custom alone and represented a following of scribal practice which
commonly joined together certain pairs of letters. Thus in the fount
used by Caxton in the _Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_ we find
such ligatures as ad, be, ce, ch, co, de, en, in, ll, pa, pe, po, pp,
re, ro, te, &c., all of which owe their existence solely to imitation
of MSS. of the time. Many of these customary ligatures persisted
throughout the sixteenth century, and even later in black-letter founts
... while a few have combinations with certain capitals such as Ch, Sh,
Th, Wh.... Even in Roman founts we find [ct], [oo], &c., of
which [ct] has persisted until modern times. In Italic fonts we also
find _es_, _us_, _[st]_, and others. (The original Aldine Italic had
many more.)
When a letter part of which overhangs the body of the type, such as f
or ſ, happens to be followed by such an upright letter as l or h, or
by an i, the overhanging part or "kern" of the first letter comes in
contact with the top of the second, and either the two types do not fit
together properly or the kern of the first letter gets broken off. To
avoid this, most fonts even at present have ligatures of f with l, i
and another f (the end of the curve of the first letter or the dot of
the i being suppressed), and of [ff] with l and i. In early times
these ligatures for convenience included also a set with ſ. The f
and ſ ligatures are also presumably copied from the MSS., where they
frequently occur, though not in all hands....
_Punctuation marks_
/ In quite early fonts this sign is used for the comma, or perhaps we
should rather say to indicate any short pause in reading.... The modern
comma seems to have been introduced into England about 1521 (in Roman
type) and 1535 (in black-letter). It occurs in Venetian printing before
1500.
? The query mark seems to have been used in England from about 1521.
; The semicolon seems to have been first used in England about 1569,
but was not common until 1580 or thereabouts.
. The full stop was commonly used _before_ as well as _after_ Roman,
and sometimes also arabic, numerals until about 1580. Thus ".xii."
It was also used before and after i (.i. = id est) and ſ (.ſ. =
scilicet), and I have found it once with q = cue: "as though his .q.
was then to speake."
‘ and ’ were used indifferently in such abbreviations as th’ or th‘ for
‘the.’ It may be noted that ‘t’is’ or ‘t‘is’ (instead of ‘ ’tis’) was
so common in the Elizabethan period that it should perhaps be regarded
as normal.
" Inverted commas were, until late in the seventeenth century,
frequently used at the beginnings of lines to call attention to
sententious remarks. Modern editors have occasionally regarded such
passages as _quotations_ and completed the quotes, which is generally
wrong. So far as I have observed they were not especially associated
with quotations until the eighteenth century, although, owing to their
use for calling especial attention to a passage, they often appear in
passages which are actually quoted.
Even after they become clearly used to mark quotations they generally
appear at the beginning of the passage and at the beginning of every
line, but not always at the _end_. The practice of closing the
quotation with two apostrophes seems to be comparatively modern. (I
have found it in the middle of the eighteenth century, but it does not
seem to have been regularly observed until much later.)
Inverted commas, as well as many other signs, Greek letters (sometimes
inverted) &c., were used in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century printing
as reference marks directing to side- or footnotes.
( ) were often used in the sixteenth century where we now use quotation
marks, and were indeed the general way of indicating a _short_
quotation, e.g.:
"she was neuer heard to giue any the lie, nor so much as to (thou) any
in anger."--STUBBES, _Christal Glasse_, 1591.
They also seem sometimes to be used merely for emphasis, e.g.:
"What yesterday was (_Greene_) now's seare and dry"--COOKE, _Greene's
Tu Quoque_, 1614.
[ ] Square brackets are common in some Elizabethan fonts, being used as
we now use round ones. They were also sometimes used instead of round
ones for the purposes mentioned above; e.g.:
"which is as much as [of olde] or [in times past]."--PLUTARCH,
_Morals_, 1603.
