The Printers of Nicholas de Lyra and Caesar Baronius--John Fust--Richard
Grafton--Jacob van Liesvelt--John Lufftius--Robert Stephens
(Estienne)--Henry Stephens--Simon Ockley--Floyer Sydenham--Edmund
Castell--Page--John Lilburne--Etienne Dolet--John Morin--Christian
Wechel--Andrew Wechel--Jacques Froullé--Godonesche--William Anderton.
Authors have not been the only beings who have suffered by their
writings, but frequently they have involved the printers and sellers
of their works in their unfortunate ruin. The risks which adventurous
publishers run in our own enlightened age are not so great as those
incurred a few centuries ago. Indeed Mr. Walter Besant assures us that
now our publishers have no risks, not even financial! They are not
required to produce the huge folios and heavy quartos which our
ancestors delighted in, and poured forth with such amazing rapidity,
unless there is a good subscribers' list and all the copies are taken.
The misfortunes of booksellers caused by voluminous authors might form a
special subject of inquiry, and we commend it to the attentions of some
other Book-lover. We should hear the groans of two eminent printers who
were ruined by the amazing industry of one author, Nicholas de Lyra. He
himself died long before printing was invented, in the year 1340, but he
left behind him his great work, _Biblia sacra cum interpretationibus
et postillis_, which became the source of trouble to the printers,
Schweynheym and Pannartz, of Subiaco and Rome. They were persuaded or
ordered by the Pope or his cardinals to print his prodigious commentary
on the Bible; when a few volumes had been printed they desired most
earnestly to be relieved of their burden, and petitioned the Pope to be
saved from the bankruptcy which this mighty undertaking entailed.
They possessed a lasting memento of this author in the shape of eleven
hundred ponderous tomes, which were destined to remain upon their
shelves till fire or moths or other enemies of books had done their
work. These volumes began to be printed in 1471, and contain the
earliest specimens of Greek type.
The printers of the works of Prynne, Barthius, Reynaud, and other
voluminous writers must have had a sorry experience with their authors;
but "once bitten twice shy." Hence some of these worthies found it
rather difficult to publish their works, and there were no authors'
agents or Societies of Authors to aid their negotiations. Indeed we are
told that a printer who was saddled with a large number of unsaleable
copies of a heavy piece of literary production adopted the novel
expedient of bringing out several editions of the work! This he
accomplished by merely adding a new title-page to his old copies,
whereby he readily deceived the unwary.
Catherino, in his book entitled _L'Art d'Imprimer_, quotes the saying
of De Fourcey, a Jesuit of Paris, that "one might make a pretty
large volume of the catalogue of those who have entirely ruined their
booksellers by their books."
But the booksellers and printers whose hard fate I wish principally to
record are those who shared with the authors the penalties inflicted on
account of their condemned books. Unhappily there have been many such
whose fate has been recorded, and probably there are many more who have
suffered in obscurity the terrible punishments which the stern censors
of former days knew so well how to inflict.
One of the reputed discoverers of the art of printing, John Fust, is
said to have been persecuted; he was accused at Paris of multiplying the
Scriptures by the aid of the Devil, and was compelled to seek safety in
flight.
The booksellers of the historian Caesar Baronius, [Footnote: Cf. page
97.] whose account of the Spanish rule in Sicily so enraged Philip III.
of Spain, were condemned to perpetual servitude, and were forced to
endure the terrible tortures inflicted on galley slaves.
The early printers of the Bible incurred great risks. Richard Grafton
and Edward Whitchurch, together with Miles Coverdale, were entrusted to
arrange for the printing of Thomas Mathew's translation. The work was
given to the printers in Paris, as the English printers were not very
highly esteemed. The book was nearly completed when the Inquisition
effectually stopped the further progress of the work by seizing the
sheets, and Grafton with his companions were forced to fly. Then
Francis Regnault, whose brother's colophon is the admiration of all
bibliophiles, undertook the printing of the New Testament, made by Miles
Coverdale, which was finished at Paris in 1538. Richard Grafton and
Whitchurch contrived to obtain their types from Paris, and the Bible was
completed in 1539. Thus they became printers themselves, and as a reward
for his labour, when the Roman Catholics again became rulers in high
places, Richard Grafton was imprisoned. His printer's mark was a
_graft_, or young tree, growing out of a _tun_.
The title of the Bible which was begun in Paris and finished in London
is as follows:--
_The Byble in Englyshe. 1539. Folio_.
