookbinding, and he +invented the process of plain calf without boards. Certainly from +Grolier to Lesné there were numerous changes, so numerous that, in +spite of the nude calf, it may be said that the art was nearly dead. In +our days it has a little recovered. Amateurs have found new names, and +often artists, to patronise: Trautz-Bauzonnet, Capé, Duru, Lortic, +Marius Michel, in France; Bedford, Rivière, Zaehnsdorf, Pratt, in +England; Matthews, Bradstreet, Smith, in the United States; and many +others. Unhappily, fortune does not permit every one to furnish his +library luxuriously; the true connoisseur searches rather for Groliers, +Eves, and Le Gascons, than concerns himself about modern workmanship. +Whatever may be its value, it is only fit to clothe the works of the +time. A book published by Lemerre and bound by Petit is in true +character, but a fifteenth or sixteenth century book passed under the +hands of Trautz-Bauzonnet himself will be very much like an ancient +enamel in a modern frame newly gilt. + +Bookbinding in England has, with very few exceptions, never attained the +artistic excellence reached in France. From the earliest times to the +present day servile imitations of foreign work only are seen. The one +purely original English binder is Roger Payne, who from about 1770 +worked for thirty or forty years in London, performing with his own +hands every stage of the work, even to cutting his own tools. The result +was good, solid work, with perfectly original and often very beautiful +decoration, appropriate to the character of the work itself. His +favourite style was drooping lines of leaf ornaments in the borders and +geometrical patterns in small tools. After him came Charles Lewis, who +was an artist in the true sense of the word, and, coming down to our own +time, Francis Bedford, who, never pretending to originality, copied the +best designs of the old French and Italian binders. His full calf books, +with handsomely tooled backs, are models of solidity and taste; and his +decorations on the sides of morocco-bound books are always in good +taste, and often of great elegance. The binders of the present day, +perhaps for lack of patronage, seem to have abandoned originality; and +although much excellent work is done, it is no more than a copy of the +Eves, Le Gascon, Derome, and the older artists. + +Parallel with the luxurious bindings with which we have been exclusively +occupied, there has always been the commercial work, prepared in +advance. Liturgical works, above all, are sold in this form. Books in +the Grolier style or other grand personages were worked from a pattern +engraved in relief, leaving nothing to the caprice of the artist, by +being applied to the side by a press. This process is termed blocking. +Germany made use of this process principally; also Vostre, Verard, and +Tory employed the same means. Even the interlacings and the capricious +arabesques of Grolier were imitated by means of a fixed plate, parts of +which were finished by hand to make it appear a complete work of +imagination and handicraft. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +LIBRARIES. + + +Art, science, and literature took refuge in convents before the +invention of Printing, and libraries did not count many books. According +to daily wants, the monastery scribes copied the treatises lent by +neighbouring houses, and the collection was thus painfully made during +many centuries. Two or three hundred works constituted ordinary +collections; the powerful abbeys found in their staff the means of +enriching their libraries, as we have said, but they were the privileged +ones. + +Excepting kings and some princes, few people possessed a library. The +great expense of transcription, the want of facility for procuring +originals, and the enormous price of manuscripts left no hope to +bibliophiles of moderate fortune. Typography, on the contrary, having +multiplied books and put at relatively modest prices reproductions +formerly inaccessible, private collections commenced. We have had +occasion to speak before of Grolier and Maioli; they were the most +illustrious, but not the only ones. + +At first a public library was an unknown thing. The richest and the most +easily got together, that of the King of France, was private. Since +John the Good in France the acquisitions were numerous, and Gutenberg's +invention contributed to augment the stock of volumes everywhere. +Charles VIII. and Louis XII. found or took in their expeditions in +Italy, and were able to add to the original nucleus, many rare editions, +especially from the Sforzas at Pavia, who had marvels without number. +Brought together at Blois, under the care of John de Labarre, the royal +library did not yet occupy a very large space, in spite of its increase. +Under Charles V. the number of books was about a thousand; about 1500 or +1510 they were nearly doubled, and the printed books did not number more +than two hundred. + +So restricted, the royal library travelled with the other treasures of +the Crown; Francis I. transported it from Blois to Fontainebleau, and +even parts of it to the Italian wars, as related above. In its new +quarters the royal collection, in spite of the successive accessions of +the books of John d'Angoulême, grandfather of the King, and of those of +the dukes of Orleans, counted but 1,781 manuscripts and a hundred and +nine printed books on the shelves. The King, ambitious in literature no +less than in arts, nominated an illustrious _savant_, Guillaume Budé, to +the office of master of his library; and this qualification was +maintained by his successors until the fall of the royal power. + +With Budé commenced the system of continuous acquisitions. The treasury +was liberally opened to vendors of rarities. At this time the