_IN ITALY AND FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY_
In the early years of the sixteenth century, the printers of Florence
issued many cheap popular books, chiefly _Rappresentazioni_, i.e. Plays,
sacred or secular. These plays are generally badly printed in double
columns, but they are illustrated with numerous cuts, some of which are of
peculiar merit. The earliest known printer of them was Francesco Benvenuto
(c. 1516-1545), but the majority appear to have been issued between 1550
and 1580, anonymously, though we know that Giovanni Baleni of Florence was
the printer of some of these.
There were also many quaint little tracts, metrical _Novelle_ and
_Istorie_, of which a collection has been found at the University Library,
Erlangen; a valuable description of them was published by Dr. Varnhagen.
The poems are, as a rule, illustrated with small cuts, inclosed within a
neat border, the subjects are usually well chosen, and the drawing very
good; the treatment of some of the domestic scenes is worthy of Bewick.
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[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE OF 'LE SORTI DI MARCOLINI'
_By Giuseppe Porta Venice 1540_]
[Illustration: LE POT-CASSÉ
(_Device of Geoffroy Tory_)]
In striking contrast to the simplicity of these popular wood-engravings are
the elaborate engravings which appeared in the more expensive books issued
in the latter half of the same century, when illustrated editions of Dante,
Boccaccio, Ovid, Æsop's Fables, and Alciat's 'Emblems,' appeared, one after
the other, but not one of these calls for {91} special notice; nor did the
best of their wood-engravings equal the work of Lützelburger. The
frontispiece of a curious book, _Le Sorti di Marcolini da Forli_, printed
at Venice in 1540, of which we offer a reduced copy, gives us a good idea
of the prevailing art of the period. It is said to be taken from a design
by Raphael for his celebrated picture 'The School of Athens,' and we see by
the tablet in the foreground that it was either drawn on the wood or
engraved by Joseph (Giuseppe) Porta, known as Salviati, after his more
celebrated master whom he accompanied to Venice.
In Paris, in the first half of the sixteenth century, there lived a very
celebrated printer, 'Geoffroy Tory, Peintre et Graveur, Premier Imprimeur
Royal, Reformateur de l'Orthographe, et de la Typographie,' as he is
described by his biographer, M. A. Bernard (Paris, 1857). He was born at
Bourges in 1480, and in early life went to Paris, where he not only wrote
books and printed them, but designed ornamental borders and engraved them.
He also studied his profession in Italy, and brought back with him new
ideas about printing and illustrating books. Such a man had great influence
at that time, for he had much inborn taste and excellent skill, and
publishers should all be proud of him as one of their most praiseworthy
ancestors. He adopted the singular design the _Pot-cassé_, of which we give
a copy, as his somewhat enigmatical device; and some writers maintain that
the little 'Cross of Lorraine' (++) found on many of the cuts of this
period is also his mark. {92}
[Illustration: FROM 'LES HEURES' PRINTED BY SIMON DE COLINES
_Engraved by Geoffroy Tory_]
{93} In our illustration, taken from the _Heures_, printed by Simon de
Colines, this Cross of Lorraine will be seen under the kneeling priest. He
made antique letters, he himself tells us, for Monseigneur the Treasurer
for War, Master Jehan Grolier, whom we know as one of the best patrons of
book-binding; and wrote a book which he called '_Champfleury, auquel est
contenu l'art et science de la deue proportion des lettres ... selon le
corps et le visage humain_,' a very learned and amusing treatise. Some of
the initial letters in this book are very cleverly designed and
engraved--probably by the ingenious author. The picture of 'Antoine Macault
reading his translation of Diodorus Siculus to the King' is said to have
been engraved by Tory; it is evidently either from a design by Hans Holbein
or by an artist who copied his style. All the figures in this excellent
engraving are portraits--the King (Francis I.), his three sons, and his
favourite nobles. It is the best cut that was issued at Paris at this time.
Geoffroy Tory died in 1533, though his workshop was carried on for many
years afterwards.
Among other woodcuts of this period we find a small portrait of the poet
Nicholas Bourbon, dated 1535. As this is a direct copy of the portrait of
the same individual, undoubtedly by Holbein, which is now at Windsor
Castle, and as the ornamentation is quite in Holbein's style, we cannot
doubt that this celebrated painter had frequent relations with the
publishers on the Continent in the first half of the sixteenth century.
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[Illustration: ANTOINE MACAULT READING HIS TRANSLATION OF DIODORUS SICULUS
TO KING FRANCIS I.
