ENGLAND
_By_ E. GORDON DUFF
The art of the wood-engraver may almost be said to have had no
existence in England before the introduction of printing, for there
are not probably more than half a dozen cuts now known, if indeed so
many, that are of an earlier date. The few that exist are devotional
prints of the type known as the 'Image of Pity,' in which a
half-length figure of Christ on the cross stands surrounded with the
emblems of the Passion.
It may be taken, I think, for granted that at the time Caxton set up
his press at Westminster, that is, in the year 1476, there was no
wood-engraver competent to undertake the work of illustrating his
books. We see, for instance, that in the first edition of the
_Canterbury Tales_ there are no woodcuts, while they appear in the
second edition; and it is not likely that Caxton would have left a
book so eminently suited for illustration without some such adornment
had the necessary craftsmen been available. As it was, it was not till
1480 that woodcuts first appeared in an English printed book, the
_Mirror of the World_. In this there are two series of cuts. One,
consisting of diagrams, is found in most of the MSS. of the book; the
other, which represents masters teaching their scholars or at work
alone, was a new departure of Caxton's. It is quite probable that they
were intended for general use in books, indeed we find some used in
the _Cato_, but they do not appear to have been employed elsewhere.
The diagrams are meagre and difficult to understand, so much so that
the printer has printed several in their wrong places. The necessary
letterpress occurring within them is not printed (Caxton had not then
a small enough type), but is written in by hand, and it is worth
noticing that this is done in all copies in the same hand, and so must
have been done in Caxton's office, some are fond enough to suppose by
Caxton himself.
In the next year appeared the second edition of the _Game of Chesse_,
with a number of woodcuts. The first edition, printed at Bruges by
Caxton and Mansion, had no illustrations. The cuts are coarsely
designed and roughly cut, but serve their purpose; indeed, they are
evidently intended as illustrations rather than ornaments. Some
controversy has at different times arisen as to whether these cuts
were executed in England or abroad, but Mr. Linton has very justly
decided in favour of England. The work, he says, is so poor that any
one who could hold a knife could cut them, therefore there was no
necessity to send abroad.
About 1484 we have two important illustrated books, the _Canterbury
Tales_ and the _[AE]sop_; the former with 28 illustrations, the latter
with 186.
The cuts of the _Canterbury Tales_ depict for the most part the
various individuals of the Pilgrimage, and there is also a bird's-eye
view of all the pilgrims seated at an immense round table at supper,
which was used afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde for the 'Assembly of
Gods.' The copies of German cuts in the _[AE]sop_, with the exception of
the full-page frontispiece (known only in the copy in the Windsor
Library), are smaller, and are the work of two, if not three,
engravers. One cut seems to have been hurriedly executed in a
different manner to the rest, perhaps to take the place of one injured
at the last moment. It is not worked in the usual manner with the
outlines in black--_i.e._ raised lines on the wood-block, but a
certain amount of the effect has been produced by a white line on a
black ground--_i.e._ by the cut-away lines of the wood-block.
The _Golden Legend_, which was the next illustrated book to appear,
contains the most ambitious woodcuts which Caxton used. Those in the
earlier part are the full width of a large folio page, and show,
especially in their backgrounds, a certain amount of technical skill.
The later part of the book contains a number of small cuts of saints
very coarsely executed, and the same cut is used over and over again
for different saints.
In 1487 Caxton first used his large woodcut device, which is
probably, though the contrary is often asserted, of English
workmanship. It is entirely un-French in style and execution, and was
probably cut to print on the Missal printed by Maynyal for Caxton in
order that the publisher might be brought prominently into notice.
About this time (1487-88) two more illustrated books were issued,--the
_Royal Book_ and the _Speculum Vite Christi_. The series cut for the
_Speculum_ are of very good workmanship, though the designs are poor,
but all of them were not used in the book. One or two appear later in
books printed by W. de Worde, manifestly from the same series. The
_Royal Book_ contains only seven cuts, six of which are from the
_Speculum_. Some of the cuts occur also in the _Doctrinal of Sapience_
and the _Book of Divers Ghostly Matters_.
It is impossible not to think when examining Caxton's books that the
use of woodcuts was rather forced upon him by the necessities of his
business, than deliberately preferred by himself. He seems to have
wished to popularise the more generally known books, and only to have
used woodcuts when the book absolutely needed them. He did not, as
some later printers did, simply use woodcuts to attract the unwary
purchaser.
What cuts Caxton possessed at the end of his career it is hard to
determine. The set of large _Horae_ cuts which W. de Worde used must
have been Caxton's, for we find one of them, the Crucifixion, used in
the _Fifteen O'es_, which was itself intended as a supplement to a
_Horae_, now unknown. In the same way there must have been a number of
cuts for use in the 8vo _Horae_, but as that is known only from a
small fragment, we cannot identify them. From similarity of style and
identity of measurement we can pick out a few from Wynkyn de Worde's
later editions, but many must be passed over.
On turning to examine the presses at work at the same time as Caxton's
one cannot but be struck by the scarcity of illustrations. Lettou and
Machlinia, though they produced over thirty books, had no ornaments
that we know of beyond a border which was used in their edition of the
_Horae ad usum Sarum_, and passed into the hands of Pynson. They seem
to have been without everything except type, not having even initial
letters.
The St. Alban's press was a step in advance. A few cuts were used in
the _Chronicles_, and the _Book of St. Alban's_ contains coats of
arms, produced by a combination of wood-cutting and printing in
colour.
