together. The _Planetarium_, which is in German, describes, through
a text in rhyme and by engraved illustrations, the influence of the
planets on the destinies of mankind. The _Calendar_, which is in Latin,
occupies but four pages, and contains at the end of the month of
February the inscription, _Magister Johannes Gamundia_.[124] On another
page is found the [p242] date 1468. There is a copy of the German
_Planetarium_ in the British Museum which contains only twelve printed
pages. Berjeau describes it as a small quarto, and says, that although
it is printed on both sides of the paper, it presents the appearance of
impression by the frotton. The fac-simile illustration that is given
underneath represents the influences of the planet Mercury. The artist
before the easel is painting a Madonna; his servant is mixing colors
with a muller; in the middle of the print is an organ-maker; to the
right is a copyist; at his back are two gourmands; in the foreground
is a sculptor at work on a statue; to the left is a goldsmith before
his anvil. The descriptions of these works that have been given by the
early German bibliographers are not clear. They represent the book
as consisting of twenty-six pages printed on one [p243] side of the
sheet, with the blank pages pasted together. The size of the page, the
color of the ink, and the method used in gathering the sheets are not
stated. It seems that there were at least two editions of each work,
one in German and one in Latin, and that portions of the different
editions were sometimes bound up in one book. Von der Hagen says that
the first page of the copy examined by him contained an imperfect
impression of one of the pages of the _Antichrist_.
THE WONDERS OF ROME.
[Illustration: A Page from the Wonders of Rome.
Original is 3-1/4 by 5-5/8 inches.
[From Sotheby.]]
This small quarto of one hundred and eighty-four engraved pages
is an example of patience in obscure letter-cutting that is more
characteristic of China than of Europe. The text is in German, and is
fairly printed in black ink on both sides of the paper. The book is
enlivened by a few illustrations which have small merit as designs.
The _Wonders of Rome_ is an ecclesiastic’s description of the more
important shrines of the holy city, with their consecrated relics. The
first page of the book contains an engraving of the handkerchief of
Saint Veronica, which, according to the legend, was placed on the face
of Christ to wipe away the blood that dripped from the crown [p244] of
thorns, and received therefrom the impress of his features. Under this
design the papal arms and the triple crown, the crossed keys, and the
letters S. P. Q. R. The arms of the pope are those of Pope Sixtus IV,
who occupied the papal chair from 1471 to 1484, within which period it
is supposed that the book was engraved and published for German readers.
POMERIUM SPIRITUALE, OR SPIRITUAL NURSERY.
[Illustration: An Illustration from the Pomerium Spirituale.
Original is 4-7/8 by 5 inches.
[From Holtrop.]]
The rightful place of this work is among the manuscripts that are
partly written and partly printed, for its pictures were engraved and
its text was written. The book contains [p245] twenty-six leaves of
small folio, made up in one section. At the beginning of each of its
twelve written chapters is the impression of an engraving on wood. The
date 1440 is found in two of the engravings. The only known copy of
this book is held by the Royal Library of Brussels. It is a curious
circumstance that this copy, possibly in its original binding, which
contains a printed date earlier than that of any other block-book,
should also contain two printed leaves of the _Bible of the Poor_.
Holtrop says that the book was composed by Henry Bogaert, canon of a
monastery near Brussels, who was born in 1382 and died in 1469. He was
the author of many small religious books, of which the _Exercise on
the Lord’s Prayer_ is one. The illustrations of this book and of the
_Pomerium Spirituale_ were probably made at the same time and by the
same engraver.
THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE DEVIL.
[Illustration: A Fragment of the Temptations of the Devil.
Original is 10 inches wide.
[From Koning.]]
This is not a book, but a print on a single sheet eleven inches
wide and sixteen inches high. It differs from the image prints in
the pettiness of its cuts and the abundance of its text, for which
reason it may properly be described among the block-books with text.
The nature of the work is clearly set forth in the preface, _The
Temptations of the Devil, as he tempteth men to the Seven Mortal Sins_.
