_Borders_
The earliest important ornament found in a book printed in England is
a woodcut border to a title-page. Borders, then, shall be our first
subject of study, but it has been decided that this study shall be
confined as far as possible to built-up borders, i.e. those made up of
small printers’ ornaments, such as the fleuron, or such as consisted
of two or more decorative blocks. It has been considered, and perhaps
rightly, that borders of one piece, such as that which surrounds the
title-page of the 1561 edition of Chaucer’s Works, whether cut in wood
or metal, belong rather to a history of engraving than to a work on
printers’ ornaments.
Title-pages did not make their appearance on the Continent until 1476,
but once adopted their decoration by the means of ornamental borders
quickly followed. The early Venetian printers, who were perhaps the
finest artists in the world as regards the decoration of books, began
by placing a strapwork ornament that went partly along the bottom
and partly up the left-hand side of the first page of text, and
this they were in the habit of printing with red ink. From this it
was an easy transition to borders round title-pages, or round the
colophon and device on the last leaf, and the practice quickly spread
over the Continent. For Books of Hours and Missals blocks were cut
representing scenes from the life of Christ or other Bible subjects,
but more decorative and lighter borders were designed for such books as
_Ariosto_ or the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio. Splendid examples
of such borders are met with in books from the presses of Aldus, Jenson
and Ratdolt in Venice, of Pigouchet, Vostre and du Pré in Paris,
and in the books of the printers at Lyons, Basle, Cologne and other
Continental cities in which printing had been established.
Nor was it long after Caxton’s settlement in Westminster before borders
appeared in England, although, as has already been seen, he cared for
none of these things. The printer who introduced them was a foreigner,
Theodoric Rood of Cologne, who set up a press in Oxford in the latter
part of the year 1478. In 1481 he printed an edition of the Commentary
on Aristotle’s _De Anima_, made by Alexander of Hales, and this
title was surrounded by a woodcut border.
Only some copies of this book have the border, and the Bodleian Library
has no copy in which it is found. Mr E. G. Duff, in his _English
Provincial Printers, etc._ (Cambridge, 1912), suggests that its
insertion was an afterthought of the printer; but it is a curious
circumstance that he used it again in John Lathbury’s _Commentary on
the Lamentations of Jeremiah_, which he printed in 1482, but again
only certain copies of the book are found to have it.
Fortunately a leaf of the _Jeremiah_ is in the Bagford collection,[6]
and from this I am able to describe it. The border is made up of four
blocks, each of a different width. That at the top measures 199 by 34
mm., and it will be seen that the bottom piece is the largest. The
design is the same in all four pieces, and consists of spirals of
flowers, fruit and foliage amidst which are a number of birds. It makes
a handsome border, the drawing and the cutting both being good, but it
was probably of foreign origin.
The next border of which we have any trace in an English book was in
the hands of William de Machlinia, another foreigner who had settled
in London. Between 1483–85 he printed a small Book of Hours according
to the Sarum use, of which only a few leaves remain. Seven of these
are in the British Museum, and they show that some parts of the work
were ornamented with a woodcut border to each page, probably of French
origin. The design is somewhat similar but much more simple than that
used by Theodoric Rood, consisting of spirals of flowers and foliage
only. This border passed into Richard Pynson’s hands when he took over
Machlinia’s business. In the last year of his life William Caxton made
a notable departure from his usual custom by placing a decorative
border, consisting of four pieces, round each page of _The Fifteen
Oes_, a collection of prayers intended to be issued with a Book of
Hours.
These blocks have met with unmerited censure in some quarters. They
appear to me to be both cleverly designed and to show no little skill
on the part of the woodcutter. They were probably French work, as
blocks similar to them may be seen in service books printed by Jean du
Pré in Paris. As stated above, each border consisted of four pieces,
each different, and no less than eight separate sets of designs were
used throughout the book. Their main features were spirals of flowers
and foliage, varied by the introduction of birds and grotesque animals,
as though the artist had gone to some bestiary, as books on natural
history were then called, for inspiration.
