DATE OF THE ORIGIN OF TYPOGRAPHY IN EUROPE.--ALLEGED EARLY
ENGRAVINGS.--PLAYING CARDS.--BLOCK-BOOKS.--MR. F. HOLT’S
HYPOTHESIS.--EVIDENCE OF COSTUME.--GERMAN “BRIEF-MALERS.”--DECREE
OF GOVERNMENT OF VENICE.--STATE OF EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE
AGES.--CULTIVATION OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE AT THE CLOSE OF THE
FOURTEENTH AND COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
It has been a question much debated, whether the Art of Printing was
not introduced to Europe from the East at a much earlier period than
that generally assigned as the date of its invention; and we are
informed by Klaproth, that it might have been known in Europe a hundred
and fifty years prior to its discovery by the Germans, if Europeans had
been able to read and translate the Persian historians, as the Chinese
method of printing is clearly explained in the _Djemm’a-et-tewarikh_,
by Rachid-Eddin, who finished this immense work about the year 1310.
On this subject, Mr. William Savage, a well-known printer, and a
gentleman to whom the public and the profession are indebted for
several valuable works on the art, states, in the preface to a volume
published in 1841,--“The dates given of the introduction of the
practice into Europe by previous writers, are unquestionably erroneous,
as we have conclusive evidence of its being followed as a profession
for nearly a century before the earliest date they give:”--and he
announced his intention of embodying the facts and information he had
been for a long period collecting, in another work, as hitherto, he
declares, there has in reality been but little said on the History or
Practice of Printing, the numerous works on the subject being chiefly
copies from one or two of the earlier writers. This is true enough.
From the very nature of the case it can scarcely be otherwise, until
and unless the discovery of fresh facts, or the investigations of fresh
inquirers lead to conclusions different to those which had previously
been generally received.
It is possible, nay probable, that a knowledge of the art, as practised
in China, may have been carried to Europe by the Venetian travellers,
or traders, at a very early date; but, as no account is known to exist
that such really was the case, so no certain conclusion on the subject
can be arrived at. Whether it was so or not, there is little difficulty
in supposing that on many occasions attempts might be made similar to
that contained in the much disputed account given by Papillon of the
discovery at Bagneux, a village near Mont-Rouge, in the library of
M. De Greder, a Swiss Captain, of a work, lent to M. De Greder by M.
Sperchtvel, another Swiss Officer, supposed to have been printed in
1284 or 1285. This work, which has never since been seen, is said to
have borne the following inscription in old Italian.
“The heroic actions, represented in figures, of the great and
magnanimous Macedonian king, the bold and valiant Alexander; dedicated,
presented, and humbly offered to the most holy Father, Pope Honorius
IV, the glory and support of the Church, and to our illustrious
and generous father and mother, by us Allessandro-Alberico Cunio,
Cavaliere, and Isabella Cunio, twin brother and sister: first reduced,
imagined, and attempted to be executed in relief with a small knife
on blocks of wood made even and polished by this learned and dear
sister, continued and finished by us together, at Ravenna, from the
eight pictures of our invention, painted six times larger than here
represented; engraved, explained by verses, and thus marked upon the
paper to perpetuate the number of them, and to enable us to present
them to our relations and friends, in testimony of gratitude,
friendship, and affection. All this was done and finished by us when
only 16 years of age.”
Interesting as this statement is, and correct as it possibly may be, it
can scarcely be accepted as an historical fact, inasmuch as no one but
the alleged discoverer appears ever to have seen the originals.
[Illustration: [Copy of an Inscription on the first leaf of the
“Speculum Humanæ Salvationis.”]]