The Devil, who, with a claw-hook in his hand, stands in the corner to
the left, has beneath him the list of these seven sins. The tempted
man is [p246] the monk near the centre of the print, who supplicates
the aid of the angel, who hastens to his rescue. Below the angel are
appropriate quotations from the Scriptures, which show that this print
is but a medieval paraphrase of the story of Christ tempted by the
Devil, as related by St. Matthew. It was engraved and printed in the
form of a placard, that it might be fastened against a wall for the
contemplation of the devout. The illustration shows only a portion
of the upper part of this curious print, of which the British Museum
has the only known copy. It is supposed to have been printed in the
Netherlands.
THE LIFE OF ST. MEINRAT.
[Illustration: A Page from the Life of St. Meinrat.
Original is 3-1/8 by 5-7/8 inches.
[From Dibdin.]]
This book, which has an introduction of two pages in German, and
forty-eight pages of illustrations, with brief descriptions below the
pictures, tells the story of two bad men who murdered St. Meinrat, and
who were immediately thereafter pursued by two crows. The illustration
here presented represents the murderers on their way to execution,
accompanied by the unrelenting crows. On the pages that follow are
engravings of the murderers suffering under torture; it is shown how
they were dragged at the heels of horses, and were broken and burnt on
the wheel. The moral [p247] of this story is unmistakable: it is an
awful crime to kill an ecclesiastic. The publication of so large a book
to enforce so plain a truism is an intimation that some of the laity
needed forcible illustrations of the danger of abusing the clergy.
THE DANCE OF DEATH.
[Illustration: A Page from the Heidelberg Dance of Death.
Original is 5-1/2 by 8-1/4 inches.
[From Dibdin.]]
Of this block-book of twenty-seven large pages, only two copies are
known; one of them, which is in the Heidelberg library, is entirely
xylographic, with a text in German; the other copy, in a Munich
library, has also a text in German, but it is in manuscript. For each
edition a different suite of blocks was used. Nothing is known about
the printer of either book, nor about the date of its execution. The
designs are really meritorious, and the engraving is obviously the
work of a man who had experience in his art, but the merit of the work
has been overshadowed by the superior designs of Holbein and the more
masterly engravings of Lutzelberger. The characters or personages in
this block-book are the same as those in the famous painting once at
Basle.
* * * * *
These descriptions of the more famous block-books may be sufficient to
show their paltriness from a literary point of view, and their rudeness
as specimens of printing, but the [p248] books described are not
enough in number to give us a correct notion of the activity of the
early block-printers. It is probable that many books have been lost
and forgotten; but we have, however, enough to warrant the belief that
block-printing was an industry of some repute even as early as 1430.
One mechanical peculiarity of the block-books deserves a specific
notice: all the block-books were printed on paper. The printers soon
discovered that vellum was an intractable material, and they preferred
paper as much for its convenience as for its cheapness. An apparent
dislike of black ink is equally noticeable; the color in different
books varies from a blackish gray to a dingy brown. But their most
characteristic feature is the method of printing upon one side of
the sheet. One chronicler says that the leaves were so printed that
the blank sides might be pasted together. That this is not the true
reason is apparent when we discover that very few of the books have
pasted leaves. It is more reasonable to suppose that the earlier
block-printers could not print on both sides of the paper. It is plain
that they could not produce a neat impression even on one side—could
not regulate the force of the impression, which was so harsh and
violent that it sometimes spread the ink, and deeply indented the
paper. As the margins are uneven, we have to infer that the printers
could not place the sheets with uniform accuracy upon the blocks.
Consequently, they could not print in register, and place the second
page truly on the back of the first. Some authorities say that the
paper was printed dry, but this is only a conjecture, made to suit the
theory of printing by the frotton. The paper must have been dampened,
for it was very thick, and as strong and as coarse as modern manila
wrapping; it could not have been legibly printed until it had been
softened.
With few exceptions, the block-books are of a religious character; but
the religion taught is dogmatic and doctrinal more than devotional.