The Oxford press was the most ambitious, and was in possession of two
sets of cuts, in neither case intended for the books in which they
were used. One set was prepared for a _Golden Legend_, but no such
book is known to have been issued at the Oxford press. One of these
cuts appears as a frontispiece to Lyndewode's _Constitutions_. It
represents Jacobus de Voragine writing the _Golden Legend_, so that
it did equally well for Lyndewode writing his law-book. Others of the
series are used in the _Liber Festialis_ of 1486, but as that was a
small folio and the cuts were large, the ends were cut off, and they
are all printed in a mutilated condition. The other cuts used in the
_Festial_ are small, and form part of a set for a _Horae_, but no
_Horae_ is known to have been printed at the Oxford press. It would be
natural to suppose in this case that these cuts had been procured from
some other printer who had used them in the production of the books
for which they were intended; but the most careful search has failed
to find them in any other book. Besides these cuts the Oxford press
owned a very beautiful border, which was used in the commentary on the
_De Anima_ of Aristotle by Alexander de Hales and the commentary on
the _Lamentations of Jeremiah_ by John Lattebury, printed in 1481 and
1482. The printers owned nothing else for the adornment of their books
but a rudely cut capital G, which we find used many times in the
_Festial_.
The poverty of ornamental letters and borders is very noticeable in
all the English presses of the fifteenth century. Caxton possessed one
ambitious letter, a capital A, which was used first in the _Order of
Chivalry_, and a series of eight borders, each made up of four pieces,
and found for the first time in the _Fifteen O'es_. They are of little
merit, and compare very unfavourably with French work of the period.
The best set of borders used in England belonged to Notary and his
partners when they started in London about 1496. They are in the usual
style, with dotted backgrounds, and may very likely have been brought
from France. Pynson's borders, which he used in a _Horae_ about 1495,
are much more English in style, but are not good enough to make the
page really attractive; in fact almost the only fine specimens of
English printing with borders are to be found in the Morton _Missal_,
which he printed in 1500. In this book also there are fine initial
letters, often printed in red. It is hard to understand why, as a
rule, English initial letters were so very bad; it certainly was not
from the want of excellent models, for those in the Sarum missals,
printed at Venice by Hertzog in 1494, and sold in England by Frederic
Egmont, contain most beautifully designed initials, as good as can be
found in any early printed book.
Wynkyn de Worde, when he succeeded in 1491 to Caxton's business, found
himself in possession of a large number of cuts, a considerably larger
number than ever appeared in the books of Caxton's that now remain to
us. The first illustrated book he issued was a new edition of the
_Golden Legend_, in which the old cuts were utilised. This was printed
in 1493. In 1494 a new edition of the _Speculum Vite Christi_ was
issued, of which only one complete copy is known, that in the library
at Holkham. It probably contains only the series of cuts used by
Caxton in his edition, for the few leaves to be found in other
libraries have no new illustrations. About the same time (1494) De
Worde issued several editions of the _Horae ad usum Sarum_, one in
octavo (known from a few leaves discovered in the binding of a book in
the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford) and the rest in quarto.
In the quarto editions we find the large series of pictures, among
which are the three rioters and three skeletons, the tree of Jesse,
and the Crucifixion, which occur in Caxton's _Fifteen O'es_. It is
extremely probable that all the cuts in these editions had belonged to
Caxton. The two cuts in the fragment of the octavo edition, however,
are of quite a different class, evidently newly cut, and much superior
in style and simplicity to Caxton's. It is much to be regretted that
no complete copy of the book exists, for the neat small cuts and bold
red and black printing form a very tasteful page.
A curious specimen of engraving is to be found in the _Scala
Perfectionis_, by Walter Hylton, also printed in 1494. It represents
the Virgin and Child seated under an architectural canopy, and below
this are the words of the antiphon beginning, 'Sit dulce nomen
d[=n]i.' These words are not printed from type, but cut on the block,
and the engraver seems to have treated them simply as part of the
decoration, for many of the words are by themselves quite unreadable
and bear only a superficial resemblance to the inscription from which
they were copied.
An edition of Bartholomaeus' _De proprietatibus rerum_ issued about
this time has a number of cuts, not of very great interest; and the
_Book of St. Albans_ of 1496 has an extra chapter on fishing,
illustrated with a picture of an angler at work, with a tub, in the
German fashion, to put his fish into. It has also a curiously modern
diagram of the sizes of hooks. In 1498 De Worde issued an illustrated
edition of Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_. The cuts are very ambitious, but
badly executed, and the hand of the engraver who cut them may be
traced in several books. In 1499 an edition of _Mandeville_ was
issued, ornamented with a number of small cuts, and about this time
several small books were issued having cuts on the title-page.
Richard Pynson's first illustrated book was an edition of the
_Canterbury Tales_, printed some time before 1492. At the head of each
tale is a rudely executed cut of the pilgrim who narrates it. These
cuts were made for this edition, and were in some cases altered while
the book was going through the press to serve for different
characters: the Squire and the Manciple, the Sergeant and Doctor of
Physic, are from the same blocks with slight alterations. In 1494 came
an edition of Lydgate's _Falle of Princis_, a translation from the _De
Casibus virorum et feminarum illustrium_ of Boccaccio, illustrated
with the cuts used by Jean Dupr['e] in his Paris edition of a French
version of the same work in 1483. One of the neatest of these,
depicting Marcus Manlius thrown into the Tiber, is here shown. About
1497 an edition of the _Speculum Vite Christi_ was issued, with a
number of neatly executed small cuts, and in 1500 Pynson printed the
beautiful Sarum Missal, known as the _Morton Missal_. Special borders
and ornaments, introducing a rebus on the name of Morton, were
engraved for this, and a full-page cut of the prelate's coat of arms
appears at the commencement of the book.
[Illustration: The Death of Marcus Manlius. From Lydgate's _The Falle
of Princis_, Pynson, 1494. (Reduced.)]
