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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/71634-0.txt b/71634-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c634a1a --- /dev/null +++ b/71634-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8319 @@ + +The Project Gutenberg eBook of In quest of the perfect book + +This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online +at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, +you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located +before using this eBook. + + +Title: In quest of the perfect book + +Subtitle: Reminiscences & reflections of a bookman + +Author: William Dana Orcutt + +Release Date: September 14, 2023 [eBook #71634] + +Language: English + +Credits: Terry Jeffress, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was + produced from images generously made available by The Internet + Archive/American Libraries.) + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK +*** + + + + + + _IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK_ + + + + + A book is a portion of the eternal mind + caught in its progress through the world + stamped in an instant, and preserved for + eternity.--_Lord Houghton_ (1809-1885) + + + + +[Illustration: QUEEN MARY’S PSALTER, English, 14th Century + +_The Last Judgement_ + +(Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii, 11 × 7 inches)] + + + + + IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK + + REMINISCENCES + & REFLECTIONS + OF A BOOKMAN + + WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT + + + [Illustration: William Dana Orcutt’s printer’s mark] + + + PUBLISHED · MCMXXVI · BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY + + + + + Copyright, 1926, _by_ Little, Brown + and Company · _All rights reserved_ + + ·.· + + Printed in the United States of America + Published September, 1926 + + ·.· + + Reprinted October, 1926 + Reprinted November, 1926 + + + + + THE AUTHOR is indebted to the _Atlantic Monthly_ + for permission to reprint as the first chapter + of this volume an essay which originally + appeared in that magazine; to the _Christian + Science Monitor_ for permission to use, in + quite different form, certain material which + has been drawn upon in literary editorials + written by him for its columns; to Alban + Dobson, _Esq._, G. Bernard Shaw, _Esq._, Henry + James, _Esq._, _Mrs._ Anne Cobden-Sanderson, + and others, for permission to print personal + letters and photographs. + + + + + _To_ ITALY + That great Country whose Master-Spirits + in Art, Typography, and Literature + have contributed most toward + THE PERFECT BOOK + this Volume is Dedicated + + + + + FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION + + +Years ago, I prepared what seemed to me a splendid Foreword to my first +novel, and was much chagrined when I was urged to leave it out. At the +time, the comment that came with the advice seemed a bit brutal: “A +Foreword is an admission on the part of an author that he has failed to +tell his story, or is an insult to the intelligence of his readers.” +Since then my own feelings have come in such complete accord that the +request of my publishers for a Foreword to this Third Edition comes +as a surprise. But, after all, this is not my story, but the story of +the Book, so, as recorder, I must recognize my responsibility. I have +claimed that this story was Romance, but since writing it, Romance has +allied itself to Drama, for the Gutenberg Bible, a copy of which sold +in February for a record price of $120,000, in September achieved the +stupendous value of $305,000! Surely the Book has come into its own! + +After devoting a lifetime to printing as an art, I have naturally +been gratified to discover that so large and friendly an army of +readers exists to whom books mean something more than paper and type +and binders’ boards. To many of my readers, the ideas advanced in this +volume apparently have been novel, but appealing: “I have been over the +books in my library,” writes one, “and find many that now take on new +significance.” Another says, “I feel that I have missed much, all these +years, in not knowing how fascinating the story of the Book itself +really is.” Then there are those who are good enough to say that the +story of my adventures has helped to place the art of printing where it +rightfully belongs. + +Some of my reviewers and some correspondents seem seriously to think +that I believe the Quest to be ended. Think of the tragedy of having so +alluring an adventure become an accomplished fact,--even granting that +it were possible! Where is the Perfect Book to be found? In the words +of the author or in the heart of the reader? In the design of a type +or in the skill of the typographer or the binder? In the charm of the +paper or in the beauty of the illumination or illustration? It must, of +course, be in the harmonious combination of all of these, but the words +of an author which find a place in one reader’s heart fail to interest +another; the design of a type that is appropriate to one book is not +equally expressive in all. + +The word _perfection_ has no place in our language except as an +incentive. To search for it is an absorbing adventure, for it quickens +our senses to perceive much that would otherwise be lost. If perfection +could become commonplace, the Quest would end,--and God pity the world! +Until then each of us will define the Perfect Book in his own words, +each of us will seek it in his own way. + +A writer _may_ be born who combines the wisdom of Solomon, the +power of analysis of Henry James, the understanding of Plato, the +philosophy of Emerson, and the style of Montaigne. This manuscript +_may_ be transformed into a book by a printer who can look beyond +his cases of type, and interpret what Aldus, and Jenson, and Etienne, +and Plantin saw, with the artistic temperament of William Morris and +the restraint of Cobden-Sanderson. There _may_ be a binding that +represents the apotheosis of Italian, French, and English elegance. +A reader _may_ be developed through the evolution of the ages +competent to appreciate the contents and the physical _format_ +of such a volume, “for what we really seek is a comparison of +experiences.” + +Until then the Quest will continue, going constantly onward and upward. +Its lure will keep us from slipping back upon false satisfaction and a +placid but--shall I say?--a dangerous contemplation of the humanistic +idyll. + + _William Dana Orcutt_ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I. IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK 1 + Gutenberg + Aldus Manutius + Guido Biagi + Ceriani + Pope Pius XI + Sir Sidney Colvin + + II. THE KINGDOM OF BOOKS 35 + Eugene Field + John Wilson + Mary Baker Eddy + Bernard Shaw + + III. FRIENDS THROUGH TYPE 73 + Horace Fletcher + Henry James + William James + Theodore Roosevelt + T. J. Cobden-Sanderson + + IV. THE LURE OF ILLUMINATION 109 + Byzantine Psalter + Lindisfarne Gospels + Alcuin Bible + Golden Gospels of St. Médard + Psalter of St. Louis + Queen Mary’s Psalter + Bedford Book of Hours + Grimani Breviary + Antiquities of the Jews + Hours of Francesco d’Antonio + Hours of Anne of Brittany + + V. FRIENDS THROUGH THE PEN 151 + Maurice Hewlett + Austin Dobson + Richard Garnett + Mark Twain + Charles Eliot Norton + William Dean Howells + + VI. TRIUMPHS OF TYPOGRAPHY 191 + The Beginnings. Germany--The _Gutenberg Bible_ + Supremacy of Italy + Nicolas Jenson: Augustinus: _De Civitate Dei_ + Aldus Manutius: _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ + Supremacy of France + Robert Étienne: The _Royal Greeks_ + Supremacy of the Netherlands + Christophe Plantin: The _Biblia Polyglotta_ + The Elzevirs: _Terence_ + Supremacy of England + John Baskerville: _Virgil_ + Supremacy of France (second) + The Didots: _Racine_ + Supremacy of England (second) + William Morris: The _Kelmscott Chaucer_ + Cobden-Sanderson: The _Doves Bible_ + + VII. THE SPELL of the LAURENZIANA 271 + + INDEX 301 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + English Illumination, 14th Century. From _Queen Mary’s + Psalter_, Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii + (in colors and gold) _Frontis._ + + John Gutenberg. From Engraving by Alphonse Descaves. + Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris page 6 + + Aldus Manutius. From Engraving at the British Museum 10 + + _Dott. Comm._ Guido Biagi. Seated at one of the + _plutei_ in the Laurenziana Library, Florence (1906) 14 + + Hand-written Humanistic Characters. From Sinibaldi’s + _Virgil_, 1485. Laurenziana Library, Florence 16 + + Specimen Page of proposed Edition of Dante. To be printed by + Bertieri, of Milan, in Humanistic Type 19 + + Jenson’s Roman Type. From Cicero: _Rhetorica_, Venice, 1470 22 + + Emery Walker’s Doves Type. From _Paradise Regained_, + London, 1905 23 + + Autograph Letter from Charles Eliot Norton 31 + + Illuminated Page of Petrarch’s _Triumphs_. Set in Humanistic + Type designed by the Author 32 + + Autograph Page of Eugene Field Manuscript. From _Second Book of + Verse_, New York, 1892 39 + + Autograph Verse in Field’s own Copy of _Trumpet and Drum_ 41 + + John Wilson in 1891. Master-Printer 42 + + Page of Horace Fletcher Manuscript 77 + + Giambattista Bodoni. From Engraving at the Bibliothèque + Nationale, Paris 78 + + The Bodoni Letter compared with the Didot Letter 81 + + Horace Fletcher in 1915 82 + + Autograph Letter from Henry James to Horace Fletcher 87 + + Mirror Title. From Augustinus: _Opera._ 1485. Laurenziana + Library, Florence 94 + + T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. From Etching by Alphonse Legros, 1893 96 + + Carved Ivory Binding, Jeweled with Rubies and Turquoises. From + _Psalter_ (12th Century). Brit. Mus. Eger. MS. 1139 112 + + Byzantine Illumination (11th Century). _Psalter_ in Greek. + Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19352 118 + + Celtic Illumination (8th Century). _Lindisfarne Gospels._ + Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Nero D. iv 124 + + Carolingian Handwriting (9th Century). _Alcuin Bible._ + Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 10546 126 + + Carolingian Illumination (9th Century). _Golden Gospels of + St. Médard._ Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 8850 128 + + Gothic Illumination (13th Century). Miniature Page from the + _Psalter of St. Louis_. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525 130 + + Gothic Illumination (13th Century). Text Page from the + _Psalter of St. Louis_. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525 132 + + English Illumination (14th Century). _Queen Mary’s Psalter._ + Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B. vii 134 + + French Illumination (15th Century). _Bedford Book of Hours._ + Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18850 136 + + French Renaissance Illumination (15th Century). _Antiquities + of the Jews._ Bibl. Nat. MS. Français 247 138 + + Flemish Illumination (15th Century). Miniature Page from the + _Grimani Breviary_. Bibl. S. Marco, Venice 142 + + Flemish Illumination (15th Century). Text Page from the + _Grimani Breviary_. Bibl. S. Marco, Venice 144 + + Italian Illumination (15th Century). _Book of Hours_, by + Francesco d’Antonio. R. Lau. Bibl. Ashb. 1874 146 + + French Illumination (16th Century). Miniature from _Hours of + Anne of Brittany_. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474 148 + + French Illumination (16th Century). Text Page from _Hours of + Anne of Brittany_. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474 150 + + Order for Payment of 1050 _livres tournois_ to Jean Bourdichon + for the _Hours of Anne of Brittany_, 1508 152 + + Autograph Letter from Maurice Hewlett 161 + + Autograph Poem by Austin Dobson 167 + + Mark Twain. At the Villa di Quarto, Florence, 1904. + From a Snap-shot 170 + + Autograph Letter from Mark Twain. With Snap-shot of Villa di + Quarto 172 + + Autograph Letter from William Dean Howells 185 + + Part of a Page from the Vellum Copy of the _Gutenberg Bible_. + Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 195 + + Rubricator’s Mark at end of First Volume of a Defective Copy of + the _Gutenberg Bible_, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 196 + + Rubricator’s Mark at end of Second Volume of a Defective Copy of + the _Gutenberg Bible_, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 197 + + Gutenberg, Fust, Coster, Aldus Manutius, Froben. From Engraving + by Jacob Houbraken (1698-1780) 198 + + John Fust. From an Old Engraving 199 + + Device and _Explicit_ of Nicolas Jenson 203 + + Jenson’s Gothic Type. From Augustinus: _De Civitate Dei_, + Venice, 1475 205 + + Device of Aldus Manutius 208 + + Grolier in the Printing Office of Aldus. After Painting by + François Flameng. Through Courtesy the Grolier Club, New + York City 208 + + Text Page from Aldus’ _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, Venice, 1499 211 + + Illustrated Page from Aldus’ _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, + Venice, 1499 212 + + Grolier Binding. Castiglione: Cortegiano. Aldine Press, 1518. + Laurenziana Library, Florence 212 + + Grolier Binding. Capella: _L’Anthropologia._ Aldine Press, + 1533. Laurenziana Library, Florence 214 + + Robert Étienne. From Engraving by Étienne Johandier Desrochers + (c. 1661-1741) 217 + + Title Page showing Étienne’s _Royal Greeks_, Paris, 1550 220 + + Text Page Showing Étienne’s Roman Face 222 + + Text Page showing Étienne’s _Royal Greeks_, from _Novum Jesu + Christi D. N. Testamentum_, Paris, 1550 222 + + Christophe Plantin. From Engraving by Edme de Boulonois (c. 1550) 225 + + Title Page of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, Antwerp, 1568 228 + + Page of Preface of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, Antwerp, + 1568 229 + + Text Pages of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, Antwerp, 1568 230 + + Second Page of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, Antwerp, 1568 232 + + Device of Christophe Plantin 236 + + Title Page of Elzevir’s _Terence_, Leyden, 1635 241 + + Text Pages of Elzevir’s _Terence_, Leyden, 1635 242 + + John Baskerville 244 + + Title Page of Baskerville’s _Virgil_, Birmingham, 1757 247 + + Text Page of Baskerville’s _Virgil_, Birmingham, 1757 249 + + Engraving from Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801. By Prud’hon 253 + + Title Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801 253 + + Opening Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801 255 + + Text Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801 256 + + Firmin Didot. From Engraving by Pierre Gustave Eugène Staal + (1817-1882) 256 + + William Morris. From Portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., in + the National Portrait Gallery, London. Painted in 1880 258 + + Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. From a Photograph at the British + Museum 260 + + Text Page of _Kelmscott Chaucer_, 1896 262 + + Title Page of _Doves Bible_, London, 1905 265 + + Text Page of _Doves Bible_, London, 1905 267 + + The _Sala Michelangiolo_, in the Laurenziana Library, + Florence 276 + + _Dott. Comm._ Guido Biagi, in 1924 278 + + Vestibule of the Laurenziana Library, Florence 280 + + Miniature Page from the _Biblia Amiatina_, R. Lau. Bibl. + Cod. Amiatinus I 288 + + Antonio Magliabecchi 293 + + Library Slips used by George Eliot while working on _Romola_ + in Magliabecchian Library, Florence 296 + + + + + I + + IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK + + +“Here is a fine volume,” a friend remarked, handing me a copy of _The +Ideal Book_, written and printed by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves +Press. + +“It is,” I assented readily, turning the leaves, and enjoying the +composite beauty of the careful typography, and the perfect impression +upon the soft, handmade paper with the satisfaction one always feels +when face to face with a work of art. “Have you read it?” + +“Why--no,” he answered. “I picked it up in London, and they told me it +was a rare volume. You don’t necessarily read rare books, do you?” + +My friend is a cultivated man, and his attitude toward his latest +acquisition irritated me; yet after thirty years of similar +disappointments I should not have been surprised. How few, even among +those interested in books, recognize the fine, artistic touches +that constitute the difference between the commonplace and the +distinguished! The volume under discussion was written by an authority +foremost in the art of bookmaking; its producer was one of the few +great master-printers and binders in the history of the world; yet the +only significance it possessed to its owner was the fact that some one +in whom he had confidence had told him it was rare! Being rare, he +coveted the treasure, and acquired it with no greater understanding +than if it had been a piece of Chinese jade. + +“What makes you think this is a fine book?” I inquired, deliberately +changing the approach. + +He laughed consciously. “It cost me nine guineas--and I like the looks +of it.” + +Restraint was required not to say something that might have affected +our friendship unpleasantly, and friendship is a precious thing. + +“Do something for me,” I asked quietly. “That is a short book. Read +it through, even though it is rare, and then let us continue this +conversation we have just begun.” + +A few days later he invited me to dine with him at his club. “I asked +you here,” he said, “because I don’t want any one, even my family, to +hear what I am going to admit to you. I have read that book, and I’d +rather not know what you thought of my consummate ignorance of what +really enters into the building of a well-made volume--the choice +of type, the use of decoration, the arrangement of margins. Why, +bookmaking is an art! Perhaps I should have known that, but I never +stopped to think about it.” + +One does have to stop and think about a well-made book in order to +comprehend the difference between printing that is merely printing and +that which is based upon art in its broadest sense and upon centuries +of precedent. It does require more than a gleam of intelligence to +grasp the idea that the basis of every volume ought to be the thought +expressed by the writer; that the type, the illustrations, the +decorations, the paper, the binding, simply combine to form the vehicle +to convey that expression to the reader. When, however, this fact is +once absorbed, one cannot fail to understand that if these various +parts, which compositely comprise the whole, fail to harmonize with the +subject and with each other, then the vehicle does not perform its full +and proper function. + +I wondered afterward if I had not been a bit too superior in my +attitude toward my friend. As a matter of fact, printing as an art has +returned to its own only within the last quarter-century. Looking back +to 1891, when I began to serve my apprenticeship under John Wilson at +the old University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the broadness +of the profession that I was adopting as my life’s work had not as +yet unfolded its unlimited possibilities. At that time the three great +American printers were John Wilson, Theodore L. De Vinne, and Henry O. +Houghton. The volumes produced under their supervision were perfect +examples of the best bookmaking of the period, yet no one of these +three men looked upon printing as an art. It was William Morris who in +modern times first joined these two words together by the publication +of his magnificent Kelmscott volumes. Such type, such decorations, such +presswork, such sheer, composite beauty! + +This was in 1895. Morris, in one leap, became the most famous printer +in the world. Every one tried to produce similar volumes, and the +resulting productions, made without appreciating the significance of +decoration combined with type, were about as bad as they could be. I +doubt if, at the present moment, there exists a single one of these +sham Kelmscotts made in America that the printer or the publisher cares +to have recalled to him. + +When the first flair of Morris’ popularity passed away, and his +volumes were judged on the basis of real bookmaking, they were +classified as marvelously beautiful _objets d’art_ rather than +books--composites of Burne-Jones, the designer, and William Morris, +the decorator-printer, co-workers in sister arts; but from the +very beginning Morris’ innovations showed the world that printing +still belonged among the fine arts. The Kelmscott books awoke in me +an overwhelming desire to put myself into the volumes I produced. I +realized that no man can give of himself beyond what he possesses, +and that to make my ambition worth accomplishing I must absorb and +make a part of myself the beauty of the ancient manuscripts and the +early printed books. This led me to take up an exhaustive study of the +history of printing. + +[Illustration: JOHN GUTENBERG, _c._ 1400-1468 + +From Engraving by Alphonse Descaves + +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris] + +Until then Gutenberg’s name, in my mind, had been preëminent. As +I proceeded, however, I came to know that he was not really the +“inventor” of printing, as I had always thought him to be; that he +was the one who first foresaw the wonderful power of movable types as +a material expression of the thought of man, rather than the creator +of anything previously unknown. I discovered that the Greeks and the +Romans had printed from stamps centuries earlier, and that the Chinese +and the Koreans had cut individual characters in metal. + +I well remember the thrill I experienced when I first realized--and +at the time thought my discovery was original!--that, had the Chinese +or the Saracens possessed Gutenberg’s wit to join these letters +together into words, the art of printing must have found its way to +Constantinople, which would have thus become the center of culture and +learning in the fifteenth century. + + * * * * * + +From this point on, my quest seemed a part of an Arabian Nights’ tale. +Cautiously opening a door, I would find myself in a room containing +treasures of absorbing interest. From this room there were doors +leading in different directions into other rooms even more richly +filled; and thus onward, with seemingly no end, to the fascinating +rewards that came through effort and perseverance. + +Germany, although it had produced Gutenberg, was not sufficiently +developed as a nation to make his work complete. The open door led +me away from Germany into Italy, where literary zeal was at its +height. The life and customs of the Italian people of the fifteenth +century were spread out before me. In my imagination I could see the +velvet-gowned agents of the wealthy patrons of the arts searching +out old manuscripts and giving commissions to the scribes to prepare +hand-lettered copies for their masters’ libraries. I could mingle with +the masses and discover how eager they were to learn the truth in +the matter of religion, and the cause and the remedies of moral and +material evils by which they felt themselves oppressed. I could share +with them their expectant enthusiasm and confidence that the advent of +the printing press would afford opportunity to study description and +argument where previously they had merely gazed at pictorial design. +I could sense the desire of the people for books, not to place in +cabinets, but to read in order to know; and I could understand why +workmen who had served apprenticeships in Germany so quickly sought +out Italy, the country where princes would naturally become patrons of +the new art, where manuscripts were ready for copy, and where a public +existed eager to purchase their products. + +While striving to sense the significance of the conflicting elements +I felt around me, I found much of interest in watching the scribes +fulfilling their commissions to prepare copies of original manuscripts, +becoming familiar for the first time with the primitive methods of +book manufacture and distribution. A monastery possessed an original +manuscript of value. In its _scriptorium_ (the writing office) one +might find perhaps twenty or thirty monks seated at desks, each with a +sheet of parchment spread out before him, upon which he inscribed the +words that came to him in the droning, singsong voice of the reader +selected for the duty because of his familiarity with the subject +matter of the volume. The number of desks the _scriptorium_ could +accommodate determined the size of this early “edition.” + +When these copies were completed, exchanges were made with other +monasteries that possessed other original manuscripts, of which copies +had been made in a similar manner. I was even more interested in the +work of the secular scribes, usually executed at their homes, for it +was to these men that the commissions were given for the beautiful +humanistic volumes. As they had taken up the art of hand lettering from +choice or natural aptitude instead of as a part of monastic routine, +they were greater artists and produced volumes of surpassing beauty. A +still greater interest in studying this art of hand lettering lay in +the knowledge that it soon must become a lost art, for no one could +doubt that the printing press had come to stay. + +Then, turning to the office of Aldus, I pause for a moment to read the +legend placed conspicuously over the door: + + _Whoever thou art, thou art earnestly requested by Aldus to + state thy business briefly and to take thy departure promptly. + In this way thou mayest be of service even as was Hercules + to the weary Atlas, for this is a place of work + for all who may enter_ + +[Illustration: ALDUS MANUTIUS, 1450-1515 + +From Engraving at the British Museum] + +But inside the printing office I find Aldus and his associates talking +of other things than the books in process of manufacture. They are +discussing the sudden change of attitude on the part of the wealthy +patrons of the arts who, after welcoming the invention of printing, +soon became alarmed by the enthusiasm of the people, and promptly +reversed their position. No wonder that Aldus should be concerned as +to the outcome! The patrons of the arts represented the culture and +wealth and political power of Italy, and they now discovered in the new +invention an actual menace. To them the magnificent illuminated volumes +of the fifteenth century were not merely examples of decoration, +but they represented the tribute that this cultured class paid to +the thought conveyed, through the medium of the written page, from +the author to the world. This jewel of thought they considered more +valuable than any costly gem. They perpetuated it by having it written +out on parchment by the most accomplished scribes; they enriched it +by illuminated embellishments executed by the most famous artists; +they protected it with bindings in which they actually inlaid gold and +silver and jewels. To have this thought cheapened by reproduction +through the commonplace medium of mechanical printing wounded their +æsthetic sense. It was an expression of real love of the book that +prompted Bisticci, the agent of so powerful a patron as the Duke of +Urbino, to write of the Duke’s splendid collection in the latter part +of the fifteenth century: + + _In that library the books are all beautiful in a superlative + degree, and all written by the pen. There is not a single one + of them printed, for it would have been a shame to have one of + that sort._ + +Aldus is not alarmed by the solicitude of the patrons for the beauty +of the book. He has always known that in order to exist at all +the printed book must compete with the written volume; and he has +demonstrated that, by supplying to the accomplished illuminators +sheets carefully printed on parchment, he can produce volumes of +exquisite beauty, of which no collector need be ashamed. Aldus knows +that there are other reasons behind the change of front on the part +of the patrons. Libraries made up of priceless manuscript volumes +are symbols of wealth, and through wealth comes power. With the +multiplication of printed books this prestige will be lessened, as the +masses will be enabled to possess the same gems of thought in less +extravagant and expensive form. If, moreover, the people are enabled +to read, criticism, the sole property of the scholars, will come into +their hands, and when they once learn self-reliance from their new +intellectual development they are certain to attack dogma and political +oppression, even at the risk of martyrdom. The princes and patrons of +Italy are intelligent enough to know that their self-centered political +power is doomed if the new art of printing secures a firm foothold. + +What a relief to such a man as Aldus when it became fully demonstrated +that the desire on the part of the people to secure books in order to +learn was too great to be overcome by official mandate or insidious +propaganda! With what silent satisfaction did he settle back to +continue his splendid work! The patrons, in order to show what a poor +thing the printed book really was, gave orders to the scribes and the +illuminators to prepare volumes for them in such quantities that the +art of hand lettering received a powerful impetus, as a result of which +the hand letters themselves attained their highest point of perfection. +This final struggle on the part of the wealthy overlords resulted only +in redoubling the efforts of the artist master-printers to match the +beauty of the written volumes with the products from their presses. + +These Arabian Nights’ experiences occupied me from 1895, when Morris +demonstrated the unlimited possibilities of printing as an art, until +1901, when I first visited Italy and gave myself an opportunity to +become personally acquainted with the historical landmarks of printing, +which previously I had known only from study. In Florence it was my +great good fortune to become intimately acquainted with the late Doctor +Guido Biagi, at that time librarian of the Laurenziana and the Riccardi +libraries, and the custodian of the Medici, the Michelangelo, and the +da Vinci archives. I like to think of him as I first saw him then, +sitting on a bench in front of one of the carved _plutei_ designed +by Michelangelo, in the wonderful _Sala di Michelangiolo_ in the +Laurenziana Library, studying a beautifully illuminated volume resting +before him, which was fastened to the desk by one of the famous old +chains. He greeted me with an old-school courtesy. When he discovered +my genuine interest in the books he loved, and realized that I came as +a student eager to listen to the master’s word, his face lighted up and +we were at once friends. + +[Illustration: _Dott. Comm._ GUIDO BIAGI + +Seated at one of the _plutei_ in the Laurenziana Library, Florence +(1906)] + +In the quarter of a century which passed from this meeting until his +death we were fellow-students, and during that period I never succeeded +in exhausting the vast store of knowledge he possessed, even though +he gave of it with the freest generosity. From him I learned for the +first time of the far-reaching influence of the humanistic movement +upon everything that had to do with the _litteræ humaniores_, and +this new knowledge enabled me to crystallize much that previously had +been fugitive. “The humanist,” Doctor Biagi explained to me, “whether +ancient or modern, is one who holds himself open to receive Truth, +unprejudiced as to its source, and--what is more important--after +having received Truth realizes his obligation to the world to give it +out again, made richer by his personal interpretation.” + +This humanistic movement was the forerunner and the essence of the +Renaissance, being in reality a revolt against the barrenness of +mediævalism. Until then ignorance, superstition, and tradition had +confined intellectual life on all sides, but the little band of +humanists, headed by Petrarch, put forth a claim for the mental freedom +of man and for the full development of his being. As a part of this +claim they demanded the recognition of the rich humanities of Greece +and Rome, which were proscribed by the Church. If this claim had been +postponed another fifty years, the actual manuscripts of many of the +present standard classics would have been lost to the world. + +The significance of the humanistic movement in its bearing upon the +Quest of the Perfect Book is that the invention of printing fitted +exactly into the Petrarchian scheme by making it possible for the +people to secure volumes that previously, in their manuscript form, +could be owned only by the wealthy patrons. This was the point at which +Doctor Biagi’s revelation and my previous study met. The Laurenziana +Library contains more copies of the so-called humanistic manuscripts, +produced in response to the final efforts on the part of patrons to +thwart the increasing popularity of the new art of printing, than any +other single library. Doctor Biagi proudly showed me some of these +treasures, notably Antonio Sinibaldi’s _Virgil_. The contrast +between the hand lettering in these volumes and the best I had ever +seen before was startling. Here was a hand letter, developed under the +most romantic and dramatic conditions, which represented the apotheosis +of the art. The thought flashed through my mind that all the types in +existence up to this point had been based upon previous hand lettering +less beautiful and not so perfect in execution. + +“Why is it,” I demanded excitedly, “that no type has ever been designed +based upon this hand lettering at its highest point of perfection?” + +[Illustration: HAND-WRITTEN HUMANISTIC CHARACTERS + +From Sinibaldi’s _Virgil_, 1485 + +Laurenziana Library, Florence (12 × 8 inches)] + +Doctor Biagi looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. “This, my +friend,” he answered, smiling, “is your opportunity.” + +At this point began one of the most fascinating and absorbing +adventures in which any one interested in books could possibly engage. +At some time, I suppose, in the life of every typographer comes the +ambition to design a special type, so it was natural that the idea +contained in Doctor Biagi’s remark should suggest possibilities which +filled me with enthusiasm. I was familiar with the history of the best +special faces, and had learned how difficult each ambitious designer +had found the task of translating drawings into so rigid a medium as +metal; so I reverted soberly and with deep respect to the subject of +type design from the beginning. + +In studying the early fonts of type, I found them exact counterfeits +of the best existing forms of hand lettering at that time employed +by the scribes. The first Italic font cut by Aldus, for instance, is +said to be based upon the thin, inclined handwriting of Petrarch. The +contrast between these slavish copies of hand-lettered models and the +mechanical precision of characters turned out by modern type founders +made a deep impression. Of the two I preferred the freedom of the +earliest types, but appreciated how ill adapted these models were +to the requirements of typography. A hand-lettered page, even with +the inevitable irregularities, is pleasing because the scribe makes a +slight variation in forming the various characters. When, however, an +imperfect letter is cut in metal, and repeated many times upon the same +page, the irregularity forces itself unpleasantly upon the eye. Nicolas +Jenson was the first to realize this, and in his famous Roman type he +made an exact interpretation of what the scribe intended to accomplish +in each of the letters, instead of copying any single hand letter, or +making a composite of many hand designs of the same character. For this +reason the Jenson type has not only served as the basis of the best +standard Roman fonts down to the present time, but has also proved +the inspiration for later designs of distinctive type faces, such as +William Morris’ Golden type, and Emery Walker’s Doves type. + +[Illustration: Specimen Page of proposed Edition of Dante. + +To be printed by Bertieri, of Milan, in Humanistic Type (8¼ × 6)] + +William Morris’ experience is an excellent illustration of the +difficulties a designer experiences. He has left a record of how he +studied the Jenson type with great care, enlarging it by photography, +and redrawing it over and over again before he began designing his own +letter. When he actually produced his Golden type the design was far +too much inclined to the Gothic to resemble the model he selected. +His Troy and Chaucer types that followed showed the strong effect of +the German influence that the types of Schoeffer, Mentelin, and Gunther +Zainer made upon him. The Doves type is based flatly upon the Jenson +model; yet it is an absolutely original face, retaining all the charm +of the model, to which is added the artistic genius of the designer. +Each receives its personality from the understanding and interpretation +of the creator (_pages 22, 23_). + +[Illustration: Jenson’s Roman Type. From Cicero: _Rhetorica_, Venice, +1470 (Exact size)] + +[Illustration: Emery Walker’s Doves Type. From _Paradise Regained_, +London, 1905 (Exact size)] + +From this I came to realize that it is no more necessary for a type +designer to express his individuality by adding or subtracting from his +model than for a portrait painter to change the features of his subject +because some other artist has previously painted it. Wordsworth once +said that the true portrait of a man shows him, not as he looks at any +one moment of his life, but as he really looks all the time. This is +equally true of a hand letter, and explains the vast differences in the +cut of the same type face by various foundries and for the typesetting +machines. All this convinced me that, if I were to make the humanistic +letters the model for my new type, I must follow the example of Emery +Walker rather than that of William Morris. + + * * * * * + +During the days spent in the small, cell-like alcove which had been +turned over for my use in the Laurenziana Library, I came so wholly +under the influence of the peculiar atmosphere of antiquity that I +felt myself under an obsession of which I have not been conscious +before or since. My enthusiasm was abnormal, my efforts tireless. The +world outside seemed very far away, the past seemed very near, and I +was indifferent to everything except the task before me. This curious +experience was perhaps an explanation of how the monks had been able to +apply themselves so unceasingly to their prodigious labors, which seem +beyond the bounds of human endurance. + +My work at first was confined to a study of the humanistic volumes in +the Laurenziana Library, and the selection of the best examples to +be taken as final models for the various letters. From photographed +reproductions of selected manuscript pages, I took out fifty examples +of each letter. Of these fifty, perhaps a half-dozen would be almost +identical, and from these I learned the exact design the scribe +endeavored to repeat. I also decided to introduce the innovation of +having several characters for certain letters that repeated most +frequently, in order to preserve the individuality of the hand +lettering, and still keep my design within the rigid limitations of +type. Of the letter _e_, for instance, eight different designs +were finally selected; there were five _a_’s, two _m_’s, +and so on (see illustration at _page 32_). + +After becoming familiar with the individual letters as shown in the +Laurenziana humanistic volumes, I went on to Milan and the Ambrosiana +Library, with a letter from Doctor Biagi addressed to the librarian, +Monsignor Ceriani, explaining the work upon which I was engaged, and +seeking his co-operation. It would be impossible to estimate Ceriani’s +age at that time, but he was very old. He was above middle height, his +frame was slight, his eyes penetrating and burning with a fire that +showed at a glance how affected he was by the influence to which I have +already referred. His skin resembled in color and texture the very +parchment of the volumes he handled with such affection, and in his +religious habit he seemed the embodiment of ancient learning. + +After expressing his deep interest in my undertaking, he turned to a +publication upon which he himself was engaged, the reproduction in +facsimile of the earliest known manuscript of Homer’s _Iliad_. +The actual work on this, he explained, was being carried on by his +assistant, a younger priest whom he desired to have me meet. His own +contribution to the work was an introduction, upon which he was then +engaged, and which, he said, was to be his swan song, the final +message from his soul to the world. + +“This, I suppose, is to be in Italian?” I inquired. + +He looked at me reproachfully. “No, my son,” he answered, with deep +impressiveness; “I am writing my introduction in Latin, which, though +called a dead language, will be living long after the present living +languages are dead.” + +Ceriani placed at my disposal the humanistic volumes in the Ambrosiana, +and introduced me to his assistant, whose co-operation was of the +utmost value in my work. I was particularly struck by the personality +of this younger priest. He was in close touch with affairs outside the +Church, and asked searching questions regarding conditions in America. +He spoke several languages with the same facility with which he spoke +his own Italian. His knowledge of books and of bookmaking, past and +present, surprised me. All in all, I found him one of the most charming +men I have ever met. His name was Achille Ratti, and when he became +Bishop of Milan in 1921, and was elevated to the College of Cardinals +two months later, I realized how far that wonderful personality was +taking him. One could scarcely have foreseen, however, that in less +than a year from this time he would become Pope Pius XI. + +When, after my drawings were completed, I returned to America, I took +up the matter of the type design with Charles Eliot Norton, my old +art professor at Harvard, then _emeritus_. Professor Norton was +genuinely interested in the whole undertaking, and as the proofs of +the various punches later came into my hands he became more and more +enthusiastic. + +I had arranged to use this type in a series of volumes to be published +in London by John Murray, and in America by Little, Brown and Company. +An important question arose as to what should be the first title, and +after careful consideration I decided that as Petrarch was the father +of humanism his _Trionfi_ would obviously be an ideal selection. +The volume was to be printed in English rather than in the original +Italian, and I settled upon Henry Boyd’s translation as the most +distinguished. + +Upon investigation it developed that the original edition of this +book was long out of print and copies were exceedingly rare. The only +one I could locate was in the Petrarch collection of the late Willard +Fiske. I entered into correspondence with him, and he invited me to be +his guest at his villa in Florence. With the type completed, and with +proofs in my possession, I undertook my second humanistic Odyssey, +making Florence my first objective. Professor Fiske welcomed me +cordially, and in him I found a most sympathetic personality, eager to +contribute in every way to the success of the undertaking. He placed +the volume of Boyd’s translation in my hands, and asked that I take it +with me for use until my edition was completed. + +“This book is unique, and so precious that you certainly could not +permit it to go out of your possession,” I protested. + +His answer was characteristic. “Your love of books,” he said, “is such +that this volume is as safe in your hands as it is in mine. Take it +from me, and return it when it has served its purpose.” + +Then came the matter of illustrations. In London I had a conference +with Sir Sidney Colvin, then Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the +British Museum. Colvin had been made familiar with the undertaking +by John Murray, who had shown him and Alfred W. Pollard some of the +earliest proofs of the punches that I had sent to England. After a +careful examination of these, both men suggested to Mr. Murray that his +American friend was playing a joke upon him, declaring that the proofs +were hand-lettered and not taken from metal originals! + +“There is a fate about this,” Colvin said, after I had explained +my mission. “We have here in the Museum six original drawings of +Petrarch’s _Triumphs_, attributed by some to Fra Filippo Lippi and +certainly belonging to his school, which have never been reproduced. +They are exactly the right size for the _format_ which you have +determined upon, and if you can have the reproductions made here at the +Museum the drawings are at your disposal.” + +I made arrangements with Emery Walker, the designer of the Doves type +and justly famous as an engraver, to etch these plates on steel, and +the reproductions of the originals were extraordinarily exact. Those +Walker made for the parchment edition looked as if drawn on ivory. + +Parchment was required for the specially illuminated copies which +were to form a feature of the edition, and before leaving America I +had been told that the Roman grade was the best. I naturally assumed +that I should find this in Rome, but my research developed the fact +that Roman parchment is prepared in Florence. Following this lead, +I examined the skins sold by Florentine dealers, but Doctor Biagi +assured me that the best grade was not Roman but Florentine, and that +Florentine parchment is produced in Issoudun, France. It seemed a far +cry to seek out Italian skins in France, but to Issoudun I went. In +the meantime I learned that there was a still better grade prepared in +Brentford, England--this, in fact, being where William Morris procured +the parchment for his Kelmscott publications. + +At Brentford I secured my skins; and here I learned something that +interested me exceedingly. Owing to the oil which remains in the +parchment after it has been prepared for use, the difficulty in +printing is almost as great as if on glass. To obviate this, the +concern at Brentford, in preparing parchment for the Kelmscott volumes, +filled in the pores of the skins with chalk, producing an artificial +surface. The process of time must operate adversely upon this +extraneous substance, and the question naturally arises as to whether +eventually, in the Kelmscott parchment volumes, the chalk surface will +flake off in spots, producing blemishes which can never be repaired. + +For my own purposes I purchased the skins without the artificial +surface, and overcame the difficulty in printing by a treatment of the +ink which, after much experiment, enabled me to secure as fine results +upon the parchment as if printing upon handmade paper. + +The volumes were to be printed in the two humanistic colors, black and +blue. In the original manuscript volumes this blue is a most unusual +shade, the hand letterer having prepared his own ink by grinding +_lapis lazuli_, in which there is no red. By artificial light the +lines written in blue can scarcely be distinguished from the black. To +reproduce the same effect in the printed volume I secured in Florence +a limited quantity of _lapis lazuli_, and by special arrangement +with the Italian Government had it crushed into powder at the Royal +mint. This powder I took home to America, and arranged with a leading +manufacturer to produce what I believe to be the first printing ink +mixed exactly as the scribes of the fifteenth century used to prepare +their pigments. + +The months required to produce the _Triumphs_ represented a period +alternating in anxiety and satisfaction. The greatest difficulty came +in pressing upon the typesetter the fact that the various characters of +these letters could not be used with mathematical precision, but that +the change should come only when he felt his hand would naturally alter +the design if he were writing the line instead of setting the type. +The experiments required to perfect an ink that should successfully +print on the oily parchment were not completed without disappointments +and misgivings; the scrupulous care required in reading proofs and +perfecting the spacing, was laborious and monotonous; the scrutinizing +of the sheets as they came from the press was made happier when the +success of the _lapis lazuli_ ink was assured. + +[Illustration: _A Page from an Autograph Letter from Charles Eliot +Norton_] + +The rewards came when Professor Norton gave the volume his unqualified +approval--“so interesting and original in its typography and in its +illustrations, so admirable in its presswork, its paper, its binding, +and its minor accessories, ... a noble and exemplary work of the +printers’ art”; when George W. Jones, England’s artist-printer, +pronounced the Humanistic type “the most beautiful face in the world,” +and promised to use it in what he hopes to be his masterpiece, an +edition of Shakespeare’s _Sonnets_; when the jury appointed by the +Italian Government to select “the most beautiful and most appropriate +type face to perpetuate the divine Dante” chose the Humanistic type, +and placed the important commission of producing the definitive edition +of the great poet, to commemorate his sexcentenary, in the hands +of that splendid printer, Bertieri, at Milan. Such rewards are not +compliments, but justification. Such beauty as the Humanistic type +possesses lies in the artistic ability and the marvelous skill in +execution of the scribes. My part was simply seizing the development of +a period apparently overlooked, and undertaking the laborious task +of translating a beautiful thing from one medium to another. + +[Illustration: PETRARCH’S _TRIUMPHS_ + +Illuminated Page (10 × 6 inches) + +Set in Humanistic Type designed by the Author] + +The Quest of the Perfect Book must necessarily lead the seeker into +far varying roads, the greatest rewards being found in straying from +the main street into the fascinating bypaths. My quest has resulted +in giving me greater appreciation of the accomplishments of those who +successfully withstood opposition and persecution in order to make the +printed book a living vehicle to convey the gems of thought from great +minds to the masses, never forgetful of the value of beauty in its +outward aspect. I believe it possible today to perpetuate the basic +principles of the early artist master-printers by applying beauty to +low-cost books as well as to limited _editions de luxe_. The story of +the printed book itself is greater than that contained between the +covers of any single volume, for without it the history of the world +would show the masses still plodding on, swathed in theological and +encyclopædic bonds, while the few would still be jealously hoarding +their limited knowledge + + + + + II + + THE KINGDOM OF BOOKS + + +A paraphrase of, “Would that mine adversary had written a book,” might +well be, “Would that mine enemy had _printed_ a book”; for the +building of books has always yielded smaller financial returns for the +given amount of labor and ability than is offered in any other line of +intelligent human effort. + +“Are all the workmen in your establishment blank fools?” an irate +publisher demanded of a printer after a particularly aggravating error. + +“If they were not,” was the patient rejoinder, “they would not be +engaged in making books!” + +There is an intangible lure that keeps all those associated with the +book under subjection. There is a mysterious fascination in being a +party to the perpetuation of a human thought that yields something +in addition to pecuniary returns. To the author, the inestimable +gratification of conveying a message to the world makes him forget +the tedious hours of application required before that message can be +adequately expressed. To the publisher, the satisfaction of offering +the opportunity for occasional genius to come into its own more +than balances the frequent disappointments. To the book architect, +the privilege of supplying the vehicle for thought, and of creating +the physical form of its expression, yields returns not altogether +measurable in coin of the realm. + + * * * * * + +In 1891, during my apprenticeship at the old University Press, in +Cambridge, Massachusetts, John Wilson, its famous head, permitted me to +sit in at a conference with Eugene Field and his friend and admirer, +Francis Wilson, the actor, booklover, and collector. The subject under +discussion was the manufacture of a volume of Field’s poems, then +called _A New Book of Verses_, which later became famous under the +title of _Second Book of Verse_. + +Field’s personal appearance made a deep impression that first time I +saw him. I was then an undergraduate at Harvard, and this was a live +author at close range! He entered the office with a peculiar, ambling +walk; his clothes were ill-fitting, accentuating his long legs and +arms; his hands were delicate, with tapering fingers, like a woman’s; +his face was pallid; his eyes blue, with a curiously child-like +expression. I remember my feeling of respect, tinged somewhat with +awe, as I saw the pages of manuscript spread out upon the table, and +listened eagerly to the three-cornered conversation. + +[Illustration: Autograph Page of Eugene Field Manuscript + +From _Second Book of Verse_, New York, 1892] + +In considering the manufacture of his book, Eugene Field had clearly +defined ideas of the typographical effect he wished to gain; John +Wilson possessed the technical knowledge that enabled him to translate +those ideas into terms of type. The examination of the various faces +of type, the consideration of the proportions of the page, the +selection of the paper, the plan for the design of the cover and the +binding,--all came into the discussion. + +As I listened, I was conscious of receiving new impressions which gave +me a fuller but still incomplete understanding. Until that moment I had +found little of interest in the adventure of making books. Now came a +realization that the building of a book, like the designing of a house, +offered opportunity for _creative_ work. This possibility removed +the disturbing doubts, and I undertook to discover for myself how that +creative element could be crystallized. + +Years later came an unexpected echo to the Field episode. After the +publication of the _Second Book of Verse_, the manuscript was +returned to Field, who had it bound in half leather and placed it +in his library. Upon his death many of his books went by bequest to +his life-long friend, Horace Fletcher, the genial philosopher and +famous apostle of dietetics. When Fletcher died, he bequeathed Field’s +personal volumes to me. By this curious chain of circumstances, +thirty-three years after I had seen the manuscript spread out upon the +table at the University Press, it came into my possession, bearing the +identical memoranda of instruction made upon it by John Wilson, whose +large, flowing hand contrasted sharply with the small, copper-plate +characters of the author’s handwriting. + +[Illustration: Autograph Verse in Eugene Field’s Own Copy of _Trumpet +and Drum_] + +The present generation of booklovers would think themselves transported +back ages rather than decades were they to glance into a great +book-printing office of thirty-five years ago. The old University Press +at that time acknowledged competition only from the Riverside and the +De Vinne Presses, and conditions that obtained there were typical +of the times. The business office was called the “counting-room”; +the bookkeeper and the head-clerk were perched up on stools at high, +sloping desks, and wore long, linen dusters and black skull caps. John +Wilson sat at a low table desk, and his partner, who was the financial +executive, was the proud possessor of the only roll-top desk in the +establishment. Near him, perhaps because of its value as a novelty and +thus entitled to the same super-care as the cash, was installed the +telephone. Most of the letters were written by Mr. Wilson in his own +hand. One of my first responsibilities was to copy these letters on the +wetted tissue pages of the copy-book with the turn-screw press. + +[Illustration: JOHN WILSON IN 1891 + +_Master-Printer_] + +There was no particular system in effect, and scientific management +was unknown. Mr. Wilson used to make out his orders on fragments of +paper,--whatever came to hand. When the telephone was first installed +he refused to use it, as he considered this method of conducting +business as “sloppy” and even discourteous. To employ a stenographer +would have been an evidence of a lazy disposition, and a dictated +letter was an offence against dignity and decorum. + + * * * * * + +A week’s work at that time consisted of fifty-nine hours instead of the +present forty-eight. Hand composition and electrotyping were figured +together as one process and charged at from 80 cents to $1 per thousand +ems. Changes required in the type by authors cost 50 cents an hour. An +author could afford in those days to rewrite his book after it was in +type, but today, with alterations costing five times as much, it is a +different proposition! + +The wages were as ridiculously low as the prices charged to customers. +The girls in the composing room made from $9 to $12 a week, and those +receiving the maximum considered themselves potential Hetty Greens. +Today, receiving $40 to $45 a week, they find difficulty in making both +ends meet. The make-up man, with the “fat” he received in addition +to his wage of $16, actually earned about $20 a week, as against $50 +to $60 a week now. The foreman of the composing room, with more than +two hundred employees under him, received a weekly return of $23, as +against $75 to $100 now. + +Typesetting, thirty-five years ago, was almost entirely by hand, as +this was before the day of the linotype and the monotype. Thorne +typesetting machines, which then seemed marvels of mechanical +ingenuity, failed to prove economical because they required two +operatives and so easily got out of order. The composing room itself +was laid out with its main avenues and side streets like a well-ordered +town, divisions being marked by the frames bearing the cases of type in +various faces and sizes. The correcting stones ran down the center. + +The foreman of the composing room was the king of his domain and a +power unto himself. Each side street was an “alley,” in which from four +to eight typesetters worked, back to back. These were sometimes boys +or men, but usually girls or women. The “crew” in each alley was in +charge of an experienced typesetter. It was he who received from the +foreman the manuscript to be put into type; who distributed the copy, +a few pages at a time to each of his subordinates; who supervised the +work, and arranged for the galleys to be collated in their proper order +for proofing; and who was generally responsible for the product of his +alley. As was characteristic of the times in well-conducted industrial +plants, the workers in this department, as in the others, were simply +a large family presided over by the foreman, who interpreted the +instructions from the management; and by the heads of the crews, who +carried out the detailed instructions of the foreman. + +There was a pride in workmanship that is mostly lacking in +manufacturing plants today, due largely to the introduction of +labor-saving machinery, and again to the introduction of efficiency +methods. Both were inevitable, but the price paid for the gain in +production was high. I am old-fashioned enough to hope that modern +ideas of efficiency will never be applied in the printing industry to +the extent of robbing the workman of his individuality. Books are such +personal things! I am in full sympathy with that efficiency which cuts +out duplication of effort. I believe in studying methods of performing +each operation to discover which one is the most economical in time and +effort. I realize that in great manufacturing plants, where machines +have replaced so largely the work of the human hand, it is obviously +necessary for workmen to spend their days manufacturing only a part +of the complete article; but when the organization of any business +goes so far as to substitute numbers for names I feel that something +has been destroyed, and that in taking away his individuality from the +workman the work suffers the same loss. + +I have even asked myself whether the greatest underlying cause of +strikes and labor disturbances during the past ten years has not been +the unrest that has come to the workman because he can no longer +take actual pride in the product of his hand. Years ago, after the +death of one of my oldest employees, I called upon his widow, and +in the simple “parlor” of the house where he had lived, prominently +placed on a marble-top table as the chief ornament in the room, lay +a copy of Wentworth’s “Geometry.” When I picked it up the widow said +proudly, “Jim set every page of that book with his own hands.” It was +a priceless heirloom in which the workman’s family took continued and +justifiable pride. + +The old University Press family was not only happy but loyal. When +the business found itself in financial difficulties, owing to outside +speculations by Mr. Wilson’s partner, the workmen brought their +bankbooks, with deposits amounting to over twenty thousand dollars, +and laid them on Mr. Wilson’s desk, asking him to use these funds in +whatever way he chose. The sum involved was infinitesimal compared to +the necessities, but the proffer was a human gesture not calculable in +financial digits. + + * * * * * + +Proofreading was an art in the eighteen-nineties instead of an annoying +necessity, as it now seems to be considered. The chief readers +were highly educated men and women, some having been clergymen or +schoolteachers. One proofreader at the University Press at that time +could read fourteen languages, and all the readers were competent to +discuss with the authors points that came up in the proof. The proof +was read, not only to discover typographical errors, but also to query +dates, quotations, and even statements of fact. Well-known authors were +constantly running in and out of the Press, frequently going directly +to the proofreaders, and sometimes even to the compositors themselves, +without coming in touch with the counting-room. Mr. Wilson looked +upon the authors and publishers as members of his big family, and “No +Admittance” signs were conspicuous by their absence. + +The modern practice of proofreading cannot produce as perfect volumes +as resulted from the deliberate, painstaking, and time-consuming +consideration which the old-time proofreaders gave to every book +passing through their hands. Today the proof is read once, and then +revised and sent out to the author. When made up into page form and +sent to foundry it is again revised, but not re-read. No proof used to +go out from a first-class printing office without a first and a second +reading by copy. It was then read a third time by a careful foundry +reader before being made into plates. Unfortunately, with labor at its +present cost, no publisher could produce a volume at a price that the +public would pay, if the old-time care were devoted to its manufacture. + + * * * * * + +Time was when a reputation for careful proofreading was an asset to a +Press. One day the office boy came to my private office and said that +there was a man downstairs who insisted upon seeing me personally, but +who declined to give his name. From the expression on the boy’s face I +concluded that the visitor must be a somewhat unique character, and I +was not disappointed. + +As he came into my office he had every aspect of having stepped off +the vaudeville stage. He had on the loose garments of a farmer, with +the broad hat that is donned only on state occasions. He wore leather +boots over which were rubbers, and carried a huge, green umbrella. + +He nodded pleasantly as he came in, and sat down with great +deliberation. Before making any remarks he laid his umbrella on the +floor and placed his hat carefully over it, then he somewhat painfully +removed his rubbers. This done, he turned to me with a broad smile of +greeting, and said, “I don’t know as you know who I am.” + +When I confirmed him in his suspicions, he remarked, “Well, I am Jasper +P. Smith, and I come from Randolph, New Hampshire.” + +(_The names and places mentioned are, for obvious reasons, not +correct._) + +I returned his smile of greeting and asked what I could do for him. + +“Well,” he said, “my home town of Randolph, New Hampshire, has decided +to get out a town history, and I want to have you do the printin’ of +it. The selectmen thought it could be printed at ----, but I says to +them, ‘If it’s worth doin’ at all it’s worth doin’ right, and I want +the book to be made at the University Press in Cambridge.’” + +I thanked Mr. Smith for his confidence, and expressed my satisfaction +that our reputation had reached Randolph, New Hampshire. + +“Well,” he said, chuckling to himself, “you see, it was this way. +You made the history of Rumford, and I was the feller who wrote +the genealogies. That’s what I am, a genealogy feller. Nobody in +New Hampshire can write a town history without comin’ to me for +genealogies.” + +After pausing for a moment he continued, “It was your proofreadin’ that +caught me. On that Rumford book your proofreader was a smart one, she +was, but I got back at her in good style.” + +His memory seemed to cause him considerable amusement, and I waited +expectantly. + +“It was in one of the genealogies,” he went on finally. “I gave the +date of the marriage as so and so, and the date of the birth of the +first child as two months later. Did she let that go by? I should say +not. She drew a line right out into the margin and made a darned big +question mark. But I got back at her! I just left that question mark +where it was, and wrote underneath, ‘Morally incorrect, historically +correct!’” + + * * * * * + +When the first Adams flat-bed press was installed at the University +Press, President Felton of Harvard College insisted that no book of his +should ever be printed upon this modern monstrosity. Here was history +repeating itself, for booklovers of the fifteenth century in Italy for +a long time refused to admit that a printed volume had its place in a +gentleman’s library. In the eighteen-nineties one whole department at +the University Press consisted of these flat-bed presses, which today +can scarcely be found outside of museums. If a modern publisher were +to stray into the old loft where the wetted sheets from these presses +were hung over wooden rafters to dry, he would rub his eyes and wonder +in what age he was living. The paper had been passed through tubs of +water, perhaps half a quire at a time, and partially dried before being +run through the press. The old Adams presses made an impression that +could have been read by the blind, and all this embossing, together +with the wrinkling of the sheet from the moisture, had to be taken out +under hydraulic pressure. Today wetted sheets and the use of hydraulic +presses for bookwork are practically obsolete. The cylinder presses, +that run twice as fast, produce work of equal quality at lower cost. + + * * * * * + +In those days the relations between publishers and their printers were +much more intimate. Scales of prices were established from time to +time, but a publisher usually sent all his work to the same printer. It +was also far more customary for a publisher to send an author to the +printer to discuss questions of typography with the actual maker of the +book, or to argue some technical or structural point in his manuscript +with the head proofreader. The headreader in a large printing +establishment at that time was a distinct personality, quite competent +to meet authors upon their own ground. + + * * * * * + +One of my earliest and pleasantest responsibilities was to act as Mr. +Wilson’s representative in his business relations with Mrs. Mary Baker +Eddy, which required frequent trips to “Pleasant View” at Concord, New +Hampshire. Mrs. Eddy always felt under deep obligation to Mr. Wilson +for his interest in the manuscript of _Science and Health_ when +she first took it to him with a view to publication, and any message +from him always received immediate and friendly consideration. + +In the past there have been suggestions made that the Rev. James Henry +Wiggin, a retired Unitarian clergyman and long a proofreader at the +University Press, rewrote _Science and Health_. Mr. Wiggin was +still proofreader when I entered the Press, and he always manifested +great pride in having been associated with Mrs. Eddy in the revision of +this famous book. I often heard the matter referred to, both by him +and by John Wilson, but there never was the slightest intimation that +Mr. Wiggin’s services passed beyond those of an experienced editor. I +have no doubt that many of his suggestions, in his editorial capacity, +were of value and possibly accepted by the author,--in fact, unless +they had been, he would not have exercised his proper function; but +had he contributed to the new edition what some have claimed, he would +certainly have given intimation of it in his conversations with me. + +The characteristic about Mrs. Eddy that impressed me the first time +I met her was her motherliness. She gave every one the impression of +deepest interest and concern in what he said, and was sympathetic +in everything that touched on his personal affairs. When I told her +of John Wilson’s financial calamity, she seemed to regard it as a +misfortune of her own. Before I left her that day she drew a check for +a substantial sum and offered it to me. + +“Please hand that to my old friend,” she said, “and tell him to be of +good cheer. What he has given of himself to others all these years will +now return to him a thousand-fold.” + +At first one might have been deceived by her quiet manner into thinking +that she was easily influenced. There was no suggestion to which she +did not hold herself open. If she approved, she accepted it promptly; +if it did not appeal, she dismissed it with a graciousness that left no +mark; but it was always settled once and for all. There was no wavering +and no uncertainty. + +After Mrs. Eddy moved from Concord to Boston, her affairs were +administered by her Trustees, so I saw her less frequently. To many her +name suggests a great religious movement, but when I think of her I +seem to see acres of green grass, a placid little lake, a silver strip +of river, and a boundary line of hills; and within the unpretentious +house a slight, unassuming woman,--very real, very human, very +appealing, supremely content in the self-knowledge that, no matter what +others might think, she was delivering her message to the world. + + * * * * * + +By this time, I had discovered what was the matter with American +bookmaking. It was a contracting business, and books were conceived and +made by the combined efforts of the publisher, the manufacturing man, +the artist, the decorator, the paper mills’ agent, and, last of all, +the printer and the binder. This was not the way the old-time printers +had planned their books. With all their mechanical limitations, +they had followed architectural lines kept consistent and harmonious +because controlled by a single mind, while the finished volume of +the eighteen-nineties was a composite production of many minds, with +no architectural plan. No wonder that the volumes manufactured, even +in the most famous Presses, failed to compare with those produced in +Venice by Jenson and Aldus four centuries earlier! + +When I succeeded John Wilson as head of the University Press in 1895, +I determined to carry out the resolution I had formed four years +earlier, while sitting in on the Eugene Field conference, of following +the example of the early master-printers so far as this could be done +amidst modern conditions. Some of my publisher friends were partially +convinced by my contention that if the printer properly fulfilled his +function he must know how to express his clients’ mental conception +of the physical attributes of prospective volumes in terms of type, +paper, presswork, and binding better than they could do it themselves. +The Kelmscott publications, which appeared at this time, were of great +value in emphasizing my contention, for William Morris placed printing +back among the fine arts after it had lapsed into a trade. + +I had no idea, when I presented my plan, of persuading my friends +to produce typographical monuments. No demand has ever existed for +volumes of this type adequate to the excessive cost involved by the +perfection of materials, the accuracy of editorial detail, the supreme +excellence of typography and presswork, and the glory of the binding. +Sweynheim and Pannartz, Gutenberg’s successors, were ruined by their +experiments in Greek; the Aldine Press in Venice was saved only by the +intervention of Jean Grolier; Henri Étienne was ruined by his famous +_Thesaurus_, and Christophe Plantin would have been bankrupted by +his _Polyglot Bible_ had he not retrieved his fortunes by later +and meaner publications. Nor was I unmindful of similar examples that +might have been cited from more modern efforts, made by ambitious +publishers and printers. + +What I wanted to do was to build low-cost volumes upon the same +principles as _de luxe_ editions, eliminating the expensive +materials but retaining the harmony and consistency that come from +designing the book from an architectural standpoint. It adds little +to the expense to select a type that properly expresses the thought +which the author wishes to convey; or to have the presses touch the +letters into the paper in such a way as to become a part of it, +without that heavy impression which makes the reverse side appear like +an example of Braille; or to find a paper (even made by machine!) soft +to the feel and grateful to the eye, on which the page is placed with +well-considered margins; or to use illustrations or decorations, if +warranted at all, in such a way as to assist the imagination of the +reader rather than to divert him from the text; to plan a title page +which, like the door to a house, invites the reader to open it and +proceed, its type lines carefully balanced with the blank; or to bind +(even in cloth!) with trig squares and with design or lettering in +keeping with the printing inside. + +By degrees the publishers began to realize that this could be done, +and when once established, the idea of treating the making of books +as a manufacturing problem instead of as a series of contracts with +different concerns, no one of which knew what the others were doing, +found favor. The authors also preferred it, for their literary children +now went forth to the world in more becoming dress. Thus serving in the +capacity of book architect and typographical advisor, instead of merely +as a contrasting printer, these years have been lived in a veritable +Kingdom of Books, in company with interesting people,--authors and +artists as well as publishers,--in a delightfully intimate way because +I have been permitted to be a part of the great adventure. + + * * * * * + +During these years I have seen dramatic changes. Wages were somewhat +advanced between 1891 and the outbreak of the World War, but even at +this latter date the cost of manufacturing books was less than half of +what it is now. This is the great problem which publishers have to face +today. When the cost of everything doubled after the World War, the +public accepted the necessity of paying twice the price for a theater +ticket as a matter of course; but when the retail price of books was +advanced in proportion to the cost of manufacture, there was a great +outcry among buyers that authors, publishers, and booksellers were +opportunists, demanding an unwarranted profit. As a matter of fact, the +novel which used to sell at $1.35 per copy should now sell at $2.50 if +the increased costs were properly apportioned. The publisher today is +forced to decline many promising first novels because the small margin +of profit demands a comparatively large first edition. + +Unless a publisher can sell 5,000 copies as a minimum it is impossible +for him to make any profit upon a novel. Taking this as a basis, +and a novel as containing 320 pages, suppose we see how the $2.00 +retail price distributes itself. The cost of manufacture, including +the typesetting, electrotype plates, cover design, jacket, brass +dies, presswork, paper, and binding, amounts to 42 cents per copy (in +England, about 37 cents). The publisher’s cost of running his office, +which he calls “overhead,” is 36 cents per copy. The minimum royalty +received by an author is 10 per cent. of the retail price, which would +give him 20 cents. This makes a total cost of 98 cents a copy, without +advertising. But a book must be advertised. + +Every fifty dollars spent in advertising on a five thousand edition +adds a cent to the publisher’s cost. The free copies distributed for +press reviews represent no trifling item. A thousand dollars is not +a large amount to be spent for advertising, and this means 20 cents +a copy on a 5000 edition, making a total cost of $1.18 per copy and +reducing the publisher’s profit to 2 cents, since he sells a two-dollar +book to the retail bookseller for $1.20. The bookseller figures that +his cost of doing business is one-third the amount of his sales, or, on +a two-dollar book, 67 cents. This then shows a net profit to the retail +bookseller of 13 cents, to the publisher of 2 cents, and to the author +of 20 cents a copy. + +Beyond this, there is an additional expense to both bookseller and +publisher which the buyer of books is likely to overlook. It is +impossible to know just when the demand for a book will cease, and this +means that the publisher and the bookseller are frequently left with +copies on hand which have to be disposed of at a price below cost. This +is an expense that has to be included in the book business just as much +as in handling fruit, flowers, or other perishable goods. + +When a publisher is able to figure on a large demand for the first +edition, he can cut down the cost of manufacture materially; but, on +the other hand, this is at least partially offset by the fact that +authors whose books warrant large first editions demand considerably +more than 10 per cent. royalty, and the advertising item on a big +seller runs into large figures. + + * * * * * + +I wish I might say that I had seen a dramatic change in the methods +employed in the retail bookstores! There still exists, with a few +notable exceptions, the same lack of realization that familiarity with +the goods one has to sell is as necessary in merchandizing books as +with any other commodity. Salesmen in many otherwise well-organized +retail bookstores are still painfully ignorant of their proper +functions and indifferent to the legitimate requirements of their +prospective customers. + +Some years ago, when one of my novels was having its run, I happened +to be in New York at a time when a friend was sailing for Europe. He +had announced his intention of purchasing a copy of my book to read +on the steamer, and I asked him to permit me to send it to him with +the author’s compliments. Lest any reader be astonished to learn that +an author ever buys a copy of his own book, let me record the fact +that except for the twelve which form a part of his contract with +the publisher, he pays cash for every copy he gives away. Mark Twain +dedicated the first edition of _The Jumping Frog_ to “John Smith.” +In the second edition he omitted the dedication, explaining that in +dedicating the volume as he did, he had felt sure that at least all the +John Smiths would buy books. To his consternation he found that they +all expected complimentary copies, and he was hoist by his own petard! + +With the idea of carrying out my promise to my friend, I stepped into +one of the largest bookstores in New York, and approached a clerk, +asking him for the book by title. My pride was somewhat hurt to find +that even the name was entirely unfamiliar to him. He ran over various +volumes upon the counter, and then turned to me, saying, “We don’t +carry that book, but we have several others here which I am sure you +would like better.” + +“Undoubtedly you have,” I agreed with him; “but that is beside the +point. I am the author of the book I asked for, and I wish to secure a +copy to give to a friend. I am surprised that a store like this does +not carry it.” + +Leaning nonchalantly on a large, circular pile of books near him, the +clerk took upon himself the education of the author. + +“It would require a store much larger than this to carry every book +that is published, wouldn’t it?” he asked cheerfully. “Of course each +author naturally thinks his book should have the place of honor on the +bookstalls, but we have to be governed by the demand.” + +It was humiliating to learn the real reason why this house failed to +carry my book. I had to say something to explain my presumption even in +assuming that I might find it there, so in my confusion I stammered, + +“But I understood from the publishers that the book was selling very +well.” + +“Oh, yes,” the clerk replied indulgently; “they have to say that to +their authors to keep them satisfied!” + +With the matter thus definitely settled, nothing remained but to make +my escape as gracefully as circumstances would permit. As I started to +leave, the clerk resumed his standing position, and my eye happened to +rest on the pile of perhaps two hundred books upon which he had been +half-reclining. The jacket was strikingly familiar. Turning to the +clerk I said severely, + +“Would you mind glancing at that pile of books from which you have just +risen?” + +“Oh!” he exclaimed, smiling and handing me a copy, “that is the very +book we were looking for, isn’t it?” + +It seemed my opportunity to become the educator, and I seized it. + +“Young man,” I said, “if you would discontinue the practice of letting +my books support you, and sell a few copies so that they might support +me, it would be a whole lot better for both of us.” + +“Ha, ha!” he laughed, graciously pleased with my sally; “that’s a good +line, isn’t it? I really must read your book!” + + * * * * * + +The old-time publisher is passing, and the author is largely to +blame. I have seen the close association--in many cases the profound +friendship--between author and publisher broken by the commercialism +fostered by some literary agents and completed by competitive bids +made by one publishing house to beguile a popular author away from +another. There was a time when a writer was proud to be classified as +a “Macmillan,” or a “Harper” author. He felt himself a part of the +publisher’s organization, and had no hesitation in taking his literary +problems to the editorial advisor of the house whose imprint appeared +upon the title pages of his volumes. A celebrated Boston authoress +once found herself absolutely at a standstill on a partially completed +novel. She confided her dilemma to her publisher, who immediately sent +one of his editorial staff to the rescue. They spent two weeks working +together over the manuscript, solved the problems, and the novel, when +published, was the most successful of the season. + +Several publishers have acknowledged to me that in offering unusually +high royalties to authors they have no expectation of breaking even, +but that to have a popular title upon their list increases the sales +of their entire line. The publisher from whom the popular writer +is filched has usually done his share in helping him attain his +popularity. The royalty he pays is a fair division of the profits. He +cannot, in justice to his other authors, pay him a further premium. + +Ethics, perhaps, has no place in business, but the relation between +author and publisher seems to me to be beyond a business covenant. A +publisher may deliberately add an author to his list at a loss in order +to accomplish a specific purpose, but this practice cannot be continued +indefinitely. A far-sighted author will consider the matter seriously +before he becomes an opportunist. + + * * * * * + +In England this questionable practice has been of much slower growth. +The House of Murray, in London, is one of those still conducted on the +old-time basis. John Murray IV, the present head of the business, has +no interest in any author who comes to him for any reason other than +a desire to have the Murray imprint upon his book. It is more than +a business. The publishing offices at 50_a_, Albemarle Street +adjoin and open out of the Murray home. In the library is still shown +the fireplace where John Murray III burned Byron’s Memoirs, after +purchasing them at an enormous price, because he deemed that their +publication would do injury to the reputation of the writer and of the +House itself. + +John Murray II was one of the publishers of Scott’s _Marmion_. In +those days it was customary for publishers to share their contracts. +Constable had purchased from Scott for £1,000 the copyright of +_Marmion_ without having seen a single line, and the _honorarium_ +was paid the author before the poem was completed or the manuscript +delivered. Constable, however, promptly disposed of a one-fourth +interest to Mr. Miller of Albemarle Street, and another one fourth to +John Murray, then of Fleet Street. + +By 1829 Scott had succeeded in getting into his own hands nearly all +his copyrights, one of the outstanding items being this one-quarter +interest in _Marmion_ held by Mr. Murray. Longmans and Constable +had tried in vain to purchase it. When, however, Scott himself +approached Murray through Lockhart, the following letter from Mr. +Murray was the result: + + _So highly do I estimate the honour of being even in so small + a degree the publisher of the author of the poem that no + pecuniary consideration whatever can induce me to part with it. + But there is a consideration of another kind that would make it + painful to me if I were to retain it a moment longer. I mean + the knowledge of its being required by the author, into whose + hands it was spontaneously resigned at the same instant that I + read the request._ + +There has always been a vast difference in authors in the attitude they +assume toward the transformation of their manuscripts into printed +books. Most of them leave every detail to their publishers, but a few +take a deep and intelligent personal interest. Bernard Shaw is to be +included in the latter group. + +A leading Boston publisher once telephoned me that an unknown English +author had submitted a manuscript for publication, but that it was too +socialistic in its nature to be acceptable. Then the publisher added +that the author had asked, in case this house did not care to publish +the volume, that arrangements be made to have the book printed in this +country in order to secure American copyright. + +“We don’t care to have anything to do with it,” was the statement; “but +I thought perhaps you might like to manufacture the book.” + +“Who is the author?” I inquired. + +“It’s a man named Shaw.” + +“What is the rest of his name?” + +“Wait a minute and I’ll find out.” + +Leaving the telephone for a moment, the publisher returned and said, + +“His name is G. Bernard Shaw. Did you ever hear of him?” + +“Yes,” I replied; “I met him last summer in London through +Cobden-Sanderson, and I should be glad to undertake the manufacture of +the book for Mr. Shaw.” + +“All right,” came the answer. “Have your boy call for the manuscript.” + +This manuscript was _Man and Superman_. + +From that day and for many years, Shaw and I carried on a desultory +correspondence, his letters proving most original and diverting. On +one occasion he took me severely to task for having used two sizes of +type upon a title page. He wrote four pages to prove what poor taste +and workmanship this represented, and then ended the letter with these +words, “But, after all, any other printer would have used sixteen +instead of two, so I bless you for your restraint!” + +We had another lengthy discussion on the use of apostrophes in +printing. “I have made no attempt to deal with the apostrophes you +introduce,” he wrote; “but my own usage is carefully considered and +the inconsistencies are only apparent. For instance, _Ive_, _youve_, +_lets_, _thats_, are quite unmistakable, but _Ill_, _hell_, _shell_, +for _I’ll_, _he’ll_, _she’ll_, are impossible without a phonetic +alphabet to distinguish between long and short _e_. In such cases I +retain the apostrophe, in all others I discard it. Now you may ask +me why I discard it. Solely because it spoils the printing. If you +print a Bible you can make a handsome job of it because there are no +apostrophes or inverted commas to break up the letterpress with holes +and dots. Until people are forced to have some consideration for a book +as something to look at as well as something to read, we shall never +get rid of these senseless disfigurements that have destroyed all the +old sense of beauty in printing.” + +“Ninety-nine per cent. of the secret of good printing,” Shaw continued, +“is not to have patches of white or trickling rivers of it trailing +down a page, like rain-drops on a window. Horrible! _White_ is the +enemy of the printer. _Black_, rich, fat, even black, without gray +patches, is, or should be, his pride. Leads and quads and displays of +different kinds of type should be reserved for insurance prospectuses +and advertisements of lost dogs....” + +His enthusiasm for William Morris’ leaf ornaments is not shared by all +booklovers. Glance at any of the Kelmscott volumes, and you will find +these glorified oak leaves scattered over the type page in absolutely +unrelated fashion,--a greater blemish, to some eyes, than occasional +variation in spacing. Shaw writes: + + _If you look at one of the books printed by William Morris, + the greatest printer of the XIX century, and one of the + greatest printers of all the centuries, you will see that he + occasionally puts in a little leaf ornament, or something of + the kind. The idiots in America who tried to imitate Morris, + not understanding this, peppered such things all over their + “art” books, and generally managed to stick in an extra large + quad before each to show how little they understood about the + business. Morris doesn’t do this in his own books. He rewrites + the sentence so as to make it justify, without bringing one gap + underneath another in the line above. But in printing other + people’s books, which he had no right to alter, he sometimes + found it impossible to avoid this. Then, sooner than spoil the + rich, even color of his block of letterpress by a big white + hole, he filled it up with a leaf._ + + _Do not dismiss this as not being “business.” I assure you, I + have a book which Morris gave me, a single copy, by selling + which I could cover the entire cost of printing my books, and + its value is due_ solely _to its having been manufactured + in the way I advocate; there’s absolutely no other secret + about it; and there is no reason why you should not make + yourself famous through all the ages by turning out editions + of standard works on these lines whilst other printers are + exhausting themselves in dirty felt end papers, sham Kelmscott + capitals, leaf ornaments in quad sauce, and then wondering why + nobody in Europe will pay twopence for them, whilst Kelmscott + books and Doves Press books of Morris’ friends, Emery Walker + and Cobden-Sanderson, fetch fancy prices before the ink is + thoroughly dry.... After this I shall have to get you to print + all my future books, so please have this treatise printed in + letters of gold and preserved for future reference_ + + + + + III + + FRIENDS THROUGH TYPE + + +In 1903 I again visited Italy to continue my study of the art of +printing in the old monasteries and libraries, sailing on the S. S. +_Canopic_ from Boston to Naples. Among the passengers on board I +met Horace Fletcher, returning to his home in Venice. At that time his +volume _Menticulture_ was having a tremendous run. I had enjoyed +reading the book, and in its author I discovered a unique and charming +personality; in fact, I have never met so perfect an expression of +practical optimism. His humor was infectious, his philosophy appealing, +his quiet persistency irresistible. + +To many people the name of Horace Fletcher has become associated with +the Gladstonian doctrine of excessive chewing, but this falls far +short of the whole truth. His scheme was the broadest imaginable, and +thorough mastication was only the hub into which the other spokes of +the wheel of his philosophy of life were to be fitted. The scheme +was nothing less than a cultivation of progressive human efficiency. +Believing that absolute health is the real basis of human happiness +and advancement, and that health depends upon an intelligent treatment +of food in the mouth together with knowledge of how best to furnish the +fuel that is actually required to run the human engine, Horace Fletcher +sought for and found perfect guides among the natural human instincts +and physiologic facilities, and demonstrated that his theories were +facts. + + * * * * * + +During the years that followed I served as his typographic mentor. +He was eager to try weird and ingenious experiments to bring out the +various points of his theories through unique typographical arrangement +(see _opp. page_). It required all my skill and diplomacy to +convince him that type possessed rigid limitations, and that to +gain his emphasis he must adopt less complicated methods. From this +association we became the closest of friends, and presuming upon this +relation I used to banter him upon being so casual. His copy was never +ready when the compositors needed it; he was always late in returning +his proofs. The manufacture of a Fletcher book was a hectic experience, +yet no one ever seemed to take exceptions. This was characteristic of +the man. He moved and acted upon suddenly formed impulses, never +planning ahead yet always securing exactly what he wanted, and those +inconvenienced the most always seemed to enjoy it. + +[Illustration: A Page of Horace Fletcher Manuscript] + +“I believe,” he used to say, “in hitching one’s wagon to a star, but I +always keep my bag packed and close at hand ready to change stars at a +moment’s notice. It is only by doing this that you can give things a +chance to happen to you.” + +Among the volumes Fletcher had with him on board ship was one he +had purchased in Italy, printed in a type I did not recognize but +which greatly attracted me by its beauty. The book bore the imprint: +_Parma: Co’tipi Bodoniani._ Some weeks later, in a small, +second-hand bookstore in Florence, I happened upon a volume printed in +the same type, which I purchased and took at once to my friend, Doctor +Guido Biagi, at the Laurenziana Library. + +“The work of Giambattista Bodoni is not familiar to you?” he inquired +in surprise. “It is he who revived in Italy the glory of the Aldi. He +and Firmin Didot in Paris were the fathers of modern type design at the +beginning of the nineteenth century.” + +“Is this type still in use?” I inquired. + +“No,” Biagi answered. “When Bodoni died there was no one worthy to +continue its use, so his matrices and punches are kept intact, +exactly as he left them. They are on exhibition in the library at +Parma, just as the old Plantin relics are preserved in the museum at +Antwerp.” + +[Illustration: GIAMBATTISTA BODONI, 1740-1813 + +From Engraving at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris] + +I immediately took steps through our Ambassador at Rome to gain +permission from the Italian Government to recut this face for use in +America. After considerable difficulty and delay this permission was +granted, with a proviso that I should not allow any of the type made +from my proposed matrices to get into the hands of Italian printers, +as this would detract from the prestige of the city of Parma. It was a +condition to which I was quite willing to subscribe! Within a year I +have received a prospectus from a revived Bodoni Press at Montagnola di +Lugano, Switzerland, announcing that the exclusive use of the original +types of Giambattista Bodoni has been given them by the Italian +Government. This would seem to indicate that the early governmental +objections have disappeared. + +While searching around to secure the fullest set of patterns, I +stumbled upon the fact that Bodoni and Didot had based their types upon +the same model, and that Didot had made use of his font particularly +in the wonderful editions published in Paris at the very beginning +of the nineteenth century. I then hurried to Paris to see whether +these matrices were in existence. There, after a search through the +foundries, I discovered the original punches, long discarded, in the +foundry of Peignot, to whom I gave an order to cast the different sizes +of type, which I had shipped to America. + +This was the first type based on this model ever to come into this +country. The Bodoni face has since been recut by typefounders as well +as for the typesetting machines, and is today one of the most popular +faces in common use. Personally I prefer the Bodoni letter to that of +Didot (see _opp. page_). The Frenchman succumbed to the elegance +of his period, and by lightening the thin lines robbed the design +of the virility that Bodoni retained. I am not in sympathy with the +excessive height of the ascending letters, which frequently extend +beyond the capitals; but when one considers how radical a departure +from precedent this type was, he must admire the skill and courage of +the designers. William Morris cared little for it,--“The sweltering +hideousness of the Bodoni letter,” he exclaimed; “the most illegible +type that was ever cut, with its preposterous thicks and thins”; while +Theodore L. De Vinne, in his _Practice of Typography_, writes: + + _The beauty of the Bodoni letters consists in their regularity, + in their clearness, and in their conformity to the taste of the + race, nation, and age in which the work was first written, and + finally in the grace of the characters, independent of time or + place._ + +When authorities differ to such a wide extent, the student of type +design must draw his own conclusions! + +[Illustration: The Bodoni Letter (bottom) compared with the Didot +Letter (top)] + + * * * * * + +Fletcher’s idea of an appointment was something to be kept if or when +convenient, yet he never seemed to offend any one. He did nothing +he did not wish to do, and his methods of extricating himself from +unwelcome responsibilities always amused rather than annoyed. “If you +don’t want to do a thing very badly,” he confided to me on one such +occasion, “do it very badly.” + +[Illustration: HORACE FLETCHER IN 1915] + +On board the _Canopic_ Fletcher was surrounded by an admiring +and interested group. General Leonard Wood was on his way to study +colonial government abroad before taking up his first administration +as Governor of the Philippines. On his staff was General Hugh Lennox +Scott, who later succeeded General Wood as Chief of Staff of the United +States Army. The conversations and discussions in the smokeroom each +evening after dinner were illuminating and fascinating. General +Wood had but recently completed his work as Governor of Cuba, and he +talked freely of his experiences there, while General Scott was full +of reminiscences of his extraordinary adventures with the Indians. He +later played an important part in bringing peace to the Philippines. + +It was at one of these four-cornered sessions in the smokeroom that we +first learned of Fletcher’s ambition to revolutionize the world in its +methods of eating. That he would actually accomplish this no one of +us believed, but the fact remains. The smokeroom steward was serving +the coffee, inquiring of each one how many lumps of sugar he required. +Fletcher, to our amazement, called for five! It was a grand-stand +play in a way, but he secured his audience as completely as do the +tambourines and the singing of the Salvation Army. + +“Why are you surprised?” he demanded with seeming innocence. “I am +simply taking a coffee liqueur, in which there is less sugar now than +there is in your chartreuse or benedictine. But I am mixing it with the +saliva, which is more than you are doing. The sugar, as you take it, +becomes acid in the stomach and retards digestion; by my method, it is +changed into grape sugar, which is easily assimilated.” + +“To insalivate one’s liquor,” he explained to us, “gives one the most +exquisite pleasure imaginable, but it is a terrific test of quality. +It brings out the richness of flavor, which is lost when one gulps the +wine down. Did you ever notice the way a tea-taster sips his tea?” + +As he talked he exposed the ignorance of the entire group on +physiological matters to an embarrassing extent, clinching his remarks +by asking General Wood the question, + +“Would you engage as chauffeur for your automobile a man who knew as +little about his motor as you know about your own human engine?” + +No one ever loved a practical joke better than Horace Fletcher. I was +a guest at a dinner he once gave at the Graduates’ Club in New Haven. +Among the others present were President Hadley of Yale, John Hays +Hammond, Walter Camp, and Professor Lounsbury. There was considerable +curiosity and some speculation concerning what would constitute a +Fletcher dinner. At the proper time we were shown into a private room, +where the table was set with the severest simplicity. Instead of china, +white crockery was used, and the chief table decorations were three +large crockery pitchers filled with ice water. At each plate was a +crockery saucer, containing a shredded-wheat biscuit. It was amusing +to glance around and note the expressions of dismay upon the faces of +the guests. Their worst apprehensions were being confirmed! Just as we +were well seated, the headwaiter came to the door and announced that +by mistake we had been shown into the wrong room, whereupon Fletcher, +with an inimitable twinkle in his eye, led the way into another private +dining room, where we sat down to one of the most sumptuous repasts I +have ever enjoyed. + +Today, twenty years after his campaign, it is almost forgotten that +the American breakfast was at that time a heavy meal. Horace Fletcher +revolutionized the practice of eating, and interjected the word +_fletcherize_ into the English language. As a disciple of Fletcher +Sir Thomas Barlow, physician-in-chief to King Edward VII, persuaded +royalty to set the style by cutting down the formal dinner from three +hours to an hour and a half, with a corresponding relief to the +digestive apparatus of the guests. In Belgium, during the World War, +working with Herbert Hoover, Fletcher taught the impoverished people +how to sustain themselves upon meager rations. Among his admirers and +devoted friends were such profound thinkers as William James who, in +response to a letter from him, wrote, “Your excessive reaction to the +stimulus of my grateful approval makes you remind me of those rich +soils which, when you tickle them with a straw, smile with a harvest”; +and Henry James, who closes a letter: “Come and bring with you plenary +absolution to the thankless subject who yet dares light the lamp of +gratitude to you at each day’s end of his life.” + + * * * * * + +My acquaintance with Henry James came through my close association +with the late Sir Sidney Lee, the Shakesperian authority, and Horace +Fletcher. + +“Don’t be surprised if he is brusque or uncivil,” Sir Sidney whispered +to me just before I met him at dinner; “one can never tell how he is +going to act.” + +As a matter of fact, I found Henry James a most genial and enjoyable +dinner companion, and never, during the few later occasions when I had +the pleasure of being with him, did he display those characteristics of +ill humor and brusqueness which have been attributed to him. It may not +be generally known that all his life--until he met Horace Fletcher--he +suffered torments from chronic indigestion, or that it was in +Fletcherism that he found his first relief. In a typically involved +Jamesian letter to his brother William he writes (February, 1909): + + _It is impossible save in a long talk to make you understand how + the blessed Fletcherism--so extra blessed--lulled me, charmed + me, beguiled me, from the first into the convenience of not + having to drag myself out into eternal walking. One must have + been through what it relieved me from to know how not suffering + from one’s food all the while, after having suffered all one’s + life, and at last having it cease and vanish, could make one + joyously and extravagantly relegate all out-of-door motion to a + more and more casual and negligible importance. To live without + the hell goad of needing to walk, with time for reading and + indoor pursuits,--a delicious, insidious bribe! So, more and + more, I gave up locomotion, and at last almost completely. A + year and a half ago the thoracic worry began. Walking seemed to + make it worse, tested by short spurts. So I thought non-walking + more and more the remedy, and applied it more and more, and ate + less and less, naturally. My heart was really disgusted all + the while at my having ceased to call upon it. I have begun to + do so again, and with the most luminous response. I am better + the second half hour of my walk than the first, and better the + third than the second.... I am, in short, returning, after an + interval deplorably long and fallacious, to a due amount of + reasonable exercise and a due amount of food for the same._ + +[Illustration: _A Page from an Autograph Letter from Henry James to +Horace Fletcher_] + +My one visit to Lamb House was in company with Horace Fletcher. The +meeting with Henry James at dinner had corrected several preconceived +ideas and confirmed others. Some writers are revealed by their books, +others conceal themselves in their fictional prototypes. It had always +been a question in my mind whether Henry James gave to his stories his +own personality or received his personality from his stories. This +visit settled my doubts. + +The home was a perfect expression of the host, and possessed an +individuality no less unique. I think it was Coventry Patmore who +christened it “a jewel set in the plain,”--located as it was at the +rising end of one of those meandering streets of Rye, in Sussex, +England, Georgian in line and perfect in appointment. + +In receiving us, Henry James gave one the impression of performing a +long-established ritual. He had been reading in the garden, and when +we arrived he came out into the hall with hand extended, expressing a +massive cordiality. + +“Welcome to my beloved Fletcher,” he cried; and as he grasped my hand +he said, as if by way of explanation, + +“He saved my life, you know, and what is more, he improved my +disposition. By rights he should receive all my future royalties,--but +I doubt if he does!” + +His conversation was much more intelligible than his books. It +was ponderous, but every now and then a subtle humor relieved the +impression that he felt himself on exhibition. One could see that he +was accustomed to play the lion; but with Fletcher present, toward whom +he evidently felt a deep obligation, he talked intimately of himself +and of the handicap his stomach infelicities had proved in his work. +The joy with which he proclaimed his emancipation showed the real +man,--a Henry James unknown to his characters or to his public. + + * * * * * + +If William James had not taken up science as a profession and thus +become a philosopher, he would have been a printer. No other commercial +pursuit so invited him as “the honorable, honored, and productive +business of printing,” as he expressed it in a letter to his mother +in 1863. Naturally, with such a conception of the practice of book +manufacture, he was always particularly concerned with the physical +_format_ of his volumes. He once told me that my ability to +translate his “fool ideas” into type showed the benefit of a Harvard +education! He had no patience with any lapse on the part of the +proofreader, and when the galleys of his books reached this point in +the manufacture even my most experienced readers were on the anxious +seat. On the other hand, he was generous in his appreciation when a +proofreader called his attention to some slip in his copy that he had +overlooked. + +After his volume _Pragmatism_ appeared and created such universal +attention, a series of “popular” lectures on the subject was announced +at Cambridge. The Harpers had just published a novel of mine entitled +_The Spell_, in connection with which I had devoted much time +to the study of humanism and the humanists of the fifteenth century. +Because of my familiarity with a kindred subject, I must confess to +a sense of mortification that in reading _Pragmatism_ I found +myself beyond my depth. A “popular” presentation appealed to me as +an opportunity for intellectual development, so I attended the first +lecture, armed with pencil and notebook. Afterwards it so happened that +Professor James was on the trolley car when I boarded it at Harvard +Square, and I sat down beside him. + +“I was surprised to see you at my lecture,” he remarked. “Don’t you get +enough of me at your office?” + +I told him of my excursions into other philosophic pastures, and of my +chagrin to find so little in pragmatic fields upon which my hungry mind +could feed. He smiled at my language, and entered heartily into the +spirit. + +“And today?” he inquired mischievously.