1447, but it was not fully ended until Pope Felix V abdicated the papal
chair in 1449, and ordered the church to submit to Nicholas V.
250. Passavant (vol. I, p. 50) says that there is in the library at
Heidelberg a copy of a xylographic edition of the Lord’s Prayer, a
block-book of ten leaves, which may be attributed to the fifteenth
century.
299. In last line but two of note, change 380 to 280.
319. Holtrop says that Bellaert’s name is first mentioned in 1485, as
it appears in the fac-simile.
378. A document has been recently discovered at Strasburg which proves
that Frielo Gensfleisch, the elder brother of John Gutenberg, was
in Strasburg in 1429. This document is the signature of Frielo to a
receipt for 26 florins due him on an annuity. See _Book Worm_ for
January, 1868.
397. It is not probable that this tool of four pieces was the press.
Ottley, who thinks that Gutenberg’s secret was not that of printing
(_Inquiry concerning Invention_, p. 41), says, “there can be no doubt
that presses of different kinds were known long before the invention
of typography” (p. 37), and that “five of the witnesses, none of
whom were partners, knew all about the press” (p. 40). It may also
be added that the repetition by different witnesses of the order to
separate the four pieces and put them in a disjointed form in the
press or on or under the press, is evidence that the four pieces did
not constitute the press nor any part of it. Nor can it be supposed
that Gutenberg had sent to his home a bulky press to have, as has been
asserted, its “joinings renewed.” This work should have been done by
Sahspach, the joiner who built it. Although I believe that Gutenberg
afterward invented the printing press, I think that the press here
mentioned was nothing more than the screw press of the carpenter—the
wooden vise or press of a workman who needed it when using a file.
A printing press would not be needed until the types were made,
which it appears were not even then ready. The fact that Gutenberg,
Dritzehen, Dünne, and Sahspach worked apart is proof that the proposed
printing office was not furnished—that the men were making tools, and
the tools were probably moulds and matrices. I have accepted Van der
Linde’s translation of _zurlossen_ as melting, for it is warranted by
many evidences that the tool of four pieces and the _formen_ were of
metal. Ottley’s translation, making _zurlossen_ mean a loosening or
unjointing, or breaking-up, with a view to renewal or reconstruction,
could also be accepted.
405. Bernard questions the accuracy of the date of the _Donatus of
1451_, but it is the belief of Fischer and of many others that it was
printed in 1451.
412. In the last line of text, insert the word not before always.
413. Compare the spacing in the _Bibles_ of Gutenberg with that of
the _Psalter of 1457_, as shown in pages 453 and 455. In Gutenberg’s
_Bibles_, there are some evidences of attempts to keep the lines even;
in the _Psalter_, the nicety of full lines or of even spacing was
disregarded.
451. Madden admits that Schœffer was a copyist at Paris, but doubts the
inference that he was a student of the University. His doubt seems to
be based on the faulty Latin of the colophon.
455. I am not entirely satisfied with the fac-simile of types on this
page. It is a copy of the fac-simile made by Falkenstein, the only one
accessible to me of the edition of 1457. It is, no doubt, a correct
representation of form and of general appearance, but the outlines of
the letters are suspiciously sharp. They do not accord in this feature
with the types shown on page 453. In Falkenstein’s fac-simile, the
ornamental work about the letter P is a dull bluish purple, so made
by printing deep blue over lines previously printed in dull red. I
have not attempted to imitate this dull purple color (of which I find
no notice save in the book of Papillon), for I believe that this use
of purple was exceptional. It was probably caused by an imperfect
cleansing of the red block, the after application of the blue and the
mixing on the block of both colors, forming a dull purple.
465. Madden doubts the genuineness of the record of the proposed
mission of Jenson to Mentz.
467. I have accepted the statement of Bernard that leads were first
used in 1465 in the _Offices_ of Cicero, but a re-examination of the
fac-simile in Sotheby’s _Typography_ (No. 90) of the _Treatise on
Reason and Conscience_ convinces me that the types of this work were
leaded. As Gutenberg abandoned printing in 1465, it is probable that
the _Treatise_ is really older than the _Offices_. If so, Gutenberg was
the first to use leads.