books, +placed upon their sides, one upon another, gave no idea of a modern +library, with its volumes ranged on end, having their titles between +the bands of the back. In speaking of Grolier, we remarked that the +sides of a binding alone had importance on account of their place on the +shelves; it was the same with Francis I. + +Under Henri II. the Fontainebleau collection was somewhat pillaged for +Diana of Poitiers, but, as a corrective for this dilapidation, the King +adopted a measure, since preserved, which substituted for acquisitions a +regular and uninterrupted supply; this was the contribution by +publishers to the library of one bound copy on vellum of all the works +printed under privilege. The ordinance was made in 1556; the successors +of Henri II. had only this means of increasing the number of their +volumes, with the exception that Charles IX. expended a large sum in the +purchase of Grolier's collection of medals. + +Such was the working of the royal library for about a half-century, but +the idea of making it public had not come. Diffused as was then the +passion for books, it had not yet been democratised to the point of +being understood by the people. Amateurs and lovers of reading formed +special collections in their houses, at times rivalling that of the +King. Then the fashion was no more to lay the books on their sides, but +they were now ranged to allow room for new acquisitions. Henri IV., who +had not his great-uncle's predilection for Fontainebleau, commanded the +removal to Paris of the books buried in the castle. He added to them +those of Catherine de Medicis coming from Marshal Strozzi; and as the +college of Clermont had become vacant by the dispersion of the Jesuits, +he lodged the library in 1599 in one of the rooms of that +establishment, under the care of James Augustus de Thou, master of the +library. + +We now see the royal collection brought to Paris, which it has never +quitted; but before its definitive installation, before it was made +public, it passed through a century, during which additions were made, +purchases increased, and the number of manuscripts and printed books +augmented in enormous proportions. Henri IV. desired to place it near +the court, to avoid pillage and to have the chief librarian near to him. +The return of the Jesuits in 1604 upset the first establishment a +little; the college of Clermont was evacuated; the books were +transported to the Cordeliers and distributed in rooms on the ground and +first floors, whence the names of upper and lower libraries. There was a +mass of volumes very little used, for the public did not enjoy them, and +the King held them as his own; but the time was near when the collection +was to take a very serious step under the influence of the brothers +Dupuy in 1645, and afterwards of Jerome Bignon. Always shut up in the +incommodious chambers of the Cordeliers, the library contained 5,259 +volumes, manuscript and printed, perhaps less than some private +libraries; after the Dupuys it had at least 10,329 printed books. + +Mazarin was the first to comprehend the natural use of collections of +books: publicity. His private library, placed before 1651 in his +magnificent house in the Rue Richelieu, where later was definitively +lodged the royal library, was opened to readers every Tuesday, from +eight to eleven and two to five. Dispersed in 1651, at the fall of the +Cardinal, it was later reconstituted, and in less than ten years +afterwards the former minister was able to open it in its new quarters, +the College of the Four Nations, where it is still. + +While the Mazarin library was administering liberally to the wants of +the public, that of the King remained closely shut up in the rooms of +the Cordeliers. Colbert, influenced by this state of things, offered two +houses in the Rue Vivienne to the King, where the books could find a +more convenient lodging, and allow room for increase. The removal was +made in 1666. The royal collection for fifty-five years was lodged only +a few steps from its final resting-place, the Hotel de Nevers. So was +called at the end of the seventeenth century the splendid mansion of +Mazarin, situated near the Porte de Richelieu, in the street of the same +name, whence his books had been previously torn and sold to all the +dealers. Divided into two parts at the death of the Cardinal in 1661, +the palace fell, one part to the Duc de Mazarin, the other to the Duc de +Nevers, his nephews. At first the King dreamed, under the advice of +Louvais, of acquiring the land in the neighbourhood of the Rue Vivienne +and of elevating a monument for his library, for the thought of putting +the Hotel de Nevers to this use had not then occurred to him; but the +Duc de Mazarin having alienated his part of the palace in favour of the +Company of the Indies, Abbé Bignon, then royal librarian, perceived the +part he could play from that fact. + +Thanks to the administration of Colbert and the liberalities of the +King, the collection had been augmented threefold. At the time of the +removal to the Rue Vivienne, Nicolas Clément worked at the classifying +and cataloguing of 35,000 volumes. He distributed them into methodical +classes, and devoted nine years--1675 to 1684--to his work. But this +first unravelling was soon insufficient. Less than four years after, he +commenced a new inventory in twenty-one volumes, which occupied thirty +years, having been finished in the course of March, 1714. This time the +numbers amounted to 43,000 printed volumes; his twenty-three principal +divisions, containing all the letters of the alphabet, are very nearly +preserved up to our day. In 1697 the question of publishing this +enormous work was agitated, and on this point Clément had a curious +correspondence with a learned Dane named Frederick