COMPOSED IN CASLON 337 TYPES
FOOTNOTES:
[21] NOTE: In the Birrell & Garnett catalog, _Typefounders' Specimens_,
London 1928, pp. 39-40, it is pointed out that the short s was
effectively introduced by the Martins "who worked the Apollo Press at
Edinburgh, and their London publisher, John Bell. The first book of
theirs that I have seen is the series of Poets, for example the Dryden
of 1777...." Graham Pollard relates there the instructive and amusing
history of the error, for which Hansard was responsible: J. Johnson in
_Typographia_, London 1824, wrote "... for which we are indebted to
the ingenious Mr. John Bell, who introduced them in his edition of the
British Classics." In copying this, Hansard (1825) made the error in
transcribing "British _Theatre_." He was followed by C. H. Timperley in
1842, who added the qualifying phrase "about 1795," by J. B. Nichols in
his _Illustrations of Literature_, 1858, and by R. B. McKerrow in 1927,
"where it has been given a new lease of life by correcting the obvious
mistake in date to 1791."
EDWARD ROWE MORES
[Illustration: _Metal-Flowers_]
From a Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries
by Edward Rowe Mores. London 1778. Reprinted by The Grolier Club, 1924.
Metal-flowers were the firſt ornaments uſed in printed books, to
be ſet at the head of the firſt page and the tail of the laſt
page, as well as at the head and tail of any ſeparate part of the
whole work, and they were ſometimes uſed as an edging to the matter
according to the taſte of the author or the printer, they were uſed
ſparingly and with ſmall variety, but in time they became more
numerouſ, and were cut in ſeveral ſhapes, forms and devices, and
continued in reputation till _Cutters in Wood_ ſupplanted them, when
_Mr. Moxon_ wrote they were accounted old-fashioned. but the uſe of
them was revived by the _French_ and _Germans_ and the variety of them
conſiderably encreased by the Two _Mr. James's_ in _England_.
The _flower_-matrices in their foundery have been divided into _old_
and _new_, which to be ſure is a diviſion, but ſuch as conveys
nothing or a falſe idea to the underſtanding.
We are to obſerve then that the latter, though moſtly now in vogue,
are mere figures of fancy, made up of circular oval and angular turns,
contrived to look light, airy and unmeaning, and to try the genius or
patience of a compoſitor.
But the former expreſſed ſome meaning and were adapted to other
purpoſes than barely to dress and decorate a page. they were formed
from real objects natural and artificial, civil and military, as from
weeds and flowers of the field and garden, leaves, branches, fruits,
flower-baſkets, flower-pots, urns, croſſes, banners, launces,
ſwords, and tilting ſpears, and other ſamples culled from the
fields of nature and of heraldry; yet germane to the ſubject matter
of the work.
They were frequently emblematical and monitory; as cherubs' faces for
the hymns of charity girls, hour-glaſſes for lugubrious orators,
and _mort_-heads for the pariſh-clerks. they were ſymbolical
of nations; as the crown and roſe, the crown and lyz, the crown
and harp;--of dignities and orders; as diadems, crowns, mitres and
coronets; the red hat called at _Camb._ the _Cardinal's cap_, where too
the mitre is called the _golden night-cap_; the courtelass; the arms of
_Ulſter_, and the anchor of hope; the _Scotch_-thiſtle and ſprigs
of _rue_; both _ſub_-ſymbolical; the former rendered more ſo by
the _cry de guerre_ "_Noli me Tangere_";--of ſtates and conditions;
as the myrtle, the weeping willow, and the bugle-horn. with many others
which to enumerate would be tedious here.
[Illustration]
COMPOSED IN CASLON 337 TYPES
JAMES WATSON
_The_ HISTORY _of the Invention and Progress of the Mysterious Art of_
PRINTING _& c._
From _The History of the Art of Printing_ ... printed by James Watson,
Edinburgh, 1713.
If the Ignorant look upon PRINTING without admiring It; it is, because
they do not understand the same: The Learned have always judged far
otherways; and have, with Reason, thought, That, for almost the Three
Ages wherein this Wonder hath been seen in Europe, the Wit of Man did
never invent any Thing that was either more lucky, or more useful for
Instruction.