498. Many bibliographers regard Martens as the predecessor of John
of Westphalia, and as a graduate of one of the typographical schools
at Cologne. Holtrop thinks that Martens was the pupil of John of
Westphalia, his corrector and associate, but not his partner or
predecessor.
506. La Caille and Santander say that Gering died in 1510; Van der
Meersch says 1520.
529. The weakness of the early press is abundantly proved by the
smallness of the forms and the absence of large and black wood-cuts
in all books printed before 1800. The inability of the hand-press
(even when made of iron, as it was in 1824) is set forth by Johnson
in his _Typographia_, vol. II, p. 548. It is there stated that an
engraver who had been at work for three years on a wood-cut 11-1/2 by
15 inches, was dismayed by the discovery, after a fair trial, that his
block was too large to be properly printed on any variety of English
press then in common use. The Clymer press, just introduced, was then
tested. By lengthening the bar, and getting two men to pull, a few fair
impressions were obtained, but the block soon broke under pressure.
This wood-cut was only about half the size of the two-page cuts which
are now regularly and easily printed for the popular illustrated papers
on machines at the rate of 1,000 an hour.
530. The most admirable feature of the best early printing is its
simplicity. The types were uncouth, but they were made with single
purpose, to be easily read, not to show the skill of the punch-cutter.
This object would have been fully accomplished if the compositor
had refrained from abbreviations and had spaced his words with
intelligence. The pressman did his part of the work fairly, and
honestly impressed the types on the paper with unexceptionable firmness
and solidity. The readable method of doing presswork is, unfortunately,
out of fashion. A perverted taste requires the modern printer to use
thin types, dry glossy paper, as little ink and as weak an impression
as is consistent with passable legibility. This general fondness for
delicacy is not at all favorable to the production of readable books.
NOTES:
[1] The _Daily Graphic_ of New York, may be offered as an exception to
this assertion, but this newspaper really confirms its correctness.
It is the illustrated side only of this paper which is done by
lithography. The side which gives it value as a newspaper is printed
with ordinary printing types, and this result could be accomplished by
no other method.
[2] This body of Canon type occupies about two-thirds of an American
square inch. A square inch of the Small-pica type, in which this text
is composed, contains about 44 ems to the square inch; a square inch
of Agate, or of small advertising type, contains 177 ems to the square
inch. There are types so small that 447 ems can be put in a square inch.
[3] The word xylography is little used by printers or engravers,
with whom the art of making engravings in relief is usually known
as engraving on wood. It is most frequently used by bibliographers
to distinguish early printed work: books printed from types are now
defined as typographic, and those printed from engraved blocks as
xylographic.
[4] The accompanying translation of a tablet taken from the record room
of the second Assurbanipal (according to some original scholars, the
Sardanapalus of the Greeks), king of Assyria, B. C. 667, will give an
idea of one purpose for which the impressions were made:
Assurbanipal, the great king, the powerful king, king of nations, king
of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, son of Sennacherib,
king of Assyria; according to the documents and old tablets of
Assyria, and Sumri and Akkadi, this tablet in the collection of
tablets I wrote, I studied, I explained, and for the inspection of my
kingdom within my palace I placed. Whoever my written records defaces,
and his own records shall write, may Nabu all the written tablets of
his records deface.
Mr. Smith of the British Museum is translating some of these tablets.
[5] Balbus, the stoic, in replying to Vellejus, the epicurean, opposes
his atheistical argument that the world was made by chance, and says:
He who fancies that a number of solid and invisible bodies could be
kept together by weight [gravitation?], and that a world full of order
and beauty could be formed by their accidental juxtaposition—from such
a man I cannot understand why he should not also believe that if he
threw together, pell-mell, a great number of the twenty-one letters,
either of gold or of some other material, the _Annals of Ennius_ could
be legibly put together from the forms scattered on the ground. _De
Natura Deorum_, book II, chap. 20.
[6] Jackson and Chatto, _Treatise on Wood Engraving_, p. 12.
[7] The emperor Justin (518–527) could not write, and was obliged to
sign state papers with a stencil.
