THE BEGINNING OF PRINTING
The germs of the invention which, in spite of Carlyle's somewhat
slighting reference, has proved itself hardly less momentous in the
world's history than the conception of the idea of writing, are to be
found in the stamps with which the ancients impressed patterns or names
upon vases or other objects, or in the device and name-bearing seals
which were in common use among the nations of antiquity. But these
stamps and seals could be used only to impress some plastic material,
not to make ink or other marks upon paper; and for the first example of
printing, as we understand the word, we must look to China, where, it is
said, as early as the sixth century, A.D., engraved wooden plates were
used for the production of books. The Chinese, however, kept their
invention to themselves, or at any rate it spread no further than Japan,
until many years later; and although in the tenth century the knowledge
of printing was carried as far as Egypt, Europeans seem to have made the
discovery for themselves, quite independently of help from the East,
both as regards block-printing and the use of moveable type.
In Europe, as in China, the first printing was done by means of a block,
that is, a slab of wood on which the design was carved in relief, and
from which, when inked, an impression could be transferred to paper or
other material. This process is known as block-printing, and in Europe
was principally used for the production of illustrations, the text,
which came to be added later, being accessory and subordinate to the
picture.
The first European block-prints are pictures of saints, roughly printed
on a leaf of paper and usually rudely coloured. Heinecken, whose _Idée
general d'une Collection complette d'Estampes_ (1771) is still a
standard work, is of opinion that pictures of this class were first
executed by the old makers of playing-cards, and that the playing-cards
themselves were printed from wood and not drawn separately by hand. In
this case the cards should rank as the earliest examples of
block-printing, or wood-engraving. Heinecken has not been alone in
entertaining this opinion, but, on the other hand, there are some who
consider that the portraits represent the first woodcuts, and that the
early playing-cards were drawn and painted by hand.
The single-leaf portraits of saints were produced chiefly, or perhaps
solely, in Germany, and examples are now rare. It is curious that most
of those which have survived to the present day have been found in
German religious houses, pasted inside the covers of old books, and thus
shielded from the destruction to which their fragile nature rendered
them liable. One specimen, which has the reputation of being the
earliest extant with which a date can be connected, is the well-known St
Christopher, which represents the saint carrying the child Christ over a
stream, after an old legend. This specimen bears the date 1423, and was
discovered pasted in the cover of a mediæval manuscript in the monastery
at Buxheim, in Swabia, and is now in the John Rylands Library at
Manchester. The date, however, may be only that of the engraving of the
block, and not the year of printing. A theory was put forward by Mr
H. F. Holt, at the meeting of the British Archaeological Association in
1868, that this St Christopher, so far from being the earliest known
specimen of printing of any sort, belonged to a period subsequent to
the invention of typography, and that the date 1423 refers only to the
jubilee year of the saint, and not to the execution of the print. He
also held that the block-books, to which we refer below, were not the
predecessors of type-printed books, as they are usually considered to
be, but merely cheap substitutes for the costly works of the early
printers. But these theories, though not disproved, do not receive the
support of bibliographers in general.
Another early woodcut is the Brussels Print, which is in the Royal
Library at Brussels. It is ostensibly dated 1418, but although this date
is accepted by some, it has most probably been tampered with, and
therefore the position of the print is at least doubtful. It is of
Flemish origin, and represents the Virgin and Child, accompanied by SS.
Barbara, Catharine, Veronica and Margaret. Other prints exist which are
not dated, and it is quite possible that some of these may be older than
the St Christopher, though no definite statements as to their date can
be made. It is certain, however, that the art of block-printing was
known in the closing years of the fourteenth century, and that it was
practised thenceforward until about 1510, that is, some years after the
invention of typography. In many manuscripts of the period, printed
illustrations were inserted by means of blocks, either to save time, or
because the scribe's skill did not extend to drawings.