--“I hope that today I guided +you successfully.” + +“You did,” I declared, opening my notebook, and showing him the entry: +“Nothing is the only resultant of the one thing which is not.” + +“That led me home,” I said soberly, with an intentional double meaning. + +Professor James laughed heartily. + +“Did I really say that? I have no doubt I did. It simply proves my +contention that philosophers too frequently exercise their prerogative +of concealing themselves behind meaningless expressions.” + +Two of Professor James’ typographic hobbies were paper labels and as +few words as possible on the title page. In the matter of supplying +scant copy for the title, he won my eternal gratitude, for many a +book, otherwise typographically attractive, is ruined by overloading +the title with too much matter. This is the first page that catches +the eye, and its relation to the book is the same as the door of a +house. Only recently I opened a volume to a beautiful title page. The +type was perfectly arranged in proportion and margin, the decoration +was charming and in complete harmony with the type. It was set by an +artist-printer and did him credit; but turning a few more pages I +found myself face to face with a red-blooded story of western life, +when the title had prepared me for something as delicate as Milton’s +_L’Allegro_. A renaissance door on a New England farmhouse would +have been equally appropriate! + +I commend to those who love books the fascinating study of title pages. +I entered upon it from curiosity, and quickly found in it an abiding +hobby. The early manuscripts and first printed volumes possessed no +title pages, due probably to the fact that the handmade paper and +parchment were so costly that the saving of a seemingly unnecessary +page was a consideration. The _incipit_ at the top of the first +page, reading “Here beginneth” and then adding the name of the author +and the subject, answered every purpose; and on the last page the +_explicit_ marked the conclusion of the work, and offered the +printer an excellent opportunity to record his name and the date of +the printing. Most of the early printers were modest in recording +their achievements, but in the famous volume _De Veritate Catholicæ +Fidei_ the printer says of himself: + + _This new edition was furnished us to print in Venice by Nicolas + Jenson of France.... Kind toward all, beneficent, generous, + truthful and steadfast in the beauty, dignity, and accuracy + of his printing, let me (with the indulgence of all) name him + the first in the whole world; first likewise in his marvelous + speed. He exists in this, our time, as a special gift from + Heaven to men. June thirteen, in the year of Redemption 1489. + Farewell_ + + * * * * * + +Bibliographers contend that the first title page was used in a book +printed by Arnold Ther Hoernen of Cologne in 1470. In this volume an +extra leaf is employed containing simply an introduction at the top. +It has always seemed to me that this leaf is more likely to have been +added by the printer to correct a careless omission of the introduction +on his first page of text. Occasionally, in the humanistic manuscript +volumes in the Laurenziana Library, at Florence, there occurs a +“mirror” title (see _opp. page_), which consists of an illuminated +page made up of a large circle in the center containing the name of the +book, sometimes surrounded by smaller circles, in which are recorded +the titles of the various sections. This seems far more likely to have +been suggestive of what came to be the formal title page. + +[Illustration: MIRROR TITLE + +From Augustinus: _Opera_, 1485. + +Laurenziana Library, Florence] + +By the end of the fifteenth century the title page was in universal +use, and printers showed great ingenuity in arranging the type in +the form of wine cups, drinking glasses, funnels, inverted cones, +and half-diamonds. During the sixteenth century great artists like +Dürer, Holbein, Rubens, and Mantegna executed superbly engraved +titles entirely out of keeping with the poor typography of the books +themselves. In many of the volumes the title page served the double +purpose of title and full-page illustration (see _pages_ 228 and +241). What splendid examples would have resulted if the age of engraved +titles had coincided with the high-water mark in the art of printing! + +As the art of printing declined, the engraved title was discarded, and +the printer of the seventeenth century seemed to feel it incumbent +upon him to cover the entire page with type. If you recall the early +examples of American Colonial printing, which were based upon the +English models of the time, you will gain an excellent idea of the +grotesque tendency of that period. The Elzevirs were the only ones who +retained the engraved title (_page_ 241). The Baskerville volumes +(_page_ 247), in the middle of the eighteenth century, showed a +return to good taste and harmonious co-ordination with the text; but +there was no beauty in the title until Didot in Paris and Bodoni +in Parma, Italy, introduced the so-called “modern” face, which is +peculiarly well adapted to display (_page_ 253). William Morris, +in the late nineteenth century, successfully combined decoration with +type,--over-decorated, in the minds of many, but in perfect keeping +with the type pages of the volumes themselves. Cobden-Sanderson, +at the Doves Press, returned to the extreme in simplicity and good +taste (_page_ 265), excelling all other printers in securing +from the blank space on the leaf the fullest possible value. One +of Cobden-Sanderson’s classic remarks is, “I always give greater +attention, in the typography of a book, to what I leave out than to +what I put in.” + + * * * * * + +The name of William Morris today may be more familiar to booklovers +than that of Cobden-Sanderson, but I venture to predict that within +a single decade the latter’s work as printer and binder at the +Doves Press at Hammersmith, London, will prove to have been a more +determining factor in printing as an art than that of William Morris +at the Kelmscott Press, and that the general verdict will be that +Cobden-Sanderson carried out the splendid principles laid down by +Morris more consistently than did that great artist-craftsman himself. + +[Illustration: T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON, 1841-1922 + +From Etching by Alphonse Legros, 1893] + +The story of Cobden-Sanderson’s life is an interesting human document. +He told it to me one evening, its significance being heightened by +the simplicity of the recital. At seventeen he was apprenticed to +an engineer, but he worked less than a year in the draft room. He +disliked business as business, and began to read for Cambridge, with +the idea of entering the Church. While at Trinity College he read for +mathematical honors, but three years later, having given up all idea +of going into the Church, he left Cambridge, refusing honors and a +degree, which he might have had, as a protest against the competitive +system and the “warp” it gave to all university teaching. Then, for +seven or eight years, he devoted himself to Carlyle and the study of +literature, “Chiefly German philosophy,” he said, “which is perhaps not +literature,” supporting himself by desultory writing and practicing +medicine. When he was thirty years old he was admitted to the Bar, +which profession he abandoned thirteen years later to become a manual +laborer. The following is quoted from notes which I made after this +conversation: + + _I despaired of knowledge in a philosophical sense, yet I + yearned to do or to make something. This was the basic idea + of my life. At this time it was gradually revealed to me that + the arts and crafts of life might be employed to make society + itself a work of art, sound and beautiful as a whole, and in + all its parts._ + +It is difficult to associate Cobden-Sanderson’s really tremendous +contributions to bookmaking as an art with his self-effacing +personality. If I had met the man before I had become intimately +acquainted with his work, I should have been disappointed; having +had him interpreted to me by his books before I met him, his unique +personality proved a definite inspiration and gave me an entirely new +viewpoint on many phases of the art of typography in its application to +human life. + +In person, Cobden-Sanderson was of slight build, with sloping +shoulders, his most noticeable feature being his reddish beard tinged +with gray. He was nervous and shy, and while talking seldom looked +one squarely in the eye, yet at no time could one doubt the absolute +sincerity of his every word and act. He was hopelessly absent-minded. +Invited to dine with me in London, he appeared the evening before the +date set, retiring overwhelmed with embarrassment when he discovered +his mistake. On the following evening he forgot the appointment +altogether! Later, when in Boston, he accepted an invitation to dine +with a literary society, but failed to appear because he could not +remember where the dinner was to be held. He had mislaid his note of +invitation and could not recall the name of the man who sent it. On +that evening he dashed madly around the city in a taxicab for over an +hour, finally ending up at his hotel in absolute exhaustion while the +members of the literary society dined without their lion! + +While president of the Society of Printers in Boston, I arranged for +Cobden-Sanderson to come to America to deliver some lectures on _The +Ideal Book_. Among these were four given at Harvard University. At +the conclusion of the last lecture he came to my library, thoroughly +tired out and completely discouraged. Seated in a great easy chair he +remained for several moments in absolute silence, resting his face upon +his hands. Suddenly, without a moment’s warning, he straightened up and +said with all the vehemence at his command, + +“I am the veriest impostor who ever came to your shores!” + +Seeing my surprise and incredulity, he added, + +“I have come to America to tell you people how to make books. In +New York they took me to see the great Morgan Library and other +collections. They showed me rare _incunabula_. They expected me to +know all about them, and to be enthusiastic over them. As a matter of +fact, I know nothing about the work of the great master-printers, and +care less!” + +My face must have disclosed my thoughts, for he held up a restraining +hand. + +“Don’t think me such an egotist as my words imply. It isn’t that +at all. It is true that I am interested only in my own work, but +that is because my work means something more to me than the books +I produce. When I print a book or bind one it is because I have a +message in my soul which I am impelled to give mankind, and it comes +out through my fingers. Other men express their messages in different +_media_,--in stone or on canvas. I have discovered that the book +is my medium. When I bind and decorate a volume I seem to be setting +myself, like a magnetized needle, or like an ancient temple, in line +and all square, not alone with my own ideal of society, but with that +orderly and rhythmical whole which is the revelation of science and +the normal of developed humanity. You asked me a while ago to explain +certain inconsistencies in my work, and I told you that there was no +explanation. That is because each piece of work represents me at the +time I do it. Sometimes it is good and sometimes poor, but, in any +case, it stands as the expression of myself at the time I did it.” + +As he spoke I wondered if Cobden-Sanderson had not explained why, in +the various arts, the work of those master-spirits of the past had not +been surpassed or even equaled during the intervening centuries. It is +a matter for consideration, when the world has shown such spectacular +advance along material lines, that in painting, in sculpture, in +architecture, in printing, the work of the old masters still stands +supreme. In their time, when men had messages in their souls to give +the world, the interpretation came out through their fingers, expressed +in the medium with which each was familiar. Before the invention of +printing, the masses received those messages directly from the marble +or the canvas, or from the design of some great building. The printed +book opened to the world a storehouse of wisdom hitherto unavailable, +and made individual effort less conspicuous and therefore less +demanded. The few outstanding figures in every art have been those who, +like Cobden-Sanderson, have set themselves “in line and all square, +not alone with their own ideals of society, but with that orderly and +rhythmical whole which is the revelation of science and the normal of +developed humanity.” It is what Cobden-Sanderson has done rather than +his written words, that conveys the greatest message. + +While Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States, and on the +occasion of one of his several visits to Boston, his secretary wrote +that the President would like to examine with me some of the special +volumes I had built. I knew him to be an omnivorous reader, but until +then did not realize his deep interest in the physical side of books. + +He came to the University Press one bitterly cold day in January, and +entered my office wrapped in a huge fur coat. After greeting him I +asked if he wouldn’t lay the coat aside. + +“Of course I will,” he replied briskly; “it is just as easy to catch +hot as it is to catch cold.” + +We devoted ourselves for an hour to an examination and discussion of +certain volumes I had produced. One of these was a small twelve-mo +entitled _Trophies of Heredia_ containing poems by José-Maria +de Heredia, brought out in artistic _format_ for a Boston +publishing house, which had proved a complete failure from a commercial +standpoint. Probably not over two hundred copies of the book were ever +sold. Evidently one of these had fallen into the President’s hands, for +he seized my copy eagerly, saying, + +“Hello! I didn’t remember that you made this. Extraordinary volume, +isn’t it? I want to show you something.” + +Quickly turning to one of the pages he pointed to the line, _The +hidden warmth of the Polar Sea_. + +“What do you think of that?” he demanded. “Did you ever think of the +Polar Sea as being warm? And by Jove he’s right,--it _is_ warm!” + +Later, in Washington, I accepted his invitation for luncheon at the +White House and for an afternoon in his library, where we continued our +discussion of books. Before we turned to the volumes, he showed me some +of the unusual presents which various potentates had given him, such as +a jade bear from the Tzar of Russia, a revolver from Admiral Togo, and +line drawings made personally by the Kaiser, showing in detail every +ship in our Navy. When I expressed surprise that such exact knowledge +should be in the possession of another country, my host became serious. + +“The Kaiser is a most extraordinary fellow,” he said deliberately,--“not +every one realizes how extraordinary. He and I have corresponded ever +since I became President, and I tell you that if his letters were ever +published they would bring on a world war. Thank God I don’t have to +leave them behind when I retire. That’s one prerogative the President +has, at any rate.” + +I often thought of these comments after the World War broke out. An +echo of them came while the desperate struggle was in full force. +Ernest Harold Baynes, nature-lover and expert on birds, was visiting +at my house, having dined with the ex-President at Oyster Bay the week +before. In speaking of the dinner, Baynes said that Roosevelt declared +that had he been President, Germany would never have forced the war at +the time she did. When pressed to explain, Roosevelt said: + +“The Kaiser would have remembered what he outlined to me in some +letters he wrote while I was President. Bill knows me, and I know Bill!” + +From the library we extended our examination to the family living-room, +where there were other volumes of interest on the tables or in the +bookcases. From these, the President picked up a hand-lettered, +illuminated manuscript which he had just received as a present from +King Menelik of Abyssinia. Some one had told him that it was a +manuscript of the twelfth or thirteenth century, but to a student +of the art of illumination it was clearly a modern copy of an old +manuscript. The hand lettering was excellent, but the decoration +included colors impossible to secure with the ancient pigments, and the +parchment was distinctly of modern origin. + +“You are just the one to tell me about this,” Mr. Roosevelt exclaimed. +“Is it an original manuscript?” + +He so obviously wished to receive an affirmative reply that I +temporized by asking if some letter of description had not come with it. + +“Oh, yes,” he replied, immediately divining the occasion of my question +and showing his disappointment; “there was a missive, which is now in +the archives of the State Department. I saw a translation of it, but +it is only one of those banal expressions similar to any one of my +own utterances, when I cable, for instance, to my imperial brother, +the Emperor of Austria, how touched and moved I am to learn that his +cousin, the lady with the ten names, has been safely delivered of a +child!” + +The President was particularly interested in the subject of +illustration, and he showed me several examples, asking for a +description of the various processes. From that we passed on to a +discussion of the varying demand from the time when I first began to +make books. I explained that the development of the halftone plate +and of the four-color process plates had been practically within this +period,--that prior to 1890 the excessive cost of woodcuts, steel +engravings, or lithography confined illustration to expensive volumes. +The halftone opened the way for profuse illustration at minimum expense. + +The President showed me an impression from one of Timothy Cole’s +marvelous woodcuts, and we agreed that the halftone had never taken the +place of any process that depends upon the hand for execution. The very +perfection to which the art of halftone reproduction has been carried +is a danger point in considering the permanence of its popularity. +This does not apply to its use in newspapers, but in reproducing with +such slavish fidelity photographs of objects perpetuated in books +of permanent value. It seemed paradoxical to say that the nearer +perfection an art attains the less interesting it becomes, because the +very variation incidental to hand work in any art is what relieves the +monotony of that perfection attained through mechanical means. Since +then, a few leading engravers have demonstrated how the halftone may be +improved by hand work. This combination has opened up new possibilities +that guarantee its continued popularity. + +With the tremendous increase in the cost of manufacturing books +during and since the World War, publishers found that by omitting +illustrations from their volumes they could come nearer to keeping the +cost within the required limits, so for a period illustrated volumes +became limited in number + +There is no question that the public loves pictures, and the +development during recent years of so-called newspapers from which +the public gleans the daily news by means of halftone illustrations, +is, in a way, a reversion to the time before the printing press, when +the masses received their education wholly through pictorial design. +The popularity of moving pictures is another evidence. I have always +wished that this phase had developed at the time of our discussion, +for I am sure Mr. Roosevelt would have had some interesting comments +to make on its significance. I like to believe that this tendency will +correct itself, for, after all, the pictures which are most worth while +are those which we ourselves draw subconsciously from impressions made +through intellectual exploits + + + + + IV + + THE LURE OF ILLUMINATION + + +Sitting one day in the librarian’s office in the Laurenziana Library, +in Florence, the conversation turned upon the subject of illumination. +Taking a key from his pocket, my friend Guido Biagi unlocked one of the +drawers in the ancient wooden desk in front of him, and lifted from it +a small, purple vellum case, inlaid with jewels. Opening it carefully, +he exposed a volume similarly bound and similarly adorned. Then, as he +turned the leaves, and the full splendor of the masterpiece was spread +out before me,--the marvelous delicacy of design, the gorgeousness of +color, the magnificence of decoration and miniature,--I drew in my +breath excitedly, and bent nearer to the magnifying glass which was +required in tracing the intricacy of the work. + +This was a _Book of Hours_ illuminated by Francesco d’Antonio +del Cherico, which had once belonged to Lorenzo de’ Medici, and was +representative of the best of the fifteenth-century Italian work +(_page 146_). The hand letters were written by Antonio Sinibaldi +in humanistic characters upon the finest and rarest parchment; the +illumination, with its beaten gold and gorgeous colors, was so close a +representation of the jewels themselves as to make one almost believe +that the gems were inlaid upon the page! And it was the very volume +that had many times rested in the hands of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as +it was at that moment resting in mine! + +For the first time the art of illumination became real to me,--not +something merely to be gazed at with respect and admiration, but an +expression of artistic accomplishment to be studied and understood, and +made a part of one’s life. + +The underlying thought that has inspired illumination in books from +its very beginning is more interesting even than the splendid pages +which challenge one’s comprehension and almost pass beyond his power of +understanding. To the ancients, as we have seen, the rarest gems in all +the world were gems of thought. The book was the tangible and visible +expression of man’s intellect, worthy of the noblest presentation. +These true lovers of books engaged scribes to write the text in +_minium_ of rare brilliancy brought from India or Spain, or in +Byzantine ink of pure Oriental gold; they selected, to write upon, +the finest material possible,--sometimes nothing less than virgin +parchment, soft as velvet, made from the skins of still-born kids; they +employed the greatest artists of the day to draw decorations or to +paint miniatures; and they enclosed this glorified thought of man, now +perpetuated for all time, in a cover devised sometimes of tablets of +beaten gold, or of ivory inlaid with precious jewels (_page_ 112). + +[Illustration: CARVED IVORY BINDING + +_Jeweled with Rubies and Turquoises_ + +From _Psalter_ (12th Century). Brit. Mus. Eger. MS. 1139 (Reduced in +size)] + +For centuries, this glorification was primarily bestowed upon religious +manuscripts, and illumination came to be associated with the Church, +but by the fourteenth century the art ceased to be confined to the +cloister. Wealthy patrons recognized that it offered too splendid +a medium of expression to permit limitation; and lay artists were +employed to add their talents in increasing the illuminated treasures +of the world. + +There would seem to be no reason why so satisfying an art as that of +illumination should not continue to be employed to make beautifully +printed books still more beautiful, yet even among those who really +love and know books there is a surprising lack of knowledge concerning +this fascinating work. The art of Raphael and Rubens has been a part of +our every-day life and is familiar to us; but the names of Francesco +d’Antonio, Jean Foucquet, and Jean Bourdichon have never become +household words, and the masterpieces of the illuminator’s art which +stand to their credit seem almost shrouded in a hazy and mysterious +indefiniteness. + +I have learned from my own experience that even fragmentary study +brings rich rewards:--the interest in discovering that instead of +being merely decorative, the art of illumination is as definitive in +recording the temporary or fashionable customs of various periods as +history itself. There is a satisfaction in learning to distinguish +the characteristics of each well-defined school:--of recognizing the +fretted arcades and mosaics of church decoration in the Romanesque +style; the stained glass of the Gothic cathedrals in the schools of +England, France, Germany, or Italy; the love of flower cultivation in +the work of the Netherlandish artists; the echo of the skill of the +goldsmith and enameller in the French manuscripts; and the glory of the +gem cutter in those of the Italian Renaissance. There is the romance +connected with each great masterpiece as it passes from artist to +patron, and then on down the centuries, commemorating loyal devotion to +saintly attributes; expressing fealty at coronations or congratulations +at Royal marriages; conveying expressions of devotion and affection +from noble lords and ladies, one to the other. Illuminated +volumes were not the playthings of the common people, and in their +peregrinations to their final resting places in libraries and museums, +they passed along a Royal road and became clothed with fascinating +associations. + +There was a time when I thought I knew enough about the various schools +to recognize the locality of origin or the approximate date of a +manuscript, but I soon learned my presumption. Illuminators of one +country, particularly of France, scattered themselves all over Europe, +retaining the basic principles of their own national style, yet adding +to it something significant of the country in which they worked. Of +course, there are certain external evidences which help. The vellum +itself tells a story: if it is peculiarly white and fine, and highly +polished, the presumption is that it is Italian or dates earlier than +the tenth century; if very thin and soft, it was made from the skins +of still-born calves or kids, and is probably of the thirteenth or +fourteenth centuries. + +The colors, too, contribute their share. Each old-time artist ground +or mixed his own pigments,--red and blue, and less commonly yellow, +green, purple, black, and white. Certain shades are characteristic of +certain periods. The application of gold differs from time to time: +in England, for instance, gold powder was used until the twelfth +century, after which date gold leaf is beautifully laid on the sheet. +The raised-gold letters and decorations were made by building up with a +peculiar clay, after the design had been drawn in outline, over which +the gold leaf was skilfully laid and burnished with an agate. + +As the student applies himself to the subject, one clue leads him +to another, and he pursues his search with a fascination that soon +becomes an obsession. That chance acquaintance with Francesco d’Antonio +inspired me to become better acquainted with this art. It took me into +different monasteries and libraries, always following “the quest,” and +lured me on to further seeking by learning of new beauties for which +to search, and of new examples to be studied. Even as I write this, +I am told that at Chantilly, in the Musée Condé, the _Très Riches +Heures_ of the Duc de Berry is the most beautiful example of the +French school. I have never seen it, and I now have a new objective on +my next visit to France! + +In this quest, covering many years, I have come to single out certain +manuscripts as signifying to me certain interesting developments in the +art during its evolution, and I study them whenever the opportunity +offers. It is of these that I make a record here. Some might select +other examples as better illustrative from their own viewpoints; some +might draw conclusions different from mine from the same examples,--and +we might all be right! + +There is little for us to examine in our pilgrimage until the Emperor +Justinian, after the conflagration in the year 532, which completely +wiped out Constantinople with its magnificent monuments, reconstructed +and rebuilt the city. There are two copies of _Virgil_ at the +Vatican Library in Rome, to be sure, which are earlier than that, +and form links in the chain between illumination as illustration +and as book decoration; there is the _Roman Calendar_ in the +Imperial Library at Vienna, in which for the first time is combined +decoration with illustration; there is the _Ambrosiana Homer_ at +Milan, of which an excellent reproduction may be found in any large +library,--made under the supervision of Achille Ratti, before he +became Pope Pius XI; there are the burnt fragments of the _Cottonian +Genesis_ at the British Museum in London,--none more than four +inches square, and running down to one inch, some perforated with +holes, and almost obliterated, others still preserving the ancient +colors of the design, with the Greek letters clearly legible after +sixteen centuries. + +These are historical and interesting, but we are seeking beauty. In the +splendor of the rebirth of Constantinople, to which all the known world +contributed gold, and silver, and jewels, medieval illumination found +its beginning. Artists could now afford to send to the Far East and to +the southern shores of Europe for their costly materials. Brilliant +_minium_ came from India and from Spain, _lapis lazuli_ from +Persia and Bokhara, and the famous Byzantine gold ink was manufactured +by the illuminators themselves out of pure Oriental gold. The vellum +was stained with rose and scarlet tints and purple dyes, upon which the +gold and silver inks contrasted with marvelous brilliancy. + +Gorgeousness was the fashion of the times in everything from +architecture to dress, and in the wealth and sumptuous materials at +their command the artists mistook splendor for beauty. The Byzantine +figure work is based upon models as rigid as those of the Egyptians, +and shows little life or variety (_opp. page_). Landscapes and +trees are symbolic and fanciful. Buildings have no regard for relative +proportions, and are tinted merely as parts of the general color +scheme. The illuminators adhered so closely to mechanical rules that +the volumes lack even individuality. + +[Illustration: PSALTER IN GREEK. _Byzantine_, 11th Century + +_Solomon, David, Gideon, and the Annunciation_ + +(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19352. 9¼ × 8 inches)] + +There are comparatively few of these extravagant relics now in +existence. Their intrinsic value made them favorite objects of pillage, +and hundreds were destroyed for their jewels and precious metals. In +many of those that have endured, like the _Codex Argenteus_, at +Upsala, in Sweden, the silver letters have turned black, the gold ink +has become a rusty red, and the stained vellum now supplies a tawdry +background. + + * * * * * + +After passing the early stages of the art, there are ten examples I +particularly like to keep fresh in my mind as showing the evolution of +that insatiable desire on the part of booklovers of all ages to enrich +the book. Four of these are in the British Museum in London, four in +the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, one in the Library of San Marco +in Venice, and one in the Laurenziana Library in Florence. In each of +these storehouses of treasure there are many other manuscripts worthy +of all the time a pilgrim can spare; but these ten represent different +schools and different epochs, and in my own study have combined to make +illumination a living art and a romantic history. + +The _Lindisfarne Gospels_ is where I start my illuminated +pilgrimage. It takes me back to the seventh century, when the world was +shrouded in darkest ignorance, and is a reminder that except for the +development in the Irish monasteries, as typified by early illuminated +volumes such as this, knowledge of books might have almost wholly +disappeared. It recalls the asceticism of those early Irish monks +carried even to a point of fanaticism; their toilsome pilgrimages to +Rome, visiting the different monasteries and collecting, one by one, +the manuscripts to bring back to form those early libraries that kept +alive the light of learning. + +The Irish school of writing and painting passed over to England through +the monasteries established by the Irish monks in Scotland, and the +earliest of the English settlements was Lindisfarne. It was here that +the _Gospels_, one of the most characteristic examples of the +Celtic School, as translated to northern England, was produced. Such +knowledge of its date and origin as exists rests upon a colophon added +at the end of the manuscript, probably in the tenth century, which +would seem to place the date of the execution of the work at about the +year 700. For nearly two centuries it remained as the chief treasure +of Lindisfarne. In 875, so the tradition runs, in order to escape +from the invasion of the Danes, it was decided to remove the body of +Saint Cuthbert and the most valued relics to the mainland, and the +_Gospels_ was included. When the attempt was made to cross over to +Ireland, according to the legend, the ship was driven back by storm, +and the chest containing the precious volume was lost overboard. Here +is the quaint chronicle: + + _In this storm, while the ship was lying over on her side, a + copy of the_ Gospels, _adorned with gold and precious + stones, fell overboard and sank into the depths of the sea. + Accordingly, after a little while, they bend their knees and + prostrate themselves at full length before the feet of the + sacred body, asking pardon for their foolish venture. Then + they seize the helm and turn the ship back to the shore and + to their fellows, and immediately they arrive there without + any difficulty, the wind blowing astern.... Amidst their + lamentations in this distress, at length the accustomed help of + their pious patron came to their aid, whereby their minds were + relieved from grief and their bodies from labor, seeing that + the Lord is a refuge of the poor, a helper in time of trouble. + For, appearing in a vision to one of them, Hunred by name, he + bade them seek, when the tide was low, for the manuscript...; + for, perchance, beyond the utmost they could hope, they would, + by the mercy of God, find it.... Accordingly they go to the + sea and find that it had retired much farther than it was + accustomed; and after walking three miles or more they find the + sacred manuscript of the_ Gospels _itself, exhibiting all + its outer splendor of jewels and gold and all the beauty of its + pages and writing within, as though it had never been touched + by water.... And this is believed to be due to the merits + of Saint Cuthbert himself and of those who made the book, + namely Bishop Eadfrith of holy memory, who wrote it with his + own hand in honor of the blessed Cuthbert; and the venerable + Æthelwald, his successor, who caused it to be adorned with gold + and precious stones; and Saint Billfrith the anchorite, who, + obeying with skilled hands the wishes of his superior, achieved + an excellent work. For he excelled in the goldsmith’s art._ + +This quotation from Mr. Eric George Millar’s Introduction to the +facsimile reproduction of this famous manuscript, published by the +British Museum, is given at such length to emphasize at the very +beginning of this pilgrimage the important place given to these +manuscripts in the communities for which they were prepared. The fact +that such a legend exists at all attests the personality the manuscript +had assumed. It was my very great pleasure, the last time I studied +the _Gospels_, to have Mr. Millar, who is an Assistant in the +Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum, explain many things in +connection with it which could not be gleaned without the exhaustive +study which he has given to it. + +The _Gospels_ includes 258 leaves of heavy vellum, measuring about +13 by 10 inches. The Latin text is written in beautifully designed, +_semi-uncial_ characters. These differ from the capital letters +only by their relatively greater roundness, inclination, and inequality +in height. This style of lettering obtained until the eighth or ninth +century, when the semi-uncial character became the transition to the +minuscule. There are five full pages of decoration, in cruciform design +of most extraordinary elaboration; six pages of ornamented text; four +full-page miniatures of the Evangelists, in which the scribes are drawn +in profile, seated, with cushion, desk, and footstool; sixteen pages of +Canon tables, decorated in pure Celtic style; and numerous initials of +various sizes. + +The great interest in this manuscript lies in the cruciform pages. When +I first saw them I thought the work a marvelous example of the amount +of intricate design an artist could devise within a given area of +space. Then, as I studied them, came the realization that, complicated +as they were, there was a definite plan the artist had established and +followed which preserved the balance of coloring and design. + +In the illustration here given (_page 124_), Mr. Millar showed +me how he has ingeniously unraveled the knots. It is peculiarly +interesting as it demonstrates the methods by which the expert is able +to understand much that the casual observer fails to see. He pointed +out that the background of the page is occupied by a design of no less +than 88 birds, arranged in a perfect pattern, with 7 at the top, 7 at +the bottom, 9 on each side, 12 in the gaps between the outer panels, +four groups of 10 surrounding the rectangular panels, and 4 single +birds in the gaps between the points of the cross and the T panels. +The necks and the bodies are so cleverly balanced that even when at +first the scheme seems inconsistent, further examination shows that +the artist adhered religiously to his plan. The color arrangement is +carried out with equal thought and care. + +[Illustration: THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS. _Celtic_, about A.D. 700 + +(Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Nero. D. iv. 12½ × 10 inches)] + +The four miniatures of the Evangelists show Byzantine influence, but +in the features, and the hair, and in the frames, the Celtic style +prevails. Gold is used only on two pages. + +The _Lindisfarne Gospels_ cannot be called beautiful when compared +with the work of later centuries, but can we fully appreciate the +beauty we are approaching without becoming familiar, step by step, +with what led up to it? In this manuscript the precious Gospels were +enriched by the labor of devoted enthusiasts in the manner they +knew best, and with an ingenuity and industry that staggers us +today. Taking what the past had taught them, they gave to it their own +interpretation, and thus advanced the art toward its final consummation +and glory. + + * * * * * + +Taken merely as an example of illumination, few would share my interest +in the _Alcuin Bible_, a Carolingian manuscript of the ninth +century; but to any one interested in printing, this huge volume +at the British Museum cannot be overlooked. In the eighth century +the Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionary artists transplanted their +work to their settlements on the Continent, out of which sprang the +Carolingian School in France,--so named in honor of Charlemagne. Sacred +compositions, derived largely from Latin and Byzantine sources, were +now added to the highly ornamental letters. Solid backgrounds were +abandoned, and handsome architectural designs were used to frame the +miniatures. + +If you will examine the _Alcuin Bible_ with me, you will note +what a tremendous advance has been made. The manuscript is a copy +of the Vulgate said to be revised and amended by Alcuin of York to +present to Charlemagne on the occasion of that monarch’s coronation. +Some dispute this tradition altogether; some claim that a similar +Bible, now in Rome, is entitled to the honor; but the controversy does +not detract from the interest in the book itself. This Alcuin of York +was the instrument of Charlemagne in establishing the reform in hand +lettering, which has been of the utmost importance in the history of +printing. Starting with the foundation of the School of Tours in 796, +the _minuscule_, or lower-case letter, which is the basis of our +modern styles, superseded all other forms of hand lettering. By the +twelfth century the clear, free-flowing form that developed from the +Caroline minuscule was the most beautiful hand ever developed, and was +never surpassed until the humanistic scribes of the fifteenth century +took it in its Italian form as their model and perfected it. + +The volume is a large quarto, 20 by 14¼ inches in size, splendidly +written in double column in minuscule characters with uncial initials +(_opp. page_). There are four full-page illuminations, and many +smaller miniatures, with characteristic architectural detail that show +Roman influence, while the decorations themselves are reminiscent of +the Byzantine and the Celtic Schools. + +[Illustration: ALCUIN BIBLE. _Carolingian_, 9th Century + +_Showing the Caroline Minuscule_ + +(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 10546. 20 × 14¼ inches)] + +It is the hand lettering rather than the illumination or the decoration +that particularly interests me. When I first began my work in +designing my Humanistic type, I was amazed that the humanistic scribes +of the fifteenth century, upon whose letters I based my own, could have +so suddenly taken such a stride forward. The mere fact that there was a +greater demand for their work did not seem to explain the phenomenon. +Then I discovered that these fifteenth-century artists, instead of +adapting or copying the Caroline minuscule, set about to perfect it. +They mastered the principles upon which it was based, and with the +technical advantages that had come to them through the intervening +centuries, brought the design to its fullest beauty. + + * * * * * + +To supplement my study of the _Alcuin Bible_, I turn to the +masterpiece of the Carolingian School in the Bibliothèque Nationale +in Paris. _The Golden Gospels of Saint Médard_ belongs to the +same period as the _Alcuin Bible_, and its hand letters are of +the same beautiful design, but more brilliant in that they are written +throughout in gold. In spite of the crude and unnatural figures, I am +always impressed with a feeling that the artist is, for the first time, +making a definite effort to break away from past tradition toward more +natural design. The Byzantine atmosphere still clings to the work as a +whole (_opp. page_), but in the frames and the backgrounds there +is an echo of the ivory carving and the architecture of the new Church +of San Vitale at Ravenna, and the powerful influence of the early +Christian symbolism asserts itself in the miniatures. + +[Illustration: GOLDEN GOSPELS OF ST. MÉDARD. + +_Carolingian_, 9th Century + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 8850. 12 × 7½ inches)] + +The hand-lettered pages are enclosed in plain borders of green or red +tint, with outside rules of gold. Each picture page covers the entire +leaf. Every now and then, superimposed upon the solid background of the +margins, are tiny figures so far superior in freedom of design to the +major subjects as to make one wonder why the more pretentious efforts +are not farther advanced than they are. Yet why should we be surprised +that an artist, under the influence of centuries of precedent and the +ever-present aversion to change, should move slowly in expressing +originality? As it is, the pages of _Saint Médard_ give us for the +first time motivation for the glorious development of the art to come +in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. + + * * * * * + +The rise of Gothic influence forms the great dividing line between the +old, or ecclesiastic, and the new, or naturalistic, spirit in monastic +art. The _Psalter of Saint Louis_, a Gothic manuscript of the +thirteenth century, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is an +example of this transition that I like to study. + +By the beginning of the thirteenth century the initial--which in the +Celtic style had dominated the entire page--was losing its supremacy, +becoming simply one factor in the general scheme. A delicate fringe +work or filigree of pen flourishes, which had sprung up around the +initial as it became reduced in size, was later to be converted into a +tendril or cylindrical stem, bearing a succession of five leaves and +leaflets of ivy, usually entirely filled with burnished gold. Small +figures, and, later, groups of figures, take the place of the linear +ornament in the interior of the letter, and calligraphy and miniature +painting become successfully fused. An exact date cannot be assigned, +as it was the result of a slow and gradual growth. + +From certain references made in the Calendar pages of the +_Psalter_, it is evident that the manuscript was copied and +illuminated between the year 1252, when Queen Blanche of Castile died, +and the death of Saint Louis in 1270. What a story this book could +tell! Written in French in red ink on one of the front end leaves is +this inscription: + + _This Psalter of Saint Louis was given by Queen Jeanne d’Evreux + to King Charles, son of King John, in the year of our Master, + 1369; and the present King Charles, son of the said King + Charles, gave it to Madame Marie of France, his daughter, a nun + at Poissy, on Saint Michel’s Day, in the year 1400_ + +The _Psalter_ contains 260 leaves of parchment, 8½ by 6 inches. +Of these, seventy-eight are small, beautiful miniatures, depicting the +principal scenes in the early books of the Old Testament, and eight are +illustrations to the Psalms (_page 132_), the remaining leaves +being occupied by the text. In these miniatures is shown a refinement +and delicacy of treatment combined with unusual freedom in execution. +Here is one of the best examples of the reflection of the stained-glass +windows of the Gothic cathedrals (_opp. page_), to which reference +has already been made. There is no shading whatever. The body color is +laid on the design in flat tints, finished by strokes of the pen. + +[Illustration: PSALTER OF SAINT LOUIS. _Gothic_, 13th Century + +_Abraham and Isaac_ + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525. 8½ × 6 inches)] + +[Illustration: PSALTER OF SAINT LOUIS. _Gothic_, 13th Century + +_Psalms_ lxviii. 1-3 + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525. 8½ × 6 inches)] + +All this is interesting because this period marks the end of the +needless limitations illuminators placed upon themselves. Working on +vellum as a medium instead of in glass with lead outlines, should be a +much simpler operation! Still, one can’t help reveling in the bright +scarlet and the rich blue of the stained glass, and would be loath to +give it up. + +The volume is bound in old boards, covered with blue and rose material +embossed with silver and reinforced with velvet. The clasps are gone. + + * * * * * + +The style of illumination in the thirteenth century shows no distinct +national characteristics, for, even in England, some of the work was +executed by French artists. The initial is usually set within a frame +shaped to its outline, the ground being either of gold, slightly raised +or burnished, or of color, especially dark blue and pale tints of +salmon, gray, or violet, sometimes edged with gold. + +_Queen Mary’s Psalter_, a superb example of the English School in +the early fourteenth century, is a landmark in our pilgrimage because, +in addition to its surpassing beauty, it is an example of illumination +sought for its own artistic value instead of being associated wholly +with devotional manuscripts. No one can examine the charming series +of little tinted drawings in the margins of the Litany without being +convinced that the artist, whoever he may have been, was quite familiar +with the world outside the Church (see _frontispiece_). + +The earliest note of ownership in this manuscript is of the sixteenth +century: + + _This boke was sume tyme the Erle of Rutelands, and it was his + wil that it shulde by successioun all way go to the lande + of Ruteland or to him that linyally suceedes by reson of + inheritaunce in the saide lande._ + +How fascinating these records are, made by different hands as the +precious manuscripts are passed on down the ages! Even though we have +no absolute knowledge of which Rutland is meant, an added personality +is given to the pages we are now permitted to turn and to admire. In +this manuscript there is also a second note, written in Latin on the +fly leaf at the end, paying a tribute to a certain Baldwin Smith, “an +honest customs officer,” who frustrated an attempt to ship the volume +out of England, and presented it to Queen Mary. It is now in the +British Museum. + +Whether or not this was Queen Mary’s first acquaintance with the +manuscript is not known, but from the binding she put on it she surely +considered it a highly prized personal possession. It would naturally +be of special interest to her because of its connection with the old +liturgy she was so anxious to restore. The silver-gilt clasp fittings +are missing now. The crimson velvet with the pomegranate, the Queen’s +badge, worked in colored silks and gold thread on each cover, are +worn and shabby; but on the corner plates the engraved lion, dragon, +portcullis, and fleur-de-lys of the Tudors are still triumphant. + +The manuscript, executed upon thin vellum, and consisting of 320 leaves +about 11 by 7 inches, opens with a series of 228 pen and ink drawings. +In most cases there are two designs on each page, illustrating Bible +history from the Creation down to the death of Solomon (_page +134_). With the drawings is a running description in French, +sometimes in prose, sometimes in rhyme, which in itself is interesting, +as the story does not always confine itself strictly to the Biblical +records but occasionally embodies apocryphal details. + +The drawings themselves are exquisite, and in the skill of execution +mark another tremendous advance in the art of illumination. They are +delicately tinted with violet, green, red, and brown. The frame is a +plain band of vermilion, from each corner of which is extended a stem +with three leaves tinted with green or violet. + +Following the series of drawings comes a full page showing the Tree of +Jesse, and three other full pages depicting the Saints,--one page of +four compartments and two of six. The text, from this point, represents +the usual form of the liturgical Psalter, the Psalms being preceded +by a Calendar, two pages to a month, and followed by the Canticles, +including the Athanasian Creed, and then by the Litany. In the Psalter, +the miniatures show incidents from the life of Christ; the Canticles +depict scenes from the Passion; while in the Litany are miniatures +of the Saints and Martyrs. The initials themselves are elaborate, +many containing small miniatures, and all lighted up with brilliant +colors and burnished gold. In the Litany, in addition to the religious +subjects, there are splendid little scenes of every-day life painted +in the lower margins which make the manuscript unique,--illustrations +of the Bestiary, tilting and hunting scenes, sports and pastimes, +grotesque figures and combats, dancers and musicians. The manuscript +ends with the Miracles of the Virgin and the Lives and Passions of the +Saints. + +In _Queen Mary’s Psalter_, and in manuscripts from this period +to those of the sixteenth century, we find ourselves reveling in +sheer beauty. “Why not have started here?” asks my reader. Perhaps we +should have done so; but this is a record not of what I ought to do, +but of what I’ve done! To see one beautiful manuscript after another, +without being able to recognize what makes each one different and +significant, would take away my pleasure, for the riotous colors and +gold would merge one into another. Is it not true that there comes +greater enjoyment in better understanding? We admire what we may not +understand, but without understanding there can be no complete +appreciation. In this case, familiarity breeds content! + +[Illustration: QUEEN MARY’S PSALTER. _English_, 14th Century + +_From the Life of Joseph_ + +(Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii. 11 × 7 inches)] + + * * * * * + +After studying the best of fourteenth-century English illumination in +_Queen Mary’s Psalter_, I like to turn to the _Bedford Book of +Hours_, to make comparison with one of the most beautiful French +manuscripts of a century later. This is also at the British Museum, +so in the brief space of time required by the attendant to change the +volumes on the rack in front of me, I am face to face with the romance +and the beauty of another famous volume, which stands as a memorial of +English domination in France. + +Fashions change in illuminated manuscripts, as in all else, and books +of hours were now beginning to be the vogue in place of psalters. This +one was written and decorated for John, Duke of Bedford, son of Henry +IV, and was probably a wedding gift to Anne, his wife. This marriage, +it will be remembered, was intended to strengthen the English alliance +with Anne’s brother, Philip of Burgundy. On the blank page on the back +of the Duke’s portrait is a record in Latin, made by John Somerset, +the King’s physician, to the effect that on Christmas Eve, 1430, the +Duchess, with her husband’s consent, presented the manuscript to the +young King Henry VI, who was then at Rouen, on his way to be crowned +at Paris. Such notes, made in these later illuminated volumes, are +interesting as far as they go, but there is so much left unsaid! In +the present instance, how came the manuscript, a hundred years later, +in the possession of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici, of France? +After being thus located, where was it for the next hundred years, +before it was purchased by Edward Harley, 2d Earl of Oxford, from Sir +Robert Worsley’s widow, to be presented to his daughter, the Duchess +of Portland? These are questions that naturally arise in one’s mind +as he turns the gorgeous pages, for it seems incredible that such +beauty could remain hidden for such long periods. Now, happily, through +purchase in 1852, the manuscript has reached its final resting place. + +[Illustration: BEDFORD BOOK OF HOURS. _French_, 15th Century + +_Showing one of the superb Miniature Pages_ + +(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18850. 10¼ × 7¼ inches)] + +Like other books of hours, the _Bedford_ opens with the Calendar +pages, combining the signs of the Zodiac with beautifully executed +scenes typical of each month. Then follow four full-page designs +showing the Creation and Fall, the Building of the Ark, the Exit from +the Ark, and the Tower of Babel. The Sequences of the Gospels come +next; then the Hours of the Virgin, with Penitential Psalms and Litany; +the Shorter Hours; the Vigils of the Dead; the Fifteen Joys; the +Hours of the Passion; the Memorials of the Saints; and various Prayers. +Throughout the 289 leaves, a little larger than 10 by 7 inches, are +thirty-eight full-page miniatures that are masterpieces,--particularly +the Annunciation, with which the Hours of the Virgin begin. Every page +of text is surrounded by a magnificent border, rich in colors and +gold, with foliage and birds, and with the daintiest little miniatures +imaginable. While these borders are based upon the ivy-leaf pattern, +it resembles the style that carries the illumination through the leaf, +bud, and flower up to the fruit itself, which one associates more with +the Flemish than the French School. The work is really a combination +of the French and Flemish Schools, but is essentially French in its +conception and execution. + +It was the custom, in these specially created manuscripts, to +immortalize the heads of the family by including them with other, +and, perhaps in some cases, more religious subjects. In this _Book +of Hours_, the Duke of Bedford is depicted, clad in a long, +fur-lined gown of cloth-of-gold, kneeling before Saint George, and the +portrait is so fine that it has been frequently copied. The page which +perpetuates the Duchess is reproduced here (at _page 136_). Clad +in a sumptuous gown of cloth-of-gold, lined with ermine, she kneels +before Saint Anne; her elaborate head-dress supports an artificial +coiffure, rich in jewels; on her long train, her two favorite dogs are +playing. The Saint is clad in a grey gown, with blue mantle and white +veil, with an open book in front of her. At her left stands the Virgin +in white, with jeweled crown, and the infant Christ, in grey robe. His +mother has thrown her arm affectionately about Him, while He, in turn, +beams on the kneeling Duchess. In His hand He carries an orb surmounted +by a cross. Saint Joseph stands at the right of the background, and +four angels may be seen with musical instruments, appearing above the +arras, on which is stamped the device and motto of the Duchess. + +Surrounding the miniature, worked into the border, in addition to +the Duke’s shield and arms, are exquisite smaller pictures, in +architectural backgrounds, showing Saint Anne’s three husbands and her +sons-in-law. The pages must be seen in their full color, and in their +original setting, to be appreciated. + +The manuscript is bound in red velvet, with silver-gilt clasps, bearing +the Harley and the Cavendish arms, and dates back to the time of the +Earl of Oxford. + +[Illustration: ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. _French Renaissance_, 15th +Century + +_Cyrus permits the Jews to return to their own Country, and to rebuild +the Temple of Jerusalem_ + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Français 247. 16¼ × 11½ inches)] + +In the _Antiquities of the Jews_, Jean Foucquet’s masterpiece at +the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, we find the French Renaissance +School. This manuscript interests me for several and different reasons. +In the first place, Foucquet was one of the founders of the French +School of painting, and had his masterpieces been painted on canvas +instead of on vellum, his name would have been much more familiar +to art lovers than it is today. The high degree attained by the art +at Tours, which had become the center of the Renaissance in France, +demanded a setting for the miniatures different from the Flemish type +of decoration that had so dominated illumination in general. This it +found in the Italian style, which at that time was first attaining its +glory. + +The book itself was originally bound in two volumes, being a +French translation by an unknown writer of Flavius Josephus’ +_Antiquities_ and _War of the Jews_, the subject being the +clemency of Cyrus toward the captive Jews in Babylon. It is in folio +(a little larger than 16 by 11 inches), written in double column, and +contains superb initials, vignettes, and miniatures (_page 138_). +The work was begun for the Duc de Berry, but was left unfinished at +his death in 1416. Later it came into the possession of the Duc de +Nemours. Can one imagine a more aristocratic treasure for a cultured +gentleman to own! It was probably begun very early in the fifteenth +century, and completed between the years 1455 and 1477. A note at +the end of the first volume (which contains 311 leaves) by François +Robertet, secretary of Pierre II, Duc de Bourbon, states that nine of +the miniatures are “by the hand of that good painter of King Louis XI, +Jean Foucquet, native of Tours.” + +For over two hundred years this first volume, containing Books I to XIV +of the _Antiquities of the Jews_, has been in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. It is bound in yellow morocco, and bears the arms of +Louis XV. The second volume was considered lost. In 1903 the English +collector, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, purchased the missing copy in +London, at a sale at Sotheby’s. This contained Books XV to XX of the +_Antiquities of the Jews_ and Books I to VII of the _War of the +Jews_; but it was imperfect in that a dozen pages of miniatures had +been cut out. Two years later, Sir George Warner discovered ten of +these filched leaves in an album of miniatures that at some time had +been presented to Queen Victoria, and were in her collection at Windsor +Castle. + +As soon as Mr. Thompson heard of this discovery, he begged King Edward +VII to accept his volume, in order that the leaves might be combined. +The English monarch received the gift with the understanding that he, +in turn, might present the restored manuscript to the President of +the French Republic. This gracious act was accomplished on March 4, +1906, and now the two volumes rest side by side in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, reunited for all time after their long separation. If books +possess personalities, surely no international romance ever offered +greater material for the novelist’s imagination! + + * * * * * + +Now our pilgrimage takes us from Paris to Venice, to study that +priceless treasure of the Library of San Marco, the _Grimani +Breviary_, the gem of the Flemish School (which should properly +be called “Netherlandish”). This style overlapped, distinctly, +into Germany and France, and further complicated any certainty +of identification by the fact that the number of Netherlandish +illuminators was large, and they scattered themselves over Europe, +practising their art and style in France, Germany, and Italy. They all +worked with the same minute care, and it is practically impossible to +identify absolutely the work even of the most famous artists. There +has always been a question whether the chief glory of the _Grimani +Breviary_ belonged to Hans Memling or to Gerard Van-der-Meire, but +from a study of the comparative claims the Memling enthusiasts would +seem to have the better of the argument. + +Internal and external evidence place the date of the execution of the +_Grimani Breviary_ at 1478 to 1489,--ten years being required for +its completion. It is believed that the commission was given by Pope +Sixtus IV. The Pontiff, however, died before the volume was finished, +and it was left in the hands of one of the artists engaged upon it. +Antonello di Messina purchased it from this artist, who is supposed to +have been Hans Memling, and brought it to Venice, where he sold it for +the sum of 500 ducats to Cardinal Domenico Grimani, whose name it bears. + +[Illustration: GRIMANI BREVIARY. _Flemish_, 15th Century + +_La Vie au Mois de Janvier_ + +(Biblioteca San Marco, Venice. 10 × 9 inches)] + +This Cardinal Grimani was a man noted not only for his exemplary piety +but also as a literary man of high repute, and a collector of rare +judgment. When he died, the _Breviary_ was bequeathed to his +nephew, Marino Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, on the condition that +at his death the precious manuscript should become the property of the +Venetian Republic. Marino carried the _Breviary_ with him to Rome, +where it remained until his death in 1546. In spite of his precautions, +however, this and several other valuable objects would have been +irretrievably lost had not Giovanni Grimani, Marino’s successor as +Patriarch at Aquileia, searched for it, and finally recovered it at +great cost to himself. + +In recognition of his services, Venice granted Giovanni the privilege +of retaining the manuscript in his possession during his lifetime. +Faithful to his trust, Giovanni, fearing lest the volume be again +lost, on October 3, 1593, sent for his great friend, Marco Antonio +Barbaro, Procurator of Saint Mark’s, placed the treasure in his hands, +and charged him to deliver it to the Doge Pasquale Cicogna in full +Senate. This was done, and the volume was stored in the Treasury of +the Basilica for safe keeping. Here it remained through the many +vicissitudes of Venice, and even after the fall of the Republic, until +the librarian Morelli persuaded the authorities to allow its removal to +the Library of San Marco, whither it was transferred October 4, 1797. + +When the _Breviary_ was delivered to the Doge Pasquale, the +Republic voted to entrust the binding to one Alessandro Vittoria. The +cover is of crimson velvet, largely hidden by ornaments of silver +gilt. On one side are the arms and the medallion of Cardinal Domenico +Grimani, and on the other those of his father, the Doge Antonio. Both +covers contain further decorations and Latin inscriptions, relating in +the first case to the gift, and in the other to its confirmation. In +the small medallions in the border one sees a branch of laurel, the +emblem of vigilance and protection, crossed by a branch of palm,--the +symbol of the religious life. The dove typifies purity, and the dragon +stands for defense. + +The volume itself contains 831 pages about 10 by 9 inches in size. +There are the usual Calendar pages, containing the signs of the Zodiac, +and further decorated with small miniatures (_opp. page_), +alternating with twelve superb full-page illuminations (_page +142_), showing the occupations of the months. Following these, come +the Prayers, with sixty additional full-page miniatures based on Bible +history or the lives of the Saints. At the end are eighteen pages with +smaller miniatures assigned to the saints of special devotion, placed +at the beginning of the office dedicated to each. + +[Illustration: GRIMANI BREVIARY. _Flemish_, 15th Century + +_Text Page showing Miniature and Decoration_ + +(Biblioteca San Marco, Venice. 10 × 9 inches)] + +The marginal decorations throughout the book are wonderfully wrought. +Some pages are adorned with perpendicular bands, with constantly +varying color combinations. Arabesques of all kinds are used, and +interspersed among the ornamentation are flowers and fruits, animals, +birds, fishes, and all kinds of natural objects. In addition to +these, one finds little buildings, landscapes, architectural ornaments, +statues, church ornaments, frames, vases, cameos, medals, and scenes +from Bible history and from every-day life as well,--all showing the +genius of the artists who put themselves into the spirit of their work. + +When the old Campanile fell in 1902, one corner of the Library of +San Marco was damaged. Immediately telegrams poured in from all over +the world, anxiously inquiring for the safety of the _Grimani +Breviary_. Fortunately it was untouched. The last time I saw this +precious manuscript was in 1924. Doctor Luigi Ferrari, the librarian, +courteously took the volume from its case and laid it tenderly on a low +table, extending to me the unusual privilege of personal examination. +Thus I could turn the pages slowly enough to enjoy again the exquisite +charm of its miniatures, the beauty of its coloring, and to assimilate +the depth of feeling which pervades it throughout. My friends at the +British Museum think that in the Flemish pages of the _Sforza Book +of Hours_ they have the finest example of the Flemish School. They +may be right; but no miniatures I have ever seen have seemed to me more +marvelously beautiful than those in the _Grimani Breviary_. + +Whenever I examine a beautiful manuscript, and take delight in it, I +find myself comparing it with the Italian masterpiece of Francesco +d’Antonio del Cherico. It may be that this is due to my dramatic +introduction to that volume, as recorded at the beginning of this +chapter. Its date is perhaps half a century earlier than the _Hours +of Anne of Brittany_; it is of the same period as the _Grimani +Breviary_ and the _Antiquities of the Jews_; it is fifty years +later than the _Bedford Book of Hours_, and a century and a half +later than _Queen Mary’s Psalter_. Which of all these magnificent +manuscripts is the most beautiful? Who would dare to say! In all +there is found the expression of art in its highest form; in each +the individual admirer finds some special feature--the beauty of the +designs, the richness of the composition, the warmth of the coloring, +or the perfection of the execution--that particularly appeals. + +[Illustration: BOOK OF HOURS. _Italian_, 15th Century + +By Francesco d’Antonio del Cherico + +(R. Lau. Bibl. Ashb. 1874. 7 × 5 inches)] + +When one considers the early civilization of Italy, and the heights +finally attained by Italian illuminators, it is difficult to understand +why the intervening centuries show such tardy recognition of the art. +Even as late as the twelfth century, with other countries turning +out really splendid examples, the Italian work is of a distinctly +inferior order; but by the middle of the thirteenth century, the +great revival in art brought about by Cimabue and Giotto stimulated +the development in illumination. During the next hundred years the art +became nationalized. The ornament diverged from the French type, and +assumed the peculiar straight bar or rod, with profile foliages, and +the sudden reversions of the curves with change of color, which are +characteristic of fourteenth-century Italian work. The miniatures, +introducing the new Tuscan manner of painting, entirely re-fashioned +miniature art. The figure becomes natural, well-proportioned, and +graceful, the heads delicate in feature and correct in expression. The +costumes are carefully wrought, the drapery folds soft, yet elaborately +finished. The colors are vivid but warm, the blue being particularly +effective. + +The vine-stem style immediately preceded the Classic revival which +came when the Medici and other wealthy patrons recognized the artistic +importance of illumination. In this style the stems are coiled most +gracefully, slightly tinted, with decorative flowerets. The grounds +are marked by varying colors, in which the artists delicately traced +tendrils in gold or white. + +The great glory of Italy in illumination came after the invention +of printing. Aside from the apprehensions of the wealthy owners of +manuscript libraries that they would lose prestige if books became +common, beyond the danger to the high-born rulers of losing their +political power if the masses learned argument from the printed +book,--these true lovers of literature opposed the printing press +because they believed it to cheapen something that was so precious as +to demand protection. So they vied with one another in encouraging the +scribes and the illuminators to produce hand-written volumes such as +had never before been seen. + +Certainly the _Book of Hours_ of d’Antonio is one of the marvels +of Florentine art. The nine full-page miniatures have never been +surpassed. No wonder that Lorenzo de’ Medici, lover of the beautiful, +should have kept it ever beside him! The delicate work in the small +scenes in the Calendar is as precise as that in the larger miniatures; +the decoration, rich in the variety of its design, really surpassed +the splendor and glory of the goldsmith’s art (_page 146_). Some +deplore the fact that England lost this treasure when the Italian +government purchased the Ashburnham Collection in 1884; but if there +ever was a manuscript that belongs in Florence, it is this. + +You may still see d’Antonio’s masterpiece at the Laurenziana +Library, but it is no longer kept in the ancient wooden desk. The +treasures of illumination are now splendidly arrayed in cases, where +all may study and admire. There are heavy choir-books, classic +manuscripts, books of hours, and breviaries, embellished by Lorenzo +Monaco, master of Fra Angelico; by Benozzo Gozzoli, whose frescoes +still make the Riccardi famous; by Gherado, and Clovio, and by other +artists whose names have long since been forgotten, but whose work +remains as an everlasting monument to a departed art that should be +revived. + + * * * * * + +Experts, I believe, place the work of Jean Foucquet, in the +_Antiquities of the Jews_, ahead of that of Jean Bourdichon +(probably Foucquet’s pupil) in the _Hours of Anne of Brittany_; +but frankly this sixteenth century manuscript at the Bibliothèque +Nationale, in Paris, always yields me greater pleasure. Perhaps this +is in compensation for not knowing too much! I will agree with them +that the decorative borders of Foucquet are much more interesting than +Bourdichon’s, for the return of the Flemish influence to French art +at this time was not particularly fortunate. In the borders of the +_Grimani Breviary_ realism in reproducing flowers, vegetables, +bugs, and small animal life, would seem to have been carried to the +limit, but Bourdichon went the _Grimani_ one better, and on a +larger scale. The reproductions are marvelously exact, but even a +beautifully painted domesticated onion, on which a dragon-fly crawls, +with wing so delicately transparent that one may read the letter it +seems to cover, is a curious accompaniment for the magnificently +executed portraits of Anne and her patron saints in the miniature +pages! Here the artist has succeeded in imparting a quality to his +work that makes it appear as if done on ivory instead of vellum (see +_page 148_). The costumes and even the jewels are brilliant in +the extreme. The floral decorations shown in the reproduction opposite +are far more decorative than the vegetables, but I still object to the +caterpillar and the bugs! + +[Illustration: HOURS of ANNE of BRITTANY. _French Renaissance_, +16th Century + +_The Education of the Child Jesus by the Virgin and Saint Joseph_ + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474. 12 × 7½ inches)] + +[Illustration: HOURS of ANNE of BRITTANY. _French Renaissance_, +16th Century + +_Page showing Text and Marginal Decoration_ + +(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474. 12 × 7¼ inches)] + +In 1508 there is a record that Anne of Brittany, Queen of Louis XII, +made an order of payment to Bourdichon of 1050 _livres tournois_ +for his services in “richly and sumptuously historiating and +illuminating a great Book of Hours for our use.” This consists of +238 leaves of vellum, 12 by 7½ inches in size. There are sixty-three +full pages, including forty-nine miniatures, twelve reproductions for +the various months, and a leaf containing ornaments and figures at +the beginning and end of the volume. Of the text, there are some +350 pages surrounded by borders. The Italian influence shows in the +architectural and sculptural decorations, just as the Flemish obtains +in the borders. + +The manuscript is bound in black shagreen, with chased silver clasps. + + * * * * * + +The question naturally arises as to the reason for the decline and +practically the final extinction of the art. I believe it to be that +which the princely Italian patrons foresaw. Their apprehensions, though +selfish in motive, have been confirmed by history. The invention of +printing did make the book common, and as such, its true significance +came to be forgotten because of greater familiarity. The book as the +developer of the people in science and in literature crowded out the +book as an expression of art. + +I wonder if it is too late to revive illumination. Never has there +existed in America or England a keener appreciation of beautiful books; +never have there been so many lovers of the book blessed with the +financial ability to gratify their tastes. There are still artists +familiar with the art, who, if encouraged, could produce work worthy +of the beautifully printed volumes the best Presses are capable of +turning out. What is lacking is simply a realization that illumination +stands side by side with art at its best. In America, the opportunities +for studying illumination are restricted, but a student would have +no difficulty in finding in certain private collections and in a few +public libraries more than enough to establish his basic understanding +of the art. The great masterpieces are permanently placed now, and +strictly enforced laws prevent national monuments from being further +transferred from one country to another; but even of these, excellent +facsimile reproductions have been made and distributed throughout the +world + +No true lover of art visits Europe without first preparing himself by +reading and study for a fuller understanding and more perfect enjoyment +of what he is to find in the various galleries. Assuming that no one +can be an art lover without also being a lover of books, it is perhaps +a fair question to ask why he should not make an equal effort to +prepare himself to understand and enjoy those rich treasures in the art +of illumination which are now so easily accessible + +[Illustration: HOURS OF ANNE OF BRITTANY + +Order of payment of 1050 _livres tournois_ to Jean Bourdichon, 1508] + + + + + V + + FRIENDS THROUGH THE PEN + + +Maurice Hewlett combined to an unusual degree those salient +characteristics that go to make the great writer: he was a discerning +observer, and had formed the habit of analyzing what he observed; his +personal experiences had taught him the significance of what he had +seen and enabled him to assess its valuation. Beyond all,--having +observed, analyzed, and understood,--he possessed the power to +interpret to others. + +At the time I first met him, _The Queen’s Quair_ was having a +tremendous run, and the volume naturally came into the conversation. + +“In spite of its success,” he said with much feeling, “I am +disappointed over its reception. I have always wanted to write history, +but not the way history has always been written. There are certain +acts attributed to the chief characters which, if these characters are +studied analytically, are obviously impossible; yet because a certain +event has once been recorded it keeps on being repeated and magnified +until history itself becomes a series of distortions. Mary, Queen +of Scots, has always been my favorite historical figure, and I know +that in _The Queens Quair_ I have given a truer picture of her +character than any that at present exists. But alas,” he added with a +sigh, “no one accepts it as other than fiction.” + +After this statement from him I turned again to my copy of _The +Queen’s Quair_ and re-read the author’s prologue, in which I found: + + _A hundred books have been written and a hundred songs sung; men + enough of these latter days have broken their hearts over Queen + Mary’s; what is more to the point is that no heart but hers was + broken at the time. All the world can love her now, but who + loved her then? Not a man among them. A few girls went weeping; + a few boys laid down their necks that she might fall free of + the mire. Alas, the mire swallowed them up and she needs must + conceal her pretty feet. This is the note of the tragedy; pity + is involved, rather than terror. But no song ever pierced the + fold of her secret, no book ever found out the truth because + none ever sought her heart. Here, then, is a book which has + sought nothing else, and a song which springs from that only._ + +I wonder if every writer in his heart does not feel the same ambition. +The novelist is a story-teller who recites bed-time stories to his +audience of grown-up children, while the humorist plays the clown; but +in writing history one is dealing with something basic. Within a year +a volume has been published containing alleged documentary evidence to +prove that Mary, Queen of Scots, was innocent of the charge of treason. +What a triumph if an author through character analysis could correct +tradition! It was a loss to the world that Hewlett permitted himself to +be discouraged by unsympathetic critics from carrying out a really big +idea. + +To meet Maurice Hewlett at his home at Broad Chalke, a little English +village nearly ten miles from a railroad station, and to walk with +him in his garden, one might recognize the author of _The Forest +Lovers_; but an afternoon with him at a London club would develop +another side which was less himself. Instead of discussing flowers +and French memoirs and biography in a delightfully whimsical mood, +Hewlett’s slight, wiry figure became tense, his manner alert, his eyes +keen and watchful. In the country he was the dreamer, the bohemian, +wholly detached from the world outside; in the city he was confident +and determined in approaching any subject, his voice became crisp and +decisive, his bearing was that of the man of the world. + +His early life was more or less unhappy, due partly to his +precociousness which prevented him from fitting in with youth of his +own age. This encouraged him to reach beyond his strength and thus find +disappointment. + +“I was never a boy,” he said once, “except possibly after the time when +I should have been a man. As I look back on my youth, it was filled +with discouragements.” + +The classics fascinated him, and he absorbed Dante. Then Shelley and +Keats shared the place of the Italian poet in his heart. Even after +he married, he continued to gratify his love of Bohemia, and his wife +wandered with him through Italy, with equal joy; while in England they +camped out together in the New Forest,--the scene of _The Forest +Lovers_. + +The peculiar style which Hewlett affected in many of his volumes +resulted, he told me, from his daily work in the Record Office in +London, as Keeper of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments, during which +period he studied the old parchments, dating back to William the +Conqueror. In this respect his early experience was not unlike that of +Austin Dobson’s, and just as the work in the Harbours Department failed +to kill Dobson’s poetic _finesse_, so did Hewlett rise above the +deadly grind of ancient records and archives. In fact it was during +this period that Hewlett produced _Pan and the Young Shepherd_, +which contains no traces of its author’s archaic environment. + +One point of sympathy that drew us closely together was our mutual +love for Italy. My first desire to know Maurice Hewlett better was +after reading his _Earthwork Out of Tuscany_, _Little Novels +of Italy_, and _The Road in Tuscany_. I have always preferred +these volumes to any of his later ones, as to me they have seemed more +spontaneous and more genuine expressions of himself. We were talking +about Italy, one day, when he made a remark which caused me to suggest +that what he said was the expression of a modern humanist. Hewlett was +obviously surprised yet pleased by my use of this expression. + +“I don’t often meet any one interested in the subject of humanism,” he +said. “It is one of my hobbies.” + +I explained my association with Doctor Guido Biagi, librarian of the +Laurenziana Library at Florence, and the work I had done there in +connection with my designs for a special face of type, based upon the +beautiful hand letters of the humanistic scribes (see _page 16_). +With that introduction we discussed the great importance of the +humanistic movement as the forerunner and essence of the Renaissance. +We talked of Petrarch, the father of humanism, and of the courageous +fight he and his sturdy band of followers made to rescue the classics. +We both had recently read Philippe Monnier’s _Le Quattrocento_, +which gave additional interest to our discussion. + +“Monnier is the only writer I have ever read who has tried to define +humanism,” Hewlett continued. “He says it is not only the love of +antiquity, but the worship of it,--a worship carried so far that it is +not limited to adoration alone, but which forces one to reproduce.” + +“And the humanist,” I added, picking up the quotation from Monnier, +which I knew by heart, “is not only the man who knows intimately the +ancients and is inspired by them; it is he who is so fascinated by +their magic spell that he copies them, imitates them, rehearses their +lessons, adopts their models and their methods, their examples and +their gods, their spirit and their tongue.” + +“Well, well!” he laughed; “we _have_ struck the same street, +haven’t we! But does that exactly express the idea to you? It isn’t +antiquity we worship, but rather the basic worth for which the ancients +stand.” + +[Illustration: Autograph Letter from Maurice Hewlett] + +“Monnier refers to the obsession that comes from constant contact +with the learning of the past, and the atmosphere thus created,” I +replied. “Only last year Biagi and I discussed that very point, sitting +together in his luxuriant garden at Castiglioncello, overlooking the +Gulf of Leghorn. The ‘basic worth’ you mention is really Truth, and +taking this as a starting point, we worked out a modern application of +Monnier’s definition: + + _“The humanist is one who holds himself open to receive Truth, + unprejudiced as to its source, and, after having received + Truth, realizes his obligation to give it out again, made + richer by his personal interpretation.”_ + +“There is a definition with a present application,” Hewlett exclaimed +heartily. “I like it.--Did you have that in mind when you called me a +modern humanist, just now?” + +“No one could read _Earthwork Out of Tuscany_ and think otherwise,” I +insisted. + +Hewlett held out his hand impulsively. “I wish I might accept that +compliment with a clear conscience,” he demurred. + + * * * * * + +Meeting Austin Dobson after he became interpreter-in-chief of the +eighteenth century, it was difficult to associate him with his +earlier experiences as a clerk in the Board of Trade office, which +he entered when he was sixteen years old, and to which service he +devoted forty-five useful but uneventful years, rising eventually +to be a principal in the Harbours Department. With so quiet and +unassuming a personality, it seems incredible that he could have lifted +himself bodily from such unimaginative environment, and, through his +classic monographs, bring Steele, Goldsmith, Richardson, Fielding, +Horace Walpole, Fanny Burney, Bewick, and Hogarth, out of their hazy +indefiniteness, and give to them such living reality. Perhaps Dobson’s +very nature prevented him from seeing the coarseness and indecency +of the period, and enabled him to introduce, or perhaps reintroduce, +to England from France the _ballade_ and the _chante royal_, the +_rondeau_ and the _rondel_, the _triolet_, the _villanelle_, and other +fascinating but obsolete poetical forms in which he first became +interested through his French grandmother. + +Dobson was the most modest literary man I ever met. I happened to be +in London at the time when the English government bestowed upon him an +annuity of £1,000, “for distinguished service to the crown.” When I +congratulated him upon this honor his response was characteristic: + +“I don’t know why in the world they have given me this, unless it is +because I am the father of ten children. I have no doubt that would be +classified under ‘distinguished service to the crown.’” + +One afternoon Austin Dobson and Richard Garnett, then Keeper of the +Printed Books at the British Museum, happened to come to my hotel in +London for tea at the same time. On a table in the apartment was a +two-volume quarto edition in French of _Don Quixote_, a prize I +had unearthed at a bookstall on the Quai Voltaire in Paris. It was +beautifully printed, the letterpress just biting into the paper, and +making itself a part of the leaf, which is so characteristic of the +best French presswork. The edition also contained the famous Doré +illustrations. Dobson picked up one of the volumes and exclaimed over +its beauty. + +“This edition,” he said, “is absolutely perfect.” + +“Not quite,” I qualified his statement. “It is lacking in one +particular. It requires your _Ode to Cervantes_ to make it +complete.” + +Dobson laughed. “Send the book to me,” he said, “and I will transcribe +the lines on the fly leaf.” + +When the volume was returned a few days later, a letter of apology came +with it. “When I copied out the _Ode_ on the fly leaf,” Dobson +wrote, “it looked so lost on the great page that I ventured to add the +poem which I composed for the tercentenary. I hope you won’t mind.” + +My eleven-year-old son came into the reception room while our guests +were drinking their tea. Dobson took him on his lap, and after quite +winning his affection by his gentleness, he quietly called his +attention to Garnett, who was conversing with my wife in another part +of the room. + +“Never forget that man, my boy,” Dobson said in a low voice. “We have +never had in England, nor shall we ever have again, one who knows so +much of English literature. If the record of every date and every fact +were to be lost by fire, Garnett could reproduce them with absolute +accuracy if his life were spared long enough.” + +Within fifteen minutes the youngster found himself on Garnett’s knee. +Without knowing what Dobson had said, the old man whispered in the +child’s ear, “It is a privilege you will be glad to remember that you +have met such a man as Austin Dobson. Except for Salisbury’s desire +to demean the post of poet laureate, Dobson would hold that position +today. Never forget that you have met Austin Dobson.” + +A few months after our return to America, Garnett died, and Dobson sent +me the following lines. I have never known of their publication: + + _RICHARD GARNETT_ + + Sit tibi terra levis + + _Of him we may say justly: Here was one + Who knew of most things more than any other,-- + Who loved all Learning underneath the sun, + And looked on every Learner as a brother._ + + _Nor was this all. For those who knew him, knew, + However far his love’s domain extended, + It held its quiet “poet’s corner,” too, + Where Mirth, and Song, and Irony, were blended._ + +[Illustration: _Autograph Poem by Austin Dobson_] + +Garnett was a rare spirit, and the British Museum has never seemed +the same since he retired in 1899. Entrance to his private office was +cleverly concealed by a door made up of shelf-backs of books, but +once within the sanctum the genial host placed at the disposal of his +guest, in a matter-of-fact way, such consummate knowledge as to stagger +comprehension. But, far beyond this, the charm of his personality will +always linger in the minds of those who knew him, and genuine affection +for the man will rival the admiration for his scholarship. + +One afternoon at Ealing, after tennis on the lawn behind the Dobson +house, we gathered for tea. Our little party included Hugh Thomson, +the artist who so charmingly illustrated much of Dobson’s work, Mr. and +Mrs. Dobson, and one of his sons. The poet was in his most genial mood, +and the conversation led us into mutually confidential channels. + +“I envy you your novel writing,” he said. “Fiction gives one so much +wider scope, and prose is so much more satisfactory as a medium than +poetry. I have always wanted to write a novel. Mrs. Dobson would never +have it. But she is always right,” he added; “had I persisted I should +undoubtedly have lost what little reputation I have.” + +He was particularly impressed by the fact that I wrote novels as +an avocation. It seemed to him such a far cry from the executive +responsibility of a large business, and he persisted in questioning +me as to my methods. I explained that I devoted a great deal of time +to creating mentally the characters who would later demand my pen; +that with the general outline of the plot I intended to develop, I +approached it exactly as a theatrical manager approaches a play he is +about to produce, spending much time in selecting my cast, adding, +discarding, changing, just so far as seemed to me necessary to secure +the actors best suited to the parts I planned to have them play. He +expressed surprise when I told him that I had long since discarded the +idea of working out a definite scenario, depending rather upon creating +interesting characters, and having them sufficiently alive so that +when placed together under interesting circumstances they are bound to +produce interesting dialogue and action. + +“Of course my problem, writing essays and poetry, is quite different +from yours as a novelist,” he said; “but I do try to assume a relation +toward my work that is objective and impersonal. In a way, I go farther +than you do.” + +Then he went on to say that not only did he plan the outline of what +he had to write, whether triolet or poem, wholly in his head, but (in +the case of the poetry) even composed the lines and made the necessary +changes before having recourse to pen and paper. + +“When I actually begin to write,” he said, “I can see the lines clearly +before me, even to the interlinear corrections, and it is a simple +matter for me to copy them out in letter-perfect form.” + +Dobson’s handwriting and his signature were absolutely dissimilar. +Unless one had actually seen him transcribe the text of a letter or +the lines of a poem in that beautiful designed script, he would think +it the work of some one other than the writer of the flowing autograph +beneath. + + * * * * * + +Posterity is now deciding whether Mark Twain’s fame will rest upon +his humor or his philosophy, yet his continuing popularity would seem +to have settled this much-mooted question. Humor is fleeting unless +based upon real substance. In life the passing quip that produces a +smile serves its purpose, but to bring to the surface such human notes +as dominate Mark Twain’s stories, a writer must possess extraordinary +powers of observation and a complete understanding of his fellow-man. +Neither Tom Sawyer nor Huckleberry Finn is a fictional character, but +is rather the personification of that leaven which makes life worth +living. + +When an author has achieved the dignity of having written “works” +rather than books, he has placed himself in the hands of his friends +in all his varying moods. A single volume is but the fragment of any +writer’s personality. I have laughed over _Innocents Abroad_, and +other volumes which helped to make Mark Twain’s reputation, but when I +seek a volume to recall the author as I knew him best it is _Joan of +Arc_ that I always take down from the shelf. This book really shows +the side of Mark Twain, the man, as his friends knew him, yet it was +necessary to publish the volume anonymously in order to secure for it +consideration from the reading public as a serious story. + +[Illustration: MARK TWAIN, 1835-1910 + +_At the Villa di Quarto, Florence_ + +From a Snap-shot] + +“No one will ever accept it seriously, over my signature,” Mark Twain +said. “People always want to laugh over what I write. This is a serious +book. It means more to me than anything I have ever undertaken.” + +Mark Twain was far more the humorist when off guard than when on +parade. The originality of what he did, combined with what he said, +produced the maximum expression of himself. At one time he and his +family occupied the Villa di Quarto in Florence (_page 172_), and +while in Italy Mrs. Orcutt and I were invited to have tea with them. +The villa is located, as its name suggests, in the four-mile radius +from the center of the town. It was a large, unattractive building, +perhaps fifty feet wide and four times as long. The location was +superb, looking out over Florence toward Vallombrosa and the Chianti +hills. + +[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM MARK TWAIN + +With Snap-shot of Villa di Quarto] + +In greeting us, Mark Twain gave the impression of having planned out +exactly what he was going to say. I had noticed the same thing on other +occasions. He knew that people expected him to say something humorous +or unusual, and he tried not to disappoint them. + +“Welcome to the barracks,” he exclaimed. “Looks like a hotel, doesn’t +it? You’d think with twenty bedrooms on the top floor and only four in +my family there would be a chance to put up a friend or two, wouldn’t +you? But there isn’t any one I think so little of as to be willing to +stuff him into one of those cells.” + +We had tea out of doors. Miss Clara Clemens, who later became Mrs. +Gabrilowitch, served as hostess, as Mrs. Clemens was confined to her +bed by the heart trouble that had brought the family to Italy. As we +sipped our tea and nibbled at the delicious Italian cakes, Mark Twain +continued his comments on the villa, explaining that it was alleged +to have been built by the first Cosimo de’ Medici (“If it was, he had +a bum architect,” Mark Twain interjected); later it was occupied by +the King of Württemberg (“He was the genius who put in the Pullman +staircase”); and still later by a Russian Princess (“She is responsible +for that green majolica stove in the hall. When I first saw it I +thought it was a church for children”); and then it fell into the hands +of his landlady (“Less said about her the better. You never heard such +profanity as is expressed by the furniture and the carpets she put in +to complete the misery. I’m always thankful when darkness comes on to +stop the swearing”). + +The garden was beautiful, but oppressive,--due probably to the tall +cypresses (always funereal in their aspect), which kept out the sun, +and produced a mouldy luxuriance. The marble seats and statues were +covered with green moss, and the ivy ran riot over everything. One felt +the antiquity unpleasantly, and, in a way, it seemed an unfortunate +atmosphere for an invalid. But so far as the garden was concerned, it +made little difference to Mrs. Clemens,--the patient, long-suffering +“Livy” of Mark Twain’s life,--for she never left her sick chamber, and +died three days later. + +After tea, Mr. Clemens offered me a cigar and watched me while I +lighted it. + +“Hard to get good cigars over here,” he remarked. “I’m curious to know +what you think of that one.” + +I should have been sorry to tell him what my opinion really was, but I +continued to smoke it with as cheerful an expression as possible. + +“What kind of cigars do you smoke while in Europe?” he inquired. + +I told him that I was still smoking a brand I had brought over from +America, and at the same time I offered him one, which he promptly +accepted, throwing away the one he had just lighted. He puffed with +considerable satisfaction, and then asked, + +“How do you like that cigar I gave you?” + +It seemed a matter of courtesy to express more enthusiasm than I really +felt. + +“Clara,” he called across to where the ladies were talking, “Mr. Orcutt +likes these cigars of mine, and he’s a judge of good cigars.” + +Then turning to me he continued, “Clara says they’re rotten!” + +He relapsed into silence for a moment. + +“How many of those cigars of yours have you on your person at the +present time?” + +I opened my cigar case, and disclosed four. + +“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said suddenly. “You like my cigars and +I like yours. I’ll swap you even!” + +In the course of the afternoon Mark Twain told of a dinner that Andrew +Carnegie had given in his New York home, at which Mr. Clemens had been +a guest. He related with much detail how the various speakers had +stammered and halted, and seemed to find themselves almost tongue-tied. +His explanation of this was their feeling of embarrassment because of +the presence of only one woman, Mrs. Carnegie. + +Sir Sidney Lee, who was lecturing on Shakesperian subjects in America +at the time, was the guest of honor. When dinner was announced, +Carnegie sent for Archie, the piper, an important feature in the +Carnegie _ménage_, who appeared in full kilts, and led the +procession into the dining-room, playing on the pipes. Carnegie, +holding Sir Sidney’s hand, followed directly after, giving an imitation +of a Scotch dance, while the other guests fell in behind, matching the +steps of their leader as closely as possible. Mark Twain gave John +Burroughs credit for being the most successful in this attempt. + +Some weeks later, at a dinner which Sir Sidney Lee gave in our honor +in London, we heard an echo of this incident. Sir Sidney included the +story of Mark Twain’s speech on that occasion, which had been omitted +in the earlier narrative. When called upon, Mr. Clemens had said, + +“I’m not going to make a speech,--I’m just going to reminisce. I’m +going to tell you something about our host here when he didn’t have as +much money as he has now. At that time I was the editor of a paper in +a small town in Connecticut, and one day, when I was sitting in the +editorial sanctum, the door opened and who should come in but Andrew +Carnegie. Do you remember that day, Andy?” he inquired, turning to his +host; “wasn’t it a scorcher?” + +Carnegie nodded, and said he remembered it perfectly. + +“Well,” Mark Twain continued, “Andrew took off his hat, mopped his +brow, and sat down in a chair, looking most disconsolate. + +“‘What’s the matter?’ I inquired. ‘What makes you so melancholy?’--Do +you remember that, Andy?” he again appealed to his host. + +“Oh, yes,” Carnegie replied, smiling broadly; “I remember it as if it +were yesterday.” + +“‘I am so sad,’ Andy answered, ‘because I want to found some libraries, +and I haven’t any money. I came in to see if you could lend me a +million or two.’ I looked in the drawer and found that I could let +him have the cash just as well as not, so I gave him a couple of +million.--Do you remember that, Andy?” + +“No!” Carnegie answered vehemently; “I don’t remember that at all!” + +“That’s just the point,” Mark Twain continued, shaking his finger +emphatically. “I have never received one cent on that loan, interest or +principal!” + +I wonder if so extraordinary an assemblage of literary personages was +ever before gathered together as at the seventieth anniversary birthday +dinner given to Mark Twain by Colonel George Harvey at Delmonico’s +in New York! Seated at the various tables were such celebrities as +William Dean Howells, George W. Cable, Brander Matthews, Richard +Watson Gilder, Kate Douglas Wiggin, F. Hopkinson Smith, Agnes Repplier, +Andrew Carnegie, and Hamilton W. Mabie. + +It was a long dinner. Every one present would have been glad to express +his affection and admiration for America’s greatest man-of-letters, +and those who must be heard were so numerous that it was nearly two +o’clock in the morning before Mark Twain’s turn arrived to respond. +As he rose, the entire company rose with him, each standing on his +chair and waving his napkin enthusiastically. Mark Twain was visibly +affected by the outburst of enthusiasm. When the excitement subsided, I +could see the tears streaming down his cheeks, and all thought of the +set speech he had prepared and sent to the press for publication was +entirely forgotten. Realizing that the following quotation differs from +the official report of the event, I venture to rely upon the notes I +personally made during the dinner. Regaining control of himself, Mark +Twain began his remarks with words to this effect: + + _When I think of my first birthday and compare it with this + celebration,--just a bare room; no one present but my mother + and one other woman; no flowers, no wine, no cigars, no + enthusiasm,--I am filled with indignation!_ + + * * * * * + +Charles Eliot Norton is a case in point in my contention that to +secure the maximum from a college course a man should take two years +at eighteen and the remaining two after he has reached forty. I was +not unique among the Harvard undergraduates flocking to attend his +courses in Art who failed utterly to understand or appreciate him. The +ideals expressed in his lectures were far over our heads. The estimate +of Carlyle, Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold, that Mr. Norton was foremost +among American thinkers, scholars, and men of culture, put us on the +defensive, for to have writers such as these include Norton as one of +themselves placed him entirely outside the pale of our undergraduate +understanding. He seemed to us a link connecting our generation with +the distant past. As I look back upon it, this was not so much because +he appeared old as it was that what he said seemed to our untrained +minds the vagaries of age. Perhaps we were somewhat in awe of him, +as we knew him to be the intimate of Oliver Wendell Holmes and James +Russell Lowell, as he had been of Longfellow and George William Curtis, +and thus the last of the Cambridge Immortals. I have always wished that +others might have corrected their false impressions by learning to know +Norton, the man, as I came to know him, and have enjoyed the inspiring +friendship that I was so fortunate in having him, in later years, +extend to me. + +In the classroom, sitting on a small, raised platform, with as many +students gathered before him as the largest room in Massachusetts Hall +could accommodate, he took Art as a text and discussed every subject +beneath the sun. His voice, though low, had a musical quality which +carried to the most distant corner. As he spoke he leaned forward +on his elbows with slouching shoulders, with his keen eyes passing +constantly from one part of the room to another, seeking, no doubt, +some gleam of understanding from his hearers. He told me afterwards +that it was not art he sought to teach, nor ethics, nor philosophy, but +that he would count it success if he instilled in the hearts of even a +limited number of his pupils a desire to seek the truth. + +As I think of the Norton I came to know in the years that followed, +he seems to be a distinctly different personality, yet of course the +difference was in me. Even at the time when Senator Hoar made his +terrific attack upon him for his public utterances against the Spanish +War, I knew that he was acting true to his high convictions, even +though at variance with public opinion. I differed from him, but by +that time I understood him. + +“Shady Hill,” his home in Norton’s Woods on the outskirts of Cambridge, +Massachusetts, exuded the personality of its owner more than any +house I was ever in. There was a restful dignity and stately culture, +a courtly hospitality that reflected the individuality of the host. +The library was the inner shrine. Each volume was selected for its +own special purpose, each picture was illustrative of some special +epoch, each piece of furniture performed its exact function. Here, +unconsciously, while discussing subjects far afield, I acquired from +Mr. Norton a love of Italy which later was fanned into flame by my +Tuscan friend, Doctor Guido Biagi, the accomplished librarian of the +Laurenziana Library, in Florence, to whom I have already frequently +referred. + +Our real friendship began when I returned from Italy in 1902, and told +him of my plans to design a type based upon the wonderful humanistic +volumes. As we went over the photographs and sketches I brought home +with me, and he realized that a fragment of the fifteenth century, +during which period hand lettering had reached its highest point of +perfection, had actually been overlooked by other type designers (see +_page 16_), he displayed an excitement I had never associated +with his personality. I was somewhat excited, too, in being able to +tell him something which had not previously come to his attention,--of +the struggle of the Royal patrons, who tried to thwart the newborn art +of printing by showing what a miserable thing a printed book was when +compared with the beauty of the hand letters; and that these humanistic +volumes, whose pages I had photographed, were the actual books which +these patrons had ordered the scribes to produce, regardless of +expense, to accomplish their purpose. + +The romance that surrounded the whole undertaking brought out from +him comments and discussion in which he demonstrated his many-sided +personality. The library at “Shady Hill” became a veritable Florentine +rostrum. Mr. Norton’s sage comments were expressed with the vigor +and originality of Politian; when he spoke of the tyranny of the old +Florentine despots and compared them with certain political characters +in our own America, he might have been Machiavelli uttering his famous +diatribes against the State. Lorenzo de’ Medici himself could not have +thrilled me more with his fascinating expression of the beautiful or +the exhibition of his exquisite taste. + +Each step in the development of the Humanistic type was followed by Mr. +Norton with the deepest interest. When the first copy of Petrarch’s +_Triumphs_ came through the bindery I took it to “Shady Hill,” and +we went over it page by page, from cover to cover. As we closed the +volume he looked up with that smile his friends so loved,--that smile +Ruskin called “the sweetest I ever saw on any face (unless perhaps a +nun’s when she has some grave kindness to do),”--and then I knew that +my goal had been attained (_page 32_). + +While the Humanistic type was being cut, Doctor Biagi came to America +as the official representative from Italy to the St. Louis Exposition. +Later, when he visited me in Boston, I took him to “Shady Hill” to +see Mr. Norton. It was an historic meeting. The Italian had brought +to America original, unpublished letters of Michelangelo, and at my +suggestion he took them with him to Cambridge. Mr. Norton read several +of these letters with the keenest interest and urged their publication, +but Biagi was too heavily engaged with his manifold duties as librarian +of the Laurenziana and Riccardi libraries, as custodian of the +Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives, and with his extensive literary +work, to keep the promise he made us that day. + +The conversation naturally turned upon Dante, Biagi’s rank in his own +country as interpreter of the great poet being even greater than was +Norton’s in America. Beyond this they spoke of books, of art, of +music, of history, of science. Norton’s knowledge of Italy was profound +and exact; Biagi had lived what Norton had acquired. No matter what +the subject, their comments, although simply made, were expressions of +prodigious study and absolute knowledge; of complete familiarity, such +as one ordinarily has in every-day affairs, with subjects upon which +even the well-educated man looks as reserved for profound discussion. +Norton and Biagi were the two most cultured men I ever met. In +listening to their conversation I discovered that a perfectly trained +mind under absolute control is the most beautiful thing in the world. + + * * * * * + +Climbing the circular stairway in the old, ramshackle Harper plant at +Franklin Square, New York, I used to find William Dean Howells in his +sanctum. + +“Take this chair,” he said one day after a cordial greeting; “the only +Easy Chair we have is in the _Magazine_.” + +Howells loved the smell of printer’s ink. “They are forever talking +about getting away from here,” he would say, referring to the long +desire at Harpers’--at last gratified--to divorce the printing from the +publishing and to move uptown. “Here things are so mixed up that you +can’t tell whether you’re a printer or a writer, and I like it.” + +Our acquaintance began after the publication by the Harpers in 1906 of +a novel of mine entitled _The Spell_, the scene of which is laid +in Florence. After reading it, Howells wrote asking me to look him up +the next time I was in the Harper offices. + +“We have three reasons to become friends,” he said smiling, after +studying me for a moment with eyes that seemed probably more piercing +and intent than they really were: “you live in Boston, you love Italy, +and you are a printer. Now we must make up for lost time.” + +After this introduction I made it a habit to “drop up” to his sanctum +whenever I had occasion to go to Franklin Square to discuss printing +or publishing problems with Major Leigh or Mr. Duneka. Howells always +seemed to have time to discuss one of the three topics named in his +original analysis, yet curiously enough it was rarely that any mention +of books came into our conversation. + +[Illustration: Autograph Letter from William Dean Howells] + +Of Boston and Cambridge he was always happily reminiscent: of +entertaining Mr. and Mrs. John Hay while on their wedding journey, +and later Bret Harte, in the small reception room in the Berkeley +Street house, where the tiny “library” on the north side was without +heat or sunlight when Howells wrote his _Venetian Days_ there in +1870; of early visits with Mark Twain before the great fireplace in +“the Cabin” at his Belmont home, over the door of which was inscribed +the quotation from _The Merchant of Venice_, “From Venice as far +as Belmont.”--“In these words,” Howells said, “lies the history of my +married life”;--of the move from Belmont to Boston as his material +resources increased. + +“There was a time when people used to think I didn’t like Boston,” he +would chuckle, evidently enjoying the recollections that came to him; +“but I always loved it. The town did take itself seriously,” he added +a moment later; “but it had a right to. That was what made it Boston. +Sometimes, when we know a place or a person through and through, the +fine characteristics may be assumed, and we may chaff a little over the +harmless foibles. That is what I did to Boston.” + +He chided me good-naturedly because I preferred Florence to Venice. +“Italy,” he quoted, “is the face of Europe, and Venice is the eye +of Italy. But, after all, what difference does it make?” he asked. +“We are both talking of the same wonderful country, and perhaps the +intellectual atmosphere of antiquity makes up for the glory of the +Adriatic.” + +Then he told me a story which I afterwards heard Hamilton Mabie repeat +at the seventy-fifth birthday anniversary banquet given Howells at +Sherry’s by Colonel George Harvey in 1912. + +Two American women met in Florence on the Ponte Vecchio. One of them +said to the other, “Please tell me whether this is Florence or Venice.” + +“What day of the week is it?” the other inquired. + +“Wednesday.” + +“Then,” said the second, looking at her itinerary, “this is Venice.” + +“I was born a printer, you know,” Howells remarked during one of my +visits. “I can remember the time when I couldn’t write, but not the +time when I couldn’t set type.” + +He referred to his boyhood experiences in the printing office at +Hamilton, Ohio. His father published there a Whig newspaper, which +finally lost nearly all its subscribers because its publisher had the +unhappy genius of always taking the unpopular side of every public +question. Howells immortalized this printing office in his essay _The +Country Printer_,--where he recalls “the compositors rhythmically +swaying before their cases of type; the pressman flinging himself back +on the bar that made the impression, with a swirl of his long hair; the +apprentice rolling the forms; and the foreman bending over them.” + +The Lucullan banquet referred to outrivaled that given by Colonel +Harvey to Mark Twain. How Mark Twain would have loved to be there, +and how much the presence of this life-long friend would have meant +to Howells! More than four hundred men and women prominent in letters +gathered to do honor to the beloved author, and President Taft conveyed +to him the gratitude of the nation for the hours of pleasure afforded +by his writings. + +In the course of his remarks, Howells said: + + _I knew Hawthorne and Emerson and Walt Whitman; I knew + Longfellow and Holmes and Whittier and Lowell; I knew Bryant + and Bancroft and Motley; I knew Harriet Beecher Stowe and Julia + Ward Howe; I knew Artemus Ward and Stockton and Mark Twain; I + knew Parkman and Fiske._ + +As I listened to this recapitulation of contact with modern humanists, +I wondered what Howells had left to look forward to. No one could +fail to envy him his memories, nor could he fail to ask himself +what twentieth-century names would be written in place of those the +nineteenth century had recorded in the Hall of Fame + + * * * * * + +My library has taken on a different aspect during all these years. When +I first installed my books I looked upon it as a sanctuary, into which +I could escape from the world outside. Each book was a magic carpet +which, at my bidding, transported me from one country to another, from +the present back to centuries gone by, gratifying my slightest whim in +response to the mere effort of changing volumes. My library has lost +none of that blissful peace as a retreat, but in addition it has become +a veritable meeting ground. The authors I have known are always waiting +for me there,--to disclose to me through their works far more than +they, in all modesty, would have admitted in our personal conferences + + + + + VI + + TRIUMPHS OF TYPOGRAPHY + + +In gathering together his book treasures, a collector naturally +approaches the adventure from a personal standpoint. First editions may +particularly appeal to him, or Americana, or his bibliomania may take +the form of subject collecting. I once had a friend who concentrated +on whales and bees! My hobby has been to acquire, so far as possible, +volumes that represent the best workmanship of each epoch, and from +them I have learned much of fascinating interest beyond the history of +typography. A book in itself is always something more than paper and +type and binder’s boards. It possesses a subtle friendliness that sets +it apart from other inanimate objects about us, and stamps it with +an individuality which responds to our approach in proportion to our +interest. But aside from its contents, a typographical monument is a +barometer of civilization. If we discover what economic or political +conditions combined to make it stand out from other products of its +period, we learn contemporaneous history and become acquainted with +the personalities of the people and the manners and customs of the +times. + +No two countries, since Gutenberg first discovered the power of +individual types when joined together to form words down to the present +day, have stood pre-eminent in the same epoch in the art of printing. +The curve of supremacy, plotted from the brief triumph of Germany +successively through Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, France, +and back again to England, shows that the typographical monuments of +the world are not accidental, but rather the natural results of cause +and effect. In some instances, the production of fine books made the +city of their origin the center of culture and brought luster to the +country; in others, the great master-printers were attracted from one +locality to another because of the literary atmosphere in a certain +city, and by their labors added to the reputation it had already +attained. The volumes themselves sometimes produced vitally significant +effects; sometimes their production was the result of conditions +equally important. + + * * * * * + +The first example I should like to own for my collection of +typographical triumphs is, of course, the _Gutenberg Bible_ +(_opp. page_); but with only forty-five copies known to be in +existence (of which twelve are on vellum), I must content myself +with photographic facsimile pages. The copy most recently offered for +sale brought $106,000 in New York in February, 1926, and was later +purchased by Mrs. Edward S. Harkness for $120,000, who presented it to +the Yale University Library. This makes the _Gutenberg Bible_ the +most valuable printed book in the world,--six times as precious as a +Shakespeare first folio. Fortunately, the copies are well distributed, +so that one need not deny himself the pleasure of studying it. In +America, there are two examples (one on vellum) in the Pierpont Morgan +Library, in New York; another in the New York Public Library, and +still another in the library of the General Theological School; while +the private collections of Henry E. Huntington and Joseph E. Widener +are also fortunate possessors. In England, one may find a copy at +the British Museum or the Bodleian Library; on the Continent, at the +Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, at the Vatican Library in Rome, or in +the libraries of Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, or Vienna. Over twenty of the +forty-five copies are imperfect, and only four are still in private +hands. Of these four, one is imperfect, and two are already promised to +libraries; so the copy sold in New York may be the last ever offered. + +[Illustration: Part of a Page from the Vellum Copy of the _Gutenberg +Bible_, Mayence, 1455 + +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Exact size)] + +[Illustration: Rubricator’s Mark at End of First Volume of a Defective +Copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris] + +[Illustration: Rubricator’s Mark at End of Second Volume of a Defective +Copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris] + +The copy I love best to pore over is that bound in four volumes of +red morocco, stamped with the arms of Louis XVI, in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. This perhaps is not so historical as the one De Bure +discovered in the library of Cardinal Mazarin in Paris in 1763,--three +hundred years after it was printed, and until then unknown; but the +dignity of those beautifully printed types on the smooth, ivory surface +of the vellum possesses a magnificence beyond that of any other copy +I have seen. Also at the Bibliothèque Nationale is a defective paper +copy in two volumes in which appear rubricator’s notes marking the +completion of the work as August 15, 1456. Think how important this +is in placing this marvel of typography; for the project of printing +the _Bible_ could not have been undertaken earlier than August, +1451, when Gutenberg formed his partnership with Fust and Schoeffer in +Mayence. + +[Illustration: GUTENBERG, FUST, COSTER, ALDUS, FROBEN + +From Engraving by Jacob Houbraken (1698-1780)] + +To a modern architect of books the obstacles which the printer at +that time encountered, with the art itself but a few years old, seem +insurmountable. There was the necessity of designing and cutting the +first fonts of type, based upon the hand lettering of the period. +As is always inevitable in the infancy of any art, this translation +from one medium to another repeated rather than corrected the errors +of the human hand. The typesetter, instead of being secured from +an employment office, had to be made. Gutenberg himself perhaps, had +to teach the apprentice the method of joining together the various +letters, in a roughly made composing stick of his own invention, in +such a way as to maintain regularity in the distances between the +stems of the various letters, and thus produce a uniform and pleasing +appearance. There existed no proper iron chases in which to lock up the +pages of the type, so that while the metal could be made secure at the +top and bottom, there are frequent instances where it bulges out on the +sides. + +[Illustration: John Fust, from an Old Engraving] + +From the very beginning the printed book had to be a work of art. +The patronage of kings and princes had developed the hand-lettered +volumes to the highest point of perfection, and, on account of this +keen competition with the scribes and their patrons, no printer could +afford to devote to any volume less than his utmost artistic taste and +mechanical ingenuity. Thus today, if a reader examines the _Gutenberg +Bible_ with a critical eye, he will be amazed by the extraordinary +evenness in the printing, and the surprisingly accurate alignment of +the letters. The glossy blackness of the ink still remains, and the +sharpness of the impression is equal to that secured upon a modern +cylinder press. + +It has been estimated that no less than six hand presses were employed +in printing the 641 leaves, composed in double column without numerals, +catch words, or signatures. What binder today would undertake to +collate such a volume in proper sequence! After the first two divisions +had come off the press it was decided to change the original scheme of +the pages from 40 to 42 lines. In order to get these two extra lines +on the page it was necessary to set all the lines closer together. To +accomplish this, some of the type was recast, with minimum shoulder, +and the rest of it was actually cut down in height to such an extent +that a portion of the curved dots of the _i_’s was clipped off. + +Monographs have been written to explain the variation in the size of +the type used in different sections of this book, but what more natural +explanation could there be than that the change was involuntary and due +to natural causes? In those days the molds which the printer used for +casting his types were made sometimes of lead, but more often of wood. +As he kept pouring the molten metal into these matrices, the very heat +would by degrees enlarge the mold itself, and thus produce lead type of +slightly larger size. From time to time, also, the wooden matrices wore +out, and the duplicates would not exactly correspond with those they +replaced. + +In printing these volumes, the precedent was established of leaving +blank spaces for the initial letters, which were later filled in by +hand. Some of these are plain and some elaborate, serving to make the +resemblance to the hand-lettered book even more exact; but the glory of +the _Gutenberg Bible_ lies in its typography and presswork rather +than in its illuminated letters. + + * * * * * + +Germany, in the _Gutenberg Bible_, proved its ability to produce +volumes worthy of the invention itself, but as a country it possessed +neither the scholars, the manuscripts, nor the patrons to insure the +development of the new art. Italy, at the end of the fifteenth century, +had become the home of learning, and almost immediately Venice became +the Mecca of printers. Workmen who had served their apprenticeships +in Germany sought out the country where princes might be expected to +become patrons of the new art, where manuscripts were available for +copy, and where a public existed both able and willing to purchase the +products of the press. The Venetian Republic, quick to appreciate this +opportunity, offered its protection and encouragement. Venice itself +was the natural market of the world for distribution of goods because +of the low cost of sea transportation. + +I have a fine copy of Augustinus: _De Civitate Dei_ (_page +205_) that I discovered in Rome in its original binding years ago, +printed in Jenson’s Gothic type in 1475. On the first page of text, +in bold letters across the top, the printer has placed the words, +_Nicolaus Jenson, Gallicus_. In addition to this signature, the +_explicit_ reads: + + _This work_ De Civitate Dei _is happily completed, being + done in Venice by that excellent and diligent master, Nicolas + Jenson, while Pietro Mocenigo was Doge, in the year after the + birth of the Lord, one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, + on the sixth day before the nones + of October (2 October)_ + +[Illustration: _Nicolas Jenson’s Explicit and Mark_] + +[Illustration: Jenson’s Gothic Type. From Augustinus: _De Civitate +Dei_, Venice, 1475 + +(Exact size)] + +Jenson was a printer who not only took pride in his art but also in the +country of his birth! He was a Frenchman, who was sent to Mayence by +King Charles VII of France to find out what sort of thing this new art +of printing was, and if of value to France to learn it and to bring it +home. Jenson had been an expert engraver, so was well adapted to this +assignment. At Mayence he quickly mastered the art, and was prepared +to transport it to Paris; but by this time Charles VII had died, and +Jenson knew that Louis XI, the new monarch, would have little interest +in recognizing his father’s mandate. The Frenchman then set himself up +in Venice, where he contributed largely to the prestige gained by this +city as a center for printing as an art, and for scholarly publications. + +Jenson had no monopoly on extolling himself in the _explicits_ of +his books. The cost of paper in those days was so high that a title +page was considered an unnecessary extravagance, so this was the +printer’s only opportunity to record his imprint. In modern times we +printers are more modest, and leave it to the publishers to sound our +praises, but we do like to place our signatures on well-made books! + +The _explicit_ in the hand-written book also offered a favorite +opportunity for gaining immortality for the scribe. I once saw in +an Italian monastery a manuscript volume containing some 600 pages, +in which was recorded the fact that on such and such a day Brother +So-and-So had completed the transcribing of the text; and inasmuch as +he had been promised absolution, one sin for each letter, he thanked +God that the sum total of the letters exceeded the sum total of his +sins, even though by but a single unit! + +Among Jenson’s most important contributions were his type designs, +based upon the best hand lettering of the day. Other designers had +slavishly copied the hand-written letter, but Jenson, wise in his +acquired knowledge, eliminated the variations and produced letters not +as they appeared upon the hand-written page, but standardized to the +design which the artist-scribe had in mind and which his hand failed +accurately to reproduce. The Jenson Roman (_page 22_) and his +Gothic (_page 205_) types have, through all these centuries, stood +as the basic patterns of subsequent type designers. + +Jenson died in 1480, and the foremost rival to his fame is Aldus +Manutius, who came to Venice from Carpi and established himself there +in 1494. I have often conjectured what would have happened had this +Frenchman printed his volumes in France and thus brought them into +competition with the later product of the Aldine Press. The supremacy +of Italy might have suffered,--but could Jenson have cut his types or +printed his books in the France of the fifteenth century? As it was, +the glories of the Aldi so closely followed Jenson’s superb work that +Italy’s supreme position in the history of typography can never be +challenged. + +For his printer’s mark Aldus adopted the famous combination of the +Dolphin and Anchor, the dolphin signifying speed in execution and +the anchor firmness in deliberation. As a slogan he used the words +_Festina lente_, of which perhaps the most famous translation is +that by Sir Thomas Browne, “Celerity contempered with Cunctation.” +Jenson’s printer’s mark (_page 203_), by the way, has suffered +the indignity of being adopted as the trademark of a popular brand of +biscuits! + +[Illustration: Device of Aldus Manutius] + +The printing office of Aldus stood near the Church of Saint Augustus, +in Venice. Here he instituted a complete revolution in the existing +methods of publishing. The clumsy and costly folios and quartos, which +had constituted the standard forms, were now replaced by crown octavo +volumes, convenient both to the hand and to the purse. + +“I have resolved,” Aldus wrote in 1490, “to devote my life to the cause +of scholarship. I have chosen, in place of a life of ease and freedom, +an anxious and toilsome career. A man has higher responsibilities than +the seeking of his own enjoyment; he should devote himself to honorable +labor. Living that is a mere existence can be left to men who are +content to be animals. Cato compared human existence to iron. When +nothing is done with it, it rusts; it is only through constant activity +that polish or brilliancy is secured.” + +[Illustration: GROLIER IN THE PRINTING OFFICE OF ALDUS + +After Painting by François Flameng + +Courtesy The Grolier Club, New York City] + +The weight of responsibility felt by Aldus in becoming a printer may +be better appreciated when one realizes that this profession then +included the duties of editor and publisher. The publisher of today +accepts or declines manuscripts submitted by their authors, and the +editing of such manuscripts, if considered at all, is placed in the +hands of his editorial department. Then the “copy” is turned over to +the printer for manufacture. In the olden days the printer was obliged +to search out his manuscripts, to supervise their editing--not from +previously printed editions, but from copies transcribed by hand, +frequently by careless scribes. Thus his reputation depended not only +on his skill as a printer, but also upon his sagacity as a publisher, +and his scholarship as shown in his text. In addition to all this, the +printer had to create the demand for his product and arrange for its +distribution because there were no established bookstores. + +The great scheme that Aldus conceived was the publication of the Greek +classics. Until then only four of the Greek authors, Æsop, Theocritus, +Homer, and Isocrates, had been published in the original. Aldus gave +to the world, for the first time in printed form, Aristotle, Plato, +Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sophocles, +Demosthenes, Lysias, Æschines, Plutarch, and Pindar. Except for what +Aldus did at this time, most of these texts would have been irrevocably +lost to posterity. + +When you next see Italic type you will be interested to know that it +was first cut by Aldus, said to be inspired by the thin, inclined, +cursive handwriting of Petrarch; when you admire the beauty added to +the page by the use of small capitals, you should give Aldus credit for +having been the first to use this attractive form of typography. Even +in that early day Aldus objected to the inartistic, square ending of a +chapter occupying but a portion of the page, and devised all kinds of +type arrangements, half-diamond, goblet, and bowl, to satisfy the eye. + +To me, the most interesting book that Aldus produced was the +_Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_,--“Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in +a Dream.” It stands as one of the most celebrated in the annals of +Venetian printing, being the only illustrated volume issued by the +Aldine Press. This work was undertaken at the very close of the +fifteenth century at the expense of one Leonardo Crasso of Verona, who +dedicated the book to Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino. It was written by a +Dominican friar, Francesco Colonna, who adopted an ingenious method of +arranging his chapters so that the successive initial letters compose +a complete sentence which, when translated, read, “Brother Francesco +Colonna greatly loved Polia.” Polia has been identified as one Lucrezia +Lelio, daughter of a jurisconsult of Treviso, who later entered a +convent. + +[Illustration: Text Page from Aldus’ _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, +Venice, 1499 (11 × 7 inches). + +It is on this model that the type used in this volume is based] + +[Illustration: Illustrated Page of Aldus’ _Hypnerotomachia + +Poliphili_, Venice, 1499 (11 × 7 inches)] + +[Illustration: GROLIER BINDING + +Castiglione: _Cortegiano_. Aldine Press, 1518 + +Laurenziana Library, Florence] + +The volume displays a pretentious effort to get away from the +commonplace. On every page Aldus expended his utmost ingenuity in the +arrangement of the type,--the use of capitals and small capitals, +and unusual type formations. In many cases the type balances the +illustrations in such a way as to become a part of them. Based on +the typographical standards of today, some of these experiments +are indefensible, but in a volume issued in 1499 they stand as +an extraordinary exhibit of what an artistic, ingenious printer +can accomplish within the rigid limitations of metal type. The +illustrations themselves, one hundred and fifty-eight in number, run +from rigid architectural lines to fanciful portrayals of incidents in +the story. Giovanni Bellini is supposed to have been the artist, but +there is no absolute evidence to confirm this supposition. + +Some years ago the Grolier Club of New York issued an etching entitled, +_Grolier in the Printing Office of Aldus_ (_page 208_). I +wish I might believe that this great printer was fortunate enough +to have possessed such an office! In spite of valuable concessions +he received from the Republic, and the success accorded to him as +a printer, he was able to eke out but a bare existence, and died a +poor man. The etching, however, is important as emphasizing the close +relation which exited between the famous ambassador of François I at +the Court of Pope Clement VII, at Rome, and the family of Aldus, to +which association booklovers owe an eternal debt of gratitude. At one +time the Aldine Press was in danger of bankruptcy, and Grolier not only +came to its rescue with his purse but also with his personal services. +Without these tangible expressions of his innate love for the book, +collectors today would be deprived of some of the most interesting +examples of printing and binding that they count among their richest +treasures. + +The general conception that Jean Grolier was a binder is quite +erroneous; he was as zealous a patron of the printed book as of the +binder’s art. His great intimacy in Venice was with Andrea Torresani +(through whose efforts the Jenson and the Aldus offices were finally +combined), and his two sons, Francesco and Federico, the father-in-law +and brothers-in-law of the famous Aldus. No clearer idea can be gained +of Grolier’s relations at _Casa Aldo_ than the splendid letter +which he sent to Francesco in 1519, intrusting to his hands the making +of Budé’s book, _De Asse_: + +[Illustration: GROLIER BINDING + +Capella: _L’Anthropologia Digaleazzo_. Aldine Press, 1533 + +_From which the Cover Design of this Volume was adapted_ + +(Laurenziana Library, Florence. 7½ × 4¼ inches)] + + _You will care with all diligence, _he writes_, O most + beloved Francesco, that this work, when it leaves your printing + shop to pass into the hands of learned men, may be as correct + as it is possible to render it. I heartily beg and beseech this + of you. The book, too, should be decent and elegant; and to + this will contribute the choice of the paper, the excellence + of the type, which should have been but little used, and the + width of the margins. To speak more exactly, I should wish it + were set up with the same type with which you printed your_ + Poliziano. _And if this decency and elegance shall + increase your expenses, I will refund you entirely. Lastly, I + should wish that nothing be added to the original or taken from + it._ + +What better conception of a book, or of the responsibility to be +assumed toward that book, both by the printer and by the publisher, +could be expressed today! + + * * * * * + +The early sixteenth century marked a crisis in the world in which the +book played a vital part. When Luther, at Wittenberg, burned the papal +bull and started the Reformation, an overwhelming demand on the part of +the people was created for information and instruction. For the first +time the world realized that the printing press was a weapon placed in +the hands of the masses for defence against oppression by Church or +State. François I was King of France; Charles V, Emperor of the Holy +Roman Empire; and Henry VIII, King of England. Italy had something to +think about beyond magnificently decorated volumes, and printing as an +art was for the time forgotten in supplying the people with books at +low cost. + +François I, undismayed by the downfall of the Italian patrons, believed +that he could gain for himself and for France the prestige which had +been Italy’s through the patronage of learning and culture. What a +pity that he had not been King of France when Jenson returned from +Mayence! He was confident that he could become the Mæcenas of the arts +and the father of letters, and still control the insistence of the +people, which increased steadily with their growing familiarity with +their new-found weapon. He determined to have his own printer, and was +eager to eclipse even the high Standard the Italian master-printers had +established. + +[Illustration: ROBERT ÉTIENNE, 1503-1559 + +_Royal Printer to François I_ + +From Engraving by Étienne Johandier Desrochers (c. 1661-1741)] + +Robert Étienne (or Stephens), who in 1540 succeeded Néobar as “Printer +in Greek to the King,” while not wholly accomplishing his monarch’s +ambitions, was the great master-printer of his age. He came from a +family of printers, and received his education and inspiration largely +from the learned men who served as correctors in his father’s +office. François proved himself genuinely interested in the productions +of his _Imprimerie Royale_, frequently visiting Étienne at the +Press, and encouraging him by expending vast sums for specially +designed types, particularly in Greek. The story goes that on one +occasion the King found Étienne engaged in correcting a proof sheet, +and refused to permit the printer to be disturbed, insisting on waiting +until the work was completed. + +For my own collection of great typographical monuments I would select +for this period the _Royal Greeks_ of Robert Étienne. A comparison +between the text page, so exquisitely balanced (_page 222_), and +the title page (_page 220_), where the arrangement of type and +printer’s mark could scarcely be worse, gives evidence enough that +even the artist-printer of that time had not yet grasped the wonderful +opportunity a title page offers for self-expression. Probably Étienne +regarded it more as a chance to pay his sovereign the compliment of +calling him “A wise king and a valiant warrior.” But are not the Greek +characters marvelously beautiful! They were rightly called the _Royal +Greeks_! The drawings were made by the celebrated calligrapher +Angelos Vergetios, of Candia, who was employed by François to make +transcripts of Greek texts for the Royal Collection, and whose +manuscript volumes may still be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale +in Paris. Earlier fonts had been based upon this same principle of +making the Greek letters reproductions as closely as possible of the +elaborate, involved, current writing hand of the day; but these new +designs carried out the principle to a degree until then unattained. +The real success of the undertaking was due to the skill of Claude +Garamond, the famous French punchcutter and typefounder. Pierre +Victoire quaintly comments: + + _Besides gathering from all quarters the remains of Hellenic + literature, François I added another benefit, itself most + valuable, to the adornment of this same honorable craft of + printing; for he provided by the offer of large moneys for + the making of extremely graceful letters, both of Greek and + Latin. In this also he was fortunate, for they were so nimbly + and so delicately devised that it can scarce be conceived that + human wit may compass anything more dainty and exquisite; + so that books printed from these types do not merely invite + the reader,--they draw him, so to say, by an irresistible + attraction._ + +[Illustration: ÉTIENNE’S _ROYAL GREEKS_, Paris, 1550 + +_Title Page_ (10¼ × 6 inches)] + +[Illustration: Page showing Étienne’s Roman Face (Exact size)] + +[Illustration: ÉTIENNE’S _ROYAL GREEKS_ + +_Text Page_ (10¼ × 6 inches) + +From _Novum Jesu Christi D. N. Testamentum_, Paris, 1550] + +Of course, they were too beautiful to be practical. In the Roman +letters typecutters had already found that hand lettering could no more +be translated directly into the form of type than a painting can be +translated directly into a tapestry, without sacrificing some of the +characteristic features of each. With the Greek letters, the problem +was even more difficult, and the _Royal Greeks_ offered no end of +complications to the compositors, and added disastrously to the expense +of the production. When Plantin came along, he based his Greek type +upon Étienne’s, but his modifications make it more practical. Compare +the _Royal Greeks_ with Plantin’s Greek on page 231 and see how +much beauty and variety was lost in the revision. + +François I found himself in an impossible position between his desire +to encourage Étienne in his publications and the terrific pressure +brought to bear by the ecclesiastical censors. Just as the people +had awakened to the value of books, not to put on shelves, but to +read in order to know, so had the Church recognized the importance of +controlling and influencing what those books contained. Throughout +Robert Étienne’s entire tenure of office there raged a conflict which +not only seriously interfered with his work, but distinctly hampered +the development of literature. Had François lived longer, Étienne’s +volumes might have reached a level equal to that attained by his +Italian predecessors, but Henri II was no match for the censors. In +1552 Robert Étienne, worn out by the constant struggles, transferred +his office to Geneva, where he died seven years later. His son Henri +continued his work, but except for his _Thesaurus_ produced little +of typographical interest. + + * * * * * + +Had it not been for this bitter censorship, France might have held her +supremacy for at least another half-century; but with the experiences +of Robert Étienne still in mind, it is easily understood why the +Frenchman, Christophe Plantin, in whom surged the determination to +become a master-printer, sought to establish himself elsewhere. + +By the middle of the sixteenth century Antwerp had assumed the proud +position of leading city of Europe. The success that came to the +Netherlanders in commerce as a result of their genius and enterprise +later stimulated their interest in matters of religion, politics, and +literature. Just as the tendencies of the times caused the pendulum to +swing away from Italy to France, so now it swung from France toward +the Netherlands. I had never before realized that, with the possible +exception of certain communities in Italy, where the old intellectual +atmosphere still obtained, there was no country in the world in which +culture and intelligence were so generally diffused during the +sixteenth century. How much more than typography these volumes have +taught me! + +It was inevitable that the art of printing should find in Belgium its +natural opportunity for supreme expression. At the time Plantin turned +his eyes in the direction of Antwerp, one entire quarter of that city +was devoted to the manufacture of books. This apparently discouraged +him, for at first he established himself as a bookbinder a little way +out of the city. Later he added a shop for the sale of books; but in +1555 he moved boldly into Antwerp, becoming a full-fledged printer +and publisher, soon demonstrating his right to recognition as the +master-printer of his time. + +By this time the words of Luther had attracted the attention of +the Christian world more particularly than ever to the Bible. The +people considered it the single basis of their faith, and upon their +familiarity with it depended their present and future welfare. It +was natural that they should attach the greatest importance to the +possession of the most authentic edition of the original text. What +more glorious task, then, could a printer take upon himself than to +provide correct texts, to translate them with scrupulous exactitude, +and to produce with the greatest perfection the single book upon which +was based the welfare of men and of empires! + +[Illustration: CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN, 1514-1589 + +From Engraving by Edme de Boulonois (c. 1550)] + +This was the inspiration that came to Christophe Plantin, and which +gradually took form in the _Biblia Polyglotta_, the great +typographic achievement of the sixteenth century. On the left-hand +page should appear the original Hebrew text, and in a parallel column +should be a rendering into the Vulgate (_page 230_). On the +right-hand page the Greek version would be printed, and beside it a +Latin translation (_page 231_). At the foot of each page should be +a Chaldean paraphrase. + +Antwerp was then under Spanish domination. Plantin at once opened +negotiations with Philip II of Spain, and was finally successful +in securing from that monarch an agreement to subsidize the +undertaking,--a promise which unfortunately was never kept. It is +probable that the King was influenced toward a favorable decision by +the struggle that occurred between Frankfort, Heidelberg, and even +Paris, for the honor of being associated with the great work. Philip +subscribed for thirteen copies upon parchment, and agreed to pay +Plantin 21,200 florins. He stipulated, however, that the work should +be executed under the personal supervision of one Arias Montanus, whom +he would send over from Spain. Plantin accepted this condition with +some misgivings, but upon his arrival Montanus captivated all by his +personal charm and profound learning. + +In February, 1565, Plantin employed Robert Grandjon, an engraver of +Lyons, to cut the Greek characters for the work, basing his font +upon the _Royal Greeks_. They are still beautiful because they +are still unpractical, but they cannot compare with their models any +more than later fonts of Greek, cut with the rigid requirements of +typography in mind, can compare with these. Grandjon also supplied +Plantin with all his Roman, and part of his Hebrew types, the balance +being cut by Guillaume Le Bé, of Paris, Hautin of Rochelle, Van der +Keere of Tours, and Corneille Bomberghe of Cologne. + +[Illustration: PLANTIN’S _BIBLIA POLYGLOTTA_, Antwerp, 1568 + +_Title Page_ (13¼ × 8¼ inches)] + +[Illustration: Page of Preface from Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, + +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)] + +[Illustration: Text Page of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, + +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)] + +[Illustration: Text Page of Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, + +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)] + +[Illustration: PLANTIN’S _BIBLIA POLYGLOTTA_, Antwerp, 1568 + +_Second Page_ (13¼ × 8¼ inches)] + +The eight massive parts of the _Biblia Polyglotta_ appeared during +the years 1568 to 1573. The first volume opens with a splendid engraved +title, representing the union of the people in the Christian faith, +and the four languages of the Old Testament (_opp. page_). In the +lower, right-hand corner appears the famous Plantin mark. Immediately +following are two other engraved plates (_page 232_), illustrative +as well as decorative in their nature. One of these pages gives to +the faithless Philip an undeserved immortality. There are also single +full-page engravings at the beginning of the fourth and fifth volumes. +Twelve copies were printed on vellum for King Philip. A thirteenth +copy on vellum was never completed. In addition to these, ten other +copies were printed on large Italian imperial paper, and were sold +at 200 florins per copy. There were 300 copies on imperial paper at +100 florins, and 960 printed on fine royal Troyes paper, which were +offered to the public at 70 florins each, with ten florins discount to +libraries. One of the vellum copies was presented by the King to the +Pope, another to the Duke of Alba, and still a third to the Duke of +Savoy, the remaining copies being left in the library of the Escurial. + +King Philip was so pleased with the volumes that he created Plantin +_Prototypographe_, ruler over all the printers in the city,--a +polite and inexpensive way of escaping his obligations. The world +acclaimed a new master-printer; but these honors meant little to +pressing creditors. + +What a series of misfortunes Plantin endured! Stabbed by a miscreant +who mistook him for some one else; hampered by censorship in spite of +previous assurances of liberty in publications; his property wiped +out again and again by the clashes of arms which finally cost Antwerp +her pre-eminence; forever in debt, and having to sell his books +below cost, and to sacrifice his library to meet pressing financial +obligations;--yet always rising above his calamities, he carried on +his printing office until his death in 1589, when he left a comfortable +fortune of above $200,000. + +Historically, Plantin’s contribution to the art of printing can +scarcely be overestimated, yet technically he should be included in +the second rather than the first group of early master-printers. The +century that had elapsed since Gutenberg had removed many of the +mechanical difficulties which had been obstacles to his predecessors. +The printer could now secure printed copy to be edited and improved. +Scholars were easily obtainable from the universities for editing +and proofreading. Printing machinery could be purchased instead of +being manufactured from original models. The sale of books had been +greatly systematized. A printer could now devote himself to his art +without dividing himself into various semi-related parts. Plantin +proved himself a business man. Who else ever established a printing +or publishing business on such an enduring basis that it continued +for three hundred years! In bequeathing it to his daughter and his +son-in-law, Moretus, Plantin made the interesting injunction that the +printing office was always to be maintained by the son or successor +who was most competent to manage it. If no son qualified, then the +successor must be selected outside the family. Fortunately, however, +there were sons who, each in his generation but with diminishing +ability, proved his right to assume the responsibility, and the +business was actually continued in the family down to 1867. A few years +later the property was purchased by the city of Antwerp for 1,200,000 +francs, and turned into a public museum. + +[Illustration: Device of Christophe Plantin] + +I never visit the Plantin Museum at Antwerp without feeling that I have +come closer to the old master-printers and their ideals. Here is the +only great printing establishment of the past that time and the inroads +of man have left intact. The beauty of the building, the harmony of +the surroundings, the old portraits, the comfort yet the taste shown +in the living-rooms,--all show that the artist-printer sought the same +elements in his life that he expressed in his work. Entering from the +Marché du Vendredi, I find myself face to face with a small tablet +over the door on which is the device of Christophe Plantin, “first +printer to the King, and the king of printers.” Here the familiar hand, +grasping a pair of compasses, reaches down from the clouds, holding the +compasses so that one leg stands at rest while the other describes a +circle, enclosing the legend _Labore et Constantia_. Within the +house one finds the actual types, and presses, and designs by Rubens +and other famous artists, that were employed in making the Plantin +books. The rooms in which the master printer lived make his personality +very real. In those days a man’s business was his life, and the home +and the workshop were not far separated. Here the family life and +the making of books were so closely interwoven that the visitor can +scarcely tell where one leaves off and the other begins. + + * * * * * + +In the vocabulary of booklovers, the name _Elzevir_ suggests +something particularly choice and unique in the making of books. These +volumes cannot compare favorably with many products of the press +which preceded and followed them, yet the prestige which attended +their publication has endured down to the present day. The original +popularity of the Elzevirs was due to the fact that after a century of +degradation, some one at last undertook to reclaim printing from the +depths. + +Printing, after reaching such heights so soon after its beginnings, had +steadily declined. The art may really be said to have had its origin +in Italy, as the work from Gutenberg’s office, while extraordinary and +epoch-making, could not rank with the best of the fifteenth-century +Italian productions. The French volumes of the early sixteenth century +were splendid examples of typography and presswork, but they did not +equal those of their Italian predecessors. Christophe Plantin’s work +in Antwerp was typographically unimportant except for his _Biblia +Polyglotta_; and after Plantin, which takes us to the end of the +sixteenth century, printing passed from an art into a trade. The +Elzevirs were craftsmen rather than artists, but the best craftsmen of +their period. + +All this was a natural reaction. The book-buying public had come to +demand the contents of the book at a cheaper price rather than volumes +of greater technical excellence at a correspondingly higher cost. As +we have seen, Sweynheim and Pannartz had ruined themselves by their +experiments in Greek; the Aldine Press was saved from bankruptcy only +by the intervention of Grolier. Henri Étienne, son of the great Robert +Étienne, who endeavored to emulate his father’s splendid work, came to +financial grief in producing his _Thesaurus_; and Plantin could +not have withstood the drain of his _Biblia Polyglotta_ had it not +been that he was commercially far-sighted enough to turn his plant over +to the manufacture of inexpensive and less carefully made books. + +By the end of the sixteenth century cheaper paper, made in Switzerland, +came into the market, and this inferior, unbleached product largely +replaced the soft, fine paper of Italian and French manufacture which +had contributed in no small part to the beauty of the printed pages. +Ink manufacturers had learned how to produce cheaper and poorer ink, +and the types themselves, through constant use, had become worn down to +such an extent that real excellence was impossible. + +Holland was the natural successor to Belgium in the supremacy of +printing. The devastations of war had brought trade to a standstill +in the Netherlands, while the city of Leyden had won the attention +and admiration of the world for its heroic resistance during the long +Spanish siege. To commemorate this event, William of Orange, in 1575, +founded the University of Leyden, which quickly took high rank among +scholars, and became the intellectual and literary center of Europe. + +Thither the battle-scarred Plantin betook himself at the suggestion of +Lipsius, the historian, who was now a professor in the new University. +In Leyden, Plantin established a branch printing office. He was made +Printer to the University, and for a time expected to remain here, +but the old man could not bring himself to voluntary exile from his +beloved Antwerp. Plantin’s Leyden printing office had been placed in +charge of Louis Elzevir, and when the veteran printer determined to +return to Antwerp it would have seemed natural for him to leave it in +Louis Elzevir’s hands instead of turning it over to his son-in-law, +Raphelengius. This Elzevir, however, although the founder of the great +Elzevir house, was not a practical printer, being more interested in +bookselling and publishing; so distinction in printing did not come to +the family until Isaac, Louis Elzevir’s grandson, became Printer to +the University in 1620. Fifteen years later, Bonaventura and Abraham +Elzevir made the name famous through their editions of _Terence_, +_Cæsar_, and _Pliny_. + +Up to this time the favorite _format_ had been the quarto volume, +running about 12 by 18 inches in size. The Elzevirs boldly departed +from the beaten path, and produced volumes running as small as 2 by 4 +inches. They cut types of small size, showing no special originality +but based on good Italian models, and issued editions which at first +met with small favor. “The Elzevirs are certainly great typographers,” +the scholar Deput wrote to Heinsius in 1629. “I can but think, however, +that their reputation will suffer in connection with these trifling +little volumes with such slender type.” + +Contrary to this prediction, the new _format_ gradually gained favor, +and finally became firmly established. The best publisher-printers in +France and Italy copied the Elzevir model, and the folios and the +quartos of the preceding ages went entirely out of style. + +[Illustration: ELZEVIR’S _TERENCE_, 1635 + +Engraved Title Page (Exact size)] + +[Illustration: ELZEVIR’S _TERENCE_, Leyden, 1635 + +Text Pages (4 × 2 inches)] + +The _Terence_ of 1635 is the volume I selected for my collection +(_page 242_). While not really beautiful, it is a charming +little book. The copper-plate title (_page 241_) serves not +only its original purpose but is also an illustration. The Elzevirs +were wise enough to go back a hundred years and revive the practice +of the copper-plate title, which had been discarded by intermediate +printers because of its expense. The types themselves, far superior +to other fonts in use at that time by other printers, were especially +designed for the Elzevirs by Christoffel van Dyck. The interspacing of +the capitals and the small capitals, the arrangement of the margins, +and the general layout all show taste and knowledge of typographical +precedent. The presswork would appear to better advantage except for +the impossibility of securing ink of consistent quality. + +The Elzevirs showed a great advance in business organization over any +of their predecessors. Freed from oppressive censorship, they were +able to issue a long list of volumes which were disposed of through +connections established in the principal book centers of Italy, France, +Germany, and Scandinavia, as well as throughout the Netherlands +themselves. There is no record of any Elzevir publication proving a +failure; but, by the same token, one cannot say that the Elzevirs +accomplished as much for the art to which they devoted themselves as +did the master-printers in whose steps they followed. + + * * * * * + +Curiously enough, it was not until the eighteenth century that England +produced volumes which were pre-eminent in any period. Caxton’s work, +extraordinary as it was, competed against books made at the same time +in Venice by Jenson, and were not equal to these Italian masterpieces. +I have a leaf from a Caxton volume which I often place beside my Jenson +volume, and the comparison always increases my wonder and admiration +for the great Italian printer. Caxton’s work was epoch-making, but +until John Baskerville issued his _Virgil_ in Birmingham, in 1757, +England had not produced a volume that stood out, at the moment of its +publication, as the best of its time. + +[Illustration: John Baskerville (1706-1775)] + +John Baskerville is one of the most unique characters to be found +in the annals of printing. He had been in turn a footman, a writing +teacher, an engraver of slate gravestones, and the proprietor of a +successful japanning establishment. He showed no special interest +in types or books until middle age, and after he had amassed +a fortune. Then, suddenly, he designed and cut types which +competed successfully with the famous Caslon fonts, and produced his +_Virgil_, which, as Benjamin Franklin wrote in presenting a copy +to the Harvard College Library, was “thought to be the most curiously +printed of any book hitherto done in the world.” Macaulay called it, +“The first of those magnificent editions which went forth to astonish +all the librarians of Europe.” + +The Baskerville types were at first received with scant praise, +although even the severest critics admitted that the Italic characters, +from which was eliminated that cramped design seen in the Italics of +other foundries of the period, were essentially beautiful. A letter +written by Benjamin Franklin to Baskerville in 1760 is of amusing +interest: + + _Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some + have entertained against your work. Soon after I returned, + discoursing with a gentleman concerning the artists of + Birmingham, he said you would be the means of blinding all the + readers of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being + too thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read + a line of them without pain. “I thought,” said I, “you were + going to complain of the gloss on the paper some object to.” + “No, no,” said he, “I have heard that mentioned, but it is not + that; it is in the form and cut of the letters themselves, they + have not that height and thickness of the stroke which makes + the common printing so much more comfortable to the eye.” You + see this gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I endeavored + to support your character against the charge; he knew what + he felt, and could see the reason of it, and several other + gentlemen among his friends had made the same observation, etc._ + + _Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to + try his judgment, I stepped into my closet, tore off the top + of Mr. Caslon’s Specimen, and produced it to him as yours, + brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining + it, since he spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive + the disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out + to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the several + founts, showing me everywhere what he thought instances of + that disproportion; and declared, that he could not then read + the specimen without feeling very strongly the pain he had + mentioned to me. I spared him that time the confusion of being + told, that these were the types he had been reading all his + life, with so much ease to his eyes; the types his adored + Newton is printed with, on which he has pored not a little; + nay, the very types his own book is printed with (for he is + himself an author), and yet never discovered the painful + disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours._ + +[Illustration: Title Page of Baskerville’s _Virgil_, Birmingham, 1757 +(8½ × 5⅜ inches)] + +[Illustration: Text Page of Baskerville’s _Virgil_, Birmingham, 1757 +(8½ × 5⅜ inches)] + +The _Virgil_ itself, beyond the interest that exists in its type, +shows grace and dignity in its composition and margins. For the first +time we have a type title (_page 247_) that shows a printer’s +appreciation of its possibilities. Baskerville affected extreme +simplicity, employing no head or tail pieces and no ornamental initials +to accomplish his effects (_page 249_). + +The copy of Baskerville’s _Virgil_ in my library contains a +copper-plate frontispiece. The advertisement which particularly +emphasized this feature excited my curiosity, as no book of +Baskerville’s is known to have contained illustrations. When I secured +the copy I found that the frontispiece was a steel engraving stamped on +water-marked paper which indicated its age to be at least two hundred +years earlier than the publication of the book. The owner of this +particular copy had inserted the illustration in re-binding, and it was +no part of the original edition! + +The glossy paper referred to in Franklin’s letter was an outcome of +Baskerville’s earlier business experience. It occurred to him that +type would print better upon highly finished paper, and that this +finish could be secured by pressing the regular book paper of the time +between heated japan plates made at his own establishment. Baskerville +is entitled to the credit of having been the first printer to use +highly finished paper, and, beyond this, as Dibdin says of him, “He +united, in a singularly happy manner, the elegance of Plantin with the +clearness of the Elzevirs.” + + * * * * * + +Interest in the Baskerville books, and in fact in all books printed +in what is known as “old-style” type, ceased suddenly with the +inexplicable popularity attained about 1800 by the so-called “modern” +face. The characteristics of the old-style letter are heavy ascending +and descending strokes with small serifs, whereas the modern face +accentuates the difference between the light and the heavy lines, +and has more angular serifs. The engraved work of Thomas Bewick, in +England, the publication of the _Racine_ by the Didots, and the +Bodoni volumes in Italy, offered the public an absolute innovation +from the types with which they had been familiar since the invention +of printing, and the new designs leaped into such popular favor that +many of the foundries destroyed the matrices of their old-style faces, +believing that the call for them had forever disappeared. As a matter +of fact, it was not until the London publisher Pickering revived the +old-style letter in 1844, that the modern face had any competition. +Since then the two styles have been maintained side by side. + +Thus the second supremacy of France came from a change in public taste +rather than from economic causes. For a time there was a question +whether Bodoni would win the distinction for Italy or the Didots for +France, but the French printers possessed a typographical background +that Bodoni lacked, and in their _Racine_ produced a masterpiece +which surpasses any production from the Bodoni Press. The Didots +were not only printers and publishers, but manufactured paper and +invented the process of stereotyping. While Minister to France, in +1780, Benjamin Franklin visited the Didot establishment, and, seizing +the handle of a press, struck off several copies of a form with such +professional familiarity as to cause astonishment. + +“Don’t be surprised,” Franklin exclaimed smiling. “This, you know, is +my real business.” + +In 1797, the French Minister of the Interior placed at the disposal +of Pierre Didot _l’aîné_ that portion of the Louvre which had +formerly been occupied by the _Imprimerie Royale_. Here was +begun, and completed in 1801, an edition of _Racine_ in three +volumes that aroused the enthusiasm of booklovers all over the world, +and brought to Pierre Didot the glory of being recognized as a +master-printer worthy to assume the mantle of Robert Étienne. This is +the typographic achievement I would select as the masterpiece of its +period. + +[Illustration: DIDOT’S _RACINE_, Paris, 1801 + +_A Frontispiece_ + +Designed by Prud’hon. Engraved by Marius (12 × 8 inches)] + +[Illustration: Title Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801 (12 × 8 +inches)] + +[Illustration: Opening Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801] + +[Illustration: Text Page of Didot’s _Racine_, Paris, 1801] + +[Illustration: FIRMIN DIDOT, 1730-1804 + +From Engraving by Pierre Gustave Eugene Staal (1817-1882)] + +The large quarto volumes contain nearly five hundred pages each. The +type was designed and cut by Firmin Didot in conjunction with, or +possibly in collaboration with Giambattista Bodoni, of Parma, Italy. +So closely do the two faces match that the similarity of their design +could scarcely have been a coincidence (see _page 81_). There is +a peculiar charm in the unusual length of the ascending and descending +characters; there is a grace in the slender capitals in spite of the +ultra-refinement; there is satisfaction in having the weight of the +Italic letter approach that of the Roman, thus preventing the usual +blemish which the lighter faced Italic gives to an otherwise perfectly +balanced page. The figures, really a cross between the old style +and the modern, have a distinct individuality entirely lost in the +so-called “lining” figures which those who have copied this face in +America have introduced as an “improvement.” + +The _Racine_ contains magnificent steel engravings, of which +one is reproduced at page 253. The handmade paper is a return to the +beautiful sheets of the fifteenth century, and the presswork--the type +just biting into the paper without leaving an impression on the reverse +side--is superbly characteristic of the best French workmanship. The +vellum copies show the work at its best. The engravings stand out +almost as original etchings. The ink is the densest black I ever saw. +Didot succeeded in overcoming the oil in the vellum without the chalk +surface that is given to the Morris vellum, the ink being so heavy that +it is slightly raised. I was particularly interested in this after my +own experiments in printing my humanistic _Petrarch_ on vellum. + +At the Exposition of 1801, in Paris, the _Racine_ was proclaimed +by a French jury the “most perfect typographic product of any country +and of any age.” Is this not too high praise? To have equaled the +Italian masterpieces of the fifteenth century would have been enough +glory for any printer to claim! + + * * * * * + +The _Racine_ was a step in the direction of reclaiming typography +from the trade which it had become, but it was left for William Morris +to place printing squarely back among the arts. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM MORRIS, 1834-1896 + +From Portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A. Painted in 1880 + +National Portrait Gallery, London] + +Morris was nearly sixty years of age when he finally settled upon the +book as the medium through which to express his message to the world. +The Morris wall papers, the Morris chair, the Morris end papers, +are among his earlier experiments, all sufficiently unique to +perpetuate his name; yet his work as a printer is what gave him undying +glory. The _Kelmscott Chaucer_ is his masterpiece, and must be +included whenever great typographic monuments are named. For this the +decorator-printer cut a smaller size of his Gothic font, secured the +co-operation of Sir Edward Burne-Jones as illustrator, and set himself +the task of designing the initial letters, borders, and decorations. +This was in 1892, and for four years they worked upon it, one delay +following another to make Morris fearful that the work might never be +completed. + +[Illustration: SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES, _Bart._, 1833-1898 + +From Photograph at the British Museum] + +The decoration for the first page was finished in March, 1893. Morris +was entirely satisfied with it, exclaiming, “My eyes! how good it is!” +Then he laid the whole project aside for over a year, while he devoted +himself to his metrical version of _Beowulf_. In the meantime +Burne-Jones was experiencing great difficulty in having his designs +satisfactorily translated onto wood, and Morris dolefully remarked, +after comparing notes with his friend and collaborator, “We shall be +twenty years at this rate in getting it out!” + +It was June, 1894, before the great work was fairly under way. +“_Chaucer_ getting on well,” Morris notes in his diary,--“such +lovely designs.” At the end of June he records his expectation of +beginning the actual printing within a month, and that in about three +months more all the pictures and nearly all the borders would be ready +for the whole of the Canterbury Tales. + +About this time Morris was asked if he would accept the +poet-laureateship of England, made vacant by Tennyson’s death, if +offered to him, and he unhesitatingly declined. His health and strength +were noticeably failing, yet at the beginning of 1895, less than two +years before his death, he was completely submerged by multifarious +occupations. Two presses were running upon the _Chaucer_ and still +a third upon smaller books. He was designing new paper hangings +and writing new romances; he was collaborating in the translation +of _Heimskringla_ and was supervising its production for the Saga +Library; he was engaged in getting together his splendid collection of +thirteenth- and fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts. + +It was not all smooth sailing with the _Chaucer_. In 1895 Morris +discovered that many of the sheets had become discolored by some +unfortunate ingredient of the ink, but to his immense relief he +succeeded in removing the yellow stains by bleaching. “The check of +the _Chaucer_,” he writes, “flattens life for me somewhat, but I am +going hard into the matter, and in about a fortnight hope to know the +worst of it.” + +In December the _Chaucer_ was sufficiently near completion to +encourage him to design a binding for it. Even here he found another +difficulty. “Leather is not good now,” he complained; “what used to +take nine months to cure is now done in three. They used to say ‘What’s +longest in the tanyard stays least time in the market,’ but that no +longer holds good. People don’t know how to buy now; they’ll take +anything.” + +Morris’ anxiety over the _Chaucer_ increased as it came nearer +to completion. “I’d like it finished tomorrow!” he exclaimed. “Every +day beyond tomorrow that it isn’t done is one too many.” To a visitor, +looking through the printed sheets in his library, who remarked upon +the added beauty of those sheets that follow the Canterbury Tales, +where the picture pages face one another in pairs, Morris exclaimed in +alarm, “Now don’t you go saying that to Burne-Jones or he’ll be wanting +to do the first part over again; and the worst of that would be that +he’d want to do all the rest over again because the other would be so +much better, and then we should never get done, but be always going +round and round in a circle.” + +The daily progress of the work upon the _Chaucer_ was the one +interest that sustained his waning energies. The last three blocks were +brought to him on March 21, 1896. The Easter holidays almost killed +him. “Four mouldy Sundays in a mouldy row,” he writes in his diary. +“The press shut and _Chaucer_ at a standstill.” + +On May 6 all the picture sheets were printed and the block for the +title page was submitted for Morris’ approval, the final printing being +completed two days later. On June 2 the first two bound copies were +delivered to him, one of which he immediately sent to Burne-Jones, the +other he placed in his own library. + +Thus the _Kelmscott Chaucer_ came to completion. Four months later +William Morris was dead. The _Chaucer_ had been nearly five years +in preparation and three and a half years in execution. The printing +alone had consumed a year and nine months. The volumes contain, besides +eighty-seven illustrations by Burne-Jones, a full-page woodcut title, +fourteen large borders, eighteen frames for pictures, and twenty-six +large initial words, all designed by Morris, together with the smaller +initials and the design for binding, which was in white pigskin with +silver clasps, executed by Douglas Cockerell. + +[Illustration: Text Page of Kelmscott _Chaucer_, London, 1896 (15 × 10¼ +inches)] + +I have never felt that the Kelmscott volumes were books at all, but +were, rather, supreme examples of a master-decorator’s taste and skill. +After all, a book is made to read, and the _Kelmscott Chaucer_ is +made to be looked at. The principles which should control the design of +the ideal book as laid down by William Morris cannot be improved upon, +but when he undertook to put them into execution he found himself so +wholly under the control of his decorating tendencies that he departed +far from his text. William Morris’ work is far greater than is shown in +the volumes he printed. He awoke throughout the world an interest in +printing as an art beyond what any other man has ever accomplished, the +results of which have been a vital factor in bringing modern bookmaking +to its present high estate. + + * * * * * + +It remained for T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, Morris’ friend, admirer, and +disciple, to put Morris’ principles into operation at the Doves Press, +London, supplemented by Emery Walker, who designed the Doves type,--to +me the most beautiful type face in existence. Cobden-Sanderson, +undisturbed by counter interests, plodded along, producing volumes +into which he translated Morris’ ideals far more consistently than +did Morris himself. “The Book Beautiful,” Cobden-Sanderson wrote in +his little masterpiece, _The Ideal Book_, “is a composite thing +made up of many parts and may be made beautiful by the beauty of each +of its parts--its literary content, its material or materials, its +writing or printing, its illumination or illustration, its binding +and decoration--of each of its parts in subordination to the whole +which collectively they constitute; or it may be made beautiful by +the supreme beauty of one or more of its parts, all the other parts +subordinating or even effacing themselves for the sake of this one or +more, and each in turn being capable of playing this supreme part and +each in its own peculiar and characteristic way. On the other hand +each contributory craft may usurp the functions of the rest and of the +whole, and growing beautiful beyond all bounds ruin for its own the +common cause.” + +The _Doves Bible_ is Cobden-Sanderson’s masterpiece, and one +turns to it with relief after the riotous beauty of the Morris pages. +It is printed throughout in one size of type with no leads between +the lines and with no paragraphs, the divisions being indicated by +heavy paragraph marks. The only decorative feature of any description +consists of exceedingly graceful initial letters at the beginning of +each new book. The type is based flatly upon Jenson’s Roman face, and +exactly answers Morris’ definition of the type ideal, “Pure in form, +severe, without needless excrescences, solid without the thickening and +thinning of the lines, and not compressed laterally.” The presswork is +superb. + +[Illustration: Title Page of _Doves Bible_, London, 1905 (8 × 6 +inches)] + +[Illustration: Text Page of _Doves Bible_, London, 1905 (8 × 6 +inches)] + + * * * * * + +Surely no form of bibliomania can yield greater rewards in return for +study and perseverance. The great typographical monuments, dating from +1456 to 1905, have given me a composite picture of man’s successful +struggle to free himself from the bonds of ignorance. I have mingled +with Lorenzo the Magnificent and with the oppressed people of Florence; +I have been a part of François I’s sumptuous Court, and have seen the +anxious faces of the clerical faction as they read the writing on +the wall; I have listened to the preaching of Luther, and have heard +the Spanish guns bombarding Antwerp; I have stood with the brave +defenders of Leyden, and have watched the center of learning find its +place in Holland; I have enjoyed Ben Franklin’s participation in the +typographical efforts of Baskerville and Didot; I have received the +inspiration of seeing William Morris and Cobden-Sanderson put a great +art back into its rightful place. These triumphs of the printing press +are far more than books. They stand as landmarks charting the path of +culture and learning through four marvelous centuries + +What volume of the twentieth century and what master-printer shall +be included? That is yet to be determined by the test of retrospect; +but the choice will be more difficult to make. In America and England +history is being made in printing as an art, and the results are full +of hopefulness and promise + + + + + VII + + THE SPELL OF THE LAURENZIANA + + +The most fascinating city in all Europe is Florence, and the most +alluring spot in all Florence is the Laurenziana Library. They say +that there is something in the peculiar atmosphere of antiquity that +reacts curiously upon the Anglo-Saxon temperament, producing an +obsession so definite as to cause indifference to all except the magic +lure of culture and learning. This is not difficult to believe after +working, as I have, for weeks at a time, in a cell-like alcove of +the Laurenziana; for such work, amid such surroundings, possesses an +indescribable lure. + +Yet my first approach to the Laurenziana was a bitter disappointment; +for the bleak, unfinished façade is almost repelling. Perhaps it was +more of a shock because I came upon it directly from the sheer beauty +of the Baptistery and Giotto’s Campanile. Michelangelo planned to make +this façade the loveliest of all in Florence, built of marble and +broken by many niches, in each of which was to stand the figure of a +saint. The plans, drawn before America was discovered, still exist, +yet work has never even been begun. The façade remains unfinished, +without a window and unbroken save by three uninviting doors. + +Conquering my dread of disillusionment, I approached the nearest +entrance, which happened to be that at the extreme right of the +building and led me directly into the old Church of San Lorenzo. +Drawing aside the heavy crimson curtains, I passed at once into a +calm, majestic quiet and peace which made the past seem very near. I +drew back into the shadow of a great pillar in order to gain my poise. +How completely the twentieth century turned back to the fifteenth! On +either side, were the bronze pulpits from which Savonarola thundered +against the tyranny and intrigue of the Medici. I seemed to see the +militant figure standing there, his eyes flashing, his voice vibrating +as he proclaimed his indifference to the penalty he well knew he drew +upon himself by exhorting his hearers to oppose the machinations of the +powerful family within whose precincts he stood. Then, what a contrast! +The masses vanished, and I seemed to be witnessing the gorgeous beauty +of a Medici marriage procession. Alessandro de’ Medici was standing +beneath a _baldacchino_, surrounded by the pomp and glory of all +Florence, to espouse the daughter of Charles V. Again the scene changes +and the colors fade. I leave my place of vantage and join the reverent +throng surrounding the casket which contains the mortal remains of +Michelangelo, and listen with bowed head to Varchi’s eloquent tribute +to the great humanist. + +The spell was on me! Walking down the nave, I turned to the left and +found myself in the Old Sacristy. Verrocchio’s beautiful sarcophagus +in bronze and porphyry recalled for a moment the personalities and +deeds of Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici. Then on, into the “New” +Sacristy,--new, yet built four centuries ago! Again I paused, this +time before Michelangelo’s tomb for Lorenzo the Magnificent, from +which arise those marvelous monuments, “Day and Night” and “Dawn and +Twilight,”--the masterpieces of a super-sculptor to perpetuate the +memory of a superman! + +A few steps more took me to the Martelli Chapel, and, opening an +inconspicuous door, I passed out into the cloister. It was a relief +for the moment to breathe the soft air and to find myself in the +presence of nature after the tenseness that came from standing before +such masterpieces of man. Maurice Hewlett had prepared me for the +“great, mildewed cloister with a covered-in walk all around it, built +on arches. In the middle a green garth with cypresses and yews dotted +about; when you look up, the blue sky cut square and the hot tiles of a +huge dome staring up into it.” + +From the cloister I climbed an ancient stone staircase and found myself +at the foot of one of the most famous stairways in the world. At that +moment I did not stop to realize how famous it was, for my mind had +turned again on books, and I was intent on reaching the Library itself. +At the top of the stairway I paused for a moment at the entrance to the +great hall, the _Sala di Michelangiolo_. At last I was face to +face with the Laurenziana! + +[Illustration: SALA DI MICHELANGIOLO + +Laurenziana Library, Florence] + +Before I had completed my general survey of the room, an attendant +greeted me courteously, and when I presented my letter of introduction +to the librarian he bowed low and led me the length of the hall. The +light came into the room through beautiful stained-glass windows, +bearing the Medici arms and the cipher of Giulio de’ Medici, later +Pope Clement VII, surrounded by arabesque Renaissance designs. We +passed between the _plutei_, those famous carved reading-desks +designed by Michelangelo. As we walked down the aisle, the pattern of +the nutwood ceiling seemed reflected on the brick floor, so cleverly +was the design reproduced in painted bricks. Gradually I became +impressed by the immense size of the room, which before I had not felt +because the proportions are so perfect. + +Doctor Guido Biagi, who was at that time librarian, was seated at +one of the _plutei_, studying a Medicean illuminated manuscript +fastened to the desk by one of the famous old chains (see _page +14_). He was a Tuscan of medium height, rather heavily built, with +full beard, high forehead, and kindly, alert eyes. The combination of +his musical Italian voice, his eyes, and his appealing smile, made +me feel at home at once. Letters of introduction such as mine were +every-day affairs with him, and no doubt he expected, as did I, to +have our meeting result in a few additional courtesies beyond what +the tourist usually receives, and then that each would go his way. I +little realized, as I presented my letter, that this meeting was to be +so significant,--that the man whose hand I clasped was to become my +closest friend, and that through him the Laurenziana Library was to be +for me a sanctuary. + +[Illustration: _Dott. Comm._ GUIDO BIAGI in 1924 + +Librarian of the Laurenziana Library, Florence] + +After the first words of greeting, I said, + +“I am wondering how much more I can absorb today. By mistake I came +in through the church, and found myself confronted by a series +of masterpieces so overpowering that I am almost exhausted by the +monuments of great personages and the important events they recall.” + +“A fortunate mistake,” he replied smiling. “The entrance to the Library +should be forever closed, and every one forced to come in through the +church as you did, in order to absorb the old-world atmosphere, and be +ready to receive what I can give.