Bostgaard; he also, +in a celebrated pamphlet, _Idée d'une Nouvelle Manière de dresser le +Catalogue d'une Bibliothèque_, indicated practical observations; he +resolved this arduous question for important collections by difference +of sizes; but his project was not executed, although favoured from the +first by Abbé Bignon. + +As the collection was not available for workers, the work of Clément had +only a relative importance. A councillor of the Prince of Waldeck, a +German of the name of Nemeitz, who travelled in France in the beginning +of the eighteenth century, having seen it in the houses of the Rue +Vivienne, says that the library occupied then twenty-six rooms and +contained 75,000 volumes in all; it was shown voluntarily to strangers, +but not to the public. Nemeitz gives some other curious particulars as +to the libraries of Paris (_Séjour à Paris:_ Leyde, 1727, 8vo). + +The bank of Law, that had been lodged for some time in the Hotel de +Nevers, alienated by the heirs of Mazarin, soon disappeared with the +ruin of his system. As we have said above, Bignon appreciated the +importance of the neglected palace for commodiously lodging the royal +collections. This was in 1721. The collection was about to be subdivided +into four sections, or, as they were then called in the administrative +style, four distinct departments: manuscripts, printed books, titles, +and engraved plates. The master of the library pressed the Regent to +profit by the occasion, to which he agreed. In the month of September +the removal commenced, and from the Rue Vivienne, the royal library, the +first in the world and the most valuable, as Naudé says, entered the +former palace of the Cardinal, which it was never to quit again. + +We approach the epoch when this great scientific establishment was to +quit its private character and to open its doors to the learned of all +countries. In 1735 it was decided to print the catalogue of some +divisions only: theology, canonical law, public law, and _belles +lettres_. This resolution coincided precisely with the opening of the +doors which took place in 1737, in which year appeared the first volume +of the catalogue comprising the sacred Scriptures. At the end of the +eighteenth century the royal library was finally established; the +printed books then comprised about 200,000 volumes, and access was had +by a staircase leading to six grand saloons, which were surrounded by +galleries. From this moment the rooms became too small. At the +Revolution the number of books had increased to 300,000, and projects of +enlargement commenced, to be continued to our time; but, in spite of +these proposals, the surface occupied by the library has remained the +same since the time of Louis XV. Enlargements and alterations have been +made year after year on the same ground without much new construction. +But how the treasures have been augmented to this time! If the printed +books at the Revolution represented a little more than 300,000 volumes, +to-day they exceed two millions; the prints number two and a half +millions; the medals, 100,000; the manuscripts, something over 90,000. + +If we have thus brought the summary history of the National Library of +Paris to our days, it was to avoid mixing it with other matters. We have +entered into such detail regarding it as is fitting for the most +important library in the world. We now return to the seventeenth +century. + +At the time when Henri IV. carried from Fontainebleau to Paris the +nucleus of volumes that was to have so brilliant a destiny, the passion +for books had singularly spread itself in France. We have already spoken +of Mazarin; after him Cardinal Richelieu designed to open his private +collection to the public, and in his will he manifested his clearly held +intention. He went further in his last wishes: he prescribed the daily +sweeping and dusting of the precious collection, and its augmentation by +a thousand livres tournois each year. The great personages of the time +were not behind; and Sauval says that in the seventeenth century there +were 1,000 or 1,200 private libraries in Paris, numbering 1,700,000 +volumes. + +In the provinces there were few public libraries. The communities and +learned Societies, the Jesuits and other religious houses, and the +universities had collections At Orleans a library was opened for +Germans, and the students of that country were able to work at their +ease under the supervision of two librarians. + +At the end of the eighteenth century the number of libraries had +increased in large proportions; the amateurs had made their influence +felt. The Book was not sought only for what it contained, but also for +its exterior clothing. Only the great libraries open to everybody +remained eclectic, and provided a little of everything. Besides the +royal library, there were in Paris a great number of other collections, +which the revolutionary storm upset and often destroyed. That of St. +Germain des Près was burnt in 1794. That of St. Geneviève, founded in +1625, had benefited by celebrated donations, among others those of the +cardinals De Berulle and De la Rochefoucauld; the Arsenal, created by +the Marquis de Paulmy, was successively enriched by important +acquisitions, among which was the collection of the Duc de la Vallière. +These collections still exist, and are open to the public, as also are +the National Library, the Mazarine, the Sorbonne, the Museum, the School +of Fine Arts, the City of Paris, the Institute, the Louvre, and the +several scientific faculties. + +The provinces have not been behind in the movement. Many of the great +cities contain a considerable number of books easily accessible, among +them the libraries of Bordeaux and Rouen, amounting to 150,000 volumes; +Troyes and Besançon, 100,000, etc. Few important