[8] When Latin ceased to be a living language, the whole treasury of
knowledge was locked up from the eyes of the people. The few who might
have imbibed a taste for literature, if books had been accessible to
them, were reduced to abandon pursuits that could only be cultivated
through a kind of education not easily within their reach. Schools
confined to cathedrals and monasteries, and exclusively designed for
the purposes of religion, afforded no encouragement or opportunities to
the laity. Hallam, _Middle Ages_.
[9] Hallam, _Middle Ages_, vol. III, pp. 286, 287.
[10] These observations apply only to the types used for the text
letters of books and newspapers. The large types made for the display
lines of posters are cut on wood, but these types of wood are used only
for printing single lines; they are not combined with the compactness
of book types, and do not require their precision of body. The wood
types of Japan are, probably, the smallest wood types in practical
use; but they are much larger than our book types; they are printed
in smaller pages; they are not obliged to stand truly in line, nor
to conform to the standards of European and American printers. The
cheapness of types which have been cast, as compared with letters which
have been engraved, has been explained on page 23 of this work.
[11] The characters D, E, 1 are the private reference marks of the
type-founder. In this position they cannot be reproduced on the cast
type.
[12] The superfluous metal which adheres to the cast type, and is
afterward broken off, is also called the Jet. The finishing of the
types is comparatively simple work which does not require explanation.
[13] _Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, applied to
the Art of Printing._ By Joseph Moxon, Member of the Royal Society, and
Hydrographer to the King, etc. London, 1683.
[14] _The Book of Trades_ was popular. Two editions in Latin verse
were published, one in 1568, and another in 1574, with descriptions by
Hartmann Schopper. Chatto says:
This is, perhaps, the most curious and interesting series of cuts,
exhibiting the various ranks and employments of men, that ever was
published. Among the higher orders . . . . . . are the Pope, Emperor,
King, Princes, Nobles, Priests and Lawyers; while almost every
branch of labor or trade then known in Germany, from agriculture to
pin-making, has its representative. There are also not a few which
it would be difficult to reduce to any distinct class, as they are
neither trades nor honest professions. Of these heteroclytes is
the _Meretricum procurator_, or, as Captain Dugald Dalgetty says,
the captain of the queans. Jackson and Chatto, _A Treatise on Wood
Engraving_, p. 409.
Jost Amman was one of the many famous German designers on wood. The
publishers of Nuremberg and Frankfort esteemed his ability highly and
gave him constant employment.
[15] The text of the _Speculum Durandi_, the book of 1473, is
_exculptis ære litteris_; the text of the _Præceptorum Nideri_,
the book of 1476, is _litteris exculptis artificiali certe conatu
ex ære_. The language is plain and cannot be construed to mean cut
types. When these books were printed, the arts of typography and
copper-plate printing were new and had not yet received distinctive
names. The reading public knew nothing of the theory or practice of
either process, and confounded the productions of one art with those
of the other. The early printers had to define the respective arts
as they best could, with words made from Latin. A close examination
of the words selected by Husner will show their propriety. The word
_exculptis_, sculptured, or cut out in high relief, is here used
in contradistinction to _inculptis_, sculptured in, or cut in, as
in an engraving on copper-plate. It defines typographic work from
copper-plate printing. The phrase _artificiali certe conatu ex ære_,
means something more than skillful engraving; it suggests the use
of mechanism, and of a beginning of the work in brass, which can be
clearly understood only by construing _ex ære_, from or in a brass
mould. The phrase here translated _in_ brass has been rendered _of_
brass, but the language will not bear this construction. The phrase _ex
ære_, in, or out of, or from brass, was frequently used by many early
printers. I have rarely met the form _æris_, of brass. To represent
that early types were of brass is as much a violation of history as it
is of grammar.
[16] This book was edited and republished in the form of an octavo
pamphlet of fifty-six pages, by Signor P. Vincenzo Fineschi, at
Florence, in 1781. The equivalent in American currency of the Tuscan
lira is calculated from a formula given with great minuteness by Blades
in his _Life and Typography of William Caxton_, vol. II. p. xx.
[17] Heineken, _Idée générale d’une collection complette d’estampesavec
une dissertation_, etc., p. 250.
According to the legend, it was the occupation of Saint Christopher
to carry people across the stream on the banks of which he lived. He
is accordingly represented as a man of gigantic stature and strength.