We may safely assume that they were written by ecclesiastics in
high station for the instruction of the ignorant monks, mendicant
friars, and “unable curates.” [p249] Illiterate priests, to whom
the descriptions or the legends of the pictures had been read, must
have understood their historical and spiritual meaning, and must have
found the pictures an aid to the memory, and suggestive of topics for
preaching. Although made for priests, they were not beyond the reach
of the people. As far back as the twelfth century, an English abbot
sternly forbade, under penalty of excommunication, the lending of any
books, “neither the large books with pictures, nor the small books
without pictures.” But the mandate was disregarded. Sooner or later,
the books found their way to the hands of laymen, whose ignorance
of Latin did not prevent them from admiring the pictures; and this
admiration must have inspired many a reader with the desire to learn
the strange language and to own the coveted book.
The _Life of St. Meinrat_ is the only book which seems to have been
written especially for the people. There are two, the _Antichrist_ and
the _Exercise on the Lord’s Prayer_, which were, apparently, written
to furnish suggestions to preachers against heresy. There was need for
books of this character. The church was fermenting with dissent; a very
large portion of the people had abandoned the old faith, and there was
a general complaint among all priests that the churches were neglected.
To recover this lost allegiance, and as an antidote to infidelity and
heresy,[125] the church gave its assent to the circulation of image
prints and block-books among the laity.
The poverty of the spiritual diet prepared for men who hungered for
instruction and who leaned to heresy cannot be passed by without
notice. It is strange that, in an age of [p250] growing disbelief,
nothing was written for the people which can now be considered as of
importance. We look in vain over the earlier block-books for a copy, in
any language that the common people could read, of a book containing
appropriate selections from the Scriptures. The _Lord’s Prayer_ was
published but once, published in Latin, and strangely perverted from
its true purpose. The _Ten Commandments_, in block-book form, were
printed in German, but not before the last quarter of the sixteenth
century. We find no selections from the _Psalms_ or _Evangelists_.
The stories of the _Bible_, always with a Latin text, were obviously
prepared, not to teach lessons of piety to the people, but to instruct
the priests in the mysteries of dogmatic theology. All are orthodox:
there is no block-book that has the slightest taint of heresy.
It does not appear that any of these block-books were made by monks.
The block-printers of a later period were laymen, and men of no note,
and it seems probable that the earlier books, without names, places or
dates, were also made by laymen, by the printers of cards and images.
It is possible that they were made at the instance, and perhaps under
the direction, of the ecclesiastics. But we find no evidences that they
were printed in monasteries; the lazy habits and coarse tastes of the
monks, and their general avoidance of every form of mechanical labor as
beneath their sacred calling, make this conjecture inadmissible.[126]
The literary merit of the block-books was small, and their shabby
mechanical execution made them contemptible. To readers accustomed
to handle great books of tinted vellum, admirably written in letters
that are yet as sharp and legible as modern types, these miserable
little pamphlets on dingy paper, and with muddy letters, scarcely
deserved the name of books. By the educated readers of the fifteenth
century they [p251] were rated as literary rubbish. Professors in the
universities looked on them with the same contemptuous spirit which men
of letters afterward manifested toward early newspapers. The attempts
of early printers to furnish these poor substitutes for books to common
people, so far from receiving any encouragement from scholars, met
with their disdainful neglect. There were, indeed, a few praiseworthy
exceptions, but the scholarship of the middle ages took sides with
rank, in upholding all the conventional distinctions of society. They
wished illiterate people to understand that books were the right of the
educated only.[127]
The period in which block-books were printed cannot be fixed within
exact limits. They did not go out of fashion when types were invented:
the illustrated block-book _Opera Nova Contemplativa_, the Italian
adaptation of the _Bible of the Poor_, was printed in Venice about
1512; but block-books of inferior merit were made after this date.
Berjeau describes one, the _Innocentia Victrix_, probably engraved in
China at the order of the Jesuits, which was printed in 1671. But these
books are really the last specimens of a dying art; in the sixteenth
century, they were practically obsolete. The period of their greatest
popularity may be fixed between the years [p252] 1440 and 1475.
As we approach the latter date, we find block-books containing the
names and places of the printers. We see that they were made at Ulm,
Nuremberg, and Augsburg,—the towns which have the earliest records of
manufacturers of playing cards,—in the district in which old image
prints like the _St. Christopher_ have been oftenest discovered. It
is probable that block-books were printed in Southern Germany at or
near the time when the _St. Christopher_ was printed, but we have no
positive proof that any block-book was printed in 1423. The German book
with earliest printed date is the _Chiromancy_, but its date of 1448 is
not certainly the date of printing.