In some of the smaller cuts a grotesque human face is seen, such
as masons were fond of carving on the misericords of churches and
cathedrals. In one instance a child is shown holding the spray, and
the pose of the figure is quite good. Another of the blocks shows a
winged figure kneeling on one knee and holding a huntsman’s horn with
both hands, and here again the attitude is not without grace. Again,
take the drawing of the passion flower in the same block, which shows
feeling as well as a desire for truth on the part of the artist.
Moreover, he was a born humorist, as witness the block showing the
gryphon and the bird, which reminds one of passages in _Alice Through
the Looking Glass_.
It was the printer’s workman--for I decline to believe that Caxton
set up these pages--not the artist who was at fault, and who was
responsible for their clumsy and slovenly appearance. No attempt was
made to space them out in order to make them meet, and not a few were
put in upside down. Had the printer shown as much skill as the artist
there would be little to find fault with. This border passed into the
possession of De Worde, who used it as a whole, or parts of it, in
several books.
The next fifteenth century border found in English printed books occurs
in an edition of the _Horæ ad usum Sarum_, printed in 1497 by
Julian Notary, Jean Barbier, and an unidentified printer whose initials
were I. H., and who is supposed to have been Jean Huvin of Rouen.
These three printers had set up in London the previous year, and the
_Horæ_ in question was commissioned by Wynkyn de Worde. All that
remains of this book is a fragment of four leaves preserved in the
Bodleian Library, but they show that each page was surrounded by a
border of printed ornaments. These were part of a stock of some twenty
or five and twenty blocks which the printers would appear to have
obtained from France, nearly all of them being afterwards used in two
remarkable borders found in books printed by Notary early in the next
century, and a description is therefore postponed until I come to that
period.
To the printer Richard Pynson belongs the credit of producing the most
sumptuously decorated book that appeared in England in the fifteenth
century. Pynson’s excellent work as a printer had brought him to the
notice of many learned men, and amongst his patrons was Cardinal John
Morton. Morton was an Oxford man, and filled many high offices before
he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486. He was a lover of books,
and in 1500 he commissioned Pynson to print a Missal that should equal
in beauty of letterpress and decoration anything of that kind that had
been produced on the Continent. We cannot doubt that he financed Pynson
during the preparation of this work, and we may go even further and say
that the decorative work seen in it is largely English. By the kindness
of Dr Cowley, librarian of the Bodleian, and with the help of the
Oxford University Press, a page from this splendid specimen of Pynson’s
craftsmanship forms the frontispiece to the present volume. The Missal
was a small folio, printed in a bold, handsome type of black letter in
double columns. Each page was surrounded by a border which, as will be
seen from the illustration, consisted of four pieces. In some respects
this border resembles that of Theodoric Rood, to which indeed Pynson
may have gone for his model. On the other hand, the work is somewhat
reminiscent of certain French service books.
The bottom panel, with its rebus of Morton, was probably of native
work. Not only are the spirals differently treated to those in the side
panels, but the flowers and fruit are also of a different character.
The page is, in fact, as nearly perfect as the skill of the printers
and woodcutter could make it.
During the first eighteen years of the sixteenth century some
interesting borders are met with in books printed in England.
In the year 1503 Wynkyn de Worde printed an edition of Æsop’s
_Fables_ in quarto, and he surrounded the title with a made-up
border that is typical of the slovenly way in which he often did his
work. The outer border consists of two pieces, evidently parts of what
had at one time been one block, of which the left-hand portion retained
its original form, but the other half had at some time been damaged,
and a part of the lower corner had gone altogether, giving the whole an
uneven appearance. Further, in order to fill up the space between the
illustration at the top and outer border, two smaller pieces, but of
different sizes and design, were inserted. The general design in these
blocks is spirals of flowers and foliage, the flowers being apparently
pinks, or carnations, and daisies.
The printer used this border in exactly this same state on the
title-page of _Nychodemus Gospell_, which he printed in 1511; but
in the edition of 1518 of that work the border had undergone a strange
transformation. The whole of the top and the right-hand portion had
gone, the top being occupied with a heavy block upon which the title
was cut in white letters on a black ground, while the right-hand side
was filled up with (1) A block from the _Fifteen Oes_; (2) Four
lozenges; (3) Two pieces of ‘ribbon’ ornament; (4) One piece of twisted
ornament; (5) A fleuron.