One evening a child presented himself to be carried over the stream.
At first his weight was what might be expected from his infant years;
but presently it began to increase, and kept increasing, until the
ferryman staggered under his burden. Then the child said, “Wonder not,
my friend; I am Jesus, and you have the weight of the sins of the whole
world on your back.” St. Christopher was thus regarded as a symbol of
the church.
[18] The Suabia of the fifteenth century was separated by the Rhine
from Switzerland and France on the south and west; its eastern boundary
was Bavaria; its northern boundary, Franconia and the Palatinate of the
Rhine.
[19] As these three copies have never been compared side by side, it
has not been proven that they are impressions from the same block. The
copy described on a preceding page has some peculiarities not found in
the others.
[20] A book printed at Delft in 1480, says that when St. Gregory was
pope, he celebrated mass in the church _Porta Crucis_. As he was
consecrating the bread and wine, Christ appeared to him as represented
in the engraving, with all the accessories to his passion. Robert of
Cologne, who wrote a treatise on indulgences, published at Zutphen
in 1518, adds, that Pope Gregory kindly granted 14,000 years of
indulgence; that Pope Nicholas V doubled them; that Pope Calixtus,
after requiring the repetition five times of the prayers, again doubled
the years of indulgence; that Pope Innocent VIII, after adding seven
more prayers, two other prayers, and two more of the _Pater Noster_
and the _Ave Maria_, again doubled the length of indulgence—so that
the sum total amounted to at least 70,000 years: according to other
computations, to 92,000 years, or 112,000 years. Holtrop, _Monuments
typographiques_, p. 13. There is but one copy of this print, which
recently belonged to the collection of Theodor O. Weigel of Leipsic,
who published a fac-simile of it in colors, in his great work, _The
Infancy of Printing_, plate 113, vol. I.
[21] Wetter says that all letters of indulgence for thousands of years
are spurious; that they were made by monks and ignorant traveling
priests for no other purpose than to allure simple people to church.
[22] Sweinheym and Pannartz, who were invited, in 1464, to establish
a printing office in the monastery of Subiaco near Rome, were the
first printers connected with any ecclesiastical institution. It may
be remarked, that they did not thrive under clerical favor, for they
soon found it expedient to remove to the city of Rome, where they were
equally unfortunate in their efforts to find purchasers for their books.
[23] I have used the translation as I find it in Ottley’s _Inquiry into
the Origin and Early History of Engraving_, vol. 1, p. 47. The original
is given by Temanza, _Lettere Pittoriche_, vol. v, p. 321. Temanza
found this decree in an old book of regulations which belonged to a
fraternity of Venetian printers.
[24] Weigel, in his _Infancy of Printing_, plate 10, presents the
fac-simile of an old printed altar-piece, about eight inches wide and
twenty inches long, which contains a representation of the Virgin and
the infant Christ. The engraving is in outline only. The interior was
colored by stencils, like the image prints.
[25] Temanza had some old Venetian playing cards of unknown date,
which he believed were made at or about the time of the publication of
this decree. They were of large size, on thick paper, and elaborately
decorated with gold and colors. The early Venetian playing cards were,
probably, more expensively made, and were offered at higher prices
than the German cards. In the field of art and ornament, and even in
the trades which called for a higher degree of skill, the Venetians
surpassed all their competitors. This pre-eminence was maintained many
years after the invention of typography. The earlier books of Venice
are famous for the whiteness of their paper and the beauty of their
types, as well as for admirable presswork and solid bindings.
[26] Heineken, _Idée générale_, page 245. He does not give the date.
The record from which he quotes, the Red Book of Ulm, so called because
the initials were in that color, ends with the year 1474.
[27] Singer’s _Researches into the History of Playing Cards_. This book
abounds in curious information and has many valuable fac-similes.
[28] Breitkopf says that the stencil painting of prints was done with
great rapidity by the medieval colorist. He alludes to an old German
saying of “painting the twelve apostles with one stroke,” which, no
doubt, refers to the expeditious painting of a once popular image
print, of which there is now no fragment in existence.
[29] Some antiquarians say that this print is a representation of Amman.
[30] Didot, _Essai sur la typographie_, p. 564.