"The Byble in Englyshe, that is to saye the content of all the Holy
Scrypture, bothe of the Olde, and Newe Testament, truly translated
after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes, by the dylygent
studye of dyuerse excellent learned men, expert in the forsayde
tongues. Printed by Rychard Grafton and Edward Whitchurche. Cum
priuilegio--solum. 1539."
This Grafton was also a voluminous author, and wrote part of Hall's
Chronicles, an abridgment of the Chronicles of England, and a manual of
the same.
Whether by accident or intention, a printer of the Bible in the reign of
Charles I. omitted the important negative in the Seventh Commandment. He
was summoned to appear before the High Commission Court, and fined three
thousand pounds. The story is also told of the widow of a German printer
who strongly objected to the supremacy of husbands, and desired to
revise the text of the passage in the Sacred Scriptures which speaks
of the subjection of wives (Genesis iii. 16). The original text is
"He shall be thy _lord_." For _Herr_ (lord) in the German version she
substituted _Narr_, and made the reading, "He shall be thy _fool_." It
is said that she paid the penalty of death for this strange assertion of
"woman's rights."
We must not omit the name of another martyr amongst the honourable rank
of printers of the Scriptures, Jacob van Liesvelt, who was beheaded
on account of his edition of the Bible, entitled _Bible en langue
hollandaise_ (_Antwerpen_, 1542, in-fol.).
John Lufftius, a bookseller and printer of Würtemburg, incurred many
perils when he printed Luther's German edition of the Sacred Scriptures.
It is said that the Pope used to write Lufftius' name on paper once
every year, and cast it into the fire, uttering terrible imprecations
and dire threatenings. But the thunders of Roman pontiffs did not
trouble the worthy bookseller, who laughed at their threats, and
exclaimed, "I perspired so freely at Rome in the flame, that I must take
a larger draught, as it is necessary to extinguish that flame."
The same fatality befell Robert Stephanus, the Parisian printer. His
family name was Estienne, but, according to the fashion of the time, he
used the Latin form of the word. He edited and published a version of
the Sacred Scriptures, showing the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts, and
adding certain notes which were founded upon the writings of François
Vatable, Abbot of Bellozane, but also contained some of the scholarly
reflections of the learned bookseller. On the title-page the name of
the Abbot appears first, before that of Stephanus. But considerable
hostility was raised against him by this and other works on the part of
the doctors of the Sorbonne. He was compelled to seek safety in flight,
and found a secure resting-place in Geneva. His enemies were obliged
to content themselves with burning his effigy. This troubled Stephanus
quite as little as the Papal censures distressed Lufftius. At the time
when his effigy was being burnt, the Parisian printer was in the snowy
mountains of the Auvergne, and declared that he never felt so cold in
his life.
The printers seem ever to have been on the side of the Protestants.
In Germany they produced all the works of the Reformation authors with
great accuracy and skill, and often at their own expense; whereas the
Roman Catholics could only get their books printed at great cost, and
even then the printing was done carelessly and in a slovenly manner, so
as to seem the production of illiterate men. And if any printer, more
conscientious than the rest, did them more justice, he was jeered at in
the market-places and at the fairs of Frankfort for a Papist and a slave
of the priests.
This Robert Stephanus (Estienne or Stephens, as the name is usually
called) was a member of one of the most illustrious families of learned
printers the world has ever seen. The founder of the family was Henry
Stephens, born at Paris in 1470, and the last of the race died there
in 1674. Thus for nearly two centuries did they confer the greatest
advantages on literature, which they enriched quite as much by their
learning as by their skill. Their biographies have frequently been
written; so there is no occasion to record them. This Robert Stephens,
who was exiled on account of his books, was one of the most illustrious
scholars of his age. He printed, edited, and published an immense number
of works in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, amongst others the _Biblia
Latina_ (1528), _Latinae linguae Thesaurus_ (1531), _Dictionarium
latino-gallicum_ (1543), _Ecclesiastica Historia Eusebii, Socrates,
Theodoreti_ (1544), _Biblia Hebraica_ (1544 and 1546), and many others.
In the Bible of 1555 he introduced the divisions of chapter and verse,
which are still used. With regard to the accuracy of his proofs we are
told that he was so careful as to hang them up in some place of public
resort, and to invite the corrections of the learned scholars who
collected there. At Geneva his printing-press continued to pour forth
a large number of learned works, and after his death, one of his sons,
named Charles, carried on the business.
Another son of Robert Stephens, named Henry, was one of those scholars
who have ruined themselves by their love of literature, devoting their
lives and their fortunes to the production of volumes on some special
branch of study in which only a few learned readers are interested.