Besides the preceding doubtful account we have notices of a print in
the Library of Lyons with the date 1384. Specimens of engravings of
playing cards, as well as of saints, said to have been produced in the
years 1390 and 1400 are also extant. From the year 1400 to 1440 other
and more elaborate engravings, of a devotional character, are likewise
to be met with. One of the most curious, representing St. Christopher
carrying the infant Saviour across the sea, is in the possession of
Earl Spencer, and bears the date 1423. A few years later we find
similar prints accompanied with explanatory inscriptions or texts of
Scripture placed beneath them; next came whole series of these prints
published together as a book; and lastly, the small Latin Grammars of
Donatus, the common school-books of the day, engraved and printed in
like manner. These productions are distinguished by Bibliographers as
Block-books, and nine or ten different specimens are known to exist.
Of these the most remarkable are the _Biblia Pauperum_, or Poor Man’s
Bible,[16] a book containing 40 pages of quarto, or small folio prints,
with several engravings with inscriptions upon each page, supposed to
have been executed (most probably at Zwolle[17] in Holland) between
the years 1420 and 1435; and the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_,[18] or
Mirror of Salvation, a book containing 63 leaves in the two Latin, and
62 in the two Dutch editions, (each in small folio), 58 of which are
ornamented with engravings representing stories from the Old and New
Testaments, beneath which are more copious explanatory inscriptions
than those in the “Biblia Pauperum.” These editions are supposed to
have been published between the years 1430 and 1457.
Mean as these books would seem if issued from the press at the present
day, they were wonderful productions for the age in which they
appeared; and although the first named was called the ‘Poor Man’s
Bible,’ or ‘Book of the Poor,’ it was only in comparison with the cost
of a written copy of the Holy Scriptures, which was worth the, in that
day, enormous sum of £100.[19] As very few copies are now in existence,
(and those generally in an imperfect state), they have literally
become worth more than their weight in gold: a copy of the _Biblia
Pauperum_ having been bought by the Duke of Marlborough, after a keen
competition at an auction sale in 1813, for the almost fabulous sum of
£257.
It was from these early Block-books, or Donatuses, that Gutenberg, as
we learn from the statement of Ulric Zell,--a contemporary, and working
printer at Mentz with the original inventors while the art was yet
a secret,--derived his idea of printing as at present practised. In
the words of Mr. Charles Knight, in his interesting biography of the
venerable Caxton, the Father of the Art in England,--“To seize upon the
idea, that the text or legend might be composed of separate letters,
capable of re-arrangement after the impressions were taken off, so as
to be applied without new cutting to other texts and legends, was to
secure the principle upon which the printing art depended. It was easy
to extend the principle from a few lines to a whole page, and from one
page to many, so as to form a book.”
Such, according to the almost universally adopted belief, were the
successive steps which led to the invention of ~TYPOGRAPHY~. And for
nearly a century no one had ventured to doubt that either images of
saints, or characters for playing cards, were first printed from
engraved wooden blocks, as cheap substitutes for the works of the
draftsman and painter;--that these were succeeded by subjects of sacred
history with explanatory legends cut in wood, imitative of the art of
the illuminator, and the caligraphy of the scribes or professional
writers;--that these again were followed by Donatuses;--and that from
these Donatuses, printed from solid blocks, Gutenberg obtained his
first idea of the Typographic Art.
But in 1868 an altogether new hypothesis was propounded at the annual
congress of the British Archæological Association, held that year at
Cirencester. It was there maintained, in a paper read by Mr. Henry
F. Holt, that printing from moveable types, as practised in Europe,
preceded in point of time that of printing from engravings on wood.
After a careful inspection of the celebrated print of St. Christopher,
in Earl Spencer’s library at Althorp, he contended,--“that the date
1423 is not that of the engraving, but of the legend beneath it, which
had been copied by the engraver, and has reference to the jubilee
year of the Saint; that it has been printed by a press, and with
printer’s ink; and, what is more important, upon paper which exhibits
the well-known water-mark of the bull or heifer’s head, with a flower
issuant between the horns, which was used by Faust, and supposed
to have been made for him.[20] He has shewn, that the discovery of
this supposed early engraving instigated the fabrication of several
similar, which were stained with coffee to give them the appearance
of age. He further maintains, that the block-books,--originally, in
his opinion, produced by the celebrated painter and engraver Albrecht
Durer,--were cheap substitutes for the highly-priced productions of the
Printing press.” And he challenges literature “to prove, that a copy
of the block-book known as the ‘Biblia Pauperum,’ was actually in any
known library, public or private, prior to 1485, or known then to be
in existence.”[21] “All this has,” as Mr. Planché observes, “naturally
aroused a host of antagonists, who have more or less courteously
contradicted, without convincing Mr. Holt, by the production of any
incontrovertible fact, which would refute the evidence he adduces in
support of his arguments. Alone and undismayed, he still gallantly
defies all comers.”