centres have less than +20,000. These collections have been generally composed of those of the +religious establishments, closed by the Revolution. + +In our time public libraries are augmented by the legal deposit, gifts +of the State, legacies of private persons, and purchases. The legal +deposit in France relates almost exclusively to the National Library, +and proceeds from the measures taken by Henri II. in 1556. Each French +printer has now to deposit a certain number of copies of the works that +he issues, and these volumes go to swell the number of books in the Rue +de Richelieu. At the rate of 30,000 a year, the time is easily +anticipated and very near when the space will be found insufficient. +Some measures will have to be taken. + +Germany, the cradle of printing, was not favoured in the beginning. It +had, however, in the seventeenth century, in Wolfenbüttel, a little town +in the duchy of Brunswick, a curious collection of books, in a detached +building, of which the engraver Merian has preserved for us the +physiognomy; it contained nearly 200,000 volumes, an enormous number for +the time. The rather low rooms were shelved all round; in the middle +were cases of the height of a man, also filled with books; the readers +helped themselves, and were seated for working. The exterior of the +building, without being sumptuous, was isolated and detached. In our +time this collection includes the Bible, glass, and inkstand of Luther +and his portrait by Lucas Cranach. + +Another curious library, dating from the beginning of the seventeenth +century, is that of the city of Leyden. An engraving by Woudan shows its +state in 1610, with its classifications and divisions. The books were +ranged in cases provided with breast-high desks. The books were placed +with the edges in front, and not as now, and were so attached that they +could only be consulted in their place. Each body of shelving contained +a series of authors: theology, philosophy, mathematics, history, +medicine, law, and literature. The room, of square shape, was lighted by +windows right and left. Between the bays were portraits, views of +cities, and maps. On the right, in a shrine, was enclosed the legacy of +Joseph Scaliger. Communication was less liberal than at Wolfenbüttel; +the readers were obliged to take the books from the shelves themselves +and read them standing before the desks. + +In England, the celebrated Oxford Library should be mentioned, augmented +and restored in 1597 by Sir Thomas Bodley, ambassador of Queen +Elizabeth. The generous overtures of this rich gentleman met with +unanimous approbation. He offered to the library of the university the +volumes collected by him during his travels on the Continent, whose +value exceeded £10,000. The first stone of a new building was laid in +1610, but from 1602 the collection was open to readers in a provisional +locality. David Loggan, the engraver, has preserved for us interior +views of the Bodleian of the seventeenth century. The rooms are disposed +in the form of the letter H, with pavilions to east and west, united by +a gallery. The books were and are still in the body of the library, +placed against the walls, with tables and immovable seats. The volumes +were not displaced; they were consulted in their own place. Each room +had two floors, with access to the second by stairs. + +In London it was Hans Sloane who had the idea of founding a great +collection by offering to the State for £20,000 his collection of +books, which was valued at £50,000. Created in 1753 by an Act of +Parliament, the British Museum, as it was named, was quickly augmented +by many private libraries, among which was the library of printed books +and manuscripts collected by the kings of England from Henry VII. to +William III., which was added in the reign of George II. The very +extensive and valuable library of George III., 250,000 volumes, was +added by George IV. The Harleian collection added 7,500 volumes, and +Robert Cotton his manuscripts. To-day the printed books amount to +1,300,000, and are only surpassed by the National Library of France as +well in number of books as in number of readers. This immense collection +increases at a great rate, one source being the compulsory deposit of a +copy of every new book in order to secure copyright. Donations and +legacies are constantly being made, and an annual sum for purchases is +voted by Parliament. Besides the copy deposited by publishers in the +British Museum, the law of copyright compels the deposit of four other +copies, which go to augment the collections of the Bodleian Library of +Oxford, the University Library of Cambridge, and the libraries of +Edinburgh and Dublin. + +If we search among the cities of Europe where establishments of this +kind are most honoured, Berlin will take the third place with 900,000 +printed books and 20,000 manuscripts, preserved in the Imperial Library. +The building, constructed between 1775 and 1780, owes its special form +to Frederick II., who desired that it should take the form of a chest of +drawers. On the façade an inscription in the Latin tongue, but +conceived in German spirit, indicates that here is a spiritual +refectory--_nutrimentum spiritus_. Following come Munich, with 800,000 +printed books; Vienna 400,000; Dresden, 300,000; then the universities: +Leipzig, whose library, founded in 1409 and reorganised in 1830, +contains 150,000 books and 2,000 manuscripts; Heidelberg; Göttingen, +etc. + +In Italy, Florence keeps, in the National Library, 300,000 volumes, +proceeding from various amateurs, and formed since 1860. The collection +of the goldsmith Magliabecchi, that was open to readers since 1747, has +been transported there. Besides this library, Florence possesses the +celebrated Laurentian, created by Cosmo de Medicis