Hence, while they earn the gratitude of scholars and enrich the world of
literature by their knowledge, the sale of their books is limited, and
they fail to enrich themselves. The _Thesaurus Linguae Graecae_ cost
poor Henry Stephens ten years of labour and nearly all his fortune. This
is a very valuable work, and has proved of immense service to subsequent
generations of scholars. A second edition was published in London in
1815 in seven folio volumes, and recently another edition has appeared
in Paris.
One of his works aroused the indignation of the Parisian authorities. It
was entitled _Introduction au Traité des Merveilles anciennes avec les
modernes, ou Traité préparatif à l'Apologie pour Hérodote, par Henri
Estienne_ (1566, in-8). This work was supposed to contain insidious
attacks upon the monks and priests and Roman Catholic faith, comparing
the fables of Herodotus with the teaching of Catholicism, and holding
up the latter to ridicule. At any rate, the book was condemned and
its author burnt in effigy. M. Peignot asserts in his _Dictionnaire
Critique, Littéraire, et Bibliographique_ that it was this Henry
Stephens who uttered the _bon mot_ with regard to his never feeling so
cold as when his effigy was being burnt and he himself was in the snowy
mountains of the Auvergne. Other authorities attribute the saying to his
father, as we have already narrated.
Noble martyrs Literature has had, men who have sacrificed ease, comfort,
and every earthly advantage for her sake, and who have shared with Henry
Stephens the direst straits of poverty brought about by the ardour of
their love. Such an one was a learned divine, Simon Ockley, Vicar of
Swavesey in 1705, and Professor of Arabic at Cambridge in 1711, who
devoted his life to Asiatic researches. This study did not prove
remunerative; having been seized for debt, he was confined in Cambridge
Castle, and there finished his great work, _The History of the
Saracens_. His martyrdom was lifelong, as he died in destitution,
having always (to use his own words) given the possession of wisdom the
preference to that of riches. Floyer Sydenham, who died in a debtors'
prison in 1788, and incurred his hard fate through devoting his life
to a translation of the _Dialogues_ of Plato, was another martyr; from
whose ashes arose the Royal Literary Fund, which has prevented many
struggling authors from sharing his fate. Seventeen long years of
labour, besides a handsome fortune, did Edmund Castell spend on his
_Lexicon Heptaglotton_; but a thankless and ungrateful public refused to
relieve him of the copies of this learned work, which ruined his health
while it dissipated his fortune. These are only a few names which might
be mentioned out of the many. What a noble army of martyrs Literature
could boast, if a roll-call were sounded!
Amongst our booksellers we must not omit the name of Page, who suffered
with John Stubbs in the market-place at Westminster on account of
the latter's work entitled _The Discoverie of a Gaping Gulf whereinto
England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord
forbid not the banes by letting her Majestie see the sin and punishment
thereof_ (1579). Both author and publisher were condemned to the
barbarous penalty of having their right hands cut off, as we have
already recorded. [Footnote: Cf. page 129.]
"Sturdy John," as the people called John Lilburne of Commonwealth fame,
was another purveyor of books who suffered severely at the hands of
both Royalists and Roundheads. At the early age of eighteen he began the
circulation of the books of Prynne and Bastwick, and for this enormity
he was whipped from the Fleet to Westminster, set in the pillory,
gagged, fined, and imprisoned. At a later stage in his career we find
him imprisoned in the Tower by Cromwell, for his _Just Reproof to
Haberdashers' Hall_, and fined £1,000; and his bitter attack on the
Protector, entitled _England's New Chains Discovered_, caused him to pay
another visit to the Tower and to be tried for high treason, of which he
was subsequently acquitted. To assail the "powers that be" seemed ever
to be the constant occupation of "Sturdy John" Lilburne. From the above
example, and from many others which might be mentioned, it is quite
evident that Roundheads, when they held the power, could be quite as
severe critics of publications obnoxious to them as the Royalists, and
troublesome authors fared little better under Puritan regime than they
did under the Stuart monarchs.
Another learned French printer was Etienne Dolet, who was burned to
death at Paris on account of his books in 1546. He lived and worked at
Lyons, and, after the manner of the Stephens, published many of his own
writings as well as those of other learned men. He applied his energies
to reform the Latin style, and in addition to his theological and
linguistical works cultivated the art of poetry. Bayle says that his
Latin and French verses "are not amiss." In the opinion of Gruterus
they are worthy of a place in the _Deliciae Poetarum Gallorum_; but
the impassioned and scurrilous Scaliger, who hated Dolet, declares that
"Dolet may be called the Muse's Canker, or Imposthume; he wildly
affects to be absolute in Poetry without the least pretence to wit, and
endeavours to make his own base copper pass by mixing with it Virgil's
gold. A driveller, who with some scraps of Cicero has tagged together
something, which he calls Orations, but which men of learning rather
judge to be Latrations. Whilst he sung the fate of that great and good
King Francis, his name found its own evil fate, and the Atheist suffered
the punishment of the flames, which both he and his verses so richly
merited. But the flames could not purify him, but were by him rather
made impure. Why should I mention his Epigrams, which are but a common
sink or shore of dull, cold, unmeaning trash, full of that thoughtless
arrogance that braves the Almighty, and that denies His Being?" The
conclusion of this scathing criticism is hardly meet for polite ears. A
private wrong had made the censorious Scaliger more bitter than usual.