This Truth is so universally acknowledged, that it needs no Proof:
Every one knows, that, without this marvellous Art, the Studies,
Labours, and Works of great Men, would have been of no Use to
Posterity. We are then obliged to this Art, for the Knowledge of the
Works of the old Philosophers, Physicians, Astronomers, Historians,
Orators, Poets, Lawyers, Theologues; and, in a Word, of all that hath
been writ upon any Art, and Science whatsoever. It is by the Means
of PRINTING that Theologues do attain to the sacred Mysteries of our
Religion; That the Doctors of Law, do teach those admirable Laws, which
do regulate the Society of Men; That Historiographers do furnish us
with Examples, which we are either to follow or shun; That Astronomers
do make every Day such fine Discoveries in the Heavens. It is this very
Art which furnisheth Physicians with Means to preserve and recover
the Health of Man's Body; Which discovereth to Philosophers the more
hid Secrets of Nature; Which furnisheth Geometricians with Ability to
measure the Earth; And to Arithmeticians, to give every Man his Due.
In fine, what would the Moderns know in any one Science, and Art, if
PRINTING did not furnish them with All that the Ancients found out? All
the Elogiums which we make of PRINTING, and the Honours which we pay to
It, come far short of It's Merit: And we cannot but easily consent to
this, if we consider the vast Expences which the Ancients were obliged
to be at, in procuring Manuscripts....
_THE PUBLISHER'S PREFACE TO THE PRINTERS IN SCOTLAND_
_Gentlemen_,
_That Men are not born for themselves, but for the Republick, is an
ancient and universally applauded Maxim. And it is so agreeable to
right Reason, that the wisest and best Part of Mankind, in every
Age since the Creation, have endeavour'd to lay the Foundation of a
lasting good Name, by every Action of their Life; whereby they might
improve the Body or Society of which they were Members. To this
Principle it is, that we owe the Invention or Improvement of all the
Arts and Sciences that are instructive or beneficial to Man. 'Mongst
which the Invention, and vast Improvement, of the no less honourable,
than useful and admirable Art of PRINTING, which we profess, deserves
a very eminent Place: Since by It, all Sorts of Learning, Sacred
or Profane, and every Kind of profitable Instruction and Invention
are both publish'd and preserv'd; as my Author, I here give you the
Translation of, shews clearly and copiously enough._
_This Book, being the History of the Beginning and Advancement of
our Art, shews the Character of the Men who first profess'd It, the
Marks of Honour paid them, wilst alive; nay, and the Monuments rais'd
to preserve their Memories after Death. By all which 'tis plain, That
those illustrious Persons were honour'd, and ranked among the best of
their fellow Citizens, in those Times: Whereas now we are scarcely
class'd or esteem'd above the lower Forms of Mechanicks. How we came
to lose that Honour and Respect due to our Profession, (since the
present Age is much more learned, and I believe, as just too, and
discerning of Merit as their Ancestors) shall be a little inquir'd
into. But first let me give some general Account of this Work._
_It bears the Title of_, The History, _&c._ of our Mysterious Art; _and
the Author, with great Exactness and Candor, fairly shews the Claims,
Reasons and Authority supporting them, on both Sides, in the lasting
Contest betwixt the Towns of_ Mentz _and_ Harlem; _for the Glory of the
Invention. A clear Mark, what a solid Honour 'tis esteem'd for a Town
to have been the noble Theatre, where so wonderful an Art was first
brought to Light._
_He next gives the Names of the first learned Printers, together with
a Catalogue of the Works printed by them, and the Marks of Honour paid
to them by their Fellow-Citizens and Country-Men; which will more than
enough justify what I have affirm'd above._
_The Author wrote in_ French, _and I have caus'd translate it for my
own, and the common Benefit of these practising the Art in this Part
of_ Britain; _without proposing any other Advantage or Gain by it,
but the Improvement of the Art, or at least raising It to the Pitch
of Perfection It was at here in former Times. And since we are, I
trust, all of us honest Men, and of better Spirits than to propose the
Earning our Bread as the chief and only End of our Labour; I entertain
a settled well grounded Hope, that the Perusal of this, will inspire us
all with a noble and generous Emulation of equalling, nay, exceeding,
if we can, the best Performances of our laudable Ancestors in the
Employment. That since our Native Country has at present as many good
Spirits, and Abundance of more Authors than in any former Age; we may
make it our Ambition, as well as it is our Interest and Honour, to
furnish them with Printers that can serve them so well, that they need
not, as many of our former Authors have been forc'd to do, go to other
Countries to publish their Writings, lest a learn'd Book should be