in the middle of the +fifteenth century, where are united more than 8,000 manuscripts of an +incalculable value. Milan has at the Brera a collection of 200,000 +printed books and 50,000 medals, and at the Ambrosian, due to Cardinal +Frederick Borromeo, 160,000 printed books and 8,000 manuscripts. + +Rome possesses a dozen collections and celebrated deposits. The Vatican, +not numerous, is most choice; the importance of its manuscripts is known +to the entire world, but only a part of the 50,000 printed books are +catalogued. The Library of Victor Emmanuel, formerly of the Jesuits, +amounts to about 66,000 volumes. At Venice the splendid monument called +the Antiqua Libraria di St. Marco has changed its destination; +constructed in the sixteenth century and commenced by Sansovino for a +library, it is now a royal palace. This city has lost that which had +made its glory, and its collections are very modest in our days. + +The magnificent educational establishments in the form of public +libraries provided in the United States deserve special mention. Nearly +every city has its public library, supported by a small tax; and many +large libraries are wholly supported by private munificence. The first +to be established was founded in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin in +Philadelphia, and still exists as the Library Company; many important +bequests have been made to it, the latest being £200,000 by Dr. Richard +Rush. The library now numbers 150,000 volumes. The Congressional Library +of Washington, besides its annual income from Government, receives by +deposit for copyright a copy of every work published in the United +States; it now has 565,000 volumes. + +The Astor Library and the Lenox Library of New York were both founded +and endowed by the families whose name they bear; the former has 223,284 +volumes, the latter 25,000. The city of Chicago recently fell heir to +the magnificent sum of over one million sterling for the establishment +of a library of reference, and New York was benefited by the late Mr. +Tilden to the extent of £800,000 for a public library. + +When we have named the libraries of St. Petersburg and Moscow for +Russia, Stockholm for Sweden, and the Escurial for Spain, we shall have +mentioned very hastily the most important establishments in the world. +For more than four centuries the love of books has preserved and +fortified itself, and increases each day. If we were to endeavour to +approximately imagine the number of printed books diffused, we should +be frightened at it. It is by miles that to-day are counted the shelves +of the National Library or of the British Museum; and each year the +production is accelerated, as is also the number of readers. + + +THE END. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Albi, first printer at, 47. + + Alciati, books of emblems, 126. + + Alding, Henry, printer in Sicily, 35. + + Aldus Manutius, son-in-law of Torresani, 51; + printer in Venice, 99, 103, 128; + books for Grolier, 260. + + America, North, printing in, 216. + + Antwerp, early printing at, 67; + Plantin, 140. + + _Ars Memorandi_, block book, 10. + + _Ars Moriendi_, block book, 8. + + Asola, Andrew d', successor of Jenson, 50. + + Audran, C., engraver, 158. + + Augsburg, _Formschneiders_ at, 58. + + + Badier, Florimond, bookbinder, 280. + + Badius, Jodocus, printer in Paris, 122, 246. + + Baldini, designs for early Italian books, 54. + + Ballard, printer for music, 186. + + Bamberg, early printing at, 25, 29. + + Barcelona, first printer, 36. + + Bartolozzi, engraver, 209. + + Baskerville, printer of Birmingham, 208. + + Basle, first printer, 36; + school of engraving, 125. + + Beaujoyeux, Balthasar de, _Ballet Comique_, 136. + + Bechtermuncze, Henry, pupil of Gutenberg, 25, 36. + + Bedford, Francis, bookbinder, 288. + + Belfort, Andrew, printer at Ferrara, 35. + + Berlin, Imperial Library of, 301. + + Bernard, _le petit_, designer, 128. + + Bewick, Thomas, engraver, 209, 213, 225, 234. + + Bible, Gutenberg's, 15, 20; + of 1462, the Mayence, 27; + first English, 146; + Authorised Version, 182; + the Polyglot, Plantin's, 141; + Richelieu's, 173. + + _Biblia Pauperum_, block book, 8. + + Bignon, Jerome, royal librarian, 293. + + Binding, early, 253. + + Biziaux, bookbinder, 287. + + Blind Asylum, printers in 1786, 216. + + Bocard, Andrew, printer in Paris, 88. + + Bodleian Library, 300. + + Bohn, H. G., publisher, 223. + + Bologna, Francisco da, engraver of type, 100. + + Bonhomme, printer in Lyons, 128. + + Book, the, earliest forms of, 1, 6. + + Books of Hours, 70, 112; + for English use, 147. + + Booksellers of Paris, 170, 186, 190, 196. + + Bosse, Abraham, engraver, 170. + + Botticelli, plates to Dante, 55. + + Boucher, designer, 188. + + Bourdichon, John, artist, 69. + + Boydell, Alderman, publisher, 210. + + Boyet, bookbinder, 287. + + Brandt's "Ship of Fools," 65. + + British Museum, library, 301. + + Brothers of Common Life, printers, 1468, 36. + + Browne, H. K., book illustrator, 235. + + Bruges, early printing at, 37, 67. + + Buckinck, Arnold, printer at + Rome, printed the first atlas, 55. + + Budé, Guillaume, royal librarian, 291. + + + Cæsaris, Peter, and John Stol, second Paris printers, 68. + + Callot, engraver, 167. + + Cambridge, first printing at, 149. + + Cars, Laurent, engraver, 189. + + Cases for type, 243. + + Caslon, William, type-founder, 208. + + Catherine de Medicis, bindings for, 270. + + "Catholicon," the, of 1460, printed by Gutenberg, 23. + + Caxton, William, first English printer, 37, 92, 240. + + Cazin, publisher, 200. + + Cerceau, _Bastiments de France_, 1576, 135. + + Chaillot, Robin, publisher in Paris, 82. + + Challeux, James le, wood engraver, 137. + + Chamot, bookbinder, 287. + + _Champfleury_, Geoffroy Tory's, 116, 261. + + Characters, variety of, 