After the year 1500 almost every book issued by W. de Worde, who was
pre-eminently the popular publisher, had an illustration on the
title-page. This was not always cut for the book, nor indeed always
very applicable to the letterpress, and the cuts can almost all be
arranged into series made for more important books. There were,
however, a few stock cuts: a schoolmaster with a gigantic birch for
grammars, a learned man seated at a desk for works of more advanced
scholarship, and lively pictures of hell for theological treatises.
The title-page was formed on a fixed plan. At the top, printed inside
a wood-cut ribbon, was placed the title, below this the cut.
Pynson, who was the Royal printer, and a publisher of learned works,
disdained such attempts to catch the more vulgar buyers. His
title-pages rarely have cuts, and these are only used on such few
popular books as he issued. Both he and De Worde had a set of narrow
upright cuts of men and women with blank labels over their heads,
which could be used for any purpose, and have the names printed in
type in the label above.
Foreign competition was also at this time making its influence felt on
English book-illustration. W. de Worde had led the way by purchasing
from Godfried van Os, about 1492, some type initial letters, and at
least one woodcut. Pynson, early in the sixteenth century, obtained
some cuts from V['e]rard, which he used in his edition of the _Kalendar
of Shepherdes_, 1506, and Julian Notary, who began printing about 1496,
seems to have made use of a miscellaneous collection of cuts obtained
from various quarters. He had, amongst other curious things, part of a
set of metal cuts executed in the _mani[e']re cribl['e]e_, which have
not been traced to any other book, but appear to have passed at a
considerably later date into the hands of Wyer, who commenced to print
before 1524. When W. de Worde left Westminster in 1500 to settle in
Fleet Street, he parted with some of his old woodcuts to
Notary,--woodcuts which had been used in the _Horae_ of 1494, and had
originally belonged to Caxton. All these miscellaneous cuts appear in
his _Golden Legend_ of 1503, and the large cut of the 'Assembly of
Saints' on the title-page seems also to have been borrowed. It was used
by Hopyl at Paris in 1505 for his edition of the _Golden Legend_ in
Dutch, and passed afterwards with Hopyl's business to his son-in-law
Prevost, who used it in a theological work of John Major's. The engraved
metal ornamental initials were obtained from Andr['e] Bocard.
Some time before 1510 an extremely curious book, entitled the _Passion
of our Lorde Jesu_, was printed abroad, probably in Paris. The
uncouthness of the language seems to have brought about its
destruction; for, though many fragments have been found in bindings,
only one perfect copy, now in the Bodleian, is known. It contains a
number of large cuts of a very German appearance and quite unlike any
others of the period. Some are used also in the York _Manual_ printed
for De Worde in 1509.
About this time too a number of popular books in English, some adorned
with rude woodcuts, were issued by John of Doesborch, a printer in
Antwerp. Among them may be mentioned _The wonderful shape and nature
of man, beasts, serpents, &c._, the _Fifteen Tokens_, the _Story of
the Parson of Kalenbrowe_, and the _Life of Virgilius_. A still
earlier Antwerp cut, which had been used by Gerard Leeu for the
title-page of his English _Solomon and Marcolphus_, found its way to
England and was used by Copland.
In the last years of Henry VII.'s reign, from 1501 to 1509, a few
books may be mentioned as particularly interesting from their
illustrations. In 1502 De Worde printed the _Ordinary of Chrysten
Men_, a large book with a block-printed title. It was reprinted in
1506. In 1503 appeared the _Recuyles of y^e Hystoryes of Troye_, a
typical example of an illustrated book of the period. There are about
seventy cuts of all kinds, of which twelve were specially cut for the
book: many others were used in the _Morte d'Arthur_, and the rest are
miscellaneous. In 1505 we have the '_Craft to live and die well_,' of
which there is another edition in the following year. In 1506 appears
the _Castle of Labour_, one of the few books entirely illustrated with
cuts specially made for it; in 1508 the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_. The
cuts in these last three books were all ultimately derived from French
originals. An edition of the _Seven Wise Masters of Rome_, of which
the only known copy is imperfect, appeared about 1506, though the cuts
which illustrate it were made before 1500. The fragment contains seven
cuts, but the set must have consisted of eleven. They are very careful
copies of those used by Gerard Leeu in his edition of 1490, and have
lost none of the feeling of the originals.
Three books only of Pynson's production during this period call for
special notice. About 1505 he issued an edition of the _Castle of
Labour_, with very well-cut illustrations closely copied from the French
edition. In 1506 appeared his edition of the _Kalendar of Shepherdes_,
which is illustrated for the most part with cuts obtained from
V['e]rard, and in 1507 an edition of the _Golden Legend_. Of each of
these books but one copy is known.
For some unknown reason, the accession of Henry VII. acted in the most
extraordinary way upon the English presses, which in that year issued
a very large number of books. Perhaps the influx of visitors to London
on that occasion made an unusual demand; but at any rate a number of
popular books were then issued. Amongst them are _Rychard Cuer de
Lyon_, the _Fiftene Joyes of Maryage_, the _Convercyon of Swerers_,
the _Parliament of Devils_, and many others. Besides these there were,
of course, a number of funeral sermons on Henry VII., many of which
have curious frontispieces. One of these was used again a little
later, for the funeral sermon of the King's mother, the Lady Margaret,
the royal pall and effigy on it being cut out and replaced by an
ordinary pall. This method of inserting new pieces into old blocks,
technically termed plugging, was not much used at this period when
wood-engraving was so cheap. An excellent example, however, will be
found in the books printed for William Bretton, which contain a large
coat of arms. A mistake was made in the cutting of the arms, and a new
shield was inserted, the mantling and supporters being untouched.