spoil'd by an ignorant or careless Printer._
_Thus, Gentlemen, we shall have this Honour, which is truly more
valuable than immense Sums of Money or opulent Estates, that, for
the Glory of our Country, we have retrieved the Art of PRINTING,
and brought It to as great Perfection as ever It was here in former
Times...._
EDINBURGH, MAY 29TH, 1713
Printers as Men of the World
[Illustration: EVELYN HARTER]
Copyright 1947 by The Typophiles. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Printers are usually judged as printers, and there are those who hold
that this is as it should be, that the printer should stick to his pica
rule and follow copy out the window. But in their spare time printers
also eat, vote, marry and go to war. It would therefore be possible to
look at them from various points of view, as, for instance, how many
were vegetarians, anarchists, bigamists and top sergeants. This could
be so of any group of craftsmen. If we look at printers from another
viewpoint, as to whether they were men of the world, it is because of
the nature of the stuff with which they work.
I should like to begin obliquely by speaking first of an approach
to the history of printing. Probably the history of printing is more
limited, definite and easy to encompass than that of almost any
subject. That is not to say that anyone can ever learn all of it, or
that we cannot go on learning something new about it all our lives.
But printing started fairly recently in time; it is its own record.
Excluding the science of bibliography, the literature is not large
compared, for example, with that of art or philosophy or geology. Yet
few people know as much of it as they might know with pleasure, and
perhaps the reason for that might be a faulty approach. It is customary
to send beginners to study Updike, but it is easy for beginners to get
bogged down in _Printing Types_, particularly if they start to read
it from the beginning. Updike's magnificent work is, in its writing
and its outline, gratifying to the student whose basic knowledge has
been fixed and matured. Beginners move more freely in the pages of
George Parker Winship, possibly because he related printing events to
world events to a greater extent than does Updike. Usually the person
who wishes to learn more about printing has already at hand a lot of
names and dates and places vaguely relating to world events of the
past. To such a person printing history lends itself readily to the
method of study by association. It can be a good game to find out what
was happening in printing when Napoleon was looking at the Pyramids,
or when Charles I was beheaded. If one is interested in art, he can
correlate artists and printers, and find that Leonardo was born about
the same time that printing was born in Europe, or he can correlate
printing with advances in the knowledge of medicine or agriculture.
There are small but interesting links between the history of printing
and that of music. For instance William Caslon the elder loved music,
and it is possible that the composer Handel sometimes played his new
pieces at the concerts held in Caslon's organ room, since the two men
had mutual friends in the musical world of London.
There have been printers who were interested in other worlds. The Dutch
printer Blaeu studied astronomy under Tycho Brahe, and himself produced
in 1600 a celestial globe. The Scottish type-founder Alexander Wilson,
although educated as a doctor, became interested in type and left a
considerable foundry to his sons before he himself moved on to become
professor of astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
If you wish to make the most of this method, you must do it yourself.
Then it is you who will have the fun, and then what you learn will
stick. What follows illustrates the method briefly by looking at a
number of printers in the past five hundred years from one angle,
judging them not simply as printers but as men of the world.
* * * * *
It would be nice if we could start with a definition of "man of
the world" and a definition of "printer" but actually this small
investigation is an attempt at definition. We cannot mean "man of the
world" in the Chesterfieldian sense, although there have been many
printers who knew how to dress and carry themselves in court and salon,
notably Aldus, Caxton and members of the Didot family. Chesterfield
would be obliged to allow some of our printers in his company, but I
doubt if we could allow him in ours, for in one of his letters to his
son he says, "Due attention to the inside of books and due contempt
for the outside is the proper relation between a man of sense and his
books." Perhaps he was thinking of the vanity of fancy bindings, though
it is more likely that he was beguiling himself into one of those
untruths common to aphorizers. However that may be, our man of the
world does not mean gentleman of the world as Chesterfield thought of
gentleman, although there are printers who are both--not all dead.