243. + + Charles VII. sends Jenson to Mayence, 38. + + Charles VIII., royal library, 291. + + Charles IX., bindings for, 274. + + Charles of Angoulême, books specially printed for him, 78. + + Chauveau, Francis, engraver, 179. + + Chess, Caxton's book on, 92. + + Chodowiecki, engraver, 208. + + Choffard, engraver, 198, 211. + + Clement V., _Constitutiones_, 1460, printed by Schoeffer, 26. + + Clément, Nicholas, royal librarian, 294. + + Clennell, Luke, wood engraver, 215, 225, 234. + + Cochin the younger, engraver, 191. + + Colbert, bindings for, 272, 282. + + Collines, Simon de, type-founder, 241. + + Cologne, first printer, 36. + + "Cologne Chronicle," 58. + + Colonna, Francis, Poliphilus of, 1499, 56; + in French, 1545, 123. + + Colophons, use of, by early printers, 88. + + Commin, Vincent, bookseller in Paris, 82. + + Companies of printers in France, 165. + + Copper plate engraving, 135; + in England, 149. + + Coster, Laurent, alleged inventor of printing, 6, 30. + + Cousin, John, designs for books, 132. + + Cramoisy, Sebastian, printer of Paris, 155, 165; + director of bindings for Louis XIV., 281. + + Cranach, Lucas, his _Passional Christi_, 106. + + Cranmer's Catechism, 1548, 148. + + Cruikshank, George, book illustrator, 235. + + Curmer, publisher of Paris, 230. + + + Dances of death, 58, 72, 85, 124. + + Dante, 1481, with engraved plates, 54; + 1491, with Botticelli plates, 55; + 1487, printed by Bonnini, 58. + + Day, John, printer, 146. + + Della Bella, engraver, 168. + + Deromes, bookbinders, 286. + + Desportes, Philip, bindings for, 272. + + Devéria, engraver, 227. + + Dibdin, T. F., bibliographical works, 223. + + Didot, François, printer of Paris, 194. + + Didot, Pierre F., printer of Paris, 216, 219. + + Didot family, 218, 242. + + Dijon, first printer at, 47. + + Diodorus Siculus, Geoffroy Tory's edition, 118. + + Donatus, the Latin syntax of, 4, 30. + + Doré, Gustave, influence on illustration, 234. + + Doyle, Richard, book illustrator, 235. + + Dritzehen, Andrew, associate of Gutenberg, 13. + + Dubois, Gilles, bookbinder, 281. + + Dubuisson, Peter Paul, bookbinder, 286. + + Duchesne on wood engraving, 225. + + Duplat, relief engraving on stone, 213. + + Duplessis-Bertaux, engraver, 206. + + Du Pré, John, printer of Books of Hours, 80. + + Dupuy brothers, bindings for, 272, 282; + royal librarians, 293. + + Durand's _Rationale_, 1459, printed by Schoeffer, 26. + + Dürer, Albert, pupil of Wohlgemuth, 60; + "Apocalypse," 62, 104; + influence on Geoffroy Tory, 116. + + Duseuil, bookbinder, 287. + + + Eisen, engraver, 196. + + Eltvil, first printer, 36. + + Elzevirs, printers at Leyden, 162. + + Emblems, books of, 126, 135. + + England, bookbinding in, 288; + public libraries, 300. + + English books, in the fifteenth century, 92; + in the sixteenth century, 144; + seventeenth century, 181; + eighteenth century, 208; + nineteenth century, 222, 234; + school of engraving eighteenth century, 209. + + Engraved plates, first book with, 52; + in France, 134, 190. + + Engravers, employed by Plantin, 142; + in relief, the first, 3. + + Engraving, introduction of metal plates for, 32; + the process, 52; + in the Books of Hours, 71. + + Erasmus, visit to Aldus, 101. + + Estienne, Robert, printer in Paris, 121, 242. + + Etching, process of, 189. + + Eustache, William, printer of Books of Hours, 82. + + Eve, Nicholas, bookbinder, 274. + + + Ferrara, first printer, 35. + + Fichet, William, ascribes invention of printing to Gutenberg, 31. + + Flemish, illustration, 66; + printers, early, 36, 106. + + Florence, National Library of, 302. + + Foligno, first printer, 35. + + Fontainebleau school of engraving, 128. + + Fornazeris, J. de, engraver, 158. + + Foucquet, John, artist, 69. + + Fount of type, 243. + + Fouquet, Superintendent, bindings for, 272, 282. + + Fournier, type-engraver, 242. + + France, early printing in, 47. + + Francis I., father of letters, 120; + bindings for, 266; + royal library, 291. + + Frankfort, books of the seventeenth century, 159. + + Franklin, Benjamin, printer at Philadelphia, 217; + founded first American public library, 303. + + French book illustration, 68, 76, 106, 166, 203; + provinces, public libraries of, 298. + + Fresne, Trichet du, corrector of Royal Printing House, 166. + + Furne, publisher of Paris, 232. + + Fust, John, 12 _et seq_.; + in partnership with Gutenberg, 15. + + + Garamond, Claude, type-founder, 121, 166, 241. + + Gaultier, Leonard, engraver, 142, 154. + + Gavarni, designer, 233. + + Ged, William, inventor of stereotype, 220. + + Gering, Freyburger, and Crantz, first printers in Paris, 41. + + German books, in the seventeenth century, 158; + eighteenth century, 208; + nineteenth century, 224. + + German public libraries, 299. + + Gigoux, John, vignettist, 228. + + Gillot, Claude, engraver, 180, 186. + + Giunta, Lucantonio, printer at Venice, 102. + + Gondi, bindings for, 272. + + Gourmont, John de, wood engraver, 137. + + Grandjean, Philip, royal printer, 242. + + Grandville, designer, 233. + + Gravelot, Hubert Francis, engraver, 196, 213. + + Grolier, John, bindings for, 256. + + Guadagnino, artist of Venice, 102. + + Guise, Henri de, "Le Balafré," bindings for, 274. + + Gutenberg, John, 12 _et seq_.; + at Mayence, 15; + death of, 29. + + + Haarlem, book illustration at, 67. + + Hachette, publisher of Paris, 234. + + Hagenbach, Peter, printer at Toledo, 36. + + Hahn, Ulrich, printer at Rome, 35; + printed first illustrated book in Italy, 48. + + Hardouins, printers of Books of Hours, 82. + + Haye, Cornelis de la, painter, 130. + + Heilmann, Andrew, associate of Gutenberg, 13. + + Heinlein and Fichet introduce printing into Paris, 40. + + Henri II., _Entrée à Lyon_, 1549, 130; + bindings for, 270; + royal library, 292. + + Henri III., bindings for, 274. + + Henri IV., royal library, 