was born, was the first typographer at Venice. He began in 1469, by
the publication of the _Letters of Cicero_ in types of Roman form.
Soon after, he published an edition in [p502] folio of the _National
History of Pliny_, which is regarded as one of the finest specimens
of the printing of the fifteenth century. Proud of his fine work, but
fearing competition, De Spira solicited and obtained from the senate,
September 18th, 1469, exclusive rights as a printer in Venice for five
years. The privileges seem to have been forfeited by his death in
1470; but his printing office was managed with ability by his brother
Vindelin, who succeeded to the business.
Nicholas Jenson, the “man skilled in engraving,” who had been sent to
Mentz in 1458, and who, according to Madden, had thoroughly qualified
himself in the monastery of Weidenbach, seems to have been the first
of several printers who hastened to Venice to profit by the forfeiture
of De Spira’s privilege. In 1471, he published his first book,[358]
the _Decor Puellarum_, in neat light-faced Roman types on Great-primer
body. His experience at the mint of Tours as an engraver gave him
a decided advantage over all his rivals. Roman types had been made
before by Sweinheym, De Spira and Hahn, but never before had punches
been so scientifically engraved, nor types so truly aligned. It is not
surprising that the efforts of his predecessors should pass for naught,
and that Jenson has ever since been regarded as the introducer of Roman
types. But Jenson discovered, as Hahn and De Spira had done, that, to
secure buyers in Germany, it was necessary to print books in Gothic
characters. With this object in view, he cut several fonts of Round
Gothic, one on Bourgeois and one on Brevier body, the smallest sizes of
types made in the fifteenth century.
As a printer, Jenson is entitled to high praise. None of his
competitors showed so much taste and skill in the details of
book-making. It is noticeable in every feature—in the tint and texture
of his paper, in the glossy blackness of his ink, in the clearness and
solidity of his impressions, in the [p503] uniformity of register and
of color on every page. Jenson’s merits were recognized by Pope Sixtus
IV, who, in addition to other marks of favor, bestowed upon him the
title of count palatine. He died in 1481. His printing office passed
into the hands of an association of which Andrew Torresani of Asola was
the manager. In time, Aldus Manutius, a partner in this association,
married a daughter of Torresani, and got control of the office, the
reputation of which he increased by his scholarship, by his numerous
editions of the classics, and by his introduction of Italic types, but
not by superior skill as a typographer. As a type-founder, printer and
ink-maker, Jenson had no rival and left no proper successor.
At the close of the fifteenth century, Venice took the lead of all
cities, not only in the number of its printing offices, but in the
beauty of its types and printing. Printers in other countries knew
that they would secure for their types the highest commendation by
announcing them as the true Venetian characters. Santander specifies
201 master printers who had been in business at Venice before 1500.
Bernard estimates the number of books then and there printed at two
million volumes.
FLORENCE. Bernard Cennini, an eminent goldsmith of Florence, began to
print with types at that city in the year 1471. He said that he and his
sons Peter and Dominic made the tools and types and did all the work
without instruction, but the exact manner in which Cennini describes
the cutting of punches and the founding of types makes this statement
doubtful. Cennini never earned any reputation as a typographer, for
it does not appear that he printed any book after 1471. Santander
names twenty-two master printers at Florence before 1500. The most
noticeable of the number is Dominic de Pistoia, an ecclesiastic who
founded a printing office in 1474, which is known in history as the
Ripoli Press. Dominic was the abbot of a monastery, but he proved
an active and intelligent publisher. He deserves notice chiefly for
his care in keeping his accounts, which give us our most [p504]
trustworthy information concerning the materials and usages of the
early printers.[359]
MILAN. Anthony Zarot began to print at Milan in 1470 or 1471, having
been hired by Philip de Lavagna, who seems to have been a capitalist
and a publisher. In 1472, Zarot persuaded four citizens of Milan to
unite with him in a new association for the printing and publishing
of books. The articles of agreement are curious, and deserve
preservation.[360] The association seems to have been remarkably
prosperous, for in 1472 it had seven presses at work. In 1473, the
[p505] publisher Philip de Lavagna and his new partner Montanus made
an agreement with Christopher Valdarfer, another printer at Milan, for
the exclusive use of two presses.[361]
There was no part of Europe in which so great an enthusiasm was shown
for printing as in Italy.[362] The only open opposition which the
new art encountered was made in 1472, by the copyists of Genoa, who
complained that the typographers were greedy, and that they deprived
the copyists of their livelihood by undertaking to print little books.
