that Peter Schœffer, his father, and John Fust, his grandfather, were
the proper inventors, to the exclusion of Gutenberg. Schott, knowing
that Mentel’s claims as an inventor were as valid as those of Fust
or Schœffer, placed on his books, after 1520, an armorial shield
containing a crowned lion, with this inscription: “Arms of the Schott
family, granted by the Emperor Frederic III to John Mentel, the first
inventor of typography, and to his heirs, in the year 1466.” There are
doubts concerning this patent of nobility. When it was demanded many
years afterward, it could not be produced [_De l’origine_, vol. II,
p. 69]. It may have been granted to Mentel, not as the first printer,
but as the first printer in Strasburg. Schœpflin, who speaks of this
document as if he had seen the original, denies that it gave to Mentel
the title of inventor of printing [_Vindiciæ Typographicæ_, p. 98,
note]. There was a tradition that the Emperor Frederic III had given to
a corporation of master printers known as the Typothetæ, an heraldic
shield, representing an eagle holding in one claw a composing-stick,
and in the other claw a copy-guide, surmounted by a griffin
distributing ink with two balls. But these are not the arms displayed
by Schott, nor did Mentel, nor his successor Flach, make any display of
them in their books.
[339] In another book Spiegel says 1442.
[340] Meerman, _Origines Typographicæ_, vol. II, p. 199. It is not
clearly proved that Specklin, who was a magistrate of Strasburg at
the close of the sixteenth century, is the author of this statement.
Bernard says that this version contains about as many errors as words.
[341] Lichtenberger, _Initia Typographica_, p. 56.
[342] The first book printed at Strasburg with a date was a copy of
the _Decretals of Gratianus_, a folio in two volumes, which bears this
imprint: “By the venerable Henry Eggestein, master of liberal arts,
and citizen of the renowned city of Strasburg, in the year 1471.” This
was not his first book, for in another book printed in the same year,
he tells the reader that he has printed “innumerable volumes of law,
philosophy and divinity.” He printed two or three editions of the
_Bible_ in Latin, and one in German, and many other books in folio. The
types of these books are unlike those used by Mentel. Eggestein was
recorded in the tax list among the city officers, and was afterward
bishop’s chancellor in the court of Strasburg. The partnership between
Mentel and Eggestein was of short duration. The date of Eggestein’s
death is not known: his name is not found in any books printed with his
types after 1472.
[343] It is supposed that he printed the _Bible_ in German and in
Latin, _Questions of Conscience_, _A Concordance of the Bible_, _The
Epistles of Saint Jerome_,_The City of God_, _The Specula of Vincent of
Beauvais_. All these books are thick folios—many of them in types on
English body. Some are in two, and the last named in eight, volumes.
Other works have been attributed to him, but Madden says that some of
them (books with a curious form of the letter R—which others say were
the work of Zell) were printed at the Monastery of Weidenbach.
[344] For a table of the chronological order in which printing was
established in the Netherlands, see page 323 of this book.
[345] The high reputation of Schœffer’s office was fairly sustained
by his son John, who died in 1531. Peter Schœffer, junior, another
son, was equally able, for he printed books in Hebrew, Latin, German
and English. He found no proper encouragement at Mentz, and had to
establish his office successively at Worms, Strasburg and Venice.
His last known work, with date 1542, was printed at Venice, where
it is supposed he died. Ives Schœffer, son of Peter, junior, who
succeeded John Schœffer in the management of the office at Mentz, was
an industrious publisher from 1531 to 1552, the supposed year of his
death. Victor, the son of Ives, gave up the business, and the name of
Schœffer disappeared from the roll of printers at Mentz. Helbig, _Notes
et dissertations_, etc., p. 47–50.
[346] A description of this _Bible_, with other particulars of
importance, was given by Dr. Dziatzko, the librarian at Freiburg, in
a letter to Hessels, and by him printed in the introduction to the
_Haarlem Legend_, p. XXII.
[347] The Brotherhood were forbidden by the vows they had taken to ask
for alms or accept gifts, and were required to live by the labor of
their hands. They devoted themselves to the duties of teaching school
and copying books. At Weidenbach they were remarkably successful.
They built a church in 1490 with the money they had made from the
sale of manuscript and printed books. Madden says that the monastery
of Weidenbach was not only a publishing house, but a prominent school
of typography, and that there are reasons for believing that it gave
instruction to Caxton, Jenson, Mansion and other eminent printers.