--So this is your first visit? You +know nothing of the history of the Library?” + +“Simply that everything was designed by Michelangelo,--and the names of +some of the priceless manuscripts in your collection.” + +“It is not quite exact to say that everything was designed by the great +Buonarroti,” he corrected. “It was Michelangelo who conceived, but +Vasari who designed and executed. Let me show you the letter the great +artist wrote to Vasari about the stairway you just ascended” (_page +280_). + +Leaving me for a moment he returned with a manuscript in his hand which +he read aloud: + + _There is a certain stair that comes into my thoughts like a + dream, _the letter ran_; but I don’t think it is exactly + the one which I had planned at the time, seeing that it appears + to be but a clumsy affair. I will describe it for you here, + nevertheless. I took a number of oval boxes, each about one + palm deep, but not of equal length and breadth. The first and + largest I placed on a pavement at such distance from the wall + of the door as seemed to be required by the greater or lesser + degree of steepness you may wish to give the stair. Over this + was placed another, smaller in all directions, and leaving + sufficient room on that beneath for the foot to rest on in + ascending, thus diminishing each step as it gradually retires + towards the door; the uppermost step being of the exact width + required for the door itself. This part of the oval steps must + have two wings, one right and one left, the steps of the wings + to rise by similar degree, but not be oval in form._ + +“Who but a great artist could visualize that marvelous staircase +through a collection of wooden boxes!” Biagi exclaimed. “Vasari built +this great room, but the designs were truly Michelangelo’s,--even to +the carving of these _plutei_,” he added, laying his hand on the +reading-desk from which he had just risen. “See these chains, which +have held these volumes in captivity for over four hundred years.” + +He asked me how long I was to be in Florence. + +“For a week,” I answered, believing the statement to be truthful; but +the seven days stretched out into many weeks before I was able to break +the chains which held me to the Library as firmly as if they were the +links which for so many years had kept the Medicean treasures in their +hallowed places. + +“Return tomorrow,” he said. “Enter by the private door, where Marinelli +will admit you. I want to keep your mind wholly on the Library.” + +[Illustration: VESTIBULE of the LAURENZIANA LIBRARY, FLORENCE + +Designed by Michelangelo] + +The private door was the entrance in the portico overlooking the +cloister, held sacred to the librarian and his friends. At the +appointed hour I was admitted, and Marinelli conducted me immediately +to the little office set apart for the use of the librarian. + +“Before I exhibit my children,” he said, “I must tell you the romantic +story of this collection. You will enjoy and understand the books +themselves better if I give you the proper background.” + +Here is the story he told me. I wish you might have heard the words +spoken in the musical Tuscan voice: + +Four members of the immortal Medici family contributed to the greatness +of the Laurenziana Library, their interest in which would seem to be a +curious paradox. Cosimo _il Vecchio_, father of his country, was +the founder. “Old” Cosimo was unique in combining zeal for learning +and an interest in arts and letters with political corruption. As his +private fortune increased through success in trade he discovered the +power money possessed when employed to secure political prestige. By +expending hundreds of thousands of florins upon public works, he gave +employment to artisans, and gained a popularity for his family with the +lower classes which was of the utmost importance at critical times. +Beneath this guise of benefactor existed all the characteristics of +the tyrant and despot, but through his money he was able to maintain +his position as a Mæcenas while his agents acted as catspaws in +accomplishing his political ambitions. Old Cosimo acknowledged to Pope +Eugenius that much of his wealth had been ill-gotten, and begged him to +indicate a proper method of restitution. The Pope advised him to spend +10,000 florins on the Convent of San Marco. To be sure that he followed +this advice thoroughly, Cosimo contributed more than 40,000 florins, +and established the basis of the present Laurenziana Library. + +“Some of your American philanthropists must have read the private +history of Old Cosimo,” Biagi remarked slyly at this point. + +Lorenzo the Magnificent was Old Cosimo’s grandson, and his contribution +to the Library was far beyond what his father, Piero, had given. +Lorenzo was but twenty-two years of age when Piero died, in 1469. He +inherited no business ability from his grandfather, but far surpassed +him in the use he made of literary patronage. Lorenzo had no idea of +relinquishing control of the Medici tyranny, but he was clever enough +to avoid the outward appearance of the despot. Throughout his life he +combined a real love of arts and letters with a cleverness in political +manipulation, and it is sometimes difficult correctly to attribute +the purpose behind his seeming benevolences. He employed agents to +travel over all parts of the world to secure for him rare and important +codices to be placed in the Medicean Library. He announced that it was +his ambition to form the greatest collection of books in the world, and +to throw it open to public use. Such a suggestion was almost heresy in +those days! So great was his influence that the Library received its +name from his. + +The third Medici to play an important part in this literary history was +Lorenzo’s son, Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Pope Leo X. The library +itself had been confiscated by the Republic during the troublous times +in which Charles VIII of France played his part, and sold to the +monks of San Marco; but when better times returned Cardinal Giovanni +bought it back into the family, and established it in the Villa Medici +in Rome. During the fourteen years the collection remained in his +possession, Giovanni, as Pope Leo X, enriched it by valuable additions. +On his death, in 1521, his executor, a cousin, Giulio de’ Medici, +afterwards Pope Clement VII, commissioned Michelangelo to erect a +building worthy of housing so precious a collection; and in 1522 the +volumes were returned to Florence. + +Lorenzo’s promise to throw the doors open to the public was +accomplished on June 11, 1571. At that time there were 3,000 precious +manuscripts, most of which are still available to those who visit +Florence. A few are missing. + +The princes who followed Cosimo II were not so conscious of their +responsibilities, and left the care of the Library to the Chapter of +the Church of San Lorenzo. During this period the famous manuscript +copy of Cicero’s work, the oldest in existence, disappeared. Priceless +miniatures were cut from some of the volumes, and single leaves from +others. Where did they go? The _Cicero_ has never since been heard +of, but the purloining of fragments of Laurenziana books undoubtedly +completed imperfections in similar volumes in other collections. + +The House of Lorraine, which succeeded the House of Medici, guarded the +Laurenziana carefully, placing at its head the learned Biscioni. After +him came Bandini, another capable librarian, under whose administration +various smaller yet valuable collections were added in their entirety. +Del Furia continued the good work, and left behind a splendid catalogue +of the treasures entrusted to him. These four volumes are still to be +found in the Library. In 1808, and again in 1867, the libraries of +the suppressed monastic orders were divided between the Laurentian +and the Magliabecchian institutions; and in 1885, through the efforts +of Pasquale Villari, the biographer of Machiavelli, the Ashburnham +collection, numbering 1887 volumes, was added through purchase by the +Italian Government. + +“Now,” said Biagi, as he finished the story, “I am ready to show you +some of the Medici treasures. I call them my children. They have always +seemed that to me. My earliest memory is of peeping out from the back +windows of the Palazzo dei della Vacca, where I was born, behind the +bells of San Lorenzo, at the campanile of the ancient church, and at +the Chapel or the Medici. The Medici coat of arms was as familiar to me +as my father’s face, and the ‘pills’ that perpetuated Old Cosimo’s fame +as a chemist possessed so great a fascination that I never rested until +I became the Medicean librarian.” + +Biagi led the way from his private office through the Hall of +Tapestries. As we passed by the cases containing such wealth of +illumination, only partially concealed by the green curtains drawn +across the glass, I instinctively paused, but my guide insisted. + +“We will return here, but first you must see the Tribuna.” + +We passed through the great hall into a high-vaulted, circular +reading-room. + +“This was an addition to the Library in 1841,” Biagi explained, “to +house the 1200 copies of original editions from the fifteenth-century +Presses, presented by the Count Angiolo Maria d’Elchi. Yes--” he added, +reading my thoughts as I glanced around; “this room is a distinct +blemish. The great Buonarroti must have turned in his grave when it +was finished. But the volumes themselves will make you forget the +architectural blunder.” + +He showed me volumes printed from engraved blocks by the Germans, +Sweynheym and Pannartz, at Subiaco, in the first Press established in +Italy. I held in my hand Cicero’s _Epistolæ ad Familiares_, a +volume printed in 1469. In the _explicit_ the printer, not at all +ashamed of his accomplishment, adds in Latin: + + _John, from within the town of Spires, was the first to print + books in Venice from bronze types. See, O Reader, how much hope + there is of future works when this, the first, + has surpassed the art of penmanship_ + +There was Tortelli’s _Orthographia dictionum e Græcia tractarum_, +printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, showing the first use of Greek +characters in a printed book. The Aldine volumes introduced me to the +first appearance of Italic type. No wonder that Italy laid so firm a +hand upon the scepter of the new art, when Naples, Milan, Ferrara, +Florence, Piedmont, Cremona, and Turin vied with Venice in producing +such examples! + +“You must come back and study them at your leisure,” the librarian +suggested, noting my reluctance to relinquish the volume I was +inspecting to receive from him some other example equally interesting. +“Now I will introduce you to the prisoners, who have never once +complained of their bondage during all these centuries.” + +In the great hall we moved in and out among the _plutei_, where +Biagi indicated first one manuscript and then another, with a few words +of explanation as to the significance of each. + +“No matter what the personal bent of any man,” my guide continued, +“we have here in the Library that which will satisfy his intellectual +desires. If he is a student of the Scriptures, he will find inspiration +from our sixth-century _Syriac Gospels_, or the _Biblia Amiatina_. For +the lawyer, we have the _Pandects of Justinian_, also of the sixth +century, which even today form the absolute basis of Roman law. What +classical scholar could fail to be thrilled by the fourth-century +_Medicean Virgil_, with its romantic history, which I will tell +you some day; what lover of literature would not consider himself +privileged to examine Boccaccio’s manuscript copy of the _Decameron_, +or the Petrarch manuscript on vellum, in which appear the famous +portraits of Laura and Petrarch; or Benvenuto Cellini’s own handwriting +in his autobiography? We must talk about all these, but it would be too +much for one day.” + +Leading the way back to his sanctum, Biagi left me for a moment. He +returned with some manuscript poems, which he turned over to me. + +“This shall be the climax of your first day in the Laurenziana,” he +exclaimed. “You are now holding Michelangelo in your lap!” + +Can you wonder that the week I had allotted to Florence began to seem +too brief a space of time? In response to the librarian’s suggestion I +returned to the Library day after day. He was profligate in the time he +gave me. Together we studied the _Biblia Amiatina_, the very copy +brought from England to Rome in 716 by Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth, +intended as a votive offering at the Holy Sepulchre of Saint Peter. By +this identification at the Laurenziana in 1887 the volume became one of +the most famous in the world. In the plate opposite, the Prophet Ezra +is shown by the artist sitting before a book press filled with volumes +bound in crimson covers of present-day fashion, and even the book in +which Ezra is writing has a binding. It was a new thought to me that +the binding of books, such as we know it, was in practice as early as +the eighth century. + +[Illustration: THE PROPHET EZRA. From _Codex Amiatinus_, (8th Century) + +_Showing earliest Volumes in Bindings_ + +Laurenziana Library, Florence (12 × 8)] + +At another time we examined the _Medicean Virgil_ written on +vellum, dating back to the fourth century, and the oldest Codex of the +Latin poet. + +“This is a veritable treasure for the classical scholar, is it not?” +Biagi inquired. “While the Medicean collection remained in the hands +of the Chapter of San Lorenzo some vandal cut out the first leaves. +See,--the text now begins at the 48th line of the 6th Eclogue.” + +I felt almost as if I were looking at a mutilated body, so precious did +the manuscript seem. + +“In 1799,” the librarian continued, “these sheets were carried to +France as part of the Napoleonic booty. Later, through the good +offices of Prince Metternich, under a special article in the Treaty of +Vienna, the volume was returned to Italy. In 1816 a solemn festival +was held here in Florence to celebrate its restoration to the Library. +Such events as these,” Biagi added, “show you the place the book holds +in the hearts of the Italian people. Look!” he exclaimed, pointing +disgustedly at the stiff, ugly binding placed upon the _Virgil_ in +Paris during its captivity. “See how little the French appreciated what +this volume really is!” + +The Petrarch manuscript yielded me the originals of the famous +portraits of Madonna Laura de Noves de Sale and of Messer Francesco +Petrarca which had hung in my library for years; my friend’s comments +made them assume a new meaning. The poet’s likeness so closely +resembles other more authentic portraits that we may accept that of +Madonna Laura as equally correct, even though the same opportunity for +comparison is lacking. What could be more graceful or original than the +dressing of the hair, recalling the elegance of the _coiffures_ +worn by the ladies of Provence and France rather than of Italy, even +as the little pearl-sewn cap is absolutely unknown in the fashions +of Petrarch’s native country. After looking at the painting, we can +understand the inspiration for Petrarch’s lines: + + Say from what vein did Love procure the gold + To make those sunny tresses? From what thorn + Stole he the rose, and whence the dew of morn, + Bidding them breathe and live in Beauty’s mould? + +So we discussed the treasures which were laid out before me as I +returned again and again to the Library. The illuminated volumes showed +me that marvelous Book of Hours Francesco d’Antonio made for Lorenzo +the Magnificent, which is described in an earlier chapter (_page +146_); I became familiar with the gorgeous pages of Lorenzo Monaco, +master of Fra Angelico; of Benozzo Gozzoli, whose frescoes give the +Riccardi its greatest fame; of Gherado and Clovio, and other great +artists whose names are unknown or forgotten. + +Besides being librarian of the Laurenziana, Biagi was also custodian +of the Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives. Thus it was that during +some of my visits I had the opportunity to study the early sketches of +the great Leonardo, and the manuscript letters of Michelangelo. Such +intimacies gave me an understanding of the people and the times in +which they worked that has clothed that period with an everlasting halo. + +As our friendship expanded through our work together, Biagi introduced +me to other fascinations, outside the Library. I came to know Pasquale +Villari and other great Italian intellects. My friend and I planned +Odysseys together,--to Vallombrosa, to Pisa, to Perugia, to Siena. We +visited the haunts of Dante. + +Nor was our conversation devoted wholly to the literary spirits of +antiquity. One day something was said about George Eliot. I had always +shared the common fallacy that she was entitled to be classified as the +greatest realist of the analytical or psychological school; yet I had +always marveled at the consummate skill which made it possible for her, +in _Romola_, to draw her characters and to secure the atmosphere +of veritable Italians and the truest Italy without herself having lived +amongst the Florentines and assimilating those unique peculiarities +which she so wonderfully portrayed. For I had accepted the myth that +she had only passed through Italy on her memorable trip with the Brays +in 1849, and secured her local color by study. + +I made some allusion to this, and Biagi smiled. + +“Where did you get that idea?” he asked. “Her diary tells you to the +contrary.” + +I could only confess that I had never read her diary. + +“George Eliot and Lewes were in Florence together in 1861,” he +continued; “and it was because they were here that _Romola_ became +a fact.” + +Enjoying my surprise, the librarian became more communicative: + +“They studied here together from May 4 until June 7, 1861, at the +Magliabecchian Library,” said he, “and I can tell you even the titles +of the books they consulted.” + +Perhaps I showed my incredulity. + +“I have discovered the very slips which Lewes signed when he took out +the volumes,” he continued. “Would you like to see them?” + +By this time Biagi knew me too well to await my response. So we walked +together over to the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, the library which +became famous two hundred and fifty years ago through the reputation +of a jeweler’s shop boy, Antonio Magliabecchi, and was known as +the Biblioteca Magliabecchiana for more than a century before the +Biblioteca Palatina was joined with it in 1860 under its present modern +and unromantic name. + +[Illustration: ANTONIO MAGLIABECCHI + +_Founder of the Magliabecchia Library, Florence_] + +As we walked along Biagi told me of the unique personality of this +Magliabecchi, which attracted the attention of the literary world while +he was collecting the nucleus of the library. Dibdin scouted him, +declaring that his existence was confined to the “parade and pacing of +a library,” yet so great was his knowledge and so prodigious his memory +that when the Grand Duke of Florence asked him one day for a particular +volume, he was able to reply: + +“The only copy of this work is at Constantinople, in the Sultan’s +library, the seventeenth volume in the second bookcase on the right as +you go in.” + +We entered the old reading hall, which is almost the only portion of +the building still remaining as it was when George Eliot and George +Henry Lewes pursued their studies at one of the massive walnut tables. +The jeering bust of Magliabecchi is still there; the same volumes, +resting upon their ornamental shelves, still await the arrival of +another genius to produce another masterpiece--but except for these the +Library has become as modernized as its name. + +“I was going over some dusty receipts here one day,” my friend +explained, “which I found on the top of a cupboard in the office of the +archives. It was pure curiosity. I was interested in the names of many +Italian writers who have since become famous, but when I stumbled upon +a number of receipts signed ‘G. H. Lewes,’ I realized that I was on +the track of some valuable material. These I arranged chronologically, +and this is what I found.” + +Now let me go back a little, before, with Biagi’s help, I fit these +interesting receipts into the story of the writing of the book as told +by George Eliot’s diary, which I immediately absorbed. + +_Silas Marner_ was finished on March 10, 1861, and on April 19 the +author and Lewes “set off on our second journey to Florence.” After +arriving there, the diary tells us that they “have been industriously +foraging in old streets and old books.” Of Lewes she writes: “He was in +continual distraction by having to attend to my wants, going with me to +the Magliabecchian Library, and poking about everywhere on my behalf.” + +[Illustration: Library Slips used by George Eliot in the Magliabecchia + +Library, Florence, while writing _Romola_] + +The first slip signed by Lewes is dated May 15, 1861, and called for +Ferrario’s _Costume Antico e Moderno_. This book is somewhat +dramatic and superficial, yet it could give the author knowledge of +the historical surroundings of the characters which were growing in +her mind. The following day they took out Lippi’s _Malmantile_, +a comic poem filled with quaint phrases and sayings which fitted well +in the mouths of those characters she had just learned how to dress. +Migliore’s _Firenze Illustrata_ and Rastrelli’s _Firenze +Antica e Moderna_ gave the topography and the aspect of Florence at +the end of the fifteenth century. + +From Chiari’s _Priorista_ George Eliot secured the idea of the +magnificent celebration of the Feast of Saint John, the effective +descriptions of the cars, the races, and the extraordinary tapers. “It +is the habit of my imagination,” she writes in her diary, “to strive +after as full a vision of the medium in which a character moves as of +the character itself.” Knowledge of the Bardi family, to which the +author added Romola, was secured from notes on the old families of +Florence written by Luigi Passerini. + +“See how they came back on May 24,” Biagi exclaimed, pointing to a slip +calling for _Le Famiglie del Litta_, “to look in vain for the +pedigree of the Bardi. But why bother,” he continued with a smile; “for +Romola, the Antigone of Bardo Bardi, was by this time already born in +George Eliot’s mind, and needed no further pedigree.” + +Romance may have been born, but the plot of the story was far from +being clear in the author’s mind. Back again in England, two months +later, she writes, “This morning I conceived the plot of my novel with +new distinction.” On October 4, “I am worried about my plot,” and on +October 7, “Began the first chapter of my novel.” + +Meanwhile George Eliot continued her reading, now at the British +Museum. _La Vita di G. Savonarola_, by Pasquale Villari, gave her +much inspiration. The book had just been published, and it may well +have suggested the scene where Baldassarre Calvo meets Tito Melema on +the steps of the Cathedral. No other available writer had previously +described the struggle which took place for the liberation of the +Lunigiana prisoners, which plays so important a part in the plot of +_Romola_. + +In January, 1862, George Eliot writes in her diary, “I began again my +novel of _Romola_.” By February the extraordinary proem and the +first two chapters were completed. “Will it ever be finished?” she +asks herself. But doubt vanished as she proceeded. In May, 1863, she +“killed Tito with great excitement,” and June 9, “put the last stroke +to _Romola_--Ebenezer!” + +Since then I have re-read _Romola_ with the increased interest +which came from the new knowledge, and the story added to my love of +Florence. Many times have I wandered, as George Eliot and Lewes did, to +the heights of Fiesole, and looked down, even as they, in sunlight, and +with the moon casting shadows upon the wonderful and obsessing city, +wishing that my vision were strong enough to extract from it another +story such as _Romola_. + + * * * * * + +Such were the experiences that extended my stay in Florence. The memory +of them has been so strong and so obsessing that no year has been +complete without a return to Biagi and the Laurenziana. Once, during +these years, he came to America, as the Royal representative of Italy +at the St. Louis Exposition (see also _page 182_). In 1916 his +term as librarian expired through the limitation of age, but before +he retired he completely rearranged that portion of the Library which +is now open to visitors (see _page 149_). The treasures of no +collection are made so easily accessible except at the British Museum. + +I last visited Biagi in May, 1924. His time was well occupied by +literary work, particularly on Dante, which had already given him high +rank as a scholar and writer; but a distinct change had come over him. +I could not fathom it until he told me that he was planning to leave +Florence to take up his residence in Rome. I received the news in +amazement. Then the mask fell, and he answered my unasked question. + +“I can’t stand it!” he exclaimed. “I can’t stay in Florence and not be +a part of the Laurenziana. I have tried in vain to reconcile myself, +but the Library has been so much a fiber of my being all my life, +that something has been taken away from me which is essential to my +existence.” The spell of the Laurenziana had possessed him with a +vital grip! The following January (1925) he died, and no physician’s +diagnosis will ever contain the correct analysis of his decease + +I shall always find it difficult to visualize Florence or the +Laurenziana without Guido Biagi. When next I hold in my hands those +precious manuscripts, still chained to their ancient _plutei_, it +will be with even greater reverence. They stand as symbols of the +immutability of learning and culture compared with the brief span of +life allotted to Prince or Librarian + + + + + INDEX + + +Adams Presses, 50 + +Æthelwald, 122 + +Alba, the Duke of, 233 + +_Alcuin Bible_, the, described, 125-127 + +Alcuin, Bishop, of York, 125, 126 + +Aldine Press, the, at Venice, saved by intervention of Jean Grolier, + 56, 238; + printing at, 206-215; + the Jenson office combined with, 214 + +Aldus Manutius, legend over office of, 10; + his confidence in permanence of the printed book, 11-12; + his type designs, 17; + establishes his office in Venice, 206; + his printer’s mark and slogan, 207, 208; + changes _format_ of the book, 207; + his aims, 208; + the Greek classics of, 209; + his contributions to typography, 210; + his _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, 210-213; + Jean Grolier’s friendship with family of, 214-215 + +_Allegro, l’_, Milton’s, 93 + +_Ambrosiana Iliad_, the, 24, 25 + +Ambrosiana Library, the, humanistic manuscripts in, 24, 25 + +Angelico, Fra, 149, 290 + +Anglo-Saxon missionary artists, the, 125 + +Anne, of Brittany, _Hours_ of, described, 149-151 + +Anne, Saint, 138 + +_Antiquities of the Jews_, the, described, 138-141, 146 + +Antonio del Cherico, Francesco d’, _Book of Hours_ illuminated by, 111, + 113, 116, 146-149, 290 + +Antwerp, the leading city in Europe, 223; + book manufacture in, 224; + under Spanish domination, 227; + loses her pre-eminence, 233; + purchases the Plantin office, 235; + referred to, 239 + +Apostrophes, Bernard Shaw’s ideas concerning, 68 + +Arnold, Matthew, 178 + +Ashburnham Collection, the, 148, 284 + +Augustinus, 202 + +Austria, the Emperor of, 105 + +Authors, relations between publishers and, 51, 63; + their attitude toward the physical _format_ of their books, 67 + + +Bandini, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, 284 + +Baptistery, the, at Florence, 273 + +Barbaro, Marco Antonio, Procurator of Saint Mark’s, 143 + +Bardi, the, 297 + +Bardi, Bardo, 297 + +Barlow, Sir Thomas, 85 + +Baskerville, John, his editions, 245; + letter from Benjamin Franklin to, 245; + his types, 245-246; + his _Virgil_, 246-250; + first to introduce glossy paper, 250; + Dibdin’s estimate of, 251; + referred to, 95, 244 + +Baynes, Ernest Harold, 104 + +Bedford, Anne, Duchess of, 135, 137 + +_Bedford Book of Hours_, the, described, 135-138, 146 + +Bedford, John, Duke of, 135, 137 + +Belgium, see _Netherlands, the_ + +Bellini, Giovanni, 213 + +_Beowulf_, William Morris’, 259 + +Berlin, library of, 196 + +Berry, the Duc de, the _Très Riches Heures_ of, 116; + the _Antiquities of the Jews_ begun for, 139 + +Bertieri, Raffaello, 32 + +Bewick, Thomas, 163, 251 + +Biagi, Dr. Guido, custodian of the Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives, + 14, 182, 290; + defines the humanist, 15, 162; + his association with the designing of the Humanistic type, 17-33; + his comments on Bodoni, 78; + his meeting with Charles Eliot Norton, 180-183; + described, 277; + in the Laurenziana Library, 277-300; + his early ambition to become librarian of the Laurenziana, 284; + in America, 299; + his last days, 299-300; + his death, 300; + referred to, 14, 16, 17, 111 + +Bible, the, welfare of men and of empires based upon, 224 + +_Biblia Amiatina_, the, 287, 288 + +_Biblia Polyglotta_, Plantin’s, 227; + the story of, 227-233; + pages from, 229-231 + +Bibliothèque Nationale, the, Paris, 119, 127, 128, 139, 140, 141, 149, + 196, 198, 220 + +Billfrith, Saint, 122 + +Bindings, 113, 288 + +Birmingham, England, 244 + +Biscioni, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, 283 + +Bisticci, quoted, 12 + +Blanche, Queen, of Castile, 129 + +Boccaccio, 287 + +Bodleian Library, the, 196 + +Bodoni, Giambattista, the father of modern type design, 78-82, 251; + compared with Didot, 252, 257; + referred to, 95 + +Bodoni Press, the revived, in Montagnola di Lugano, 79 + +Bodoni type, the, 78; + compared with the Didot type, 79-82; + William Morris’ dislike of, 80; + De Vinne’s admiration for, 80, 82; + estimate of, 257 + +Bokhara, 118 + +Bomberghe, Corneille, type designer, 228 + +Book, the, conception of early patrons of, 11; + lure of, 37; + the tangible expression of man’s intellect, 112. + See also, _Illuminated book_, _Printed book_, _Written book_ + +Bookmaking, in 1891, 42-54; + the weakness of method in, 54 + +_Book of Hours_, by Francesco d’Antonio del Cherico, 111; + described, 146-149; + referred to, 290 + +Books, cost of making, 58 + +Bookselling, inadequate methods in, 60 + +Boston, Howell’s comments on, 186 + +Boston Society of Printers, the, 99 + +Bourbon, Pierre II, Duc de, 140 + +Bourdichon, Jean, 113, 149, 150 + +Boyd, Henry, 26, 27 + +Brays, the, 292 + +British Museum, the, 27, 28, 117, 119, 122, 125, 132, 135, 166, 196, + 298, 299 + +Broad Chalke, England, Maurice Hewlett’s home at, 157 + +Browne, Sir Thomas, 207 + +Budé, Guillaume, 214 + +Buonarroti, see _Michelangelo_ + +Buonarroti archives, the, 14, 182, 290 + +Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, and the _Kelmscott Chaucer_, 259, 261, 262; + referred to, 6 + +Burney, Fanny, 163 + +Byron, Lord, manuscript of his letters burned by John Murray III, 65 + +Byzantine illumination, see _Illumination, Byzantine_ + +Byzantine ink, 112 + + +“Cabin,” the, Howell’s, 186 + +Cable, George W., 177 + +_Cæsar_, Elzevir’s, 240 + +Cambridge Immortals, the, 178 + +Camp, Walter, 84 + +Campanile, Giotto’s, at Florence, 273 + +Campanile, the, at Venice, 145 + +Carlyle, Thomas, 178 + +Carnegie, Andrew, 174-177 + +Carnegie, Mrs. Andrew, 174 + +Caroline minuscule, the, 126 + +Carolingian illumination, see _Illumination, Carolingian_ + +Carolingian School, the, in France, 125 + +Caslon foundry, the, 245, 246 + +Castiglioncello, Italy, 162 + +Cato, quoted, 208 + +Caxton, William, work of, compared with Jenson’s, 244 + +Cellini, Benvenuto, autobiography of, 287 + +Celtic illumination, see _Illumination, Celtic_ + +Censors, the, 221 + +Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth, 288 + +Ceriani, Monsignor, librarian of the Ambrosiana Library at Milan, + described, 24; + his work on the _Ambrosiana Iliad_, 24, 25; + quoted, 25 + +Chantilly, the Musée Condé at, 116 + +Charlemagne, Emperor, 125 + +Charles, King, of France, son of King John, 129 + +Charles, King, of France, son of King Charles, 129 + +Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 216, 276 + +Charles VIII, of France, 282 + +_Chaucer_, the _Kelmscott_, the story of, 259-268 + +Chaucer type, the, designed by William Morris, 20 + +Chianti Hills, the, 171 + +Chiari, 297 + +Chinese, the, 7 + +_Cicero_, the _Medicean_, 283 + +Cicogna, Doge Pasquale, 143 + +Cimabue, Giovanni, 147 + +Clemens, Clara, 172, 174 + +Clemens, Samuel L., see _Twain, Mark_ + +Clemens, Mrs. Samuel L., 172, 173 + +Clement VII, Pope, 214, 276 + +Clovio, Giulio, 149, 290 + +Cobden-Sanderson, T. J., quoted, 96, 97; + estimate of, 96-101; + described, 98; + in Boston, 98-99; + importance of his work, 263; + his _Ideal Book_ quoted, 264; + his _Doves Bible_, 264-268; + referred to, 3, 68, 71, 95 + +Cockerell, Douglas, 262 + +_Codex Argenteus_, the, 119 + +Cole, Timothy, 106 + +Colonna, Francesco, 210 + +Colvin, Sir Sidney, 27, 28 + +Constable, Archibald, publisher, 66 + +Constantinople, might have become center of learning of XV century, 8; + destroyed by fire, 117; + the rebirth of, 118 + +Cosimo _il Vecchio_, and the Laurenziana Library, 280; + his personality and history, 280-281; + his fame as a chemist, 284 + +Cosimo II, and the Laurenziana Library, 283 + +Costs of making books, in 1891, compared with present costs, 48 + +_Costume Antico e Moderno_, Ferrario’s, 296 + +_Country Printer_, the, Howell’s, 187 + +Crasso, Leonardo, 210 + +Cremona, early printing at, 286 + +Curtis, George William, 178 + +Cuthbert, Saint, 120, 121, 122 + +Cyrus, King, 139 + + +Danes, the, 120 + +Dante, proposed edition in Humanistic type of, 19, 32; + referred to, 158, 182; + Biagi’s work on, 182, 299; + the haunts of, 291 + +“Dawn and Twilight,” Michelangelo’s, 275 + +“Day and Night,” Michelangelo’s, 275 + +_De Asse_, Budé’s, 214 + +De Bure, discoverer of the _Gutenberg Bible_, 198 + +_Decameron_, the, manuscript copy of, 287 + +_De Civitate Dei_, Augustinus’, 202 + +Decorations, 116 + +Del Furia, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, 284 + +Delmonico’s, in New York City, 176 + +Deput, quoted on the innovations of the Elzevirs, 240 + +_De Veritate Catholicæ Fidei_, 93 + +De Vinne Press, the, New York, 42 + +De Vinne, Theodore L., 6; + his admiration for the Bodoni type, 80, 82 + +Dibdin, quoted on Baskerville, 251; + on Antonio Magliabecchi, 295 + +Didot, Firmin, the father of modern type design, 78-82; + his type discussed, 79-82, 257; + referred to, 39, 95, 257 + +Didot, Pierre, his _Racine_, 252-258 + +Didot Press, the, Benjamin Franklin at, 252 + +Didot type, the, compared with the Bodoni type, 79-82 + +Didots, the, in Paris, 251; + compared with Bodoni, 252 + +Dobson, Austin, 158, 162-169; + his lines on Richard Garnett, 166, 167; + his ideas on fiction, 168; + his methods of work, 169; + his handwriting, 169 + +Dobson, Mrs. Austin, 168 + +_Doves Bible_, Cobden-Sanderson’s, described, 264-268 + +Doves Press, the, in London, 3, 70, 96, 263 + +Doves type, the, designed by Emery Walker, 18, 19; + specimen page of, 23; + in the _Doves Bible_, 264-268 + +Duneka, Frederick, 184 + +Dürer, Albrecht, 95 + +Dyck, Christoffel van, 243 + + +Eadfrith, Bishop, 122 + +_Earthwork Out of Tuscany_, Hewlett’s, 159, 162 + +Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker, 52-54 + +Edward VII, King, of England, 85, 140, 141 + +Egyptians, the, 118 + +Elchi, Count Angiolo Maria d’, 285 + +Eliot, George, in the Magliabecchian Library, 291-298; + her diary quoted, 296; + volumes consulted in writing _Romola_, 296-298 + +Elzevir, Abraham, editions of, 240; + his _Terence_, 241-243 + +Elzevir, Bonaventura, editions of, 240; + his _Terence_, 241-243 + +Elzevir, Isaac, becomes printer to the University of Leyden, 240 + +Elzevir, Louis, founder of the House of Elzevir, 239, 240 + +Elzevir, the House of, craftsmen rather than artists, 238; + in Leyden, 240; + adopt new _format_ for the book, 240; + their editions, 240-243; + their types, 243; + their business organization, 243; + estimate of importance of their work, 243; + referred to, 95, 237, 251 + +England, typographical supremacy of, 194, 244-250; + second supremacy of, 258-268 + +English illumination, see _Illumination, English_ + +Engravings, steel, 105 + +_Epistolæ ad Familiares_, Cicero’s, 285 + +Ethics, in business, 65 + +Étienne, Henri, ruined by his _Thesaurus_, 56, 238; + in Geneva, 223 + +Étienne, Robert, becomes “printer in Greek” to François I of France, + 216; + the _Royal Greeks_ of, 219-222; + leaves France, 223; + death of, 223; + his Roman type, 222; + referred to, 252 + +Eugenius, Pope, 281 + +Evreux, Queen Jeanne d’, 129 + +_Explicit_, the, 92; + examples of, 94, 202, 204, 206, 285 + +Ezra, the Prophet, portrait of, 288 + + +_Famiglie del Litta, Le_, 297 + +Felton, Cornelius Conway, President of Harvard University, 50 + +Ferrara, early printing at, 286 + +Ferrari, Dr. Luigi, librarian of the San Marco Library, Venice, 145 + +Ferrario, 296 + +Field, Eugene, described, 38; + manuscript of, 39, 41; + referred to, 38, 55 + +Fielding, Henry, 163 + +Fiesole, the heights of, 298 + +_Firenze Antica e Moderna_, Rastrelli’s, 297 + +_Firenze Illustrata_, Migliore’s, 296 + +Fiske, Willard, 26, 27 + +Flemish illumination, see _Illumination, Flemish_ + +Fletcher, Horace, friend of Eugene Field, 41; + philosophy of, 75, 82, 84; + his ideas of typography, 75; + page of his manuscript, 77; + his dinner at Graduates’ Club, New Haven, 84; + importance of his work, 85; + his friendship with William James and Henry James, 86; + letter from Henry James to, 87; + visit to Lamb House, 89 + +Fletcherism, 75, 83 + +Florence, Italy, the most fascinating city in Europe, 273; + early printing at, 286 + +Florence, the Grand Duke of, 295 + +_Forest Lovers_, the, Hewlett’s, 157, 158 + +Foucquet, Jean, 113, 138, 140, 149 + +France, typographical supremacy of, 194, 215-223; + loses supremacy, 223; + second supremacy of, 251-258 + +François I, of France, becomes patron of learning and culture, 216; + makes Robert Étienne “printer in Greek to the King,” 216; + his interest in printing, 216-221; + his relations with the censors, 221; + referred to, 214, 216 + +Frankfort, 227 + +Franklin, Benjamin, quoted on the Baskerville editions, 245; + his letter to Baskerville, 245; + at the Didot Press, 252 + +French illumination, see _Illumination, French_ + +French Republic, the, 141 + +French School of Painting, the, 139 + +Fust, John, 198, 199 + + +Gabrilowitch, Mrs. Ossip, 172 + +Garamond, Claude, 220 + +Garnett, Dr. Richard, 164, 165; + lines written by Dobson on, 166, 167; + estimate of, 166 + +General Theological School Library, the, New York, 196 + +_Genesis_, the _Cottonian_, 117 + +Geneva, the Étiennes at, 223 + +George, Saint, 137 + +Germany, not sufficiently developed as nation to take advantage of + Gutenberg’s discovery, 8, 9; + brief typographical supremacy of, 194-201; + loses supremacy, 201 + +Gherado, 149, 290 + +Gilder, Richard Watson, 177 + +Giotto, 147, 273 + +_Golden Gospels of Saint Médard_, the, described, 127-128 + +Golden type, the, designed by William Morris, 18 + +Gold leaf, 116 + +Gold, Oriental, 112 + +Goldsmith, Oliver, 163 + +Gothic illumination, see _Illumination, Gothic_ + +Gozzoli, Benozzo, 149, 290 + +Graduates’ Club, the, in New Haven, 84 + +Grandjon, Robert, 228 + +Greece, the rich humanities of, 15 + +Greek classics, the, first printed by Aldus, 209 + +Greeks, the, 7 + +Greek types, 56, 219-221, 238 + +_Grimani Breviary_, the, described, 141-145, 146, 149 + +Grimani, Cardinal Domenico, 142, 143 + +Grimani, Doge Antonio, 143 + +Grimani, Giovanni, Patriarch of Aquileia, 142 + +Grimani, Marino, Patriarch of Aquileia, 142 + +Grolier Club of New York, the, 213 + +Grolier, Jean, saves the Aldine Press by his intervention, 56, 238; + his friendship with family of Aldus, 214-215; + his letter to Francesco Torresani, 215 + +Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, 210 + +_Gutenberg Bible_, the, described, 194-201; + rubricator’s notes, 196, 197 + +Gutenberg, John; the _Bible_ printed by, 194-201; + referred to, 7, 194, 198, 234, 237 + + +Hadley, Pres. Arthur T., 84 + +Halftones, 105-107 + +Hammond, John Hays, 84 + +Hand lettering, the art of, 10. + See also, _Humanistic hand lettering_, _Semi-uncial characters_, + _Minuscule characters_ + +Harkness, Mrs. Edward S., 196 + +Harper and Brothers, 90, 183, 184 + +_Harper’s Magazine_, 183 + +Harte, Bret, 184 + +Harvard College Library, the, 245 + +Harvard University, Cobden-Sanderson’s lectures at, 99 + +Harvey, Col. George, gives birthday dinner to Mark Twain, 176; + gives birthday dinner to William Dean Howells, 187 + +Hautin, 228 + +Hay, John, 184 + +Hay, Mrs. John, 184 + +Heidelberg, 227 + +_Heimskringla_, the, William Morris’ translation of, 260 + +Heinsius, letter from Deput to, 240 + +Henri II, of France, 136, 221 + +Henry IV, of England, 135 + +Henry VI, of England, 136 + +Henry VIII, of England, 216 + +Hewlett, Maurice, 155-162; + describes the cloister of San Lorenzo, Florence, 275 + +Hoar, Senator George F., makes attack on Charles Eliot Norton, 179 + +Hogarth, William, 163 + +Holbein, Hans, 95 + +Holland, the natural successor to Belgium in supremacy of printing, 239. + See also _Netherlands, the_ + +Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 178 + +_Homer_, the _Ambrosiana_, see _Iliad, the Ambrosiana_ + +Hoover, Herbert, 85 + +Houghton, Henry O., 6 + +_Hours of Anne of Brittany_, the, 146; + described, 149-151 + +Howells, William Dean, 177; + recollections and reflections on, 183-188; + the Harvey birthday dinner, 188 + +Humanism, Petrarch the father of, 15 + +Humanist, the, defined, 15, 160-162 + +Humanistic hand lettering, 16, 21, 24, 126 + +Humanistic manuscripts, the, in the Laurenziana Library, 16, 21; + in the Ambrosiana Library, 24 + +Humanistic movement, the, far-reaching influence of, 15; + the forerunner and essence of the Renaissance, 15; + significance of, 16, 160 + +Humanistic scribes, the, see _Scribes, the humanistic_ + +Humanistic type, the, first idea of design of, 17; + proposed edition of Dante in, 19, 32; + work upon, 19-24, 126, 159, 180, 181 + +Huntington, Henry E., library of, 196 + +_Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_, the, printed by Aldus, 210; + described, 210-213 + + +_Ideal Book, The_, Cobden-Sanderson’s, 3, 99; + quoted, 264 + +_Iliad_, the _Ambrosiana_, 24, 25, 117 + +Illuminated book, the, attitude of Italian patrons toward, 11-12 + +Illumination, the art of, encouraged by Italian patrons in XV century, + 11-13; + the underlying thought in, 112; + rich rewards in study of, 114; + various schools of, 114; + means of identifying various schools and periods, 115; + manuscripts which mark the evolution of, 116-119; + the Celtic School, 119-125; + the Carolingian School, 125-128; + the Gothic School, 128-131; + the English School, 131-134; + the French School, 135-141, 149-151; + the Flemish School, 141-145; + the Italian School, 146-149; + cause for the decline of, 151; + opportunities for studying, 152 + +Illumination, Byzantine, described, 118; + referred to, 124, 125, 127 + +Illumination, Carolingian, 125-128 + +Illumination, Celtic, 119-125, 126, 129 + +Illumination, English, 114, 131-134 + +Illumination, Flemish, 114, 137, 139, 141-145, 149, 150 + +Illumination, French, 114, 135-141 + +Illumination, Gothic, 114, 128-131 + +Illumination, Italian Renaissance, 114, 146-149, 150 + +Illumination, Romanesque, 114 + +Illustration, 105 + +Imperial Library, the, in Vienna, 117 + +_Incipit_, the, 93 + +India, 112, 118 + +Ink, Byzantine gold, 112, 118; + inferior quality introduced, 238; + Didot’s, 258 + +_Innocents Abroad_, Mark Twain’s, 170 + +Ireland, 121 + +Irish monks, the, see _Monks, the Irish_ + +Irish School of Writing and Painting, the, 120 + +Italian illumination, see _Illumination, Italian_ + +Italic type, first used by Aldus, 17, 286; + said to be based on handwriting of Petrarch, 17, 210; + Baskerville’s, 245; + Didot’s, 257 + +Italy, life and customs of people of, in XV century, 8; + illumination slow in getting a hold in, 146; + typographical supremacy of, 194, 201-215; + loses supremacy, 215; + culture in the XVI century in, 223 + + +James, Henry, Horace Fletcher’s friendship with, 86; + quoted, 86; + estimate of, 86; + letter to Horace Fletcher from, 87; + quoted, 88 + +James, William, Horace Fletcher’s friendship with, 86; + quoted, 86; + letter from Henry James to, 88; + his interest in printing, 90, 92 + +Jenson, Nicolas, type designs of, 18, 19, 22, 202, 205, 206; + the _explicit_ in books printed by, 94, 202; + printer’s mark of, 203, 207; + sent to Germany by Charles VII of France, 204; + establishes his office in Venice, 204; + death of, 206; + his office combined with the Aldine Press, 214; + Caxton’s work compared with, 244; + referred to, 216, 286 + +Jenson’s Gothic type, 202, 205, 206 + +Jenson Roman type, the, 18, 19, 206, 268; + sample page of, 22 + +_Joan of Arc_, Mark Twain’s, 170 + +John of Spires, 285 + +Jones, George W., 32 + +Joseph, Saint, 138 + +Josephus, Flavius, 139 + +Justinian, the Emperor, 117 + +_Justinian_, the _Pandects of_, 287 + + +Keats, John, 158 + +Keere, Van der, 228 + +_Kelmscott Chaucer_, the, see _Chaucer, the Kelmscott_ + +Kelmscott Press, the, 6, 55, 70, 96, 259-268 + +Kelmscott volumes, the, 259-268; + estimate of, 263 + +Koreans, the, 7 + + +Labels, paper, 92 + +Lamb House, Rye, Henry James’ home, 89 + +_Lapis lazuli_, used in printing ink, 30; + in illumination, 118 + +Laura, see _Sale, Madonna Laura de Noves de_ + +Laurenziana Library, the, humanistic volumes at, 16; + illuminated volumes at, 119, 148, 287; + uninviting approach to, 273; + the _Sala di Michelangiolo_, 276; + Dr. Guido Biagi at, 277-300; + the great staircase, 278; + Vasari’s work in, 278; + the story of, 280-284; + the treasures of, 284-289; + the Hall of Tapestries, 285; + the Tribuna, 285; + the printed books in, 285; + the spell of, 300; + referred to, 14, 21, 94, 111, 182 + +Le Bé, Guillaume, 228 + +Lee, Sir Sidney, 86, 174, 175 + +Leigh, Maj. Frederick T., 184 + +Leipzig, library of, 196 + +Lelio, Lucrezia, 213 + +Leo X, Pope, 282. + See also _Medici, Giovanni de’_ + +Lettering, see _Hand lettering_ + +Letters, raised gold, 116 + +Lewes, George Henry, in the Magliabecchian Library, 292-298 + +Leyden, heroic resistance to Spanish siege, 239; + becomes the intellectual and literary center of Europe, 239; + Plantin in, 239; + the Elzevirs in, 239-240 + +Leyden, the University of, 239; + Plantin made printer to, 239; + Isaac Elzevir made printer to, 240 + +_Lindisfarne Gospels_, the, described, 119-125 + +Lippi, 296 + +Lippi, Fra Filippo, 28 + +Lipsius, the historian, 239 + +Lithography, 105 + +_Little Novels of Italy_, Hewlett’s, 159 + +Lockhart, John Gibson, 66 + +Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 178 + +Longmans, London publishers, 66 + +Lorenzo the Magnificent, see _Medici, Lorenzo de’_ + +Lorraine, the House of, and the Laurenziana Library, 283 + +Louis XI, of France, 140 + +Louis XII, of France, 150 + +Louis XIV, of France, 198 + +Louis XV, of France, 140 + +Louis, Saint, _Psalter_ of, described, 128-131; + death of, 129 + +Lounsbury, Professor, of Yale, 84 + +Lowell, James Russell, 178 + +Luther, Martin, 215, 224 + + +Mabie, Hamilton W., 177, 187 + +Macaulay, Thomas B., quoted on Baskerville editions, 245 + +Machiavelli, Niccolo, 181, 284 + +Macmillan Company, the, 26 + +Magliabecchi, Antonio, 292-295 + +Magliabecchian Library, the, 284; + George Eliot in, 291-298 + +_Malmantile_, Lippi’s, 296 + +_Man and Superman_, Shaw’s, the making of, 67 + +Mantegna, Andrea, 95 + +Manuscripts, methods of reproducing, 9 + +Manuscripts, illuminated, romance of, 114; + not the playthings of the common people, 115 + +Manutius, Aldus, see _Aldus Manutius_ + +Marie, Madame, of France, 130 + +Marinelli, 280 + +_Marmion_, Scott’s, 66 + +Martelli Chapel, the, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, 275 + +Mary, Queen, of England, _Psalter_ of, described, 131-134; + referred to, 132 + +Mary, Queen of Scots, 156-157 + +Matthews, Brander, 177 + +Mayence, printing at, 198, 204, 216 + +Mazarin, Cardinal, 198 + +Médard, Saint, the _Golden Gospels of_, 127-128 + +Medicean Library, the, see _Laurenziana Library, the_ + +Medici, the, 147; + Savonarola’s diatribes against, 274; + and the Laurenziana Library, 280 + +Medici, Alessandro de’, 274 + +Medici archives, the, 14 + +Medici, Catherine de’, 136 + +Medici, the Chapel of the, in Florence, 284 + +Medici, Cosimo I de’, see _Cosimo il Vecchio_ + +Medici, Cosimo II de’, see _Cosimo II_ + +Medici, Giovanni de’ (later Pope Leo X), 275; + and the Laurenziana Library, 282, 283 + +Medici, Giulio de’ (later Pope Clement VII), 276; + commissions Michelangelo to erect building for the Laurenziana + Library, 283 + +Medici, Lorenzo de’, _Book of Hours_ made by d’Antonio for, 111, + 146-149, 290; + tomb of, 275; + and the Laurenziana Library, 281-283; + his personality, 281-282; + referred to, 111, 112, 148 + +Medici, Piero de’, 275 + +Memling, Hans, 142 + +Menelik, King, of Abyssinia, 104 + +Mentelin, types of, 19 + +_Menticulture_, Horace Fletcher’s, 75 + +Messina, Antonello di, 142 + +Metternich, Prince, 289 + +Michelangelo, letters of, 182, 290; + his plan for the façade of S. Lorenzo, 273; + Varchi’s tribute to, 275; + his tomb for Lorenzo de’ Medici, 175; + his work in the Laurenziana Library, 276; + his letter to Vasari, 278; + manuscript poems of, 287; + referred to, 14 + +Michelangelo archives, the, 14, 182 + +Migliore, 296 + +Milan, early printing at, 286 + +Millar, Eric George, quoted, 122, 123 + +Miller, Mr., London publisher, 66 + +_Minium_, 112, 118 + +Minuscule characters, described, 123; + introduced, 126 + +“Mirror” title, the, 94 + +Mochenicho, Doge Pietro, 202 + +“Modern” type, the introduction of, 251 + +Molds, early type, 201 + +Monaco, Lorenzo, 149, 290 + +Monks, the Irish, 120, 125 + +Monnier, Philippe, 160 + +Montanus, Arias, 227 + +Morelli, librarian of the San Marco Library, Venice, 143 + +Moretus, inherits the Plantin office, 234 + +Morgan Library, the, see _Pierpont Morgan Library, the_ + +Morris chair, the, 258 + +Morris end papers, the, 258 + +Morris wall papers, the, 258, 260 + +Morris, William, demonstrates possibilities of printing as an art, 14; + Golden type of, 18; + his other type designs, 18-20; + placed printing back among the fine arts, 55, 258; + Bernard Shaw’s enthusiasm for, 69-70; + his dislike of the Bodoni type, 80; + his title pages, 96; + early experiments of, 258; + the _Kelmscott Chaucer_, 259-268; + declines the poet-laureateship of England, 260; + death of, 262; + estimate of his work, 263; + his definition of the type ideal, 268; + referred to, 6, 96, 258 + +Munich, library of, 196 + +Murray, the House of, 65 + +Murray II, John, and Walter Scott, 66; + letter to Scott from, 66 + +Murray III, John, burns manuscript of Byron’s memoirs, 65 + +Murray IV, John, 26, 27, 65 + +Musée Condé, the, at Chantilly, 116 + + +Naples, early printing at, 286 + +Nazionale Centrale, the Biblioteca, in Florence, see _Magliabecchian + Library, the_ + +Nemours, the Duc de, 139 + +Néobar, Royal printer to François I of France, 216 + +Netherlandish illumination, see _Illumination, Flemish_ + +Netherlands, the, typographical supremacy of, 194, 223-244; + commercial supremacy of, 223; + devastated by war, 239 + +New Forest, the, in England, 158 + +New York Public Library, the, 196 + +Norton, Charles Eliot, 26; + autograph letter of, 31; + his association with the design of the Humanistic type, 32, 180-181; + recollections and reflections on, 178-183; + his meeting with Guido Biagi, 182-183 + + +_Ode to Cervantes_, Dobson’s, 164 + +“Old-style” type, the passing of, 251; + revived by Pickering, 251 + +Orcutt, Reginald Wilson, 165 + +Orcutt, William Dana, first visit to Italy, 14; + meeting with Guido Biagi, 14, 277; + his work designing the Humanistic type, 17-33; + in the Ambrosiana Library, 24-25; + experiences with Willard Fiske, 26, 27; + apprenticeship at old University Press, 38; + experience with Eugene Field, 38-41; + experiences with Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, 52; + becomes head of University Press, 55; + his ambition to emulate methods of early printers, 55; + experiences with Bernard Shaw, 67-71; + returns to Italy in 1903, 75; + his interest in the Bodoni and Didot types, 78; + his acquaintance with Horace Fletcher, 75, 82, 84, 86; + his acquaintance with Henry James, 86; + visit to Lamb House, 89; + experiences with William James, 90-92; + experiences with Cobden-Sanderson, 96-101; + experiences with Theodore Roosevelt, 101-106; + becomes interested in illumination, 111; + meeting with Maurice Hewlett, 155-162; + experiences with Austin Dobson, 162-169; + experiences with Mark Twain, 170-177; + experiences with Charles Eliot Norton, 178-183; + experiences with William Dean Howells, 183-188; + experiences in the Laurenziana Library, 273-300; + last visit with Guido Biagi, 299-300 + +Orcutt, Mrs. William Dana, 165, 171 + +Oriental gold, 112 + +_Orthographia dictionum e Græcia tractarum_, Tortelli’s, 286 + +Oxford, Edward Harley, 2d Earl of, 136 + + +Palatina, the Biblioteca, at Florence, 293 + +_Pan and the Young Shepherd_, Hewlett’s, 159 + +Paper, poorer quality introduced, 238; + Italian handmade, 238; + French handmade, 238, 257; + Baskerville the first to introduce glossy, 250 + +Parchment, English, 29; + Florentine, 28; + Roman, 28; + virgin, 113 + +Paris, 227 + +Paris Exposition of 1801, the, 258 + +Passerini, Luigi, 297 + +Patmore, Coventry, 89 + +Patrons, Italian, attitude toward printed book of, 11; + their conception of a book, 11; + their real reasons for opposing the art of printing, 12, 151 + +Peignot foundry, the, in Paris, 80 + +Persia, 118 + +Perugia, 291 + +Petrarca, Francesco, the father of humanism, 15; + Italic type said to be based upon handwriting of, 17, 210; + portrait of, 287, 289; + quoted, 290 + +Petrarch, see _Petrarca, Francesco_ + +_Petrarch_, the _Humanistic_, the type design, 17-26; + the copy, 26, 27; + the illustrations, 28; + the parchment, 28; + the ink, 29, 30; + the composition, 30; + Norton’s estimate of, 32 + +Philip, of Burgundy, 135 + +Philip II, of Spain, 227; + his interest in Plantin’s _Biblia Polyglotta_, 227-228, 233; + makes Plantin _prototypographe_, 233 + +Pickering, the London publisher, revives the old-style type, 251 + +Piedmont, early printing at, 286 + +Pierpont Morgan Library, the, New York, 99, 196 + +Pisa, 291 + +Pius XI, Pope, see _Ratti, Achille_ + +Plantin, Christophe, financially embarrassed by his _Biblia + Polyglotta_, 56, 238; + his Greek types, 221; + leaves France, 223; + conception and making of his _Biblia Polyglotta_, 227-233; + his types, 228; + his printer’s mark, 228, 236; + made _prototypographe_ by Philip II, 233; + the value of his work estimated, 233; + misfortunes endured by, 233; + in Leyden, 239; + made printer to University of Leyden, 239; + referred to, 79, 237 + +Plantin-Moretus Museum, the, at Antwerp, 235 + +_Pliny_, Elzevir’s, 240 + +_Plutei_, in the Laurenziana Library, designed by Michelangelo, 14, + 276, 286, 300 + +Politian, 181. + See also _Poliziano, Angelo_ + +Poliziano, Angelo, 215. + See also _Politian_ + +Pollard, Alfred W., 27 + +_Polyglot Bible_, Plantin’s, see _Biblia Polyglotta_ + +Portland, the Duchess of, 136 + +_Pragmatism_, William James’, 90 + +Printed book, the, attitude of Italian patrons toward, 11-12; + competed against the written book, 199; + Aldus changes _format_ of, 207; + Elzevirs change _format_ of, 240; + important part played in XVI century by, 215 + +Printer, the, responsibilities of, in early days, 208 + +Printing, as an art, opposed by the Italian patrons, 11-13; + its possibilities demonstrated by William Morris, 14; + brief supremacy of Germany in, 194-201; + supremacy of Italy in, 201-215; + supremacy of France in, 215-223; + supremacy of the Netherlands in, 223-244; + lapses into a trade, 238; + supremacy of England in, 244-250; + second supremacy of France in, 251-258; + second supremacy of England in, 258-263 + +Printing, invention of, made books common, 151 + +_Priorista_, Chiari’s, 297 + +Proofreading, in 1891, 47 + +_Psalter of Saint Louis_, the, described, 128-131 + +Publishers, relations between authors and, 51, 63 + + +_Quattrocento_, Le, Monnier’s, 160 + +_Queen Mary’s Psalter_, described, 131-134, 146 + +_Queen’s Quair_, The, Hewlett’s, 155-156 + + +_Racine_, Pierre Didot’s, 251; + described, 252-258 + +Raphael, 113 + +Raphelengius, 239 + +Rastrelli, 297 + +Ratti, Achille, 25, 117 + +Ravenna, 128 + +Reformation, the, 215 + +Renaissance, the, humanistic movement the forerunner and essence of, + 15, 160; + Tours becomes center of, in France, 139 + +Repplier, Agnes, 177 + +Riccardi Library, the, 14, 149, 182, 290 + +Richardson, Samuel, 163 + +Riverside Press, the, 42 + +_Road in Tuscany_, the, Hewlett’s, 159 + +Robertet, François, 140 + +_Roman Calendar_, the, 117 + +Romanesque illumination, see _Illumination, Romanesque_ + +Romans, the, 7 + +Rome, the rich humanities of, 15; + referred to, 126 + +_Romola_, George Eliot’s, 292-299; + volumes consulted in writing, 296-298 + +Roosevelt, Theodore, deeply interested in physical side of books, 102; + his interest in illustration, 105 + +_Royal Greeks_, the, of Étienne, 219-222 + +Rubens, Peter Paul, 95, 113 + +Ruskin, John, 178, 182 + +Russia, the Emperor of, 103 + +Rutland, the Earl of, 131 + + +Sacristy, the New, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, 275 + +Sacristy, the Old, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, 275 + +Saga Library, the, 260 + +Saint John, the Feast of, 297 + +St. Louis Exposition, the, 182, 299 + +Saint Peter, the Holy Sepulchre of, 288 + +_Sala di Michelangiolo_, the, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, 14; + described, 276 + +Sale, Madonna Laura de Noves de, portrait of, 287, 289; + Petrarch’s verses to, 290 + +Salisbury, the Marquis of, 165 + +San Lorenzo, the Church of, in Florence, 274, 283 + +San Marco, the Convent of, in Florence, 281, 282, 288 + +San Marco, the Library of, Venice, 119, 141, 143, 145 + +San Vitale, the Church of, at Ravenna, 128 + +Saracens, the, 7 + +Savonarola, 274, 284 + +Savoy, the Duke of, 233 + +Schoeffer, types of, 19; + referred to, 198 + +_Science and Health_, 52 + +Scott, Gen. Hugh Lennox, 82 + +Scott, Walter, and John Murray II, 66; + letter from Murray to, 66 + +Scribes, the humanistic, base their lettering on the Caroline + minuscule, 126; + referred to, 16, 21, 24 + +Scribes, the monastic, in XV century, 9 + +Scribes, the secular, in XV century, 10 + +_Scriptorium_, the, 9 + +_Second Book of Verse_, Eugene Field’s, 38 + +Semi-uncial characters, described, 123 + +_Sforza Book of Hours_, the, 145 + +“Shady Hill,” in Cambridge, Mass., home of Charles Eliot Norton, + 180, 181 + +Shakespeare first folio, a, value of, 196 + +Shaw, G. Bernard, his interest in printing, 67-71; + the making of his _Man and Superman_, 67; + his enthusiasm for William Morris, 69; + letters from, 68-71 + +Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 158 + +Sherry’s, in New York City, 187 + +Siena, 291 + +_Silas Marner_, George Eliot’s, 296 + +Sinibaldi, Antonio, the _Virgil_ of, 16; + the _Book of Hours_ of, 112 + +Sixtus IV, Pope, 142 + +Smith, Baldwin, 132 + +Smith, F. Hopkinson, 177 + +Somerset, John, 135 + +Sotheby’s, in London, 140 + +Spain, the Netherlands under the domination of, 227; + referred to, 112, 118 + +Spanish siege, the, of Leyden, 239 + +Spanish War, the, 179 + +_Spell, The_, Orcutt’s, 90, 184 + +Spires, the town of, 286 + +Steele, Sir Richard, 163 + +Subiaco, early printing at, 285 + +Sweynheim and Pannartz, ruined by experiments in Greek, 56, 238; + engraved blocks of, 285 + +Switzerland, 238 + +_Syriac Gospels_, the, 287 + + +Taft, President William H., 188 + +Tapestries, the Hall of, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, 285 + +Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 260 + +_Terence_, Elzevir’s, 240; + described, 241-243 + +Ther Hoernen, Arnold, 94 + +_Thesaurus_, the, printed by Henri Étienne, 56, 238 + +Thompson, Henry Yates, 140 + +Thomson, Hugh, 166 + +Title, the engraved, 95 + +Title, the “mirror,” 94 + +Title page, the, Bernard Shaw’s ideas concerning, 67; + William James’ ideas concerning, 92; + “the door to the house,” 92; + evolution of, 92-96. + See also _Title, the engraved_; _Title, the “mirror”_ + +Togo, Admiral, 103 + +Torresani, Andrea, 214 + +Torresani, Federico, 214 + +Torresani, Francesco, friendship of Jean Grolier with, 214; + letter from Jean Grolier to, 215 + +Tortelli, 286 + +Tours, becomes center of Renaissance in France, 139 + +Tours, the School of, 126 + +_Très Riches Heures_, the, of the Duc de Berry, 116 + +Tribuna, the, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, 285 + +_Trionfi_, Petrarch’s, 26, 28, 181 + +_Triumphs_, Petrarch’s, see _Trionfi, Petrarch’s_ + +_Trophies of Heredia_, 102 + +Troy type, the, designed by William Morris, 20 + +Turin, early printing at, 286 + +Twain, Mark, and the _Jumping Frog_, 61; + recollections and reflections on, 170-177; + the Harvey birthday dinner, 176; + referred to, 188 + +Type design, difficulties of, 17 + +Types, early designs of, 17; + Aldus’ designs of, 17; + Jenson’s designs of, 18; + William Morris’ designs of, 18; + William Morris’ definition of, the ideal, 268. + See also _Humanistic type_, _Jenson Roman type_, _Jenson Gothic type_, + _Golden type_, _Doves type_ + +Typesetting, in 1891, 44 + + +University Press, the old, Cambridge, Mass., 5, 38, 41, 42, 46, 47, + 49, 51, 102 + +Upsala, Sweden, 119 + +Urbino, the Duke of, 12 + + +Vacca, the Palazzo dei della, 284 + +Vallombrosa, 171, 291 + +Van-der-Meire, Gerard, 142 + +Varchi, his tribute to Michelangelo, 275 + +Vasari, his work in the Laurenziana Library, 278; + Michelangelo’s letter to, 278 + +Vatican Library, the, at Rome, 117, 196 + +Vellum, 115, 257. + See also, _Parchment_ + +_Venetian Days_, Howells’, 186 + +Venetian Republic, the, 142; + encourages the art of printing, 202 + +Venice, early printing in, 94, 204, 206, 214, 286; + Howells’ love for, 186; + becomes the Mecca of printers, 202; + John of Spires in, 286 + +Vergetios, Angelos, 219 + +Verrocchio, 275 + +Victoire, Pierre, quoted, 220 + +Victoria, Queen, of England, 140 + +Vienna, library of, 196 + +Villa di Quarto, the, in Florence, Mark Twain at, 171 + +Villa Medici, the, in Rome, 282 + +Villari, Pasquale, 284, 291, 298 + +Vinci, da, archives, the, 14, 182, 290 + +Vinci, Leonardo da, sketches of, 290; + referred to, 14, 182 + +_Virgil_, Baskerville’s, 244; + described, 246-250 + +_Virgil_, illuminated by Sinibaldi, 16 + +_Virgil_, the _Medicean_, 287; + the story of, 288-289 + +_Virgil_, the Vatican, 117 + +_Vita di G. Savonarola, La_, Villari’s, 298 + +Vittoria, Alessandro, 143 + + +Wages, in 1891, 58 + +Walker, Emery, designs the Doves type, 18, 19; + engraves plates for Humanistic _Petrarch_, 28; + at the Doves Press, 263; + referred to, 71 + +Walpole, Horace, 163 + +Warner, Sir George, 140 + +Widener, Joseph E., library of, 196 + +Wiggin, Rev. James Henry, 52 + +Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 177 + +Wilhelm, Kaiser, 103, 104 + +William of Orange, founds the University of Leyden, 239 + +William the Conqueror, 158 + +Wilson, Francis, 38 + +Wilson, John, 5, 6, 38, 40, 42, 46, 52, 53, 55 + +Windsor Castle, 140 + +Wood, Gen. Leonard, 82 + +Wood cuts, 106 + +Wordsworth, William, quoted, 20 + +World War, the, 103 + +Worsley, Sir Robert, 136 + +Writing, see _Hand lettering_ + +Written book, the printed book had to compete against, 199 + + +Yale University Library, the, 196 + + +Zainer, Gunther, types of, 20 + + + + + THIS VOLUME is composed in Poliphilus type, reproduced by the + Lanston Monotype Corporation, London, from the Roman face + designed in 1499 by Francesco Griffo, of Bologna, for Aldus + Manutius, and originally used in the _Hypnerotomachia + Poliphili_. The Italic is based upon that designed for + Antonio Blado, Printer to the Holy See from 1515 to 1567. + + The cover, a modern adaptation of the Grolier design used + on Capella: _L’Anthropologia_, is designed by Enrico + Monetti. + + The illustrations, many now appearing in book form for the + first time, were secured chiefly through the courtesy + of the librarians of the British Museum, London; the + Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Laurenziana Library, + Florence; the Ambrosiana Library, Milan; the Marciana + Library, Venice; the Vatican Library, Rome; and from + private collectors. + + The plates of the illustrations were made by the Walker + Engraving Company, New York City, and are printed on + DeJonge’s Art Mat. The text paper is Warren’s Olde Style. + + The typography, presswork, and binding are by the Plimpton + Press, Norwood, Massachusetts, under the personal + supervision of William Dana Orcutt. + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + + - Italics denoted by _underscores_. + + - Illustrations have been positioned near the relevant text. + + - Silently corrected typographical errors in the List of Illustrations + and the Index. + + - The ends of each chapter and some block quotes had line lengths that + tapered smaller and smaller in a decorative way and did not end with + a period. Because of the variable nature of electronic texts, the + author’s intention sadly cannot be reproduced as intended. + + - Illustration captions on numbered pages were in italic while + captions on unnumbered pages were not. Italics removed to make + illustration captions consistent. + + - In some captions measurements were in parenthesis and others were in + brackets. Converted all to parenthesis for consistency. + + - The book has half-title pages before each chapter that reproduce + the chapter number and title. Removed the redundant half-title + content. + + - Page 44: Corrected “Typsetting” to “Typesetting”. + + - Page 170: Added a thought break as the topic changes from Dobson to + Twain. + + - Page 178: Added a thought break as the topic changes from Twain to + Norton. + + - Page 269: The word “hopefulness” is not hyphenated in the original + as part of the decorative tapered lines. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online +at <a class="reference external" href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not located in the United States, +you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located +before using this eBook.</div> + + +<div class='container' id='pg-machine-header'> +<p><strong>Title: </strong>In quest of the perfect book</p> +<p><strong>Subtitle: </strong>Reminiscences & reflections of a bookman</p> +<div id='pg-header-authlist'> +<p><strong>Author: </strong>William Dana Orcutt</p> +</div> + +<p><strong>Release Date: </strong>September 14, 2023 [eBook #71634]</p> +<p><strong>Language: </strong>English</p> +<p><strong>Credits: </strong>Terry Jeffress, Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</p> +</div> +<div id='pg-start-separator'> +<span>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK ***</span> +</div> +</section> + +<div class='figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop'> +<a href='images/cover.jpg'><img src='images/cover-tb.jpg' alt='Cover'></a> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='half-title'> +<h1><span class='title'>IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK</span></h1> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="half-title"> +<div class="n50"> +<p class='hang'>A book is a portion of the eternal mind +caught in its progress through the world +stamped in an instant, and preserved +for eternity.</p> +<p class='right'>—<cite>Lord Houghton</cite> (1809–1885)</p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='half-title'> +<div class='figcenter' id='frontispiece'> +<a href='images/frontispiece.jpg'><img src='images/frontispiece-tb.jpg' alt=""></a> +<p class='caption1'>QUEEN MARY’S PSALTER, English, 14th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>The Last Judgement</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii, 11 × 7 inches)</p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='chap'> +<p class="center fs150">IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK</p> + +<p class="center p2 fs120">REMINISCENCES</p> +<p class='center fs120'>& REFLECTIONS</p> +<p class='center fs120'>OF A BOOKMAN</p> + +<p class="center fs120 p2">WILLIAM DANA ORCUTT</p> + + +<p class="center p4"><a href='images/i_00.jpg'><img src='images/i_00-tb.jpg' +alt="William Dana Orcutt’s printer’s mark"></a></p> + + +<p class="center fs120 p6">PUBLISHED · MCMXXVI · BOSTON</p> +<p class='center fs120'>LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='half-title'> + +<p class="center p0">Copyright, 1926, <i>by</i> Little, Brown</p> +<p class='center p0'>and Company · <i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="center">·.·</p> + +<p class="center p0">Printed in the United States of America</p> +<p class='center p0'>Published September, 1926</p> + +<p class="center">·.·</p> + +<p class="center p0">Reprinted October, 1926</p> +<p class='center p0'>Reprinted November, 1926</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='half-title'> + +<div class="blockquot n50"> +<p class='hang'>THE AUTHOR is indebted to the <cite>Atlantic +Monthly</cite> for permission to reprint +as the first chapter of this volume an +essay which originally appeared in that +magazine; to the <cite>Christian Science +Monitor</cite> for permission to use, in +quite different form, certain material +which has been drawn upon in literary +editorials written by him for its +columns; to Alban Dobson, <span class='honorific'>Esq.</span>, +G. Bernard Shaw, <span class='honorific'>Esq.</span>, Henry +James, <span class='honorific'>Esq.</span>, <span class='honorific'>Mrs.</span> Anne +Cobden-Sanderson, and others, for +permission to print personal letters and +photographs.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class='half-title'> +<div class='blockquot n50'> +<p class="center p0"><i>To</i> ITALY</p> +<p class="center p0">That great Country whose Master-Spirits</p> +<p class="center p0">in Art, Typography, and Literature</p> +<p class="center p0">have contributed most toward</p> +<p class="center p0">THE PERFECT BOOK</p> +<p class="center p0">this Volume is Dedicated</p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 id="FOREWORD">FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION</h2> +</div> + +<p>Years ago, I prepared what seemed to me a splendid Foreword to my first +novel, and was much chagrined when I was urged to leave it out. At the +time, the comment that came with the advice seemed a bit brutal: “A +Foreword is an admission on the part of an author that he has failed to +tell his story, or is an insult to the intelligence of his readers.” +Since then my own feelings have come in such complete accord that the +request of my publishers for a Foreword to this Third Edition comes +as a surprise. But, after all, this is not my story, but the story of +the Book, so, as recorder, I must recognize my responsibility. I have +claimed that this story was Romance, but since writing it, Romance has +allied itself to Drama, for the Gutenberg Bible, a copy of which sold +in February for a record price of $120,000, in September achieved the +stupendous value of $305,000! Surely the Book has come into its own!</p> + +<p>After devoting a lifetime to printing as an art, I have naturally +been gratified to discover that so large and friendly an army of +readers exists to whom books mean something more than paper and type +and binders’ boards. To many of my readers, the ideas advanced in this +volume apparently have been novel, but appealing: “I have been over the +books in my library,” writes one, “and find many that now take on new +significance.” Another says, “I feel that I have missed much, all these +years, in not knowing how fascinating the story of the Book itself +really is.” Then there are those who are good enough to say that the +story of my adventures has helped to place the art of printing where it +rightfully belongs.</p> + +<p>Some of my reviewers and some correspondents seem seriously to think +that I believe the Quest to be ended. Think of the tragedy of having so +alluring an adventure become an accomplished fact,—even granting that +it were possible! Where is the Perfect Book to be found? In the words +of the author or in the heart of the reader? In the design of a type +or in the skill of the typographer or the binder? In the charm of the +paper or in the beauty of the illumination or illustration? It must, of +course, be in the harmonious combination of all of these, but the words +of an author which find a place in one reader’s heart fail to interest +another; the design of a type that is appropriate to one book is not +equally expressive in all.</p> + +<p>The word <i lang='en'>perfection</i> has no place in our language except as an +incentive. To search for it is an absorbing adventure, for it quickens +our senses to perceive much that would otherwise be lost. If perfection +could become commonplace, the Quest would end,—and God pity the world! +Until then each of us will define the Perfect Book in his own words, +each of us will seek it in his own way.</p> + +<p>A writer <em>may</em> be born who combines the wisdom of Solomon, the +power of analysis of Henry James, the understanding of Plato, the +philosophy of Emerson, and the style of Montaigne. This manuscript +<em>may</em> be transformed into a book by a printer who can look beyond +his cases of type, and interpret what Aldus, and Jenson, and Etienne, +and Plantin saw, with the artistic temperament of William Morris and +the restraint of Cobden-Sanderson. There <em>may</em> be a binding that +represents the apotheosis of Italian, French, and English elegance. +A reader <em>may</em> be developed through the evolution of the ages +competent to appreciate the contents and the physical <i lang='fr'>format</i> +of such a volume, “for what we really seek is a comparison of +experiences.”</p> + +<p>Until then the Quest will continue, going constantly onward and upward. +Its lure will keep us from slipping back upon false satisfaction and a +placid but—shall I say?—a dangerous contemplation of the humanistic +idyll.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 1em;"><span class='signature'>William Dana Orcutt</span></span></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table id='toc'> +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_I'>I.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Gutenberg</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Aldus Manutius</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Guido Biagi</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Ceriani</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Pope Pius XI</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Sir Sidney Colvin</td> + <td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_II'>II.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>THE KINGDOM OF BOOKS</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Eugene Field</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>John Wilson</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Mary Baker Eddy</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Bernard Shaw</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_III'>III.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>FRIENDS THROUGH TYPE</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Horace Fletcher</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Henry James</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>William James</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Theodore Roosevelt</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>T. J. Cobden-Sanderson</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_IV'>IV.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>THE LURE OF ILLUMINATION</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Byzantine Psalter</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Lindisfarne Gospels</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Alcuin Bible</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Golden Gospels of St. Médard</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Psalter of St. Louis</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Queen Mary’s Psalter</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Bedford Book of Hours</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Grimani Breviary</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Antiquities of the Jews</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Hours of Francesco d’Antonio</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Hours of Anne of Brittany</td> + <td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_V'>V.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>FRIENDS THROUGH THE PEN</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_151'>151</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Maurice Hewlett</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Austin Dobson</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Richard Garnett</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Mark Twain</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Charles Eliot Norton</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>William Dean Howells</td> + <td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_VI'>VI.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>TRIUMPHS OF TYPOGRAPHY</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_191'>191</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>The Beginnings. Germany—The <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of Italy</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>Nicolas Jenson: Augustinus: <cite>De Civitate Dei</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>Aldus Manutius: <cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of France</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>Robert Étienne: The <cite>Royal Greeks</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of the Netherlands</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>Christophe Plantin: The <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>The Elzevirs: <cite>Terence</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of England</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>John Baskerville: <cite>Virgil</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of France (second)</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>The Didots: <cite>Racine</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub'>Supremacy of England (second)</td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>William Morris: The <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td></td> + <td class='csub2'>Cobden-Sanderson: The <cite>Doves Bible</cite></td> + <td></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class='cchap'><a href='#CH_VII'>VII.</a></td> + <td class='cmain'>THE SPELL of the LAURENZIANA</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_271'>271</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> + <td class='cchap'></td> + <td class='cmain'>INDEX</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href='#Page_301'>301</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +</div> + +<table> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +English Illumination, 14th Century. From <cite>Queen Mary’s +Psalter</cite>, Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii +(in colors and gold)</td> + <td class='cpage'><a href="#frontispiece"><cite>Frontis.</cite></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +John Gutenberg. From Engraving by Alphonse Descaves. +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris</td> +<td class='cpage'>page <a href='#i_1'>6</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Aldus Manutius. From Engraving at the British Museum + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_2'>10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +<i lang='it'>Dott. Comm.</i> Guido Biagi. Seated at one of the +<i lang='it'>plutei</i> in the Laurenziana Library, Florence (1906) +</td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_3'>14</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Hand-written Humanistic Characters. From Sinibaldi’s +<cite>Virgil</cite>, 1485. Laurenziana Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_4'>16</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Specimen Page of proposed Edition of Dante. To be printed by +Bertieri, of Milan, in Humanistic Type + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_5'>19</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Jenson’s Roman Type. From Cicero: <cite>Rhetorica</cite>, Venice, 1470 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_6'>22</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Emery Walker’s Doves Type. From <cite>Paradise Regained</cite>, +London, 1905 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_7'>23</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Letter from Charles Eliot Norton + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_8'>31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Illuminated Page of Petrarch’s <cite>Triumphs</cite>. Set in Humanistic +Type designed by the Author + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_9'>32</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Page of Eugene Field Manuscript. From <cite>Second Book of +Verse</cite>, New York, 1892 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_10'>39</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Verse in Field’s own Copy of <cite>Trumpet and Drum</cite> + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_11'>41</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +John Wilson in 1891. Master-Printer + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_12'>42</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Page of Horace Fletcher Manuscript + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_13'>77</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Giambattista Bodoni. From Engraving at the Bibliothèque +Nationale, Paris + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_14'>78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +The Bodoni Letter compared with the Didot Letter + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_15'>81</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Horace Fletcher in 1915 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_16'>82</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Letter from Henry James to Horace Fletcher + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_17'>87</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Mirror Title. From Augustinus: <cite>Opera.</cite> 1485. Laurenziana +Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_18'>94</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. From Etching by Alphonse Legros, 1893 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_19'>96</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Carved Ivory Binding, Jeweled with Rubies and Turquoises. From +<cite>Psalter</cite> (12th Century). Brit. Mus. Eger. MS. 1139 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_20'>112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Byzantine Illumination (11th Century). <cite>Psalter</cite> in Greek. +Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19352 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_21'>118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Celtic Illumination (8th Century). <cite>Lindisfarne Gospels.</cite> +Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Nero D. iv + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_22'>124</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Carolingian Handwriting (9th Century). <cite>Alcuin Bible.</cite> +Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 10546 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_23'>126</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Carolingian Illumination (9th Century). <cite>Golden Gospels of +St. Médard.</cite> Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 8850 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_24'>128</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Gothic Illumination (13th Century). Miniature Page from the +<cite>Psalter of St. Louis</cite>. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_25'>130</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Gothic Illumination (13th Century). Text Page from the +<cite>Psalter of St. Louis</cite>. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_26'>132</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +English Illumination (14th Century). <cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter.</cite> +Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B. vii + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_27'>134</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +French Illumination (15th Century). <cite>Bedford Book of Hours.</cite> +Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18850 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_28'>136</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +French Renaissance Illumination (15th Century). +<cite>Antiquities of the Jews.</cite> Bibl. Nat. MS. Français 247 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_29'>138</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Flemish Illumination (15th Century). Miniature Page from the +<cite>Grimani Breviary</cite>. Bibl. S. Marco, Venice + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_30'>142</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Flemish Illumination (15th Century). Text Page from the +<cite>Grimani Breviary</cite>. Bibl. S. Marco, Venice + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_31'>144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Italian Illumination (15th Century). <cite>Book of Hours</cite>, by +Francesco d’Antonio. R. Lau. Bibl. Ashb. 1874 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_32'>146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +French Illumination (16th Century). Miniature from <cite>Hours of +Anne of Brittany</cite>. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_33'>148</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +French Illumination (16th Century). Text Page from <cite>Hours of +Anne of Brittany</cite>. Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_34'>150</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Order for Payment of 1050 <i lang='fr'>livres tournois</i> to Jean Bourdichon +for the <cite>Hours of Anne of Brittany</cite>, 1508 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_35'>152</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Letter from Maurice Hewlett + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_36'>161</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Poem by Austin Dobson + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_37'>167</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Mark Twain. At the Villa di Quarto, Florence, 1904. +From a Snap-shot + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_38'>170</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Letter from Mark Twain. With Snap-shot of Villa di +Quarto + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_39'>172</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Autograph Letter from William Dean Howells + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_40'>185</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Part of a Page from the Vellum Copy of the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>. +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_41'>195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Rubricator’s Mark at end of First Volume of a Defective Copy of +the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_42'>196</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Rubricator’s Mark at end of Second Volume of a Defective Copy of +the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_43'>197</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Gutenberg, Fust, Coster, Aldus Manutius, Froben. From Engraving +by Jacob Houbraken (1698–1780) + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_44'>198</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +John Fust. From an Old Engraving + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_45'>199</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Device and <cite>Explicit</cite> of Nicolas Jenson + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_46'>203</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Jenson’s Gothic Type. From Augustinus: <cite>De Civitate Dei</cite>, +Venice, 1475 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_47'>205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Device of Aldus Manutius + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_48'>208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Grolier in the Printing Office of Aldus. After Painting by +François Flameng. Through Courtesy the Grolier Club, New +York City + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_49'>208</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page from Aldus’ <cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>, Venice, +1499 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_50'>211</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Illustrated Page from Aldus’ <cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>, +Venice, 1499 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_51'>212</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Grolier Binding. Castiglione: Cortegiano. Aldine Press, 1518. +Laurenziana Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_52'>212</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Grolier Binding. Capella: <cite>L’Anthropologia.</cite> Aldine Press, +1533. Laurenziana Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_53'>214</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Robert Étienne. From Engraving by Étienne Johandier Desrochers +(c. 1661–1741) + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_54'>217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page showing Étienne’s <cite>Royal Greeks</cite>, Paris, 1550 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_55'>220</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page Showing Étienne’s Roman Face + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_56'>222</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page showing Étienne’s <cite>Royal Greeks</cite>, from <cite>Novum Jesu +Christi D. N. Testamentum</cite>, Paris, 1550 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_57'>222</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Christophe Plantin. From Engraving by Edme de Boulonois (c. 1550) + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_58'>225</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, Antwerp, 1568 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_59'>228</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Page of Preface of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, Antwerp, 1568 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_60'>229</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Pages of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, Antwerp, 1568 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_61'>230</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Second Page of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, Antwerp, 1568 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_63'>232</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Device of Christophe Plantin + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_64'>236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page of Elzevir’s <cite>Terence</cite>, Leyden, 1635 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_65'>241</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Pages of Elzevir’s <cite>Terence</cite>, Leyden, 1635 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_66'>242</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +John Baskerville + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_67'>244</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page of Baskerville’s <cite>Virgil</cite>, Birmingham, 1757 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_68'>247</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page of Baskerville’s <cite>Virgil</cite>, Birmingham, 1757 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_69'>249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Engraving from Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801. By Prud’hon + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_70'>253</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_71'>253</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Opening Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_72'>255</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_73'>256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Firmin Didot. From Engraving by Pierre Gustave Eugène Staal +(1817–1882) + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_74'>256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +William Morris. From Portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A., in +the National Portrait Gallery, London. Painted in 1880 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_75'>258</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Bart. From a Photograph at the British +Museum + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_76'>260</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page of <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite>, 1896 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_77'>262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Title Page of <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, London, 1905 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_78'>265</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Text Page of <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, London, 1905 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_79'>267</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +The <cite>Sala Michelangiolo</cite>, in the Laurenziana Library, +Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_80'>276</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +<i lang='it'>Dott. Comm.</i> Guido Biagi, in 1924 + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_81'>278</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Vestibule of the Laurenziana Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_82'>280</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Miniature Page from the <cite>Biblia Amiatina</cite>, R. Lau. Bibl. +Cod. Amiatinus I + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_83'>288</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Antonio Magliabecchi + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_84'>293</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='lmain'> +Library Slips used by George Eliot while working on <cite>Romola</cite> +in Magliabecchian Library, Florence + </td> +<td class='cpage'><a href='#i_85'>296</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<h2 id="CH_I">CHAPTER I</h2> +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>In Quest of the Perfect Book</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>I</p> +<p class='center fs120'>IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK</p> + +<p class='p2'>“Here is a fine volume,” a friend remarked, handing me a copy of <cite>The +Ideal Book</cite>, written and printed by Cobden-Sanderson at the Doves +Press.</p> + +<p>“It is,” I assented readily, turning the leaves, and enjoying the +composite beauty of the careful typography, and the perfect impression +upon the soft, handmade paper with the satisfaction one always feels +when face to face with a work of art. “Have you read it?”</p> + +<p>“Why—no,” he answered. “I picked it up in London, and they told me it +was a rare volume. You don’t necessarily read rare books, do you?”</p> + +<p>My friend is a cultivated man, and his attitude toward his latest +acquisition irritated me; yet after thirty years of similar +disappointments I should not have been surprised. How few, even among +those interested in books, recognize the fine, artistic touches +that constitute the difference between the commonplace and the +distinguished! The volume under discussion was written by an authority +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> +foremost in the art of bookmaking; its producer was one of the few +great master-printers and binders in the history of the world; yet the +only significance it possessed to its owner was the fact that some one +in whom he had confidence had told him it was rare! Being rare, he +coveted the treasure, and acquired it with no greater understanding +than if it had been a piece of Chinese jade.</p> + +<p>“What makes you think this is a fine book?” I inquired, deliberately +changing the approach.</p> + +<p>He laughed consciously. “It cost me nine guineas—and I like the looks +of it.”</p> + +<p>Restraint was required not to say something that might have affected +our friendship unpleasantly, and friendship is a precious thing.</p> + +<p>“Do something for me,” I asked quietly. “That is a short book. Read +it through, even though it is rare, and then let us continue this +conversation we have just begun.”</p> + +<p>A few days later he invited me to dine with him at his club. “I asked +you here,” he said, “because I don’t want any one, even my family, to +hear what I am going to admit to you. I have read that book, and I’d +rather not know what you thought of my consummate ignorance of what +really enters into the building of a well-made volume—the choice +of type, the use of decoration, the arrangement of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span> margins. Why, +bookmaking is an art! Perhaps I should have known that, but I never +stopped to think about it.”</p> + +<p>One does have to stop and think about a well-made book in order to +comprehend the difference between printing that is merely printing and +that which is based upon art in its broadest sense and upon centuries +of precedent. It does require more than a gleam of intelligence to +grasp the idea that the basis of every volume ought to be the thought +expressed by the writer; that the type, the illustrations, the +decorations, the paper, the binding, simply combine to form the vehicle +to convey that expression to the reader. When, however, this fact is +once absorbed, one cannot fail to understand that if these various +parts, which compositely comprise the whole, fail to harmonize with the +subject and with each other, then the vehicle does not perform its full +and proper function.</p> + +<p>I wondered afterward if I had not been a bit too superior in my +attitude toward my friend. As a matter of fact, printing as an art has +returned to its own only within the last quarter-century. Looking back +to 1891, when I began to serve my apprenticeship under John Wilson at +the old University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the broadness +of the profession that I was adopting as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> my life’s work had not as +yet unfolded its unlimited possibilities. At that time the three great +American printers were John Wilson, Theodore L. De Vinne, and Henry O. +Houghton. The volumes produced under their supervision were perfect +examples of the best bookmaking of the period, yet no one of these +three men looked upon printing as an art. It was William Morris who in +modern times first joined these two words together by the publication +of his magnificent Kelmscott volumes. Such type, such decorations, such +presswork, such sheer, composite beauty!</p> + +<p>This was in 1895. Morris, in one leap, became the most famous printer +in the world. Every one tried to produce similar volumes, and the +resulting productions, made without appreciating the significance of +decoration combined with type, were about as bad as they could be. I +doubt if, at the present moment, there exists a single one of these +sham Kelmscotts made in America that the printer or the publisher cares +to have recalled to him.</p> + +<p>When the first flair of Morris’ popularity passed away, and his +volumes were judged on the basis of real bookmaking, they were +classified as marvelously beautiful <i lang='fr'>objets d’art</i> rather than +books—composites of Burne-Jones, the designer, and William Morris, +the decorator-printer, co-workers in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> sister arts; but from the +very beginning Morris’ innovations showed the world that printing +still belonged among the fine arts. The Kelmscott books awoke in me +an overwhelming desire to put myself into the volumes I produced. I +realized that no man can give of himself beyond what he possesses, +and that to make my ambition worth accomplishing I must absorb and +make a part of myself the beauty of the ancient manuscripts and the +early printed books. This led me to take up an exhaustive study of the +history of printing.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_1'> +<a href='images/i_1.jpg'><img src='images/i_1-tb.jpg' +alt='John Gutenberg c. 1400–1468)'></a> +<p class='caption1'>JOHN GUTENBERG, <i lang='la'>c.</i> 1400–1468</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving by Alphonse Descaves</p> +<p class='caption'>Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris</p> +</div> + +<p>Until then Gutenberg’s name, in my mind, had been preëminent. As +I proceeded, however, I came to know that he was not really the +“inventor” of printing, as I had always thought him to be; that he +was the one who first foresaw the wonderful power of movable types as +a material expression of the thought of man, rather than the creator +of anything previously unknown. I discovered that the Greeks and the +Romans had printed from stamps centuries earlier, and that the Chinese +and the Koreans had cut individual characters in metal.</p> + +<p>I well remember the thrill I experienced when I first realized—and +at the time thought my discovery was original!—that, had the Chinese +or the Saracens possessed Gutenberg’s wit to join these letters +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> +together into words, the art of printing must have found its way to +Constantinople, which would have thus become the center of culture and +learning in the fifteenth century.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>From this point on, my quest seemed a part of an Arabian Nights’ tale. +Cautiously opening a door, I would find myself in a room containing +treasures of absorbing interest. From this room there were doors +leading in different directions into other rooms even more richly +filled; and thus onward, with seemingly no end, to the fascinating +rewards that came through effort and perseverance.</p> + +<p>Germany, although it had produced Gutenberg, was not sufficiently +developed as a nation to make his work complete. The open door led +me away from Germany into Italy, where literary zeal was at its +height. The life and customs of the Italian people of the fifteenth +century were spread out before me. In my imagination I could see the +velvet-gowned agents of the wealthy patrons of the arts searching +out old manuscripts and giving commissions to the scribes to prepare +hand-lettered copies for their masters’ libraries. I could mingle with +the masses and discover how eager they were to learn the truth in +the matter of religion, and the cause and the remedies of moral and +material evils +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span> +by which they felt themselves oppressed. I could share +with them their expectant enthusiasm and confidence that the advent of +the printing press would afford opportunity to study description and +argument where previously they had merely gazed at pictorial design. +I could sense the desire of the people for books, not to place in +cabinets, but to read in order to know; and I could understand why +workmen who had served apprenticeships in Germany so quickly sought +out Italy, the country where princes would naturally become patrons of +the new art, where manuscripts were ready for copy, and where a public +existed eager to purchase their products.</p> + +<p>While striving to sense the significance of the conflicting elements +I felt around me, I found much of interest in watching the scribes +fulfilling their commissions to prepare copies of original manuscripts, +becoming familiar for the first time with the primitive methods of +book manufacture and distribution. A monastery possessed an original +manuscript of value. In its <i lang='la'>scriptorium</i> (the writing office) one +might find perhaps twenty or thirty monks seated at desks, each with a +sheet of parchment spread out before him, upon which he inscribed the +words that came to him in the droning, singsong voice of the reader +selected for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> +the duty because of his familiarity with the subject +matter of the volume. The number of desks the <i lang='la'>scriptorium</i> could +accommodate determined the size of this early “edition.”</p> + +<p>When these copies were completed, exchanges were made with other +monasteries that possessed other original manuscripts, of which copies +had been made in a similar manner. I was even more interested in the +work of the secular scribes, usually executed at their homes, for it +was to these men that the commissions were given for the beautiful +humanistic volumes. As they had taken up the art of hand lettering from +choice or natural aptitude instead of as a part of monastic routine, +they were greater artists and produced volumes of surpassing beauty. A +still greater interest in studying this art of hand lettering lay in +the knowledge that it soon must become a lost art, for no one could +doubt that the printing press had come to stay.</p> + +<p>Then, turning to the office of Aldus, I pause for a moment to read the +legend placed conspicuously over the door:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='no-indent p0 bq'>Whoever thou art, thou art earnestly requested by Aldus to +state thy business briefly and to take thy departure promptly. +In this way thou mayest be of service even as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> was Hercules +to the weary Atlas, for this is a place of work +for all who may enter</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_2'> +<a href='images/i_2.jpg'><img src='images/i_2-tb.jpg' +alt='ALDUS MANUTIUS, 1450–1515'></a> +<p class='caption1'>ALDUS MANUTIUS, 1450–1515</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving at the British Museum</p> +</div> + +<p>But inside the printing office I find Aldus and his associates talking +of other things than the books in process of manufacture. They are +discussing the sudden change of attitude on the part of the wealthy +patrons of the arts who, after welcoming the invention of printing, +soon became alarmed by the enthusiasm of the people, and promptly +reversed their position. No wonder that Aldus should be concerned as +to the outcome! The patrons of the arts represented the culture and +wealth and political power of Italy, and they now discovered in the new +invention an actual menace. To them the magnificent illuminated volumes +of the fifteenth century were not merely examples of decoration, +but they represented the tribute that this cultured class paid to +the thought conveyed, through the medium of the written page, from +the author to the world. This jewel of thought they considered more +valuable than any costly gem. They perpetuated it by having it written +out on parchment by the most accomplished scribes; they enriched it +by illuminated embellishments executed by the most famous artists; +they protected it with bindings in which they actually inlaid gold and +silver and jewels. To have this thought cheapened +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> by reproduction +through the commonplace medium of mechanical printing wounded their +æsthetic sense. It was an expression of real love of the book that +prompted Bisticci, the agent of so powerful a patron as the Duke of +Urbino, to write of the Duke’s splendid collection in the latter part +of the fifteenth century:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>In that library the books are all beautiful in a superlative +degree, and all written by the pen. There is not a single one +of them printed, for it would have been a shame to have one of +that sort.</p> +</div> + +<p>Aldus is not alarmed by the solicitude of the patrons for the beauty +of the book. He has always known that in order to exist at all +the printed book must compete with the written volume; and he has +demonstrated that, by supplying to the accomplished illuminators +sheets carefully printed on parchment, he can produce volumes of +exquisite beauty, of which no collector need be ashamed. Aldus knows +that there are other reasons behind the change of front on the part +of the patrons. Libraries made up of priceless manuscript volumes +are symbols of wealth, and through wealth comes power. With the +multiplication of printed books this prestige will be lessened, as the +masses will be enabled to possess the same gems of thought in less +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +extravagant and expensive form. If, moreover, the people are enabled +to read, criticism, the sole property of the scholars, will come into +their hands, and when they once learn self-reliance from their new +intellectual development they are certain to attack dogma and political +oppression, even at the risk of martyrdom. The princes and patrons of +Italy are intelligent enough to know that their self-centered political +power is doomed if the new art of printing secures a firm foothold.</p> + +<p>What a relief to such a man as Aldus when it became fully demonstrated +that the desire on the part of the people to secure books in order to +learn was too great to be overcome by official mandate or insidious +propaganda! With what silent satisfaction did he settle back to +continue his splendid work! The patrons, in order to show what a poor +thing the printed book really was, gave orders to the scribes and the +illuminators to prepare volumes for them in such quantities that the +art of hand lettering received a powerful impetus, as a result of which +the hand letters themselves attained their highest point of perfection. +This final struggle on the part of the wealthy overlords resulted only +in redoubling the efforts of the artist master-printers to match the +beauty of the written volumes with the products from their presses.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span></p> + +<p>These Arabian Nights’ experiences occupied me from 1895, when Morris +demonstrated the unlimited possibilities of printing as an art, until +1901, when I first visited Italy and gave myself an opportunity to +become personally acquainted with the historical landmarks of printing, +which previously I had known only from study. In Florence it was my +great good fortune to become intimately acquainted with the late Doctor +Guido Biagi, at that time librarian of the Laurenziana and the Riccardi +libraries, and the custodian of the Medici, the Michelangelo, and the +da Vinci archives. I like to think of him as I first saw him then, +sitting on a bench in front of one of the carved <i lang='it'>plutei</i> designed +by Michelangelo, in the wonderful <i lang='it'>Sala di Michelangiolo</i> in the +Laurenziana Library, studying a beautifully illuminated volume resting +before him, which was fastened to the desk by one of the famous old +chains. He greeted me with an old-school courtesy. When he discovered +my genuine interest in the books he loved, and realized that I came as +a student eager to listen to the master’s word, his face lighted up and +we were at once friends.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_3'> +<a href='images/i_3.jpg'><img src='images/i_3-tb.jpg' +alt="Dott. Comm. Guido Biagi"></a> +<p class='caption1'><i lang='it'>Dott. Comm.</i> GUIDO BIAGI</p> +<p class='caption'>Seated at one of the <i lang='it'>plutei</i> in the</p> +<p class='caption'>Laurenziana Library, Florence (1906)</p> +</div> + +<p>In the quarter of a century which passed from this meeting until his +death we were fellow-students, and during that period I never succeeded +in exhausting the vast store of knowledge he possessed, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> even though +he gave of it with the freest generosity. From him I learned for the +first time of the far-reaching influence of the humanistic movement +upon everything that had to do with the <i lang='la'>litteræ humaniores</i>, and +this new knowledge enabled me to crystallize much that previously had +been fugitive. “The humanist,” Doctor Biagi explained to me, “whether +ancient or modern, is one who holds himself open to receive Truth, +unprejudiced as to its source, and—what is more important—after +having received Truth realizes his obligation to the world to give it +out again, made richer by his personal interpretation.”</p> + +<p>This humanistic movement was the forerunner and the essence of the +Renaissance, being in reality a revolt against the barrenness of +mediævalism. Until then ignorance, superstition, and tradition had +confined intellectual life on all sides, but the little band of +humanists, headed by Petrarch, put forth a claim for the mental freedom +of man and for the full development of his being. As a part of this +claim they demanded the recognition of the rich humanities of Greece +and Rome, which were proscribed by the Church. If this claim had been +postponed another fifty years, the actual manuscripts of many of the +present standard classics would have been lost to the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> + +<p>The significance of the humanistic movement in its bearing upon the +Quest of the Perfect Book is that the invention of printing fitted +exactly into the Petrarchian scheme by making it possible for the +people to secure volumes that previously, in their manuscript form, +could be owned only by the wealthy patrons. This was the point at which +Doctor Biagi’s revelation and my previous study met. The Laurenziana +Library contains more copies of the so-called humanistic manuscripts, +produced in response to the final efforts on the part of patrons to +thwart the increasing popularity of the new art of printing, than any +other single library. Doctor Biagi proudly showed me some of these +treasures, notably Antonio Sinibaldi’s <cite>Virgil</cite>. The contrast +between the hand lettering in these volumes and the best I had ever +seen before was startling. Here was a hand letter, developed under the +most romantic and dramatic conditions, which represented the apotheosis +of the art. The thought flashed through my mind that all the types in +existence up to this point had been based upon previous hand lettering +less beautiful and not so perfect in execution.</p> + +<p>“Why is it,” I demanded excitedly, “that no type has ever been designed +based upon this hand lettering at its highest point of perfection?”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_4'> +<a href='images/i_4.jpg'><img src='images/i_4-tb.jpg' +alt="HAND-WRITTEN HUMANISTIC CHARACTERS"></a> +<p class='caption1'>HAND-WRITTEN HUMANISTIC CHARACTERS</p> +<p class='caption'>From Sinibaldi’s <cite>Virgil</cite>, 1485</p> +<p class='caption'>Laurenziana Library, Florence (12 × 8 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> + +<p>Doctor Biagi looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. “This, my +friend,” he answered, smiling, “is your opportunity.”</p> + +<p>At this point began one of the most fascinating and absorbing +adventures in which any one interested in books could possibly engage. +At some time, I suppose, in the life of every typographer comes the +ambition to design a special type, so it was natural that the idea +contained in Doctor Biagi’s remark should suggest possibilities which +filled me with enthusiasm. I was familiar with the history of the best +special faces, and had learned how difficult each ambitious designer +had found the task of translating drawings into so rigid a medium as +metal; so I reverted soberly and with deep respect to the subject of +type design from the beginning.</p> + +<p>In studying the early fonts of type, I found them exact counterfeits +of the best existing forms of hand lettering at that time employed +by the scribes. The first Italic font cut by Aldus, for instance, is +said to be based upon the thin, inclined handwriting of Petrarch. The +contrast between these slavish copies of hand-lettered models and the +mechanical precision of characters turned out by modern type founders +made a deep impression. Of the two I preferred the freedom of the +earliest types, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +appreciated how ill adapted these models were +to the requirements of typography. A hand-lettered page, even with +the inevitable irregularities, is pleasing because the scribe makes a +slight variation in forming the various characters. When, however, an +imperfect letter is cut in metal, and repeated many times upon the same +page, the irregularity forces itself unpleasantly upon the eye. Nicolas +Jenson was the first to realize this, and in his famous Roman type he +made an exact interpretation of what the scribe intended to accomplish +in each of the letters, instead of copying any single hand letter, or +making a composite of many hand designs of the same character. For this +reason the Jenson type has not only served as the basis of the best +standard Roman fonts down to the present time, but has also proved +the inspiration for later designs of distinctive type faces, such as +William Morris’ Golden type, and Emery Walker’s Doves type.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_5'> +<a href='images/i_5.jpg'><img src='images/i_5-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Specimen Page of proposed Edition of Dante. To be</p> +<p class='caption'>printed by Bertieri, of Milan, in Humanistic Type (8¼ × 6)</p> +</div> + +<p>William Morris’ experience is an excellent illustration of the +difficulties a designer experiences. He has left a record of how he +studied the Jenson type with great care, enlarging it by photography, +and redrawing it over and over again before he began designing his own +letter. When he actually produced his Golden type the design was far +too much inclined to the Gothic to resemble the model he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> selected. +His Troy and Chaucer types that followed showed the strong effect of +the German influence that the types of Schoeffer, Mentelin, and Gunther +Zainer made upon him. The Doves type is based flatly upon the Jenson +model; yet it is an absolutely original face, retaining all the charm +of the model, to which is added the artistic genius of the designer. +Each receives its personality from the understanding and interpretation +of the creator (<span class='xref'><a href='#i_6'>pages 22</a>, +<a href='#i_7'>23</a></span>).</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_6'> +<a href='images/i_6.jpg'><img src='images/i_6-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Jenson’s Roman Type.