IN FRANCE.
Place. Printer. Date.
Paris Ulrich Gering, _et al_ 1469
Lyons Buyer and Le Roy 1476
Angers De Turre and Morelli 1477
Chablis Pierre le Rouge 1478
Poitiers J. Boyer and G. Bouchet 1479
Toulouse — 1479
Caen Ferrandus and Quijone 1480
Vienne Pierre Schenck 1481
Promentour Loys Guerbin 1482
Troyes Guillaume le Rouge 1483
Chambery Antonius Neyret 1484
Bréand-Loudéhac R. Foucquet 1484
Rennes Pierre Belleesculée 1484
Abbeville Dupré and Gerard 1486
Rouen Guillaume le Talleur 1487
Besançon — 1487
Hagenau Henry Grau 1489
Dol Peter Metlinger 1490
Grenoble — 1490
Orleans Matthieu Vivian 1490
Dijon Peter Metlinger 1491
Angoulême — 1491
Cluny Michael Wenssler 1493
Nantes Etienne Larcher 1493
Limoges John Berton 1495
Provins G. Tavernier 1496
Tours Matthieu Lateron 1496
Avignon Nicol Lepe 1497
Treguier — 1499
Guienne — 1500
Perpignan J. Rosembach 1500
PARIS. About the close of the year 1469, Ulrich Gering, Michael
Friburger and Martin Crantz began to print at Paris. To please the
classic tastes of the doctors of the university who had invited them,
their first book appeared in types of Roman form. They were not
skillful printers, for Chevillier says that letters half formed and
half printed are noticeable [p506] in their earlier works, but they
were industrious publishers. Like Jenson, they found it expedient to
cut and cast types of the Round Gothic fashion, for the Roman character
was most admired by scholars. In 1477, Crantz and Friburger abandoned
printing, but Gering continued to print until his death in 1510. He
willed a large property to the university.
In 1473, Peter Keyser and John Stol, after a three years’ service
with Gering, set up a rival printing office, the result of which was
a reduction in the price of books.[363] This competition did not
prevent other printers from founding offices in Paris, but it did
compel some to improve the quality of their work, and to seek a new
class of readers. Antoine Verard in 1480, and Phillipe Pigouchet
in 1484, founded a new school of printing, when they undertook to
make prayer-books and romances in imitation of the style of the
miniaturists.[364] Thielmann Kerver, who commenced to print in 1497,
was almost as famous as a printer of ornamental books. The growing
taste for fine books did not prevent the publication of solid
literature. In 1495, Jodocus Badius, a printer of great learning,
who had been proof-reader for his father-in-law, Trechsel of Lyons,
established an office at Paris, and began to print for men of
education. In the following year came the famous Henry Stephens, first
of a long line of printers eminent for their scholarship and diligence
as editors and publishers of classical and critical text books. Before
the year 1500, there were, or had been, sixty-nine master printers in
Paris.
LYONS. Lyons must have offered unusual inducements to master
printers, for there were forty printing offices in that city before
the year 1500. The printers of Lyons were busy [p507] publishers, and
their competitors in Italy complained with reason of their piratical
editions. They made liberal use of engravings on wood and copper-plate
illustrations. They were also the first printers to sell cheap books in
showy bindings.
IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
Place. Printer. Date.