Guided by the test of costume,--“a test which he has never known
applied in vain, when called to the assistance of the critical
inquirer,”--Mr. Planché, while abstaining from the expression of an
opinion upon the principal point in dispute, shews, as a matter of fact
in regard to playing cards, that “with the exception of those by the
Master of 1466 [an engraver only known by that designation], and a set
of “tarots,” called the Mantegna Cards,[22] on one of which is the date
1483, all the specimens of printed playing cards that he has met with
display the unmistakeable character of the fashions of Germany, France,
and England, during the latter half of the Fifteenth century, and the
greatest portion those of the very latest part,--Louis XI, Charles
VIII, of France; Edward IV, and Henry VII, of England; and Maximilian
I, Emperor of Germany.”[23]
So far, then, the evidence of the playing cards seems to support the
hypothesis of Mr. Holt.
[Illustration: [The Knave of Bells, 1390.]]
Most of the early prints are certainly of an extremely rude type,
consisting chiefly of mere outlines of figures; in the one case of
saints, copied from the illuminated Missals, and in the other, of
characters for playing cards similar to the foregoing fac-simile,
afterwards coloured in imitation of paintings. Very probably they may
have been made, in the first instance, by means of stencil plates;
if not, the impressions were obtained from the engraved blocks by
friction, after the Chinese manner. Whichever was the method adopted,
the ‘Brief-malers’ or card painters of Germany seem to have run their
Italian brethren hard in the race of competition in the first half of
the Fifteenth century, as we learn from a decree of the Government of
Venice, bearing date the 11th October 1441; which, after stating that
the art and mystery of making cards and printed figures had fallen
into decay, from the numbers printed out of Venice, ordains--“That it
be ordered and established, according to that which certain masters
had supplicated, that from this time in future no work of the said art
that is printed or painted[24] on cloth or on paper, that is to say,
altar pieces, images, and playing cards, and whatever other work of the
said art is done with a brush and printed,[25] shall be allowed to be
brought or imported into this city under pain of forfeiting the works
so imported, and xxx livres and xii soldi,[26] of which fine one-third
shall go to the state, one-third to Signor Giustizieri Vecchi, to whom
the affair is committed, and one-third to the accuser.” The worthy
magistrates of Venice were excellent Protectionists in their day and
generation; but this antique method of printing, either from engraved
wooden blocks, or with stencilling plates and brushes, had soon to
give way to the newer art of Typography; and twenty-eight years after
the promulgation of this decree we find printed works issuing from the
press of John and Vandeline of Spire, established in Venice in the year
1469.
It is a moot point among antiquarians when playing cards were first
printed. The commonly received opinion of their invention in 1392 for
the amusement of the insane King, Charles VI of France, is decidedly
erroneous.[27] On this subject Mr. Planché writes,--“There is plenty
of evidence to prove that cards, drawn, painted, and gilded by the
hand, like those of Jacquemin-Gringonneur, and to which the name of
‘Tarot cards’ has been given, found their way into Europe from the East
in the Fourteenth century, or perhaps earlier; but they had nothing
in common with those to which we are accustomed, although they might
have suggested them, and the fact in no wise affects the question of
printing by means of wood-blocks only.”[28]
That this art--the art of printing by pressure to obtain copies,
in ink, from separable types or letters--had not been attempted to
be carried into effect at a much earlier period than the time when
Gutenberg made his first essay at Strasburg, about the year 1435, has
been a subject of wonderment with certain writers. But the truth is,
that prior to that period the world was not ripe for the invention,
neither had the time arrived for the development of those grand designs
of Providence, in the effecting of which the Press and Printing were
destined to be mainly instrumental. Otherwise, it is inconceivable
how for ages previous, while the germ of the art, as ultimately
perfected, was in common use among men,--in seals and signets;[29] in
stamped records on bricks and tablets of clay in Babylon; in chiselled
inscriptions on rocks and pillars in India; and in irons with letters
cut in relief upon them for branding cattle with their owners’ names,
(known among the Romans in the days of Virgil);--no one discovered the
way to this method of multiplying documents for general distribution,
or for the promulgation of edicts through the length and breadth of the
ruling empires of the world.