292. + + Hoe printing machines, 249. + + Holbein, "Dance of Death," 86, 124; + Cranmer's Catechism, 148. + + Holland, artists in the seventeenth century, 160. + + + Illustrations, first, in books, 47; + in the sixteenth century, 123. + + Imposition, process of, 245. + + Ink, composition of, 252. + + Ipswich, first printer, 149. + + Isaac, Jasper, engraver, 156. + + Italian, books in the seventeenth century, 159; + influence on French illustration, 125; + on bindings, 256. + + Italic type introduced, 100. + + Italy, public libraries of, 302. + + + Jenson, Nicholas, sent to Mayence to learn type-founding, 38; + printer at Venice, 38, 103. + + Johannot brothers, engravers, 227. + + John of Cologne, master _à la navette_, 67. + + Jombert, printer of Paris, 192. + + Junius, Hadrian, narrator of the Coster legend, 6, 12. + + + Kerver, Thielman, printer of Books of Hours, 80, 88. + + Knight, Charles, publisher, 223. + + Koburger, first printer at Nuremberg, 36, 60. + + Koelhof, first printer to use signatures, 36. + + + Labarre, John de, royal librarian, 291. + + Laborde, _Chansons_, 202. + + Laferté, bookbinder, 287. + + La Fontaine, the _Contes_, 198. + + La Marche, Oliver de, his _Chevalier Delibéré_, 67. + + Laserre, luxury in bindings for, 278. + + La Tour, bookbinder, 281. + + Lavoignat, wood engraver, 230. + + Lebé, William, type-founder, 140, 242. + + Le Brun, painter, 175. + + Leclerc, Sébastien, engraver, 176. + + Leech, John, book illustrator, 235. + + Leeu, Gerard de, printer at Antwerp, 67. + + Le Gascon bindings, 276. + + Le Jay and the Polyglot Bible, 173. + + Le Maire, John, _Illustrations de la Gaule_, 107. + + Le Monnier, bookbinder, 287. + + Lenoir, Philip, bindings for Francis I., 268. + + Lepautre, engraver, 179. + + Lesné, poet of bookbinding, 287. + + Letters of Indulgence, the first printed, 17. + + Lettou, John, early English printer, 95. + + Leu, Thomas de, engraver, 142, 154. + + Levasseur, bookbinder, 281. + + Lewis, Charles, bookbinder, 288. + + Leyden, the Elzevirs at, 162; + public library of, 299. + + Libraries, 290. + + Library, National, of Paris, 291. + + Lipsius, Justus, employed by Plantin, 140. + + Logography, invention of, 216. + + Lorenzo, Nicholas di, printer of _El Monte Santo di Dio_, first book + with engraved plates, 52. + + Loslein, Peter, printer at Venice, 35. + + Louis XII., ordinance on printing, 108; + bindings for, 256, 264; + royal library, 291. + + Louis XIV., bindings for, 281; + regulations for bookbinders, 282. + + Louvain, printer in 1474, 37. + + Lutzelburger, Hans, engraver of "Dance of Death," 125. + + Lyons, first printing at, 47; + in the sixteenth century, 124; + seventeenth century, 158. + + + Machlinia, William, early English printer, 37, 95. + + Macon, first printer at, 47. + + _Magasin Pittoresque_, 226. + + Mainyal, George, associate of Gering, 47. + + Maioli, Thomas, bindings for, 259. + + Mansfeldt, Count, bindings for, 272. + + Mansion, Colard, printer at Bruges, 1473, 37. + + Manuscripts, influence of printing upon, 34. + + Manutius. See Aldus. + + Marchant, Guyot, his "Dance of Death," 86; + bindings for Francis I., 268. + + Marinoni printing press, 249. + + Marnef, Geoffroy and Gilbert, French printers, 107. + + Mayence, revolution at, in 1462, 27; + printing in the seventeenth century, 158. + + Mayer, Henry, printer at Toulouse, 47. + + Mazarin, Cardinal, bindings for, 280; + his library, 293. + + Meissonier, designer on wood, 230. + + Mellan, Claude, engraver, 156. + + Menzel, Adolph, book illustrator, 224. + + _Mer des Histoires_, 1488, 70, 107. + + Mérius, bookbinder, 281. + + Meslier, Denis, publisher in Paris, 82. + + Metal plates used for illustration, 134. + + Metlinger, printer at Dijon, 47. + + Milan, printing in the sixteenth + century, 103; + public libraries of, 302. + + Montenay, Georgette de, his emblems, 135. + + Monteregio, _Calendario_, first book with title-page, 50. + + Montmorency, Anne de, bindings for, 272. + + Moreau the younger, engraver, 200. + + Moretus, printer of Antwerp, 141. + + Mosaic bindings, 284. + + Motte, Houdart de la, his "Fables," 186. + + + Necker, Jost, engraver of the _Theuerdanck_, 105. + + Neumeister, John, printer at Albi, 47. + + Neumeister, John, printer at Foligno, 35. + + Nevers, Duc de, book published in 1577, 138. + + Notary, Julian, early English printer, 96. + + Noyers, Sublet de, superintendent of Royal Printing House, 166. + + Nuremberg, first printer, 36; + books of the sixteenth century, 104; + Chronicle, 1493, 62; + books of the seventeenth century, 159. + + + Orleans, public library at, 298. + + Os, Peter van, his _Biblia Pauperum_, 67. + + Oswen, John, first printer at Ipswich, 149. + + Oxford, first printer, 37; + Bodleian Library, 300. + + + Palermo, first printer, 35. + + Palmart, Lambert, printer at Valencia, 1477, 36. + + Pannartz, Arnold, printer at Rome, 35. + + Paper, manufacture of, 249. + + Papillons, wood engravers, 212. + + Paris, Fust's visit to, 27; + first book printed at, 42; + public libraries of, 298. + + Pasdeloup, bookbinder, 284. + + Pasquier-Bonhomme, printer in Paris, 68. + + Pass family, engravers, 160. + + Pasti, Matteo, designs for Valturius, 49. + + Paulin, publisher of Paris, 228. + + Payne, Roger, bookbinder, 288. + + Perréal, John, artist, 69. + + Pfinzfing, _Theuerdanck_, 104. + + Pfister, Albert, printer of Bamberg, 25. + + Philippe, Laurent, publisher in Paris, 82. + + Photography, use in illustration, 233. + + Picart, Bernard, engraver, 180. + + Picart, John, engraver, 156. + + Piccini, engraver, 159. + + Pickering, William, publisher, 223. + + Pictor, Bernard, printer of Venice, 35. + + Pigouchet, Philip, printer of Paris, 68, 70. + + Plantin, Christopher, printer of Antwerp, 140. + + Pluvinel, _Manège Royal_, 160. + + Poitiers, Diane de, bindings for, 270. + + Poliphilus, printed