[348] This John Sensenschmidt subsequently went to Bamberg, and in 1481
there published the _Bamberg Missal_, with a text in Pointed Gothic
types of five-line pica body, probably the largest text types ever used
in a book. It was admirably printed and rubricated.
[349] These two thousand impressions were taken from about three
hundred cuts—for the cut that served for the portrait of Paris of
Troy was used for Odofredus of Germany and the poet Dante of Italy.
Wood-cuts professing to represent cities and battles in Greece and
Syria were repeated for battles and cities in France and Germany,
with an indifference to the anachronisms and a cool disregard of the
incredulity of the reader that are amazing. The author had a keen
relish for the marvelous—for men with one eye, with immense ears, with
enormous legs, and like monstrosities. The _Dance of Death_, which is
reproduced on page 185 of this book, is one of the most meritorious
designs, but most of them are of small value. The fac-simile of
Koburger’s map on the opposite page should be contrasted with the map
of Germany in any modern atlas. It is presented as an illustration of
the medieval notion of geography, and as one of the first attempts at
map-printing.
[350] In 1477, Sorg printed the first illustrated edition of the whole
Bible; in 1483, a description of the council of Constance, containing
nearly one thousand engravings.
[351] Representing that the use of wood-cuts by typographers was an
infringement on the vested rights of the guild, the block-printers
induced the magistrates to pass a law commanding printers not to
use wood-cuts. Not deriving the benefits they expected from this
restriction, the block-printers proposed to concede to the typographers
the right to use as many cuts as they pleased, providing they would
agree to use only the wood-cuts made by regular engravers.
[352] In 1472, Melchior of Stanheim, abbot of the monastery of St.
Ulric at Augsburg, established a printing office in his monastery,
buying types and tools from other printers. He bought five presses of
Schüssler for 73 florins, and had five other presses made for him by a
joiner of Augsburg. The equipment of his office cost 702 florins, which
was then regarded as a large sum.
[353] See chapter XV and pages 322–325 of this book for a fuller
description of the works of this printer.
[354] See notes on pages 281 and 322.
[355] Many bibliographers say that he went to Cologne in 1473. Madden
regards him as a pupil of the monastery at Weidenbach. Blades thinks
that he was self-taught, or taught by some unknown printer, and that,
as early as 1472, he began his typographic work at Bruges, in which he
was assisted by William Caxton.
[356] He printed eight books in 1478; seven in 1479; nine in 1480; ten
in 1482. In fifteen days he printed three books, one of 85, and another
of 305 leaves. During the seventeen years he was in business he printed
150 books. His last book at Gouda was dated June 23, 1484; on the 18th
of September, 1484, he published at Antwerp, a book of 400 pages.
Fifteen days after, he completed another book. During the first six
months of 1485, he published one volume each month. One of these books
had 34, and another 76 engravings specially cut for the work.
[357] The colophon of this book is a queer piece of mysterious English:
. . . Enprentyd in the duchye of Braband, in the town of Andewarpe,
in the yere of our Lord M. CCCC. XCIIII. By maistir Gerard de Leew, a
man of grete wysedom in all maner of kunyng: whych nowe is come from
Lyfe unto the doth, which is grete harme for many of poure man. On whas
sowle God almythy for hys hygh grace haue mercy. Amen. Van der Meersch.
_Imprimeurs Belges et Néerlandais_, vol. I, p. 119.
[358] The printed date of this book is M.CCCC.LXI. It is a curious
circumstance that this exact printer should begin with an error which
makes his first publication appear ten years earlier than it was.
[359] In 1479, Dominic made this contract for printing a book. The
publisher Boniface should furnish the paper, and should pay 10 livres
for 200 copies of a book of 23 or 24 leaves of royal octavo or ordinary
quarto. If he printed more than 200 copies, he should forfeit all
claims for work done. In another contract, made in 1480, Dominic agreed
to print 100 copies of a book of 100 or 120 pages for 4 florins in
gold. The prices for printing seem insufficient, but the cost of labor
was small. The compositors of the Ripoli Press were the sisters of a
convent.