It may be well, therefore, before entering upon the History of
PRINTING, popularly so called, to take a rapid glance at the state
of Europe, both as regards Religion and Literature, in the ages
immediately preceding that at which we have now arrived.
From the Sixth to the Fifteenth century the Western world may be
said to have been covered with moral darkness. On the fall of the
Roman Empire, ignorance, barbarism, and superstition spread in
dense and heavy clouds over the nations of the West. Learning so
rapidly declined, that it was almost wholly lost; and the light of
Religion,--that light “which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,”--appeared well nigh entirely quenched. Here and there, however,
in different countries and in successive ages, a ray of light shot
forth; Schools and Universities were established, and a few bright
names shine out like stars amid the thick darkness which surrounded
them. The number of these was somewhat increased towards the Tenth
century. About this time Paper made from cotton or linen rags began to
come into use. The importance of this invention must at once have been
felt, and by decreasing the expense of manuscripts,--hitherto written
on parchments, or the perishable papyrus,--have greatly enlarged the
demand for such documents. This enlarged demand induced more to follow
the occupation of Scribes, or Caligraphers. In the Eleventh century the
Benedictine Monks exercised themselves in copying manuscripts; and to
their industry we owe almost all we possess of Classic Latin Literature
at the present day. The light of learning in this century shone
brightest in France and England; in Italy but faintly, while in Germany
its glimmerings were scarcely perceptible. In the Twelfth century a
slight improvement may be traced; John of Salisbury and William of
Malmesbury being distinguished writers in this age. In the Thirteenth
however, darkness prevailed again; and few, if any, were capable of
appreciating the master-mind of Roger Bacon, who shone like a beacon
in the realms of literature and science, but who was looked upon by
his mole-eyed contemporaries as a magician whose lore was derived
from unholy sources. The Church grew more and more corrupt. Ignorance
and fanaticism every where abounded; and true Religion was scarcely
to be discerned amid the prevailing superstitions of the age. It was
in the moral world as in the physical: the darkest hour is that which
precedes the dawn. Darkness at this period covered the earth and gross
darkness the people. The mind of man had become, as it were, without
form and void; and in that state, humanly speaking, it was long likely
to remain. But such was not the will of GOD. As in the creation of the
world, GOD said, Let there be Light, and Light was; so now the command
went forth--“Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee.” And the light of truth burst forth; not
indeed at first with noontide splendour; but there came from the East
a dawn, and a day-spring thence arose, which announced the coming of
that light which will only cease to shine when time shall be no more.
The Fourteenth century was to that which followed it like the morning
star that ushers in the dawn. The love of learning revived; and
polite letters were restored in the person of Petrarch. Universities
were established in Rome and Fermo, in Perugia, Treviso and Pisa, in
Pavia and Florence, in Sienna, Lucca and Ferrara. In England, Richard
Aungerville, Bishop of Durham and Chancellor of Edward III, but better
known to fame as Richard of Bury, gave his library to the University of
Oxford, with special injunctions that his valuable manuscripts should
be lent out to scholars.[30] These, and like agencies elsewhere at
work, paved the way for the era then about to commence.