by Aldus, 1499, 56; + by Kerver, 1545, 123. + + Polytypes, invention of, 216. + + Pompadour, Madame de, bindings for, 272. + + Portraits as illustrations, 89, 123, 137. + + Prault, publisher of Paris, 192. + + Prayer-book, Queen Elizabeth's, 146; + Edward VI's., 148. + + Presses, printing, 248. + + Press work, process of, 246. + + Printers' marks, 87. + + Prohibitions on printers, 152, 185. + + _Promptuaire des Médailles_, printed by Roville, 130. + + Psalter of 1457, the first dated book, 23. + + Ptolemy, 1478, first printed atlas, 55. + + Pynson, Richard, early English printer, 37, 95, 146. + + + Racine, works, the Louvre edition, 219. + + Raffet, wood engraver, 232. + + Ratdolt, Erhardt, printer at Venice, 35; + printed first title-page, 50, 103. + + Rembold, Berthold, associate of Gering, 47. + + Richelieu, Cardinal, his library, 297. + + Roffet, Peter, bindings for Francis I., 267. + + Rogers, Samuel, his poetical works, 222. + + Roman character, 38, 240. + + Rome, first printers, 35; + public libraries of, 302. + + Rood, Theod., first printer at Oxford, 37. + + Roville, printer of Lyons, 128, 130. + + Royal Printing House in Paris, 166, 215. + + Royer, John le, printer for mathematics, 1560, 132. + + Ruette, bookbinder, 282. + + Rüppel, Berthold, first printer at Basle, 36. + + + St. Albans, first printer, 37. + + St. Aubin, designer and engraver, 192, 200. + + St. Pierre, Bernardin de, and the Didots, 221. + + Salomon, Bernard, designer, 128. + + Sanlecque, James, type-founder, 242. + + Schäufelein, designs for the _Theuerdanck_, 105. + + Schiedam, early printing at, 67. + + Schoeffer, Peter, associate of Gutenberg and Fust, 16. + + Schongauer, Martin, influence on French art, 72. + + Schönsperger, printer of Augsburg, 105. + + Séguier, bindings for, 282. + + Siberch, John, first printer at Cambridge, 149. + + Sicily, first printer, 35. + + Sizes of books, 147, 189. + + Sloane, Sir Hans, founder of the British Museum, 300. + + Smirke, Robert, book illustrator, 210. + + Southwark, first printer at, 149. + + Spain, book illustration in, 106. + + _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, 7. + + Spindeler, Nicholas, printer at Barcelona, 36. + + Spire, John and Vendelin of, printers at Venice, 35. + + Spyes, Weigand, pupil of Gutenberg, 25. + + Stanhope press, 248. + + Steel plates for illustrations, 232. + + Stereotype, invention of, 220. + + Stothard, Thomas, book illustrator, 210, 222, 234. + + Strasbourg, Gutenberg's retreat to, 13. + + Sweynheim, Conrad, printer at Rome, 35. + + + _Tailleurs d'images_ of the Middle Ages, 3. + + Tauchnitz, Baron, publisher of Leipzig, 224. + + Tessier, bookbinder, 287. + + Ther-Hoenen, Arnold, first printer using Arabic numerals for pages, + 36, 58, 88. + + _Theuerdanck_, printed at Nuremberg, 104. + + Thevet, books with plates, 135. + + Thompson brothers, wood engravers, 225. + + Thou, James Augustus de, royal librarian, 293. + + Titian, influence on book illustration, 103. + + Title-page, the first, 50, 86; + illustrated, 133, 142. + + Toledo, first printer, 36. + + Tornes, Hans de, printer in Lyons, 128. + + Torresani, Andrea, succeeded Jenson, 50. + + Tortorel and Perrissin, plates on the religious wars, 137. + + Tory, Geoffroy, printer and engraver, 110, 241, 261. + + Toulouse, first printer, 47. + + Travel, books of, 148, 182. + + Treschel, John, printer at Lyons, 88, 124. + + Treves, Peter of, first printer at Southwark, 149. + + Trithemius, account of Peter Schoeffer, 16. + + Turner, J. M. W., designs for Rogers' works, 222. + + Type-founding, 239, 243. + + + United States, printing in, 216; + public libraries in, 302. + + Utrecht, early printers at, 36, 67. + + + Valdarfer, Christopher, printer at Venice, 35. + + Valencia, first printer, 36. + + Valladier, Andrew, _Métanéologie_, 155. + + Valturius, _De Re Militari_, 1472, 49. + + Veldener, John, printer at Louvain, 67. + + Venice, first printers, 35; + first title-page printed at, 50; + sixteenth century work, 102; + seventeenth century, 159; + libraries of, 302. + + Verard, Antony, printer in Paris, 68, 76; + his Books of Hours, 78. + + Versailles, printing office of the Minister for War, 215. + + Vinci, Leonardo da, influence on book illustration, 103. + + Vitré, Antoine, publisher of Paris, 172. + + Voragine, "Golden Legend," Venice, 1518, 103. + + Vostre, Simon, printer in Paris, 68; + his Books of Hours, 70. + + Vyel, Andrew, printer at Palermo, 35. + + + Walchius, story of Fust's visit to Paris, 28. + + Walter, John, printer of the _Times_, 216, 249. + + Water marks in paper, 251. + + Watervliet, Marc Laurin de, bindings for, 272. + + Watteau, engraver, 187. + + Wechel, printer in Paris, 128. + + Wensler, Michael, printer at Macon, 47. + + Westminster, Caxton first printer at, 37. + + Westphalia, John of, printer at Louvain, 1474, 37, 67. + + Whittingham, Charles, printer, 223. + + Woériot, Peter, engraver of emblems, 135. + + Wohlgemuth, Michael, designs for the _Schatzbehalter_, 60. + + Wolfenbüttel, public library of, 299. + + Woodcuts, first book printed with, 48. + + Wood engraving, revival of, 209, 213, 230. + + Wynken de Worde, early English printer, 37, 95. + + + Xylographs of the fifteenth century, 8. + + + Zainer, Gunther, printer at Augsburg, 58. + + Zell, Ulrich, pupil of Gutenberg, 25, 30, 36. + + Zwoll, book illustration at, 67. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +In this text version, symbols and Greek letters in the text are replaced +by their name, enclosed in square brackets, e.g. [phi], [double cross]. +In addition, oe ligatures are replaced with the letters oe, and +superscripts are introduced with the caret character, e.g. XVIII^e + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Printed Book, by Henri Bouchot + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44890 *** |