</p> +<p class='caption'>From Cicero: <cite>Rhetorica</cite>, Venice, 1470 (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_7'> +<a href='images/i_7.jpg'><img src='images/i_7-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Emery Walker’s Doves Type.</p> +<p class='caption'>From <cite>Paradise Regained</cite>, London, 1905 (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<p>From this I came to realize that it is no more necessary for a type +designer to express his individuality by adding or subtracting from his +model than for a portrait painter to change the features of his subject +because some other artist has previously painted it. Wordsworth once +said that the true portrait of a man shows him, not as he looks at any +one moment of his life, but as he really looks all the time. This is +equally true of a hand letter, and explains the vast differences in the +cut of the same type face by various foundries and for the typesetting +machines. All this convinced me that, if I were to make the humanistic +letters the model for my new type, I must follow the example of Emery +Walker rather than that of William Morris.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>During the days spent in the small, cell-like alcove which had been +turned over for my use in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +the Laurenziana Library, I came so wholly +under the influence of the peculiar atmosphere of antiquity that I +felt myself under an obsession of which I have not been conscious +before or since. My enthusiasm was abnormal, my efforts tireless. The +world outside seemed very far away, the past seemed very near, and I +was indifferent to everything except the task before me. This curious +experience was perhaps an explanation of how the monks had been able to +apply themselves so unceasingly to their prodigious labors, which seem +beyond the bounds of human endurance.</p> + +<p>My work at first was confined to a study of the humanistic volumes in +the Laurenziana Library, and the selection of the best examples to +be taken as final models for the various letters. From photographed +reproductions of selected manuscript pages, I took out fifty examples +of each letter. Of these fifty, perhaps a half-dozen would be almost +identical, and from these I learned the exact design the scribe +endeavored to repeat. I also decided to introduce the innovation of +having several characters for certain letters that repeated most +frequently, in order to preserve the individuality of the hand +lettering, and still keep my design within the rigid limitations of +type. Of the letter <i lang='en'>e</i>, for instance, eight different +designs were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +finally selected; there were five <i lang='en'>a</i>’s, two +<i lang='en'>m</i>’s, and so on (see illustration at +<span class='xref'><a href='#i_9'>page 32</a></span>).</p> + +<p>After becoming familiar with the individual letters as shown in the +Laurenziana humanistic volumes, I went on to Milan and the Ambrosiana +Library, with a letter from Doctor Biagi addressed to the librarian, +Monsignor Ceriani, explaining the work upon which I was engaged, and +seeking his co-operation. It would be impossible to estimate Ceriani’s +age at that time, but he was very old. He was above middle height, his +frame was slight, his eyes penetrating and burning with a fire that +showed at a glance how affected he was by the influence to which I have +already referred. His skin resembled in color and texture the very +parchment of the volumes he handled with such affection, and in his +religious habit he seemed the embodiment of ancient learning.</p> + +<p>After expressing his deep interest in my undertaking, he turned to a +publication upon which he himself was engaged, the reproduction in +facsimile of the earliest known manuscript of Homer’s <cite>Iliad</cite>. +The actual work on this, he explained, was being carried on by his +assistant, a younger priest whom he desired to have me meet. His own +contribution to the work was an introduction, upon which he was then +engaged, and which, he said, was to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +his swan song, the final +message from his soul to the world.</p> + +<p>“This, I suppose, is to be in Italian?” I inquired.</p> + +<p>He looked at me reproachfully. “No, my son,” he answered, with deep +impressiveness; “I am writing my introduction in Latin, which, though +called a dead language, will be living long after the present living +languages are dead.”</p> + +<p>Ceriani placed at my disposal the humanistic volumes in the Ambrosiana, +and introduced me to his assistant, whose co-operation was of the +utmost value in my work. I was particularly struck by the personality +of this younger priest. He was in close touch with affairs outside the +Church, and asked searching questions regarding conditions in America. +He spoke several languages with the same facility with which he spoke +his own Italian. His knowledge of books and of bookmaking, past and +present, surprised me. All in all, I found him one of the most charming +men I have ever met. His name was Achille Ratti, and when he became +Bishop of Milan in 1921, and was elevated to the College of Cardinals +two months later, I realized how far that wonderful personality was +taking him. One could scarcely have foreseen, however, that in less +than a year from this time he would become Pope Pius XI.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + +<p>When, after my drawings were completed, I returned to America, I took +up the matter of the type design with Charles Eliot Norton, my old +art professor at Harvard, then <i lang='la'>emeritus</i>. Professor Norton was +genuinely interested in the whole undertaking, and as the proofs of +the various punches later came into my hands he became more and more +enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>I had arranged to use this type in a series of volumes to be published +in London by John Murray, and in America by Little, Brown and Company. +An important question arose as to what should be the first title, and +after careful consideration I decided that as Petrarch was the father +of humanism his <cite>Trionfi</cite> would obviously be an ideal selection. +The volume was to be printed in English rather than in the original +Italian, and I settled upon Henry Boyd’s translation as the most +distinguished.</p> + +<p>Upon investigation it developed that the original edition of this +book was long out of print and copies were exceedingly rare. The only +one I could locate was in the Petrarch collection of the late Willard +Fiske. I entered into correspondence with him, and he invited me to be +his guest at his villa in Florence. With the type completed, and with +proofs in my possession, I undertook my second +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> humanistic Odyssey, +making Florence my first objective. Professor Fiske welcomed me +cordially, and in him I found a most sympathetic personality, eager to +contribute in every way to the success of the undertaking. He placed +the volume of Boyd’s translation in my hands, and asked that I take it +with me for use until my edition was completed.</p> + +<p>“This book is unique, and so precious that you certainly could not +permit it to go out of your possession,” I protested.</p> + +<p>His answer was characteristic. “Your love of books,” he said, “is such +that this volume is as safe in your hands as it is in mine. Take it +from me, and return it when it has served its purpose.”</p> + +<p>Then came the matter of illustrations. In London I had a conference +with Sir Sidney Colvin, then Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the +British Museum. Colvin had been made familiar with the undertaking +by John Murray, who had shown him and Alfred W. Pollard some of the +earliest proofs of the punches that I had sent to England. After a +careful examination of these, both men suggested to Mr. Murray that his +American friend was playing a joke upon him, declaring that the proofs +were hand-lettered and not taken from metal originals!</p> + +<p>“There is a fate about this,” Colvin said, after +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> I had explained +my mission. “We have here in the Museum six original drawings of +Petrarch’s <cite>Triumphs</cite>, attributed by some to Fra Filippo Lippi and +certainly belonging to his school, which have never been reproduced. +They are exactly the right size for the <i lang='fr'>format</i> which you have +determined upon, and if you can have the reproductions made here at the +Museum the drawings are at your disposal.”</p> + +<p>I made arrangements with Emery Walker, the designer of the Doves type +and justly famous as an engraver, to etch these plates on steel, and +the reproductions of the originals were extraordinarily exact. Those +Walker made for the parchment edition looked as if drawn on ivory.</p> + +<p>Parchment was required for the specially illuminated copies which +were to form a feature of the edition, and before leaving America I +had been told that the Roman grade was the best. I naturally assumed +that I should find this in Rome, but my research developed the fact +that Roman parchment is prepared in Florence. Following this lead, +I examined the skins sold by Florentine dealers, but Doctor Biagi +assured me that the best grade was not Roman but Florentine, and that +Florentine parchment is produced in Issoudun, France. It seemed a far +cry to seek out Italian skins in France, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> but to Issoudun I went. In +the meantime I learned that there was a still better grade prepared in +Brentford, England—this, in fact, being where William Morris procured +the parchment for his Kelmscott publications.</p> + +<p>At Brentford I secured my skins; and here I learned something that +interested me exceedingly. Owing to the oil which remains in the +parchment after it has been prepared for use, the difficulty in +printing is almost as great as if on glass. To obviate this, the +concern at Brentford, in preparing parchment for the Kelmscott volumes, +filled in the pores of the skins with chalk, producing an artificial +surface. The process of time must operate adversely upon this +extraneous substance, and the question naturally arises as to whether +eventually, in the Kelmscott parchment volumes, the chalk surface will +flake off in spots, producing blemishes which can never be repaired.</p> + +<p>For my own purposes I purchased the skins without the artificial +surface, and overcame the difficulty in printing by a treatment of the +ink which, after much experiment, enabled me to secure as fine results +upon the parchment as if printing upon handmade paper.</p> + +<p>The volumes were to be printed in the two humanistic colors, black and +blue. In the original +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> manuscript volumes this blue is a most unusual +shade, the hand letterer having prepared his own ink by grinding +<i lang='la'>lapis lazuli</i>, in which there is no red. By artificial light the +lines written in blue can scarcely be distinguished from the black. To +reproduce the same effect in the printed volume I secured in Florence +a limited quantity of <i lang='la'>lapis lazuli</i>, and by special arrangement +with the Italian Government had it crushed into powder at the Royal +mint. This powder I took home to America, and arranged with a leading +manufacturer to produce what I believe to be the first printing ink +mixed exactly as the scribes of the fifteenth century used to prepare +their pigments.</p> + +<p>The months required to produce the <cite>Triumphs</cite> represented a period +alternating in anxiety and satisfaction. The greatest difficulty came +in pressing upon the typesetter the fact that the various characters of +these letters could not be used with mathematical precision, but that +the change should come only when he felt his hand would naturally alter +the design if he were writing the line instead of setting the type. +The experiments required to perfect an ink that should successfully +print on the oily parchment were not completed without disappointments +and misgivings; the scrupulous care required in reading proofs and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +perfecting the spacing, was laborious and monotonous; the scrutinizing +of the sheets as they came from the press was made happier when the +success of the <i lang='la'>lapis lazuli</i> ink was assured.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_8'> +<a href='images/i_8.jpg'><img src='images/i_8-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>A Page from an Autograph Letter from Charles Eliot Norton</p> +</div> + +<p>The rewards came when Professor Norton gave the volume his unqualified +approval—“so interesting and original in its typography and in its +illustrations, so admirable in its presswork, its paper, its binding, +and its minor accessories, … a noble and exemplary work of the +printers’ art”; when George W. Jones, England’s artist-printer, +pronounced the Humanistic type “the most beautiful face in the world,” +and promised to use it in what he hopes to be his masterpiece, an +edition of Shakespeare’s <cite>Sonnets</cite>; when the jury appointed by the +Italian Government to select “the most beautiful and most appropriate +type face to perpetuate the divine Dante” chose the Humanistic type, +and placed the important commission of producing the definitive edition +of the great poet, to commemorate his sexcentenary, in the hands +of that splendid printer, Bertieri, at Milan. Such rewards are not +compliments, but justification. Such beauty as the Humanistic type +possesses lies in the artistic ability and the marvelous skill in +execution of the scribes. My part was simply seizing the development of +a period apparently overlooked, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> undertaking the laborious task +of translating a beautiful thing from one medium to another.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_9'> +<a href='images/i_9.jpg'><img src='images/i_9-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PETRARCH’S <cite>TRIUMPHS</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>Illuminated Page (10 × 6 inches)</p> +<p class='caption'>Set in Humanistic Type designed by the Author</p> +</div> + +<p class='p0'>The Quest of the Perfect Book must necessarily lead the seeker into +far varying roads, the greatest rewards being found in straying from +the main street into the fascinating bypaths. My quest has resulted +in giving me greater appreciation of the accomplishments of those who +successfully withstood opposition and persecution in order to make the +printed book a living vehicle to convey the gems of thought from great +minds to the masses, never forgetful of the value of beauty in its +outward aspect. I believe it possible today to perpetuate the basic +principles of the early artist master-printers by applying beauty to +low-cost books as well as to limited <i lang='fr'>editions de luxe</i>. The story +of the printed book itself is greater than that contained between the +covers of any single volume, for without it the +history of the world would show the masses +still plodding on, swathed in theological +and encyclopædic bonds, while the +few would still be jealously +hoarding their limited +knowledge</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_II">CHAPTER II</h2> +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><cite>The Kingdom of Books</cite></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> +<p class='center bold fs120'>II</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>THE KINGDOM OF BOOKS</p> + +<p class='p2'>A paraphrase of, “Would that mine adversary had written a book,” might +well be, “Would that mine enemy had <em>printed</em> a book”; for the +building of books has always yielded smaller financial returns for the +given amount of labor and ability than is offered in any other line of +intelligent human effort.</p> + +<p>“Are all the workmen in your establishment blank fools?” an irate +publisher demanded of a printer after a particularly aggravating error.</p> + +<p>“If they were not,” was the patient rejoinder, “they would not be +engaged in making books!”</p> + +<p>There is an intangible lure that keeps all those associated with the +book under subjection. There is a mysterious fascination in being a +party to the perpetuation of a human thought that yields something +in addition to pecuniary returns. To the author, the inestimable +gratification of conveying a message to the world makes him forget +the tedious hours of application required before that message can be +adequately expressed. To the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> publisher, the satisfaction of offering +the opportunity for occasional genius to come into its own more +than balances the frequent disappointments. To the book architect, +the privilege of supplying the vehicle for thought, and of creating +the physical form of its expression, yields returns not altogether +measurable in coin of the realm.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In 1891, during my apprenticeship at the old University Press, in +Cambridge, Massachusetts, John Wilson, its famous head, permitted me to +sit in at a conference with Eugene Field and his friend and admirer, +Francis Wilson, the actor, booklover, and collector. The subject under +discussion was the manufacture of a volume of Field’s poems, then +called <cite>A New Book of Verses</cite>, which later became famous under the +title of <cite>Second Book of Verse</cite>.</p> + +<p>Field’s personal appearance made a deep impression that first time I +saw him. I was then an undergraduate at Harvard, and this was a live +author at close range! He entered the office with a peculiar, ambling +walk; his clothes were ill-fitting, accentuating his long legs and +arms; his hands were delicate, with tapering fingers, like a woman’s; +his face was pallid; his eyes blue, with a curiously child-like +expression. I remember my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> feeling of respect, tinged somewhat with +awe, as I saw the pages of manuscript spread out upon the table, and +listened eagerly to the three-cornered conversation.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_10'> +<a href='images/i_10.jpg'><img src='images/i_10-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Autograph Page of Eugene Field Manuscript</p> +<p class='caption'>From <cite>Second Book of Verse</cite>, New York, 1892</p> +</div> + +<p>In considering the manufacture of his book, Eugene Field had clearly +defined ideas of the typographical effect he wished to gain; John +Wilson possessed the technical knowledge that enabled him to translate +those ideas into terms of type. The examination of the various faces +of type, the consideration of the proportions of the page, the +selection of the paper, the plan for the design of the cover and the +binding,—all came into the discussion.</p> + +<p>As I listened, I was conscious of receiving new impressions which gave +me a fuller but still incomplete understanding. Until that moment I had +found little of interest in the adventure of making books. Now came a +realization that the building of a book, like the designing of a house, +offered opportunity for <em>creative</em> work. This possibility removed +the disturbing doubts, and I undertook to discover for myself how that +creative element could be crystallized.</p> + +<p>Years later came an unexpected echo to the Field episode. After the +publication of the <cite>Second Book of Verse</cite>, the manuscript was +returned to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> Field, who had it bound in half leather and placed it +in his library. Upon his death many of his books went by bequest to +his life-long friend, Horace Fletcher, the genial philosopher and +famous apostle of dietetics. When Fletcher died, he bequeathed Field’s +personal volumes to me. By this curious chain of circumstances, +thirty-three years after I had seen the manuscript spread out upon the +table at the University Press, it came into my possession, bearing the +identical memoranda of instruction made upon it by John Wilson, whose +large, flowing hand contrasted sharply with the small, copper-plate +characters of the author’s handwriting.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_11'> +<a href='images/i_11.jpg'><img src='images/i_11-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Autograph Verse in Eugene Field’s Own Copy of +<cite>Trumpet and Drum</cite></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p> + +<p>The present generation of booklovers would think themselves transported +back ages rather than decades were they to glance into a great +book-printing office of thirty-five years ago. The old University Press +at that time acknowledged competition only from the Riverside and the +De Vinne Presses, and conditions that obtained there were typical +of the times. The business office was called the “counting-room”; +the bookkeeper and the head-clerk were perched up on stools at high, +sloping desks, and wore long, linen dusters and black skull caps. John +Wilson sat at a low table desk, and his partner, who was the financial +executive, was the proud possessor of the only roll-top desk in the +establishment. Near him, perhaps because of its value as a novelty and +thus entitled to the same super-care as the cash, was installed the +telephone. Most of the letters were written by Mr. Wilson in his own +hand. One of my first responsibilities was to copy these letters on the +wetted tissue pages of the copy-book with the turn-screw press.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_12'> +<a href='images/i_12.jpg'><img src='images/i_12-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>JOHN WILSON IN 1891</p> +<p class='caption'><span class='honorific'>Master-Printer</span></p> +</div> + +<p>There was no particular system in effect, and scientific management +was unknown. Mr. Wilson used to make out his orders on fragments of +paper,—whatever came to hand. When the telephone was first installed +he refused to use it, as he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> considered this method of conducting +business as “sloppy” and even discourteous. To employ a stenographer +would have been an evidence of a lazy disposition, and a dictated +letter was an offence against dignity and decorum.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>A week’s work at that time consisted of fifty-nine hours instead of the +present forty-eight. Hand composition and electrotyping were figured +together as one process and charged at from 80 cents to $1 per thousand +ems. Changes required in the type by authors cost 50 cents an hour. An +author could afford in those days to rewrite his book after it was in +type, but today, with alterations costing five times as much, it is a +different proposition!</p> + +<p>The wages were as ridiculously low as the prices charged to customers. +The girls in the composing room made from $9 to $12 a week, and those +receiving the maximum considered themselves potential Hetty Greens. +Today, receiving $40 to $45 a week, they find difficulty in making both +ends meet. The make-up man, with the “fat” he received in addition +to his wage of $16, actually earned about $20 a week, as against $50 +to $60 a week now. The foreman of the composing room, with more than +two hundred +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> employees under him, received a weekly return of $23, as +against $75 to $100 now.</p> + +<p><span id='TN_44'>Typesetting</span>, thirty-five years ago, was almost entirely by hand, as +this was before the day of the linotype and the monotype. Thorne +typesetting machines, which then seemed marvels of mechanical +ingenuity, failed to prove economical because they required two +operatives and so easily got out of order. The composing room itself +was laid out with its main avenues and side streets like a well-ordered +town, divisions being marked by the frames bearing the cases of type in +various faces and sizes. The correcting stones ran down the center.</p> + +<p>The foreman of the composing room was the king of his domain and a +power unto himself. Each side street was an “alley,” in which from four +to eight typesetters worked, back to back. These were sometimes boys +or men, but usually girls or women. The “crew” in each alley was in +charge of an experienced typesetter. It was he who received from the +foreman the manuscript to be put into type; who distributed the copy, +a few pages at a time to each of his subordinates; who supervised the +work, and arranged for the galleys to be collated in their proper order +for proofing; and who was generally responsible for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> the product of his +alley. As was characteristic of the times in well-conducted industrial +plants, the workers in this department, as in the others, were simply +a large family presided over by the foreman, who interpreted the +instructions from the management; and by the heads of the crews, who +carried out the detailed instructions of the foreman.</p> + +<p>There was a pride in workmanship that is mostly lacking in +manufacturing plants today, due largely to the introduction of +labor-saving machinery, and again to the introduction of efficiency +methods. Both were inevitable, but the price paid for the gain in +production was high. I am old-fashioned enough to hope that modern +ideas of efficiency will never be applied in the printing industry to +the extent of robbing the workman of his individuality. Books are such +personal things! I am in full sympathy with that efficiency which cuts +out duplication of effort. I believe in studying methods of performing +each operation to discover which one is the most economical in time and +effort. I realize that in great manufacturing plants, where machines +have replaced so largely the work of the human hand, it is obviously +necessary for workmen to spend their days manufacturing only a part +of the complete article; but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> when the organization of any business +goes so far as to substitute numbers for names I feel that something +has been destroyed, and that in taking away his individuality from the +workman the work suffers the same loss.</p> + +<p>I have even asked myself whether the greatest underlying cause of +strikes and labor disturbances during the past ten years has not been +the unrest that has come to the workman because he can no longer +take actual pride in the product of his hand. Years ago, after the +death of one of my oldest employees, I called upon his widow, and +in the simple “parlor” of the house where he had lived, prominently +placed on a marble-top table as the chief ornament in the room, lay +a copy of Wentworth’s “Geometry.” When I picked it up the widow said +proudly, “Jim set every page of that book with his own hands.” It was +a priceless heirloom in which the workman’s family took continued and +justifiable pride.</p> + +<p>The old University Press family was not only happy but loyal. When +the business found itself in financial difficulties, owing to outside +speculations by Mr. Wilson’s partner, the workmen brought their +bankbooks, with deposits amounting to over twenty thousand dollars, +and laid +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> them on Mr. Wilson’s desk, asking him to use these funds in +whatever way he chose. The sum involved was infinitesimal compared to +the necessities, but the proffer was a human gesture not calculable in +financial digits.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Proofreading was an art in the eighteen-nineties instead of an annoying +necessity, as it now seems to be considered. The chief readers +were highly educated men and women, some having been clergymen or +schoolteachers. One proofreader at the University Press at that time +could read fourteen languages, and all the readers were competent to +discuss with the authors points that came up in the proof. The proof +was read, not only to discover typographical errors, but also to query +dates, quotations, and even statements of fact. Well-known authors were +constantly running in and out of the Press, frequently going directly +to the proofreaders, and sometimes even to the compositors themselves, +without coming in touch with the counting-room. Mr. Wilson looked +upon the authors and publishers as members of his big family, and “No +Admittance” signs were conspicuous by their absence.</p> + +<p>The modern practice of proofreading cannot produce as perfect volumes +as resulted from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> deliberate, painstaking, and time-consuming +consideration which the old-time proofreaders gave to every book +passing through their hands. Today the proof is read once, and then +revised and sent out to the author. When made up into page form and +sent to foundry it is again revised, but not re-read. No proof used to +go out from a first-class printing office without a first and a second +reading by copy. It was then read a third time by a careful foundry +reader before being made into plates. Unfortunately, with labor at its +present cost, no publisher could produce a volume at a price that the +public would pay, if the old-time care were devoted to its manufacture.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Time was when a reputation for careful proofreading was an asset to a +Press. One day the office boy came to my private office and said that +there was a man downstairs who insisted upon seeing me personally, but +who declined to give his name. From the expression on the boy’s face I +concluded that the visitor must be a somewhat unique character, and I +was not disappointed.</p> + +<p>As he came into my office he had every aspect of having stepped off +the vaudeville stage. He had on the loose garments of a farmer, with +the broad hat that is donned only on state occasions.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> He wore leather +boots over which were rubbers, and carried a huge, green umbrella.</p> + +<p>He nodded pleasantly as he came in, and sat down with great +deliberation. Before making any remarks he laid his umbrella on the +floor and placed his hat carefully over it, then he somewhat painfully +removed his rubbers. This done, he turned to me with a broad smile of +greeting, and said, “I don’t know as you know who I am.”</p> + +<p>When I confirmed him in his suspicions, he remarked, “Well, I am Jasper +P. Smith, and I come from Randolph, New Hampshire.”</p> + +<p>(<em>The names and places mentioned are, for obvious reasons, not +correct.</em>)</p> + +<p>I returned his smile of greeting and asked what I could do for him.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, “my home town of Randolph, New Hampshire, has decided +to get out a town history, and I want to have you do the printin’ of +it. The selectmen thought it could be printed at ——, but I says to +them, ‘If it’s worth doin’ at all it’s worth doin’ right, and I want +the book to be made at the University Press in Cambridge.’”</p> + +<p>I thanked Mr. Smith for his confidence, and expressed my satisfaction +that our reputation had reached Randolph, New Hampshire.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, chuckling to himself, “you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> see, it was this way. +You made the history of Rumford, and I was the feller who wrote +the genealogies. That’s what I am, a genealogy feller. Nobody in +New Hampshire can write a town history without comin’ to me for +genealogies.”</p> + +<p>After pausing for a moment he continued, “It was your proofreadin’ that +caught me. On that Rumford book your proofreader was a smart one, she +was, but I got back at her in good style.”</p> + +<p>His memory seemed to cause him considerable amusement, and I waited +expectantly.</p> + +<p>“It was in one of the genealogies,” he went on finally. “I gave the +date of the marriage as so and so, and the date of the birth of the +first child as two months later. Did she let that go by? I should say +not. She drew a line right out into the margin and made a darned big +question mark. But I got back at her! I just left that question mark +where it was, and wrote underneath, ‘Morally incorrect, historically +correct!’”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>When the first Adams flat-bed press was installed at the University +Press, President Felton of Harvard College insisted that no book of his +should ever be printed upon this modern monstrosity. Here was history +repeating itself, for booklovers of the fifteenth century in Italy for +a long +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> time refused to admit that a printed volume had its place in a +gentleman’s library. In the eighteen-nineties one whole department at +the University Press consisted of these flat-bed presses, which today +can scarcely be found outside of museums. If a modern publisher were +to stray into the old loft where the wetted sheets from these presses +were hung over wooden rafters to dry, he would rub his eyes and wonder +in what age he was living. The paper had been passed through tubs of +water, perhaps half a quire at a time, and partially dried before being +run through the press. The old Adams presses made an impression that +could have been read by the blind, and all this embossing, together +with the wrinkling of the sheet from the moisture, had to be taken out +under hydraulic pressure. Today wetted sheets and the use of hydraulic +presses for bookwork are practically obsolete. The cylinder presses, +that run twice as fast, produce work of equal quality at lower cost.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In those days the relations between publishers and their printers were +much more intimate. Scales of prices were established from time to +time, but a publisher usually sent all his work to the same printer. It +was also far more customary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> for a publisher to send an author to the +printer to discuss questions of typography with the actual maker of the +book, or to argue some technical or structural point in his manuscript +with the head proofreader. The headreader in a large printing +establishment at that time was a distinct personality, quite competent +to meet authors upon their own ground.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>One of my earliest and pleasantest responsibilities was to act as Mr. +Wilson’s representative in his business relations with Mrs. Mary Baker +Eddy, which required frequent trips to “Pleasant View” at Concord, New +Hampshire. Mrs. Eddy always felt under deep obligation to Mr. Wilson +for his interest in the manuscript of <cite>Science and Health</cite> when +she first took it to him with a view to publication, and any message +from him always received immediate and friendly consideration.</p> + +<p>In the past there have been suggestions made that the Rev. James Henry +Wiggin, a retired Unitarian clergyman and long a proofreader at the +University Press, rewrote <cite>Science and Health</cite>. Mr. Wiggin was +still proofreader when I entered the Press, and he always manifested +great pride in having been associated with Mrs. Eddy in the revision of +this famous book. I often heard the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> matter referred to, both by him +and by John Wilson, but there never was the slightest intimation that +Mr. Wiggin’s services passed beyond those of an experienced editor. I +have no doubt that many of his suggestions, in his editorial capacity, +were of value and possibly accepted by the author,—in fact, unless +they had been, he would not have exercised his proper function; but +had he contributed to the new edition what some have claimed, he would +certainly have given intimation of it in his conversations with me.</p> + +<p>The characteristic about Mrs. Eddy that impressed me the first time +I met her was her motherliness. She gave every one the impression of +deepest interest and concern in what he said, and was sympathetic +in everything that touched on his personal affairs. When I told her +of John Wilson’s financial calamity, she seemed to regard it as a +misfortune of her own. Before I left her that day she drew a check for +a substantial sum and offered it to me.</p> + +<p>“Please hand that to my old friend,” she said, “and tell him to be of +good cheer. What he has given of himself to others all these years will +now return to him a thousand-fold.”</p> + +<p>At first one might have been deceived by her quiet manner into thinking +that she was easily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> influenced. There was no suggestion to which she +did not hold herself open. If she approved, she accepted it promptly; +if it did not appeal, she dismissed it with a graciousness that left no +mark; but it was always settled once and for all. There was no wavering +and no uncertainty.</p> + +<p>After Mrs. Eddy moved from Concord to Boston, her affairs were +administered by her Trustees, so I saw her less frequently. To many her +name suggests a great religious movement, but when I think of her I +seem to see acres of green grass, a placid little lake, a silver strip +of river, and a boundary line of hills; and within the unpretentious +house a slight, unassuming woman,—very real, very human, very +appealing, supremely content in the self-knowledge that, no matter what +others might think, she was delivering her message to the world.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>By this time, I had discovered what was the matter with American +bookmaking. It was a contracting business, and books were conceived and +made by the combined efforts of the publisher, the manufacturing man, +the artist, the decorator, the paper mills’ agent, and, last of all, +the printer and the binder. This was not the way the old-time printers +had planned their books. With all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> their mechanical limitations, +they had followed architectural lines kept consistent and harmonious +because controlled by a single mind, while the finished volume of +the eighteen-nineties was a composite production of many minds, with +no architectural plan. No wonder that the volumes manufactured, even +in the most famous Presses, failed to compare with those produced in +Venice by Jenson and Aldus four centuries earlier!</p> + +<p>When I succeeded John Wilson as head of the University Press in 1895, +I determined to carry out the resolution I had formed four years +earlier, while sitting in on the Eugene Field conference, of following +the example of the early master-printers so far as this could be done +amidst modern conditions. Some of my publisher friends were partially +convinced by my contention that if the printer properly fulfilled his +function he must know how to express his clients’ mental conception +of the physical attributes of prospective volumes in terms of type, +paper, presswork, and binding better than they could do it themselves. +The Kelmscott publications, which appeared at this time, were of great +value in emphasizing my contention, for William Morris placed printing +back among the fine arts after it had lapsed into a trade.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span></p> + +<p>I had no idea, when I presented my plan, of persuading my friends +to produce typographical monuments. No demand has ever existed for +volumes of this type adequate to the excessive cost involved by the +perfection of materials, the accuracy of editorial detail, the supreme +excellence of typography and presswork, and the glory of the binding. +Sweynheim and Pannartz, Gutenberg’s successors, were ruined by their +experiments in Greek; the Aldine Press in Venice was saved only by the +intervention of Jean Grolier; Henri Étienne was ruined by his famous +<cite>Thesaurus</cite>, and Christophe Plantin would have been bankrupted by +his <cite>Polyglot Bible</cite> had he not retrieved his fortunes by later +and meaner publications. Nor was I unmindful of similar examples that +might have been cited from more modern efforts, made by ambitious +publishers and printers.</p> + +<p>What I wanted to do was to build low-cost volumes upon the same +principles as <i lang='fr'>de luxe</i> editions, eliminating the expensive +materials but retaining the harmony and consistency that come from +designing the book from an architectural standpoint. It adds little +to the expense to select a type that properly expresses the thought +which the author wishes to convey; or to have the presses touch the +letters into the paper in such a way as to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> become a part of it, +without that heavy impression which makes the reverse side appear like +an example of Braille; or to find a paper (even made by machine!) soft +to the feel and grateful to the eye, on which the page is placed with +well-considered margins; or to use illustrations or decorations, if +warranted at all, in such a way as to assist the imagination of the +reader rather than to divert him from the text; to plan a title page +which, like the door to a house, invites the reader to open it and +proceed, its type lines carefully balanced with the blank; or to bind +(even in cloth!) with trig squares and with design or lettering in +keeping with the printing inside.</p> + +<p>By degrees the publishers began to realize that this could be done, +and when once established, the idea of treating the making of books +as a manufacturing problem instead of as a series of contracts with +different concerns, no one of which knew what the others were doing, +found favor. The authors also preferred it, for their literary children +now went forth to the world in more becoming dress. Thus serving in the +capacity of book architect and typographical advisor, instead of merely +as a contrasting printer, these years have been lived in a veritable +Kingdom of Books, in company with interesting people,—authors and +artists as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> well as publishers,—in a delightfully intimate way because +I have been permitted to be a part of the great adventure.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>During these years I have seen dramatic changes. Wages were somewhat +advanced between 1891 and the outbreak of the World War, but even at +this latter date the cost of manufacturing books was less than half of +what it is now. This is the great problem which publishers have to face +today. When the cost of everything doubled after the World War, the +public accepted the necessity of paying twice the price for a theater +ticket as a matter of course; but when the retail price of books was +advanced in proportion to the cost of manufacture, there was a great +outcry among buyers that authors, publishers, and booksellers were +opportunists, demanding an unwarranted profit. As a matter of fact, the +novel which used to sell at $1.35 per copy should now sell at $2.50 if +the increased costs were properly apportioned. The publisher today is +forced to decline many promising first novels because the small margin +of profit demands a comparatively large first edition.</p> + +<p>Unless a publisher can sell 5,000 copies as a minimum it is impossible +for him to make any profit upon a novel. Taking this as a basis, +and a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> novel as containing 320 pages, suppose we see how the $2.00 +retail price distributes itself. The cost of manufacture, including +the typesetting, electrotype plates, cover design, jacket, brass +dies, presswork, paper, and binding, amounts to 42 cents per copy (in +England, about 37 cents). The publisher’s cost of running his office, +which he calls “overhead,” is 36 cents per copy. The minimum royalty +received by an author is 10 per cent. of the retail price, which would +give him 20 cents. This makes a total cost of 98 cents a copy, without +advertising. But a book must be advertised.</p> + +<p>Every fifty dollars spent in advertising on a five thousand edition +adds a cent to the publisher’s cost. The free copies distributed for +press reviews represent no trifling item. A thousand dollars is not +a large amount to be spent for advertising, and this means 20 cents +a copy on a 5000 edition, making a total cost of $1.18 per copy and +reducing the publisher’s profit to 2 cents, since he sells a two-dollar +book to the retail bookseller for $1.20. The bookseller figures that +his cost of doing business is one-third the amount of his sales, or, on +a two-dollar book, 67 cents. This then shows a net profit to the retail +bookseller of 13 cents, to the publisher of 2 cents, and to the author +of 20 cents a copy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span></p> + +<p>Beyond this, there is an additional expense to both bookseller and +publisher which the buyer of books is likely to overlook. It is +impossible to know just when the demand for a book will cease, and this +means that the publisher and the bookseller are frequently left with +copies on hand which have to be disposed of at a price below cost. This +is an expense that has to be included in the book business just as much +as in handling fruit, flowers, or other perishable goods.</p> + +<p>When a publisher is able to figure on a large demand for the first +edition, he can cut down the cost of manufacture materially; but, on +the other hand, this is at least partially offset by the fact that +authors whose books warrant large first editions demand considerably +more than 10 per cent. royalty, and the advertising item on a big +seller runs into large figures.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>I wish I might say that I had seen a dramatic change in the methods +employed in the retail bookstores! There still exists, with a few +notable exceptions, the same lack of realization that familiarity with +the goods one has to sell is as necessary in merchandizing books as +with any other commodity. Salesmen in many otherwise well-organized +retail bookstores are still painfully +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> ignorant of their proper +functions and indifferent to the legitimate requirements of their +prospective customers.</p> + +<p>Some years ago, when one of my novels was having its run, I happened +to be in New York at a time when a friend was sailing for Europe. He +had announced his intention of purchasing a copy of my book to read +on the steamer, and I asked him to permit me to send it to him with +the author’s compliments. Lest any reader be astonished to learn that +an author ever buys a copy of his own book, let me record the fact +that except for the twelve which form a part of his contract with +the publisher, he pays cash for every copy he gives away. Mark Twain +dedicated the first edition of <cite>The Jumping Frog</cite> to “John Smith.” +In the second edition he omitted the dedication, explaining that in +dedicating the volume as he did, he had felt sure that at least all the +John Smiths would buy books. To his consternation he found that they +all expected complimentary copies, and he was hoist by his own petard!</p> + +<p>With the idea of carrying out my promise to my friend, I stepped into +one of the largest bookstores in New York, and approached a clerk, +asking him for the book by title. My pride was somewhat hurt to find +that even the name was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> entirely unfamiliar to him. He ran over various +volumes upon the counter, and then turned to me, saying, “We don’t +carry that book, but we have several others here which I am sure you +would like better.”</p> + +<p>“Undoubtedly you have,” I agreed with him; “but that is beside the +point. I am the author of the book I asked for, and I wish to secure a +copy to give to a friend. I am surprised that a store like this does +not carry it.”</p> + +<p>Leaning nonchalantly on a large, circular pile of books near him, the +clerk took upon himself the education of the author.</p> + +<p>“It would require a store much larger than this to carry every book +that is published, wouldn’t it?” he asked cheerfully. “Of course each +author naturally thinks his book should have the place of honor on the +bookstalls, but we have to be governed by the demand.”</p> + +<p>It was humiliating to learn the real reason why this house failed to +carry my book. I had to say something to explain my presumption even in +assuming that I might find it there, so in my confusion I stammered,</p> + +<p>“But I understood from the publishers that the book was selling very +well.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” the clerk replied indulgently; “they +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> have to say that to +their authors to keep them satisfied!”</p> + +<p>With the matter thus definitely settled, nothing remained but to make +my escape as gracefully as circumstances would permit. As I started to +leave, the clerk resumed his standing position, and my eye happened to +rest on the pile of perhaps two hundred books upon which he had been +half-reclining. The jacket was strikingly familiar. Turning to the +clerk I said severely,</p> + +<p>“Would you mind glancing at that pile of books from which you have just +risen?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” he exclaimed, smiling and handing me a copy, “that is the very +book we were looking for, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>It seemed my opportunity to become the educator, and I seized it.</p> + +<p>“Young man,” I said, “if you would discontinue the practice of letting +my books support you, and sell a few copies so that they might support +me, it would be a whole lot better for both of us.”</p> + +<p>“Ha, ha!” he laughed, graciously pleased with my sally; “that’s a good +line, isn’t it? I really must read your book!”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The old-time publisher is passing, and the author is largely to +blame. I have seen the close +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> association—in many cases the profound +friendship—between author and publisher broken by the commercialism +fostered by some literary agents and completed by competitive bids +made by one publishing house to beguile a popular author away from +another. There was a time when a writer was proud to be classified as +a “Macmillan,” or a “Harper” author. He felt himself a part of the +publisher’s organization, and had no hesitation in taking his literary +problems to the editorial advisor of the house whose imprint appeared +upon the title pages of his volumes. A celebrated Boston authoress +once found herself absolutely at a standstill on a partially completed +novel. She confided her dilemma to her publisher, who immediately sent +one of his editorial staff to the rescue. They spent two weeks working +together over the manuscript, solved the problems, and the novel, when +published, was the most successful of the season.</p> + +<p>Several publishers have acknowledged to me that in offering unusually +high royalties to authors they have no expectation of breaking even, +but that to have a popular title upon their list increases the sales +of their entire line. The publisher from whom the popular writer +is filched has usually done his share in helping him attain his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +popularity. The royalty he pays is a fair division of the profits. He +cannot, in justice to his other authors, pay him a further premium.</p> + +<p>Ethics, perhaps, has no place in business, but the relation between +author and publisher seems to me to be beyond a business covenant. A +publisher may deliberately add an author to his list at a loss in order +to accomplish a specific purpose, but this practice cannot be continued +indefinitely. A far-sighted author will consider the matter seriously +before he becomes an opportunist.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In England this questionable practice has been of much slower growth. +The House of Murray, in London, is one of those still conducted on the +old-time basis. John Murray IV, the present head of the business, has +no interest in any author who comes to him for any reason other than +a desire to have the Murray imprint upon his book. It is more than +a business. The publishing offices at 50<i>a</i>, Albemarle Street +adjoin and open out of the Murray home. In the library is still shown +the fireplace where John Murray III burned Byron’s Memoirs, after +purchasing them at an enormous price, because he deemed that their +publication would do injury to the reputation of the writer and of the +House itself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p> + +<p>John Murray II was one of the publishers of Scott’s <cite>Marmion</cite>. +In those days it was customary for publishers to share their +contracts. Constable had purchased from Scott for £1,000 the copyright +of <cite>Marmion</cite> without having seen a single line, and the +<i lang='la'>honorarium</i> was paid the author before the poem was completed or +the manuscript delivered. Constable, however, promptly disposed of a +one-fourth interest to Mr. Miller of Albemarle Street, and another one +fourth to John Murray, then of Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>By 1829 Scott had succeeded in getting into his own hands nearly all +his copyrights, one of the outstanding items being this one-quarter +interest in <cite>Marmion</cite> held by Mr. Murray. Longmans and Constable +had tried in vain to purchase it. When, however, Scott himself +approached Murray through Lockhart, the following letter from Mr. +Murray was the result:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>So highly do I estimate the honour of being even in so small +a degree the publisher of the author of the poem that no +pecuniary consideration whatever can induce me to part with it. +But there is a consideration of another kind that would make it +painful to me if I were to retain it a moment longer. I mean +the knowledge of its being required by the author, into whose +hands it was spontaneously resigned at the same instant that I +read the request.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + +<p>There has always been a vast difference in authors in the attitude they +assume toward the transformation of their manuscripts into printed +books. Most of them leave every detail to their publishers, but a few +take a deep and intelligent personal interest. Bernard Shaw is to be +included in the latter group.</p> + +<p>A leading Boston publisher once telephoned me that an unknown English +author had submitted a manuscript for publication, but that it was too +socialistic in its nature to be acceptable. Then the publisher added +that the author had asked, in case this house did not care to publish +the volume, that arrangements be made to have the book printed in this +country in order to secure American copyright.</p> + +<p>“We don’t care to have anything to do with it,” was the statement; “but +I thought perhaps you might like to manufacture the book.”</p> + +<p>“Who is the author?” I inquired.</p> + +<p>“It’s a man named Shaw.”</p> + +<p>“What is the rest of his name?”</p> + +<p>“Wait a minute and I’ll find out.”</p> + +<p>Leaving the telephone for a moment, the publisher returned and said,</p> + +<p>“His name is G. Bernard Shaw. Did you ever hear of him?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p> + +<p>“Yes,” I replied; “I met him last summer in London through +Cobden-Sanderson, and I should be glad to undertake the manufacture of +the book for Mr. Shaw.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” came the answer. “Have your boy call for the manuscript.”</p> + +<p>This manuscript was <cite>Man and Superman</cite>.</p> + +<p>From that day and for many years, Shaw and I carried on a desultory +correspondence, his letters proving most original and diverting. On +one occasion he took me severely to task for having used two sizes of +type upon a title page. He wrote four pages to prove what poor taste +and workmanship this represented, and then ended the letter with these +words, “But, after all, any other printer would have used sixteen +instead of two, so I bless you for your restraint!”</p> + +<p>We had another lengthy discussion on the use of apostrophes in +printing. “I have made no attempt to deal with the apostrophes you +introduce,” he wrote; “but my own usage is carefully considered and the +inconsistencies are only apparent. For instance, <i lang='en'>Ive</i>, +<i lang='en'>youve</i>, <i lang='en'>lets</i>, <i lang='en'>thats</i>, +are quite unmistakable, but <i lang='en'>Ill</i>, +<i lang='en'>hell</i>, <i lang='en'>shell</i>, for <i lang='en'>I’ll</i>, +<i lang='en'>he’ll</i>, <i lang='en'>she’ll</i>, are impossible +without a phonetic alphabet to distinguish between long and short +<i lang='en'>e</i>. In such cases I retain the apostrophe, in all +others I discard +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> it. Now you may ask me why I +discard it. Solely because it spoils the printing. If you print a Bible +you can make a handsome job of it because there are no apostrophes or +inverted commas to break up the letterpress with holes and dots. Until +people are forced to have some consideration for a book as something +to look at as well as something to read, we shall never get rid of +these senseless disfigurements that have destroyed all the old sense of +beauty in printing.”</p> + +<p>“Ninety-nine per cent. of the secret of good printing,” Shaw continued, +“is not to have patches of white or trickling rivers of it trailing +down a page, like rain-drops on a window. Horrible! <em>White</em> is the +enemy of the printer. <em>Black</em>, rich, fat, even black, without gray +patches, is, or should be, his pride. Leads and quads and displays of +different kinds of type should be reserved for insurance prospectuses +and advertisements of lost dogs.…”</p> + +<p>His enthusiasm for William Morris’ leaf ornaments is not shared by all +booklovers. Glance at any of the Kelmscott volumes, and you will find +these glorified oak leaves scattered over the type page in absolutely +unrelated fashion,—a greater blemish, to some eyes, than occasional +variation in spacing. Shaw writes:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>If you look at one of the books printed by William Morris, +the greatest printer of the XIX century, and one of the +greatest printers of all the centuries, you will see that he +occasionally puts in a little leaf ornament, or something of +the kind. The idiots in America who tried to imitate Morris, +not understanding this, peppered such things all over their +“art” books, and generally managed to stick in an extra large +quad before each to show how little they understood about the +business. Morris doesn’t do this in his own books. He rewrites +the sentence so as to make it justify, without bringing one gap +underneath another in the line above. But in printing other +people’s books, which he had no right to alter, he sometimes +found it impossible to avoid this. Then, sooner than spoil the +rich, even color of his block of letterpress by a big white +hole, he filled it up with a leaf.</p> + +<p class='p0 bq'>Do not dismiss this as not being “business.” I assure you, I +have a book which Morris gave me, a single copy, by selling +which I could cover the entire cost of printing my books, and +its value is due <em>solely</em> to its having been manufactured +in the way I advocate; there’s absolutely no other secret +about it; and there is no reason why you should not make +yourself famous through all the ages by turning out editions +of standard works on these lines whilst other printers are +exhausting themselves in dirty felt end papers, sham Kelmscott +capitals, leaf ornaments in quad sauce, and then wondering why +nobody in Europe will pay twopence for them, whilst Kelmscott +books and Doves Press books of Morris’ +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> friends, Emery Walker +and Cobden-Sanderson, fetch fancy prices before the ink is +thoroughly dry.… +After this I shall have to get you to print all my +future books, so please have this treatise +printed in letters of gold and +preserved for future +reference</p> + +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_III">CHAPTER III</h2> +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>Friends through Type</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>III</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>FRIENDS THROUGH TYPE</p> + + +<p class='p2'>In 1903 I again visited Italy to continue my study of +the art of printing in the old monasteries and libraries, sailing on +the S. S. <span class='ships'>Canopic</span> from Boston to Naples. +Among the passengers on board I met Horace Fletcher, returning to his +home in Venice. At that time his volume <cite>Menticulture</cite> +was having a tremendous run. I had enjoyed reading the book, and in +its author I discovered a unique and charming personality; in fact, +I have never met so perfect an expression of practical optimism. His +humor was infectious, his philosophy appealing, his quiet persistency +irresistible.</p> + +<p>To many people the name of Horace Fletcher has become associated with +the Gladstonian doctrine of excessive chewing, but this falls far +short of the whole truth. His scheme was the broadest imaginable, and +thorough mastication was only the hub into which the other spokes of +the wheel of his philosophy of life were to be fitted. The scheme +was nothing less than a cultivation of progressive human efficiency. +Believing that absolute +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +health is the real basis of human happiness +and advancement, and that health depends upon an intelligent treatment +of food in the mouth together with knowledge of how best to furnish the +fuel that is actually required to run the human engine, Horace Fletcher +sought for and found perfect guides among the natural human instincts +and physiologic facilities, and demonstrated that his theories were +facts.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>During the years that followed I served as his typographic mentor. +He was eager to try weird and ingenious experiments to bring out the +various points of his theories through unique typographical arrangement +(see <a href='#i_13'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>). +It required all my skill and diplomacy to convince him that type +possessed rigid limitations, and that to gain his emphasis he must +adopt less complicated methods. From this association we became the +closest of friends, and presuming upon this relation I used to banter +him upon being so casual. His copy was never ready when the compositors +needed it; he was always late in returning his proofs. The manufacture +of a Fletcher book was a hectic experience, yet no one ever seemed to +take exceptions. This was characteristic of the man. He moved and acted +upon suddenly formed impulses, never +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +planning ahead yet always securing exactly what he wanted, and those +inconvenienced the most always seemed to enjoy it.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_13'> +<a href='images/i_13.jpg'><img src='images/i_13-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>A Page of Horace Fletcher Manuscript</p> +</div> + +<p>“I believe,” he used to say, “in hitching one’s wagon to a star, but I +always keep my bag packed and close at hand ready to change stars at a +moment’s notice. It is only by doing this that you can give things a +chance to happen to you.”</p> + +<p>Among the volumes Fletcher had with him on board ship was one he +had purchased in Italy, printed in a type I did not recognize but +which greatly attracted me by its beauty. The book bore the imprint: +<i lang='it'>Parma: Co’tipi Bodoniani.</i> Some weeks later, in a small, +second-hand bookstore in Florence, I happened upon a volume printed in +the same type, which I purchased and took at once to my friend, Doctor +Guido Biagi, at the Laurenziana Library.</p> + +<p>“The work of Giambattista Bodoni is not familiar to you?” he inquired +in surprise. “It is he who revived in Italy the glory of the Aldi. He +and Firmin Didot in Paris were the fathers of modern type design at the +beginning of the nineteenth century.”</p> + +<p>“Is this type still in use?” I inquired.</p> + +<p>“No,” Biagi answered. “When Bodoni died there was no one worthy to +continue its use, so +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> his matrices and punches are kept intact, +exactly as he left them. They are on exhibition in the library at +Parma, just as the old Plantin relics are preserved in the museum at +Antwerp.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_14'> +<a href='images/i_14.jpg'><img src='images/i_14-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GIAMBATTISTA BODONI, 1740–1813</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris</p> +</div> + +<p>I immediately took steps through our Ambassador at Rome to gain +permission from the Italian Government to recut this face for use in +America. After considerable difficulty and delay this permission was +granted, with a proviso that I should not allow any of the type made +from my proposed matrices to get into the hands of Italian printers, +as this would detract from the prestige of the city of Parma. It was a +condition to which I was quite willing to subscribe! Within a year I +have received a prospectus from a revived Bodoni Press at Montagnola di +Lugano, Switzerland, announcing that the exclusive use of the original +types of Giambattista Bodoni has been given them by the Italian +Government. This would seem to indicate that the early governmental +objections have disappeared.</p> + +<p>While searching around to secure the fullest set of patterns, I +stumbled upon the fact that Bodoni and Didot had based their types upon +the same model, and that Didot had made use of his font particularly +in the wonderful editions published in Paris at the very beginning +of the nineteenth +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> century. I then hurried to Paris to see whether +these matrices were in existence. There, after a search through the +foundries, I discovered the original punches, long discarded, in the +foundry of Peignot, to whom I gave an order to cast the different sizes +of type, which I had shipped to America.</p> + +<p>This was the first type based on this model ever to come into this +country. The Bodoni face has since been recut by typefounders as well +as for the typesetting machines, and is today one of the most popular +faces in common use. Personally I prefer the Bodoni letter to that +of Didot (see <a href='#i_15'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>). The Frenchman +succumbed to the elegance of his period, and by lightening the thin +lines robbed the design of the virility that Bodoni retained. I am not +in sympathy with the excessive height of the ascending letters, which +frequently extend beyond the capitals; but when one considers how +radical a departure from precedent this type was, he must admire the +skill and courage of the designers. William Morris cared little for +it,—“The sweltering hideousness of the Bodoni letter,” he exclaimed; +“the most illegible type that was ever cut, with its preposterous +thicks and thins”; while Theodore L. De Vinne, in his <cite>Practice of +Typography</cite>, writes:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>The beauty of the Bodoni letters consists in their regularity, +in their clearness, and in their conformity to the taste of the +race, nation, and age in which the work was first written, and +finally in the grace of the characters, independent of time or +place.</p> +</div> + +<p>When authorities differ to such a wide extent, the student of type +design must draw his own conclusions!</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_15'> +<a href='images/i_15.jpg'><img src='images/i_15-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>The Bodoni Letter (<span class='xref'>bottom</span>) +compared with the Didot Letter (<span class='xref'>top</span>)</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Fletcher’s idea of an appointment was something to be kept if or when +convenient, yet he never seemed to offend any one. He did nothing +he did not wish to do, and his methods of extricating himself from +unwelcome responsibilities always amused rather than annoyed. “If you +don’t want to do a thing very badly,” he confided to me on one such +occasion, “do it very badly.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_16'> +<a href='images/i_16.jpg'><img src='images/i_16-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>HORACE FLETCHER IN 1915</p> +</div> + +<p>On board the <span class='ships'>Canopic</span> Fletcher was surrounded by an admiring +and interested group. General Leonard Wood was on his way to study +colonial government abroad before taking up his first administration +as Governor of the Philippines. On his staff was General Hugh Lennox +Scott, who later succeeded General Wood as Chief of Staff of the United +States Army. The conversations and discussions in the smokeroom each +evening +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> after dinner were illuminating and fascinating. General +Wood had but recently completed his work as Governor of Cuba, and he +talked freely of his experiences there, while General Scott was full +of reminiscences of his extraordinary adventures with the Indians. He +later played an important part in bringing peace to the Philippines.</p> + +<p>It was at one of these four-cornered sessions in the smokeroom that we +first learned of Fletcher’s ambition to revolutionize the world in its +methods of eating. That he would actually accomplish this no one of +us believed, but the fact remains. The smokeroom steward was serving +the coffee, inquiring of each one how many lumps of sugar he required. +Fletcher, to our amazement, called for five! It was a grand-stand +play in a way, but he secured his audience as completely as do the +tambourines and the singing of the Salvation Army.</p> + +<p>“Why are you surprised?” he demanded with seeming innocence. “I am +simply taking a coffee liqueur, in which there is less sugar now than +there is in your chartreuse or benedictine. But I am mixing it with the +saliva, which is more than you are doing. The sugar, as you take it, +becomes acid in the stomach and retards digestion; by my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> method, it is +changed into grape sugar, which is easily assimilated.”</p> + +<p>“To insalivate one’s liquor,” he explained to us, “gives one the most +exquisite pleasure imaginable, but it is a terrific test of quality. +It brings out the richness of flavor, which is lost when one gulps the +wine down. Did you ever notice the way a tea-taster sips his tea?”</p> + +<p>As he talked he exposed the ignorance of the entire group on +physiological matters to an embarrassing extent, clinching his remarks +by asking General Wood the question,</p> + +<p>“Would you engage as chauffeur for your automobile a man who knew as +little about his motor as you know about your own human engine?”</p> + +<p>No one ever loved a practical joke better than Horace Fletcher. I was +a guest at a dinner he once gave at the Graduates’ Club in New Haven. +Among the others present were President Hadley of Yale, John Hays +Hammond, Walter Camp, and Professor Lounsbury. There was considerable +curiosity and some speculation concerning what would constitute a +Fletcher dinner. At the proper time we were shown into a private room, +where the table was set with the severest simplicity. Instead of china, +white crockery was used, and the chief table decorations were three +large<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> +crockery pitchers filled with ice water. At each plate was a +crockery saucer, containing a shredded-wheat biscuit. It was amusing +to glance around and note the expressions of dismay upon the faces of +the guests. Their worst apprehensions were being confirmed! Just as we +were well seated, the headwaiter came to the door and announced that +by mistake we had been shown into the wrong room, whereupon Fletcher, +with an inimitable twinkle in his eye, led the way into another private +dining room, where we sat down to one of the most sumptuous repasts I +have ever enjoyed.</p> + +<p>Today, twenty years after his campaign, it is almost forgotten that +the American breakfast was at that time a heavy meal. Horace Fletcher +revolutionized the practice of eating, and interjected the word +<em>fletcherize</em> into the English language. As a disciple of Fletcher +Sir Thomas Barlow, physician-in-chief to King Edward VII, persuaded +royalty to set the style by cutting down the formal dinner from three +hours to an hour and a half, with a corresponding relief to the +digestive apparatus of the guests. In Belgium, during the World War, +working with Herbert Hoover, Fletcher taught the impoverished people +how to sustain themselves upon meager rations. Among his admirers and +devoted friends were such profound +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> thinkers as William James who, in +response to a letter from him, wrote, “Your excessive reaction to the +stimulus of my grateful approval makes you remind me of those rich +soils which, when you tickle them with a straw, smile with a harvest”; +and Henry James, who closes a letter: “Come and bring with you plenary +absolution to the thankless subject who yet dares light the lamp of +gratitude to you at each day’s end of his life.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>My acquaintance with Henry James came through my close association +with the late Sir Sidney Lee, the Shakesperian authority, and Horace +Fletcher.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be surprised if he is brusque or uncivil,” Sir Sidney whispered +to me just before I met him at dinner; “one can never tell how he is +going to act.”</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, I found Henry James a most genial and enjoyable +dinner companion, and never, during the few later occasions when I had +the pleasure of being with him, did he display those characteristics of +ill humor and brusqueness which have been attributed to him. It may not +be generally known that all his life—until he met Horace Fletcher—he +suffered torments from chronic indigestion, or that it was in +Fletcherism that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> he found his first relief. In a typically involved +Jamesian letter to his brother William he writes (February, 1909):</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>It is impossible save in a long talk to make you understand how +the blessed Fletcherism—so extra blessed—lulled me, charmed +me, beguiled me, from the first into the convenience of not +having to drag myself out into eternal walking. One must have +been through what it relieved me from to know how not suffering +from one’s food all the while, after having suffered all one’s +life, and at last having it cease and vanish, could make one +joyously and extravagantly relegate all out-of-door motion to a +more and more casual and negligible importance. To live without +the hell goad of needing to walk, with time for reading and +indoor pursuits,—a delicious, insidious bribe! So, more and +more, I gave up locomotion, and at last almost completely. A +year and a half ago the thoracic worry began. Walking seemed to +make it worse, tested by short spurts. So I thought non-walking +more and more the remedy, and applied it more and more, and ate +less and less, naturally. My heart was really disgusted all +the while at my having ceased to call upon it. I have begun to +do so again, and with the most luminous response. I am better +the second half hour of my walk than the first, and better the +third than the second.… I am, in short, returning, after an +interval deplorably long and fallacious, to a due amount of +reasonable exercise and a due amount of food for the same.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_17'> +<a href='images/i_17.jpg'><img src='images/i_17-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>A Page from an Autograph Letter from Henry James to +Horace Fletcher</p> +</div> + +<p>My one visit to Lamb House was in company with Horace Fletcher. The +meeting with Henry James at dinner had corrected several preconceived +ideas and confirmed others. Some writers are revealed by their books, +others conceal themselves in their fictional prototypes. It had always +been a question in my mind whether Henry James gave to his stories his +own personality or received his personality from his stories. This +visit settled my doubts.</p> + +<p>The home was a perfect expression of the host, and possessed an +individuality no less unique. I think it was Coventry Patmore who +christened it “a jewel set in the plain,”—located as it was at the +rising end of one of those meandering streets of Rye, in Sussex, +England, Georgian in line and perfect in appointment.</p> + +<p>In receiving us, Henry James gave one the impression of performing a +long-established ritual. He had been reading in the garden, and when +we arrived he came out into the hall with hand extended, expressing a +massive cordiality.</p> + +<p>“Welcome to my beloved Fletcher,” he cried; and as he grasped my hand +he said, as if by way of explanation,</p> + +<p>“He saved my life, you know, and what is more, he improved my +disposition. By rights he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> should receive all my future royalties,—but +I doubt if he does!”</p> + +<p>His conversation was much more intelligible than his books. It +was ponderous, but every now and then a subtle humor relieved the +impression that he felt himself on exhibition. One could see that he +was accustomed to play the lion; but with Fletcher present, toward whom +he evidently felt a deep obligation, he talked intimately of himself +and of the handicap his stomach infelicities had proved in his work. +The joy with which he proclaimed his emancipation showed the real +man,—a Henry James unknown to his characters or to his public.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>If William James had not taken up science as a profession and thus +become a philosopher, he would have been a printer. No other commercial +pursuit so invited him as “the honorable, honored, and productive +business of printing,” as he expressed it in a letter to his mother +in 1863. Naturally, with such a conception of the practice of book +manufacture, he was always particularly concerned with the physical +<i lang='fr'>format</i> of his volumes. He once told me that my ability to +translate his “fool ideas” into type showed the benefit of a Harvard +education! He had no patience with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> any lapse on the part of the +proofreader, and when the galleys of his books reached this point in +the manufacture even my most experienced readers were on the anxious +seat. On the other hand, he was generous in his appreciation when a +proofreader called his attention to some slip in his copy that he had +overlooked.</p> + +<p>After his volume <cite>Pragmatism</cite> appeared and created such universal +attention, a series of “popular” lectures on the subject was announced +at Cambridge. The Harpers had just published a novel of mine entitled +<cite>The Spell</cite>, in connection with which I had devoted much time +to the study of humanism and the humanists of the fifteenth century. +Because of my familiarity with a kindred subject, I must confess to +a sense of mortification that in reading <cite>Pragmatism</cite> I found +myself beyond my depth. A “popular” presentation appealed to me as +an opportunity for intellectual development, so I attended the first +lecture, armed with pencil and notebook. Afterwards it so happened that +Professor James was on the trolley car when I boarded it at Harvard +Square, and I sat down beside him.</p> + +<p>“I was surprised to see you at my lecture,” he remarked. “Don’t you get +enough of me at your office?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span></p> + +<p>I told him of my excursions into other philosophic pastures, and of my +chagrin to find so little in pragmatic fields upon which my hungry mind +could feed. He smiled at my language, and entered heartily into the +spirit.</p> + +<p>“And today?” he inquired mischievously.—“I hope that today I guided +you successfully.”</p> + +<p>“You did,” I declared, opening my notebook, and showing him the entry: +“Nothing is the only resultant of the one thing which is not.”</p> + +<p>“That led me home,” I said soberly, with an intentional double meaning.</p> + +<p>Professor James laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>“Did I really say that? I have no doubt I did. It simply proves my +contention that philosophers too frequently exercise their prerogative +of concealing themselves behind meaningless expressions.”</p> + +<p>Two of Professor James’ typographic hobbies were paper labels and as +few words as possible on the title page. In the matter of supplying +scant copy for the title, he won my eternal gratitude, for many a +book, otherwise typographically attractive, is ruined by overloading +the title with too much matter. This is the first page that catches +the eye, and its relation to the book is the same as the door of a +house. Only recently I opened a volume to a beautiful title page. The +type was perfectly arranged +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> in proportion and margin, the decoration +was charming and in complete harmony with the type. It was set by an +artist-printer and did him credit; but turning a few more pages I +found myself face to face with a red-blooded story of western life, +when the title had prepared me for something as delicate as Milton’s +<cite>L’Allegro</cite>. A renaissance door on a New England farmhouse would +have been equally appropriate!</p> + +<p>I commend to those who love books the fascinating study of title pages. +I entered upon it from curiosity, and quickly found in it an abiding +hobby. The early manuscripts and first printed volumes possessed no +title pages, due probably to the fact that the handmade paper and +parchment were so costly that the saving of a seemingly unnecessary +page was a consideration. The <i lang='la'>incipit</i> at the top of the first +page, reading “Here beginneth” and then adding the name of the author +and the subject, answered every purpose; and on the last page the +<i lang='la'>explicit</i> marked the conclusion of the work, and offered the +printer an excellent opportunity to record his name and the date of +the printing. Most of the early printers were modest in recording +their achievements, but in the famous volume <cite>De Veritate Catholicæ +Fidei</cite> the printer says of himself:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='no-indent p0 bq'>This new edition was furnished us to print in Venice by Nicolas +Jenson of France.… Kind toward all, beneficent, generous, +truthful and steadfast in the beauty, dignity, and accuracy +of his printing, let me (with the indulgence of all) name him +the first in the whole world; first likewise in his marvelous +speed. He exists in this, our time, as a special +gift from Heaven to men. June thirteen, in the year of +Redemption 1489. Farewell</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Bibliographers contend that the first title page was used in a book +printed by Arnold Ther Hoernen of Cologne in 1470. In this volume an +extra leaf is employed containing simply an introduction at the top. +It has always seemed to me that this leaf is more likely to have been +added by the printer to correct a careless omission of the introduction +on his first page of text. Occasionally, in the humanistic manuscript +volumes in the Laurenziana Library, at Florence, there occurs a +“mirror” title (see <a href='#i_18'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>), which +consists of an illuminated page made up of a large circle in the center +containing the name of the book, sometimes surrounded by smaller +circles, in which are recorded the titles of the various sections. This +seems far more likely to have been suggestive of what came to be the +formal title page.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_18'> +<a href='images/i_18.jpg'><img src='images/i_18-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>MIRROR TITLE</p> +<p class='caption'>From Augustinus: <cite>Opera</cite>, 1485. Laurenziana Library, Florence</p> +</div> + +<p>By the end of the fifteenth century the title page +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95</span> +was in universal use, and printers showed great ingenuity in arranging +the type in the form of wine cups, drinking glasses, funnels, inverted +cones, and half-diamonds. During the sixteenth century great artists +like Dürer, Holbein, Rubens, and Mantegna executed superbly engraved +titles entirely out of keeping with the poor typography of the books +themselves. In many of the volumes the title page served the double +purpose of title and full-page illustration (see <span class='xref'>pages</span> +<a href='#i_59'>228</a> and <a href='#i_65'>241</a>). What splendid +examples would have resulted if the age of engraved titles had +coincided with the high-water mark in the art of printing!</p> + +<p>As the art of printing declined, the engraved title was discarded, and +the printer of the seventeenth century seemed to feel it incumbent +upon him to cover the entire page with type. If you recall the early +examples of American Colonial printing, which were based upon the +English models of the time, you will gain an excellent idea of the +grotesque tendency of that period. The Elzevirs were the only ones who +retained the engraved title (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_65'>241</a>). The Baskerville volumes +(<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_68'>247</a>), in the middle of the eighteenth century, showed a +return to good taste and harmonious co-ordination with the text; but +there was no beauty in the title until Didot in Paris and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> Bodoni +in Parma, Italy, introduced the so-called “modern” face, which is +peculiarly well adapted to display (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_70'>253</a>). William Morris, +in the late nineteenth century, successfully combined decoration with +type,—over-decorated, in the minds of many, but in perfect keeping +with the type pages of the volumes themselves. Cobden-Sanderson, +at the Doves Press, returned to the extreme in simplicity and good +taste (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_78'>265</a>), excelling all other printers in securing +from the blank space on the leaf the fullest possible value. One +of Cobden-Sanderson’s classic remarks is, “I always give greater +attention, in the typography of a book, to what I leave out than to +what I put in.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The name of William Morris today may be more familiar to booklovers +than that of Cobden-Sanderson, but I venture to predict that within +a single decade the latter’s work as printer and binder at the +Doves Press at Hammersmith, London, will prove to have been a more +determining factor in printing as an art than that of William Morris +at the Kelmscott Press, and that the general verdict will be that +Cobden-Sanderson carried out the splendid principles laid down by +Morris more consistently than did that great artist-craftsman himself.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_19'> +<a href='images/i_19.jpg'><img src='images/i_19-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON, 1841–1922</p> +<p class='caption'>From Etching by Alphonse Legros, 1893</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> + +<p>The story of Cobden-Sanderson’s life is an interesting human document. +He told it to me one evening, its significance being heightened by +the simplicity of the recital. At seventeen he was apprenticed to +an engineer, but he worked less than a year in the draft room. He +disliked business as business, and began to read for Cambridge, with +the idea of entering the Church. While at Trinity College he read for +mathematical honors, but three years later, having given up all idea +of going into the Church, he left Cambridge, refusing honors and a +degree, which he might have had, as a protest against the competitive +system and the “warp” it gave to all university teaching. Then, for +seven or eight years, he devoted himself to Carlyle and the study of +literature, “Chiefly German philosophy,” he said, “which is perhaps not +literature,” supporting himself by desultory writing and practicing +medicine. When he was thirty years old he was admitted to the Bar, +which profession he abandoned thirteen years later to become a manual +laborer. The following is quoted from notes which I made after this +conversation:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>I despaired of knowledge in a philosophical sense, yet I +yearned to do or to make something. This was the basic idea +of my life. At this time it was gradually revealed to me that +the arts and crafts of life might be employed to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> society +itself a work of art, sound and beautiful as a whole, and in +all its parts.</p> +</div> + +<p>It is difficult to associate Cobden-Sanderson’s really tremendous +contributions to bookmaking as an art with his self-effacing +personality. If I had met the man before I had become intimately +acquainted with his work, I should have been disappointed; having +had him interpreted to me by his books before I met him, his unique +personality proved a definite inspiration and gave me an entirely new +viewpoint on many phases of the art of typography in its application to +human life.</p> + +<p>In person, Cobden-Sanderson was of slight build, with sloping +shoulders, his most noticeable feature being his reddish beard tinged +with gray. He was nervous and shy, and while talking seldom looked +one squarely in the eye, yet at no time could one doubt the absolute +sincerity of his every word and act. He was hopelessly absent-minded. +Invited to dine with me in London, he appeared the evening before the +date set, retiring overwhelmed with embarrassment when he discovered +his mistake. On the following evening he forgot the appointment +altogether! Later, when in Boston, he accepted an invitation to dine +with a literary society, but failed to appear because he could not +remember where the dinner was to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> held. He had mislaid his note of +invitation and could not recall the name of the man who sent it. On +that evening he dashed madly around the city in a taxicab for over an +hour, finally ending up at his hotel in absolute exhaustion while the +members of the literary society dined without their lion!</p> + +<p>While president of the Society of Printers in Boston, I arranged for +Cobden-Sanderson to come to America to deliver some lectures on <cite>The +Ideal Book</cite>. Among these were four given at Harvard University. At +the conclusion of the last lecture he came to my library, thoroughly +tired out and completely discouraged. Seated in a great easy chair he +remained for several moments in absolute silence, resting his face upon +his hands. Suddenly, without a moment’s warning, he straightened up and +said with all the vehemence at his command,</p> + +<p>“I am the veriest impostor who ever came to your shores!”</p> + +<p>Seeing my surprise and incredulity, he added,</p> + +<p>“I have come to America to tell you people how to make books. In +New York they took me to see the great Morgan Library and other +collections. They showed me rare <i lang='it'>incunabula</i>. They expected me to +know all about them, and to be enthusiastic over them. As a matter of +fact, I know nothing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> about the work of the great master-printers, and +care less!”</p> + +<p>My face must have disclosed my thoughts, for he held up a restraining +hand.</p> + +<p>“Don’t think me such an egotist as my words imply. It isn’t that +at all. It is true that I am interested only in my own work, but +that is because my work means something more to me than the books +I produce. When I print a book or bind one it is because I have a +message in my soul which I am impelled to give mankind, and it comes +out through my fingers. Other men express their messages in different +<i lang='fr'>media</i>,—in stone or on canvas. I have discovered that the book +is my medium. When I bind and decorate a volume I seem to be setting +myself, like a magnetized needle, or like an ancient temple, in line +and all square, not alone with my own ideal of society, but with that +orderly and rhythmical whole which is the revelation of science and +the normal of developed humanity. You asked me a while ago to explain +certain inconsistencies in my work, and I told you that there was no +explanation. That is because each piece of work represents me at the +time I do it. Sometimes it is good and sometimes poor, but, in any +case, it stands as the expression of myself at the time I did it.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span></p> + +<p>As he spoke I wondered if Cobden-Sanderson had not explained why, in +the various arts, the work of those master-spirits of the past had not +been surpassed or even equaled during the intervening centuries. It is +a matter for consideration, when the world has shown such spectacular +advance along material lines, that in painting, in sculpture, in +architecture, in printing, the work of the old masters still stands +supreme. In their time, when men had messages in their souls to give +the world, the interpretation came out through their fingers, expressed +in the medium with which each was familiar. Before the invention of +printing, the masses received those messages directly from the marble +or the canvas, or from the design of some great building. The printed +book opened to the world a storehouse of wisdom hitherto unavailable, +and made individual effort less conspicuous and therefore less +demanded. The few outstanding figures in every art have been those who, +like Cobden-Sanderson, have set themselves “in line and all square, +not alone with their own ideals of society, but with that orderly and +rhythmical whole which is the revelation of science and the normal of +developed humanity.” It is what Cobden-Sanderson has done rather than +his written words, that conveys the greatest message.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span></p> + +<p>While Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States, and on the +occasion of one of his several visits to Boston, his secretary wrote +that the President would like to examine with me some of the special +volumes I had built. I knew him to be an omnivorous reader, but until +then did not realize his deep interest in the physical side of books.</p> + +<p>He came to the University Press one bitterly cold day in January, and +entered my office wrapped in a huge fur coat. After greeting him I +asked if he wouldn’t lay the coat aside.</p> + +<p>“Of course I will,” he replied briskly; “it is just as easy to catch +hot as it is to catch cold.”</p> + +<p>We devoted ourselves for an hour to an examination and discussion of +certain volumes I had produced. One of these was a small twelve-mo +entitled <cite>Trophies of Heredia</cite> containing poems by José-Maria +de Heredia, brought out in artistic <i lang='fr'>format</i> for a Boston +publishing house, which had proved a complete failure from a commercial +standpoint. Probably not over two hundred copies of the book were ever +sold. Evidently one of these had fallen into the President’s hands, for +he seized my copy eagerly, saying,</p> + +<p>“Hello! I didn’t remember that you made this. Extraordinary volume, +isn’t it? I want to show you something.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> + +<p>Quickly turning to one of the pages he pointed to the line, <cite>The +hidden warmth of the Polar Sea</cite>.</p> + +<p>“What do you think of that?” he demanded. “Did you ever think of the +Polar Sea as being warm? And by Jove he’s right,—it <em>is</em> warm!”</p> + +<p>Later, in Washington, I accepted his invitation for luncheon at the +White House and for an afternoon in his library, where we continued our +discussion of books. Before we turned to the volumes, he showed me some +of the unusual presents which various potentates had given him, such as +a jade bear from the Tzar of Russia, a revolver from Admiral Togo, and +line drawings made personally by the Kaiser, showing in detail every +ship in our Navy. When I expressed surprise that such exact knowledge +should be in the possession of another country, my host became serious.</p> + +<p>“The Kaiser is a most extraordinary fellow,” he said +deliberately,—“not every one realizes how extraordinary. He and I have +corresponded ever since I became President, and I tell you that if his +letters were ever published they would bring on a world war. Thank God +I don’t have to leave them behind when I retire. That’s one prerogative +the President has, at any rate.”</p> + +<p>I often thought of these comments after the World War broke out. An +echo of them came +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> while the desperate struggle was in full force. +Ernest Harold Baynes, nature-lover and expert on birds, was visiting +at my house, having dined with the ex-President at Oyster Bay the week +before. In speaking of the dinner, Baynes said that Roosevelt declared +that had he been President, Germany would never have forced the war at +the time she did. When pressed to explain, Roosevelt said:</p> + +<p>“The Kaiser would have remembered what he outlined to me in some +letters he wrote while I was President. Bill knows me, and I know Bill!”</p> + +<p>From the library we extended our examination to the family living-room, +where there were other volumes of interest on the tables or in the +bookcases. From these, the President picked up a hand-lettered, +illuminated manuscript which he had just received as a present from +King Menelik of Abyssinia. Some one had told him that it was a +manuscript of the twelfth or thirteenth century, but to a student +of the art of illumination it was clearly a modern copy of an old +manuscript. The hand lettering was excellent, but the decoration +included colors impossible to secure with the ancient pigments, and the +parchment was distinctly of modern origin.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p> + +<p>“You are just the one to tell me about this,” Mr. Roosevelt exclaimed. +“Is it an original manuscript?”</p> + +<p>He so obviously wished to receive an affirmative reply that I +temporized by asking if some letter of description had not come with it.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” he replied, immediately divining the occasion of my question +and showing his disappointment; “there was a missive, which is now in +the archives of the State Department. I saw a translation of it, but +it is only one of those banal expressions similar to any one of my +own utterances, when I cable, for instance, to my imperial brother, +the Emperor of Austria, how touched and moved I am to learn that his +cousin, the lady with the ten names, has been safely delivered of a +child!”</p> + +<p>The President was particularly interested in the subject of +illustration, and he showed me several examples, asking for a +description of the various processes. From that we passed on to a +discussion of the varying demand from the time when I first began to +make books. I explained that the development of the halftone plate +and of the four-color process plates had been practically within this +period,—that prior to 1890 the excessive cost of woodcuts, steel +engravings, or lithography +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> confined illustration to expensive volumes. +The halftone opened the way for profuse illustration at minimum expense.</p> + +<p>The President showed me an impression from one of Timothy Cole’s +marvelous woodcuts, and we agreed that the halftone had never taken the +place of any process that depends upon the hand for execution. The very +perfection to which the art of halftone reproduction has been carried +is a danger point in considering the permanence of its popularity. +This does not apply to its use in newspapers, but in reproducing with +such slavish fidelity photographs of objects perpetuated in books +of permanent value. It seemed paradoxical to say that the nearer +perfection an art attains the less interesting it becomes, because the +very variation incidental to hand work in any art is what relieves the +monotony of that perfection attained through mechanical means. Since +then, a few leading engravers have demonstrated how the halftone may be +improved by hand work. This combination has opened up new possibilities +that guarantee its continued popularity.</p> + +<p class='p0'>With the tremendous increase in the cost of manufacturing books +during and since the World War, publishers found that by omitting +illustrations from their volumes they could come nearer +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> +to keeping the cost within the required limits, so +for a period illustrated volumes became +limited in number</p> + +<p class='no-indent p0' style='margin-top: .5em'>There is no question that the public loves pictures, and the +development during recent years of so-called newspapers from which the +public gleans the daily news by means of halftone illustrations, is, +in a way, a reversion to the time before the printing press, when the +masses received their education wholly through pictorial design. The +popularity of moving pictures is another evidence. I have always wished +that this phase had developed at the time of our discussion, for I am +sure Mr. Roosevelt would have had some interesting comments to make on +its significance. I like to believe that this tendency will correct +itself, for, +after all, the pictures which are most worth +while are those which we ourselves draw +subconsciously from impressions made +through intellectual +exploits</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>The Lure of Illumination</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>IV</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>THE LURE OF ILLUMINATION</p> + + +<p class='p2'>Sitting one day in the librarian’s office in the Laurenziana Library, +in Florence, the conversation turned upon the subject of illumination. +Taking a key from his pocket, my friend Guido Biagi unlocked one of the +drawers in the ancient wooden desk in front of him, and lifted from it +a small, purple vellum case, inlaid with jewels. Opening it carefully, +he exposed a volume similarly bound and similarly adorned. Then, as he +turned the leaves, and the full splendor of the masterpiece was spread +out before me,—the marvelous delicacy of design, the gorgeousness of +color, the magnificence of decoration and miniature,—I drew in my +breath excitedly, and bent nearer to the magnifying glass which was +required in tracing the intricacy of the work.</p> + +<p>This was a <cite>Book of Hours</cite> illuminated by Francesco d’Antonio +del Cherico, which had once belonged to Lorenzo de’ Medici, and was +representative of the best of the fifteenth-century Italian work +(<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_32'>146</a>). The hand letters were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> written by Antonio Sinibaldi +in humanistic characters upon the finest and rarest parchment; the +illumination, with its beaten gold and gorgeous colors, was so close a +representation of the jewels themselves as to make one almost believe +that the gems were inlaid upon the page! And it was the very volume +that had many times rested in the hands of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as +it was at that moment resting in mine!