In spite of the protection of Castellan, a learned prelate, Dolet at
length suffered in the flames, but whether the charge of Atheism was
well grounded has never been clearly ascertained.
Certainly the pious prayer which he uttered, when the faggots were piled
around him, would seem to exonerate him from such a charge: "My God,
whom I have so often offended, be merciful to me; and I beseech you, O
Virgin Mother, and you, divine Stephen, to intercede with God for me
a sinner." The Parliament of Paris condemned his works as containing
"damnable, pernicious, and heretical doctrines." The Faculty of Theology
censured very severely Dolet's translation of one of the _Dialogues_ of
Plato, entitled _Axiochus_, and especially the passage "Après la mort,
tu ne seras rien," which Dolet rendered, "Après la mort, tu ne seras
_plus_ rien _du tout_." The additional words were supposed to convict
Dolet of heresy. He certainly disliked the monks, as the following
epigram plainly declares:--
_Ad Nicolaum Fabricium Valesium De cucullatis._
"Incurvicervicum cucullatorum habet
Grex id subinde in ore, se esse mortuum
Mundo: tamen edit eximie pecus, bibit
Non pessime, stertit sepultum crapula,
Operam veneri dat, et voluptatum assecla
Est omnium. Idne est mortuum esse mundo?
Aliter interpretare. Mortui sunt Hercule
Mundo cucullati, quod inors tense sunt onus,
Ad rem utiles nullam, nisi ad scelus et vitium."
Amongst the works published and written by Dolet may be mentioned:--
_Summaire des faits et gestes de François I., tant contre l'Empereur
que ses sujets, et autres nations étrangères, composés d'abord en
latin par Dolet, puis translatés en français par lui-même. Lyon,
Etienne Dolet, 1540, in-4_.
_Stephani Doleti Carminum, Libri IV. Lugduni, 1538, in-4_.
_Brief Discours de la république françoyse, désirant la lecture des
livres de l'Ecriture saincte luy estre loisable en sa langue vulgaire.
Etienne Dolet, 1544, in-16_.
_La fontaine de vie, in-16_.
Several translations into French of the writings of Erasmus and
Melanchthon may also be remembered, and the Geneva Bible, which was
printed by Dolet.
One of the few remaining copies of _Cymbalum mundi, en français,
contenant quatre Dialogues poétiques, antiques, joyeux, et facétieux,
par Thomas Duclevier (Bonaventure Despériers, Valet de chambre de la
Reyne de Navarre_) (Paris, Jehan Morin, 1537, in-8) reveals the fact
that the printer, Jean Morin, was imprisoned on account of this work.
Therein it is recorded that he presented the copy to the Chancellor with
the request that he might be released from prison, where he had been
placed on account of this work. The reasons given for its condemnation
are various. Some state that the author, a friend of Clement Marot,
intended to preach by the use of allegories the Reformed religion.
Others say that it was directed against the manners and conduct of some
members of the Court. Whether Morin's request was granted I know not,
nor whether Despériers shared his imprisonment. At any rate, the author
died in 1544 from an attack of frenzy.
Another famous printer at Paris in the sixteenth century was Christian
Wechel, who published a large number of works. He was persecuted for
publishing a book of Erasmus entitled _De esu interdicto carnium_, and
some declare that he fell into grievous poverty, being cursed by God for
printing an impious book. Thus one writer says that "in the year 1530
arose this abortive child of hell, who wrote a book against the Divine
Justice in favour of infants dying without baptism, and several have
wisely observed that the ruin of Christian Wechel and his labours fell
out as a punishment for his presses and characters being employed in
such an infamous work." However, there is reason to believe that the
book was not so "impious," expressing only the pious hope that the souls
of such infants might not be lost, and also that no great "curse" fell
upon the printer, and that his poverty was apocryphal. At any rate, his
son Andrew was a very flourishing printer; but he too was persecuted for
his religious opinions, and narrowly escaped destruction in the Massacre
of St. Bartholomew. He ran in great danger on that eventful night,
and states that he would have been slaughtered but for the kindness
of Hubert Languet, who lodged in his house. Andrew Wechel fled to
Frankfort, where he continued to ply his trade in safety; and when more
favourable times came re-established his presses at Paris. He had the
reputation of being one of the most able printers and booksellers of his
time.