Another notable book of that period is Barclay's _Ship of Fools_,
issued by Pynson in 1509. It contains one hundred and eighteen cuts,
the first being a full-page illustration of the printer's coat of
arms. The rest are copies, roughly executed, of those in the original
edition. Another version of this book, translated by Henry Watson, was
issued the same year by Wynkyn de Worde. It is illustrated with a
special series of cuts, which are used again in the later editions. Of
the original edition of 1509 only one copy is known, printed on vellum
and preserved in the Biblioth[e']que Nationale. Stray cuts from this
series are found in several of De Worde's other books, but may be at
once recognised from the occurrence of the 'fool' in his typical cap
and bells.
About this time and a little earlier the title was very often cut
entire on a block. The _De Proprietatibus_ of _c._ 1496 contains the
first and the most elaborate specimen, in which the words
'Bartholomeus de proprietatibus rerum' are cut in enormous letters on
a wooden board; indeed the whole block was so large that hardly any
copy contains the whole. Faques, Pynson, and others used similar
blocks, in which the letters were white and the background black (one
of Pynson's printed in red is to be found in the _Ortus Vocabulorum_
of 1509), but their uncouthness soon led to their disuse. Numbers of
service books were issued by Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde, profusely
illustrated with small cuts, most of which appear to have been of home
manufacture, though unoriginal in design. It is worth noticing one
difference in the cuts of the two printers. Pynson's small cuts have
generally an open or white background, De Worde's are, as a rule,
dotted in the French style. Since in some of their service books these
two printers used exactly similar founts of type the identification of
their cuts is of particular value. But these service books almost from
the first began to deteriorate. The use of borders was abandoned, and
little care was given to keeping sets of cuts together, or using those
of similar styles in one book. We find the archaic cuts of Caxton, the
delicate pictures copied from French models, and roughly designed and
executed English blocks all used together, sometimes even on the same
page. The same thing is noticeable in all the illustrated books of the
period. De Worde used Caxton's cuts up to the very end of his career,
though in many cases the blocks were worm-eaten or broken. The
peculiar mixture of cuts is very striking in some books. Take as an
example the edition of _Robert the Devil_, published about 1514. No
cut used in it is original: one is from a book on good living and
dying, another from the _Ship of Fools_,[22] a third is from a
devotional book of the previous century, and so on. In the _Oliver of
Castile_ of 1518, though there are over sixty illustrations, not more
than three or four are specially cut for it, but come from the _Morte
d'Arthur_, the _Gesta Romanorum_, _Helias Knight of the Swan_, the
_Body of Policy_, _Richard Cuer de Lion_, the _Book of Carving_, and
so on, and perhaps many are used in several. Indeed, W. de Worde
minded as little about using the same illustrations over and over
again as some of our modern publishers.
For all books issued in the early years of the sixteenth century it
was thought necessary to have at least an illustration on the
title-page, so that practically an examination of the illustrated
books of the period means almost an examination of the entire produce
of the printing press. In time, when the subject has been thoroughly
studied, it will be possible to separate all the cuts into series cut
for some special purpose.
A rather important influence was introduced into the history of
English book illustration about 1518, when Pynson obtained a series of
borders and other material, closely imitated from the designs made by
Holbein for Froben.[23] They are the first important examples of
'renaissance' design used in English books, and their effect was rapid
and marked. Wynkyn de Worde, who in his devices had hitherto been
content to use Caxton's trade-mark with some few extra ornaments,
introduced a hideous parody of one of Froben's devices, poor in
design, and wretched in execution. The series of borders used by
Pynson were good in execution, and their style harmonised with the
Roman type used by him at that time, but with other books it was
different. The heavy English black letter required something bolder,
and unless these borders were heavily cut, they looked particularly
meagre. A very beautiful title-page of this type (here somewhat
reduced) is that in Sir Thomas Elyot's _Image of Governance_, printed
by Thomas Berthelet at London in 1540-41.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Device of Thomas Berthelet.]
The illustrated books of this period offer a curious mixture of
styles, for nothing could be more opposed in feeling than the early
school of English cuts and the newly introduced Renaissance designs.
The outsides of the books underwent exactly the same change, for in
place of the old pictorial blocks with which the stationers had
heretofore stamped their bindings, they used hideous combinations of
medallions and pillars.
The device of Berthelet is an excellent specimen of the new style.
Despising good old English names and signs, he carried on business at
the sign of Lucretia Romana in Fleet Street, and his device depicts
that person in the act of thrusting a sword into her bosom. In the
background is a classical landscape, and on either side pillars. Above
are festoons, and on ribbons at the head and feet of the figure the
name of the printer and of his sign. Though the cut is uninteresting
it is a beautiful piece of work.
Another result of the new movement was the banishment of woodcuts from
the title-page. Those to Pynson's books have already been noticed, but
lesser printers like Scot, Godfrey, Rastell, and Treveris also made
use of borders of classical design, and gave up the use of woodcuts.
It is extremely curious to notice what excellent effects on a
title-page the printers at this time produced from the poorest
materials. They seem to have understood much better than those of a
later date how to use different sized type with effect, and to make
the whole page pleasing, without attracting too much attention to one
particular part.
[Illustration: Device of Richard Faques.]
Before leaving this early period it will be as well to return a
little, and briefly notice some of the more marked illustrated books
produced by printers other than Pynson and De Worde. The two printers
of the name of Faques, Guillam and Richard, produced a few most
interesting books, and the device of the last named, founded on that
of the Paris printer, Thielman Kerver, is a fine piece of engraving.
The name was originally cut upon the block as Faques, and was so used
in his two first books; but in order to make the name appear more
English in form, the 'ques' was cut out and 'kes' inserted in type.
The last dated book which he printed, the _Mirrour of Our Lady_ of
1530, contains several fine illustrations; that on the reverse of the
title-page depicting a woman of some religious order writing a book,
has at the bottom the letters E. G. joined by a knot, which may be the
initials of the engraver.