These early woodcuts were the forerunners of the better known
block-books, which also, according to Heinecken, were at first the work
of the card-makers. Block-books consisted of prints accompanied by a
descriptive or explanatory text, both text and illustration being
printed from the same block. Since they were intended for the moral
instruction of those whose education did not fit them for the study of
more elaborate works, they generally deal with Scriptural and religious
subjects. The earliest of all the block-books was the _Biblia Pauperum_,
or "Bible of the Poor," so called because it was designed for the
edification of persons of unlearned minds and light purses, who could
neither have afforded the high prices demanded for ordinary manuscript
copies, nor have read such copies had they owned them. The _Biblia
Pauperum_, however, exactly met their want. It is not so much a book to
read, as a book to look at. It has a text, it is true, but the text is
subordinate to the pictures.
The _Biblia Pauperum_ is on paper, as paper was cheaper than vellum and
considered quite good enough for the purpose. One side only of each leaf
was printed, two pages being printed from one block, and the sheets
folded once and arranged in sequence, not "quired" or "nested." The
resulting order was that of two printed pages face to face, followed by
two blank pages face to face. The illustrations are of scenes from
sacred history, and portraits of Biblical personages, accompanied by
explanatory Latin or German texts in Gothic characters. The original
designer and compiler of this favourite block-book is unknown, but he
certainly worked on lines laid down by some much older author and
artist, for manuscript works of similar nature existed at least as
early as the beginning of the fourteenth century. The earliest known
instance of a composition of the kind, however, is a series of enamels
on an antependium or altar-frontal in the St Leopold Chapel at
Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, which originally contained forty-five
pictures dealing with Biblical subjects, arranged in the same order as
in the _Biblia Pauperum_, and which were executed by Nicolas de Verdun,
in 1181. Some attribute the inception of the _Biblia Pauperum_ to
Ansgarius, first Bishop of Hamburg, in the ninth century, others to
Wernher, a German monk of the twelfth century, but it seems unlikely
that the point will ever be decided. The _Biblia Pauperum_ is usually
supposed to have been first printed xylographically in Holland, and
type-printed editions were issued later from Bamberg, Paris and Vienna.
To modern eyes the illustrations of this book are strange and wonderful
indeed. "The designer certainly had no thought of irreverence," says De
Vinne, "but many of the designs are really ludicrous. Some of the
anachronisms are: Gideon arrayed in plate-armour, with mediæval helmet
and visor and Turkish scimitar; David and Solomon in rakish,
wide-brimmed hats bearing high, conical crowns; the translation of
Elijah in a four-wheeled vehicle resembling the modern farmer's
hay-wagon. Slouched hats, puffed doublets, light legged breeches and
pointed shoes are seen in the apparel of the Israelites who are not
represented as priests or soldiers. Some houses have Italian towers and
some have Moorish minarets, but in none of the pictures is there an
exhibition of pointed Gothic architecture."
[Illustration: PAGE FROM THE BIBLIA PAUPERUM (SECOND EDITION).]
Our illustration gives a reduced representation of a page from the
second edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_, dating from about 1450. The
middle panel shows Christ rising from the tomb, and the wonder and fear
of the Roman guards; the left-hand panel shows Samson carrying off the
gates of the city of Gaza, and the right-hand panel the disgorging of
Jonah by the whale. The upper part of the text shows how that Samson and
Jonah were types of Christ, and the four little figures represent David,
Jacob, Hosea, and Siphonias (Zephaniah), the texts on the scrolls being
quotations from their words.
The accompanying rhymes are as follows:--
Obsessus turbis: Sampson valvas tulit urbis.
Quem saxum texit: ingens tumulum Jesus exit.
De tumulo Christe: surgens te denotat iste.
(In the midst of crowds, Samson removes the gates of the city. The
anointed Jesus, whom the stone covered, rises from the tomb. This
man [Jonah] rising from the tomb, denotes Thee, O Christ!)
Another very popular block-book, of German origin, was the curious
compilation known as _Ars Moriendi_--the Art of Dying--or, as it is
sometimes called, _Temptationes Demonis_, or Temptation of Demons. It
describes how dying persons are beset by all manner of temptations, the
final triumph of the good, and the sad end of the wicked, with suitable
emotions on the part of the attendant angels, and the hideous demons by
which the temptations are personified. This work was greatly in vogue in
the fifteenth century, and after the invention of type-printing was
reproduced in various parts of France, Italy, Germany and Holland.
The only block-book without illustrations was the _Donatus de octibus
partibus orationis_, or Donatus on the Eight Parts of Speech, shortly
known as Donatus. It was _the_ Latin grammar of the period, and was the
work of Donatus, a famous Roman grammarian of the fourth century. Large
numbers were printed both from blocks and from type, but xylographic
fragments are scarce, and none are known of any date before the second
half of the fifteenth century. Yet it is believed that probably more
copies of this work were printed than of any other block-book whatever.
Besides its lack of illustrations, the xylographic Donatus is unique
among block-books from the fact that it was printed on vellum and not on
paper, and (another unusual feature) on both sides of the leaf. Vellum
was dear, and had to be made the most of, and no doubt was used only
because a paper book would have fared badly at the hands of the
schoolboys.
Only one block-book is known to have been printed in France, and that is
_Les Neuf Preux_, or the Nine Champions. The nine champions are divided
into three groups: first, classical heroes--Hector, Alexander and Julius
Cæsar; next, Biblical heroes--Joshua, David and Judas Maccabæus; and
lastly, heroes of romance--Arthur, Charlemagne and Godefroi of Boulogne.
The portraits of these celebrities are accompanied by verses. This
block-book dates from about 1455.
Other block-books were the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, _the
Apocalypse of St John_, _the Book of Canticles_, _Defensorium Inviolatæ
Virginitatis Beatæ Mariæ Virginis_, _Mirabilia Romæ_; various German
almanacks, and a _Planetenbuch_, this last representing the heavenly
bodies and their influence on human life. The last of the block-books,
so far as is known, was the _Opera nova contemplativa_, which was
executed at Venice about 1510.
From one point of view the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, or Mirror of
Salvation, is the most curious of its kind. It is looked upon as the
connecting link between block-books proper and type-printed books. Its
purpose seems to have been to afford instruction in the facts and
lessons of the Christian religion, beginning with the fall of Satan. It
is founded on an old and once popular manuscript work sometimes ascribed
to Brother John, a Benedictine monk of the thirteenth or fourteenth
century. Four so-called "editions" of the _Speculum_ are known, two of
which are in Latin rhyme, and two in Dutch prose, all four having many
points in common and standing apart from the later and dated editions
afterwards produced in Germany, Holland, and France.
In these early copies the body of the work consists of a text printed
from moveable types, with a block-printed illustration at the head of
each page. But one of the Latin editions is remarkable for having twenty
pages of the text printed from wood blocks. How and why these
xylographic pages appear in a book whose remaining forty-two pages are
printed from types is a mystery. They are inserted at intervals among
the other leaves, and for this and other reasons it is considered
improbable that they were printed from blocks originally intended for a
block-book, to help to eke out a not very plentiful stock of type.
Moreover, no entirely xylographic _Speculum_ exists to lend colour to
such a theory.
The time and place of origin of the _Speculum_ are unknown, and
bibliographers are not agreed as to the order in which the several
"editions" appeared. But such evidence as exists points to Holland as
the home of the printed _Speculum_, and those who believe that Coster of
Haarlem invented typography, credit him with having produced it.
Block-books are nearly all of German, Dutch, or Flemish workmanship. As
a rule the illustrations are roughly coloured by hand. The method by
which they were printed is generally supposed to have been that of
laying a dampened sheet of paper on the inked block, and rubbing it with
a dabber or frotton until the impression was worked up. But De Vinne, in
his _History of Printing_, says that there are practical reasons against
the correctness of this view, and considers it more probable that a rude
hand-press was used.
Those who wish to see some modern examples of block-printing may be
referred to the books printed by the late William Morris at the
celebrated Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith. The title-pages and initial
words of these volumes were executed by means of wood blocks, and are as
beautiful examples of block-printing as the texts of the works they
adorn are of typography. All the Kelmscott printing, whose history,
though most interesting, is nevertheless outside the present subject,
was done by hand presses.