The Revolutionary period in France was not a safe time for either
authors or booksellers. Jacques Froullé was condemned to death in 1793
for publishing the lists of names of those who passed sentence on their
King, Louis XVI., and doomed him to death. This work was entitled _Liste
comparative des cinq appels nominaux sur le procès et jugement de Louis
XVI., avec les déclarations que les Députes ont faites à chacune
des séances_ (Paris, Froullé, 1793, in-8). He gives the names of the
deputies who voted on each of the five appeals, until at length the
terrible sentence was pronounced, 310 voting for the reprieve and 380
for the execution of their monarch. The deputies were so ashamed of
their work that they doomed the recorder of their infamous deed to share
the punishment of their sovereign.
We have few instances of the illustrators of books sharing the
misfortunes of authors and publishers, but we have met with one such
example. Nicolas Godonesche made the engravings for a work by Jean
Laurent Boursier, a doctor of the Sorbonne, entitled _Explication
abrégée des principales questions qui ont rapport aux affaires
présentes_ (1731, in-12), and found that work fatal to him. This book
was one of many published by Boursier concerning the unhappy contentions
which for a long time agitated the Church of France. Godonesche, who
engraved pictures for the work, was sent to the Bastille, and the author
banished.
In all ages complaints are heard of the prolific writers who have been
seized by the scribbling demon, and made to pour forth page after page
which the public decline to read, and bring grief to the publishers.
Pasquier's _Letters_ contains the following passage, which applies
perhaps quite as forcibly to the present age as to his own time: "I
cannot forbear complaining at this time of the calamity of this age
which has produced such a plenty of reputed or untimely authors. Any
pitiful scribbler will have his first thoughts to come to light; lest,
being too long shut up, they should grow musty. Good God! how apposite
are these verses of Jodelle:--
"'Et tant ceux d'aujourd'huy me fashent,
Qui dès lors que leurs plumes laschent
Quelque-trait soit mauvais ou bon,
En lumière le vont produire,
Pour souvent avec leur renom,
Les pauvres Imprimeurs destruire.'"
This has been translated as follows:--
"The scribbling crew would make one's vitals bleed,
They write such trash, no mortal e'er will read;
Yet they will publish, they must have a name;
So Printers starve, to get their authors fame."
One would be curious to see the form of agreement between such prolific
authors and their deluded publishers, and to learn by what arts, other
than magical, the former ever induced the latter to undertake the
publication of such fatal books.
The story of the establishment of the liberty of the Press in England is
full of interest, and tells the history of several books which involved
their authors and publishers in many difficulties. The censors of books
did not always occupy an enviable post, and were the objects of many
attacks. "Catalogue" Fraser lost his office for daring to license
Walker's book on the _Eikon Basilike_, which asserted that Gauden and
not Charles I. was the author. His successor Bohun was deprived of his
orffice as licenser and sent to prison for allowing a pamphlet to be
printed entitled _King William and Queen Mary, Conquerors_. The Jacobite
printers suffered severely when they were caught, which was not very
frequent. In obscure lanes and garrets they plied their secret trade,
and deluged the land with seditious books and papers. One William
Anderton was tracked to a house near St. James's Street, where he was
known as a jeweller. Behind the bed in his room was discovered a door
which led to a dark closet, and there were the types and a press, and
heaps of Jacobite literature. Anderton was found guilty of treason,
and paid the penalty of death for his crime. In 1695 the Press was
emancipated from its thraldom, and the office of licenser ceased to
exist. Henceforward popular judgment and the general good sense and
right feeling of the community constituted the only licensing authority
of the Press of England. Occasionally, when a publisher or author makes
too free with the good name of an English citizen, the restraint of a
prison cell is imposed upon the audacious libeller. Sometimes when a
book offends against the public morals, and contains the outpourings
of a voluptuous imagination, its author is condemned to lament in
confinement over his indecorous pages. The world knows that Vizetelly,
the publisher, was imprisoned for translating and publishing some of
Zola's novels. _Nana_ and _L'Assommoir_ were indeed fatal books to him,
as his imprisonment and the anxiety caused by the prosecution are said
to have hastened his death. The right feeling and sound sense of the
nation has guided the Press of this country into safe channels, and few
books are fatal now on account of their unseemly contents or immoral
tendencies.