</p> + +<p>For the first time the art of illumination became real to me,—not +something merely to be gazed at with respect and admiration, but an +expression of artistic accomplishment to be studied and understood, and +made a part of one’s life.</p> + +<p>The underlying thought that has inspired illumination in books from +its very beginning is more interesting even than the splendid pages +which challenge one’s comprehension and almost pass beyond his power of +understanding. To the ancients, as we have seen, the rarest gems in all +the world were gems of thought. The book was the tangible and visible +expression of man’s intellect, worthy of the noblest presentation. +These true lovers of books engaged scribes to write the text in +<i lang='la'>minium</i> of rare brilliancy brought from India or Spain, or in +Byzantine ink of pure Oriental gold; they selected, to write upon, +the finest material +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> possible,—sometimes nothing less than virgin +parchment, soft as velvet, made from the skins of still-born kids; they +employed the greatest artists of the day to draw decorations or to +paint miniatures; and they enclosed this glorified thought of man, now +perpetuated for all time, in a cover devised sometimes of tablets of +beaten gold, or of ivory inlaid with precious jewels (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_20'>112</a>).</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_20'> +<a href='images/i_20.jpg'><img src='images/i_20-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>CARVED IVORY BINDING</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Jeweled with Rubies and Turquoises</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>From <cite>Psalter</cite> (12th Century). Brit. Mus. Eger. MS. 1139</p> +<p class='caption'>(Reduced in size)</p> +</div> + +<p>For centuries, this glorification was primarily bestowed upon religious +manuscripts, and illumination came to be associated with the Church, +but by the fourteenth century the art ceased to be confined to the +cloister. Wealthy patrons recognized that it offered too splendid +a medium of expression to permit limitation; and lay artists were +employed to add their talents in increasing the illuminated treasures +of the world.</p> + +<p>There would seem to be no reason why so satisfying an art as that of +illumination should not continue to be employed to make beautifully +printed books still more beautiful, yet even among those who really +love and know books there is a surprising lack of knowledge concerning +this fascinating work. The art of Raphael and Rubens has been a part of +our every-day life and is familiar to us; but the names of Francesco +d’Antonio, Jean Foucquet, and Jean Bourdichon have never +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> become +household words, and the masterpieces of the illuminator’s art which +stand to their credit seem almost shrouded in a hazy and mysterious +indefiniteness.</p> + +<p>I have learned from my own experience that even fragmentary study +brings rich rewards:—the interest in discovering that instead of +being merely decorative, the art of illumination is as definitive in +recording the temporary or fashionable customs of various periods as +history itself. There is a satisfaction in learning to distinguish +the characteristics of each well-defined school:—of recognizing the +fretted arcades and mosaics of church decoration in the Romanesque +style; the stained glass of the Gothic cathedrals in the schools of +England, France, Germany, or Italy; the love of flower cultivation in +the work of the Netherlandish artists; the echo of the skill of the +goldsmith and enameller in the French manuscripts; and the glory of the +gem cutter in those of the Italian Renaissance. There is the romance +connected with each great masterpiece as it passes from artist to +patron, and then on down the centuries, commemorating loyal devotion to +saintly attributes; expressing fealty at coronations or congratulations +at Royal marriages; conveying expressions of devotion and affection +from noble lords and ladies,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> one to the other. Illuminated +volumes were not the playthings of the common people, and in their +peregrinations to their final resting places in libraries and museums, +they passed along a Royal road and became clothed with fascinating +associations.</p> + +<p>There was a time when I thought I knew enough about the various schools +to recognize the locality of origin or the approximate date of a +manuscript, but I soon learned my presumption. Illuminators of one +country, particularly of France, scattered themselves all over Europe, +retaining the basic principles of their own national style, yet adding +to it something significant of the country in which they worked. Of +course, there are certain external evidences which help. The vellum +itself tells a story: if it is peculiarly white and fine, and highly +polished, the presumption is that it is Italian or dates earlier than +the tenth century; if very thin and soft, it was made from the skins +of still-born calves or kids, and is probably of the thirteenth or +fourteenth centuries.</p> + +<p>The colors, too, contribute their share. Each old-time artist ground +or mixed his own pigments,—red and blue, and less commonly yellow, +green, purple, black, and white. Certain shades are characteristic of +certain periods. The application of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> gold differs from time to time: +in England, for instance, gold powder was used until the twelfth +century, after which date gold leaf is beautifully laid on the sheet. +The raised-gold letters and decorations were made by building up with a +peculiar clay, after the design had been drawn in outline, over which +the gold leaf was skilfully laid and burnished with an agate.</p> + +<p>As the student applies himself to the subject, one clue leads him +to another, and he pursues his search with a fascination that soon +becomes an obsession. That chance acquaintance with Francesco d’Antonio +inspired me to become better acquainted with this art. It took me into +different monasteries and libraries, always following “the quest,” and +lured me on to further seeking by learning of new beauties for which +to search, and of new examples to be studied. Even as I write this, +I am told that at Chantilly, in the Musée Condé, the <cite>Très Riches +Heures</cite> of the Duc de Berry is the most beautiful example of the +French school. I have never seen it, and I now have a new objective on +my next visit to France!</p> + +<p>In this quest, covering many years, I have come to single out certain +manuscripts as signifying to me certain interesting developments in the +art during its evolution, and I study them whenever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> the opportunity +offers. It is of these that I make a record here. Some might select +other examples as better illustrative from their own viewpoints; some +might draw conclusions different from mine from the same examples,—and +we might all be right!</p> + +<p>There is little for us to examine in our pilgrimage until the Emperor +Justinian, after the conflagration in the year 532, which completely +wiped out Constantinople with its magnificent monuments, reconstructed +and rebuilt the city. There are two copies of <cite>Virgil</cite> at the +Vatican Library in Rome, to be sure, which are earlier than that, +and form links in the chain between illumination as illustration +and as book decoration; there is the <cite>Roman Calendar</cite> in the +Imperial Library at Vienna, in which for the first time is combined +decoration with illustration; there is the <cite>Ambrosiana Homer</cite> at +Milan, of which an excellent reproduction may be found in any large +library,—made under the supervision of Achille Ratti, before he +became Pope Pius XI; there are the burnt fragments of the <cite>Cottonian +Genesis</cite> at the British Museum in London,—none more than four +inches square, and running down to one inch, some perforated with +holes, and almost obliterated, others still preserving the ancient +colors of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> design, with the Greek letters clearly legible after +sixteen centuries.</p> + +<p>These are historical and interesting, but we are seeking beauty. In the +splendor of the rebirth of Constantinople, to which all the known world +contributed gold, and silver, and jewels, medieval illumination found +its beginning. Artists could now afford to send to the Far East and to +the southern shores of Europe for their costly materials. Brilliant +<i lang='la'>minium</i> came from India and from Spain, +<i lang='la'>lapis lazuli</i> from Persia and Bokhara, and the famous +Byzantine gold ink was manufactured by the illuminators themselves out +of pure Oriental gold. The vellum was stained with rose and scarlet +tints and purple dyes, upon which the gold and silver inks contrasted +with marvelous brilliancy.</p> + +<p>Gorgeousness was the fashion of the times in everything from +architecture to dress, and in the wealth and sumptuous materials at +their command the artists mistook splendor for beauty. The Byzantine +figure work is based upon models as rigid as those of the Egyptians, +and shows little life or variety (<a href='#i_21'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>). +Landscapes and trees are symbolic and fanciful. Buildings have no +regard for relative proportions, and are tinted merely as parts of the +general color scheme. The illuminators +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> +adhered so closely to mechanical rules that the volumes lack even +individuality.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_21'> +<a href='images/i_21.jpg'><img src='images/i_21-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PSALTER IN GREEK. <cite>Byzantine</cite>, 11th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Solomon, David, Gideon, and the Annunciation</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19352. 9¼ × 8 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>There are comparatively few of these extravagant relics now in +existence. Their intrinsic value made them favorite objects of pillage, +and hundreds were destroyed for their jewels and precious metals. In +many of those that have endured, like the <cite>Codex Argenteus</cite>, at +Upsala, in Sweden, the silver letters have turned black, the gold ink +has become a rusty red, and the stained vellum now supplies a tawdry +background.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>After passing the early stages of the art, there are ten examples I +particularly like to keep fresh in my mind as showing the evolution of +that insatiable desire on the part of booklovers of all ages to enrich +the book. Four of these are in the British Museum in London, four in +the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, one in the Library of San Marco +in Venice, and one in the Laurenziana Library in Florence. In each of +these storehouses of treasure there are many other manuscripts worthy +of all the time a pilgrim can spare; but these ten represent different +schools and different epochs, and in my own study have combined to make +illumination a living art and a romantic history.</p> + +<p>The <cite>Lindisfarne Gospels</cite> is where I start my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> illuminated +pilgrimage. It takes me back to the seventh century, when the world was +shrouded in darkest ignorance, and is a reminder that except for the +development in the Irish monasteries, as typified by early illuminated +volumes such as this, knowledge of books might have almost wholly +disappeared. It recalls the asceticism of those early Irish monks +carried even to a point of fanaticism; their toilsome pilgrimages to +Rome, visiting the different monasteries and collecting, one by one, +the manuscripts to bring back to form those early libraries that kept +alive the light of learning.</p> + +<p>The Irish school of writing and painting passed over to England through +the monasteries established by the Irish monks in Scotland, and the +earliest of the English settlements was Lindisfarne. It was here that +the <cite>Gospels</cite>, one of the most characteristic examples of the +Celtic School, as translated to northern England, was produced. Such +knowledge of its date and origin as exists rests upon a colophon added +at the end of the manuscript, probably in the tenth century, which +would seem to place the date of the execution of the work at about the +year 700. For nearly two centuries it remained as the chief treasure +of Lindisfarne. In 875, so the tradition runs, in order to escape +from the invasion of the Danes, it was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> decided to remove the body of +Saint Cuthbert and the most valued relics to the mainland, and the +<cite>Gospels</cite> was included. When the attempt was made to cross over to +Ireland, according to the legend, the ship was driven back by storm, +and the chest containing the precious volume was lost overboard. Here +is the quaint chronicle:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>In this storm, while the ship was lying over on her side, a +copy of the <cite>Gospels</cite>, adorned with gold and precious +stones, fell overboard and sank into the depths of the sea. +Accordingly, after a little while, they bend their knees and +prostrate themselves at full length before the feet of the +sacred body, asking pardon for their foolish venture. Then +they seize the helm and turn the ship back to the shore and +to their fellows, and immediately they arrive there without +any difficulty, the wind blowing astern.… Amidst their +lamentations in this distress, at length the accustomed help of +their pious patron came to their aid, whereby their minds were +relieved from grief and their bodies from labor, seeing that +the Lord is a refuge of the poor, a helper in time of trouble. +For, appearing in a vision to one of them, Hunred by name, he +bade them seek, when the tide was low, for the manuscript…; +for, perchance, beyond the utmost they could hope, they would, +by the mercy of God, find it.… Accordingly they go to the +sea and find that it had retired much farther than it was +accustomed; and after walking three miles or more they find the +sacred manuscript of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> +the <cite>Gospels</cite> itself, exhibiting all its outer splendor of +jewels and gold and all the beauty of its pages and +writing within, as though it had never been touched +by water.… And this is believed to be due to the merits +of Saint Cuthbert himself and of those who made the book, +namely Bishop Eadfrith of holy memory, who wrote it with his +own hand in honor of the blessed Cuthbert; and the venerable +Æthelwald, his successor, who caused it to be adorned with gold +and precious stones; and Saint Billfrith the anchorite, who, +obeying with skilled hands the wishes of his superior, achieved +an excellent work. For he excelled in the goldsmith’s art.</p> +</div> + +<p>This quotation from Mr. Eric George Millar’s Introduction to the +facsimile reproduction of this famous manuscript, published by the +British Museum, is given at such length to emphasize at the very +beginning of this pilgrimage the important place given to these +manuscripts in the communities for which they were prepared. The fact +that such a legend exists at all attests the personality the manuscript +had assumed. It was my very great pleasure, the last time I studied +the <cite>Gospels</cite>, to have Mr. Millar, who is an Assistant in the +Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum, explain many things in +connection with it which could not be gleaned without the exhaustive +study which he has given to it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> + +<p>The <cite>Gospels</cite> includes 258 leaves of heavy vellum, measuring about +13 by 10 inches. The Latin text is written in beautifully designed, +<i lang='la'>semi-uncial</i> characters. These differ from the capital letters +only by their relatively greater roundness, inclination, and inequality +in height. This style of lettering obtained until the eighth or ninth +century, when the semi-uncial character became the transition to the +minuscule. There are five full pages of decoration, in cruciform design +of most extraordinary elaboration; six pages of ornamented text; four +full-page miniatures of the Evangelists, in which the scribes are drawn +in profile, seated, with cushion, desk, and footstool; sixteen pages of +Canon tables, decorated in pure Celtic style; and numerous initials of +various sizes.</p> + +<p>The great interest in this manuscript lies in the cruciform pages. When +I first saw them I thought the work a marvelous example of the amount +of intricate design an artist could devise within a given area of +space. Then, as I studied them, came the realization that, complicated +as they were, there was a definite plan the artist had established and +followed which preserved the balance of coloring and design.</p> + +<p>In the illustration here given (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_22'>124</a>), Mr. Millar showed +me how he has ingeniously +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> unraveled the knots. It is peculiarly +interesting as it demonstrates the methods by which the expert is able +to understand much that the casual observer fails to see. He pointed +out that the background of the page is occupied by a design of no less +than 88 birds, arranged in a perfect pattern, with 7 at the top, 7 at +the bottom, 9 on each side, 12 in the gaps between the outer panels, +four groups of 10 surrounding the rectangular panels, and 4 single +birds in the gaps between the points of the cross and the T panels. +The necks and the bodies are so cleverly balanced that even when at +first the scheme seems inconsistent, further examination shows that +the artist adhered religiously to his plan. The color arrangement is +carried out with equal thought and care.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_22'> +<a href='images/i_22.jpg'><img src='images/i_22-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>THE LINDISFARNE GOSPELS. <cite>Celtic</cite>, about A.D. 700</p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Cotton MS. Nero. D. iv. 12½ × 10 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>The four miniatures of the Evangelists show Byzantine influence, but +in the features, and the hair, and in the frames, the Celtic style +prevails. Gold is used only on two pages.</p> + +<p>The <cite>Lindisfarne Gospels</cite> cannot be called beautiful when compared +with the work of later centuries, but can we fully appreciate the +beauty we are approaching without becoming familiar, step by step, +with what led up to it? In this manuscript the precious Gospels were +enriched by the labor of devoted enthusiasts in the manner they +knew +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> best, and with an ingenuity and industry that staggers us +today. Taking what the past had taught them, they gave to it their own +interpretation, and thus advanced the art toward its final consummation +and glory.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Taken merely as an example of illumination, few would share my interest +in the <cite>Alcuin Bible</cite>, a Carolingian manuscript of the ninth +century; but to any one interested in printing, this huge volume +at the British Museum cannot be overlooked. In the eighth century +the Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionary artists transplanted their +work to their settlements on the Continent, out of which sprang the +Carolingian School in France,—so named in honor of Charlemagne. Sacred +compositions, derived largely from Latin and Byzantine sources, were +now added to the highly ornamental letters. Solid backgrounds were +abandoned, and handsome architectural designs were used to frame the +miniatures.</p> + +<p>If you will examine the <cite>Alcuin Bible</cite> with me, you will note +what a tremendous advance has been made. The manuscript is a copy +of the Vulgate said to be revised and amended by Alcuin of York to +present to Charlemagne on the occasion of that monarch’s coronation. +Some dispute this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> tradition altogether; some claim that a similar +Bible, now in Rome, is entitled to the honor; but the controversy does +not detract from the interest in the book itself. This Alcuin of York +was the instrument of Charlemagne in establishing the reform in hand +lettering, which has been of the utmost importance in the history of +printing. Starting with the foundation of the School of Tours in 796, +the <i lang='la'>minuscule</i>, or lower-case letter, which is the basis of our +modern styles, superseded all other forms of hand lettering. By the +twelfth century the clear, free-flowing form that developed from the +Caroline minuscule was the most beautiful hand ever developed, and was +never surpassed until the humanistic scribes of the fifteenth century +took it in its Italian form as their model and perfected it.</p> + +<p>The volume is a large quarto, 20 by 14¼ inches in size, splendidly +written in double column in minuscule characters with uncial initials +(<a href='#i_23'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>). There are four full-page illuminations, and many +smaller miniatures, with characteristic architectural detail that show +Roman influence, while the decorations themselves are reminiscent of +the Byzantine and the Celtic Schools.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_23'> +<a href='images/i_23.jpg'><img src='images/i_23-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ALCUIN BIBLE. <cite>Carolingian</cite>, 9th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Showing the Caroline Minuscule</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 10546. 20 × 14¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>It is the hand lettering rather than the illumination or the decoration +that particularly interests +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> me. When I first began my work in +designing my Humanistic type, I was amazed that the humanistic scribes +of the fifteenth century, upon whose letters I based my own, could have +so suddenly taken such a stride forward. The mere fact that there was a +greater demand for their work did not seem to explain the phenomenon. +Then I discovered that these fifteenth-century artists, instead of +adapting or copying the Caroline minuscule, set about to perfect it. +They mastered the principles upon which it was based, and with the +technical advantages that had come to them through the intervening +centuries, brought the design to its fullest beauty.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>To supplement my study of the <cite>Alcuin Bible</cite>, I turn to the +masterpiece of the Carolingian School in the Bibliothèque Nationale +in Paris. <cite>The Golden Gospels of Saint Médard</cite> belongs to the +same period as the <cite>Alcuin Bible</cite>, and its hand letters are of +the same beautiful design, but more brilliant in that they are written +throughout in gold. In spite of the crude and unnatural figures, I am +always impressed with a feeling that the artist is, for the first time, +making a definite effort to break away from past tradition toward more +natural design. The Byzantine atmosphere still +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> clings to the work as a +whole (<a href='#i_24'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>), but in the frames and the backgrounds there +is an echo of the ivory carving and the architecture of the new Church +of San Vitale at Ravenna, and the powerful influence of the early +Christian symbolism asserts itself in the miniatures.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_24'> +<a href='images/i_24.jpg'><img src='images/i_24-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GOLDEN GOSPELS OF ST. MÉDARD.</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Carolingian</cite>, 9th Century</p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 8850. 12 × 7½ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>The hand-lettered pages are enclosed in plain borders of green or red +tint, with outside rules of gold. Each picture page covers the entire +leaf. Every now and then, superimposed upon the solid background of the +margins, are tiny figures so far superior in freedom of design to the +major subjects as to make one wonder why the more pretentious efforts +are not farther advanced than they are. Yet why should we be surprised +that an artist, under the influence of centuries of precedent and the +ever-present aversion to change, should move slowly in expressing +originality? As it is, the pages of <cite>Saint Médard</cite> give us for the +first time motivation for the glorious development of the art to come +in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The rise of Gothic influence forms the great dividing line between the +old, or ecclesiastic, and the new, or naturalistic, spirit in monastic +art. The <cite>Psalter of Saint Louis</cite>, a Gothic manuscript +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> of the +thirteenth century, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, is an +example of this transition that I like to study.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of the thirteenth century the initial—which in the +Celtic style had dominated the entire page—was losing its supremacy, +becoming simply one factor in the general scheme. A delicate fringe +work or filigree of pen flourishes, which had sprung up around the +initial as it became reduced in size, was later to be converted into a +tendril or cylindrical stem, bearing a succession of five leaves and +leaflets of ivy, usually entirely filled with burnished gold. Small +figures, and, later, groups of figures, take the place of the linear +ornament in the interior of the letter, and calligraphy and miniature +painting become successfully fused. An exact date cannot be assigned, +as it was the result of a slow and gradual growth.</p> + +<p>From certain references made in the Calendar pages of the +<cite>Psalter</cite>, it is evident that the manuscript was copied and +illuminated between the year 1252, when Queen Blanche of Castile died, +and the death of Saint Louis in 1270. What a story this book could +tell! Written in French in red ink on one of the front end leaves is +this inscription:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='no-indent p0 bq'>This Psalter of Saint Louis was given by Queen Jeanne d’Evreux +to King Charles, son of King John, in the year +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> of our Master, +1369; and the present King Charles, son of the said King +Charles, gave it to Madame Marie of +France, his daughter, a nun at Poissy, on Saint Michel’s +Day, in the year 1400</p> +</div> + +<p>The <cite>Psalter</cite> contains 260 leaves of parchment, 8½ by 6 inches. +Of these, seventy-eight are small, beautiful miniatures, depicting the +principal scenes in the early books of the Old Testament, and eight +are illustrations to the Psalms (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_26'>132</a>), +the remaining leaves being occupied by the text. In these miniatures +is shown a refinement and delicacy of treatment combined with unusual +freedom in execution. Here is one of the best examples of the +reflection of the stained-glass windows of the Gothic cathedrals +(<a href='#i_25'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>), to which reference has already +been made. There is no shading whatever. The body color is laid on the +design in flat tints, finished by strokes of the pen.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_25'> +<a href='images/i_25.jpg'><img src='images/i_25-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PSALTER OF SAINT LOUIS. <cite>Gothic</cite>, 13th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Abraham and Isaac</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525. 8½ × 6 inches)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_26'> +<a href='images/i_26.jpg'><img src='images/i_26-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PSALTER OF SAINT LOUIS. <cite>Gothic</cite>, 13th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Psalms</cite> lxviii. 1–3</p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 10525. 8½ × 6 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>All this is interesting because this period marks the end of the +needless limitations illuminators placed upon themselves. Working on +vellum as a medium instead of in glass with lead outlines, should be a +much simpler operation! Still, one can’t help reveling in the bright +scarlet and the rich blue of the stained glass, and would be loath to +give it up.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> + +<p>The volume is bound in old boards, covered with blue and rose material +embossed with silver and reinforced with velvet. The clasps are gone.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The style of illumination in the thirteenth century shows no distinct +national characteristics, for, even in England, some of the work was +executed by French artists. The initial is usually set within a frame +shaped to its outline, the ground being either of gold, slightly raised +or burnished, or of color, especially dark blue and pale tints of +salmon, gray, or violet, sometimes edged with gold.</p> + +<p><cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter</cite>, a superb example of the English School in +the early fourteenth century, is a landmark in our pilgrimage because, +in addition to its surpassing beauty, it is an example of illumination +sought for its own artistic value instead of being associated wholly +with devotional manuscripts. No one can examine the charming series +of little tinted drawings in the margins of the Litany without being +convinced that the artist, whoever he may have been, was quite familiar +with the world outside the Church (see +<a href='#frontispiece'><span class='xref'>frontispiece</span></a>).</p> + +<p>The earliest note of ownership in this manuscript is of the sixteenth +century:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>This boke was sume tyme the Erle of Rutelands, and it was his +wil that it shulde by successioun all way go to the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> lande +of Ruteland or to him that linyally suceedes by reson of +inheritaunce in the saide lande.</p> +</div> + +<p>How fascinating these records are, made by different hands as the +precious manuscripts are passed on down the ages! Even though we have +no absolute knowledge of which Rutland is meant, an added personality +is given to the pages we are now permitted to turn and to admire. In +this manuscript there is also a second note, written in Latin on the +fly leaf at the end, paying a tribute to a certain Baldwin Smith, “an +honest customs officer,” who frustrated an attempt to ship the volume +out of England, and presented it to Queen Mary. It is now in the +British Museum.</p> + +<p>Whether or not this was Queen Mary’s first acquaintance with the +manuscript is not known, but from the binding she put on it she surely +considered it a highly prized personal possession. It would naturally +be of special interest to her because of its connection with the old +liturgy she was so anxious to restore. The silver-gilt clasp fittings +are missing now. The crimson velvet with the pomegranate, the Queen’s +badge, worked in colored silks and gold thread on each cover, are +worn and shabby; but on the corner plates the engraved lion, dragon, +portcullis, and fleur-de-lys of the Tudors are still triumphant.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p> + +<p>The manuscript, executed upon thin vellum, and consisting of 320 leaves +about 11 by 7 inches, opens with a series of 228 pen and ink drawings. +In most cases there are two designs on each page, illustrating Bible +history from the Creation down to the death of Solomon (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_27'>134</a>). With the drawings is a running description in French, +sometimes in prose, sometimes in rhyme, which in itself is interesting, +as the story does not always confine itself strictly to the Biblical +records but occasionally embodies apocryphal details.</p> + +<p>The drawings themselves are exquisite, and in the skill of execution +mark another tremendous advance in the art of illumination. They are +delicately tinted with violet, green, red, and brown. The frame is a +plain band of vermilion, from each corner of which is extended a stem +with three leaves tinted with green or violet.</p> + +<p>Following the series of drawings comes a full page showing the Tree of +Jesse, and three other full pages depicting the Saints,—one page of +four compartments and two of six. The text, from this point, represents +the usual form of the liturgical Psalter, the Psalms being preceded +by a Calendar, two pages to a month, and followed by the Canticles, +including the Athanasian Creed, and then by the Litany. In the Psalter, +the miniatures show +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> +incidents from the life of Christ; the Canticles +depict scenes from the Passion; while in the Litany are miniatures +of the Saints and Martyrs. The initials themselves are elaborate, +many containing small miniatures, and all lighted up with brilliant +colors and burnished gold. In the Litany, in addition to the religious +subjects, there are splendid little scenes of every-day life painted +in the lower margins which make the manuscript unique,—illustrations +of the Bestiary, tilting and hunting scenes, sports and pastimes, +grotesque figures and combats, dancers and musicians. The manuscript +ends with the Miracles of the Virgin and the Lives and Passions of the +Saints.</p> + +<p>In <cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter</cite>, and in manuscripts from this period +to those of the sixteenth century, we find ourselves reveling in +sheer beauty. “Why not have started here?” asks my reader. Perhaps we +should have done so; but this is a record not of what I ought to do, +but of what I’ve done! To see one beautiful manuscript after another, +without being able to recognize what makes each one different and +significant, would take away my pleasure, for the riotous colors and +gold would merge one into another. Is it not true that there comes +greater enjoyment in better understanding? We admire what we may not +understand, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> +without understanding there can be no complete +appreciation. In this case, familiarity breeds content!</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_27'> +<a href='images/i_27.jpg'><img src='images/i_27-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>QUEEN MARY’S PSALTER. <i>English</i>, 14th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>From the Life of Joseph</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Royal MS. 2B vii. 11 × 7 inches)</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>After studying the best of fourteenth-century English illumination in +<cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter</cite>, I like to turn to the <cite>Bedford Book of +Hours</cite>, to make comparison with one of the most beautiful French +manuscripts of a century later. This is also at the British Museum, +so in the brief space of time required by the attendant to change the +volumes on the rack in front of me, I am face to face with the romance +and the beauty of another famous volume, which stands as a memorial of +English domination in France.</p> + +<p>Fashions change in illuminated manuscripts, as in all else, and books +of hours were now beginning to be the vogue in place of psalters. This +one was written and decorated for John, Duke of Bedford, son of Henry +IV, and was probably a wedding gift to Anne, his wife. This marriage, +it will be remembered, was intended to strengthen the English alliance +with Anne’s brother, Philip of Burgundy. On the blank page on the back +of the Duke’s portrait is a record in Latin, made by John Somerset, +the King’s physician, to the effect that on Christmas Eve, 1430, the +Duchess, with her husband’s consent, presented the manuscript to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> the +young King Henry VI, who was then at Rouen, on his way to be crowned +at Paris. Such notes, made in these later illuminated volumes, are +interesting as far as they go, but there is so much left unsaid! In +the present instance, how came the manuscript, a hundred years later, +in the possession of Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici, of France? +After being thus located, where was it for the next hundred years, +before it was purchased by Edward Harley, 2d Earl of Oxford, from Sir +Robert Worsley’s widow, to be presented to his daughter, the Duchess +of Portland? These are questions that naturally arise in one’s mind +as he turns the gorgeous pages, for it seems incredible that such +beauty could remain hidden for such long periods. Now, happily, through +purchase in 1852, the manuscript has reached its final resting place.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_28'> +<a href='images/i_28.jpg'><img src='images/i_28-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>BEDFORD BOOK OF HOURS. <i>French</i>, 15th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Showing one of the superb Miniature Pages</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18850. 10¼ × 7¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>Like other books of hours, the <cite>Bedford</cite> opens with the Calendar +pages, combining the signs of the Zodiac with beautifully executed +scenes typical of each month. Then follow four full-page designs +showing the Creation and Fall, the Building of the Ark, the Exit from +the Ark, and the Tower of Babel. The Sequences of the Gospels come +next; then the Hours of the Virgin, with Penitential Psalms and Litany; +the Shorter Hours;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> +the Vigils of the Dead; the Fifteen Joys; the +Hours of the Passion; the Memorials of the Saints; and various Prayers. +Throughout the 289 leaves, a little larger than 10 by 7 inches, are +thirty-eight full-page miniatures that are masterpieces,—particularly +the Annunciation, with which the Hours of the Virgin begin. Every page +of text is surrounded by a magnificent border, rich in colors and +gold, with foliage and birds, and with the daintiest little miniatures +imaginable. While these borders are based upon the ivy-leaf pattern, +it resembles the style that carries the illumination through the leaf, +bud, and flower up to the fruit itself, which one associates more with +the Flemish than the French School. The work is really a combination +of the French and Flemish Schools, but is essentially French in its +conception and execution.</p> + +<p>It was the custom, in these specially created manuscripts, to +immortalize the heads of the family by including them with other, +and, perhaps in some cases, more religious subjects. In this <cite>Book +of Hours</cite>, the Duke of Bedford is depicted, clad in a long, +fur-lined gown of cloth-of-gold, kneeling before Saint George, and the +portrait is so fine that it has been frequently copied. The page which +perpetuates the Duchess is reproduced here (at <span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_28'>136</a>). Clad +in a sumptuous gown of cloth-of-gold, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> +lined with ermine, she kneels +before Saint Anne; her elaborate head-dress supports an artificial +coiffure, rich in jewels; on her long train, her two favorite dogs are +playing. The Saint is clad in a grey gown, with blue mantle and white +veil, with an open book in front of her. At her left stands the Virgin +in white, with jeweled crown, and the infant Christ, in grey robe. His +mother has thrown her arm affectionately about Him, while He, in turn, +beams on the kneeling Duchess. In His hand He carries an orb surmounted +by a cross. Saint Joseph stands at the right of the background, and +four angels may be seen with musical instruments, appearing above the +arras, on which is stamped the device and motto of the Duchess.</p> + +<p>Surrounding the miniature, worked into the border, in addition to +the Duke’s shield and arms, are exquisite smaller pictures, in +architectural backgrounds, showing Saint Anne’s three husbands and her +sons-in-law. The pages must be seen in their full color, and in their +original setting, to be appreciated.</p> + +<p>The manuscript is bound in red velvet, with silver-gilt clasps, bearing +the Harley and the Cavendish arms, and dates back to the time of the +Earl of Oxford.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_29'> +<a href='images/i_29.jpg'><img src='images/i_29-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. <i>French Renaissance</i>, 15th +Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Cyrus permits the Jews to return to their own Country, and to +rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Français 247. 16¼ × 11½ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> + +<p>In the <cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite>, Jean Foucquet’s masterpiece at +the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, we find the French Renaissance +School. This manuscript interests me for several and different reasons. +In the first place, Foucquet was one of the founders of the French +School of painting, and had his masterpieces been painted on canvas +instead of on vellum, his name would have been much more familiar +to art lovers than it is today. The high degree attained by the art +at Tours, which had become the center of the Renaissance in France, +demanded a setting for the miniatures different from the Flemish type +of decoration that had so dominated illumination in general. This it +found in the Italian style, which at that time was first attaining its +glory.</p> + +<p>The book itself was originally bound in two volumes, being a +French translation by an unknown writer of Flavius Josephus’ +<cite>Antiquities</cite> and <cite>War of the Jews</cite>, the subject being the +clemency of Cyrus toward the captive Jews in Babylon. It is in folio +(a little larger than 16 by 11 inches), written in double column, and +contains superb initials, vignettes, and miniatures (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_29'>138</a>). +The work was begun for the Duc de Berry, but was left unfinished at +his death in 1416. Later it came into the possession of the Duc de +Nemours.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> +Can one imagine a more aristocratic treasure for a cultured +gentleman to own! It was probably begun very early in the fifteenth +century, and completed between the years 1455 and 1477. A note at +the end of the first volume (which contains 311 leaves) by François +Robertet, secretary of Pierre II, Duc de Bourbon, states that nine of +the miniatures are “by the hand of that good painter of King Louis XI, +Jean Foucquet, native of Tours.”</p> + +<p>For over two hundred years this first volume, containing Books I to XIV +of the <cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite>, has been in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. It is bound in yellow morocco, and bears the arms of +Louis XV. The second volume was considered lost. In 1903 the English +collector, Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, purchased the missing copy in +London, at a sale at Sotheby’s. This contained Books XV to XX of the +<cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite> and Books I to VII of the <cite>War of the +Jews</cite>; but it was imperfect in that a dozen pages of miniatures had +been cut out. Two years later, Sir George Warner discovered ten of +these filched leaves in an album of miniatures that at some time had +been presented to Queen Victoria, and were in her collection at Windsor +Castle.</p> + +<p>As soon as Mr. Thompson heard of this discovery, he begged King Edward +VII to accept his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> volume, in order that the leaves might be combined. +The English monarch received the gift with the understanding that he, +in turn, might present the restored manuscript to the President of +the French Republic. This gracious act was accomplished on March 4, +1906, and now the two volumes rest side by side in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, reunited for all time after their long separation. If books +possess personalities, surely no international romance ever offered +greater material for the novelist’s imagination!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Now our pilgrimage takes us from Paris to Venice, to study that +priceless treasure of the Library of San Marco, the <cite>Grimani +Breviary</cite>, the gem of the Flemish School (which should properly +be called “Netherlandish”). This style overlapped, distinctly, +into Germany and France, and further complicated any certainty +of identification by the fact that the number of Netherlandish +illuminators was large, and they scattered themselves over Europe, +practising their art and style in France, Germany, and Italy. They all +worked with the same minute care, and it is practically impossible to +identify absolutely the work even of the most famous artists. There +has always been a question whether the chief glory of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> the <cite>Grimani +Breviary</cite> belonged to Hans Memling or to Gerard Van-der-Meire, but +from a study of the comparative claims the Memling enthusiasts would +seem to have the better of the argument.</p> + +<p>Internal and external evidence place the date of the execution of the +<cite>Grimani Breviary</cite> at 1478 to 1489,—ten years being required for +its completion. It is believed that the commission was given by Pope +Sixtus IV. The Pontiff, however, died before the volume was finished, +and it was left in the hands of one of the artists engaged upon it. +Antonello di Messina purchased it from this artist, who is supposed to +have been Hans Memling, and brought it to Venice, where he sold it for +the sum of 500 ducats to Cardinal Domenico Grimani, whose name it bears.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_30'> +<a href='images/i_30.jpg'><img src='images/i_30-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GRIMANI BREVIARY. <i>Flemish</i>, 15th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>La Vie au Mois de Janvier</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(Biblioteca San Marco, Venice. 10 × 9 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>This Cardinal Grimani was a man noted not only for his exemplary piety +but also as a literary man of high repute, and a collector of rare +judgment. When he died, the <cite>Breviary</cite> was bequeathed to his +nephew, Marino Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, on the condition that +at his death the precious manuscript should become the property of the +Venetian Republic. Marino carried the <cite>Breviary</cite> with him to Rome, +where it remained until his death in 1546. In spite of his precautions, +however, this and several other valuable objects +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> would have been +irretrievably lost had not Giovanni Grimani, Marino’s successor as +Patriarch at Aquileia, searched for it, and finally recovered it at +great cost to himself.</p> + +<p>In recognition of his services, Venice granted Giovanni the privilege +of retaining the manuscript in his possession during his lifetime. +Faithful to his trust, Giovanni, fearing lest the volume be again +lost, on October 3, 1593, sent for his great friend, Marco Antonio +Barbaro, Procurator of Saint Mark’s, placed the treasure in his hands, +and charged him to deliver it to the Doge Pasquale Cicogna in full +Senate. This was done, and the volume was stored in the Treasury of +the Basilica for safe keeping. Here it remained through the many +vicissitudes of Venice, and even after the fall of the Republic, until +the librarian Morelli persuaded the authorities to allow its removal to +the Library of San Marco, whither it was transferred October 4, 1797.</p> + +<p>When the <cite>Breviary</cite> was delivered to the Doge Pasquale, the +Republic voted to entrust the binding to one Alessandro Vittoria. The +cover is of crimson velvet, largely hidden by ornaments of silver +gilt. On one side are the arms and the medallion of Cardinal Domenico +Grimani, and on the other those of his father, the Doge Antonio. Both +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> +covers contain further decorations and Latin inscriptions, relating in +the first case to the gift, and in the other to its confirmation. In +the small medallions in the border one sees a branch of laurel, the +emblem of vigilance and protection, crossed by a branch of palm,—the +symbol of the religious life. The dove typifies purity, and the dragon +stands for defense.</p> + +<p>The volume itself contains 831 pages about 10 by 9 inches in size. +There are the usual Calendar pages, containing the signs of the Zodiac, +and further decorated with small miniatures (<a href='#i_31'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>), +alternating with twelve superb full-page illuminations (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_30'>142</a>), showing the occupations of the months. Following these, come +the Prayers, with sixty additional full-page miniatures based on Bible +history or the lives of the Saints. At the end are eighteen pages with +smaller miniatures assigned to the saints of special devotion, placed +at the beginning of the office dedicated to each.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_31'> +<a href='images/i_31.jpg'><img src='images/i_31-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GRIMANI BREVIARY. <cite>Flemish</cite>, 15th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Text Page showing Miniature and Decoration</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Biblioteca San Marco, Venice. 10 × 9 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>The marginal decorations throughout the book are wonderfully wrought. +Some pages are adorned with perpendicular bands, with constantly +varying color combinations. Arabesques of all kinds are used, and +interspersed among the ornamentation are flowers and fruits, animals, +birds, fishes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> +and all kinds of natural objects. In addition to +these, one finds little buildings, landscapes, architectural ornaments, +statues, church ornaments, frames, vases, cameos, medals, and scenes +from Bible history and from every-day life as well,—all showing the +genius of the artists who put themselves into the spirit of their work.</p> + +<p>When the old Campanile fell in 1902, one corner of the Library of +San Marco was damaged. Immediately telegrams poured in from all over +the world, anxiously inquiring for the safety of the <cite>Grimani +Breviary</cite>. Fortunately it was untouched. The last time I saw this +precious manuscript was in 1924. Doctor Luigi Ferrari, the librarian, +courteously took the volume from its case and laid it tenderly on a low +table, extending to me the unusual privilege of personal examination. +Thus I could turn the pages slowly enough to enjoy again the exquisite +charm of its miniatures, the beauty of its coloring, and to assimilate +the depth of feeling which pervades it throughout. My friends at the +British Museum think that in the Flemish pages of the <cite>Sforza Book +of Hours</cite> they have the finest example of the Flemish School. They +may be right; but no miniatures I have ever seen have seemed to me more +marvelously beautiful than those in the <cite>Grimani Breviary</cite>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span></p> + +<p>Whenever I examine a beautiful manuscript, and take delight in it, I +find myself comparing it with the Italian masterpiece of Francesco +d’Antonio del Cherico. It may be that this is due to my dramatic +introduction to that volume, as recorded at the beginning of this +chapter. Its date is perhaps half a century earlier than the <cite>Hours +of Anne of Brittany</cite>; it is of the same period as the <cite>Grimani +Breviary</cite> and the <cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite>; it is fifty years +later than the <cite>Bedford Book of Hours</cite>, and a century and a half +later than <cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter</cite>. Which of all these magnificent +manuscripts is the most beautiful? Who would dare to say! In all +there is found the expression of art in its highest form; in each +the individual admirer finds some special feature—the beauty of the +designs, the richness of the composition, the warmth of the coloring, +or the perfection of the execution—that particularly appeals.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_32'> +<a href='images/i_32.jpg'><img src='images/i_32-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>BOOK OF HOURS. <i>Italian</i>, 15th Century</p> +<p class='caption'>By Francesco d’Antonio del Cherico</p> +<p class='caption'>(R. Lau. Bibl. Ashb. 1874. 7 × 5 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>When one considers the early civilization of Italy, and the heights +finally attained by Italian illuminators, it is difficult to understand +why the intervening centuries show such tardy recognition of the art. +Even as late as the twelfth century, with other countries turning +out really splendid examples, the Italian work is of a distinctly +inferior order; but by the middle of the thirteenth +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> century, the +great revival in art brought about by Cimabue and Giotto stimulated +the development in illumination. During the next hundred years the art +became nationalized. The ornament diverged from the French type, and +assumed the peculiar straight bar or rod, with profile foliages, and +the sudden reversions of the curves with change of color, which are +characteristic of fourteenth-century Italian work. The miniatures, +introducing the new Tuscan manner of painting, entirely re-fashioned +miniature art. The figure becomes natural, well-proportioned, and +graceful, the heads delicate in feature and correct in expression. The +costumes are carefully wrought, the drapery folds soft, yet elaborately +finished. The colors are vivid but warm, the blue being particularly +effective.</p> + +<p>The vine-stem style immediately preceded the Classic revival which +came when the Medici and other wealthy patrons recognized the artistic +importance of illumination. In this style the stems are coiled most +gracefully, slightly tinted, with decorative flowerets. The grounds +are marked by varying colors, in which the artists delicately traced +tendrils in gold or white.</p> + +<p>The great glory of Italy in illumination came after the invention +of printing. Aside from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> apprehensions of the wealthy owners of +manuscript libraries that they would lose prestige if books became +common, beyond the danger to the high-born rulers of losing their +political power if the masses learned argument from the printed +book,—these true lovers of literature opposed the printing press +because they believed it to cheapen something that was so precious as +to demand protection. So they vied with one another in encouraging the +scribes and the illuminators to produce hand-written volumes such as +had never before been seen.</p> + +<p>Certainly the <cite>Book of Hours</cite> of d’Antonio is one of the marvels +of Florentine art. The nine full-page miniatures have never been +surpassed. No wonder that Lorenzo de’ Medici, lover of the beautiful, +should have kept it ever beside him! The delicate work in the small +scenes in the Calendar is as precise as that in the larger miniatures; +the decoration, rich in the variety of its design, really surpassed +the splendor and glory of the goldsmith’s art (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_32'>146</a>). Some +deplore the fact that England lost this treasure when the Italian +government purchased the Ashburnham Collection in 1884; but if there +ever was a manuscript that belongs in Florence, it is this.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p> + +<p>You may still see d’Antonio’s masterpiece at the Laurenziana +Library, but it is no longer kept in the ancient wooden desk. The +treasures of illumination are now splendidly arrayed in cases, where +all may study and admire. There are heavy choir-books, classic +manuscripts, books of hours, and breviaries, embellished by Lorenzo +Monaco, master of Fra Angelico; by Benozzo Gozzoli, whose frescoes +still make the Riccardi famous; by Gherado, and Clovio, and by other +artists whose names have long since been forgotten, but whose work +remains as an everlasting monument to a departed art that should be +revived.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Experts, I believe, place the work of Jean Foucquet, in the +<cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite>, ahead of that of Jean Bourdichon +(probably Foucquet’s pupil) in the <cite>Hours of Anne of Brittany</cite>; +but frankly this sixteenth century manuscript at the Bibliothèque +Nationale, in Paris, always yields me greater pleasure. Perhaps this +is in compensation for not knowing too much! I will agree with them +that the decorative borders of Foucquet are much more interesting than +Bourdichon’s, for the return of the Flemish influence to French art +at this time was not particularly fortunate. In the borders of the +<cite>Grimani Breviary</cite> realism in reproducing flowers, vegetables, +bugs, and small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> +animal life, would seem to have been carried to the +limit, but Bourdichon went the <cite>Grimani</cite> one better, and on a +larger scale. The reproductions are marvelously exact, but even a +beautifully painted domesticated onion, on which a dragon-fly crawls, +with wing so delicately transparent that one may read the letter it +seems to cover, is a curious accompaniment for the magnificently +executed portraits of Anne and her patron saints in the miniature +pages! Here the artist has succeeded in imparting a quality to his +work that makes it appear as if done on ivory instead of vellum (see +<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_33'>148</a>). The costumes and even the jewels are brilliant in +the extreme. The floral decorations shown in the reproduction opposite +are far more decorative than the vegetables, but I still object to the +caterpillar and the bugs!</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_33'> +<a href='images/i_33.jpg'><img src='images/i_33-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>HOURS of ANNE of BRITTANY. <i>French Renaissance</i>, +16th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>The Education of the Child Jesus by the Virgin and Saint Joseph</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474. 12 × 7½ inches)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_34'> +<a href='images/i_34.jpg'><img src='images/i_34-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>HOURS of ANNE of BRITTANY. <cite>French Renaissance</cite>, +16th Century</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Page showing Text and Marginal Decoration</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 9474. 12 × 7¼ inches)]</p> +</div> + +<p>In 1508 there is a record that Anne of Brittany, Queen of Louis XII, +made an order of payment to Bourdichon of 1050 <i lang='fr'>livres tournois</i> +for his services in “richly and sumptuously historiating and +illuminating a great Book of Hours for our use.” This consists of +238 leaves of vellum, 12 by 7½ inches in size. There are sixty-three +full pages, including forty-nine miniatures, twelve reproductions for +the various months, and a leaf containing ornaments and figures at +the beginning +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> +and end of the volume. Of the text, there are some +350 pages surrounded by borders. The Italian influence shows in the +architectural and sculptural decorations, just as the Flemish obtains +in the borders.</p> + +<p>The manuscript is bound in black shagreen, with chased silver clasps.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The question naturally arises as to the reason for the decline and +practically the final extinction of the art. I believe it to be that +which the princely Italian patrons foresaw. Their apprehensions, though +selfish in motive, have been confirmed by history. The invention of +printing did make the book common, and as such, its true significance +came to be forgotten because of greater familiarity. The book as the +developer of the people in science and in literature crowded out the +book as an expression of art.</p> + +<p class='p0'>I wonder if it is too late to revive illumination. Never has there +existed in America or England a keener appreciation of beautiful +books; never have there been so many lovers of the book blessed with +the financial ability to gratify their tastes. There are still artists +familiar with the art, who, if encouraged, could produce work worthy +of the beautifully printed volumes the best Presses are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> capable of +turning out. What is lacking is simply a realization that illumination +stands side by side with art at its best. In America, the opportunities +for studying illumination are restricted, but a student would have +no difficulty in finding in certain private collections and in a few +public libraries more than enough to establish his basic understanding +of the art. The great masterpieces are permanently placed now, and +strictly enforced laws prevent national monuments from being further +transferred from one country to another; +but even of these, excellent facsimile reproductions +have been made and distributed +throughout the world</p> + +<p class='p0 no-indent' style='margin-top: .5em;'> +No true lover of art visits Europe without first preparing himself by +reading and study for a fuller understanding and more perfect enjoyment +of what he is to find in the various galleries. Assuming that no one +can be an art lover without also being a lover of books, it is perhaps +a fair question +to ask why he should not make an equal effort to +prepare himself to understand and enjoy +those rich treasures in the art of +illumination which +are now so easily +accessible</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_35'> +<a href='images/i_35.jpg'><img src='images/i_35-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>HOURS OF ANNE OF BRITTANY</p> +<p class='caption'>Order of payment of 1050 <i lang='fr'>livres tournois</i> to Jean Bourdichon, +1508</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_V">CHAPTER V</h2> +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>Friends through the Pen</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span></p> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>V</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>FRIENDS THROUGH THE PEN</p> + + +<p class='p2'>Maurice Hewlett combined to an unusual degree those salient +characteristics that go to make the great writer: he was a discerning +observer, and had formed the habit of analyzing what he observed; his +personal experiences had taught him the significance of what he had +seen and enabled him to assess its valuation. Beyond all,—having +observed, analyzed, and understood,—he possessed the power to +interpret to others.</p> + +<p>At the time I first met him, <cite>The Queen’s Quair</cite> was having a +tremendous run, and the volume naturally came into the conversation.</p> + +<p>“In spite of its success,” he said with much feeling, “I am +disappointed over its reception. I have always wanted to write history, +but not the way history has always been written. There are certain +acts attributed to the chief characters which, if these characters are +studied analytically, are obviously impossible; yet because a certain +event has once been recorded it keeps on being repeated and magnified +until history itself becomes a series of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> distortions. Mary, Queen +of Scots, has always been my favorite historical figure, and I know +that in <cite>The Queens Quair</cite> I have given a truer picture of her +character than any that at present exists. But alas,” he added with a +sigh, “no one accepts it as other than fiction.”</p> + +<p>After this statement from him I turned again to my copy of <cite>The +Queen’s Quair</cite> and re-read the author’s prologue, in which I found:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>A hundred books have been written and a hundred songs sung; men +enough of these latter days have broken their hearts over Queen +Mary’s; what is more to the point is that no heart but hers was +broken at the time. All the world can love her now, but who +loved her then? Not a man among them. A few girls went weeping; +a few boys laid down their necks that she might fall free of +the mire. Alas, the mire swallowed them up and she needs must +conceal her pretty feet. This is the note of the tragedy; pity +is involved, rather than terror. But no song ever pierced the +fold of her secret, no book ever found out the truth because +none ever sought her heart. Here, then, is a book which has +sought nothing else, and a song which springs from that only.</p> +</div> + +<p>I wonder if every writer in his heart does not feel the same ambition. +The novelist is a story-teller who recites bed-time stories to his +audience of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> grown-up children, while the humorist plays the clown; but +in writing history one is dealing with something basic. Within a year +a volume has been published containing alleged documentary evidence to +prove that Mary, Queen of Scots, was innocent of the charge of treason. +What a triumph if an author through character analysis could correct +tradition! It was a loss to the world that Hewlett permitted himself to +be discouraged by unsympathetic critics from carrying out a really big +idea.</p> + +<p>To meet Maurice Hewlett at his home at Broad Chalke, a little English +village nearly ten miles from a railroad station, and to walk with +him in his garden, one might recognize the author of <cite>The Forest +Lovers</cite>; but an afternoon with him at a London club would develop +another side which was less himself. Instead of discussing flowers +and French memoirs and biography in a delightfully whimsical mood, +Hewlett’s slight, wiry figure became tense, his manner alert, his eyes +keen and watchful. In the country he was the dreamer, the bohemian, +wholly detached from the world outside; in the city he was confident +and determined in approaching any subject, his voice became crisp and +decisive, his bearing was that of the man of the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span></p> + +<p>His early life was more or less unhappy, due partly to his +precociousness which prevented him from fitting in with youth of his +own age. This encouraged him to reach beyond his strength and thus find +disappointment.</p> + +<p>“I was never a boy,” he said once, “except possibly after the time when +I should have been a man. As I look back on my youth, it was filled +with discouragements.”</p> + +<p>The classics fascinated him, and he absorbed Dante. Then Shelley and +Keats shared the place of the Italian poet in his heart. Even after +he married, he continued to gratify his love of Bohemia, and his wife +wandered with him through Italy, with equal joy; while in England they +camped out together in the New Forest,—the scene of <cite>The Forest +Lovers</cite>.</p> + +<p>The peculiar style which Hewlett affected in many of his volumes +resulted, he told me, from his daily work in the Record Office in +London, as Keeper of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments, during which +period he studied the old parchments, dating back to William the +Conqueror. In this respect his early experience was not unlike that of +Austin Dobson’s, and just as the work in the Harbours Department failed +to kill Dobson’s poetic <i lang='fr'>finesse</i>, so did Hewlett rise above +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> the +deadly grind of ancient records and archives. In fact it was during +this period that Hewlett produced <cite>Pan and the Young Shepherd</cite>, +which contains no traces of its author’s archaic environment.</p> + +<p>One point of sympathy that drew us closely together was our mutual +love for Italy. My first desire to know Maurice Hewlett better was +after reading his <cite>Earthwork Out of Tuscany</cite>, <cite>Little Novels +of Italy</cite>, and <cite>The Road in Tuscany</cite>. I have always preferred +these volumes to any of his later ones, as to me they have seemed more +spontaneous and more genuine expressions of himself. We were talking +about Italy, one day, when he made a remark which caused me to suggest +that what he said was the expression of a modern humanist. Hewlett was +obviously surprised yet pleased by my use of this expression.</p> + +<p>“I don’t often meet any one interested in the subject of humanism,” he +said. “It is one of my hobbies.”</p> + +<p>I explained my association with Doctor Guido Biagi, librarian of the +Laurenziana Library at Florence, and the work I had done there in +connection with my designs for a special face of type, based upon the +beautiful hand letters of the humanistic scribes (see <span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_4'>16</a>). +With that introduction we discussed the great importance of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> +humanistic movement as the forerunner and essence of the Renaissance. +We talked of Petrarch, the father of humanism, and of the courageous +fight he and his sturdy band of followers made to rescue the classics. +We both had recently read Philippe Monnier’s <cite>Le Quattrocento</cite>, +which gave additional interest to our discussion.</p> + +<p>“Monnier is the only writer I have ever read who has tried to define +humanism,” Hewlett continued. “He says it is not only the love of +antiquity, but the worship of it,—a worship carried so far that it is +not limited to adoration alone, but which forces one to reproduce.”</p> + +<p>“And the humanist,” I added, picking up the quotation from Monnier, +which I knew by heart, “is not only the man who knows intimately the +ancients and is inspired by them; it is he who is so fascinated by +their magic spell that he copies them, imitates them, rehearses their +lessons, adopts their models and their methods, their examples and +their gods, their spirit and their tongue.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well!” he laughed; “we <em>have</em> struck the same street, +haven’t we! But does that exactly express the idea to you? It isn’t +antiquity we worship, but rather the basic worth for which the ancients +stand.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_36'> +<a href='images/i_36.jpg'><img src='images/i_36-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Autograph Letter from Maurice Hewlett</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> + +<p>“Monnier refers to the obsession that comes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> from constant contact +with the learning of the past, and the atmosphere thus created,” I +replied. “Only last year Biagi and I discussed that very point, sitting +together in his luxuriant garden at Castiglioncello, overlooking the +Gulf of Leghorn. The ‘basic worth’ you mention is really Truth, and +taking this as a starting point, we worked out a modern application of +Monnier’s definition:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>“The humanist is one who holds himself open to receive Truth, +unprejudiced as to its source, and, after having received +Truth, realizes his obligation to give it out again, made +richer by his personal interpretation.”</p> +</div> + +<p>“There is a definition with a present application,” Hewlett exclaimed +heartily. “I like it.—Did you have that in mind when you called me a +modern humanist, just now?”</p> + +<p>“No one could read <cite>Earthwork Out of Tuscany</cite> and think +otherwise,” I insisted.</p> + +<p>Hewlett held out his hand impulsively. “I wish I might accept that +compliment with a clear conscience,” he demurred.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Meeting Austin Dobson after he became interpreter-in-chief of the +eighteenth century, it was difficult to associate him with his +earlier experiences as a clerk in the Board of Trade office, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> +he entered when he was sixteen years old, and to which service he +devoted forty-five useful but uneventful years, rising eventually +to be a principal in the Harbours Department. With so quiet and +unassuming a personality, it seems incredible that he could have lifted +himself bodily from such unimaginative environment, and, through his +classic monographs, bring Steele, Goldsmith, Richardson, Fielding, +Horace Walpole, Fanny Burney, Bewick, and Hogarth, out of their hazy +indefiniteness, and give to them such living reality. Perhaps Dobson’s +very nature prevented him from seeing the coarseness and indecency of +the period, and enabled him to introduce, or perhaps reintroduce, to +England from France the <i lang='fr'>ballade</i> and the <i lang='fr'>chante royal</i>, +the <i lang='fr'>rondeau</i> and the <i lang='fr'>rondel</i>, the <i lang='fr'>triolet</i>, the +<i lang='fr'>villanelle</i>, and other fascinating but obsolete poetical forms in +which he first became interested through his French grandmother.</p> + +<p>Dobson was the most modest literary man I ever met. I happened to be +in London at the time when the English government bestowed upon him an +annuity of £1,000, “for distinguished service to the crown.” When I +congratulated him upon this honor his response was characteristic:</p> + +<p>“I don’t know why in the world they have given me this, unless it is +because I am the father +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> of ten children. I have no doubt that would be +classified under ‘distinguished service to the crown.’”</p> + +<p>One afternoon Austin Dobson and Richard Garnett, then Keeper of the +Printed Books at the British Museum, happened to come to my hotel in +London for tea at the same time. On a table in the apartment was a +two-volume quarto edition in French of <cite>Don Quixote</cite>, a prize I +had unearthed at a bookstall on the Quai Voltaire in Paris. It was +beautifully printed, the letterpress just biting into the paper, and +making itself a part of the leaf, which is so characteristic of the +best French presswork. The edition also contained the famous Doré +illustrations. Dobson picked up one of the volumes and exclaimed over +its beauty.</p> + +<p>“This edition,” he said, “is absolutely perfect.”</p> + +<p>“Not quite,” I qualified his statement. “It is lacking in one +particular. It requires your <cite>Ode to Cervantes</cite> to make it +complete.”</p> + +<p>Dobson laughed. “Send the book to me,” he said, “and I will transcribe +the lines on the fly leaf.”</p> + +<p>When the volume was returned a few days later, a letter of apology came +with it. “When I copied out the <cite>Ode</cite> on the fly leaf,” Dobson +wrote, “it looked so lost on the great page that I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> ventured to add the +poem which I composed for the tercentenary. I hope you won’t mind.”</p> + +<p>My eleven-year-old son came into the reception room while our guests +were drinking their tea. Dobson took him on his lap, and after quite +winning his affection by his gentleness, he quietly called his +attention to Garnett, who was conversing with my wife in another part +of the room.</p> + +<p>“Never forget that man, my boy,” Dobson said in a low voice. “We have +never had in England, nor shall we ever have again, one who knows so +much of English literature. If the record of every date and every fact +were to be lost by fire, Garnett could reproduce them with absolute +accuracy if his life were spared long enough.”</p> + +<p>Within fifteen minutes the youngster found himself on Garnett’s knee. +Without knowing what Dobson had said, the old man whispered in the +child’s ear, “It is a privilege you will be glad to remember that you +have met such a man as Austin Dobson. Except for Salisbury’s desire +to demean the post of poet laureate, Dobson would hold that position +today. Never forget that you have met Austin Dobson.”</p> + +<p>A few months after our return to America, Garnett died, and Dobson sent +me the following lines. I have never known of their publication:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p> + + +<p class='center p2'>RICHARD GARNETT</p> + +<p class='center'><i lang='la'>Sit tibi terra levis</i></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of him we may say justly: Here was one</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Who knew of most things more than any other,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who loved all Learning underneath the sun,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And looked on every Learner as a brother.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor was this all. For those who knew him, knew,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">However far his love’s domain extended,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It held its quiet “poet’s corner,” too,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Where Mirth, and Song, and Irony, were blended.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_37'> +<a href='images/i_37.jpg'><img src='images/i_37-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Autograph Poem by Austin Dobson</p> +</div> + +<p>Garnett was a rare spirit, and the British Museum has never seemed +the same since he retired in 1899. Entrance to his private office was +cleverly concealed by a door made up of shelf-backs of books, but +once within the sanctum the genial host placed at the disposal of his +guest, in a matter-of-fact way, such consummate knowledge as to stagger +comprehension. But, far beyond this, the charm of his personality will +always linger in the minds of those who knew him, and genuine affection +for the man will rival the admiration for his scholarship.</p> + +<p>One afternoon at Ealing, after tennis on the lawn behind the Dobson +house, we gathered for tea. Our little party included Hugh Thomson, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> +the artist who so charmingly illustrated much of Dobson’s work, Mr. and +Mrs. Dobson, and one of his sons. The poet was in his most genial mood, +and the conversation led us into mutually confidential channels.</p> + +<p>“I envy you your novel writing,” he said. “Fiction gives one so much +wider scope, and prose is so much more satisfactory as a medium than +poetry. I have always wanted to write a novel. Mrs. Dobson would never +have it. But she is always right,” he added; “had I persisted I should +undoubtedly have lost what little reputation I have.”</p> + +<p>He was particularly impressed by the fact that I wrote novels as +an avocation. It seemed to him such a far cry from the executive +responsibility of a large business, and he persisted in questioning +me as to my methods. I explained that I devoted a great deal of time +to creating mentally the characters who would later demand my pen; +that with the general outline of the plot I intended to develop, I +approached it exactly as a theatrical manager approaches a play he is +about to produce, spending much time in selecting my cast, adding, +discarding, changing, just so far as seemed to me necessary to secure +the actors best suited to the parts I planned to have them play. He +expressed surprise when I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> +told him that I had long since discarded the +idea of working out a definite scenario, depending rather upon creating +interesting characters, and having them sufficiently alive so that +when placed together under interesting circumstances they are bound to +produce interesting dialogue and action.</p> + +<p>“Of course my problem, writing essays and poetry, is quite different +from yours as a novelist,” he said; “but I do try to assume a relation +toward my work that is objective and impersonal. In a way, I go farther +than you do.”</p> + +<p>Then he went on to say that not only did he plan the outline of what +he had to write, whether triolet or poem, wholly in his head, but (in +the case of the poetry) even composed the lines and made the necessary +changes before having recourse to pen and paper.</p> + +<p>“When I actually begin to write,” he said, “I can see the lines clearly +before me, even to the interlinear corrections, and it is a simple +matter for me to copy them out in letter-perfect form.”</p> + +<p>Dobson’s handwriting and his signature were absolutely dissimilar. +Unless one had actually seen him transcribe the text of a letter or +the lines of a poem in that beautiful designed script, he would think +it the work of some one other than the writer of the flowing autograph +beneath.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span></p> + +<span id='TN_170'></span> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Posterity is now deciding whether Mark Twain’s fame will rest upon +his humor or his philosophy, yet his continuing popularity would seem +to have settled this much-mooted question. Humor is fleeting unless +based upon real substance. In life the passing quip that produces a +smile serves its purpose, but to bring to the surface such human notes +as dominate Mark Twain’s stories, a writer must possess extraordinary +powers of observation and a complete understanding of his fellow-man. +Neither Tom Sawyer nor Huckleberry Finn is a fictional character, but +is rather the personification of that leaven which makes life worth +living.</p> + +<p>When an author has achieved the dignity of having written “works” +rather than books, he has placed himself in the hands of his friends +in all his varying moods. A single volume is but the fragment of any +writer’s personality. I have laughed over <cite>Innocents Abroad</cite>, and +other volumes which helped to make Mark Twain’s reputation, but when I +seek a volume to recall the author as I knew him best it is <cite>Joan of +Arc</cite> that I always take down from the shelf. This book really shows +the side of Mark Twain, the man, as his friends knew him, yet it was +necessary to publish the volume anonymously in order to secure for it +consideration from the reading public as a serious story.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_38'> +<a href='images/i_38.jpg'><img src='images/i_38-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>MARK TWAIN, 1835–1910</p> +<p class='caption'><i>At the Villa di Quarto, Florence</i></p> +<p class='caption'>From a Snap-shot</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> + +<p>“No one will ever accept it seriously, over my signature,” Mark Twain +said. “People always want to laugh over what I write. This is a serious +book. It means more to me than anything I have ever undertaken.”</p> + +<p>Mark Twain was far more the humorist when off guard than when on +parade. The originality of what he did, combined with what he said, +produced the maximum expression of himself. At one time he and his +family occupied the Villa di Quarto in Florence (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_39'>172</a>), and +while in Italy Mrs. Orcutt and I were invited to have tea with them. +The villa is located, as its name suggests, in the four-mile radius +from the center of the town. It was a large, unattractive building, +perhaps fifty feet wide and four times as long. The location was +superb, looking out over Florence toward Vallombrosa and the Chianti +hills.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_39'> +<a href='images/i_39.jpg'><img src='images/i_39-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM MARK TWAIN</p> +<p class='caption'>With Snap-shot of Villa di Quarto</p> +</div> + +<p>In greeting us, Mark Twain gave the impression of having planned out +exactly what he was going to say. I had noticed the same thing on other +occasions. He knew that people expected him to say something humorous +or unusual, and he tried not to disappoint them.</p> + +<p>“Welcome to the barracks,” he exclaimed. “Looks like a hotel, doesn’t +it? You’d think with twenty bedrooms on the top floor and only +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> four in +my family there would be a chance to put up a friend or two, wouldn’t +you? But there isn’t any one I think so little of as to be willing to +stuff him into one of those cells.”</p> + +<p>We had tea out of doors. Miss Clara Clemens, who later became Mrs. +Gabrilowitch, served as hostess, as Mrs. Clemens was confined to her +bed by the heart trouble that had brought the family to Italy. As we +sipped our tea and nibbled at the delicious Italian cakes, Mark Twain +continued his comments on the villa, explaining that it was alleged +to have been built by the first Cosimo de’ Medici (“If it was, he had +a bum architect,” Mark Twain interjected); later it was occupied by +the King of Württemberg (“He was the genius who put in the Pullman +staircase”); and still later by a Russian Princess (“She is responsible +for that green majolica stove in the hall. When I first saw it I +thought it was a church for children”); and then it fell into the hands +of his landlady (“Less said about her the better. You never heard such +profanity as is expressed by the furniture and the carpets she put in +to complete the misery. I’m always thankful when darkness comes on to +stop the swearing”).</p> + +<p>The garden was beautiful, but oppressive,—due probably to the tall +cypresses (always funereal in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> their aspect), which kept out the sun, +and produced a mouldy luxuriance. The marble seats and statues were +covered with green moss, and the ivy ran riot over everything. One felt +the antiquity unpleasantly, and, in a way, it seemed an unfortunate +atmosphere for an invalid. But so far as the garden was concerned, it +made little difference to Mrs. Clemens,—the patient, long-suffering +“Livy” of Mark Twain’s life,—for she never left her sick chamber, and +died three days later.</p> + +<p>After tea, Mr. Clemens offered me a cigar and watched me while I +lighted it.</p> + +<p>“Hard to get good cigars over here,” he remarked. “I’m curious to know +what you think of that one.”</p> + +<p>I should have been sorry to tell him what my opinion really was, but I +continued to smoke it with as cheerful an expression as possible.</p> + +<p>“What kind of cigars do you smoke while in Europe?” he inquired.</p> + +<p>I told him that I was still smoking a brand I had brought over from +America, and at the same time I offered him one, which he promptly +accepted, throwing away the one he had just lighted. He puffed with +considerable satisfaction, and then asked,</p> + +<p>“How do you like that cigar I gave you?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span></p> + +<p>It seemed a matter of courtesy to express more enthusiasm than I really +felt.</p> + +<p>“Clara,” he called across to where the ladies were talking, “Mr. Orcutt +likes these cigars of mine, and he’s a judge of good cigars.”</p> + +<p>Then turning to me he continued, “Clara says they’re rotten!”</p> + +<p>He relapsed into silence for a moment.</p> + +<p>“How many of those cigars of yours have you on your person at the +present time?”</p> + +<p>I opened my cigar case, and disclosed four.</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said suddenly. “You like my cigars and +I like yours. I’ll swap you even!”</p> + +<p>In the course of the afternoon Mark Twain told of a dinner that Andrew +Carnegie had given in his New York home, at which Mr. Clemens had been +a guest. He related with much detail how the various speakers had +stammered and halted, and seemed to find themselves almost tongue-tied. +His explanation of this was their feeling of embarrassment because of +the presence of only one woman, Mrs. Carnegie.</p> + +<p>Sir Sidney Lee, who was lecturing on Shakesperian subjects in America +at the time, was the guest of honor. When dinner was announced, +Carnegie sent for Archie, the piper, an important +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> feature in the +Carnegie <i lang='fr'>ménage</i>, who appeared in full kilts, and led the +procession into the dining-room, playing on the pipes. Carnegie, +holding Sir Sidney’s hand, followed directly after, giving an imitation +of a Scotch dance, while the other guests fell in behind, matching the +steps of their leader as closely as possible. Mark Twain gave John +Burroughs credit for being the most successful in this attempt.</p> + +<p>Some weeks later, at a dinner which Sir Sidney Lee gave in our honor +in London, we heard an echo of this incident. Sir Sidney included the +story of Mark Twain’s speech on that occasion, which had been omitted +in the earlier narrative. When called upon, Mr. Clemens had said,</p> + +<p>“I’m not going to make a speech,—I’m just going to reminisce. I’m +going to tell you something about our host here when he didn’t have as +much money as he has now. At that time I was the editor of a paper in +a small town in Connecticut, and one day, when I was sitting in the +editorial sanctum, the door opened and who should come in but Andrew +Carnegie. Do you remember that day, Andy?” he inquired, turning to his +host; “wasn’t it a scorcher?”</p> + +<p>Carnegie nodded, and said he remembered it perfectly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> + +<p>“Well,” Mark Twain continued, “Andrew took off his hat, mopped his +brow, and sat down in a chair, looking most disconsolate.</p> + +<p>“‘What’s the matter?’ I inquired. ‘What makes you so melancholy?’—Do +you remember that, Andy?” he again appealed to his host.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” Carnegie replied, smiling broadly; “I remember it as if it +were yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“‘I am so sad,’ Andy answered, ‘because I want to found some libraries, +and I haven’t any money. I came in to see if you could lend me a +million or two.’ I looked in the drawer and found that I could let +him have the cash just as well as not, so I gave him a couple of +million.—Do you remember that, Andy?”</p> + +<p>“No!” Carnegie answered vehemently; “I don’t remember that at all!”</p> + +<p>“That’s just the point,” Mark Twain continued, shaking his finger +emphatically. “I have never received one cent on that loan, interest or +principal!”</p> + +<p>I wonder if so extraordinary an assemblage of literary personages was +ever before gathered together as at the seventieth anniversary birthday +dinner given to Mark Twain by Colonel George Harvey at Delmonico’s +in New York! Seated at the various tables were such celebrities as +William +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> +Dean Howells, George W. Cable, Brander Matthews, Richard +Watson Gilder, Kate Douglas Wiggin, F. Hopkinson Smith, Agnes Repplier, +Andrew Carnegie, and Hamilton W. Mabie.</p> + +<p>It was a long dinner. Every one present would have been glad to express +his affection and admiration for America’s greatest man-of-letters, +and those who must be heard were so numerous that it was nearly two +o’clock in the morning before Mark Twain’s turn arrived to respond. +As he rose, the entire company rose with him, each standing on his +chair and waving his napkin enthusiastically. Mark Twain was visibly +affected by the outburst of enthusiasm. When the excitement subsided, I +could see the tears streaming down his cheeks, and all thought of the +set speech he had prepared and sent to the press for publication was +entirely forgotten. Realizing that the following quotation differs from +the official report of the event, I venture to rely upon the notes I +personally made during the dinner. Regaining control of himself, Mark +Twain began his remarks with words to this effect:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>When I think of my first birthday and compare it with this +celebration,—just a bare room; no one present but my mother +and one other woman; no flowers, no wine, no cigars, no +enthusiasm,—I am filled with indignation!</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> + +<span id='TN_178'></span> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Charles Eliot Norton is a case in point in my contention that to +secure the maximum from a college course a man should take two years +at eighteen and the remaining two after he has reached forty. I was +not unique among the Harvard undergraduates flocking to attend his +courses in Art who failed utterly to understand or appreciate him. The +ideals expressed in his lectures were far over our heads. The estimate +of Carlyle, Ruskin, and Matthew Arnold, that Mr. Norton was foremost +among American thinkers, scholars, and men of culture, put us on the +defensive, for to have writers such as these include Norton as one of +themselves placed him entirely outside the pale of our undergraduate +understanding. He seemed to us a link connecting our generation with +the distant past. As I look back upon it, this was not so much because +he appeared old as it was that what he said seemed to our untrained +minds the vagaries of age. Perhaps we were somewhat in awe of him, +as we knew him to be the intimate of Oliver Wendell Holmes and James +Russell Lowell, as he had been of Longfellow and George William Curtis, +and thus the last of the Cambridge Immortals. I have always wished that +others might have corrected their false impressions by learning to know +Norton, the man, as I came to know him, and have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> enjoyed the inspiring +friendship that I was so fortunate in having him, in later years, +extend to me.</p> + +<p>In the classroom, sitting on a small, raised platform, with as many +students gathered before him as the largest room in Massachusetts Hall +could accommodate, he took Art as a text and discussed every subject +beneath the sun. His voice, though low, had a musical quality which +carried to the most distant corner. As he spoke he leaned forward +on his elbows with slouching shoulders, with his keen eyes passing +constantly from one part of the room to another, seeking, no doubt, +some gleam of understanding from his hearers. He told me afterwards +that it was not art he sought to teach, nor ethics, nor philosophy, but +that he would count it success if he instilled in the hearts of even a +limited number of his pupils a desire to seek the truth.</p> + +<p>As I think of the Norton I came to know in the years that followed, +he seems to be a distinctly different personality, yet of course the +difference was in me. Even at the time when Senator Hoar made his +terrific attack upon him for his public utterances against the Spanish +War, I knew that he was acting true to his high convictions, even +though at variance with public opinion. I differed from him, but by +that time I understood him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p> + +<p>“Shady Hill,” his home in Norton’s Woods on the outskirts of Cambridge, +Massachusetts, exuded the personality of its owner more than any +house I was ever in. There was a restful dignity and stately culture, +a courtly hospitality that reflected the individuality of the host. +The library was the inner shrine. Each volume was selected for its +own special purpose, each picture was illustrative of some special +epoch, each piece of furniture performed its exact function. Here, +unconsciously, while discussing subjects far afield, I acquired from +Mr. Norton a love of Italy which later was fanned into flame by my +Tuscan friend, Doctor Guido Biagi, the accomplished librarian of the +Laurenziana Library, in Florence, to whom I have already frequently +referred.</p> + +<p>Our real friendship began when I returned from Italy in 1902, and told +him of my plans to design a type based upon the wonderful humanistic +volumes. As we went over the photographs and sketches I brought home +with me, and he realized that a fragment of the fifteenth century, +during which period hand lettering had reached its highest point of +perfection, had actually been overlooked by other type designers (see +<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_4'>16</a>), +he displayed an excitement I had never associated +with his personality. I was somewhat excited, too, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> in being able to +tell him something which had not previously come to his attention,—of +the struggle of the Royal patrons, who tried to thwart the newborn art +of printing by showing what a miserable thing a printed book was when +compared with the beauty of the hand letters; and that these humanistic +volumes, whose pages I had photographed, were the actual books which +these patrons had ordered the scribes to produce, regardless of +expense, to accomplish their purpose.</p> + +<p>The romance that surrounded the whole undertaking brought out from +him comments and discussion in which he demonstrated his many-sided +personality. The library at “Shady Hill” became a veritable Florentine +rostrum. Mr. Norton’s sage comments were expressed with the vigor +and originality of Politian; when he spoke of the tyranny of the old +Florentine despots and compared them with certain political characters +in our own America, he might have been Machiavelli uttering his famous +diatribes against the State. Lorenzo de’ Medici himself could not have +thrilled me more with his fascinating expression of the beautiful or +the exhibition of his exquisite taste.</p> + +<p>Each step in the development of the Humanistic type was followed by Mr. +Norton with the deepest interest. When the first copy of Petrarch’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> +<cite>Triumphs</cite> came through the bindery I took it to “Shady Hill,” and +we went over it page by page, from cover to cover. As we closed the +volume he looked up with that smile his friends so loved,—that smile +Ruskin called “the sweetest I ever saw on any face (unless perhaps a +nun’s when she has some grave kindness to do),”—and then I knew that +my goal had been attained (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_9'>32</a>).</p> + +<p>While the Humanistic type was being cut, Doctor Biagi came to America +as the official representative from Italy to the St. Louis Exposition. +Later, when he visited me in Boston, I took him to “Shady Hill” to +see Mr. Norton. It was an historic meeting. The Italian had brought +to America original, unpublished letters of Michelangelo, and at my +suggestion he took them with him to Cambridge. Mr. Norton read several +of these letters with the keenest interest and urged their publication, +but Biagi was too heavily engaged with his manifold duties as librarian +of the Laurenziana and Riccardi libraries, as custodian of the +Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives, and with his extensive literary +work, to keep the promise he made us that day.</p> + +<p>The conversation naturally turned upon Dante, Biagi’s rank in his own +country as interpreter of the great poet being even greater than was +Norton’s <span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> +in America. Beyond this they spoke of books, of art, of +music, of history, of science. Norton’s knowledge of Italy was profound +and exact; Biagi had lived what Norton had acquired. No matter what +the subject, their comments, although simply made, were expressions of +prodigious study and absolute knowledge; of complete familiarity, such +as one ordinarily has in every-day affairs, with subjects upon which +even the well-educated man looks as reserved for profound discussion. +Norton and Biagi were the two most cultured men I ever met. In +listening to their conversation I discovered that a perfectly trained +mind under absolute control is the most beautiful thing in the world.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Climbing the circular stairway in the old, ramshackle Harper plant at +Franklin Square, New York, I used to find William Dean Howells in his +sanctum.</p> + +<p>“Take this chair,” he said one day after a cordial greeting; “the only +Easy Chair we have is in the <cite>Magazine</cite>.”</p> + +<p>Howells loved the smell of printer’s ink. “They are forever talking +about getting away from here,” he would say, referring to the long +desire at Harpers’—at last gratified—to divorce the printing from the +publishing and to move uptown.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> +“Here things are so mixed up that you +can’t tell whether you’re a printer or a writer, and I like it.”</p> + +<p>Our acquaintance began after the publication by the Harpers in 1906 of +a novel of mine entitled <cite>The Spell</cite>, the scene of which is laid +in Florence. After reading it, Howells wrote asking me to look him up +the next time I was in the Harper offices.</p> + +<p>“We have three reasons to become friends,” he said smiling, after +studying me for a moment with eyes that seemed probably more piercing +and intent than they really were: “you live in Boston, you love Italy, +and you are a printer. Now we must make up for lost time.”</p> + +<p>After this introduction I made it a habit to “drop up” to his sanctum +whenever I had occasion to go to Franklin Square to discuss printing +or publishing problems with Major Leigh or Mr. Duneka. Howells always +seemed to have time to discuss one of the three topics named in his +original analysis, yet curiously enough it was rarely that any mention +of books came into our conversation.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_40'> +<a href='images/i_40.jpg'><img src='images/i_40-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Autograph Letter from William Dean Howells</p> +</div> + +<p>Of Boston and Cambridge he was always happily reminiscent: of +entertaining Mr. and Mrs. John Hay while on their wedding journey, +and later Bret Harte, in the small reception room in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> the Berkeley +Street house, where the tiny “library” on the north side was without +heat or sunlight when Howells wrote his <cite>Venetian Days</cite> there in +1870; of early visits with Mark Twain before the great fireplace in +“the Cabin” at his Belmont home, over the door of which was inscribed +the quotation from <cite>The Merchant of Venice</cite>, “From Venice as far +as Belmont.”—“In these words,” Howells said, “lies the history of my +married life”;—of the move from Belmont to Boston as his material +resources increased.</p> + +<p>“There was a time when people used to think I didn’t like Boston,” he +would chuckle, evidently enjoying the recollections that came to him; +“but I always loved it. The town did take itself seriously,” he added +a moment later; “but it had a right to. That was what made it Boston. +Sometimes, when we know a place or a person through and through, the +fine characteristics may be assumed, and we may chaff a little over the +harmless foibles. That is what I did to Boston.”</p> + +<p>He chided me good-naturedly because I preferred Florence to Venice. +“Italy,” he quoted, “is the face of Europe, and Venice is the eye +of Italy. But, after all, what difference does it make?” he asked. +“We are both talking of the same wonderful country, and perhaps the +intellectual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> atmosphere of antiquity makes up for the glory of the +Adriatic.”