As the dangers which menaced the Eastern Empire at the close of the
Fourteenth century increased, the most learned of the Greeks fled to
the West, carrying with them the treasures of their language. Amongst
the first of these was Emanuel Chrysoloras, who settled in Florence
in 1395 as public teacher in Greek. He had been previously known as
an Ambassador from Constantinople to the Western powers, his mission
being to solicit aid against the Turks. From Florence he proceeded to
various Italian Universities, and became the preceptor of several early
Hellenists. In 1423, 238 manuscripts of Greek authors were brought
into Italy by John Aurispa of Sicily, who thus put his country in
possession of authors hardly known to her by name. By means of these,
and the labours of Philelfo and other collectors, an ardent thirst
for Classical and especially Grecian Literature began to make itself
manifest, which about the year 1440 was completely developed.
The kings of France and the Dukes of Burgundy were at this period the
most munificent patrons of learning and literature. The fashion they
set was followed by their chief nobles, and many celebrated libraries
were formed in their dominions. The Library of the Louvre was founded
by King John of France in 1350. His third son, Jean, Duc de Berri,
formed one at his Chateau de Bicêtre, near Paris, only inferior to
that of his father. Philippe le Hardi, the youngest son, who became
Duke of Burgundy, was also addicted to the collection of fine books,
“and spared no expense in the employment of artists to adorn his
library, and in the purchase of their most choice productions.” His
son, Jean sans Peur, inherited his father’s tastes and added to the
collections already made. “But all previous patronage sinks into
comparative insignificance before the encouragement given to everything
connected with literature by Philippe le Bon, who succeeded Jean in
1419. At Bruges where he kept his Court, he gave continual employment
to multitudes of authors, translators, copyists, and painters, who
were constantly enriching his library with their best productions.”
In an account of the Duke’s library, nearly two thousand works
are enumerated, “the greater part being magnificent vellum folios
beautifully illuminated, bound in velvet, satin, or damask, studded
with gems, and protected by gold clasps jewelled and chased.” “The
passion for books thus displayed was not confined to France or the
French princes. In Italy, Germany, England, and other countries, the
same taste spread. In England Henry VI had a valuable library; many
books written and illuminated for him being still among the royal MSS.
in the British Museum. The Duke of Bedford, whose love of literature
was probably greatly stimulated while Regent of France, was surpassed
by none of his countrymen in his patronage of the Fine Arts; and the
celebrated Missal executed for him still remains as one of the choicest
productions of his age. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the Protector of
Henry VI, was also greatly attached to his library, and bequeathed many
hundreds of volumes to the University of Oxford, and to King’s College,
Cambridge.”
“Owing to these causes the various Artists connected with book-writing
and book-binding, as well as the trades necessary to them, received
great encouragement, while to ensure speed as well as excellence of
workmanship, division of labour was carried out to a great extent.
Indeed, so important a branch of commerce had the manufacture of books
now become, and so numerous were the various classes of craftsmen
employed in this way at Bruges, that there sprang up in that city a
Guild,--‘The Guild of St. John the Evangelist,’ the patron Saint of
Scribes,--which in 1454 had a formal charter and privileges granted
it by the Duke.” Other cities also had similar corporations. Thus, at
Antwerp the Society of St. Luke was formed in 1450, and at Brussels
there was a guild of Writers called ‘Les Frères de la plume.’ The
Guild of St. John the Evangelist contained members of both sexes, and
consisted of Book-binders, Book-sellers, Boss-carvers, Cloth-shearers,
Curriers, Figure-engravers, Illuminators, Letter-engravers, Painters,
Painters of Vignettes, Parchment and Vellum-makers, Printers,
Print-sellers, School-masters, School-mistresses, and Scriveners and
copyers of books.[31]
Coincident with this development of a thirst for classical learning,
and a passion for literature amongst the great and wealthy, was the
invention of Printing in the Western world.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] This is shewn, in the history of wood-cutting by Mr. J. JACKSON,
not to have been the original title of the work, which was rather, says
the writer, a book for the use of preachers than the laity,--“A series
of skeleton sermons, ornamented with woodcuts to warm the preacher’s
imagination, and stored with texts to assist his memory.”