[360] The partnership should be for three years. Zarot bound himself
to furnish all the types, Latin and Greek, Roman and Gothic, and to
make all the ink. The four associates were to furnish the money. One
of them, De Burgo, should advance 100 ducats as soon as they could
keep four presses steadily at work. If any partner should obstruct the
business, he should lose all his rights. Rent should be paid out of
the general fund. Profits should be divided in three parts, of which
Zarot should have one part, and the four associates, two parts. Zarot
should pay the associates one third the actual cost of the presses and
other implements, which should become his property at the termination
of the partnership. Current expenses should be paid out of the general
fund from the profits of sales. The priest Gabriel (a partner) should
be the agent, treasurer and general manager. He should have one copy
of every book printed. Books for publication should be selected at a
general meeting of all partners. The corrector and the copyists should
be paid in printed books. Every workman should be bound by oath to
keep the secrets of the partners, and was forbid to give any book to
any other master printer of the city. If any partner wished to print
a book on his own account, and could not agree with his associates,
he would be permitted to have it done elsewhere.—Peter and Nicholas
de Burgo immediately asked for the use of three presses or more, for
works on common and civil law and medicine, they providing and paying
for the presses and for working them, and half the current expenses of
the office. They also agreed to give one-fourth of the profits, to pay
a bonus of 25 ducats, and one copy of each book, provided the society
would not sell it under price.
[361] It will be seen that the business of publishing is almost as old
as that of printing. Valdarfer agreed to set up the types of the books
produced at the rate of 24 imperials (?) for every 20 pages. The wary
publishers took the precaution to specify in the agreement that the
blank pages should not be counted.
[362] The Senate of Lucca, by a vote of 38 to 9, voted to pay the
priest Clement, a professional calligrapher and bookbinder (who had
applied for the means to go to Venice and get a knowledge of the art),
a subvention of two florins monthly, on condition that he should
practise his art as a public officer, teaching all who wished to learn.
Clement declined the offer.
[363] Gering reprinted the books of Keyser and Stol as soon as he could
procure copies. Each house boasted of the superior accuracy and greater
cheapness of its own publications.
[364] In this style the pages were surrounded by narrow pictorial
borders in pieces of irregular length. These pieces were repeatedly
used on different pages, but always in new combinations, so as to
present some feature of novelty. The ground-works of the borders
were generally stippled. The large illustrations in the text were
in outline, obviously intended for coloring. Red letters were often
printed on every page, but the larger initials were painted.
[365] Blades thinks that it was printed at Bruges by Colard Mansion
and William Caxton, about 1472. Madden thinks it was printed at the
monastery of Weidenbach by Mansion and Caxton, who went there about
1474 to learn practical typography. Other bibliographers say that
it was printed by Zell at Cologne. The types of this _Recuyell_ are
thoroughly French, and are like the larger types used by Mansion.
Bernard thinks that these types were made and first used at Cologne, by
the order of the Duke of Burgundy for the French edition of the same
work.
[366] Thomas, in his _History of Printing_, said that printing was done
in Mexico before 1569. The subsequent discovery of Mexican books with
earlier imprints has compelled a gradual putting back of the date to
1540, which is that of the earliest existing book. There is a tradition
about a Mexican book said to be printed in 1536, but the book is not
in existence, and the correctness of this date has not been proved.
Harrisse quotes an author who says that printing was taken to Mexico in
1532, by the Viceroy Mendoza, and that Pablos was the first printer.
But Mendoza did not go to Mexico until 1535. Pablos was the foreman of
Cromberger, who had one office in Seville and one in Mexico.
[367] This is Hallam’s enumeration of the hooks printed in large cities
before 1500:
Florence 300
Milan 629
Bologna 298
Rome 925
Venice 2835
London 130
Paris 751
Cologne 530
Nuremberg 382
Leipsic 351
Basle 320
Strasburg 526
Augsburg 256
Louvain 116
Mentz 134
Deventer 161
If allowance be made for the books that are lost, these numbers are
too small, but the list will give a correct idea of the comparative
activity of the early printers at different places. During this period
were published 291 editions of Cicero, 95 of Virgil, 57 of Horace, 91
of the Latin Bible and many hundreds of the decretals and digests of
canon law.