The evidences in favor of an early practice of block-book printing in
the Netherlands are, in some features, even more incomplete. No early
Dutch or Flemish block-book reveals the name of its printer. There are
not many notices in old Flemish town-books concerning card-makers, or
printers or painters of images. Yet there was, without doubt, an early
practice of block-printing in the Netherlands. The Dutch traditions
about early printing are more circumstantial than those of Germany; the
_Brussels Print_ dated 1418 is older by five years than the print of
_St. Christopher_; the date of 1440 as printed in the wood-cuts of the
_Exercise on the Lord’s Prayer_ is eight years earlier than the date of
the _Chiromancy_.
The books themselves do not tell us, neither directly nor indirectly,
whether they were first printed in Flanders or in Germany. They have
been critically examined by many able men, but the unbiased reader
will not fail to note that most inquirers have found only what they
wanted to find. To the German critic, all the early block-books are
German; to the Dutch critic, they are surely Dutch. To recite the
arguments advanced by partisans, or even to state the facts wrested
to the support of the arguments, would provide a tedious task for the
reader. Nor would the fullest presentation of the facts lead to certain
knowledge. The language oftenest found in the block-books is Latin, the
language of the Church and of [p253] scholars in all countries during
the middle ages, and it gives us no clue to the place where they were
printed. The paper-marks have been carefully scrutinized, in the hope
that they would reveal the manufacture of the paper at some date or
in some place, but reasonings made from paper-marks are now regarded
as uncertain and of no practical value. We learn nothing through the
study of the shapes or fashion of the engraved letters, for German-like
characters have been found in block-books known to be Dutch, and
peculiarities supposed to be Dutch have been found in German books. Nor
can we glean anything of real value from a critical examination of the
designs, which could have been copied from manuscripts, or drawn in one
country and printed in another.
The only mechanical feature which leads to positive conclusions as to
age is the manner in which they were printed. The books printed in
black ink and on both sides of the paper were certainly printed after
the invention of typography, and by typographic apparatus. The books in
brown ink and on one side of the paper are of an earlier period. There
is a peculiar rudeness about the books in brown ink which is not to
be found in typographic work, a rudeness which we know began with the
makers of cards or printers of images. If we consider, as we must, that
the block-books are only collections of image prints, which were put
in the form of books as soon as paper became cheap and popular, we may
conclude with confidence that they could have been made, and probably
were made, in the first quarter of the fifteenth century.
The great popularity of the block-books even after 1450, when types had
been invented, proves that the business of making them was then firmly
established, and that it was not checked by the superior advantages
offered by types. It is obvious that the block-printers of 1450 had
long practice in the older method, that they were firmly attached to
it, and would not abandon it in favor of the new invention. Their
preference for the older method of xylography is very plainly shown by
the numerous editions of the _Donatus_.
[p254]
XIII
The Donatus, or Boy’s Latin Grammar.
A Very Old Book . . . A Favorite with the Early Xylographers . . .
Frequently Printed . . . Scarcity of Fragments . . . Printed by
Typographic Process . . . Printed before and after Invention of
Typography . . . Testimony of the Cologne Chronicle . . . Of Accursius
. . . Of Scaliger . . . Of Sweinheim and Pannartz . . . Fac-simile of
a German Donatus . . . Of a Dutch Donatus . . . The Arrangement of
Words in the Donatus . . . Obscurity of the Letters . . . Fac-simile
of a Dutch Horarium . . . Xylographic Editions are Imitations of
Typographic Editions . . . Irregularities of Engraved Letters . . .
The Donatus a Relic of the Past . . . Shows the Retrogressive
Tendencies of the Teachers of the Period . . . The Pettiness of all
Block-Books . . . An Evidence of the Limitations of Xylography.
* * * * *
Although the art of printing, as has been said, was discovered at
Mentz, in the manner as it is now generally used, yet the first
prefiguration was found in Holland, in the Donatuses which were
printed there before that time. And from these Donatuses the beginning
of the art was taken.