[17] The blocks of the original _Biblia Pauperum_ re-appeared in this
city on the revival of wood-engraving in Holland; and it is the opinion
of Mr. BRADSHAW, that it was here the earliest of the block-books
was produced. This opinion has additional importance attached to it,
from the fact that Zwolle was, in the early part of the Fifteenth
century, celebrated as a seat of learning. “Thomas à Kempis, according
to Meiners, whom Eichhorn and Heeren have followed presided over a
school at Zwoll, wherein Agricola, Hegius, Langius, and Dringeberg,
the restorers of learning in Germany, were educated.”--HALLAM’S
_Introduction to the Literature of Europe_, 8vo. 1837. vol. i. p. 149.
[18] Some writers consider that the whole of the text of what are
considered the first and last editions, and a large portion of the text
of the other two, were printed from moveable wooden letters; others
again assert, that these letters were made of cast fusile metal. No
positive proof, however, has been, or can be given that they were the
latter. That the texts were separately printed, is evident, from the
different inks employed, the burnished appearance of the paper at the
back of the cuts, and the indentations at the back of the lines of
type. These last, differing considerably in different specimens, give
rise to differences of opinion as to whether the impressions were
produced by an ordinary printing press, or by some other method of
imparting pressure. The presumption is that all, or nearly all, the
impressions of the oldest specimens of the art, printed only on one
side of the paper or vellum, were taken in the Chinese way. Before
the press was invented, there certainly was a _possibility_, but that
was all, of printing otherwise; but after its invention, impressions
could most easily be taken on both sides of the paper, without the
risk of spoiling the first, while ‘perfecting’ (i. e. printing) the
reverse or blank side of the sheet. As the press was not an essential
in block-printing, it was probably not thought of in that embryonic
state of the art. But after separable, and especially metallic, letters
were made, the press could no longer be dispensed with; types would be
all but useless without it; for although impressions might still be
taken by careful rubbing, the paper being sufficiently damped, that
process would be attended with much additional trouble, owing to the
precautions rendered necessary to avoid cutting through the paper, or
otherwise spoiling it by blacking the margins on the inked coffin or
chase in which the types, when formed into a page, were screwed or
quoined or wedged together. The date of the invention of the LETTER
press, by the adaptation of the screw to the purposes of book-printing,
is thus an important element in the consideration of questions relating
to the origin of Typography.
[19] About £1000, or £1200, of current English money.
[20] Paper with the same water-mark was also used by the First Printer
in England. _Vide_ Plate IX in vol. ii. of _The Life and Typography of
William Caxton_.
[21] Letter in _Builder_, Nov. 26, 1870.
[22] So called after Andrea Mantegna, a celebrated Italian painter and
engraver, born in Padua 1431, died 1505. Cards designed and coloured by
this artist are very highly prized.
[23] _Builder_, Nov. 19, 1870.
[24] “The word which has been translated _printed_ is ‘stampide’
(‘Carte e figure depinte e stampide’), and the question arises as to
the meaning of that word in 1441. ‘Stampide,’ according to Florio,
signifies ‘to print, to presse, to stampe, to form, to figure;’ and
‘stampe’ in like manner, besides a print or impression, is said to be
‘a marke, a shape, a figure.’ The word existed before printing, in its
modern sense, had been heard of, and the natural application of it
to the new art, does not in the least determine the question of when
that art was invented. ‘Stampide’ in 1441, might simply mean formed,
figured, or shaped, by the means of the stencil, a process which we
know was adopted at that period, and which being much more rapid than
drawing and coloring by hand, would doubtless affect very seriously the
art of the card illuminator, similarly as photography, at the present
day, has the art of the miniature painter.”--J. R. PLANCHÉ. _Builder_,
Nov. 19, 1870.
[25] This phrase seems specially to refer to the method of stencilling.
[26] Equivalent to about £5 15_s._ sterling.