[368] The Bishop of Angers in 1470 paid 40 crowns of gold for a copy of
the _Bible of 1462_. The _Catholicon_ of Gutenberg sold for 41 crowns
of gold in 1465. A copy of Mansion’s edition of the _Consolation of
Philosophy_ by Boethius, brought 40 crowns in 1481. A missal was sold
in 1481 for 18 gold florins. Bernard notes a sale in which a printed
copy brought a higher price than a manuscript. A copy on vellum of the
_Summary of St. Thomas_ by Schœffer, was sold at Paris for 15 crowns
of gold. A manuscript of similar size was sold for 10 crowns. It is
difficult to form just conclusions from these prices, for the bindings
of the books have not been described. Hallam says that the florin was
worth about four francs of present money, equivalent, perhaps, to
twenty-four in commodities, and that the crown was worth rather more.
Another estimate allows to the money of the fifteenth century eight
times its present purchasing power.
[369] The mandate is too long for an unabridged translation, but the
following extracts will fairly set forth the reasons for his action:
Although, by a certain divine art of printing, abundant and easy
access is obtained to books in every science . . . yet we have
perceived that certain men, led by the desire of vainglory or money,
do abuse this art; and that which was given for the instruction of
human life is perverted to purposes of mischief and calamity. For,
to the dishonoring of religion, we have seen in the hands of the
vulgar certain books of the divine offices and the writings of our
religion translated from the Latin into the German tongue. . . . Some
volumes on this subject, certain rash unlearned simpletons have dared
to translate into the vulgar tongue, whose translation . . . many
learned men have declared unintelligible, in consequence of the very
great misapplication and abuse of words. . . . Let such translators,
if they pay any regard to truth, say whether the German language
be capable of expressing that which excellent writers in Greek and
in Latin have most accurately and argumentatively written on the
sublime speculations of the Christian religion and the knowledge of
things. They must acknowledge that the poverty of our idiom renders
it insufficient, . . . they must corrupt the sense of the truth in
the sacred writings . . . which, from the greatness of the danger
attendant upon it, we greatly dread; for who would leave it to
ignorant and unlearned men and to the female sex, into whose hands
copies of the Holy Scriptures may have fallen, to find out the true
meaning of them?
This was not the first restriction imposed on the liberty of the
printers, for the University of Cologne in 1479 had assumed the right
to control the printing of books by Quentell and Winters.
[370] Gutenberg’s employment of the goldsmith Dünne at Strasburg, and
the payment to him of a big sum for work connected with printing, can
be most satisfactorily explained by the conjecture that Dünne was hired
to cut punches and make a mould. I find no mention of punch-cutting
or mould-making at Mentz, but there is, in the accounts of the Ripoli
Press, an unequivocal notice of one John Peter of Mentz, who was
selling matrices to the printers of Florence in 1476. It is evident
that this John Peter had experience in this branch of typography.
The Ripoli Press bought of him, in 1477, the matrices of a full
font of Roman, for 10 florins in gold. John Peter was not the only
punch-cutter. In 1478, the Ripoli Press paid the goldsmith Benvenuto
110 livres for the punches of three fonts—two of which were of Roman
and one of Gothic face. In 1481, another goldsmith, Banco, made a sale
to the manager of the Ripoli Press, of “100 little letters, 3 big
letters, and 3 vignettes on copper.”
[371] Square notes of music, partly written, partly printed, are seen
in the _Psalter of 1457_. Greek letters were made by Schœffer and
Sweinheym, but the first book in Greek was printed by Paravisinus at
Milan in 1476. Hebrew types were made at Soncino in 1488. At the close
of the century, a German printer at Paris made an imitation of writing,
but the letters were not connected, and the only penmanlike features
were in the capitals. About 1500, Manutius had the engraver Francis of
Bologna cut punches for Italic types, in imitation of the handwriting
of Petrarch.
[372] Jacob Bellaert of Haarlem combined isolated engravings, cut
for the purpose, in the belief that each combination would seem a
new engraving. Kerver tried to give variety to his pages by varying
combinations of detached pictorial borders. But it was quickly
demonstrated that typography could deal successfully with letters
only. The large ornamental initial letters of books were not cast, but
cut, sometimes on wood, oftener on metal. Small and ornamented capital
letters were cast by Mentel of Strasburg, and by Ratdolt of Venice in
1477.
[373] Colonna and Manthen at Venice said that their Gothic was
a “sublime letter.” John Herbort, in 1483, said his was “a most
captivating letter, unquestionably excelling all others.” Nicholas
Prevost said his book was printed “in types the most beautiful and most
becoming for polite literature.” Chevalon said his Gothic was “the
polite and fashionable letter.”
[374] In France, the punches are struck in hot copper to prevent their
breakage.