The printer’s device, which in the earlier edition is seen below the
cut of the Crucifixion, is also absent from this, its place being
filled by another cut of the Crucifixion, evidently from a Missal
or Book of Hours; but the printer either forgot (or did not trouble
himself about the matter) that the device in the earlier edition was
set horizontally, whereas the block of the Crucifixion, which he chose
to replace it, had to be set upright, and although it was to all
practical purposes the same size, placing it upright left a vacant
space under the inner top block and a space all round, which he filled
with odds and ends of small ornaments, including two lozenges and two
six-petalled flowers.
In the same year, 1503, Julian Notary printed the first of the two
books alluded to above, a folio edition of the _Legenda Aurea_. On
the last leaf he placed his device, and made a border for it with no
less than eighteen of the decorative blocks that he had obtained from
France. In the following year he printed an edition of _St Albans
Chronicle_, again in folio.
This work had no title-page, but in the place of one Notary arranged,
on the recto of the first leaf, five of the cuts used in the text,
and, to heighten their appearance and make the page more effective, he
put round them a border of fifteen of these same decorative blocks.
Altogether some two and twenty separate designs are seen in these
two collections, and as, after Notary’s retirement from business or
death, they appear frequently in the books of other printers during the
sixteenth century, it may be helpful if I tabulate them.
In this list the letters L. and C. stand for _Legenda_ and
_Chronicle_; the depth measurements are taken from the centre
and not the ends of the blocks. All of them are criblé, and each is
enclosed within rules.
1. Sprays of flowers and fruit, birds and a butterfly. 120 by 12
mm. L. and C.
2. Three monkeys and trees. 120 by 10 mm. L. and C.
3. Spirals of flowers and leaves; two birds. 120 by 11 mm. L.
and C.
4. Spirals of leaves and stems; various animals; in centre a man
blowing horn. 120 by 11 mm. L.
5. Spirals of foliage, birds, and various animals. 120 by 10 mm.
L. and C.
6. Leaves only. 120 by 5 mm. L. and C.
7. Wavy line with half flower. 120 by 6 mm. L.
8. Spiral of leaves; two grotesque animals. 120 by 6 mm. L. and
C.
9. Spirals of leaves and flowers; three grotesque animals and
butterfly. 120 by 6 mm. L.
10. A thick wavy stem, flowers and fruit. 120 by 6 mm. L.
11. Sprays of conventional foliage; bird in centre with
outstretched wings. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
12. Spiral of leaves and flowers. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
13. Man and two monkeys with basket; spiral of foliage. 62 by 15
mm. L. and C.
14. Hunting scene; dog pursuing stag; forest of trees. 62 by 15
mm. L. and C.
15. Two figures mounted on fighting cocks and armed with
quintain; spiral of foliage. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
A variation of this is seen in a block used by Wynkyn de Worde
at a later period. In this the two figures become two monkeys,
their weapons a broom and a pitchfork and their steeds a dog
and a goat. It is much more coarsely cut than Notary’s and
was slightly larger. This is one of a number of blocks with
which De Worde surrounded his device on the last page of the
_Chronicles of England_, which he printed in 1528.
16. Thick spiral, with leaves and flowers; two figures, one
naked. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
17. Spiral of flowers and foliage, with a dog in centre. 62 by
15 mm. L.
18. Spirals of conventional foliage issuing from mouth and tail
of grotesque animal. 62 by 15 mm. L. and C.
19. Spiral of foliage and flowers. 120 by 5 mm. C.
20. Chain ornament. 120 by 5 mm. C.
21. Spiral of conventional foliage. 62 by 6 mm. C. (Description
of England.)
22. Spiral of leaves and flowers. 62 by 6 mm. C. (Description of
England.)
In another edition of this _Chronicle_, printed at a later date,
either by Richard Pynson or Wynkyn de Worde, the printer, following
the plan of Julian Notary, placed five blocks on the front page and
surrounded them with a border. The largest block measures 118 by 99
mm., and represents a king on horseback riding through an archway.