_Cologne Chronicle of 1499._
* * * * *
The only block-book without pictures of which we have any knowledge
is the _Donatus_,[128] or _Boy’s Latin Grammar_. It received its name
from its author, Ælius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the fourth
century, and one of the instructors of St. Jerome. The block-book is
but an abridgment of the old grammar: as it was usually printed in the
form of a thin quarto, it could, with propriety, be classified among
primers rather than with books. When printed in the largest letters,
it occupied but thirty-four pages; when letters of small size were
used, it was compressed within nine pages. As the most popular of small
works, and one constantly needed in every [p255] preparatory school,
it met the conditions then required by the early publisher: it could
be engraved at little cost, and the printed copies could be sold in
very large quantities. How many xylographic editions of the book were
printed has never been ascertained, but we are led to believe that
the number was large when we learn that more than fifty editions were
printed from types before the year 1500.
Fragments of the xylographic _Donatus_ are scarce, and they are, for
the most part, in a shabby condition. Many of them are the remnants of
badly printed leaves which were rejected as spoiled by the printer. If
it had not been for the frugal habits of the binders, who used them
as stiffeners in the covers of books, we should have few specimens of
this book. These waste leaves were put to this use because they were
printed on parchment and had more strength than paper. And here we have
to notice a remarkable difference between the block-books of images and
the xylographic _Donatus_.
All the block-books are printed on paper, and the greater part are
printed on one side of the sheet in brown ink. All copies of the
xylographic _Donatus_ are printed on parchment, on both sides of the
leaf, and in black ink. Parchment was, no doubt, selected to adapt the
book to the hard usage it would receive from careless school-boys,
but the method of printing in black ink and on both sides is the
typographic method, which was not in use, so far as we can learn,
before the middle of the fifteenth century. We have to conclude that
all copies of the _Donatus_ printed in this manner were printed after
the invention of types. The most trustworthy authorities say that there
is no known fragment of an engraved _Donatus_ that can be attributed to
the first half of the fifteenth century.
In the manufacture of this grammar, the block-book printers competed
successfully with type-printers for many years. But typography improved
while xylography declined; at the end of the fifteenth century, the
copies made from type were decidedly superior. The engraved copies of
the book were gradually cast aside as rubbish, for they contained no
pictures, [p256] and had no features to justify their preservation. We
cannot wonder that copies of the engraved _Donatus_ are scarce, but we
must not infer from their present scarcity that they were not common
before the year 1450. It is probable that more copies were printed of
this than of any pictorial block-book; although we find no copies, we
have trustworthy evidences that the _Donatus_ was printed before types
were made.
That the _Donatus_ was engraved and printed before the invention of
typography is distinctly stated in the book now known as the _Cologne
Chronicle_, which was published in that city by John Koelhoff, in the
year 1499. The name of the author is unknown, but he writes with the
confidence of a clear-minded thinker and a candid chronicler. He says
that the following statement was communicated to him, by word of mouth,
“by Master Ulric Zell, of Hanau, now a printer in Cologne, through whom
the art was brought to Cologne.”
Although the art [of printing], as has been said, was discovered
at Mentz, in the manner as it is now generally used, yet the first
prefiguration was found in Holland, in the _Donatuses_ which were
printed there before that time. From these _Donatuses_ the beginning
of the said art was taken, and it was invented in a manner much more
masterly and subtle than this, and became more and more ingenious.[129]
Mariangelus Accursius, a learned Italian of the fifteenth century,
made a similar acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the men whom he
regarded as the inventors of typography to the unknown printers of the
_Donatus_ in Holland. He says:
John Fust, a citizen of Mentz, and the maternal grandfather of John
Schœffer, was the first who devised the art of printing with types
from brass, which he subsequently invented in lead. Peter Schœffer,
his son, added many improvements to the art. The _Donatus_ and
_Confessionalia_ were printed first of all, in the year 1450. But the
suggestion [of typography] was certainly made by the _Donatuses_ that
had been printed before in Holland, from wooden blocks.