</p> + +<p>Then he told me a story which I afterwards heard Hamilton Mabie repeat +at the seventy-fifth birthday anniversary banquet given Howells at +Sherry’s by Colonel George Harvey in 1912.</p> + +<p>Two American women met in Florence on the Ponte Vecchio. One of them +said to the other, “Please tell me whether this is Florence or Venice.”</p> + +<p>“What day of the week is it?” the other inquired.</p> + +<p>“Wednesday.”</p> + +<p>“Then,” said the second, looking at her itinerary, “this is Venice.”</p> + +<p>“I was born a printer, you know,” Howells remarked during one of my +visits. “I can remember the time when I couldn’t write, but not the +time when I couldn’t set type.”</p> + +<p>He referred to his boyhood experiences in the printing office at +Hamilton, Ohio. His father published there a Whig newspaper, which +finally lost nearly all its subscribers because its publisher had the +unhappy genius of always taking the unpopular side of every public +question. Howells immortalized this printing office in his essay <cite>The +Country Printer</cite>,—where he recalls “the compositors rhythmically +swaying before their cases of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> type; the pressman flinging himself back +on the bar that made the impression, with a swirl of his long hair; the +apprentice rolling the forms; and the foreman bending over them.”</p> + +<p>The Lucullan banquet referred to outrivaled that given by Colonel +Harvey to Mark Twain. How Mark Twain would have loved to be there, +and how much the presence of this life-long friend would have meant +to Howells! More than four hundred men and women prominent in letters +gathered to do honor to the beloved author, and President Taft conveyed +to him the gratitude of the nation for the hours of pleasure afforded +by his writings.</p> + +<p>In the course of his remarks, Howells said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>I knew Hawthorne and Emerson and Walt Whitman; I knew +Longfellow and Holmes and Whittier and Lowell; I knew Bryant +and Bancroft and Motley; I knew Harriet Beecher Stowe and Julia +Ward Howe; I knew Artemus Ward and Stockton and Mark Twain; I +knew Parkman and Fiske.</p> +</div> + +<p class='p0'>As I listened to this recapitulation of contact with modern humanists, +I wondered what Howells had left to look forward to. No one could +fail to envy him his memories, nor could he fail to ask himself what +twentieth-century names would be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> +written in place of those the nineteenth century +had recorded in the Hall of Fame</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p class='p0 no-indent'>My library has taken on a different aspect during all these years. When +I first installed my books I looked upon it as a sanctuary, into which +I could escape from the world outside. Each book was a magic carpet +which, at my bidding, transported me from one country to another, from +the present back to centuries gone by, gratifying my slightest whim in +response to the mere effort of changing volumes. My library has lost +none of that blissful peace as a retreat, but in addition it has become +a veritable meeting ground. The authors I have +known are always waiting for me there,—to +disclose to me through their works far +more than they, in all modesty, would +have admitted in our personal +conferences</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2> +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>Triumphs of Typography</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>VI</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>TRIUMPHS OF TYPOGRAPHY</p> + + +<p class='p2'>In gathering together his book treasures, a collector naturally +approaches the adventure from a personal standpoint. First editions may +particularly appeal to him, or Americana, or his bibliomania may take +the form of subject collecting. I once had a friend who concentrated +on whales and bees! My hobby has been to acquire, so far as possible, +volumes that represent the best workmanship of each epoch, and from +them I have learned much of fascinating interest beyond the history of +typography. A book in itself is always something more than paper and +type and binder’s boards. It possesses a subtle friendliness that sets +it apart from other inanimate objects about us, and stamps it with +an individuality which responds to our approach in proportion to our +interest. But aside from its contents, a typographical monument is a +barometer of civilization. If we discover what economic or political +conditions combined to make it stand out from other products of its +period, we learn contemporaneous history and become +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> acquainted with +the personalities of the people and the manners and customs of the +times.</p> + +<p>No two countries, since Gutenberg first discovered the power of +individual types when joined together to form words down to the present +day, have stood pre-eminent in the same epoch in the art of printing. +The curve of supremacy, plotted from the brief triumph of Germany +successively through Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, France, +and back again to England, shows that the typographical monuments of +the world are not accidental, but rather the natural results of cause +and effect. In some instances, the production of fine books made the +city of their origin the center of culture and brought luster to the +country; in others, the great master-printers were attracted from one +locality to another because of the literary atmosphere in a certain +city, and by their labors added to the reputation it had already +attained. The volumes themselves sometimes produced vitally significant +effects; sometimes their production was the result of conditions +equally important.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The first example I should like to own for my collection of +typographical triumphs is, of course, the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite> +(<a href='#i_41'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>); +but with only forty-five copies known to be in existence (of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> which twelve are on vellum), I must content myself +with photographic facsimile pages. The copy most recently offered for +sale brought $106,000 in New York in February, 1926, and was later +purchased by Mrs. Edward S. Harkness for $120,000, who presented it to +the Yale University Library. This makes the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite> the +most valuable printed book in the world,—six times as precious as a +Shakespeare first folio. Fortunately, the copies are well distributed, +so that one need not deny himself the pleasure of studying it. In +America, there are two examples (one on vellum) in the Pierpont Morgan +Library, in New York; another in the New York Public Library, and +still another in the library of the General Theological School; while +the private collections of Henry E. Huntington and Joseph E. Widener +are also fortunate possessors. In England, one may find a copy at +the British Museum or the Bodleian Library; on the Continent, at the +Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, at the Vatican Library in Rome, or in +the libraries of Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, or Vienna. Over twenty of the +forty-five copies are imperfect, and only four are still in private +hands. Of these four, one is imperfect, and two are already promised to +libraries; so the copy sold in New York may be the last ever offered.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_41'> +<a href='images/i_41.jpg'><img src='images/i_41-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Part of a Page from the Vellum Copy of the Gutenberg +Bible, Mayence, 1455</p> +<p class='caption'>Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_42'> +<a href='images/i_42.jpg'><img src='images/i_42-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='center'>GUTENBERG BIBLE</p> +<p class='n50 p0 no-indent'>And here is the end of the first part of the Bible, +that is to say, the Old Testament, rubricated and bound for Henry +Cremer, in the year of our Loard, one thousand four hundred and +fifty-six, on the feast of the Apostle Bartholomew</p> +<p class='n50 center p0'>Thanks be to God. Alleluia</p> +<p class='caption1'>Rubricator’s Mark at End of First Volume of a Defective Copy in the +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_43'> +<a href='images/i_43.jpg'><img src='images/i_43-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='center'>GUTENBERG BIBLE</p> +<p class='n50 p0 no-indent'>This book was illuminated, bound, and +completed for Henry Cremer, Vicar of Saint Stephens, of Mayence, in the +year of our Lord, one thousand four hundred and fifty-six, on the feast +of the Ascension of the Glorious Virgin Mary. Thanks be to God. Alleluia.</p> +<p class='caption1'>Rubricator’s Mark at End of Second Volume of a Defective Copy in the +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span></p> + +<p>The copy I love best to pore over is that bound in four volumes of +red morocco, stamped with the arms of Louis XVI, in the Bibliothèque +Nationale. This perhaps is not so historical as the one De Bure +discovered in the library of Cardinal Mazarin in Paris in 1763,—three +hundred years after it was printed, and until then unknown; but the +dignity of those beautifully printed types on the smooth, ivory surface +of the vellum possesses a magnificence beyond that of any other copy +I have seen. Also at the Bibliothèque Nationale is a defective paper +copy in two volumes in which appear rubricator’s notes marking the +completion of the work as August 15, 1456. Think how important this +is in placing this marvel of typography; for the project of printing +the <cite>Bible</cite> could not have been undertaken earlier than August, +1451, when Gutenberg formed his partnership with Fust and Schoeffer in +Mayence.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_44'> +<a href='images/i_44.jpg'><img src='images/i_44-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GUTENBERG, FUST, COSTER, ALDUS, FROBEN</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving by Jacob Houbraken (1698–1780)</p> +</div> + +<p>To a modern architect of books the obstacles which the printer at +that time encountered, with the art itself but a few years old, seem +insurmountable. There was the necessity of designing and cutting the +first fonts of type, based upon the hand lettering of the period. +As is always inevitable in the infancy of any art, this translation +from one medium to another repeated rather than corrected the errors +of the human hand. The typesetter, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> instead of being secured from +an employment office, had to be made. Gutenberg himself perhaps, had +to teach the apprentice the method of joining together the various +letters, in a roughly made composing stick of his own invention, in +such a way as to maintain regularity in the distances between the +stems of the various letters, and thus produce a uniform and pleasing +appearance. There existed no proper iron chases in which to lock up the +pages of the type, so that while the metal could be made secure at the +top and bottom, there are frequent instances where it bulges out on the +sides.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_45'> +<a href='images/i_45.jpg'><img src='images/i_45-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>John Fust, from an Old Engraving</p> +</div> + + +<p>From the very beginning the printed book had to be a work of art. +The patronage of kings and princes had developed the hand-lettered +volumes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> to the highest point of perfection, and, on account of this +keen competition with the scribes and their patrons, no printer could +afford to devote to any volume less than his utmost artistic taste and +mechanical ingenuity. Thus today, if a reader examines the <cite>Gutenberg +Bible</cite> with a critical eye, he will be amazed by the extraordinary +evenness in the printing, and the surprisingly accurate alignment of +the letters. The glossy blackness of the ink still remains, and the +sharpness of the impression is equal to that secured upon a modern +cylinder press.</p> + +<p>It has been estimated that no less than six hand presses were employed +in printing the 641 leaves, composed in double column without numerals, +catch words, or signatures. What binder today would undertake to +collate such a volume in proper sequence! After the first two divisions +had come off the press it was decided to change the original scheme of +the pages from 40 to 42 lines. In order to get these two extra lines +on the page it was necessary to set all the lines closer together. To +accomplish this, some of the type was recast, with minimum shoulder, +and the rest of it was actually cut down in height to such an extent +that a portion of the curved dots of the <i lang='en'>i</i>’s was clipped off.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span></p> + +<p>Monographs have been written to explain the variation in the size of +the type used in different sections of this book, but what more natural +explanation could there be than that the change was involuntary and due +to natural causes? In those days the molds which the printer used for +casting his types were made sometimes of lead, but more often of wood. +As he kept pouring the molten metal into these matrices, the very heat +would by degrees enlarge the mold itself, and thus produce lead type of +slightly larger size. From time to time, also, the wooden matrices wore +out, and the duplicates would not exactly correspond with those they +replaced.</p> + +<p>In printing these volumes, the precedent was established of leaving +blank spaces for the initial letters, which were later filled in by +hand. Some of these are plain and some elaborate, serving to make the +resemblance to the hand-lettered book even more exact; but the glory of +the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite> lies in its typography and presswork rather +than in its illuminated letters.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Germany, in the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>, proved its ability to produce +volumes worthy of the invention itself, but as a country it possessed +neither the scholars, the manuscripts, nor the patrons to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> insure the +development of the new art. Italy, at the end of the fifteenth century, +had become the home of learning, and almost immediately Venice became +the Mecca of printers. Workmen who had served their apprenticeships +in Germany sought out the country where princes might be expected to +become patrons of the new art, where manuscripts were available for +copy, and where a public existed both able and willing to purchase the +products of the press. The Venetian Republic, quick to appreciate this +opportunity, offered its protection and encouragement. Venice itself +was the natural market of the world for distribution of goods because +of the low cost of sea transportation.</p> + +<p>I have a fine copy of Augustinus: <cite>De Civitate Dei</cite> (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_47'>205</a>) that I discovered in Rome in its original binding years ago, +printed in Jenson’s Gothic type in 1475. On the first page of text, +in bold letters across the top, the printer has placed the words, +<cite>Nicolaus Jenson, Gallicus</cite>. In addition to this signature, the +<i lang='la'>explicit</i> reads:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='no-indent p0 bq'>This work <cite>De Civitate Dei</cite> is happily completed, being +done in Venice by that excellent and diligent master, Nicolas +Jenson, while Pietro Mocenigo was Doge, in the year after the +birth of the Lord, one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, +on the sixth day before the nones +of October (2 October)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_46'> +<a href='images/i_46.jpg'><img src='images/i_46-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Nicolas Jenson’s Explicit and Mark</p> +</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_47'> +<a href='images/i_47.jpg'><img src='images/i_47-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Jenson’s Gothic Type. From Augustinus: <cite>De Civitate +Dei</cite>, Venice, 1475 (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<p>Jenson was a printer who not only took pride in his art but also in the +country of his birth! He was a Frenchman, who was sent to Mayence by +King Charles VII of France to find out what sort of thing this new art +of printing was, and if of value to France to learn it and to bring it +home. Jenson had been an expert engraver, so was well adapted to this +assignment. At Mayence he quickly mastered the art, and was prepared +to transport it to Paris; but by this time Charles VII had died, and +Jenson knew that Louis XI, the new monarch, would have little interest +in recognizing his father’s mandate. The Frenchman then set himself up +in Venice, where he contributed largely to the prestige gained by this +city as a center for printing as an art, and for scholarly publications.</p> + +<p>Jenson had no monopoly on extolling himself in the <i lang='la'>explicits</i> of +his books. The cost of paper in those days was so high that a title +page was considered an unnecessary extravagance, so this was the +printer’s only opportunity to record his imprint. In modern times we +printers are more modest, and leave it to the publishers to sound our +praises, but we do like to place our signatures on well-made books!</p> + +<p>The <i lang='la'>explicit</i> in the hand-written book also offered a favorite +opportunity for gaining immortality for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> the scribe. I once saw in +an Italian monastery a manuscript volume containing some 600 pages, +in which was recorded the fact that on such and such a day Brother +So-and-So had completed the transcribing of the text; and inasmuch as +he had been promised absolution, one sin for each letter, he thanked +God that the sum total of the letters exceeded the sum total of his +sins, even though by but a single unit!</p> + +<p>Among Jenson’s most important contributions were his type designs, +based upon the best hand lettering of the day. Other designers had +slavishly copied the hand-written letter, but Jenson, wise in his +acquired knowledge, eliminated the variations and produced letters +not as they appeared upon the hand-written page, but standardized +to the design which the artist-scribe had in mind and which his +hand failed accurately to reproduce. The Jenson Roman (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_6'>22</a>) and his Gothic (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_47'>205</a>) types have, +through all these centuries, stood as the basic patterns of subsequent +type designers.</p> + +<p>Jenson died in 1480, and the foremost rival to his fame is Aldus +Manutius, who came to Venice from Carpi and established himself +there in 1494. I have often conjectured what would have happened +had this Frenchman printed his volumes in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> +France and thus brought them into competition with the later product +of the Aldine Press. The supremacy of Italy might have suffered,—but +could Jenson have cut his types or printed his books in the France of +the fifteenth century? As it was, the glories of the Aldi so closely +followed Jenson’s superb work that Italy’s supreme position in the +history of typography can never be challenged.</p> + +<p>For his printer’s mark Aldus adopted the famous combination of the +Dolphin and Anchor, the dolphin signifying speed in execution and +the anchor firmness in deliberation. As a slogan he used the words +<i lang='la'>Festina lente</i>, of which perhaps the most famous translation is +that by Sir Thomas Browne, “Celerity contempered with Cunctation.” +Jenson’s printer’s mark (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_46'>203</a>), by the way, has suffered +the indignity of being adopted as the trademark of a popular brand of +biscuits!</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_48'> +<a href='images/i_48.jpg'><img src='images/i_48-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Device of Aldus Manutius</p> +</div> + +<p>The printing office of Aldus stood near the Church of Saint Augustus, +in Venice. Here he instituted a complete revolution in the existing +methods of publishing. The clumsy and costly folios and quartos, which +had constituted the standard forms, were now replaced by crown octavo +volumes, convenient both to the hand and to the purse.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span></p> + +<p>“I have resolved,” Aldus wrote in 1490, “to devote my life to the cause +of scholarship. I have chosen, in place of a life of ease and freedom, +an anxious and toilsome career. A man has higher responsibilities than +the seeking of his own enjoyment; he should devote himself to honorable +labor. Living that is a mere existence can be left to men who are +content to be animals. Cato compared human existence to iron. When +nothing is done with it, it rusts; it is only through constant activity +that polish or brilliancy is secured.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_49'> +<a href='images/i_49.jpg'><img src='images/i_49-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GROLIER IN THE PRINTING OFFICE OF ALDUS</p> +<p class='caption'>After Painting by François Flameng</p> +<p class='caption'>Courtesy The Grolier Club, New York City</p> +</div> + +<p>The weight of responsibility felt by Aldus in becoming a printer may +be better appreciated when one realizes that this profession then +included the duties of editor and publisher. The publisher of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> today +accepts or declines manuscripts submitted by their authors, and the +editing of such manuscripts, if considered at all, is placed in the +hands of his editorial department. Then the “copy” is turned over to +the printer for manufacture. In the olden days the printer was obliged +to search out his manuscripts, to supervise their editing—not from +previously printed editions, but from copies transcribed by hand, +frequently by careless scribes. Thus his reputation depended not only +on his skill as a printer, but also upon his sagacity as a publisher, +and his scholarship as shown in his text. In addition to all this, the +printer had to create the demand for his product and arrange for its +distribution because there were no established bookstores.</p> + +<p>The great scheme that Aldus conceived was the publication of the Greek +classics. Until then only four of the Greek authors, Æsop, Theocritus, +Homer, and Isocrates, had been published in the original. Aldus gave +to the world, for the first time in printed form, Aristotle, Plato, +Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Sophocles, +Demosthenes, Lysias, Æschines, Plutarch, and Pindar. Except for what +Aldus did at this time, most of these texts would have been irrevocably +lost to posterity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span></p> + +<p>When you next see Italic type you will be interested to know that it +was first cut by Aldus, said to be inspired by the thin, inclined, +cursive handwriting of Petrarch; when you admire the beauty added to +the page by the use of small capitals, you should give Aldus credit for +having been the first to use this attractive form of typography. Even +in that early day Aldus objected to the inartistic, square ending of a +chapter occupying but a portion of the page, and devised all kinds of +type arrangements, half-diamond, goblet, and bowl, to satisfy the eye.</p> + +<p>To me, the most interesting book that Aldus produced was the +<cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>,—“Poliphilo’s Strife of Love in +a Dream.” It stands as one of the most celebrated in the annals of +Venetian printing, being the only illustrated volume issued by the +Aldine Press. This work was undertaken at the very close of the +fifteenth century at the expense of one Leonardo Crasso of Verona, who +dedicated the book to Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino. It was written by a +Dominican friar, Francesco Colonna, who adopted an ingenious method of +arranging his chapters so that the successive initial letters compose +a complete sentence which, when translated, read, “Brother Francesco +Colonna greatly loved Polia.” Polia has been identified as one Lucrezia +Lelio, daughter of a jurisconsult of Treviso, who later entered a +convent.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_50'> +<a href='images/i_50.jpg'><img src='images/i_50-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page from Aldus’ <cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>, +Venice, 1499 (11 × 7 inches).</p> +<p class='caption'>It is on this model that the type used in this volume is based</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_51'> +<a href='images/i_51.jpg'><img src='images/i_51-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Illustrated Page of Aldus’ <cite>Hypnerotomachia +Poliphili</cite>, Venice, 1499 (11 × 7 inches)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_52'> +<a href='images/i_52.jpg'><img src='images/i_52-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GROLIER BINDING</p> +<p class='caption'>Castiglione: <cite>Cortegiano</cite>. Aldine Press, 1518</p> +<p class='caption'>Laurenziana Library, Florence</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span></p> + +<p>The volume displays a pretentious effort to get away from the +commonplace. On every page Aldus expended his utmost ingenuity in the +arrangement of the type,—the use of capitals and small capitals, +and unusual type formations. In many cases the type balances the +illustrations in such a way as to become a part of them. Based on +the typographical standards of today, some of these experiments +are indefensible, but in a volume issued in 1499 they stand as +an extraordinary exhibit of what an artistic, ingenious printer +can accomplish within the rigid limitations of metal type. The +illustrations themselves, one hundred and fifty-eight in number, run +from rigid architectural lines to fanciful portrayals of incidents in +the story. Giovanni Bellini is supposed to have been the artist, but +there is no absolute evidence to confirm this supposition.</p> + +<p>Some years ago the Grolier Club of New York issued an etching entitled, +<cite>Grolier in the Printing Office of Aldus</cite> (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_48'>208</a>). I +wish I might believe that this great printer was fortunate enough +to have possessed such an office! In spite of valuable concessions +he received from the Republic, and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> success accorded to him as +a printer, he was able to eke out but a bare existence, and died a +poor man. The etching, however, is important as emphasizing the close +relation which exited between the famous ambassador of François I at +the Court of Pope Clement VII, at Rome, and the family of Aldus, to +which association booklovers owe an eternal debt of gratitude. At one +time the Aldine Press was in danger of bankruptcy, and Grolier not only +came to its rescue with his purse but also with his personal services. +Without these tangible expressions of his innate love for the book, +collectors today would be deprived of some of the most interesting +examples of printing and binding that they count among their richest +treasures.</p> + +<p>The general conception that Jean Grolier was a binder is quite +erroneous; he was as zealous a patron of the printed book as of the +binder’s art. His great intimacy in Venice was with Andrea Torresani +(through whose efforts the Jenson and the Aldus offices were finally +combined), and his two sons, Francesco and Federico, the father-in-law +and brothers-in-law of the famous Aldus. No clearer idea can be gained +of Grolier’s relations at <i lang='it'>Casa Aldo</i> than the splendid letter +which he sent to Francesco in 1519, intrusting to his hands the making +of Budé’s book, <cite>De Asse</cite>:</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_53'> +<a href='images/i_53.jpg'><img src='images/i_53-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>GROLIER BINDING</p> +<p class='caption'>Capella: <cite>L’Anthropologia Digaleazzo</cite>. Aldine Press, 1533</p> +<p class='caption'><i>From which the Cover Design of this Volume was adapted</i></p> +<p class='caption'>(Laurenziana Library, Florence. 7½ × 4¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>You will care with all diligence, <cite>he writes</cite>, O most +beloved Francesco, that this work, when it leaves your printing +shop to pass into the hands of learned men, may be as correct +as it is possible to render it. I heartily beg and beseech this +of you. The book, too, should be decent and elegant; and to +this will contribute the choice of the paper, the excellence +of the type, which should have been but little used, and the +width of the margins. To speak more exactly, I should wish it +were set up with the same type with which you printed your +<cite>Poliziano</cite>. And if this decency and elegance shall +increase your expenses, I will refund you entirely. Lastly, I +should wish that nothing be added to the original or taken from +it.</p> +</div> + +<p>What better conception of a book, or of the responsibility to be +assumed toward that book, both by the printer and by the publisher, +could be expressed today!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The early sixteenth century marked a crisis in the world in which the +book played a vital part. When Luther, at Wittenberg, burned the papal +bull and started the Reformation, an overwhelming demand on the part of +the people was created for information and instruction. For the first +time the world realized that the printing press was a weapon placed in +the hands of the masses for defence against oppression by Church or +State. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> +François I was King of France; Charles V, Emperor of the Holy +Roman Empire; and Henry VIII, King of England. Italy had something to +think about beyond magnificently decorated volumes, and printing as an +art was for the time forgotten in supplying the people with books at +low cost.</p> + +<p>François I, undismayed by the downfall of the Italian patrons, believed +that he could gain for himself and for France the prestige which had +been Italy’s through the patronage of learning and culture. What a +pity that he had not been King of France when Jenson returned from +Mayence! He was confident that he could become the Mæcenas of the arts +and the father of letters, and still control the insistence of the +people, which increased steadily with their growing familiarity with +their new-found weapon. He determined to have his own printer, and was +eager to eclipse even the high Standard the Italian master-printers had +established.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_54'> +<a href='images/i_54.jpg'><img src='images/i_54-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ROBERT ÉTIENNE, 1503–1559</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Royal Printer to François I</i></p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving by Étienne Johandier Desrochers (c. 1661–1741)</p> +</div> + +<p>Robert Étienne (or Stephens), who in 1540 succeeded Néobar as “Printer +in Greek to the King,” while not wholly accomplishing his monarch’s +ambitions, was the great master-printer of his age. He came from a +family of printers, and received his education and inspiration largely +from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> +learned men who served as correctors in his father’s +office. François proved himself genuinely interested in the productions +of his <cite>Imprimerie Royale</cite>, frequently visiting Étienne at the +Press, and encouraging him by expending vast sums for specially +designed types, particularly in Greek. The story goes that on one +occasion the King found Étienne engaged in correcting a proof sheet, +and refused to permit the printer to be disturbed, insisting on waiting +until the work was completed.</p> + +<p>For my own collection of great typographical monuments I would select +for this period the <cite>Royal Greeks</cite> of Robert Étienne. A comparison +between the text page, so exquisitely balanced (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_56'>222</a>), and +the title page (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_55'>220</a>), where the arrangement of type and +printer’s mark could scarcely be worse, gives evidence enough that +even the artist-printer of that time had not yet grasped the wonderful +opportunity a title page offers for self-expression. Probably Étienne +regarded it more as a chance to pay his sovereign the compliment of +calling him “A wise king and a valiant warrior.” But are not the Greek +characters marvelously beautiful! They were rightly called the <cite>Royal +Greeks</cite>! The drawings were made by the celebrated calligrapher +Angelos Vergetios, of Candia, who was employed by François to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> +transcripts of Greek texts for the Royal Collection, and whose +manuscript volumes may still be seen in the Bibliothèque Nationale +in Paris. Earlier fonts had been based upon this same principle of +making the Greek letters reproductions as closely as possible of the +elaborate, involved, current writing hand of the day; but these new +designs carried out the principle to a degree until then unattained. +The real success of the undertaking was due to the skill of Claude +Garamond, the famous French punchcutter and typefounder. Pierre +Victoire quaintly comments:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>Besides gathering from all quarters the remains of Hellenic +literature, François I added another benefit, itself most +valuable, to the adornment of this same honorable craft of +printing; for he provided by the offer of large moneys for +the making of extremely graceful letters, both of Greek and +Latin. In this also he was fortunate, for they were so nimbly +and so delicately devised that it can scarce be conceived that +human wit may compass anything more dainty and exquisite; +so that books printed from these types do not merely invite +the reader,—they draw him, so to say, by an irresistible +attraction.</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_55'> +<a href='images/i_55.jpg'><img src='images/i_55-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ÉTIENNE’S <cite>ROYAL GREEKS</cite>, Paris, 1550</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Title Page</i> (10¼ × 6 inches)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_56'> +<a href='images/i_56.jpg'><img src='images/i_56-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Page showing Étienne’s Roman Face (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_57'> +<a href='images/i_57.jpg'><img src='images/i_57-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ÉTIENNE’S <cite>ROYAL GREEKS</cite></p> +<p class='caption'><i>Text Page</i> (10¼ × 6 inches)</p> +<p class='caption'>From <cite>Novum Jesu Christi D. N. Testamentum</cite>, Paris, 1550</p> +</div> + +<p>Of course, they were too beautiful to be practical. In the Roman +letters typecutters had already found that hand lettering could no more +be translated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> directly into the form of type than a painting can be +translated directly into a tapestry, without sacrificing some of the +characteristic features of each. With the Greek letters, the problem +was even more difficult, and the <cite>Royal Greeks</cite> offered no end of +complications to the compositors, and added disastrously to the expense +of the production. When Plantin came along, he based his Greek type +upon Étienne’s, but his modifications make it more practical. Compare +the <cite>Royal Greeks</cite> with Plantin’s Greek on page 231 and see how +much beauty and variety was lost in the revision.</p> + +<p>François I found himself in an impossible position between his desire +to encourage Étienne in his publications and the terrific pressure +brought to bear by the ecclesiastical censors. Just as the people +had awakened to the value of books, not to put on shelves, but to +read in order to know, so had the Church recognized the importance of +controlling and influencing what those books contained. Throughout +Robert Étienne’s entire tenure of office there raged a conflict which +not only seriously interfered with his work, but distinctly hampered +the development of literature. Had François lived longer, Étienne’s +volumes might have reached a level equal to that attained by his +Italian predecessors, but Henri II was no match +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span> for the censors. In +1552 Robert Étienne, worn out by the constant struggles, transferred +his office to Geneva, where he died seven years later. His son Henri +continued his work, but except for his <cite>Thesaurus</cite> produced little +of typographical interest.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Had it not been for this bitter censorship, France might have held her +supremacy for at least another half-century; but with the experiences +of Robert Étienne still in mind, it is easily understood why the +Frenchman, Christophe Plantin, in whom surged the determination to +become a master-printer, sought to establish himself elsewhere.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the sixteenth century Antwerp had assumed the proud +position of leading city of Europe. The success that came to the +Netherlanders in commerce as a result of their genius and enterprise +later stimulated their interest in matters of religion, politics, and +literature. Just as the tendencies of the times caused the pendulum to +swing away from Italy to France, so now it swung from France toward +the Netherlands. I had never before realized that, with the possible +exception of certain communities in Italy, where the old intellectual +atmosphere still obtained, there was no country in the world in which +culture and intelligence were so generally diffused during the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> +sixteenth century. How much more than typography these volumes have +taught me!</p> + +<p>It was inevitable that the art of printing should find in Belgium its +natural opportunity for supreme expression. At the time Plantin turned +his eyes in the direction of Antwerp, one entire quarter of that city +was devoted to the manufacture of books. This apparently discouraged +him, for at first he established himself as a bookbinder a little way +out of the city. Later he added a shop for the sale of books; but in +1555 he moved boldly into Antwerp, becoming a full-fledged printer +and publisher, soon demonstrating his right to recognition as the +master-printer of his time.</p> + +<p>By this time the words of Luther had attracted the attention of +the Christian world more particularly than ever to the Bible. The +people considered it the single basis of their faith, and upon their +familiarity with it depended their present and future welfare. It +was natural that they should attach the greatest importance to the +possession of the most authentic edition of the original text. What +more glorious task, then, could a printer take upon himself than to +provide correct texts, to translate them with scrupulous exactitude, +and to produce with the greatest perfection the single book upon which +was based the welfare of men and of empires!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_58'> +<a href='images/i_58.jpg'><img src='images/i_58-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>CHRISTOPHE PLANTIN, 1514–1589</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving by Edme de Boulonois (c. 1550)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span></p> + +<p>This was the inspiration that came to Christophe Plantin, and which +gradually took form in the <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, the great +typographic achievement of the sixteenth century. On the left-hand +page should appear the original Hebrew text, and in a parallel column +should be a rendering into the Vulgate (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_61'>230</a>). On the +right-hand page the Greek version would be printed, and beside it a +Latin translation (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_62'>231</a>). At the foot of each page should be +a Chaldean paraphrase.</p> + +<p>Antwerp was then under Spanish domination. Plantin at once opened +negotiations with Philip II of Spain, and was finally successful +in securing from that monarch an agreement to subsidize the +undertaking,—a promise which unfortunately was never kept. It is +probable that the King was influenced toward a favorable decision by +the struggle that occurred between Frankfort, Heidelberg, and even +Paris, for the honor of being associated with the great work. Philip +subscribed for thirteen copies upon parchment, and agreed to pay +Plantin 21,200 florins. He stipulated, however, that the work should +be executed under the personal supervision of one Arias Montanus, whom +he would send over from Spain. Plantin accepted this condition with +some misgivings, but upon his arrival Montanus captivated all by his +personal charm and profound learning.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span></p> + +<p>In February, 1565, Plantin employed Robert Grandjon, an engraver of +Lyons, to cut the Greek characters for the work, basing his font +upon the <cite>Royal Greeks</cite>. They are still beautiful because they +are still unpractical, but they cannot compare with their models any +more than later fonts of Greek, cut with the rigid requirements of +typography in mind, can compare with these. Grandjon also supplied +Plantin with all his Roman, and part of his Hebrew types, the balance +being cut by Guillaume Le Bé, of Paris, Hautin of Rochelle, Van der +Keere of Tours, and Corneille Bomberghe of Cologne.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_59'> +<a href='images/i_59.jpg'><img src='images/i_59-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PLANTIN’S <cite>BIBLIA POLYGLOTTA</cite>, Antwerp, 1568</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Title Page</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(13¼ × 8¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_60'> +<a href='images/i_60.jpg'><img src='images/i_60-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Page of Preface from Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_61'> +<a href='images/i_61.jpg'><img src='images/i_61-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_62'> +<a href='images/i_62.jpg'><img src='images/i_62-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, +Antwerp, 1568 (13¼ × 8¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_63'> +<a href='images/i_63.jpg'><img src='images/i_63-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>PLANTIN’S <cite>BIBLIA POLYGLOTTA</cite>, Antwerp, 1568</p> +<p class='caption'><cite>Second Page</cite></p> +<p class='caption'>(13¼ × 8¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p>The eight massive parts of the <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite> appeared +during the years 1568 to 1573. The first volume opens with a +splendid engraved title, representing the union of the people in the +Christian faith, and the four languages of the Old Testament +(<a href='#i_59'><span class='xref'>opp. page</span></a>). In the lower, right-hand corner +appears the famous Plantin mark. Immediately following are two other +engraved plates (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_63'>232</a>), illustrative +as well as decorative in their nature. One of these pages gives to +the faithless Philip an undeserved immortality. There are also single +full-page engravings at the beginning of the fourth and fifth volumes. +Twelve copies were printed on vellum for King Philip. A thirteenth +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> +copy on vellum was never completed. In addition to these, ten other +copies were printed on large Italian imperial paper, and were sold +at 200 florins per copy. There were 300 copies on imperial paper at +100 florins, and 960 printed on fine royal Troyes paper, which were +offered to the public at 70 florins each, with ten florins discount to +libraries. One of the vellum copies was presented by the King to the +Pope, another to the Duke of Alba, and still a third to the Duke of +Savoy, the remaining copies being left in the library of the Escurial.</p> + +<p>King Philip was so pleased with the volumes that he created Plantin +<i lang='fr'>Prototypographe</i>, ruler over all the printers in the city,—a +polite and inexpensive way of escaping his obligations. The world +acclaimed a new master-printer; but these honors meant little to +pressing creditors.</p> + +<p>What a series of misfortunes Plantin endured! Stabbed by a miscreant +who mistook him for some one else; hampered by censorship in spite of +previous assurances of liberty in publications; his property wiped +out again and again by the clashes of arms which finally cost Antwerp +her pre-eminence; forever in debt, and having to sell his books +below cost, and to sacrifice his library to meet pressing financial +obligations;—yet always rising +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> above his calamities, he carried on +his printing office until his death in 1589, when he left a comfortable +fortune of above $200,000.</p> + +<p>Historically, Plantin’s contribution to the art of printing can +scarcely be overestimated, yet technically he should be included in +the second rather than the first group of early master-printers. The +century that had elapsed since Gutenberg had removed many of the +mechanical difficulties which had been obstacles to his predecessors. +The printer could now secure printed copy to be edited and improved. +Scholars were easily obtainable from the universities for editing +and proofreading. Printing machinery could be purchased instead of +being manufactured from original models. The sale of books had been +greatly systematized. A printer could now devote himself to his art +without dividing himself into various semi-related parts. Plantin +proved himself a business man. Who else ever established a printing +or publishing business on such an enduring basis that it continued +for three hundred years! In bequeathing it to his daughter and his +son-in-law, Moretus, Plantin made the interesting injunction that the +printing office was always to be maintained by the son or successor +who was most competent to manage it. If no son qualified, then the +successor must be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> selected outside the family. Fortunately, however, +there were sons who, each in his generation but with diminishing +ability, proved his right to assume the responsibility, and the +business was actually continued in the family down to 1867. A few years +later the property was purchased by the city of Antwerp for 1,200,000 +francs, and turned into a public museum.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_64'> +<a href='images/i_64.jpg'><img src='images/i_64-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Device of Christophe Plantin</p> +</div> + +<p>I never visit the Plantin Museum at Antwerp without feeling that I have +come closer to the old master-printers and their ideals. Here is the +only great printing establishment of the past that time and the inroads +of man have left intact. The beauty of the building, the harmony of +the surroundings, the old portraits, the comfort yet the taste shown +in the living-rooms,—all show that the artist-printer sought the same +elements in his life that he expressed in his work. Entering from the +Marché du Vendredi, I find myself face to face with a small tablet +over the door on which is the device of Christophe Plantin, “first +printer to the King, and the king of printers.” Here the familiar hand, +grasping a pair of compasses, reaches down from the clouds, holding the +compasses so that one leg stands at rest while the other describes a +circle, enclosing the legend <i lang='fr'>Labore et Constantia</i>. Within the +house one finds the actual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> types, and presses, and designs by Rubens +and other famous artists, that were employed in making the Plantin +books. The rooms in which the master printer lived make his personality +very real. In those days a man’s business was his life, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> the home +and the workshop were not far separated. Here the family life and +the making of books were so closely interwoven that the visitor can +scarcely tell where one leaves off and the other begins.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>In the vocabulary of booklovers, the name <cite>Elzevir</cite> suggests +something particularly choice and unique in the making of books. These +volumes cannot compare favorably with many products of the press +which preceded and followed them, yet the prestige which attended +their publication has endured down to the present day. The original +popularity of the Elzevirs was due to the fact that after a century of +degradation, some one at last undertook to reclaim printing from the +depths.</p> + +<p>Printing, after reaching such heights so soon after its beginnings, had +steadily declined. The art may really be said to have had its origin +in Italy, as the work from Gutenberg’s office, while extraordinary and +epoch-making, could not rank with the best of the fifteenth-century +Italian productions. The French volumes of the early sixteenth century +were splendid examples of typography and presswork, but they did not +equal those of their Italian predecessors. Christophe Plantin’s work +in Antwerp was typographically unimportant except for his <cite>Biblia +Polyglotta</cite>; and after Plantin, which takes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span> us to the end of the +sixteenth century, printing passed from an art into a trade. The +Elzevirs were craftsmen rather than artists, but the best craftsmen of +their period.</p> + +<p>All this was a natural reaction. The book-buying public had come to +demand the contents of the book at a cheaper price rather than volumes +of greater technical excellence at a correspondingly higher cost. As +we have seen, Sweynheim and Pannartz had ruined themselves by their +experiments in Greek; the Aldine Press was saved from bankruptcy only +by the intervention of Grolier. Henri Étienne, son of the great Robert +Étienne, who endeavored to emulate his father’s splendid work, came to +financial grief in producing his <cite>Thesaurus</cite>; and Plantin could +not have withstood the drain of his <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite> had it not +been that he was commercially far-sighted enough to turn his plant over +to the manufacture of inexpensive and less carefully made books.</p> + +<p>By the end of the sixteenth century cheaper paper, made in Switzerland, +came into the market, and this inferior, unbleached product largely +replaced the soft, fine paper of Italian and French manufacture which +had contributed in no small part to the beauty of the printed pages. +Ink manufacturers had learned how to produce cheaper and poorer +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span> ink, +and the types themselves, through constant use, had become worn down to +such an extent that real excellence was impossible.</p> + +<p>Holland was the natural successor to Belgium in the supremacy of +printing. The devastations of war had brought trade to a standstill +in the Netherlands, while the city of Leyden had won the attention +and admiration of the world for its heroic resistance during the long +Spanish siege. To commemorate this event, William of Orange, in 1575, +founded the University of Leyden, which quickly took high rank among +scholars, and became the intellectual and literary center of Europe.</p> + +<p>Thither the battle-scarred Plantin betook himself at the suggestion of +Lipsius, the historian, who was now a professor in the new University. +In Leyden, Plantin established a branch printing office. He was made +Printer to the University, and for a time expected to remain here, +but the old man could not bring himself to voluntary exile from his +beloved Antwerp. Plantin’s Leyden printing office had been placed in +charge of Louis Elzevir, and when the veteran printer determined to +return to Antwerp it would have seemed natural for him to leave it in +Louis Elzevir’s hands instead of turning it over to his son-in-law, +Raphelengius.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> This Elzevir, however, although the founder of the great +Elzevir house, was not a practical printer, being more interested in +bookselling and publishing; so distinction in printing did not come to +the family until Isaac, Louis Elzevir’s grandson, became Printer to +the University in 1620. Fifteen years later, Bonaventura and Abraham +Elzevir made the name famous through their editions of <cite>Terence</cite>, +<cite>Cæsar</cite>, and <cite>Pliny</cite>.</p> + +<p>Up to this time the favorite <i lang='fr'>format</i> had been the quarto volume, +running about 12 by 18 inches in size. The Elzevirs boldly departed +from the beaten path, and produced volumes running as small as 2 by 4 +inches. They cut types of small size, showing no special originality +but based on good Italian models, and issued editions which at first +met with small favor. “The Elzevirs are certainly great typographers,” +the scholar Deput wrote to Heinsius in 1629. “I can but think, however, +that their reputation will suffer in connection with these trifling +little volumes with such slender type.”</p> + +<p>Contrary to this prediction, the new <i lang='fr'>format</i> gradually +gained favor, and finally became firmly established. The best +publisher-printers in France and Italy copied the Elzevir model, and +the folios and the quartos of the preceding ages went entirely out of +style.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_65'> +<a href='images/i_65.jpg'><img src='images/i_65-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ELZEVIR’S <cite>TERENCE</cite>, 1635</p> +<p class='caption'>Engraved Title Page (Exact size)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_66'> +<a href='images/i_66.jpg'><img src='images/i_66-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ELZEVIR’S <cite>TERENCE</cite>, Leyden, 1635</p> +<p class='caption'>Text Pages (4 × 2 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p> + +<p>The <cite>Terence</cite> of 1635 is the volume I selected for my collection +(<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_66'>242</a>). While not really beautiful, it is a charming +little book. The copper-plate title (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_65'>241</a>) serves not +only its original purpose but is also an illustration. The Elzevirs +were wise enough to go back a hundred years and revive the practice +of the copper-plate title, which had been discarded by intermediate +printers because of its expense. The types themselves, far superior +to other fonts in use at that time by other printers, were especially +designed for the Elzevirs by Christoffel van Dyck. The interspacing of +the capitals and the small capitals, the arrangement of the margins, +and the general layout all show taste and knowledge of typographical +precedent. The presswork would appear to better advantage except for +the impossibility of securing ink of consistent quality.</p> + +<p>The Elzevirs showed a great advance in business organization over any +of their predecessors. Freed from oppressive censorship, they were +able to issue a long list of volumes which were disposed of through +connections established in the principal book centers of Italy, France, +Germany, and Scandinavia, as well as throughout the Netherlands +themselves. There is no record of any Elzevir publication proving a +failure; but, by the same +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span> +token, one cannot say that the Elzevirs accomplished as much for the +art to which they devoted themselves as did the master-printers in +whose steps they followed.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Curiously enough, it was not until the eighteenth century that England +produced volumes which were pre-eminent in any period. Caxton’s work, +extraordinary as it was, competed against books made at the same time +in Venice by Jenson, and were not equal to these Italian masterpieces. +I have a leaf from a Caxton volume which I often place beside my Jenson +volume, and the comparison always increases my wonder and admiration +for the great Italian printer. Caxton’s work was epoch-making, but +until John Baskerville issued his <cite>Virgil</cite> in Birmingham, in 1757, +England had not produced a volume that stood out, at the moment of its +publication, as the best of its time.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_67'> +<a href='images/i_67.jpg'><img src='images/i_67-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>John Baskerville</p> +<p class='caption'>(1706–1775)</p> +</div> + +<p>John Baskerville is one of the most unique characters to be found +in the annals of printing. He had been in turn a footman, a writing +teacher, an engraver of slate gravestones, and the proprietor of a +successful japanning establishment. He showed no special interest +in types or books until middle age, and after he had amassed +a fortune. Then, suddenly, he designed and cut types which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span> +competed successfully with the famous Caslon fonts, and produced his +<cite>Virgil</cite>, which, as Benjamin Franklin wrote in presenting a copy +to the Harvard College Library, was “thought to be the most curiously +printed of any book hitherto done in the world.” Macaulay called it, +“The first of those magnificent editions which went forth to astonish +all the librarians of Europe.”</p> + +<p>The Baskerville types were at first received with scant praise, +although even the severest critics admitted that the Italic characters, +from which was eliminated that cramped design seen in the Italics of +other foundries of the period, were essentially beautiful. A letter +written by Benjamin Franklin to Baskerville in 1760 is of amusing +interest:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some +have entertained against your work. Soon after I returned, +discoursing with a gentleman concerning the artists of +Birmingham, he said you would be the means of blinding all the +readers of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being +too thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read +a line of them without pain. “I thought,” said I, “you were +going to complain of the gloss on the paper some object to.” +“No, no,” said he, “I have heard that mentioned, but it is not +that; it is in the form and cut of the letters themselves, they +have not that height and thickness of the stroke which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> makes +the common printing so much more comfortable to the eye.” You +see this gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I endeavored +to support your character against the charge; he knew what +he felt, and could see the reason of it, and several other +gentlemen among his friends had made the same observation, etc.</p> + +<p class='bq'>Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to +try his judgment, I stepped into my closet, tore off the top +of Mr. Caslon’s Specimen, and produced it to him as yours, +brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining +it, since he spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive +the disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out +to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the several +founts, showing me everywhere what he thought instances of +that disproportion; and declared, that he could not then read +the specimen without feeling very strongly the pain he had +mentioned to me. I spared him that time the confusion of being +told, that these were the types he had been reading all his +life, with so much ease to his eyes; the types his adored +Newton is printed with, on which he has pored not a little; +nay, the very types his own book is printed with (for he is +himself an author), and yet never discovered the painful +disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_68'> +<a href='images/i_68.jpg'><img src='images/i_68-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Title Page of Baskerville’s <cite>Virgil</cite>, Birmingham, +1757 (8½ × 5⅜ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_69'> +<a href='images/i_69.jpg'><img src='images/i_69-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of Baskerville’s <cite>Virgil</cite>, Birmingham, +1757 (8½ × 5⅜ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span></p> + +<p>The <cite>Virgil</cite> itself, beyond the interest that exists in its type, +shows grace and dignity in its composition and margins. For the first +time we have a type title (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_68'>247</a>) that shows a printer’s +appreciation of its possibilities. Baskerville affected extreme +simplicity, employing no head or tail pieces and no ornamental initials +to accomplish his effects (<span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_69'>249</a>).</p> + +<p>The copy of Baskerville’s <cite>Virgil</cite> in my library contains a +copper-plate frontispiece. The advertisement which particularly +emphasized this feature excited my curiosity, as no book of +Baskerville’s is known to have contained illustrations. When I secured +the copy I found that the frontispiece was a steel engraving stamped on +water-marked paper which indicated its age to be at least two hundred +years earlier than the publication of the book. The owner of this +particular copy had inserted the illustration in re-binding, and it was +no part of the original edition!</p> + +<p>The glossy paper referred to in Franklin’s letter was an outcome of +Baskerville’s earlier business experience. It occurred to him that +type would print better upon highly finished paper, and that this +finish could be secured by pressing the regular book paper of the time +between heated japan plates made at his own establishment. Baskerville +is entitled to the credit of having been the first printer to use +highly finished paper, and, beyond +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span> this, as Dibdin says of him, “He +united, in a singularly happy manner, the elegance of Plantin with the +clearness of the Elzevirs.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Interest in the Baskerville books, and in fact in all books printed +in what is known as “old-style” type, ceased suddenly with the +inexplicable popularity attained about 1800 by the so-called “modern” +face. The characteristics of the old-style letter are heavy ascending +and descending strokes with small serifs, whereas the modern face +accentuates the difference between the light and the heavy lines, +and has more angular serifs. The engraved work of Thomas Bewick, in +England, the publication of the <cite>Racine</cite> by the Didots, and the +Bodoni volumes in Italy, offered the public an absolute innovation +from the types with which they had been familiar since the invention +of printing, and the new designs leaped into such popular favor that +many of the foundries destroyed the matrices of their old-style faces, +believing that the call for them had forever disappeared. As a matter +of fact, it was not until the London publisher Pickering revived the +old-style letter in 1844, that the modern face had any competition. +Since then the two styles have been maintained side by side.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span></p> + +<p>Thus the second supremacy of France came from a change in public taste +rather than from economic causes. For a time there was a question +whether Bodoni would win the distinction for Italy or the Didots for +France, but the French printers possessed a typographical background +that Bodoni lacked, and in their <cite>Racine</cite> produced a masterpiece +which surpasses any production from the Bodoni Press. The Didots +were not only printers and publishers, but manufactured paper and +invented the process of stereotyping. While Minister to France, in +1780, Benjamin Franklin visited the Didot establishment, and, seizing +the handle of a press, struck off several copies of a form with such +professional familiarity as to cause astonishment.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be surprised,” Franklin exclaimed smiling. “This, you know, is +my real business.”</p> + +<p>In 1797, the French Minister of the Interior placed at the disposal +of Pierre Didot <i lang='fr'>l’aîné</i> that portion of the Louvre which had +formerly been occupied by the <i lang='fr'>Imprimerie Royale</i>. Here was +begun, and completed in 1801, an edition of <cite>Racine</cite> in three +volumes that aroused the enthusiasm of booklovers all over the world, +and brought to Pierre Didot the glory of being recognized as a +master-printer worthy to assume the mantle of Robert Étienne. This is +the typographic achievement I would select as the masterpiece of its +period.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_70'> +<a href='images/i_70.jpg'><img src='images/i_70-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>DIDOT’S <cite>RACINE</cite>, Paris, 1801</p> +<p class='caption'><i>A Frontispiece</i></p> +<p class='caption'>Designed by Prud’hon. Engraved by Marius (12 × 8 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_71'> +<a href='images/i_71.jpg'><img src='images/i_71-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Title Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801 +(12 × 8 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_72'> +<a href='images/i_72.jpg'><img src='images/i_72-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Opening Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_73'> +<a href='images/i_73.jpg'><img src='images/i_73-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of Didot’s <cite>Racine</cite>, Paris, 1801</p> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_74'> +<a href='images/i_74.jpg'><img src='images/i_74-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>FIRMIN DIDOT, 1730–1804</p> +<p class='caption'>From Engraving by Pierre Gustave Eugene Staal (1817–1882)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span></p> + +<p>The large quarto volumes contain nearly five hundred pages each. The +type was designed and cut by Firmin Didot in conjunction with, or +possibly in collaboration with Giambattista Bodoni, of Parma, Italy. +So closely do the two faces match that the similarity of their design +could scarcely have been a coincidence (see <span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#i_15'>81</a>). There is +a peculiar charm in the unusual length of the ascending and descending +characters; there is a grace in the slender capitals in spite of the +ultra-refinement; there is satisfaction in having the weight of the +Italic letter approach that of the Roman, thus preventing the usual +blemish which the lighter faced Italic gives to an otherwise perfectly +balanced page. The figures, really a cross between the old style +and the modern, have a distinct individuality entirely lost in the +so-called “lining” figures which those who have copied this face in +America have introduced as an “improvement.”</p> + +<p>The <cite>Racine</cite> contains magnificent steel engravings, of which +one is reproduced at page 253. The handmade paper is a return to the +beautiful sheets of the fifteenth century, and the presswork—the type +just biting into the paper without leaving an impression on the reverse +side—is superbly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span> characteristic of the best French workmanship. The +vellum copies show the work at its best. The engravings stand out +almost as original etchings. The ink is the densest black I ever saw. +Didot succeeded in overcoming the oil in the vellum without the chalk +surface that is given to the Morris vellum, the ink being so heavy that +it is slightly raised. I was particularly interested in this after my +own experiments in printing my humanistic <cite>Petrarch</cite> on vellum.</p> + +<p>At the Exposition of 1801, in Paris, the <cite>Racine</cite> was proclaimed +by a French jury the “most perfect typographic product of any country +and of any age.” Is this not too high praise? To have equaled the +Italian masterpieces of the fifteenth century would have been enough +glory for any printer to claim!</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The <cite>Racine</cite> was a step in the direction of reclaiming typography +from the trade which it had become, but it was left for William Morris +to place printing squarely back among the arts.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_75'> +<a href='images/i_75.jpg'><img src='images/i_75-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>WILLIAM MORRIS, 1834–1896</p> +<p class='caption'>From Portrait by G. F. Watts, R. A. Painted in 1880</p> +<p class='caption'>National Portrait Gallery, London</p> +</div> + +<p>Morris was nearly sixty years of age when he finally settled upon the +book as the medium through which to express his message to the world. +The Morris wall papers, the Morris chair, the Morris end papers, +are among his earlier experiments,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span> all sufficiently unique to +perpetuate his name; yet his work as a printer is what gave him undying +glory. The <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite> is his masterpiece, and must be +included whenever great typographic monuments are named. For this the +decorator-printer cut a smaller size of his Gothic font, secured the +co-operation of Sir Edward Burne-Jones as illustrator, and set himself +the task of designing the initial letters, borders, and decorations. +This was in 1892, and for four years they worked upon it, one delay +following another to make Morris fearful that the work might never be +completed.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_76'> +<a href='images/i_76.jpg'><img src='images/i_76-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES, <span class='honorific'>Bart.</span>, 1833–1898</p> +<p class='caption'>From Photograph at the British Museum</p> +</div> + +<p>The decoration for the first page was finished in March, 1893. Morris +was entirely satisfied with it, exclaiming, “My eyes! how good it is!” +Then he laid the whole project aside for over a year, while he devoted +himself to his metrical version of <cite>Beowulf</cite>. In the meantime +Burne-Jones was experiencing great difficulty in having his designs +satisfactorily translated onto wood, and Morris dolefully remarked, +after comparing notes with his friend and collaborator, “We shall be +twenty years at this rate in getting it out!”</p> + +<p>It was June, 1894, before the great work was fairly under way. +“<cite>Chaucer</cite> getting on well,” Morris notes in his diary,—“such +lovely designs.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span> +At the end of June he records his expectation of +beginning the actual printing within a month, and that in about three +months more all the pictures and nearly all the borders would be ready +for the whole of the Canterbury Tales.</p> + +<p>About this time Morris was asked if he would accept the +poet-laureateship of England, made vacant by Tennyson’s death, if +offered to him, and he unhesitatingly declined. His health and strength +were noticeably failing, yet at the beginning of 1895, less than two +years before his death, he was completely submerged by multifarious +occupations. Two presses were running upon the <cite>Chaucer</cite> and +still a third upon smaller books. He was designing new paper hangings +and writing new romances; he was collaborating in the translation of +<cite>Heimskringla</cite> and was supervising its production for the Saga +Library; he was engaged in getting together his splendid collection of +thirteenth- and fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts.</p> + +<p>It was not all smooth sailing with the <cite>Chaucer</cite>. In 1895 +Morris discovered that many of the sheets had become discolored by +some unfortunate ingredient of the ink, but to his immense relief he +succeeded in removing the yellow stains by bleaching. “The check of the +<cite>Chaucer</cite>,” he writes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> +“flattens life for me somewhat, but I am +going hard into the matter, and in about a fortnight hope to know the +worst of it.”</p> + +<p>In December the <cite>Chaucer</cite> was sufficiently near completion to +encourage him to design a binding for it. Even here he found another +difficulty. “Leather is not good now,” he complained; “what used to +take nine months to cure is now done in three. They used to say ‘What’s +longest in the tanyard stays least time in the market,’ but that no +longer holds good. People don’t know how to buy now; they’ll take +anything.”</p> + +<p>Morris’ anxiety over the <cite>Chaucer</cite> increased as it came nearer +to completion. “I’d like it finished tomorrow!” he exclaimed. “Every +day beyond tomorrow that it isn’t done is one too many.” To a visitor, +looking through the printed sheets in his library, who remarked upon +the added beauty of those sheets that follow the Canterbury Tales, +where the picture pages face one another in pairs, Morris exclaimed in +alarm, “Now don’t you go saying that to Burne-Jones or he’ll be wanting +to do the first part over again; and the worst of that would be that +he’d want to do all the rest over again because the other would be so +much better, and then we should never get done, but be always going +round and round in a circle.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span></p> + +<p>The daily progress of the work upon the <cite>Chaucer</cite> was the one +interest that sustained his waning energies. The last three blocks were +brought to him on March 21, 1896. The Easter holidays almost killed +him. “Four mouldy Sundays in a mouldy row,” he writes in his diary. +“The press shut and <cite>Chaucer</cite> at a standstill.”</p> + +<p>On May 6 all the picture sheets were printed and the block for the +title page was submitted for Morris’ approval, the final printing being +completed two days later. On June 2 the first two bound copies were +delivered to him, one of which he immediately sent to Burne-Jones, the +other he placed in his own library.</p> + +<p>Thus the <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite> came to completion. Four months later +William Morris was dead. The <cite>Chaucer</cite> had been nearly five years +in preparation and three and a half years in execution. The printing +alone had consumed a year and nine months. The volumes contain, besides +eighty-seven illustrations by Burne-Jones, a full-page woodcut title, +fourteen large borders, eighteen frames for pictures, and twenty-six +large initial words, all designed by Morris, together with the smaller +initials and the design for binding, which was in white pigskin with +silver clasps, executed by Douglas Cockerell.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_77'> +<a href='images/i_77.jpg'><img src='images/i_77-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of Kelmscott <cite>Chaucer</cite>, London, 1896 (15 +× 10¼ inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span></p> + +<p>I have never felt that the Kelmscott volumes were books at all, but +were, rather, supreme examples of a master-decorator’s taste and skill. +After all, a book is made to read, and the <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite> is +made to be looked at. The principles which should control the design of +the ideal book as laid down by William Morris cannot be improved upon, +but when he undertook to put them into execution he found himself so +wholly under the control of his decorating tendencies that he departed +far from his text. William Morris’ work is far greater than is shown in +the volumes he printed. He awoke throughout the world an interest in +printing as an art beyond what any other man has ever accomplished, the +results of which have been a vital factor in bringing modern bookmaking +to its present high estate.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>It remained for T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, Morris’ friend, admirer, and +disciple, to put Morris’ principles into operation at the Doves Press, +London, supplemented by Emery Walker, who designed the Doves type,—to +me the most beautiful type face in existence. Cobden-Sanderson, +undisturbed by counter interests, plodded along, producing volumes +into which he translated Morris’ ideals far more consistently than +did Morris himself. “The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span> +Book Beautiful,” Cobden-Sanderson wrote in +his little masterpiece, <cite>The Ideal Book</cite>, “is a composite thing +made up of many parts and may be made beautiful by the beauty of each +of its parts—its literary content, its material or materials, its +writing or printing, its illumination or illustration, its binding +and decoration—of each of its parts in subordination to the whole +which collectively they constitute; or it may be made beautiful by +the supreme beauty of one or more of its parts, all the other parts +subordinating or even effacing themselves for the sake of this one or +more, and each in turn being capable of playing this supreme part and +each in its own peculiar and characteristic way. On the other hand +each contributory craft may usurp the functions of the rest and of the +whole, and growing beautiful beyond all bounds ruin for its own the +common cause.”</p> + +<p>The <cite>Doves Bible</cite> is Cobden-Sanderson’s masterpiece, and one +turns to it with relief after the riotous beauty of the Morris pages. +It is printed throughout in one size of type with no leads between +the lines and with no paragraphs, the divisions being indicated by +heavy paragraph marks. The only decorative feature of any description +consists of exceedingly graceful initial letters at the beginning of +each new book. The type is based flatly upon Jenson’s Roman face, and +exactly answers Morris’ definition of the type ideal, “Pure in form, +severe, without needless excrescences, solid without the thickening and +thinning of the lines, and not compressed laterally.” The presswork is +superb.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_78'> +<a href='images/i_78.jpg'><img src='images/i_78-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Title Page of <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, London, 1905 +(8 × 6 inches)</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_79'> +<a href='images/i_79.jpg'><img src='images/i_79-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Text Page of <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, London, 1905 +(8 × 6 inches)</p> +</div> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span></p> + +<p class='p0'>Surely no form of bibliomania can yield greater rewards in return for +study and perseverance. The great typographical monuments, dating from +1456 to 1905, have given me a composite picture of man’s successful +struggle to free himself from the bonds of ignorance. I have mingled +with Lorenzo the Magnificent and with the oppressed people of Florence; +I have been a part of François I’s sumptuous Court, and have seen the +anxious faces of the clerical faction as they read the writing on +the wall; I have listened to the preaching of Luther, and have heard +the Spanish guns bombarding Antwerp; I have stood with the brave +defenders of Leyden, and have watched the center of learning find its +place in Holland; I have enjoyed Ben Franklin’s participation in the +typographical efforts of Baskerville and Didot; I have received the +inspiration of seeing William Morris and Cobden-Sanderson put a great +art back into its rightful place. These triumphs of the printing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span> +press are far more than books. They stand as landmarks +charting the path of culture and learning +through four marvelous centuries</p> + +<p class='p0 no-indent' style='margin-top: .5em;'> +What volume of the twentieth century and what master-printer shall be +included? That is yet to +be determined by the test of retrospect; but the +choice will be more difficult to make. In +America and England history is being +made in printing as an art, and +the results are full of <span id='TN_269'>hopeful</span>ness and promise</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span></p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span></p> +<h2 id="CH_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class='center p2 fs120 bold'><span class='title'>The Spell of the Laurenziana</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span></p> + +<p class='center bold fs120'>VII</p> +</div> + +<p class='center fs120'>THE SPELL OF THE LAURENZIANA</p> + + +<p class='p2'>The most fascinating city in all Europe is Florence, and the most +alluring spot in all Florence is the Laurenziana Library. They say +that there is something in the peculiar atmosphere of antiquity that +reacts curiously upon the Anglo-Saxon temperament, producing an +obsession so definite as to cause indifference to all except the magic +lure of culture and learning. This is not difficult to believe after +working, as I have, for weeks at a time, in a cell-like alcove of +the Laurenziana; for such work, amid such surroundings, possesses an +indescribable lure.</p> + +<p>Yet my first approach to the Laurenziana was a bitter disappointment; +for the bleak, unfinished façade is almost repelling. Perhaps it was +more of a shock because I came upon it directly from the sheer beauty +of the Baptistery and Giotto’s Campanile. Michelangelo planned to make +this façade the loveliest of all in Florence, built of marble and +broken by many niches, in each of which was to stand the figure of a +saint. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span> plans, drawn before America was discovered, still exist, +yet work has never even been begun. The façade remains unfinished, +without a window and unbroken save by three uninviting doors.</p> + +<p>Conquering my dread of disillusionment, I approached the nearest +entrance, which happened to be that at the extreme right of the +building and led me directly into the old Church of San Lorenzo. +Drawing aside the heavy crimson curtains, I passed at once into a +calm, majestic quiet and peace which made the past seem very near. I +drew back into the shadow of a great pillar in order to gain my poise. +How completely the twentieth century turned back to the fifteenth! On +either side, were the bronze pulpits from which Savonarola thundered +against the tyranny and intrigue of the Medici. I seemed to see the +militant figure standing there, his eyes flashing, his voice vibrating +as he proclaimed his indifference to the penalty he well knew he drew +upon himself by exhorting his hearers to oppose the machinations of the +powerful family within whose precincts he stood. Then, what a contrast! +The masses vanished, and I seemed to be witnessing the gorgeous beauty +of a Medici marriage procession. Alessandro de’ Medici was standing +beneath a <i lang='it'>baldacchino</i>, surrounded by the pomp and glory of all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span> +Florence, to espouse the daughter of Charles V. Again the scene changes +and the colors fade. I leave my place of vantage and join the reverent +throng surrounding the casket which contains the mortal remains of +Michelangelo, and listen with bowed head to Varchi’s eloquent tribute +to the great humanist.</p> + +<p>The spell was on me! Walking down the nave, I turned to the left and +found myself in the Old Sacristy. Verrocchio’s beautiful sarcophagus +in bronze and porphyry recalled for a moment the personalities and +deeds of Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici. Then on, into the “New” +Sacristy,—new, yet built four centuries ago! Again I paused, this +time before Michelangelo’s tomb for Lorenzo the Magnificent, from +which arise those marvelous monuments, “Day and Night” and “Dawn and +Twilight,”—the masterpieces of a super-sculptor to perpetuate the +memory of a superman!</p> + +<p>A few steps more took me to the Martelli Chapel, and, opening an +inconspicuous door, I passed out into the cloister. It was a relief +for the moment to breathe the soft air and to find myself in the +presence of nature after the tenseness that came from standing before +such masterpieces of man. Maurice Hewlett had prepared me for the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> +“great, mildewed cloister with a covered-in walk all around it, built +on arches. In the middle a green garth with cypresses and yews dotted +about; when you look up, the blue sky cut square and the hot tiles of a +huge dome staring up into it.”</p> + +<p>From the cloister I climbed an ancient stone staircase and found myself +at the foot of one of the most famous stairways in the world. At that +moment I did not stop to realize how famous it was, for my mind had +turned again on books, and I was intent on reaching the Library itself. +At the top of the stairway I paused for a moment at the entrance to the +great hall, the <i lang='it'>Sala di Michelangiolo</i>. At last I was face to +face with the Laurenziana!</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_80'> +<a href='images/i_80.jpg'><img src='images/i_80-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>SALA DI MICHELANGIOLO</p> +<p class='caption'>Laurenziana Library, Florence</p> +</div> + +<p>Before I had completed my general survey of the room, an attendant +greeted me courteously, and when I presented my letter of introduction +to the librarian he bowed low and led me the length of the hall. The +light came into the room through beautiful stained-glass windows, +bearing the Medici arms and the cipher of Giulio de’ Medici, later +Pope Clement VII, surrounded by arabesque Renaissance designs. We +passed between the <i lang='it'>plutei</i>, those famous carved reading-desks +designed by Michelangelo. As we walked down the aisle, the pattern of +the nutwood ceiling seemed reflected on the brick floor, so cleverly +was the design reproduced +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span> in painted bricks. Gradually I became +impressed by the immense size of the room, which before I had not felt +because the proportions are so perfect.</p> + +<p>Doctor Guido Biagi, who was at that time librarian, was seated at +one of the <i lang='it'>plutei</i>, studying a Medicean illuminated manuscript +fastened to the desk by one of the famous old chains (see <span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_3'>14</a>). He was a Tuscan of medium height, rather heavily built, with +full beard, high forehead, and kindly, alert eyes. The combination of +his musical Italian voice, his eyes, and his appealing smile, made +me feel at home at once. Letters of introduction such as mine were +every-day affairs with him, and no doubt he expected, as did I, to +have our meeting result in a few additional courtesies beyond what +the tourist usually receives, and then that each would go his way. I +little realized, as I presented my letter, that this meeting was to be +so significant,—that the man whose hand I clasped was to become my +closest friend, and that through him the Laurenziana Library was to be +for me a sanctuary.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_81'> +<a href='images/i_81.jpg'><img src='images/i_81-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'><i lang='it'>Dott. Comm.</i> GUIDO BIAGI in 1924</p> +<p class='caption'>Librarian of the Laurenziana Library, Florence</p> +</div> + +<p>After the first words of greeting, I said,</p> + +<p>“I am wondering how much more I can absorb today. By mistake I came +in through the church, and found myself confronted by a series +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span> +of masterpieces so overpowering that I am almost exhausted by the +monuments of great personages and the important events they recall.”</p> + +<p>“A fortunate mistake,” he replied smiling. “The entrance to the Library +should be forever closed, and every one forced to come in through the +church as you did, in order to absorb the old-world atmosphere, and be +ready to receive what I can give.—So this is your first visit? You +know nothing of the history of the Library?”</p> + +<p>“Simply that everything was designed by Michelangelo,—and the names of +some of the priceless manuscripts in your collection.”</p> + +<p>“It is not quite exact to say that everything was designed by the great +Buonarroti,” he corrected. “It was Michelangelo who conceived, but +Vasari who designed and executed. Let me show you the letter the great +artist wrote to Vasari about the stairway you just ascended” (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_82'>280</a>).</p> + +<p>Leaving me for a moment he returned with a manuscript in his hand which +he read aloud:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='bq'>There is a certain stair that comes into my thoughts like a +dream, <cite>the letter ran</cite>; but I don’t think it is exactly +the one which I had planned at the time, seeing that it appears +to be but a clumsy affair. I will describe it for you here, +nevertheless. I took a number of oval boxes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> each about one +palm deep, but not of equal length and breadth. The first and +largest I placed on a pavement at such distance from the wall +of the door as seemed to be required by the greater or lesser +degree of steepness you may wish to give the stair. Over this +was placed another, smaller in all directions, and leaving +sufficient room on that beneath for the foot to rest on in +ascending, thus diminishing each step as it gradually retires +towards the door; the uppermost step being of the exact width +required for the door itself. This part of the oval steps must +have two wings, one right and one left, the steps of the wings +to rise by similar degree, but not be oval in form.</p> +</div> + +<p>“Who but a great artist could visualize that marvelous staircase +through a collection of wooden boxes!” Biagi exclaimed. “Vasari built +this great room, but the designs were truly Michelangelo’s,—even to +the carving of these <i lang='it'>plutei</i>,” he added, laying his hand on the +reading-desk from which he had just risen. “See these chains, which +have held these volumes in captivity for over four hundred years.”</p> + +<p>He asked me how long I was to be in Florence.</p> + +<p>“For a week,” I answered, believing the statement to be truthful; but +the seven days stretched out into many weeks before I was able to break +the chains which held me to the Library as firmly as if they were the +links which for so many years +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span> had kept the Medicean treasures in their +hallowed places.</p> + +<p>“Return tomorrow,” he said. “Enter by the private door, where Marinelli +will admit you. I want to keep your mind wholly on the Library.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_82'> +<a href='images/i_82.jpg'><img src='images/i_82-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>VESTIBULE of the LAURENZIANA LIBRARY, FLORENCE</p> +<p class='caption'>Designed by Michelangelo</p> +</div> + +<p>The private door was the entrance in the portico overlooking the +cloister, held sacred to the librarian and his friends. At the +appointed hour I was admitted, and Marinelli conducted me immediately +to the little office set apart for the use of the librarian.</p> + +<p>“Before I exhibit my children,” he said, “I must tell you the romantic +story of this collection. You will enjoy and understand the books +themselves better if I give you the proper background.”</p> + +<p>Here is the story he told me. I wish you might have heard the words +spoken in the musical Tuscan voice:</p> + +<p>Four members of the immortal Medici family contributed to the greatness +of the Laurenziana Library, their interest in which would seem to be a +curious paradox. Cosimo <i lang='it'>il Vecchio</i>, father of his country, was +the founder. “Old” Cosimo was unique in combining zeal for learning +and an interest in arts and letters with political corruption. As his +private fortune increased through success in trade he discovered the +power money +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span> possessed when employed to secure political prestige. By +expending hundreds of thousands of florins upon public works, he gave +employment to artisans, and gained a popularity for his family with the +lower classes which was of the utmost importance at critical times. +Beneath this guise of benefactor existed all the characteristics of +the tyrant and despot, but through his money he was able to maintain +his position as a Mæcenas while his agents acted as catspaws in +accomplishing his political ambitions. Old Cosimo acknowledged to Pope +Eugenius that much of his wealth had been ill-gotten, and begged him to +indicate a proper method of restitution. The Pope advised him to spend +10,000 florins on the Convent of San Marco. To be sure that he followed +this advice thoroughly, Cosimo contributed more than 40,000 florins, +and established the basis of the present Laurenziana Library.</p> + +<p>“Some of your American philanthropists must have read the private +history of Old Cosimo,” Biagi remarked slyly at this point.</p> + +<p>Lorenzo the Magnificent was Old Cosimo’s grandson, and his contribution +to the Library was far beyond what his father, Piero, had given. +Lorenzo was but twenty-two years of age when Piero died, in 1469. He +inherited no business +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span> ability from his grandfather, but far surpassed +him in the use he made of literary patronage. Lorenzo had no idea of +relinquishing control of the Medici tyranny, but he was clever enough +to avoid the outward appearance of the despot. Throughout his life he +combined a real love of arts and letters with a cleverness in political +manipulation, and it is sometimes difficult correctly to attribute +the purpose behind his seeming benevolences. He employed agents to +travel over all parts of the world to secure for him rare and important +codices to be placed in the Medicean Library. He announced that it was +his ambition to form the greatest collection of books in the world, and +to throw it open to public use. Such a suggestion was almost heresy in +those days! So great was his influence that the Library received its +name from his.</p> + +<p>The third Medici to play an important part in this literary history was +Lorenzo’s son, Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Pope Leo X. The library +itself had been confiscated by the Republic during the troublous times +in which Charles VIII of France played his part, and sold to the +monks of San Marco; but when better times returned Cardinal Giovanni +bought it back into the family, and established it in the Villa Medici +in Rome. During the fourteen years the collection +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span> remained in his +possession, Giovanni, as Pope Leo X, enriched it by valuable additions. +On his death, in 1521, his executor, a cousin, Giulio de’ Medici, +afterwards Pope Clement VII, commissioned Michelangelo to erect a +building worthy of housing so precious a collection; and in 1522 the +volumes were returned to Florence.</p> + +<p>Lorenzo’s promise to throw the doors open to the public was +accomplished on June 11, 1571. At that time there were 3,000 precious +manuscripts, most of which are still available to those who visit +Florence. A few are missing.</p> + +<p>The princes who followed Cosimo II were not so conscious of their +responsibilities, and left the care of the Library to the Chapter of +the Church of San Lorenzo. During this period the famous manuscript +copy of Cicero’s work, the oldest in existence, disappeared. Priceless +miniatures were cut from some of the volumes, and single leaves from +others. Where did they go? The <cite>Cicero</cite> has never since been heard +of, but the purloining of fragments of Laurenziana books undoubtedly +completed imperfections in similar volumes in other collections.</p> + +<p>The House of Lorraine, which succeeded the House of Medici, guarded the +Laurenziana carefully, placing at its head the learned Biscioni.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span> After +him came Bandini, another capable librarian, under whose administration +various smaller yet valuable collections were added in their entirety. +Del Furia continued the good work, and left behind a splendid catalogue +of the treasures entrusted to him. These four volumes are still to be +found in the Library. In 1808, and again in 1867, the libraries of +the suppressed monastic orders were divided between the Laurentian +and the Magliabecchian institutions; and in 1885, through the efforts +of Pasquale Villari, the biographer of Machiavelli, the Ashburnham +collection, numbering 1887 volumes, was added through purchase by the +Italian Government.</p> + +<p>“Now,” said Biagi, as he finished the story, “I am ready to show you +some of the Medici treasures. I call them my children. They have always +seemed that to me. My earliest memory is of peeping out from the back +windows of the Palazzo dei della Vacca, where I was born, behind the +bells of San Lorenzo, at the campanile of the ancient church, and at +the Chapel or the Medici. The Medici coat of arms was as familiar to me +as my father’s face, and the ‘pills’ that perpetuated Old Cosimo’s fame +as a chemist possessed so great a fascination that I never rested until +I became the Medicean librarian.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span></p> + +<p>Biagi led the way from his private office through the Hall of +Tapestries. As we passed by the cases containing such wealth of +illumination, only partially concealed by the green curtains drawn +across the glass, I instinctively paused, but my guide insisted.</p> + +<p>“We will return here, but first you must see the Tribuna.”</p> + +<p>We passed through the great hall into a high-vaulted, circular +reading-room.</p> + +<p>“This was an addition to the Library in 1841,” Biagi explained, “to +house the 1200 copies of original editions from the fifteenth-century +Presses, presented by the Count Angiolo Maria d’Elchi. Yes—” he added, +reading my thoughts as I glanced around; “this room is a distinct +blemish. The great Buonarroti must have turned in his grave when it +was finished. But the volumes themselves will make you forget the +architectural blunder.”</p> + +<p>He showed me volumes printed from engraved blocks by the Germans, +Sweynheym and Pannartz, at Subiaco, in the first Press established in +Italy. I held in my hand Cicero’s <cite>Epistolæ ad Familiares</cite>, a +volume printed in 1469. In the <i lang='la'>explicit</i> the printer, not at all +ashamed of his accomplishment, adds in Latin:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='p0 no-indent bq'>John, from within the town of Spires, was the first to print +books in Venice from bronze types. See, O Reader, how much +hope there is of future works when this, the first,</p> +<p class='p0 center bq'>has surpassed the art of penmanship</p> +</div> + +<p>There was Tortelli’s <cite>Orthographia dictionum e Græcia tractarum</cite>, +printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, showing the first use of Greek +characters in a printed book. The Aldine volumes introduced me to the +first appearance of Italic type. No wonder that Italy laid so firm a +hand upon the scepter of the new art, when Naples, Milan, Ferrara, +Florence, Piedmont, Cremona, and Turin vied with Venice in producing +such examples!</p> + +<p>“You must come back and study them at your leisure,” the librarian +suggested, noting my reluctance to relinquish the volume I was +inspecting to receive from him some other example equally interesting. +“Now I will introduce you to the prisoners, who have never once +complained of their bondage during all these centuries.”</p> + +<p>In the great hall we moved in and out among the <i lang='it'>plutei</i>, where +Biagi indicated first one manuscript and then another, with a few words +of explanation as to the significance of each.</p> + +<p>“No matter what the personal bent of any man,” my guide continued, “we +have here in the Library that which will satisfy his intellectual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span> +desires. If he is a student of the Scriptures, he will find inspiration +from our sixth-century <cite>Syriac Gospels</cite>, or the <cite>Biblia +Amiatina</cite>. For the lawyer, we have the <cite>Pandects of Justinian</cite>, +also of the sixth century, which even today form the absolute basis +of Roman law. What classical scholar could fail to be thrilled by the +fourth-century <cite>Medicean Virgil</cite>, with its romantic history, which +I will tell you some day; what lover of literature would not consider +himself privileged to examine Boccaccio’s manuscript copy of the +<cite>Decameron</cite>, or the Petrarch manuscript on vellum, in which appear +the famous portraits of Laura and Petrarch; or Benvenuto Cellini’s own +handwriting in his autobiography? We must talk about all these, but it +would be too much for one day.”</p> + +<p>Leading the way back to his sanctum, Biagi left me for a moment. He +returned with some manuscript poems, which he turned over to me.</p> + +<p>“This shall be the climax of your first day in the Laurenziana,” he +exclaimed. “You are now holding Michelangelo in your lap!”</p> + +<p>Can you wonder that the week I had allotted to Florence began to seem +too brief a space of time? In response to the librarian’s suggestion I +returned to the Library day after day. He was profligate in the time he +gave me. Together we studied +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span> the <cite>Biblia Amiatina</cite>, the very copy +brought from England to Rome in 716 by Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth, +intended as a votive offering at the Holy Sepulchre of Saint Peter. By +this identification at the Laurenziana in 1887 the volume became one of +the most famous in the world. In the plate opposite, the Prophet Ezra +is shown by the artist sitting before a book press filled with volumes +bound in crimson covers of present-day fashion, and even the book in +which Ezra is writing has a binding. It was a new thought to me that +the binding of books, such as we know it, was in practice as early as +the eighth century.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_83'> +<a href='images/i_83.jpg'><img src='images/i_83-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>THE PROPHET EZRA. From <cite>Codex Amiatinus</cite>, (8th +Century)</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Showing earliest Volumes in Bindings</i></p> +<p class='caption'>Laurenziana Library, Florence (12 × 8)</p> +</div> + +<p>At another time we examined the <cite>Medicean Virgil</cite> written on +vellum, dating back to the fourth century, and the oldest Codex of the +Latin poet.