[27] St. Louis of France, after his return from the Crusade,
[A. D. 1254], interdicted the use of all playing cards throughout
his dominions. They were also forbidden by the Council of Cologne
in the year 1281. These prohibitions most probably arose from their
being used for purposes of fortune-telling.
[28] Gringonneur was paid for the cards drawn and painted for Charles
VI in 1392, fifty-six sous of Paris, which is calculated to be about
£7 1_s._ 8_d._ of our present money, and a single pack of “tarots,”
admirably painted about 1415 by Marziano, Secretary to the Duke of
Milan, cost the enormous sum of 1,500 golden crowns (about £625); but
in 1454 a pack of cards intended for the Dauphin of France, cost only
five sous of Tours, about 11_s._ or 12_s._--_The Arts in the Middle
Ages_, by M. Paul LACROIX.
[29] Several ancient specimens of Greek and Roman signets are still
extant. The most remarkable of these is a brass sigillum of C. J.
Cæcilius Hermias, in the Duke of Richmond’s collection. It was found
near Rome, and is supposed to belong to the Fourth century. The
characters are _reversed_, engraved in relief, the back metal being cut
away to a considerable depth and left in a rough state. The inscription
is surrounded with a border, as shewn below.
+--------------+
| C I CAECILI |
| HERMIAE. SN. |
+--------------+
The size of the signet is two inches long by one inch wide. At the
back is a ring. If used for printing, its application was no doubt the
same as that of the blocks used by the _Paper Stainers_ of the present
day. Coloured pigments would be applied to the face of the letters,
and the signet would then be stamped on whatever substance was to be
marked. It might, in this way, have been used for stamping on the
covers of letters or parcels, to mark the name of the party from whom
they were sent, in the same way as engraved fac-simile signatures are
officially used for franking such documents through the post at the
present day. It may, however, have been the receipt stamp of a man in
trade; or a trade-mark, used, for instance, to stamp the wares while in
a semi-plastic state, of a baker or brick-maker.
After the above was in type, the writer was informed by Dr. J. D. M.
Coghill, Superintendent of the Convict Establishment at Wẹlikaḍa,
near Colombo, that the probability of the first of the purposes
to which the signet is supposed to have been applied, was much
strengthened by the somewhat similar practice, though not for an
exactly similar object, which prevails in parts of China, in the
use of _chops_,--“house-signs,”--by professional men, traders, &c.
These chops are small blocks of box or other hard wood, on the upper
surfaces of which the name and profession of an individual or firm
are cut by itinerant engravers, at the rate of thirty for a Mexican
dollar. To meet the requirements of business and to facilitate
intercourse between Europeans and native Chinese, each foreign house,
or firm, or professional man, furnishes all those with whom he or they
have transactions, with his ‘chop,’ on the sides of which his name
and address are also written in Roman characters. Whatever letter,
document, packet or parcel is thenceforth sent to him or them, besides
the address written with ordinary ink and in Roman characters, a
red ink impression of the chop is stamped on the envelope or cover.
This any native can read, and the addressee is without difficulty
found. To this information Dr. Coghill kindly added the gift of the
accompanying original chop, which belonged to his brother, Dr. Sinclair
Coghill, when practising as a physician with his partner, Dr. Bell,
in Shanghai. The characters represent the words ‘Peh-i-sang,’ the
nearest equivalent the Shanghai dialect of the Chinese language gives
to ‘Bell, Physician.’ It is a small block, an inch and a quarter long,
three-eighths of an inch broad, and was one inch and three-eighths
high. It has, however, been reduced to an inch in height to suit the
size of the type and allow of its being herewith printed.
[Illustration: 栢醫生]
[30] For, says the Bishop in his ‘Philobiblon,’ “Books are masters who
instruct us without rods, without hard words and anger, without clothes
and money. If you approach them they are not asleep; if investigating
you interrogate them, they conceal nothing; if you mistake them they
never grumble; if you are ignorant they cannot laugh at you.”
[31] _Vide_ vol. i. of _The Life and Typography of William Caxton_,
from the second chapter of which the two preceding paragraphs have been
abridged.
Early Typography.