This is a variant of the block seen in the _Polychronicon_. At
the top are two smaller blocks, one representing St George and the
Dragon and the other the royal arms crowned with angels as supporters.
Down the outer side of the large cut are two other blocks, the upper
one possibly an odd cut from a Book of Hours, measuring only 40 by 25
mm., representing a priest at the bedside of a sick man; and the lower
one the soldier with the pike which De Worde had used in the play of
_Hickscorner_. The border was made up by the repetition of five
small ornaments--(1) The ribbon; (2) The cable; (3) A variant of the
fleuron; (4) A flower or star; (5) A Maltese cross. Altogether 126
separate units went to make up this very singular border.
In 1504 William Faques printed the Statutes of the 19th Henry VII.
in folio, and placed round each page a neat but not very striking
chain border, and in 1508 Pynson printed a quarto edition of Petrus
Carmelianus with a title in a border, built up with a series of small
ornaments somewhat resembling two narrow strips of ribbon plaited
at the ends, with a fleuron introduced here and there. As similar
ornaments are found in books printed at Rouen, it is very likely that
Pynson obtained them from thence, but they appear to have been a stock
pattern, as Wynkyn de Worde had an identical set.
A curious set of border pieces was used by Pynson in 1509 in his
edition of Sebastian Brant’s _Shyp of Folys_. Each illustration
throughout the book had a border piece on either side. The first two
are seen on sig. _b_ 5, and are not unlike those used by Caxton
in the _Fifteen Oes_. They were not long enough to reach the
bottom of the cut, so the printer filled the intervening space with
a lozenge-shaped ornament. Throughout the remainder of the book he
rang the changes on four blocks. Two of these measured 112 by 14 mm.,
and the design of one was a naked figure in the midst of flowers and
foliage, with a bird at the top and some fabulous animal at the bottom;
the second showed spirals of flowers and foliage with three birds. The
other two blocks measured 112 by 12 mm. and were both alike, their
design being a series of half fleur-de-lys alternating with halves of
some other pattern and divided from each other by double white lines.
All these blocks were criblé and within double rules.
Another good example of a built-up border is seen in a volume of Year
Books of the reign of Edward III., printed by Pynson in 1518. Preceding
the title-page is his large device (McKerrow, 44) surrounded by a
border of various ornaments. At the top is a block measuring 118 by 9
mm., much the same in design as the one just mentioned above. At the
bottom two much smaller blocks are placed side by side. In one the
principal features are a dragon and a monkey; in the other a man and
woman, the man impaling a bird that is seated in the centre between
two sprays of flowers. These look French in style, both are criblé,
and they bear a close resemblance to those in use by Notary. On the
left-hand side of the device are two narrow blocks, each measuring
65 by 11 mm. The upper one has a spiral of fruit and leaves, and the
lower a human figure holding a leaf. As these two blocks did not fill
up the space required to be filled, two pieces of the ribbon ornament
were placed between and below them. On the opposite side are two more
blocks, both very narrow, and they have printed badly. There is nothing
striking in their design.
Another of Pynson’s borders is seen in the edition of _Sallust_
printed in 1520.
In 1523 Richard Faques printed Skelton’s _Goodly Garland_ in
quarto. On the title-page is a cut of a student at his desk, and this
has on three sides a border of printers’ ornaments. The outer border
was made up of what are probably variations of the fleuron, each unit
being about 13 mm. in length. The inner border of the two sides is
made up of a series of units which, I think, is intended to represent
the heraldic tincture ‘Ermine.’ They were evidently a reproduction
on a very small scale of the half ornament that alternates with the
half fleur-de-lys, in one of the blocks used in Pynson’s _Shyp of
Folys_.
Again, on the last leaf of this book is Faques’ device surrounded by a
border built up with whole or portions of the lozenge ornament arranged
within borders of the fleuron unit seen on the front page. These
lozenge ornaments are slightly smaller than those in Pynson’s hands.