</p> + +<p>“This is a veritable treasure for the classical scholar, is it not?” +Biagi inquired. “While the Medicean collection remained in the hands +of the Chapter of San Lorenzo some vandal cut out the first leaves. +See,—the text now begins at the 48th line of the 6th Eclogue.”</p> + +<p>I felt almost as if I were looking at a mutilated body, so precious did +the manuscript seem.</p> + +<p>“In 1799,” the librarian continued, “these sheets were carried to +France as part of the Napoleonic booty. Later, through the good +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span> +offices of Prince Metternich, under a special article in the Treaty of +Vienna, the volume was returned to Italy. In 1816 a solemn festival +was held here in Florence to celebrate its restoration to the Library. +Such events as these,” Biagi added, “show you the place the book holds +in the hearts of the Italian people. Look!” he exclaimed, pointing +disgustedly at the stiff, ugly binding placed upon the <cite>Virgil</cite> in +Paris during its captivity. “See how little the French appreciated what +this volume really is!”</p> + +<p>The Petrarch manuscript yielded me the originals of the famous +portraits of Madonna Laura de Noves de Sale and of Messer Francesco +Petrarca which had hung in my library for years; my friend’s comments +made them assume a new meaning. The poet’s likeness so closely +resembles other more authentic portraits that we may accept that of +Madonna Laura as equally correct, even though the same opportunity for +comparison is lacking. What could be more graceful or original than the +dressing of the hair, recalling the elegance of the <i lang='fr'>coiffures</i> +worn by the ladies of Provence and France rather than of Italy, even +as the little pearl-sewn cap is absolutely unknown in the fashions +of Petrarch’s native country. After looking at the painting, we can +understand the inspiration for Petrarch’s lines:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Say from what vein did Love procure the gold</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To make those sunny tresses? From what thorn</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Stole he the rose, and whence the dew of morn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bidding them breathe and live in Beauty’s mould?</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>So we discussed the treasures which were laid out before me as I +returned again and again to the Library. The illuminated volumes showed +me that marvelous Book of Hours Francesco d’Antonio made for Lorenzo +the Magnificent, which is described in an earlier chapter (<span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#i_32'>146</a>); I became familiar with the gorgeous pages +of Lorenzo Monaco, master of Fra Angelico; of Benozzo Gozzoli, whose +frescoes give the Riccardi its greatest fame; of Gherado and Clovio, +and other great artists whose names are unknown or forgotten.</p> + +<p>Besides being librarian of the Laurenziana, Biagi was also custodian +of the Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives. Thus it was that during +some of my visits I had the opportunity to study the early sketches of +the great Leonardo, and the manuscript letters of Michelangelo. Such +intimacies gave me an understanding of the people and the times in +which they worked that has clothed that period with an everlasting halo.</p> + +<p>As our friendship expanded through our work +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> together, Biagi introduced +me to other fascinations, outside the Library. I came to know Pasquale +Villari and other great Italian intellects. My friend and I planned +Odysseys together,—to Vallombrosa, to Pisa, to Perugia, to Siena. We +visited the haunts of Dante.</p> + +<p>Nor was our conversation devoted wholly to the literary spirits of +antiquity. One day something was said about George Eliot. I had always +shared the common fallacy that she was entitled to be classified as the +greatest realist of the analytical or psychological school; yet I had +always marveled at the consummate skill which made it possible for her, +in <cite>Romola</cite>, to draw her characters and to secure the atmosphere +of veritable Italians and the truest Italy without herself having lived +amongst the Florentines and assimilating those unique peculiarities +which she so wonderfully portrayed. For I had accepted the myth that +she had only passed through Italy on her memorable trip with the Brays +in 1849, and secured her local color by study.</p> + +<p>I made some allusion to this, and Biagi smiled.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get that idea?” he asked. “Her diary tells you to the +contrary.”</p> + +<p>I could only confess that I had never read her diary.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span></p> + +<p>“George Eliot and Lewes were in Florence together in 1861,” he +continued; “and it was because they were here that <cite>Romola</cite> became +a fact.”</p> + +<p>Enjoying my surprise, the librarian became more communicative:</p> + +<p>“They studied here together from May 4 until June 7, 1861, at the +Magliabecchian Library,” said he, “and I can tell you even the titles +of the books they consulted.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps I showed my incredulity.</p> + +<p>“I have discovered the very slips which Lewes signed when he took out +the volumes,” he continued. “Would you like to see them?”</p> + +<p>By this time Biagi knew me too well to await my response. So we walked +together over to the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, the library which +became famous two hundred and fifty years ago through the reputation +of a jeweler’s shop boy, Antonio Magliabecchi, and was known as +the Biblioteca Magliabecchiana for more than a century before the +Biblioteca Palatina was joined with it in 1860 under its present modern +and unromantic name.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_84'> +<a href='images/i_84.jpg'><img src='images/i_84-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>ANTONIO MAGLIABECCHI</p> +<p class='caption'><i>Founder of the Magliabecchia Library, Florence</i></p> +</div> + +<p>As we walked along Biagi told me of the unique personality of this +Magliabecchi, which attracted the attention of the literary world while +he was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> collecting the nucleus of the library. Dibdin scouted him, +declaring that his existence was confined to the “parade and pacing of +a library,” yet so great was his knowledge and so prodigious his memory +that when the Grand Duke of Florence asked him one day for a particular +volume, he was able to reply:</p> + +<p>“The only copy of this work is at Constantinople, in the Sultan’s +library, the seventeenth volume in the second bookcase on the right as +you go in.”</p> + +<p>We entered the old reading hall, which is almost the only portion of +the building still remaining as it was when George Eliot and George +Henry Lewes pursued their studies at one of the massive walnut tables. +The jeering bust of Magliabecchi is still there; the same volumes, +resting upon their ornamental shelves, still await the arrival of +another genius to produce another masterpiece—but except for these the +Library has become as modernized as its name.</p> + +<p>“I was going over some dusty receipts here one day,” my friend +explained, “which I found on the top of a cupboard in the office of the +archives. It was pure curiosity. I was interested in the names of many +Italian writers who have since become famous, but when I stumbled upon +a number of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span> receipts signed ‘G. H. Lewes,’ I realized that I was on +the track of some valuable material. These I arranged chronologically, +and this is what I found.”</p> + +<p>Now let me go back a little, before, with Biagi’s help, I fit these +interesting receipts into the story of the writing of the book as told +by George Eliot’s diary, which I immediately absorbed.</p> + +<p><cite>Silas Marner</cite> was finished on March 10, 1861, and on April 19 the +author and Lewes “set off on our second journey to Florence.” After +arriving there, the diary tells us that they “have been industriously +foraging in old streets and old books.” Of Lewes she writes: “He was in +continual distraction by having to attend to my wants, going with me to +the Magliabecchian Library, and poking about everywhere on my behalf.”</p> + +<div class='figcenter' id='i_85'> +<a href='images/i_85.jpg'><img src='images/i_85-tb.jpg' alt=''></a> +<p class='caption1'>Library Slips used by George Eliot in the Magliabecchia +Library, Florence, while writing <cite>Romola</cite></p> +</div> + +<p>The first slip signed by Lewes is dated May 15, 1861, and called for +Ferrario’s <cite>Costume Antico e Moderno</cite>. This book is somewhat +dramatic and superficial, yet it could give the author knowledge of +the historical surroundings of the characters which were growing in +her mind. The following day they took out Lippi’s <cite>Malmantile</cite>, +a comic poem filled with quaint phrases and sayings which fitted well +in the mouths of those characters she had just learned how to dress. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span> +Migliore’s <cite>Firenze Illustrata</cite> and Rastrelli’s <cite>Firenze +Antica e Moderna</cite> gave the topography and the aspect of Florence at +the end of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>From Chiari’s <cite>Priorista</cite> George Eliot secured the idea of the +magnificent celebration of the Feast of Saint John, the effective +descriptions of the cars, the races, and the extraordinary tapers. “It +is the habit of my imagination,” she writes in her diary, “to strive +after as full a vision of the medium in which a character moves as of +the character itself.” Knowledge of the Bardi family, to which the +author added Romola, was secured from notes on the old families of +Florence written by Luigi Passerini.</p> + +<p>“See how they came back on May 24,” Biagi exclaimed, pointing to a slip +calling for <cite>Le Famiglie del Litta</cite>, “to look in vain for the +pedigree of the Bardi. But why bother,” he continued with a smile; “for +Romola, the Antigone of Bardo Bardi, was by this time already born in +George Eliot’s mind, and needed no further pedigree.”</p> + +<p>Romance may have been born, but the plot of the story was far from +being clear in the author’s mind. Back again in England, two months +later, she writes, “This morning I conceived the plot of my novel with +new distinction.” On October 4, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span> +“I am worried about my plot,” and on +October 7, “Began the first chapter of my novel.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile George Eliot continued her reading, now at the British +Museum. <cite>La Vita di G. Savonarola</cite>, by Pasquale Villari, gave her +much inspiration. The book had just been published, and it may well +have suggested the scene where Baldassarre Calvo meets Tito Melema on +the steps of the Cathedral. No other available writer had previously +described the struggle which took place for the liberation of the +Lunigiana prisoners, which plays so important a part in the plot of +<cite>Romola</cite>.</p> + +<p>In January, 1862, George Eliot writes in her diary, “I began again my +novel of <cite>Romola</cite>.” By February the extraordinary proem and the +first two chapters were completed. “Will it ever be finished?” she +asks herself. But doubt vanished as she proceeded. In May, 1863, she +“killed Tito with great excitement,” and June 9, “put the last stroke +to <cite>Romola</cite>—Ebenezer!”</p> + +<p>Since then I have re-read <cite>Romola</cite> with the increased interest +which came from the new knowledge, and the story added to my love of +Florence. Many times have I wandered, as George Eliot and Lewes did, to +the heights of Fiesole, and looked down, even as they, in sunlight, and +with the moon casting shadows upon the wonderful +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span> and obsessing city, +wishing that my vision were strong enough to extract from it another +story such as <cite>Romola</cite>.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Such were the experiences that extended my stay in Florence. The memory +of them has been so strong and so obsessing that no year has been +complete without a return to Biagi and the Laurenziana. Once, during +these years, he came to America, as the Royal representative of Italy +at the St. Louis Exposition (see also <span class='xref'>page</span> <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>). +In 1916 his term as librarian expired through the limitation of age, +but before he retired he completely rearranged that portion of the +Library which is now open to visitors (see <span class='xref'>page</span> +<a href='#Page_149'>149</a>). The treasures of no collection are made +so easily accessible except at the British Museum.</p> + +<p>I last visited Biagi in May, 1924. His time was well occupied by +literary work, particularly on Dante, which had already given him high +rank as a scholar and writer; but a distinct change had come over him. +I could not fathom it until he told me that he was planning to leave +Florence to take up his residence in Rome. I received the news in +amazement. Then the mask fell, and he answered my unasked question.</p> + +<p class='p0'>“I can’t stand it!” he exclaimed. “I can’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span> stay in Florence and not be +a part of the Laurenziana. I have tried in vain to reconcile myself, +but the Library has been so much a fiber of my being all my life, +that something has been taken away from me which is essential to my +existence.” The spell of the Laurenziana had possessed him with a vital +grip! The following January (1925) +he died, and no physician’s diagnosis will ever +contain the correct analysis of his decease +I shall always find it difficult to visualize Florence +or the Laurenziana without Guido Biagi. When +next I hold in my hands those precious +manuscripts, still chained to their ancient +<i lang='it'>plutei</i>, it will be with even greater +reverence. They stand as symbols +of the immutability of +learning and culture +compared with the +brief span of life +allotted to +Prince or Librarian</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span></p> +<h2 id="INDEX">INDEX</h2> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p class='center fs120'>INDEX</p> +</div> + + +<ul class="index"> + +<li class="ifrst">Adams Presses, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Æthelwald, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alba, the Duke of, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Alcuin Bible</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_125">125–127</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Alcuin, Bishop, of York, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Aldine Press, the, at Venice, saved by intervention of Jean Grolier, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">printing at, <a href="#Page_206">206–215</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Jenson office combined with, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Aldus_Manutius'>Aldus Manutius, legend over office of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his confidence in permanence of the printed book, <a href="#Page_11">11–12</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his type designs, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">establishes his office in Venice, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his printer’s mark and slogan, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">changes <i lang='fr'>format</i> of the book, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his aims, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Greek classics of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his contributions to typography, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>, <a href="#Page_210">210–213</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Jean Grolier’s friendship with family of, <a href="#Page_214">214–215</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Allegro, l’</cite>, Milton’s, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Ambrosiana Iliad</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ambrosiana Library, the, humanistic manuscripts in, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Angelico, Fra, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anglo-Saxon missionary artists, the, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anne, of Brittany, <cite>Hours</cite> of, described, <a href="#Page_149">149–151</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Anne, Saint, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_138">138–141</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antonio del Cherico, Francesco d’, <cite>Book of Hours</cite> illuminated by, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, + <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Antwerp, the leading city in Europe, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">book manufacture in, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">under Spanish domination, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">loses her pre-eminence, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">purchases the Plantin office, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Apostrophes, Bernard Shaw’s ideas concerning, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ashburnham Collection, the, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Augustinus, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Austria, the Emperor of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Authors, relations between publishers and, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their attitude toward the physical <i lang='fr'>format</i> of their books, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Bandini, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Baptistery, the, at Florence, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Barbaro, Marco Antonio, Procurator of Saint Mark’s, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bardi, the, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bardi, Bardo, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Barlow, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Baskerville, John, his editions, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter from Benjamin Franklin to, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his types, <a href="#Page_245">245–246</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Virgil</cite>, <a href="#Page_246">246–250</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">first to introduce glossy paper, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Dibdin’s estimate of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Baynes, Ernest Harold, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bedford, Anne, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Bedford Book of Hours</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_135">135–138</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bedford, John, Duke of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Belgium, see <a href='#Netherlands'><span class='xref'>Netherlands, the</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bellini, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Beowulf</cite>, William Morris’, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Berlin, library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Berry, the Duc de, the <cite>Très Riches Heures</cite> of, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <cite>Antiquities of the Jews</cite> begun for, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bertieri, Raffaello, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Bewick, Thomas, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Biagi, Dr. Guido, custodian of the Buonarroti and the da Vinci archives, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">defines the humanist, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his association with the designing of the Humanistic type, <a href="#Page_17">17–33</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his comments on Bodoni, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his meeting with Charles Eliot Norton, <a href="#Page_180">180–183</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_277">277–300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his early ambition to become librarian of the Laurenziana, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in America, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his last days, <a href="#Page_299">299–300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his death, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bible, the, welfare of men and of empires based upon, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Biblia Amiatina</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Biblia_Polyglotta'><cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, Plantin’s, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the story of, <a href="#Page_227">227–233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">pages from, <a href="#Page_229">229–231</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bibliothèque Nationale, the, Paris, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Billfrith, Saint, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bindings, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Birmingham, England, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Biscioni, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bisticci, quoted, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Blanche, Queen, of Castile, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boccaccio, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bodleian Library, the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bodoni, Giambattista, the father of modern type design, <a href="#Page_78">78–82</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">compared with Didot, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bodoni Press, the revived, in Montagnola di Lugano, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bodoni type, the, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">compared with the Didot type, <a href="#Page_79">79–82</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">William Morris’ dislike of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">De Vinne’s admiration for, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bokhara, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bomberghe, Corneille, type designer, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Book, the, conception of early patrons of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">lure of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the tangible expression of man’s intellect, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also, <a href='#Illuminated_book'><span class='xref'>Illuminated book</span></a>, + <a href='#Printed_book'><span class='xref'>Printed book</span></a>, + <a href='#Written_book'><span class='xref'>Written book</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bookmaking, in 1891, <a href="#Page_42">42–54</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the weakness of method in, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Book of Hours</cite>, by Francesco d’Antonio del Cherico, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Books, cost of making, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bookselling, inadequate methods in, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boston, Howell’s comments on, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boston Society of Printers, the, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bourbon, Pierre II, Duc de, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Bourdichon, Jean, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Boyd, Henry, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Brays, the, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li class="indx">British Museum, the, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, + <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, + <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Broad Chalke, England, Maurice Hewlett’s home at, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Browne, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Budé, Guillaume, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Buonarroti, see <a href='#Michelangelo'><span class='xref'>Michelangelo</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Buonarroti archives, the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, and the <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Burney, Fanny, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Byron, Lord, manuscript of his letters burned by John Murray III, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Byzantine illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Byzantine'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Byzantine</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Byzantine ink, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">“Cabin,” the, Howell’s, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cable, George W., <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Cæsar</cite>, Elzevir’s, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cambridge Immortals, the, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Camp, Walter, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Campanile, Giotto’s, at Florence, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Campanile, the, at Venice, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Carlyle, Thomas, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Carnegie, Andrew, <a href="#Page_174">174–177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Carnegie, Mrs. Andrew, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caroline minuscule, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Carolingian illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Carolingian'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Carolingian</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Carolingian School, the, in France, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caslon foundry, the, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Castiglioncello, Italy, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cato, quoted, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Caxton, William, work of, compared with Jenson’s, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cellini, Benvenuto, autobiography of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Celtic illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Celtic'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Celtic</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Censors, the, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ceolfrid, Abbot of Wearmouth, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ceriani, Monsignor, librarian of the Ambrosiana Library at Milan, described, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his work on the <cite>Ambrosiana Iliad</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chantilly, the Musée Condé at, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charlemagne, Emperor, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles, King, of France, son of King John, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles, King, of France, son of King Charles, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Charles VIII, of France, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Chaucer_Kelmscott'><cite>Chaucer</cite>, the <cite>Kelmscott</cite>, the story of, <a href="#Page_259">259–268</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chaucer type, the, designed by William Morris, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chianti Hills, the, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chiari, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Chinese, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Cicero</cite>, the <cite>Medicean</cite>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cicogna, Doge Pasquale, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cimabue, Giovanni, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clemens, Clara, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clemens, Samuel L., see + <a href='#Twain_Mark'><span class='xref'>Twain, Mark</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clemens, Mrs. Samuel L., <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clement VII, Pope, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Clovio, Giulio, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cobden-Sanderson, T. J., quoted, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of, <a href="#Page_96">96–101</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in Boston, <a href="#Page_98">98–99</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">importance of his work, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Ideal Book</cite></li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, <a href="#Page_264">264–268</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cockerell, Douglas, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Codex Argenteus</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cole, Timothy, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Colonna, Francesco, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Colvin, Sir Sidney, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Constable, Archibald, publisher, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Constantinople, might have become center of learning of XV century, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">destroyed by fire, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the rebirth of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Cosimo_il_Vecchio'>Cosimo <i lang='it'>il Vecchio</i>, and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his personality and history, <a href="#Page_280">280–281</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his fame as a chemist, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Cosimo_II'>Cosimo II, and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Costs of making books, in 1891, compared with present costs, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Costume Antico e Moderno</cite>, Ferrario’s, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Country Printer</cite>, the, Howell’s, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Crasso, Leonardo, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cremona, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Curtis, George William, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cuthbert, Saint, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Cyrus, King, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Danes, the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dante, proposed edition in Humanistic type of, <a href="#i_5">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Biagi’s work on, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the haunts of, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Dawn and Twilight,” Michelangelo’s, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Day and Night,” Michelangelo’s, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>De Asse</cite>, Budé’s, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">De Bure, discoverer of the <cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Decameron</cite>, the, manuscript copy of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>De Civitate Dei</cite>, Augustinus’, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Decorations, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Del Furia, librarian of the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Delmonico’s, in New York City, <a href="#Page_176">176</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Deput, quoted on the innovations of the Elzevirs, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>De Veritate Catholicæ Fidei</cite>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li class="indx">De Vinne Press, the, New York, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li class="indx">De Vinne, Theodore L., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his admiration for the Bodoni type, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dibdin, quoted on Baskerville, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">on Antonio Magliabecchi, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Didot, Firmin, the father of modern type design, <a href="#Page_78">78–82</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his type discussed, <a href="#Page_79">79–82</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#i_10">39</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Didot, Pierre, his <cite>Racine</cite>, <a href="#Page_252">252–258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Didot Press, the, Benjamin Franklin at, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Didot type, the, compared with the Bodoni type, <a href="#Page_79">79–82</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Didots, the, in Paris, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">compared with Bodoni, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dobson, Austin, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162–169</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his lines on Richard Garnett, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#i_37">167</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his ideas on fiction, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his methods of work, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his handwriting, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dobson, Mrs. Austin, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Doves Bible</cite>, Cobden-Sanderson’s, described, <a href="#Page_264">264–268</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Doves Press, the, in London, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Doves_type'>Doves type, the, designed by Emery Walker, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#i_5">19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">specimen page of, <a href="#i_7">23</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in the <cite>Doves Bible</cite>, <a href="#Page_264">264–268</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Duneka, Frederick, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dürer, Albrecht, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Dyck, Christoffel van, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Eadfrith, Bishop, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Earthwork Out of Tuscany</cite>, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker, <a href="#Page_52">52–54</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Edward VII, King, of England, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Egyptians, the, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elchi, Count Angiolo Maria d’, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eliot, George, in the Magliabecchian Library, <a href="#Page_291">291–298</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">her diary quoted, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">volumes consulted in writing <cite>Romola</cite>, <a href="#Page_296">296–298</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elzevir, Abraham, editions of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Terence</cite>, <a href="#Page_241">241–243</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elzevir, Bonaventura, editions of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his <cite>Terence</cite>, <a href="#Page_241">241–243</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elzevir, Isaac, becomes printer to the University of Leyden, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elzevir, Louis, founder of the House of Elzevir, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Elzevir, the House of, craftsmen rather than artists, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in Leyden, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">adopt new <i lang='fr'>format</i> for the book, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their editions, <a href="#Page_240">240–243</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their types, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their business organization, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of importance of their work, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">England, typographical supremacy of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244–250</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">second supremacy of, <a href="#Page_258">258–268</a></li> + +<li class="indx">English illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_English'><span class='xref'>Illumination, English</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Engravings, steel, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Epistolæ ad Familiares</cite>, Cicero’s, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ethics, in business, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Étienne, Henri, ruined by his <cite>Thesaurus</cite>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in Geneva, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Étienne, Robert, becomes “printer in Greek” to François I of France, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <cite>Royal Greeks</cite> of, <a href="#Page_219">219–222</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">leaves France, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">death of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his Roman type, <a href="#i_56">222</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Eugenius, Pope, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Evreux, Queen Jeanne d’, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Explicit</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">examples of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ezra, the Prophet, portrait of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><cite>Famiglie del Litta, Le</cite>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Felton, Cornelius Conway, President of Harvard University, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ferrara, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ferrari, Dr. Luigi, librarian of the San Marco Library, Venice, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ferrario, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Field, Eugene, described, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span></li> +<li class="isub1">manuscript of, <a href="#i_10">39</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fielding, Henry, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiesole, the heights of, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Firenze Antica e Moderna</cite>, Rastrelli’s, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Firenze Illustrata</cite>, Migliore’s, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fiske, Willard, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Flemish illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Flemish'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Flemish</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fletcher, Horace, friend of Eugene Field, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">philosophy of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his ideas of typography, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">page of his manuscript, <a href="#i_13">77</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his dinner at Graduates’ Club, New Haven, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">importance of his work, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his friendship with William James and Henry James, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter from Henry James to, <a href="#i_17">87</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">visit to Lamb House, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fletcherism, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Florence, Italy, the most fascinating city in Europe, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Florence, the Grand Duke of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Forest Lovers</cite>, the, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Foucquet, Jean, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> + +<li class="indx">France, typographical supremacy of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215–223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">loses supremacy, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">second supremacy of, <a href="#Page_251">251–258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">François I, of France, becomes patron of learning and culture, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">makes Robert Étienne “printer in Greek to the King,” <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his interest in printing, <a href="#Page_216">216–221</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his relations with the censors, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Frankfort, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Franklin, Benjamin, quoted on the Baskerville editions, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his letter to Baskerville, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">at the Didot Press, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> + +<li class="indx">French illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_French'><span class='xref'>Illumination, French</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">French Republic, the, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="indx">French School of Painting, the, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Fust, John, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Gabrilowitch, Mrs. Ossip, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Garamond, Claude, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Garnett, Dr. Richard, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">lines written by Dobson on, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#i_37">167</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li class="indx">General Theological School Library, the, New York, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Genesis</cite>, the <cite>Cottonian</cite>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Geneva, the Étiennes at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + +<li class="indx">George, Saint, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Germany, not sufficiently developed as nation to take advantage of Gutenberg’s discovery, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">brief typographical supremacy of, <a href="#Page_194">194–201</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">loses supremacy, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gherado, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gilder, Richard Watson, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Giotto, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Golden Gospels of Saint Médard</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_127">127–128</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Golden_type'>Golden type, the, designed by William Morris, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gold leaf, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gold, Oriental, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Goldsmith, Oliver, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gothic illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Gothic'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Gothic</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gozzoli, Benozzo, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Graduates’ Club, the, in New Haven, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grandjon, Robert, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Greece, the rich humanities of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Greek classics, the, first printed by Aldus, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Greeks, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Greek types, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219–221</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Grimani Breviary</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_141">141–145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grimani, Cardinal Domenico, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grimani, Doge Antonio, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grimani, Giovanni, Patriarch of Aquileia, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grimani, Marino, Patriarch of Aquileia, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grolier Club of New York, the, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Grolier, Jean, saves the Aldine Press by his intervention, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his friendship with family of Aldus, <a href="#Page_214">214–215</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his letter to Francesco Torresani, <a href="#Page_215">215</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Gutenberg Bible</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_194">194–201</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">rubricator’s notes, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Gutenberg, John; the <cite>Bible</cite> printed by, <a href="#Page_194">194–201</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Hadley, Pres. Arthur T., <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Halftones, <a href="#Page_105">105–107</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hammond, John Hays, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Hand_lettering'>Hand lettering, the art of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also, <a href='#Humanistic_hand_lettering'><span class='xref'>Humanistic hand lettering</span></a>, + <a href='#Semi-uncial_characters'><span class='xref'>Semi-uncial characters</span></a>, + <a href='#Minuscule_characters'><span class='xref'>Minuscule characters</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harkness, Mrs. Edward S., <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harper and Brothers, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Harper’s Magazine</cite>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harte, Bret, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harvard College Library, the, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harvard University, Cobden-Sanderson’s lectures at, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Harvey, Col. George, gives birthday dinner to Mark Twain, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">gives birthday dinner to William Dean Howells, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hautin, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hay, John, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hay, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heidelberg, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Heimskringla</cite>, the, William Morris’ translation of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Heinsius, letter from Deput to, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Henri II, of France, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Henry IV, of England, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Henry VI, of England, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Henry VIII, of England, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hewlett, Maurice, <a href="#Page_155">155–162</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">describes the cloister of San Lorenzo, Florence, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hoar, Senator George F., makes attack on Charles Eliot Norton, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hogarth, William, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Holbein, Hans, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Holland, the natural successor to Belgium in supremacy of printing, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Netherlands'><span class='xref'>Netherlands, the</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Holmes, Oliver Wendell, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Homer</cite>, the <cite>Ambrosiana</cite>, see + <a href='#Iliad_Ambrosiana'><cite>Iliad, the Ambrosiana</cite></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Hoover, Herbert, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Houghton, Henry O., <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Hours of Anne of Brittany</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_149">149–151</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Howells, William Dean, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">recollections and reflections on, <a href="#Page_183">183–188</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Harvey birthday dinner, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanism, Petrarch the father of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanist, the, defined, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160–162</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Humanistic_hand_lettering'>Humanistic hand lettering, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanistic manuscripts, the, in the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in the Ambrosiana Library, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanistic movement, the, far-reaching influence of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the forerunner and essence of the Renaissance, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">significance of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Humanistic scribes, the, see + <a href='#Scribes_humanistic'><span class='xref'>Scribes, the humanistic</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Humanistic_type'>Humanistic type, the, first idea of design of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">proposed edition of Dante in, <a href="#i_5">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">work upon, <a href="#i_5">19–24</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Huntington, Henry E., library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Hypnerotomachia Poliphili</cite>, the, printed by Aldus, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_210">210–213</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><cite>Ideal Book, The</cite>, Cobden-Sanderson’s, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Iliad_Ambrosiana'><cite>Iliad</cite>, the <cite>Ambrosiana</cite>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illuminated_book'>Illuminated book, the, attitude of Italian patrons toward, <a href="#Page_11">11–12</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Illumination, the art of, encouraged by Italian patrons in XV century, <a href="#Page_11">11–13</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the underlying thought in, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">rich rewards in study of, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">various schools of, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">means of identifying various schools and periods, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">manuscripts which mark the evolution of, <a href="#Page_116">116–119</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Celtic School, <a href="#Page_119">119–125</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Carolingian School, <a href="#Page_125">125–128</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Gothic School, <a href="#Page_128">128–131</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the English School, <a href="#Page_131">131–134</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the French School, <a href="#Page_135">135–141</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149–151</a>; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span></li> +<li class="isub1">the Flemish School, <a href="#Page_141">141–145</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Italian School, <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">cause for the decline of, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">opportunities for studying, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Byzantine'>Illumination, Byzantine, described, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Carolingian'>Illumination, Carolingian, <a href="#Page_125">125–128</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Celtic'>Illumination, Celtic, <a href="#Page_119">119–125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_English'>Illumination, English, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131–134</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Flemish'>Illumination, Flemish, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141–145</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, + <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_French'>Illumination, French, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135–141</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Gothic'>Illumination, Gothic, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128–131</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Italian'>Illumination, Italian Renaissance, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Illumination_Romanesque'>Illumination, Romanesque, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Illustration, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Imperial Library, the, in Vienna, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Incipit</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li class="indx">India, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ink, Byzantine gold, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">inferior quality introduced, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Didot’s, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Innocents Abroad</cite>, Mark Twain’s, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ireland, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Irish monks, the, see + <a href='#Monks_Irish'><span class='xref'>Monks, the Irish</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Irish School of Writing and Painting, the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Italian illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Italian'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Italian</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Italic type, first used by Aldus, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">said to be based on handwriting of Petrarch, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Baskerville’s, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Didot’s, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Italy, life and customs of people of, in XV century, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">illumination slow in getting a hold in, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">typographical supremacy of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201–215</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">loses supremacy, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">culture in the XVI century in, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">James, Henry, Horace Fletcher’s friendship with, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter to Horace Fletcher from, <a href="#i_17">87</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> + +<li class="indx">James, William, Horace Fletcher’s friendship with, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter from Henry James to, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his interest in printing, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jenson, Nicolas, type designs of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#i_5">19</a>, <a href="#i_6">22</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#i_47">205</a>, + <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <i lang='la'>explicit</i> in books printed by, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">printer’s mark of, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">sent to Germany by Charles VII of France, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">establishes his office in Venice, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">death of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his office combined with the Aldine Press, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Caxton’s work compared with, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Jenson_Gothic_type'>Jenson’s Gothic type, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#i_47">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Jenson_Roman_type'>Jenson Roman type, the, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#i_5">19</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">sample page of, <a href="#i_6">22</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Joan of Arc</cite>, Mark Twain’s, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> + +<li class="indx">John of Spires, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Jones, George W., <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Joseph, Saint, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Josephus, Flavius, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Justinian, the Emperor, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Justinian</cite>, the <cite>Pandects of</cite>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Keats, John, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Keere, Van der, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite>, the, see + <a href='#Chaucer_Kelmscott'><cite>Chaucer, the Kelmscott</cite></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kelmscott Press, the, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259–268</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Kelmscott volumes, the, <a href="#Page_259">259–268</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Koreans, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Labels, paper, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lamb House, Rye, Henry James’ home, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i lang='la'>Lapis lazuli</i>, used in printing ink, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in illumination, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Laura, see + <a href='#Sale_Madonna'><span class='xref'>Sale, Madonna Laura de Noves de</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Laurenziana'>Laurenziana Library, the, humanistic volumes at, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">illuminated volumes at, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">uninviting approach to, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <i lang='it'>Sala di Michelangiolo</i>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Dr. Guido Biagi at, <a href="#Page_277">277–300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the great staircase, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Vasari’s work in, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span></li> +<li class="isub1">the story of, <a href="#Page_280">280–284</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the treasures of, <a href="#Page_284">284–289</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Hall of Tapestries, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Tribuna, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the printed books in, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the spell of, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Le Bé, Guillaume, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lee, Sir Sidney, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leigh, Maj. Frederick T., <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leipzig, library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lelio, Lucrezia, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leo X, Pope, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Medici_Giovanni'><span class='xref'>Medici, Giovanni de’</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lettering, see + <a href='#Hand_lettering'><span class='xref'>Hand lettering</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Letters, raised gold, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lewes, George Henry, in the Magliabecchian Library, <a href="#Page_292">292–298</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leyden, heroic resistance to Spanish siege, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">becomes the intellectual and literary center of Europe, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Plantin in, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Elzevirs in, <a href="#Page_239">239–240</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Leyden, the University of, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Plantin made printer to, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Isaac Elzevir made printer to, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Lindisfarne Gospels</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_119">119–125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lippi, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lippi, Fra Filippo, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lipsius, the historian, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lithography, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Little Novels of Italy</cite>, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lockhart, John Gibson, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Longmans, London publishers, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lorenzo the Magnificent, see + <a href='#Medici_Lorenzo'><span class='xref'>Medici, Lorenzo de’</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lorraine, the House of, and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Louis XI, of France, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Louis XII, of France, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Louis XIV, of France, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Louis XV, of France, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Louis, Saint, <cite>Psalter</cite> of, described, <a href="#Page_128">128–131</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">death of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lounsbury, Professor, of Yale, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Lowell, James Russell, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Luther, Martin, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Mabie, Hamilton W., <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Macaulay, Thomas B., quoted on Baskerville editions, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Machiavelli, Niccolo, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Macmillan Company, the, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Magliabecchi, Antonio, <a href="#Page_292">292–295</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Magliabecchian'>Magliabecchian Library, the, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">George Eliot in, <a href="#Page_291">291–298</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Malmantile</cite>, Lippi’s, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Man and Superman</cite>, Shaw’s, the making of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mantegna, Andrea, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Manuscripts, methods of reproducing, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Manuscripts, illuminated, romance of, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">not the playthings of the common people, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Manutius, Aldus, see + <a href='#Aldus_Manutius'><span class='xref'>Aldus Manutius</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Marie, Madame, of France, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Marinelli, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Marmion</cite>, Scott’s, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Martelli Chapel, the, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mary, Queen, of England, <cite>Psalter</cite> of, described, <a href="#Page_131">131–134</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mary, Queen of Scots, <a href="#Page_156">156–157</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Matthews, Brander, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mayence, printing at, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mazarin, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Médard, Saint, the <cite>Golden Gospels of</cite>, <a href="#Page_127">127–128</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medicean Library, the, see + <a href='#Laurenziana'><span class='xref'>Laurenziana Library, the</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, the, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Savonarola’s diatribes against, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Alessandro de’, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici archives, the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Catherine de’, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, the Chapel of the, in Florence, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Cosimo I de’, see + <a href='#Cosimo_il_Vecchio'><span class='xref'>Cosimo il Vecchio</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Cosimo II de’, see + <a href='#Cosimo_II'><span class='xref'>Cosimo II</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Medici_Giovanni'>Medici, Giovanni de’ (later Pope Leo X), <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Giulio de’ (later Pope Clement VII), <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span> +commissions Michelangelo to erect building for the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Medici_Lorenzo'>Medici, Lorenzo de’, <cite>Book of Hours</cite> made by d’Antonio for, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146–149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">tomb of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">and the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_281">281–283</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his personality, <a href="#Page_281">281–282</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Medici, Piero de’, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Memling, Hans, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Menelik, King, of Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mentelin, types of, <a href="#i_5">19</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Menticulture</cite>, Horace Fletcher’s, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Messina, Antonello di, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Metternich, Prince, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Michelangelo'>Michelangelo, letters of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his plan for the façade of S. Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Varchi’s tribute to, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his tomb for Lorenzo de’ Medici, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his work in the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his letter to Vasari, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">manuscript poems of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Michelangelo archives, the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Migliore, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Milan, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Millar, Eric George, quoted, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Miller, Mr., London publisher, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Minium</cite>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Minuscule_characters'>Minuscule characters, described, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">introduced, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Mirror” title, the, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Mochenicho, Doge Pietro, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Modern” type, the introduction of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Molds, early type, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Monaco, Lorenzo, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Monks_Irish'>Monks, the Irish, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Monnier, Philippe, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Montanus, Arias, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morelli, librarian of the San Marco Library, Venice, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Moretus, inherits the Plantin office, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morgan Library, the, see + <a href='#Pierpont_Morgan_Library'><span class='xref'>Pierpont Morgan Library, the</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morris chair, the, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morris end papers, the, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morris wall papers, the, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Morris, William, demonstrates possibilities of printing as an art, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Golden type of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his other type designs, <a href="#Page_18">18–20</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">placed printing back among the fine arts, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Bernard Shaw’s enthusiasm for, <a href="#Page_69">69–70</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his dislike of the Bodoni type, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his title pages, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">early experiments of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <cite>Kelmscott Chaucer</cite>, <a href="#Page_259">259–268</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">declines the poet-laureateship of England, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">death of, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">estimate of his work, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his definition of the type ideal, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Munich, library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Murray, the House of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Murray II, John, and Walter Scott, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter to Scott from, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Murray III, John, burns manuscript of Byron’s memoirs, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Murray IV, John, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Musée Condé, the, at Chantilly, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Naples, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nazionale Centrale, the Biblioteca, in Florence, see + <a href='#Magliabecchian'><span class='xref'>Magliabecchian Library, the</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Nemours, the Duc de, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Néobar, Royal printer to François I of France, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Netherlandish illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Flemish'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Flemish</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Netherlands'>Netherlands, the, typographical supremacy of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223–244</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">commercial supremacy of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">devastated by war, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">New Forest, the, in England, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">New York Public Library, the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Norton, Charles Eliot, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">autograph letter of, <a href="#i_8">31</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his association with the design of the Humanistic type, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180–181</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">recollections and reflections on, <a href="#Page_178">178–183</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his meeting with Guido Biagi, <a href="#Page_182">182–183</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><cite>Ode to Cervantes</cite>, Dobson’s, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Old-style” type, the passing of, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">revived by Pickering, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Orcutt, Reginald Wilson, <a href="#Page_165">165</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Orcutt, William Dana, first visit to Italy, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">meeting with Guido Biagi, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his work designing the Humanistic type, <a href="#Page_17">17–33</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in the Ambrosiana Library, <a href="#Page_24">24–25</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Willard Fiske, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">apprenticeship at old University Press, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experience with Eugene Field, <a href="#Page_38">38–41</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">becomes head of University Press, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his ambition to emulate methods of early printers, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Bernard Shaw, <a href="#Page_67">67–71</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">returns to Italy in 1903, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his interest in the Bodoni and Didot types, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his acquaintance with Horace Fletcher, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his acquaintance with Henry James, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">visit to Lamb House, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with William James, <a href="#Page_90">90–92</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Cobden-Sanderson, <a href="#Page_96">96–101</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Theodore Roosevelt, <a href="#Page_101">101–106</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">becomes interested in illumination, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">meeting with Maurice Hewlett, <a href="#Page_155">155–162</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Austin Dobson, <a href="#Page_162">162–169</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Mark Twain, <a href="#Page_170">170–177</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with Charles Eliot Norton, <a href="#Page_178">178–183</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences with William Dean Howells, <a href="#Page_183">183–188</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">experiences in the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_273">273–300</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">last visit with Guido Biagi, <a href="#Page_299">299–300</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Orcutt, Mrs. William Dana, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Oriental gold, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Orthographia dictionum e Græcia tractarum</cite>, Tortelli’s, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Oxford, Edward Harley, 2d Earl of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Palatina, the Biblioteca, at Florence, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Pan and the Young Shepherd</cite>, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paper, poorer quality introduced, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Italian handmade, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">French handmade, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Baskerville the first to introduce glossy, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Parchment'>Parchment, English, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Florentine, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Roman, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">virgin, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paris, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Paris Exposition of 1801, the, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Passerini, Luigi, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Patmore, Coventry, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Patrons, Italian, attitude toward printed book of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their conception of a book, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">their real reasons for opposing the art of printing, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Peignot foundry, the, in Paris, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Persia, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Perugia, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Petrarca_F'>Petrarca, Francesco, the father of humanism, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Italic type said to be based upon handwriting of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">portrait of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">quoted, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Petrarch, see <a href='#Petrarca_F'><span class='xref'>Petrarca, Francesco</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Petrarch</cite>, the <cite>Humanistic</cite>, the type design, <a href="#Page_17">17–26</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the copy, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the illustrations, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the parchment, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the ink, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the composition, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Norton’s estimate of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Philip, of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Philip II, of Spain, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his interest in Plantin’s <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, <a href="#Page_227">227–228</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">makes Plantin <i lang='fr'>prototypographe</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pickering, the London publisher, revives the old-style type, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Piedmont, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Pierpont_Morgan_Library'>Pierpont Morgan Library, the, New York, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pisa, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pius XI, Pope, see <a href='#Ratti_A'><span class='xref'>Ratti, Achille</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Plantin, Christophe, financially embarrassed by his <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his Greek types, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">leaves France, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">conception and making of his <cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite>, <a href="#Page_227">227–233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his types, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his printer’s mark, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">made <i lang='fr'>prototypographe</i> by Philip II, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the value of his work estimated, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span></li> +<li class="isub1">misfortunes endured by, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">in Leyden, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">made printer to University of Leyden, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Plantin-Moretus Museum, the, at Antwerp, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Pliny</cite>, Elzevir’s, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i lang='it'>Plutei</i>, in the Laurenziana Library, designed by Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, + <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Politian'>Politian, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Polisiano_Angelo'><span class='xref'>Poliziano, Angelo</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Polisiano_Angelo'>Poliziano, Angelo, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Politian'><span class='xref'>Politian</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Pollard, Alfred W., <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Polyglot Bible</cite>, Plantin’s, see + <a href='#Biblia_Polyglotta'><cite>Biblia Polyglotta</cite></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Portland, the Duchess of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Pragmatism</cite>, William James’, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Printed_book'>Printed book, the, attitude of Italian patrons toward, <a href="#Page_11">11–12</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">competed against the written book, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Aldus changes <i lang='fr'>format</i> of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Elzevirs change <i lang='fr'>format</i> of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">important part played in XVI century by, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Printer, the, responsibilities of, in early days, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Printing, as an art, opposed by the Italian patrons, <a href="#Page_11">11–13</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">its possibilities demonstrated by William Morris, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">brief supremacy of Germany in, <a href="#Page_194">194–201</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">supremacy of Italy in, <a href="#Page_201">201–215</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">supremacy of France in, <a href="#Page_215">215–223</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">supremacy of the Netherlands in, <a href="#Page_223">223–244</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">lapses into a trade, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">supremacy of England in, <a href="#Page_244">244–250</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">second supremacy of France in, <a href="#Page_251">251–258</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">second supremacy of England in, <a href="#Page_258">258–263</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Printing, invention of, made books common, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Priorista</cite>, Chiari’s, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Proofreading, in 1891, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Psalter of Saint Louis</cite>, the, described, <a href="#Page_128">128–131</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Publishers, relations between authors and, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><cite>Quattrocento</cite>, Le, Monnier’s, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Queen Mary’s Psalter</cite>, described, <a href="#Page_131">131–134</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Queen’s Quair</cite>, The, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_155">155–156</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst"><cite>Racine</cite>, Pierre Didot’s, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_252">252–258</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Raphael, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Raphelengius, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rastrelli, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Ratti_A'>Ratti, Achille, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ravenna, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Reformation, the, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Renaissance, the, humanistic movement the forerunner and essence of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Tours becomes center of, in France, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Repplier, Agnes, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Riccardi Library, the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Richardson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Riverside Press, the, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Road in Tuscany</cite>, the, Hewlett’s, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Robertet, François, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Roman Calendar</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Romanesque illumination, see + <a href='#Illumination_Romanesque'><span class='xref'>Illumination, Romanesque</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Romans, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rome, the rich humanities of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Romola</cite>, George Eliot’s, <a href="#Page_292">292–299</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">volumes consulted in writing, <a href="#Page_296">296–298</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Roosevelt, Theodore, deeply interested in physical side of books, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his interest in illustration, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Royal Greeks</cite>, the, of Étienne, <a href="#Page_219">219–222</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rubens, Peter Paul, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ruskin, John, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Russia, the Emperor of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Rutland, the Earl of, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Sacristy, the New, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sacristy, the Old, in the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saga Library, the, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saint John, the Feast of, <a href="#Page_297">297</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">St. Louis Exposition, the, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saint Peter, the Holy Sepulchre of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i lang='it'>Sala di Michelangiolo</i>, the, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Sale_Madonna'>Sale, Madonna Laura de Noves de, portrait of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Petrarch’s verses to, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Salisbury, the Marquis of, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> + +<li class="indx">San Lorenzo, the Church of, in Florence, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="indx">San Marco, the Convent of, in Florence, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="indx">San Marco, the Library of, Venice, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="indx">San Vitale, the Church of, at Ravenna, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Saracens, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Savonarola, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Savoy, the Duke of, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Schoeffer, types of, <a href="#i_5">19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Science and Health</cite>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scott, Gen. Hugh Lennox, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scott, Walter, and John Murray II, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter from Murray to, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Scribes_humanistic'>Scribes, the humanistic, base their lettering on the Caroline minuscule, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scribes, the monastic, in XV century, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Scribes, the secular, in XV century, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><i lang='it'>Scriptorium</i>, the, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Second Book of Verse</cite>, Eugene Field’s, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Semi-uncial_characters'>Semi-uncial characters, described, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Sforza Book of Hours</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="indx">“Shady Hill,” in Cambridge, Mass., home of Charles Eliot Norton, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shakespeare first folio, a, value of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shaw, G. Bernard, his interest in printing, <a href="#Page_67">67–71</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the making of his <cite>Man and Superman</cite>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">his enthusiasm for William Morris, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letters from, <a href="#Page_68">68–71</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Shelley, Percy Bysshe, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sherry’s, in New York City, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Siena, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Silas Marner</cite>, George Eliot’s, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sinibaldi, Antonio, the <cite>Virgil</cite> of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the <cite>Book of Hours</cite> of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sixtus IV, Pope, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Smith, Baldwin, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Smith, F. Hopkinson, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Somerset, John, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sotheby’s, in London, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spain, the Netherlands under the domination of, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spanish siege, the, of Leyden, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spanish War, the, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Spell, The</cite>, Orcutt’s, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Spires, the town of, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Steele, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Subiaco, early printing at, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Sweynheim and Pannartz, ruined by experiments in Greek, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">engraved blocks of, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Switzerland, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Syriac Gospels</cite>, the, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Taft, President William H., <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tapestries, the Hall of, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Terence</cite>, Elzevir’s, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_241">241–243</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Ther Hoernen, Arnold, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Thesaurus</cite>, the, printed by Henri Étienne, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Thompson, Henry Yates, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Thomson, Hugh, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Title_the_engraved'>Title, the engraved, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Title_the_Mirror'>Title, the “mirror,” <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Title page, the, Bernard Shaw’s ideas concerning, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">William James’ ideas concerning, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">“the door to the house,” <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">evolution of, <a href="#Page_92">92–96</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Title_the_engraved'><span class='xref'>Title, the engraved</span></a>; + <a href='#Title_the_Mirror'><span class='xref'>Title, the “mirror”</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Togo, Admiral, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Torresani, Andrea, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Torresani, Federico, <a href="#Page_214">214</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</span></li> +<li class="indx">Torresani, Francesco, friendship of Jean Grolier with, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">letter from Jean Grolier to, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tortelli, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tours, becomes center of Renaissance in France, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tours, the School of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Très Riches Heures</cite>, the, of the Duc de Berry, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Tribuna, the, in the Laurenziana Library, Florence, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Trionfi_P'><cite>Trionfi</cite>, Petrarch’s, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Triumphs</cite>, Petrarch’s, see + <a href='#Trionfi_P'><span class='xref'>Trionfi, Petrarch’s</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Trophies of Heredia</cite>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Troy type, the, designed by William Morris, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Turin, early printing at, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Twain_Mark'>Twain, Mark, and the <cite>Jumping Frog</cite>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">recollections and reflections on, <a href="#Page_170">170–177</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the Harvey birthday dinner, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Type design, difficulties of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Types, early designs of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Aldus’ designs of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Jenson’s designs of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">William Morris’ designs of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">William Morris’ definition of, the ideal, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also <a href='#Humanistic_type'><span class='xref'>Humanistic type</span></a>, + <a href='#Jenson_Roman_type'><span class='xref'>Jenson Roman type</span></a>, + <a href='#Jenson_Gothic_type'><span class='xref'>Jenson Gothic type</span></a>, + <a href='#Golden_type'><span class='xref'>Golden type</span></a>, + <a href='#Doves_type'><span class='xref'>Doves type</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx">Typesetting, in 1891, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">University Press, the old, Cambridge, Mass., <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Upsala, Sweden, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Urbino, the Duke of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Vacca, the Palazzo dei della, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vallombrosa, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Van-der-Meire, Gerard, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Varchi, his tribute to Michelangelo, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vasari, his work in the Laurenziana Library, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Michelangelo’s letter to, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vatican Library, the, at Rome, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vellum, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> +<li class="isub1">See also, <a href='#Parchment'><span class='xref'>Parchment</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Venetian Days</cite>, Howells’, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Venetian Republic, the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">encourages the art of printing, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Venice, early printing in, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">Howells’ love for, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">becomes the Mecca of printers, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">John of Spires in, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vergetios, Angelos, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Verrocchio, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Victoire, Pierre, quoted, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Victoria, Queen, of England, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vienna, library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Villa di Quarto, the, in Florence, Mark Twain at, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Villa Medici, the, in Rome, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Villari, Pasquale, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vinci, da, archives, the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vinci, Leonardo da, sketches of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Virgil</cite>, Baskerville’s, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">described, <a href="#Page_246">246–250</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Virgil</cite>, illuminated by Sinibaldi, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Virgil</cite>, the <cite>Medicean</cite>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">the story of, <a href="#Page_288">288–289</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Virgil</cite>, the Vatican, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="indx"><cite>Vita di G. Savonarola, La</cite>, Villari’s, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Vittoria, Alessandro, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Wages, in 1891, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Walker, Emery, designs the Doves type, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#i_5">19</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">engraves plates for Humanistic <cite>Petrarch</cite>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">at the Doves Press, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li> +<li class="isub1">referred to, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Warner, Sir George, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Widener, Joseph E., library of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wiggin, Rev. James Henry, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wiggin, Kate Douglas, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wilhelm, Kaiser, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="indx">William of Orange, founds the University of Leyden, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="indx">William the Conqueror, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Wilson, Francis, <a href="#Page_38">38</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</span></li> + +<li class="indx">Wilson, John, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Windsor Castle, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wood, Gen. Leonard, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wood cuts, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Wordsworth, William, quoted, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li class="indx">World War, the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Worsley, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="indx">Writing, see + <a href='#Hand_lettering'><span class='xref'>Hand lettering</span></a></li> + +<li class="indx" id='Written_book'>Written book, the printed book had to compete against, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Yale University Library, the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + + +<li class="ifrst">Zainer, Gunther, types of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +</ul> + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="half-title"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class='hang'>THIS VOLUME is composed in Poliphilus type, reproduced by the +Lanston Monotype Corporation, London, from the Roman face +designed in 1499 by Francesco Griffo, of Bologna, for Aldus +Manutius, and originally used in the <cite>Hypnerotomachia +Poliphili</cite>. The Italic is based upon that designed for +Antonio Blado, Printer to the Holy See from 1515 to 1567.</p> + +<p class='hang'>The cover, a modern adaptation of the Grolier design used +on Capella: <cite>L’Anthropologia</cite>, is designed by Enrico +Monetti.</p> + +<p class='hang'>The illustrations, many now appearing in book form for the +first time, were secured chiefly through the courtesy +of the librarians of the British Museum, London; the +Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Laurenziana Library, +Florence; the Ambrosiana Library, Milan; the Marciana +Library, Venice; the Vatican Library, Rome; and from +private collectors.</p> + +<p class='hang'>The plates of the illustrations were made by the Walker +Engraving Company, New York City, and are printed on +DeJonge’s Art Mat. The text paper is Warren’s Olde Style.</p> + +<p class='hang'>The typography, presswork, and binding are by the Plimpton +Press, Norwood, Massachusetts, under the personal +supervision of William Dana Orcutt.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="transnote"> +<h2 id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + + +<ul> +<li>Illustrations have been positioned near the relevant text.</li> + +<li>Silently corrected typographical errors in the List of Illustrations +and the Index.</li> + +<li>The page numbers in the List of Illustrations, the Index, and +internal cross references reflect the locations in original text, but +the hyperlinks point to the current locations.</li> + +<li>The ends of each chapter and some block quotes had line lengths +that tapered smaller and smaller in a decorative way and did not end +with a period. Because of the variable nature of electronic texts, +the author’s intention sadly cannot be reproduced as intended.</li> + +<li>Illustration captions on numbered pages were in italic while +captions on unnumbered pages were not. Italics removed to make +illustration captions consistent.</li> + +<li>In some captions, measurements were in parenthesis and others were +in brackets. Converted all to parenthesis for consistency.</li> + +<li><a href='#TN_44'>Page 44</a>: Corrected “Typsetting” to +“Typesetting”.</li> + +<li><a href='#TN_170'>Page 170</a>: Added a thought break as the topic +changes from Dobson to Twain.</li> + +<li><a href='#TN_178'>Page 178</a>: Added a thought break as the topic +changes from Twain to Norton.</li> + +<li><a href='#TN_269'>Page 269</a>:The word “hopefulness” is not + hyphenated in the original as part of the decorative tapered lines. + The word has been rejoined.</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'></div> +<section class='pg-boilerplate pgheader' id='pg-footer' lang='en' > +<div id='pg-end-separator'> +<span>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN QUEST OF THE PERFECT BOOK ***</span> +</div> + +<div> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> +<div> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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