Barcelona N. Spindeler 1473 or 1478
Valencia Cordova and Palomar 1474
Saragossa Matthew Flandrus 1475
Seville A. Martinez, _et al._ 1476
Segorbe — 1479
Tolosa Henry Mayer 1480
Burgos De Basilea 1485
Salamanca — 1485
Soria Eliezar ben Alanta 1485
Xerica — 1485
Toledo John Vasquez 1486
Murcia Juan de Roca 1487
Tarragona John Rosembach 1488
Lerida — 1488
San Cucufute des Valles — 1489
Lisbon R. Samuel Zorba 1489
Pampeluna — 1489
Zamora — 1490
Leiria Abraham Dortas 1492
Grenada Meynard Ungut 1496
Madrid — 1499
Montserrat John Luchner 1499
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The first book printed in English, the _Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troye_, a stout folio of 351 leaves, does not contain the date of
printing, nor the name and place of the printer, but it appears from
the introduction that it was translated from the French by William
Caxton between the years 1469 and 1471. When and where it was printed
is a vexed question.[365]
The monogram which was exhibited by Caxton in his later books—‹f›s
W. 74. C. c‹/f›—is interpreted by Madden as _William Caxton, 1474,
Sancta Colonia_. It is an indication that a notable event in his life
was represented by the year 1474 and the city of Cologne, and it seems
to authorize the conjecture that at this time and place he published
his first book. In 1475, Caxton printed, in the office of Mansion at
[p508] Bruges, _The Game and Playe of the Chesse_. In 1477, he was “in
the abbey of Westminster, by London,” and then and there published
_The Dictes and Sayings of Philosophers_. He was then a very old man,
but he did good service as a printer before his death in 1491. Blades
estimates the entire product of his press at 18,000 pages, nearly all
of which were of folio size. Compared with his great rivals on the
Continent, Caxton cannot be accorded high rank as editor or publisher,
but there was no printer of his time who labored more diligently.
In 1480, Lettou and Machlinia began to print at London. Wynken de
Worde, Richard Pynson, Julian Notary and William Faques were also
printers of that city before 1500.
In 1480, Theodoric Rood, of Cologne, printed at Oxford. In the same
year, an unnamed printer, known to bibliographers as _The School-master
of St. Albans_, was at Saint Albans.
The first printing press in Scotland was put up at Edinburgh in 1507;
the first in Ireland at Dublin in 1551.
* * * * *
Printing was first practised in the New World in the city of Mexico, by
Juan Cromberger, or his agent Pablos, between 1536 and 1540.[366] The
second printing press in North America was put up by Stephen Daye at
Cambridge, in 1638, and the first work printed on it, the _Freeman’s
Oath_, was dated 1639.
[Illustration: Statue of Gutenberg at Strasburg.
[From St. Nicholas.]]
The German origin of printing is fairly shown by the names,
unquestionably German, of nearly all the men who introduced printing
in Southern Europe. The workmanship of these men leads to the same
conclusion, for the expert will see in their books evidences of the use
of the punch, [p510] mould, press, and frisket. Whether done well or
ill, printing was done with the tools and by the methods of Gutenberg.
Printing did not meet with general welcome, but the neglect or
opposition it encountered did not come largely from the copyists.
The business of the copyist of cheap books was injured, but the
only complaint that I have met came from the copyists of Genoa. The
calligrapher was indifferent to the growth of the new art, for his
skill was never in higher request nor more handsomely rewarded than
at the close of the fifteenth century. So far from injuring the
business of the calligrapher, printing really improved it, for it
largely increased the production of books intended for illumination.
The neglect of literary men to note the _Bible of 42 lines_ and the
_Catholicon_ of Gutenberg, the delayed establishment of a printing
office at Paris, the indifference shown to printing in the great
book-making town of Bruges, and the insufficient patronage bestowed
on the early printers at Rome, are evidences that there was, in the
beginning, a prejudice against printed books much more powerful than
that of the copyists. The bibliophiles of the time looked on printed
books as the productions of an inartistic trade. The admiration which
has been recently invoked for the _Bible of 42 lines_ as a book of
nearly perfect workmanship was not expressed by any early book-buyer.
It does not appear that any book-lover of that period regarded this
work, or the art by which it was made, as of high merit. The error
seems pardonable, for the printed book was not as attractive as the
manuscript, and no one foresaw the future of printing. Gutenberg may
have had a clearer idea than any man living of its capabilities, but
it is not probable that he foresaw the wheels within wheels which
his types would put in motion, or heard the clash and roar of the
innumerable presses for which there should be no night and scarcely a
Sunday of rest, or dreamed that books, schools, libraries, newspapers
and readers were yet to appear in a world then undiscovered, in numbers
so great that they could not be counted. [p511]
The activity of the early printers is remarkable. The task of
preserving the literature of the world was fairly done at a very
early date. There were not many books that promised to be salable and
profitable, and some of them were scarce, and copies were obtained
with difficulty—but nearly every valuable book was found and printed.