The Cambridge press of 1521-1522, from the scholastic nature of its
books, required no illustrations, but it used for the title-page of
the _Galen_ a woodcut border, rather in the manner of Holbein, but
evidently of native production. In 1536 this border reappears in a
Dutch Prognostication printed at Antwerp. The Oxford press of the
early sixteenth century borrowed some of its cuts from De Worde, but a
few, such as the ambitious frontispiece and the four diagrams in the
_Compotus_ of 1519, were original.
John Rastell in his _Pastyme of People_ used a number of full-page
illustrations of the kings of England, coarse in design and execution,
and very remarkable in appearance. Peter Treveris issued a number of
books with illustrations, some of which are well worthy of notice. The
_Grete Herbal_, first published in 1516, contained a large number of
cuts. Jerome of Bruynswyke's _Worke of Surgeri_ has some curious
plates of surgical operations, and though the subjects are rather
repulsive, they are excellent specimens of the wood-cutting of the
period. Treveris' best known book is the _Policronicon_ of 1527,
printed for John Reynes, whose mark in red generally occurs on the
title-page. This title-page is a fine piece of work, and has been
facsimiled by Dibdin in his _Typographical Antiquities_. Some of the
cuts and ornaments used by Treveris passed after his death into the
hands of the Edinburgh printer, Thomas Davidson.
Lawrence Andrewe of Calais, who printed shortly before 1530, also
issued some curious illustrated books. Before coming to England he had
translated the extraordinary book, _The wonderful shape and nature of
man, beasts, serpentes, &c._, printed by John of Doesborch, whom we
have spoken of above. On his own account he issued the _Boke of
distyllacyon of waters_ by Jerome of Brunswick, illustrated with
pictures of apparatus, and _The Mirror of the World_. This is founded
on Caxton's edition, but is much more fully illustrated, the cuts to
the Natural History portion being particularly curious. It is worth
noticing that Andrewe, like some other printers at this time,
introduced his device into many of the initial letters and borders
which were cut for him, so that they can be readily identified when
they occur, after his death, in books by other printers.
After the death of Wynkyn de Worde in 1535, ideas as regards
book-illustration underwent a great change. Theology had become
popular, and theological books were not adapted for illustration. The
ordinary book, with pictures put in haphazard, absolutely died out;
and cuts were only used in chap books, or in large illustrated
volumes,--descriptions of horrible creatures, and the likenesses of
comets or portents on the one hand, chronicles, books of travel, and
scientific works on the other. The difference which we noticed between
W. de Worde and Pynson, the one being a popular printer and the other
a printer of standard works, is distinctly marked in the succeeding
generation. While Wyer, Byddell, and Copland published the popular
books, Grafton and Whytchurch, Wolfe and Day, issued more solid
literature. The old woodcuts passed into the hands of the poorer
printers, and were used till they were worn out, and it is curious to
notice how long in many cases this took. On the other hand, the
illustrations made for new books are, as a rule, of excellent design
and execution, owing a good deal, in all probability, to the influence
of Holbein, who, for the latter portion of his life, was living in
England. As examples of his work, we may take two books published in
1548, Cranmer's _Catechism_, published by Walter Lynne, and Halle's
_Chronicles_, published by Grafton. The first contains a number of
small cuts, one of which is signed in full Hans Holbein, and two
others are signed with his initials H. H. Some writers insist that
these three cuts alone are to be ascribed to him, and that the rest
are from an unknown hand. Besides these small cuts, there is one
full-page cut on the back of the title of very fine work. It
represents Edward VI. seated on his throne with the bishops kneeling
on his right, the peers on his left. From the hands of the king the
bishops are receiving a Bible. The cut at the end of Halle's
_Chronicles_, very similarly executed and also ascribed to Holbein,
represents Henry VIII. sitting in Parliament. Almost all the volumes
of chronicles, of which a number were issued in the sixteenth century,
contain woodcuts, and two are especially well illustrated,--Grafton's
_Chronicles_, published in 1569, and Holinshed's _Chronicles_ in 1577.
The illustrations in the latter book, which Mr. Linton considers to
have been cut on metal, do not appear in the later edition of 1586.
Among the illustrations in the first edition, so Dibdin says, is to be
found a picture of a guillotine.
[Illustration: From Cranmer's _Catechism_, London, 1548.]
Of all the English printers of the latter half of the sixteenth
century, none produced finer books than John Day, who, it has been
suggested, engraved some of the woodcuts which he used. The best
known, perhaps, of his books is the _Book of Christian Prayers_,
commonly called Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, which he published in
1569. In a way, this book is undoubtedly a fine specimen of
book-ornamentation, but as it was executed in a style then out of
date, having borders like the earlier service books, it suffers by
comparison with the 'Books of Hours' of fifty years earlier. Another
book of Day's which obtained great popularity was the _History of
Martyrs_, compiled by John Fox. We read on Day's epitaph in the church
of Bradley-Parva--
"He set a Fox to wright how martyrs runne,
By death to lyfe. Fox ventured paynes and health,
To give them light; Day spent in print his wealth."
Considering the popularity of the book, and the number of editions
that were issued, we can hardly imagine that Day lost money upon it.
The illustrations are of varied excellence, but the book contains also
some very fine initial letters. One, the C at the commencement of the
dedication, contains a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on her throne, with
three men standing beside her, two of whom are supposed to be Day and
Fox. Below the throne, forming part of the letter, is the Pope holding
two broken keys.
Initial letters about this time arrived at their best. They were often
very large, and contained scenes, mythological subjects, or
coats-of-arms. A fine specimen of this last class is to be found in
the _Cosmographical Glasse_, by William Cuningham, 1559. It is a large
D containing the arms of Robert, Lord Dudley, to whom the book is
dedicated. Very soon after this some ingenious printer invented the
system of printing an ornamental border for the letter with a blank
space for the insertion of an ordinary capital letter,--a system which
soon succeeded in destroying any beauty or originality which letters
had up to this time possessed.
In conclusion, it will be well to notice the growth of engraving on
metal in England. The earliest specimen that I know of is the device
first used by Pynson about 1496. It is certainly metal, and has every
appearance of having been cut in this country. Some writers have put
forward the theory that the majority of early illustrations, though to
all appearance woodcuts, were really cut on metal. But wherever it is
possible to trace an individual cut for any length of time, we can see
from the breakages, and in some cases from small holes bored by
insects, that the material used was certainly wood. Julian Notary had
some curious metal cuts, but they were certainly of foreign design and
workmanship, and the same may be said of the metal cuts found amongst
the early English service books. The border on the title-page of the
Cambridge _Galen_, usually described as engraved on metal, is really
an ordinary woodcut. It is not till 1540 that we find a book
illustrated with engravings produced in this country. This was Thomas
Raynald's _Byrth of Mankynde_, which contains four plates of surgical
diagrams. In some of the later editions these plates have been
re-engraved on wood. In 1545 another medical book appeared,
_Compendiosa totius delineatio aere exarata per Thomam Geminum_. It
has a frontispiece with the arms of Henry VIII., and forty plates of
anatomical subjects. Other editions appeared in 1553 and 1559, and the
title-page of the last is altered by the insertion of a portrait of
Elizabeth in place of the royal arms. The _Stirpium Adversaria nova
authoribus Petro Pena et Mathia de Lobel_ of 1570 has a beautifully
engraved title-page, and the 1572 edition of Parker's _Bible_ contains
a map of the Holy Land with the following inscription in an ornamental
tablet: 'Graven bi Humfray Cole, goldsmith, an English man born in y^e
north, and pertayning to y^e mint in the Tower, 1572.' Humfray Cole is
supposed by some authorities to have engraved the beautiful portraits
of Elizabeth, the Earl of Leicester, and Lord Burleigh, which appear
in the earlier edition of 1568. Saxton's maps, which appeared in 1579,
are partly the work of native engravers, for at least eight were
engraved by Augustine Ryther and Nicholas Reynolds. In 1591 there are
two books,--Broughton's _Concent of Scripture_, and Sir John
Harington's _Ariosto_. The latter contains almost fifty plates,
closely copied from a Venetian edition, and was the most ambitious
book illustrated with metal plates published in the century. There are
a few other books published before 1600 which contain specimens of
engraving, but none worthy of particular mention.
* * * * *
[22] This particular cut, which represents the Fool looking out of a
window while his house is on fire, meant to illustrate the chapter 'Of
bostynge or hauynge confydence in fortune,' is not used in the edition
of 1517. It may, perhaps, occur in the edition of 1509, of which the
unique copy is at Paris.
[23] Sir Thomas More, the friend and employer both of Pynson and
Froben, had probably a good deal to do with this purchase of material.
INDEX
Abbeville, 147.
[AE]sop, Dutch, _Leeu's_, 202;
English, _Caxton's_, 221;
German, _Steinh[:o]wel's_, 46;
Italian, _Brescia_, 131;
_Florence_, 122; _Milan_, 133;
_Naples_, 83; _Venice_, 90;
_Verona_, 85.
Albi, 144.
Aldus, 99-104.
Antwerp, 197, 201 _sq._
Arndes, S., 67.
_Art de bien vivre et de bien mourir_, 156-58.
Augsburg, 37-45, 71-74.
_Aymon, Les Quatre Fils_, 143.
_b_ (engraver's signature), 95.
Back, G., 203, 207.
Bacon, Sir N., book-plate, 21.
Baldassaris, H., 140.
Baleni, G., 126.
B[:a]mler, J., 41-43.
Barberiis, P. de, 80.
Basel, 76-78.
Bazaleriis, B. de, 135.
Belcari, M., 125.
_Belial_, by Jacobus de Theramo, 37, 44;
Dutch version called _Der Sonderen troest_, 198-200.
Bellaert, J., 198-201, 205 _sq._
Benaliis, B. de, 90, 96.
Benivieni, Domenico, 116.
Benvenuto, F., 126.
Bergomensis, Philippus, _De claris mulieribus_, 132.
Berthelet, T., 236-39.
Bettini, A., _Monte Santo di Dio_, 86, 109.
Bevilaqua, S., device, 137.
_Bible des poetes_, 150.
Bibles: _English_, 13;
_German_, 1472, 52;
1473 and 1477, 38;
_c._ 1480, 52, 94;
1483, 53;
L[:u]beck, 1494, 67;
_Italian_, 94;
_Latin_, 42-line, 3, 5;
36-line, 7;
1462, 4, 9, 23, 25.
_Biblia Pauperum_, Pfister's, 26 _sq._
Blastos, N., 137.
Boccaccio, G., _De Claris Mulieribus_, 47, 49;
_Decamerone_, 96.
Bodner, _Edelstein_, 2.
Bonaventura, St., _Deuote Meditatione_, 91 _sq._
Bonhomme, Jacques, 146.
Bonhomme, Mac['e], 170.
Brandis, L., 50-52.
Brant, Sebastian, 64-67.
Breda, J. de, 203.
Brescia, 131.
Breydenbach, B. von, 57-60, 162.
Brocar, A. G., 217.
Brocar, J., 217.
Bruges, 196 _sq._
_Buch der Natur_, 41.
_Buch der vier Historien_, 26 _sq._
_Buch der Weisheit_, 49.
_Buch von den Sieben Tods[:u]nden_, 41.
Buonaccorsi, F., 108, 122.
Burgkmair, H., 72, 74.
Caillaut, A., 164.
Calandro, P., _Arithmetic_, 109.