[375] I know by experience that the ordinary metal used for types can
be cast in a matrix of lead to the number of 125 or 150 types before
the matrix will be destroyed. After 50 or 60 castings, there will be
an alteration in the mould; the finer lines will disappear and ruder
lines be presented. This will account for the differences that the same
letters present on every page. _Magazin Encyclop. de Millin_, 1806,
vol. I, p. 74, as quoted by Bernard, vol. I, p. 299.
[376] Gutenberg’s larger bodies were irregularly graduated and of
Pointed Gothic face; his smaller bodies were not separated at proper
distances, and were of Round Gothic face. The unknown printer had four
faces and four bodies of the size English. Caxton had two faces and two
bodies each of the sizes Paragon, Great-primer and English. The types
of many printers at Paris and Venice show irregularities of body which
seem remarkable and inexplicable to the modern printer.
[377] The smallest sizes which I have met in any book of the fifteenth
century are in the _Decretals of Gregory_, printed in black and red
by Andrew Torresani at Venice in 1498, in which book the text is in
Bourgeois and the surrounding notes are in Brevier. Nonpareil was first
made by Garamond of Paris about the middle of the sixteenth century.
Diamond was made by Jannon of Sedan about 1625. Nothing smaller was
attempted until 1827, when Henry Didot, then 66 years old, cut a font
on the French body of 2-1/2 points—a body known to American printers as
Brilliant, or Half-nonpareil—about twenty-five lines to the American
inch.
[378] It has been suggested that these distinct bodies were founded in
sand moulds; that a new pattern for the body was made every time a new
font was cast; and that the irregularities in body are the results of
unintended or undetected variations in the pattern. But this hypothesis
cannot be accepted. The small bodies, the sharp edges, close fitting-up
and even lining of the types, are peculiarities which could not have
been produced by a sand mould, nor by a mould of any plastic material.
[379] _Lettres d’un bibliographe_, 4th series, p. 231.
[380] See page 66 of this book. Was this obscure metal antimony? The
text books say that antimony was, for the first time, set apart as
a distinct metal in 1490, by Basil Valentine, a monk of Erfurt. But
Madden says that a book supposed to have been printed at Cologne,
before the year 1473, plainly describes antimony as a metal frequently
used and much abused by many monks of the thirteenth century in their
pharmaceutical preparations. _Lettres d’un bibliographe_, 4th series,
p. 115.
[381] It agrees exactly with the old French standard (of 1723) for
height of type, which was 10-1/2 geometric lines, or, by modern French
measure, 24 millimetres. Fournier, _Manuel typographique_, vol. I, p.
125.
[382] The sloping shoulder, which was in general use in the first
quarter of this century, was discarded to meet the requirements of the
new art of stereotyping. It was found that these sloping shoulders made
projections in the plaster mould, which imperiled the making of an
accurate cast. The blackening of the sheet from square shoulders was
prevented by altering the mould and placing the shoulder lower on the
body.
[383] See page 399 of this book.
[384] Bernard believes that Gutenberg cast for the _Bible of 42 lines_
at least 120,000 types, or enough for two sections, or forty pages.
He supposes that twenty pages were perfected, and ready for press or
under press, while the succeeding twenty pages were in the compositor’s
hands. This would be the method adopted by the modern printer, and it
may have been the method of Gutenberg, but it is probable that the
difficulties connected with the new art compelled him to print the book
more slowly, and with imperfect system. But the printers who followed
him certainly used quick methods.
[385] Caxton said that he had “practysed & learned at [his] grete
charge and dispense to ordeyne this said booke in prynte.”
[386] Many of the early master printers practised their trade for a few
years in one place, and a few years in another, roving about from town
to town with a seeming indifference to change which seems unaccountable
to the modern printer, who knows how expensive it is to move a printing
office. The roving habits of the masters will not seem so strange when
it is known that the equipment of the early office was simple, and that
the more expensive tools could be carried with little difficulty.
[387] The engravings of cases shown by Moxon have boxes of unequal
size. No doubt, they were so made from the beginning, for a day’s
experience would teach any compositor that his case must have a larger
box for the letter e than for the letter x.
[388] See page 528.
[389] Bernard says that sticks of wood were used by Christopher
Plantin, “king of printers.” It is characteristic of the taste of his
time, that Plantin had sticks of wood, although he boasted that some of
his types were cast in [matrices of] silver.