Naudé, the librarian of Cardinal Mazarin, said that, before the year
1474, all the good books, however bulky, had been printed two or three
times, to say nothing of many worthless works which should have been
burned. The same work was often printed in the same year, by four or
five rival printers in as many different cities. The catalogue of Hain
very minutely describes 16,290 editions, which, at the low estimate of
300 copies for each edition, represents a total production of 4,887,000
books.[367]
The attention of the literary world was first arrested, not by the
possibilities of future usefulness in printing, but by the growing
cheapness of books. The early printers offered their books at less
than the market prices of manuscripts, but in a few years they were
obliged to reduce the prices still lower. The market was soon glutted,
and the prices fell rapidly and irretrievably. Chevillier says that,
at the close of the century, the price of many books had been reduced
by four-fifths. In the preface to a book printed at Rome in 1470, John
Andrew, the bishop of Aleria, addressing Pope Pius II, says:
“It reflects no small glory on the reign of your holiness that a
tolerably correct copy of such a work as formerly cost more than a
hundred crowns may now be purchased for twenty; those that were worth
twenty, for four at most. It is a great thing, holy father, to say,
that in your time the most estimable authors are attainable at a price
little exceeding that of blank parchment or paper.” [p512]
The failure of many early printers to make their business profitable
was largely caused by their injudicious selection for publication of
bulky theological writings which cost a great deal of money to print,
and were salable only to a small class. It was unwisely supposed that
printing would receive its great support from the ecclesiastics. With
this object in view, the first printers printed almost exclusively in
Latin, and generally in the expensive shape of folio, the books which
could be read only by the learned, and bought only by the wealthy.[368]
The printers’ hopes of profit were rarely ever realized. Only a few
like Zell, Mentel and Schœffer became successful merchants of books on
dogmatic theology. It was soon discovered that printing could not be
supported by ecclesiastics. The printers who had been induced to set up
presses in monasteries did not long remain there, nor did the printing
and publishing offices which they left prosper for many years. Books
of devotion were never in greater request, but books published by the
church did not fully meet the popular want.
Nearly all the books printed by Gutenberg and Schœffer were in the
Latin language. Whether they overlooked the fact that there was an
actual need for books in German, or whether they were restrained in
an attempt to print in German, cannot be decided. Other publishers
saw the need, and disregarded the restraint, if there was any, to the
great inquietude of ecclesiastics, who seem to have had forewarning
of the mischief that would be made by types. On the fourth [p513]
day of January, 1486, Berthold, the archbishop of Mentz, issued a
mandate in which he forbade all persons from printing, publishing,
buying or selling books translated from the Greek or Latin, or any
other language, before the written translation had been approved by a
committee which should be appointed for the purpose from the faculty
of the University of Mentz. The penalties were excommunication,
confiscation of the books, and a fine of 100 florins of gold.[369]
In Italy the revival of classical literature opened a new field for
the publisher, but the demand for Latin authors was limited. In this
country, and in others, eagerness for books in the native language
was manifested; for books that plain people could read; for books
that represented the life and thoughts of the living and not of the
dead. The world was getting ready for new teachers and for a new
literature—for Luther and Bacon, for Galileo and Shakespeare.
[p514]
XXVI
The Tools and Usages of the Early Printers.
Punches made by Goldsmiths . . . Styles of Types imitated from
Manuscripts . . . Popularity of the Gothic . . . Moulded Matrices
. . . Types made without any System . . . From an Adjustable Mould
. . . Appearance of Early Types . . . Large Fonts made . . .
Importance of Mould . . . Rudeness of Early Composition . . . Method
of Dictation . . . Faults of Compositors . . . Slowness of Improvement
. . . Construction of the Hand-Press, with illustration . . . Inking
Balls, with illustration . . . Slowness of Pressmen . . . Printing in
Colors . . . Printing Ink . . . Ingredients used by the Ripoli Press
. . . Moxon’s Complaints about Ink . . . Neglect of Engraving on
Wood . . . Peculiarities of Paper . . . The Degradation of Engraving
. . . Proof-reading at Weidenbach . . . Faults of First Editions
. . . Superiority of Printed as compared with Manuscript Books . . .