_Calendario_, 1476, 32.
Caliergi, Z. _See_ Kaliergos.
Cambridge, 241.
Capcasa. _See_ Codecha.
Capranica, D., _Arte di ben morire_, 121.
Caxton, W., 12, 218-25.
Celtes, C., 68.
Centenera, A., 212 sq.
Cessolis, J. de, Chess-book, _Dutch_, 202;
_English_, 220;
_German_, 38;
_Italian_, 117 _sq._
Chamb['e]ry, 144.
_Champfleury_, 167.
Chaucer, G., _Canterbury Tales_, Caxton's, 221;
Pynson's, 227.
_Chroniques de France_, 161.
Codecha (or Capcasa) M. di, 92, 94, 98 note.
Cole, H., 248.
Cologne, 52.
Colonna, F., 99.
Colophons, 22-25.
Columna, [AE]gidius, _De regimine principum_, 35.
_Contrasti_, 128.
Conway, Sir W. M., quoted, 195 _sqq._
_Copilacion de leyes_, 1483, 212 _sq._
Cousteau, G., 156.
Cranach, L., 76.
Cremer, H., 5.
Cremonese, P., 96.
Dance of Death (Danse Macabre), 160, 169.
Dante, _Divina Commedia_, Brescia, 1487, 95, 131;
Florence, 1481, 86;
1506, 131;
Venice, 1491, 96.
Day, J., 245 _sq._
Delfft, 202, 206.
Deventer, 203.
_Dialogus Creaturarum_, 197.
Dienecker, Jost, 71.
Dinckmut, C., 49.
Dino, Fran. di, 83.
Directors, 25.
Doesborch, Jan van, 231, 242.
Dolea, C., 9.
Dorothea, S., _Rappresentatione_, 128.
Dupr['e], Galliot, 166.
Du Pr['e], Jean, 141, 145-48, 177, 179-83.
Durandus, _Rationale_ (1459), 3, 4.
D[:u]rer, A., 69 _sq._
Egmont, F., 137, 225.
_Epistole ed Evangelii_, 116.
Eustace, G., 192.
Faques, G. and R., 240.
Farfengo, B. da, 131.
_Fasciculus Temporum_, Cologneedd., 52;
Ratdolt's, 88;
Louvain and Utrecht, 196.
Ferdinand II., King of Naples, 17.
Ferrara, 131.
Fichet, G., 14.
_Fifteen O'es_, 223, 226.
_Fior di Virt['u]_, Brescia, 131;
Florence, 120;
Venice, 93 _sq._
Florence, 86, 108-31.
Fogel, J., 5.
Foresti, G. P., of Bergamo, _Supplementum Chronicarum_, 64 note, 90.
Fox, John, _Acts and Monuments_ (Book of Martyrs), 246.
_Freydal_, 70, 72.
Frezzi, F., _Quatriregio_, 122.
Furter, Michael, 64, 67.
Gafori, F., 132.
_Game of Chess._ _See_ Cessolis, J. de.
_Gart der Gesundheit_, 56.
G['e]rard, P., 147.
Gerlier, D., 163.
Giunta, L. A., 94, 98, 104.
Godard, G., 192.
_Golden Legend._ _See_ Voragine, J. de.
Gorgonzola, N., device, 136.
Gorricio, G., _Contemplaciones sobre el rosario_, 214.
Gouda, 196-98, 203.
Graf, Urs, 76 _sq._
Granjon, R., 170.
Gregoriis, G. de, 96.
Gr[:u]n, Hans Baldung, 76.
Gr[:u]ninger, J., 67, 76.
Gryphius, F., 170.
Guillireti, S., 136.
Haarlem, 198-201.
Han, U., 79 _sq._
Hardouyn, G., 191.
Harrington, Sir J., _Orlando Furioso_ (1591), 248.
Headlines, 35.
Headpieces, 34.
_Historiarum veteris Testamenti Icones_, 169 _sqq._
Holbein, A., 77.
Holbein, H., 77, 169, 243 _sqq._
Holl, L., 49.
Hours, Books of, 17, 174-94.
Hroswitha, 68.
Husz, M., 143.
Hyginus, _Poetica Astronomica_, 88 _sq._
_Hypnerotomachia_, 99-103, 168.
Ingold, _Das guldin Spiel_, 38.
Jenson, N., 9, 11, 17.
Johann Petri, 116.
Jornandes, _De Rebus Gothorum_, 72 note.
Josephus, _De la bataille judaique_, 149 _sq._
Kaliergos, Z., 104, 137.
Kerver, J., 103.
Kerver, T., 163, 191.
Ketham, J., _Fascicolo de Medicina_, 97.
Knoblochtzer, H., 53.
Knoblouch, J., 76.
Koberger, A., 53, 60.
Koelhoff, J., 35.
L., French initial, 153-55.
Landino, C., 17, 86, 118.
Lavagna, P., 86.
Leeu, G., 197 _sqq._
Le Rouge, P., 148, 153, 158.
Le Signerre, G., 132.
Lettou, J., 223.
Lieseveldt, A. van, 202.
Lignamine, J. P. de, 80, 82.
Lorenz, Nicolaus, 86.
Louis II., Marquis of Saluzzo, 134.
Louis, St., 134.
Louvain, 196.
L[:u]beck, 50, 67.
_Lucidario_ (1494), 119.
L[:u]tzelburger, Hans, 169.
Lydgate, J., _Falle of Princes_, 146.
Lyndewode, W., _Constitutiones_, 223.
Lyons, 142 _sqq._, 153, 160, 162, 168-72.
Machlinia, W. de, 33, 223.
Maillet, J., 153.
Mansion, C., 197.
Marchant, G., 146.
Martorel, T., _Tirant lo Blanch_, 213 _sq._
Maximilian, Emperor, 70-72.