_Designed by Holbein. Engraved by Geoffroy Tory?_]
{95} Another celebrated printer who enjoyed the patronage of the King was
Robert Estienne, who, by some curious perversity, is frequently spoken of
by English scholars and biographers as Robert Stephens, simply because,
following the fashion of the day, he often latinised his name and signed
Robertus Stephanus. Estienne was, next to Aldo Manuzio of Venice, the most
learned of printers, and deserves to be held in due reverence. The most
important illustrated book he published was 'The Lives of the Dukes of
Milan,' by Paulus Jovius (Paris, 1549). This work has sixteen portraits of
the Dukes, well engraved, some say by Geoffroy Tory himself, but this is a
matter of dispute, though they certainly were cut in his workshop.
Among the most characteristic works of the wood-engraver in the middle of
the century were two large processions, 'The Triumphal Entry of King Henri
II. into Paris,' published by Roville of Lyons, in 1548, and 'The Triumphal
Entry into Lyons,' issued in the following year. These prints were designed
either by Jean Cousin or Cornelis de la Haye, but the name of the engraver
is nowhere mentioned. They are somewhat similar to 'The Triumph of
Maximilian,' by Burgkmair, but are not nearly so important as works of art,
and did nothing to raise the character of wood-engraving.
In the books published in the second half of the century we frequently meet
with the name of Bernhard Salomon (born at Lyons in 1512), generally called
Le Petit Bernard, who made designs for Alciat's 'Emblems' (A.D. 1560) and
Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (A.D. 1564), which were engraved in the workshop of
Geoffroy Tory, and published by Jean (or Hans) de Tournes, of Lyons.
Bernard's style was much influenced by the Italian painters Rosso and
Primaticcio, who had been invited by the King to decorate Fontainebleau,
and may be easily recognised by the extreme height and tenuity of his
figures, and by the peculiar ornament which he used as framework for his
drawings.
Another book containing equally good illustrations is _Ghesneden Figuera
wyten Niewen Testamente_ ('Engraved Figures from the New Testament'),
adorned with ninety-two small cuts besides the title-page and initial
letters; these were drawn and probably engraved by Guilliame Borluyt, {96}
citizen of Ghent, and published by Jean de Tournes of Lyons in 1557. From
the fineness of the lines and other indications we suspect these designs
were cut on metal, which was much used at this time instead of wood.
Through the kindness of Messrs. H. S. Nichols & Co., of Soho Square, who
possess an excellent copy of this very rare book, we are enabled to offer
our readers two cuts, 'The Woman of Samaria' and 'Christ Scourged,' of the
same size as the originals. The publishers of Lyons were celebrated from
the end of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century for their
dainty little books, which were very prettily illustrated.
[Illustration: CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
_By Guilliame Borluyt_]
We must not conclude this chapter without mentioning another celebrated
publisher, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp. He was born at Saint-Avertin,
near Tours, in 1514, and at an early age apprenticed to a printer and
book-binder, Robert Macé, at Caen; thence he went to Paris, whence wars
soon drove him away. He next took refuge at Antwerp, where he employed
himself in binding books and making leather boxes, _coffrets_, curiously
inlaid and gilt. {97}
[Illustration: THE SCOURGING OF CHRIST
_By Guilliame Borluyt_]
By mistake he was, one dark evening, stabbed with a sword, and he
afterwards suffered so much pain from the wound that he could not stoop
without feeling it: consequently he turned to the business of a printer,
and soon became the most celebrated man of the day in that craft. Philip
II. of Spain made him his chief printer, and under royal orders Plantin
produced the well-known Polyglot Bible in eight folio volumes (1568-1573).
He had previously printed some smaller books of Emblems (1564), and
_Devises Héroïques_ (1562), and had employed Pierre Huys, Lucas de Heere,
Godefroid Ballain, and other artists, to illustrate them. He died in 1589.
His second daughter married Jean Moret, one of the overseers of {98} the
printing-office, and the business known as 'Plantin-Moretus' continued to
prosper up to the present century. A few years since the offices were
bought by the city authorities, and the Plantin Museum is now one of the
principal attractions of Antwerp. In his various works Plantin used many
woodcuts, but most of his title-pages have borders executed by Wierix,
Pass, and other celebrated copperplate engravers. His device was a Hand
with a pair of compasses, and his motto _Labore et Constantia_.
The history of wood-engraving and wood-engravers in Holland forms the
subject of a monograph from the pen of Mr. W. M. Conway ('The Woodcutters
of the Netherlands,' Cambridge, 1884). The list commences with a Louvain
engraver, who worked for Veldener in 1475, and about the same time for John
and Conrad de Westphalia.
Most of the greater Dutch towns had wood-engravers, and the work of these
artists appears in many of the books printed in the Low Countries. As in
France, many of the printers' marks are very good.
It was in this century that publishers began to illustrate their books with
copperplate engravings, which soon came into general use, and these plates
for many years, to a very great extent, superseded engraving on wood.
Etchings by the artist's own hands are also frequently met with, and to
these causes we may in a great measure attribute the decay of the
Formschneider's art for at least two centuries.
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