Permanence of Gutenberg’s Method.
* * * * *
All invention is progressive. . . . When a new machine is produced, we
do not say, Why, it only consists of a number of wheels and cylinders,
therefore, surely there is nothing new in it! All the parts may be
old, and yet the combination be quite new. To analyse an invention
into its several parts, would be equivalent to finding that a poem
was only composed of the letters of the alphabet, or the words in a
dictionary.
_Dircks._
* * * * *
The first processes in the practice of typography—the cutting of
punches and making of moulds—demanded a degree of skill in the handling
of tools and of experience in the working of metal rarely found in
any man who undertook to learn the art of printing. They were never
regarded as proper branches of the printer’s trade, but were, from the
beginning, set aside as kinds of work which could be properly done
by the goldsmith only. Jenson, Cennini, Sweinheym and Veldener seem
to have been the only printers of the fifteenth century who had the
preliminary education that would warrant them in attempting to cut
punches with their own hands. [p515]
Not every goldsmith[370] could do this work with neatness, and for this
reason, as well as for the sake of economy, many beginners bought their
matrices from the printers who owned punches. In some cases the types
were bought outright, but matrices which gave the means of renewing
a worn-out font must have been preferred. That there was a trade in
matrices before type-foundries for the trade were established is shown
by the appearance of the same face of type in many offices. The Round
Gothic types cut by Jenson were frequently used by printers in France
and Germany. Certain faces of types used by Caxton and by Van der
Goes, by Leeu and Bellaert, by Machlinia and Veldener, are identically
the same, and must have been cast from matrices struck from the same
punches.
The styles of the early types were not invented by printer or
punch-cutter. The Pointed Gothic letters of Gutenberg’s _Bibles_ and
of the _Psalter of 1457_ are like those of the choice ecclesiastical
manuscripts of that period. The Round Gothic letters of the
_Catholicon_ and of the _Letters of Indulgence_ are of the form then
used by German copyists in popular books. In Italy, the first types
were cut in imitation of the popular form of Roman letters, or in the
southern fashion of Round Gothic; in the Netherlands, they present the
peculiarities of Flemish writing; in France and Burgundy, they were,
for the most part, in the favorite French style of _Bâtarde ancienne_.
In no instance did the printer invent a new style: he did [p516] no
more than direct his punch-cutter to imitate, as closely as he could,
the letters of a meritorious manuscript. In this matter, as well as in
the arrangement of types, he followed the fashion set by an approved
copyist or calligrapher. The peculiar characters[371] of different
languages were produced as they were required, somewhat slowly and of
unequal merit, by different printers. The limitations of typography
were not fully perceived, and many unsuccessful attempts were made
to produce types and sectional wood-cuts that could be used in the
construction of maps, ornaments and pictures.[372]
The Gothic character was more popular than the Roman, but there
were mechanical reasons why many printers preferred it. It was not
so quickly cut, but its broad face, free from hair-lines, was more
readily founded. It could be inked with facility and printed with
more evenness of color, and it would not show wear as soon as the
Roman. Early printers, who had no Roman, were loud in their praises of
the Gothic.[373] It was preferred by Verard, Pigouchet, Kerver, and
nearly all French and Flemish printers. It did not entirely go out of
fashion in Southern Europe nor in France until the close [p517] of the
sixteenth century. It might have been supplanted by Roman characters in
Germany, if there had not been at this time a strong prejudice against
Roman customs and fashions of all kinds. Attempts at change were
frequently made, but they were always unsuccessful.
The steel bought for the type-foundry of the Ripoli Press was probably
intended for punches. The use of this metal in other type-foundries
may be inferred from the sharpness, when new, of many fonts of early
types. That the moulds were of brass is indicated by the allusions of
early writers and printers to types made in brass. The matrices were
of copper, but it is not probable that they were struck in cold metal,
for it required great force and still greater discretion to strike the
punch truly, and the risk of breaking it had to be hazarded. For the
matrices of the large types of Gutenberg’s _Bibles_ and the _Psalter of
1457_, copper softened by heat[374] should have been, and probably was,
provided.