Altogether this is a rather effective border. Another example of a
‘mixed border,’ to use a gardening term, is found in the _Greate
Herball_, printed by Peter Treveris in 1526. Two of these blocks,
the side pieces, certainly belonged to Wynkyn de Worde, who had used
them in 1519 on the front page of the _Orcharde of Syon_.
As it is manifestly impossible to describe in detail all the border
pieces in use in the sixteenth century, I must confine myself to a
rapid survey of the remaining seventy years. For the reason already
given, I pass over the elaborate one-piece borders used in the various
editions of the Bible and Common Prayer Book, and also all those
elaborate architectural borders seen in folio books, which began to
make their appearance about 1540. These last generally contain in their
design the initials, monograms or device of the printers, whether as a
mark of ownership or simply as advertisement is not clear; and the most
important of them have been reproduced by Mr McKerrow in his valuable
book on _English Printers’ Devices_. But attention must be drawn
to the delightful window frame borders found on the title-pages of some
of the smaller books printed by Thomas Berthelet, particularly to that
seen in the edition of the _Modus Tenendi_, printed in 1537, and
that in _Lyttleton’s Tenures_ in 1545.
Some very interesting borders are also found in the books printed by
John Oswen, both at Norwich and Worcester, between the years 1548 and
1551. While not altogether endorsing Mr Duff’s opinion that they were
“very much superior to the material used by most of the contemporary
printers,”[7] they were certainly unlike anything found in other
books, and were probably of foreign origin, though it would be rash to
speculate as to what part of the Continent they come from.
I take as an example the title-page of _Certayne Sermons appointed
by the Kinges Majestie_ ... printed by him at Worcester in 1549. In
this no less than seven distinct pieces are used--one at the top, two
at the bottom, and two more on each side. The groundwork of all these
is alternately black and white, sometimes arranged in bands, sometimes
in triangular form, and there are the usual collection of birds,
flowers and human beings.
About the year 1570 English printers began to use the ‘fleuron’ as a
material for borders. What has been termed ‘lace’ borders were nothing
less than a number of fleurons built up together in the shape of a
frame, but the variations in them are infinite. Sometimes they were
used singly, sometimes in two rows, but the most effective consisted
in a combination of four or eight units repeated over and over again
to form a frame, sometimes left with rough edges, sometimes enclosed
within rules or other printers’ ornaments. Some of the most delicate
and beautiful of these lace borders are to be seen on the title-pages
of books printed by Henry Bynneman, Thomas Creede, Henry Denham and
Thomas East, although they were adopted by all the English printers
of the second half of the sixteenth century, and have continued in
popularity to the present day.
This review of the borders found in sixteenth century books may
fittingly close with a notice of some used by Henry Denham. In the
years 1581–82 he printed for Abraham Fleming two little duodecimos,
one called the _Footepath to Felicitie_, and the other _A Monomachie
of Motives in the Mind of Man_. Both these were devotional works that
could be slipped into the pocket, and in each the pages were surrounded
by a four-piece border of exquisite design. In the _Footepath_ all
the borders were the same, and they may best be described as a chain
border, a square alternating with an oval and linked together by a
ring, the top and bottom pieces being finished off with a star at
either end. In the other book the design is made up of the rose,
fleur-de-lys, and portcullis linked together with a delicate flower.
All these borders passed into the hands of Peter Short, Denham’s
successor, and afterwards into those of Humfrey Lownes. They thus
form an interesting link between the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, as in 1602 another of Fleming’s books, _The Diamond of
Devotion_, was printed by Peter Short, and each page of this, like
its predecessor, had a border, and these show variations from those
used before: (1) a border of flowers in an interlaced design, seen on
sig. M 2 and elsewhere throughout the book, and (2) a design with the
letters E. R., i.e. Elizabeth Regina, with a fleur-de-lys at either end.
In other respects the seventeenth century has little to show in the
way of borders, and what it has are neither original nor striking.