Mazalis, F. de, 136.
Medici, L. de, 128.
Meer, Jacob van der, 202.
Meidenbach, J., 56.
Menard, J., 156.
_Mer des Hystoires_, 158.
Milan, 86, 132.
_Mirror of Our Lady_ (1530), 241.
_Mirror of the World_ (1480), 220.
Mischomini, A., 92, 112, 113, 118, 119, 121.
More, Sir T., 236 note.
Morgiani, Lorenzo di, 107.
Morin, Martin, 162.
_Morton Missal_, 20, 225, 228.
Naples, 83.
Neumeister, J., 54, 144.
Neyret, A., 144.
Nider, J., _Expositio decalogi_, 35.
Novara, B. di, 90.
_Novelle_, 128.
Nuremberg, 52 _sq._, 76.
_Nuremberg Chronicle._ _See_ Schedel.
Olpe, Bergmann de, 64-67.
Os, G. van, 203, 206.
Os, P. van, 206.
Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, Bruges (1484), 197;
Lyons (1556), 170;
Paris, V['e]rard (1493), 15, 150;
Venice (1497), 98.
Oxford, 223 _sq._, 241.
Pachel, L., 87.
Pacini, Bernardo di, 121.
Pacini, Piero di, 116, 122.
Pagination, 35.
Paris, 145-161.
_Paris et Vienne_, 161.
_Passion of our Lord Jesu_, 230.
Pasti, Matteo dei, 84.
Paulus Florentinus, 87.
Petrarca, F., _De Remediis utriusque fortunae_, 73;
_Trionfi_, 91 _sq._
Petri, Johann, 121.
Pfister, A., 26 _sqq._
Pigouchet, A., 186 _sqq._
Plantin, C., 172.
Politiano, Angelo, 128.
Polono, Stanislao, 214.
Presentation copies, 14 _sq._
Printers' workshop, cuts of, 159 _sq._
Pr[:u]ss, Johann, 53.
Ptolemy, _Cosmographia_, 49.
Pulci, L., _Morgante Maggiore_, 122.
Pynson, Richard, 227 _sqq._
Quentel, H., 52.
_Rappresentazioni_, 124 _sqq._
Rastell, J., 239, 241.
Ratdolt, Erhard, 32, 44, 87-90.
_Rechtstreit des Menschen mit dem Tode_, 26.
Regnault, F., 192.
Reichenthal, Ulrich von, _Conciliumbuch_, 43.
Rennes, 143.
Riessinger, S., 82 _sq._
_Robert the Devil_, 235.
Rome, 79-83.
Rouen, 147, 162.
_Rudimentum Noviciorum_, 50, 158.
Rupertus de Sancto Remigio, _T[:u]rken-Kreuzz[:u]ge_, 42.
Saint Albans, Book of, 223.
Saluzzo, 134.
San Pedro, Diego di, _Carcel d'Amor_, 214 _sq._
Santis, Hier. de, 92.
Savonarola tracts, 110-16.
Sch[:a]ufelein, H., 71, 74.
Schedel, H., _Liber chronicarum_, 60-64.
Schenck, P., 143.
Schobsser, J., 43.
Schoeffer, P., 3-7, 25, 54, 57 _sq._
Sch[:o]nsperger, H., 44, 71.
Schott, M., 53.
Scinzenzeler, U., 87.
Scotus, Oct., 90.
Sensenschmidt, J., 52.
_Seven Wise Masters of Rome_, 201.
Seville, 216.
Sforza family, 18.
Simoneta, G., 17.
Snellaert, C., 203.
Sorg, A., 42.
_Speculum vitae Christi_, Caxton's, 222;
De Worde's, 225;
Pynson's, 228.
Stephan, P., _Schatzbehalter_, 60.
Strassburg, 53, 76.
Strozzi family, 17.
_Supplementum Chronicarum._ _See_ Foresti.
Tailpieces, 35.
_Terence_, Trechsel's, 162;
_Eunuchus_, 49, 51.
Theramo, Jac. de. See _Belial_.
_Theuerdank_, 71-73.
_Tirant lo Blanch_, 213 _sq._
Title-pages, first use of, 30-34.
Tory, G., 166 _sq._
Tournes, J., de. 16, 168, 172.
_Trabajos de Hercules_, 211, 216.
Trechsel, J., 162.
Trechsel, M., 169.
Trepperel, J., 161.
Turrecremata, Cardinal, _Meditationes_, 79 _sqq._
Ulm, 45-50.
Ungut, M., 210, 217.
Utrecht, 196.
Valencia, 214, 216.
Valturius, _De Re Militari_, 84.
Veldener, J., 196, 204.
Vellum, use of, 8 _sq._, 16.
Venice, 87-106.
V['e]rard, Antoine, 14-16, 146-158, 183-186.
Verona, 84 _sq._
_Vespasian_, Spanish romance of, 216.
Vienne, 144.
Villena, E. de. See _Trabajos de Hercules_.
Vivaldus, J. L., 134.
Voragine, Jac. de, _Legenda Aurea_, English, 20, 221, 223, 225, 230;
French, 150;
German, 37.
Vostre, Simon, 186.
_Weisskunig_, 70, 72.
Westphalia, Johann de, 196, 203.
Wittenberg, 76.
Wohlgemuth, Michael, 60, 68.
Worde, Wynkyn de, 222, 225 _sqq._
Zainer, G[:u]nther, 35, 37 _sqq._
Zainer, Johann, 45 _sqq._
Zamora, 211.
Zarotus, Ant., 132.
Zinna, 74.
Zwolle, 202.
_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note
Page 146: changed comma to period ( ... rather than a printer.)
End of Project Gutenberg's Early Illustrated Books, by Alfred W. Pollard