If we were to speak of the printer as a citizen of the world, we would
be coming a little closer to it, but citizen implies being at home in
the geographical world, whereas we are thinking of him being at home in
the world of ideas. When we say "of" the world, we mean that he knows
that he belongs to his contemporary world, that the people and events
are of interest to him, the politics, art, science and poetry--not only
some particular dexterity, professional specialization or money-making
device of his own.
It might be argued that the bulk of printing has not now, and never has
had, much relation to ideas, that in the early days its chief business
was dubious theological disputes and that its chief business now is
advertising soap flakes and the like. But printing, in its entirety, is
a description of the world, and if a great deal of print is devoted to
murder cases, toothpaste ads and income tax blanks--well, that must be
the kind of world we have. However, when new ideas have been advanced,
they have been advanced in print, so that the printer has never been
safe from them. Even now, in the event that they be promulgated by
radio, they must be fixed in print in order to stick and sink in. Let
us only say then that with regard to gaining knowledge of the world in
which we live, the printer is in an exposed position--nothing more.
Although we do not know much about Gutenberg,[22] the first
printer, we doubt that he was a man of the world in our sense. How
could he have been? For the preceding four or five hundred years to be
a man of the world was to be unworldly; people had been concerned with
building cathedrals, making religious paintings, going on crusades.
Printing was the chief factor in making the man of the world in our
modern sense. Printing enabled him to know what was going on so that he
might take part in it, although printers did not realize this during
the cradle days of printing. Great events were occurring then; the
Turks captured Constantinople; the Hundred Years' War came to an end
with the English driven off the continent of Europe; the Portuguese
sailed to the Canaries and the Azores; but these events found little
mention in early printing. _The Nuremberg Chronicle_, as Helen Gentry
and David Greenhood point out in their _Chronology_, made no mention
of Columbus' discovery of America in the previous year. First came
religious books, then school books, law books and classics. It is true
that Fust and Schöffer printed proclamations and information for the
archbishop, but it was not until Von Olpe at Basle printed _The Ship of
Fools_ in 1494 that we have "a book dealing with contemporary people
and their exploits instead of with historical accounts of the past."
Although Gutenberg had been involved in the politics of Mainz in his
youth, probably he thought of nothing but printing after he began work
on his invention. We have an old book of stories for children which
describes Gutenberg in a dream: "He thought of the great harm which
might be done through the printing of bad books--how they would corrupt
the minds of the innocent, how they would stir up the passions of
the wicked. Suddenly he seized a heavy hammer and began to break his
press in pieces. But then a voice seemed to come from the press itself
saying, 'Hold your hand, John Gutenberg. The art of printing will
enlighten the world.'" I have no idea where the author could have found
source material for this little fantasy, for we can feel quite sure
that Gutenberg had little conception of the influence of his invention.
He was all craftsman and inventor and carried his world in his head.
His financial reverses alone would indicate that.
The word "printer" has been an elastic word from the very beginning,
including scholars and artists, businessmen and craftsmen. If we were
to consider the term "printer" narrowly in the sense of a typesetter or
a pressman or a man who supervises these operations, we should still
have to make room in our history for men like Jean Grolier, the patron,
and Geoffroy Tory, the artist. We know of many printers who were first
and last businessmen. Johann Fust was a banker until he put money in
Gutenberg's project. The first English printer, Caxton, was a retired
wool merchant who liked to translate French romances for his friends
and became tired of writing them out in longhand. Anton Koberger, who
was Dürer's godfather, the publisher of _The Nuremberg Chronicle_ and
a great entrepreneur in his day, began as a printer; he printed books
in various languages, did sub-contracting and printed advertising
circulars. Probably if the plain motives of most printers could be
discovered, making a living would loom large.
* * * * *