The engraved title-page came into fashion, but as these belong rather
to a History of Engraving than a book on Printers’ Ornaments, they
are not dealt with in the present volume. What woodcut borders are
met with had done duty in the preceding century, and were generally
the worse for wear. But there are one or two uncommon ones to which I
should like to draw attention. Amongst the Bagford fragments in the
British Museum (Harl. 5927, 155) is a title-page to the second part of
Thomas Scot’s _Philomythie_, or _Philomythologie_, with the
imprint, “Printed at London for Francis Constable, 1616.” This title is
surrounded with a light and graceful geometrical border. None of the
editions of 1616 in the British Museum appear to have this second part
of _Philomythie_.
In 1641 a curious border resembling a twisted skein of wool, printed
white on a black ground, is seen on the title-page of the Rev. T.
Denison’s sermon, _The White Wolf_.
The fleuron borders still continued to be popular, but no such
effective use was made of them as in the days of Bynneman and East.
An interesting example of the combination of the two classes of
ornament--i.e. the fleuron and the decorative block--is found in the
early part of this century. In 1613 the printer John Beale, whose
material and work were notoriously bad, printed the second edition of
William Martyn’s _Youth’s Instructor_, and he made up a border
to the title-page in the following manner: At the top he built up a
gable end of various units of fleuron, enclosed between printers’
rules. Below this he placed a decorative head-piece, the double A, with
two naked children. On either side of the title he built up a column
of fleurons and other ornaments, and at the bottom he placed another
decorative block in which the prominent features are two winged figures
blowing horns, and two birds, evidently intended for peacocks, are
perched on the filials at the bottom. The whole is a curious medley,
and I know of no other like it. Both the decorative blocks used in
this border, or copies of them, are found in the hands of other
printers at this time. Other small ornaments came into use during the
sixteenth century. The national emblems the rose, the thistle, and the
harp crowned, each a separate unit, but generally used together; the
acorn, the fleur-de-lys, stars and various other forms to which it
is difficult to give a name, are found, and towards the close of the
century we come upon a border made up of ten printers’ rules set close
and printed in red and black, which has a novel if not very artistic
appearance. The use of rules, not only on the title-page, but on every
page of a book, dates back to the sixteenth century, and was probably
a relic of the days when all manuscripts were rubricated, and it was
adopted by the sixteenth century printers as an adornment for all
manner of service books, particularly Bibles.
In the eighteenth century borders of any kind are rare, but two are
here reproduced: that to Dodsley’s edition of Gray’s _Elegy_,
printed in 1751, and the border used by John Wilson of Kilmarnock, when
printing the first edition of _Burns’s Poems_ in 1786.
Although, as we have seen, it was at Oxford that the earliest use of a
border in English books is found, the University printers of that city
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were content to follow in
the footsteps of the London men, and until we come to the work of M.
Burghers, late in the seventeenth century, there is nothing that calls
for special notice.
Burghers’ engraved title-pages do not come within the scope of this
work, for reasons already stated.
Cambridge has a somewhat better record: Siberch, the first printer
there, had a woodcut border which is found in most of his early books.
It is either German or Dutch in character. Its design is architectural,
showing an arch supported by curiously decorated columns, with
children, one of whom has wings, playing round them. Two other winged
figures are seen on the arch, and two more in the bottom compartment,
are acting as supporters to the Royal Arms. As Siberch’s sign was the
_Arma Regia_, this bottom block is said to represent it. As a
specimen of the woodcutters’ art this border is of no great merit; it
is a one-piece border, and it has been reproduced scores of times. But
as being the earliest border used in Cambridge it calls for mention
in this volume, and we give a reproduction of it. In the seventeenth
century the Cambridge printers built up some effective borders with
small ornaments. An extremely pretty one is seen round the title-page
of the _Clavis Apocalyptica_, printed by Thomas Buck in 1632. In
this instance thirty-nine units are used in a space of 110 mm. and
placed within rules, giving the whole a neat and pleasing appearance.
In 1633 Roger Daniel printed an octavo edition of _Dionysius_, and
used as a border to the title-page a flower perhaps meant for a rose,
with stalk and leaves, measuring only 4 × 2 mm., and he placed the
units in a double row.
In another case the ornament looks like a fleur-de-lys rising from a
slender stem with a leaf on either side. The unit measures 5 × 4 mm.,
and a double row is made with them.
HEAD AND TAIL PIECES--SMALL ORNAMENTS