[31] Bibliophile Jacob, _Curiosités de l’histoire des arts_, etc., p.
48.
[32] One of the cards bears the name of the maker, F. Clerc. The
costumes of the figures are French, and of the fashion of the court
of Charles VII. One of the queens is a rude copy of the well known
portrait of the queen Marie of Anjou; another queen is from an
authentic portrait of the king’s mistress, Gérarde Cassinel. The robe
of one of the kings is plentifully sprinkled with the _fleur-de-lis_;
the figure of another king is that of a hairy savage with a torch in
his hand. These singular cards illustrate a frightful accident which
made a profound impression on the people of France. To divert the
half-crazed king Charles VI, a masquerade was planned for a ball given
by Queen Blanche, on the 29th of January, 1392, in which masquerade the
king and five of the gentlemen of the court took the parts of savages.
The costumes were made by encasing the actors in tight-fitting linen
garments, covered with warm pitch and tow. In this uncouth attire, and
linked together with clanking chains, they danced in the ball-room
to the amusement of the men and the terror of the ladies. Wishing to
discover one of the maskers, the Duke of Orleans snatched a torch from
the hand of a servant, and thrust it too near an unhappy masker’s face.
In a moment he was covered with a blaze which quickly spread to his
fellows. The king was rescued in time, but four of the masqueraders
were burned to death.
[33] Breitkopf, _Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten_, p. 9, note g.
The fac-similes of playing cards in this book are exceedingly grotesque.
[34] Cards are not mentioned in a specification of popular games in
the Stadtholdt Book of Augsburg for the year 1274. The ordinances
of the town of Nuremberg for the period between the years 1286 and
1299 prohibit gambling, but they do not mention cards. For the period
between 1380 and 1384, they are both mentioned and permitted.
[35] In Singer’s _Researches into the History of Playing Cards_ may be
found many fac-similes of early Hindostanee cards, some of which, we
are told, were engraved on plates of ivory. These fac-similes show that
the primitive game was a modification of the old Indian game of chess.
[36] The industry of Jost Amman was as remarkable as his skill. The old
historian of early printers, Sandraart, says, on the authority of his
pupil George Keller, that during the four years in which Keller lived
with him, Amman produced designs enough to load a wagon.
[37] The ordinances of Nuremberg between the years 1380 and 1384
permitted gambling and betting, but in moderation: “Always excepting
horse-racing, shooting with cross-bows, _cards_, shovel boards,
tric-trac and bowls, at which a man may bet from two pence to a groat.”
Von Murr, as quoted by Chatto, _Treatise on Wood Engraving_, p. 42.
[38] Having visited many convents in Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and
the Austrian States, I everywhere discovered in their libraries many
image prints engraved on wood and pasted either in the beginning or the
end of old volumes of the fifteenth century. These facts taken together
confirm me in the opinion that the next step of the engraver on wood,
after playing cards, was the engraving of figures of saints, which,
distributed and lost among the laity, were carefully preserved by the
monks, who pasted them on the inner covers of the books with which
they furnished their libraries. After the engravers had succeeded in
making prints of saints, they found it very easy to engrave historical
subjects, with explanations in words. Heineken, _Idée générale_, etc.,
p. 251.
[39] Wood-cuts of sacred subjects were known to the common people
of Suabia, and the adjacent districts, by the name of _Halgen_ or
_Halglein_, saints or little saints, a word which, in course of
time, was also applied to prints of all kinds. In France also, the
earliest prints were known as _dominos_, or lords, a word which was
intended to convey the same meaning. The maker of prints was known as
a _dominotier_, whether he made profane cards or pious images. In time
the word so far declined from its first meaning that it was applied not
only to printers of cards and images, but to the makers of fancifully
colored wall-papers. _Versuch der Ursprung der Spielkarten_, etc., vol.
II, p. 174.
[40] This method is still in use in many parts of the East Indies.
A dried leaf is written on with a pointed steel which scratches the
smooth surface. A bit of charcoal is then rubbed over the leaf; the
places scratched are filled with atoms of charcoal, which make the
writing as legible as it would have been if written with fluid ink.
[41] In support of this opinion he quotes the following from Pliny: