FRANCE.
A curious prelude has been discovered within the last few years to the
history of the introduction of printing into France. L’Abbé Requin,
searching through the archives of Avignon, brought to light a series of
entries relating to printing, ‘ars scribendi artificialiter,’ as it is
there called, dated as far back as the year 1444.[23]
[23] _L’Imprimerie à Avignon en 1444._ By L’Abbé Requin. Paris, 1890.
_Origines de Imprimerie en France_ (Avignon, 1444). By L’Abbé Requin.
Paris, 1891. _Les Origines de l’Imprimerie à Avignon._ Par M. Duhamel.
1890.
The information obtained from the notarial books, fairly complete
in its way, is as follows:—A certain silversmith, named Procopius
Waldfoghel of Prague, was settled at Avignon by the beginning of
1444, and was working at printing, in conjunction with a student of
the university, Manaudus Vitalis, whom he had supplied with printing
materials.
In a notarial act of the 4th July of that year, the following materials
are mentioned:—‘Duo abecedaria calibis et duas formas ferreas,
unum instrumentum calibis vocatum vitis, quadraginta octo formas
stangni necnon diversas alias formas ad artem scribendi pertinentes.’
Waldfoghel was evidently the maker of the materials and the teacher of
the art, and he seems to have supplied his apprentices with such tools
as would enable them to print for themselves.
In 1444, besides Manaudus Vitalis, Waldfoghel had as apprentices,
Girardus Ferrose of Treves, Georgius de la Jardina, Arnaldus de
Cosselhac, and a Jew named Davinus de Cadarossia.
From a document dated 10th March 1446, we learn that Waldfoghel,
having two years previously taught the art of printing to the Jew, had
promised to cut for him a set of twenty-seven Hebrew letters and to
give him certain other materials. In return for this, the Jew was to
teach him to dye in a particular way all kinds of textile material, and
to keep secret all he learnt on the art of printing.
In another document, of 5th April 1446, relating to the partnership of
Waldfoghel, Manaudus Vitalis, and Amaldus de Cosselhac, and the selling
of his share to the remaining two by Vitalis, we have mention made of
‘nonnulla instrumenta sive artificia causa artificialiter scribendi,
tam de ferro, de callibe, de cupro, de lethono, de plumbo, de stagna et
de fuste.’
There seems to be no doubt that these various entries refer to printing
with movable types; they cannot refer to xylographic printing, nor to
stencilling. At the same time, there is no evidence to point to any
particular kind of printing; and the various materials mentioned would
rather make it appear that the Avignon invention was some method of
stamping letters or words from cut type, than printing from cast type
in a press. Until some specimen is found of this Avignon work, from
which some definite knowledge can be obtained, the question must be
left undecided, for it is useless to try to extract from words capable
of various renderings any exact meaning. Our information at present
is only sufficient to enable us to say that some kind of printing was
being practised at Avignon as early as 1444. It seems, too, impossible
that, had this invention been printing of the ordinary kind; nothing
more should have come of the experiment; and we know of no printing in
France before 1470.
_Les neuf Preux_, the only block-book executed in France, has been
already noticed. It is considered to have been printed at Paris about
1455.
The first printing press was naturally started at Paris, the great
centre of learning and culture, and it seems strange that so important
an invention should not have been introduced earlier than 1470. Many
specimens of the art had been seen, for Fust in 1466 and Schœffer in
1468 had visited the capital to sell their books. If we may believe
the manuscript preserved in the library of the Arsenal, the French
King, in October 1458, sent out Nicholas Jenson to learn the art; but
he, ‘on his return to France, finding Charles VII. dead, set up his
establishment elsewhere.’ Probably a strong antagonism to the new art
would be shown by the immense number of professional copyists and
scribes who gained their livelihood in connection with the university,
though the demand for manuscripts continued in France for some time
after the introduction of printing. Many of the wealthy, moreover,
refused to recognise the innovation, and admitted no printed book
into their libraries, so that the scribes were not at once deprived
of employment. Many of these men who had been employed in producing
manuscripts, soon turned to the new art as a means of employment,
becoming themselves printers, or assisting in the production of books,
as rubricators or illuminators.
In 1470, thanks to the exertions of Jean Heynlyn and Guillaume Fichet,
both men of high position in the University of Paris, a printing press
was set up in the precincts of the Sorbonne by three Germans, Martin
Crantz, Ulrich Gering of Constance, and Michael Friburger of Colmar.
The first book they issued was _Gasparini Pergamensis Epistolarum
Opus_, a quarto of 118 leaves, with a prefatory letter to Heynlyn,
which fixes the date of its production in 1470, and an interesting
colophon—
‘Ut sol lumen, sic doctrinam fundis in orbem,
Musarum nutrix, regia Parisius.
Hinc prope divinam, tu, quam Germania novit,
Artem scribendi suscipe promerita.
Primos ecce libros quos hæc industria finxit
Francorum in terris, ædibus atque tuis.
Michael, Udalricus Martinusque magistri
Hos impresserunt ac facient alios.’
The classical taste of the patrons of the first press is strongly
shown by its productions, for within the first three years a most
important series of classical books had been published. _Florus_ and
_Sallust_ (both first editions), _Terence_, Virgil’s _Eclogues_ and
_Georgics_, _Juvenal_ and _Persius_, Cicero’s _Tusculan Disputations_,
and _Valerius Maximus_, are amongst the books they issued.
In 1470-71 these printers finished thirteen books, while in the
following year, before moving from the Sorbonne, they printed no
less than seventeen. Some time towards the end of 1472 they left
the Sorbonne and migrated to the Rue St. Jacques, where two other
printers--Kaiser and Stoll--were already settled in partnership at the
sign of the Green Ball (Intersignium viridis follis).
In 1472 was issued the _Gasparini Orthographia_. The copy of this
book in the library at Basle contains a unique supplementary letter
from Fichet to Robert Gaguin, in which is the following interesting
statement about the invention of printing:—‘Report says that there
(in Germany), not far from the city of Mainz (Ferunt enim illic, haud
procul a civitate Maguncia), there was a certain John, whose surname
was Gutenberg, who first of any thought out the art of printing ... by
which art books are printed from metal letters.’[24]
[24] Mr. Hessels, in his _Haarlem the Birthplace of Printing, not
Mentz_, attempts to weaken the value of this evidence, and translates
‘ferunt enim illic’ as ‘a rumour current in Germany,’—a striking
example of ingenious mistranslation. ‘Illic’ is, of course, to be taken
with what follows, and is further defined by ‘haud procul a civitate
Maguncia.’
Between the two printing offices in the Rue St. Jacques a keen spirit
of rivalry arose; and this was carried to such an extent, that no
sooner was a book printed by one than another edition was issued by the
other--a sign that the demand for such books must have been large. The
earliest type used by these first printers is an exquisite Roman, the
letters being more square than the best Roman type of Venice, and far
surpassing it in beauty. Round brackets are used, and all the generally
used stops are found. The first type of Kaiser and Stoll is also Roman,
with neat and very distinctive capitals, and the small _l_ has a short
stroke coming out on the left side about half-way up, a peculiarity
still retained in all the Roman type belonging to the ‘Imprimerie
Nationale.’ The popular taste seems to have been for Gothic type, and
very few printers made use of Roman before the year 1500.
[Illustration: PAGE OF FIRST PARIS BOOK.]
About 1478, Gering’s two partners, Crantz and Friburger, left him; but
he himself continued to print on for many years. About this date, too,
the character of the books issued from the Paris presses began entirely
to change. In 1477, Pasquier Bonhomme had issued the first French book
printed in that city, the _Grandes Chroniques de France_, and from this
time forward classical books were neglected, and nothing printed but
romances and chronicles, service-books and grammars, and such books
as were in popular demand. During the twelve or fourteen years after
the first French book appeared, not one classical book a year was
issued; and it was not till 1495, the year of Charles VIII.’s return
from Italy, that the printing of classical books began to revive and
increase.
In 1485, Antoine Verard, the most important figure in the early
history of Parisian printing, begins his career with an edition of the
_Decameron_. He was, however, more of a publisher than a printer, the
majority of the books which contain his name having been printed for
him by other printers. From his establishment came numberless editions
of chronicles and romances, some copies of which were printed on vellum
and illuminated. A very fine series of such books is now in the British
Museum; these were originally bought by Henry VII., and formed part of
the old Royal Library.
Among the more important printers who printed before 1490 should be
mentioned Guy Marchant, Jean du Pré, Guillaume le Fèvre, Antoine
Cayllaut, Pierre Levet, Pierre le Rouge, and Jean Higman. Levet is
especially interesting, for the type which came into Caxton’s hands
about 1490, and was used afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde in some of his
earlier books, was either obtained from him or from the type-cutter who
cut his type, for the two founts seem to be identical. Guy Marchant is
celebrated as the printer of some curious editions of the _Dance of
Death_.
After 1490 the number of printers and stationers increased rapidly.
Panzer enumerates no fewer than eighty-five printers, and nearly 800
books executed during the fifteenth century; and there is no doubt
that his estimate is considerably under the mark. The most important
productions of the Parisian press at that time were service-books, of
which enormous numbers were issued. The best known publisher of such
works was Simon Vostre, who, with the assistance of the printer Philip
Pigouchet, began to issue _Books of Hours_, printed on vellum, with
exquisite borders and illustrations. These books began to be issued
about 1488, and commence with an almanac for the years 1488 to 1508. In
many cases the printers did not take the trouble to make new almanacs,
but were content to copy the old; indeed, we find the same almanac in
use ten years later. This has led to a great deal of confusion in the
bibliography of the subject, for it is a common custom of librarians
and cataloguers to ascribe the printing of a book of this class to the
date which occurs first in the almanac, when there is no date given in
the colophon. The most celebrated publishers of these books were Simon
Vostre, Philippe Pigouchet, Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Gilles
Hardouyn, Guillaume Eustace, Guillaume Godard, and François Regnault.
Vostre and Verard do not seem themselves to have printed, but were
merely publishers, far the most important printer being Pigouchet. Of
the nine or ten _Books of Hours_ for the use of Sarum, printed abroad
during the fifteenth century, Pigouchet probably printed half, and
all but two were printed in Paris. In examining early foreign-printed
English service-books, it is curious to notice that while nearly all
the _Horæ_ were printed at Paris, the majority of Breviaries were
printed at Venice, and only two at Paris. No _Horæ_ is known to have
been printed at Venice.
The end of the century saw the commencement of the celebrated Ascensian
press, the rival in some ways of the Aldine. The founder, Jodocus
Badius Ascensius (Josse Bade of Asch), was a man of great learning,
and was for a time professor of humanity at Lyons, and press-corrector
to Trechsel, whose daughter he married. Trechsel died in 1498, and in
1499, at the invitation of Robert Gaguin, Badius came to Paris and
established himself there as a teacher of Greek and a printer. It was
not, however, till 1504 that the Ascensian press became important.
It is curious to notice that, in spite of the classical tastes of the
first promoters of printing in Paris, and the enormous development of
printing in that city towards the end of the fifteenth century, no
Greek book was produced till 1507. Through the exertions of François
Tissard of Amboise, who had studied Greek in Italy, and was anxious to
introduce Greek learning into France, Gilles Gourmont set up a press
provided with Greek types, and issued in 1507 a book entitled βίβλοϛ
ἡ γνωμαγυρικήο, a small grammatical treatise, the first Greek book
printed in France. From the same press, in the year following, came
the first Hebrew book printed in France, a Hebrew grammar, written
by Tissard. Greek printing, however, did not flourish; the supply of
type was meagre and the demand for books small,[25] and it was not
till 1528, in which year _Sophocles_, _Aristophanes_, _Lucian_, and
_Demosthenes_ were issued, that any signs of a revival were to be seen.
[25] Aleander in 1512, in the preface to his _Lexicon Græco-Latinum_,
complained that the stock of Greek type was so meagre, that sometimes
letters had to be left out here and there, and the work was often at a
standstill for days.
Lyons was the second city in France to receive the art of printing,
and it was introduced into that town by Guillaume le Roy of Liège
soon after 1470. The first dated book, the _Compendium_ of Innocent
III., appeared in September 1473. From its colophon we learn that it
was printed at the expense of Bartholomieu Buyer, a citizen of Lyons;
and we know from other colophons that the press was set up in Buyer’s
house. Bernard doubts whether Buyer was himself a printer, though he
is certainly mentioned as such in several books, such as _La légende
dorée_ of 1476. _Le miroir de vie humaine_, and _La légende des saintz_
of 1477, which are described in their colophons as ‘imprimés par
Bartholomieu Buyer.’ His name is not found in any book after 1483,
so that it is usually supposed that he died about that date. Le Roy
continued to print alone for some years, but had ceased before 1493, in
which year we know that he was still alive.
After Lyons comes Toulouse; and the first dated book issued there
was the _Repetitio solemnis rubrice de fide instrumentorum_, 20th
June 1476. It was not till 1479 that a printer’s name appears in the
colophon to a work by Johannes Alphonsus de Benevento. The printer,
Jean Parix, was a native of Heidelberg. He had founts both of Gothic
and Roman type, the Gothic being especially remarkable for the shapes
of the letters, which are very distinctive, and though eccentric in
form they are not at all unpleasing in appearance. In 1488, Henry
Mayer began to print, issuing in that year a translation of the _De
consolatione philosophiæ_ of Boethius, ‘en romance,’ and the first
French translation of the _Imitatio Christi_. This Henry Mayer has
often been quoted as the first printer at Tolosa in Spain, owing to
the name Tolosa in the colophons being considered to stand for that
town, and not, as it really does, for Toulouse. M. Claudin, however,
has found in the town registers of Toulouse a mention of Henry Mayer
as a printer in 1488; and in the imprint of the _Boethius_ which he
printed in the same year it is distinctly stated that it was ‘impresso
en Tolosa de Francia.’ At the end of the _Cronica de España_, printed
by Mayer in 1489, is along peroration addressed to Queen Isabella as
his sovereign by Mayer, from which it is sometimes argued that the
book was printed in Spain. The real fact is that the book is an exact
reprint, peroration and all, of the edition printed at Seville in 1482
by Dachaver, with the sole difference that Mayer has substituted his
name for that of the Spanish printer.
Angers [Feb. 5, 1476-77], Chablis [April 1, 1478], Vienne [1478], and
Poitiers [1479], are the four remaining towns into which printing was
introduced before 1480. The first book issued at Angers, printed by
Johannes de Turre and Morelli, is an edition of Cicero’s _Rhetorica
Nova_, printed in a curious Roman type, apparently copied from that
used by Kaiser and Stoll at Paris. The first printer at Chablis was
Pierre le Rouge; but some time after 1483 he removed to Paris, and his
place was taken by Guillaume le Rouge, who moved about 1492 to Troyes,
and finally also settled in Paris. Johannes Solidi and Peter Schenck
are the two most important of the early printers at Vienne. Solidi was
the first; but Schenck, who began in 1481, printed the most interesting
books, and always in French. Two of these are of great rarity, _L’Abuze
en court_ and _Le hystoire de Griseldis_. The first book printed at
Poitiers, the _Breviarium Historiale_, 1479, has no printer’s name,
nor indeed have any of the earlier books. [Hain *13,811] gives a book,
_Casus longi super sextum decretalium_, printed by John and Stephen
de Gradibus in 1483. The discovery of some fragments of _Heures à
l’usage de l’eglise d’Angers_, with the names of the printers, Jean
Bouyer et Pierre Bellescullée, printed partly in the types of the first
books, make it possible that these two may have been the printers. The
fragments were found in the binding of a book by M. Delisle.
Caen was the first town in Normandy where printing was practised,
but only one book was printed there in the fifteenth century. It is
an edition of _Horace_, the first to appear in France, and of the
very greatest rarity, only three copies being known, one of which,
printed on vellum, is in the Spencer Library. The printers were Jacobus
Durandas and Egidius Quijoue, and the book was issued 6th June 1480.
It is a quarto of forty leaves, with twenty lines to the page, printed
in a good, bold Gothic type. There were several privileged booksellers
attached to the University of Caen, but it is improbable that any of
them printed, at any rate in the fifteenth century. They obtained their
books from either Paris or Rouen.
Within the next seven years ten towns set up presses in the following
order:—Albi (1481), Chartres (1482), Metz (1482), Troyes (1483),
Chambéry (1484), Bréhant-Loudéac (1484), Rennes (1484), Tréguier
(1485), Salins (1485), Abbeville (1486).
At Albi, on 17th November 1481, the wonderful edition of the
_Meditationes_ of Turrecremata, supposed to have been printed by
Numeister, was issued. This was preceded by a book of _Æneas Sylvius_,
without date, but ascribed to the same printer, though printed with
a different type; and Hain [8723] quotes a third book, also without
date, _Historia septem sapientum_. The arguments of M. Claudin, who has
written a book to prove that Numeister was the printer at Albi, though
ingenious, are very far from conclusive.
Two books were executed at Chartres in the fifteenth century, a
_Missal_ in 1482 and a _Breviary_ in 1483, both for the use of that
diocese. The printer was Jean du Pré of Paris.
The first printers at Metz, Johannes Colini and Gerhardus de
Novacivitate, who printed in 1482 an edition of the _Imitatio Christi_,
used a very peculiar type of Gothic with a number of Roman capitals
mixed with it, resembling that of Nicholas Götz at Cologne, and which,
leaving Cologne in 1480, appeared at Treves in 1481. In 1499, Caspar
Hochfeder came to Metz from Nuremberg.
The earliest book with the name of Troyes in the colophon is a
_Breviarium secundum usum ecclesiæ Trecensis_, of 25th September 1483.
It was executed by Pierre le Rouge, who probably came over from Chablis
for the purpose. In 1492, Guillaume le Rouge, who had before this
printed at Chablis, set up the first permanent press in the town.
Bréhant-Loudéac was the first town in Brittany where books were
printed; and from 1484 to 1485 the two printers, Robin Foucquet and
Jean Crès, issued ten books, all in French, in a ragged Gothic type.
The first printers at Abbeville, Jean du Pré of Paris and Pierre
Gérard, to judge by their books, were well-skilled workmen, for both
the printing and illustrations are very fine. Their first book was
an edition of the _Somme Rurale_, and it was followed by a splendid
edition, in two volumes, of _La cité de Dieu_ of Augustine, a large
folio with wonderful woodcuts. Their third work was _Le Triomphe des
neuf Preux_; and this is the last book known to have been printed at
Abbeville in the fifteenth century.
Though Rouen was without a printer till 1487, it became within a very
few years one of the most important towns in the history of French
printing. Its fortunate position on the Seine, equally advantageous
for sending books to Paris or exporting them to England, was doubtless
the chief cause of its great prosperity, and its influence over the
book trade was felt, not only over all France, but over England as
well. The first printer was Guillaume le Talleur, and his first
book, _Les Chroniques de Normandie_, was published in May 1487. He
printed several law books for Richard Pynson about 1490, and was
very probably his teacher. The most important export from Rouen was
certainly service-books, and of these endless numbers were issued for
various uses. Martin Morin, who began to print in 1490, was especially
connected with this kind of work, and some of the most beautiful of
the Salisbury Missals are from his press. The printers were, however,
not nearly so numerous as the booksellers, though it is not always
very easy to distinguish between them. Morin, Le Talleur, Noel de
Harsy, Jean le Bourgeois, and Jacques le Forestier, may safely be given
as printers; others, like Richard and Regnault, were probably only
booksellers or stationers. Besançon also had a printing press in 1487,
but who the first printer was is not very certainly known. Several
writers consider him to have been Jean du Pré; but M. Thierry-Poux,
judging from the types, considers that Peter Metlinger, who printed
later at Dôle, is more likely to have been the printer. In 1488 (26th
March 1487), Jean Crès printed the first book at Lantenac, an edition
in French of _Mandeville’s Travels_. Its colophon mentions no name of
place, but the type and the printer’s name are identical with those of
the _Doctrinal des nouvelles mariées_ of 1491, which has the name of
the place, Lantenac, in the colophon.
Between 1490 and the end of 1500 printing was introduced into twenty
towns. In 1490, to Embrun, Grenoble, and Dôle; but the first and second
of these places only produced a single book each. In 1491, to Orleans,
Goupillières, Angoulême, Dijon, and Narbonne.
M. Jarry[26] mentions a certain Jehan le Roy, who was spoken of at
Orleans in 1481 as a printer and stationer, but nothing printed by him
is known. The first book known is a _Manipulus Curatorum_ in French,
printed by Matthew Vivian. Our knowledge of the existence of a press
at Goupillières in the fifteenth century is the result of a fortunate
discovery made by M. Delisle. He found, used as boards for an old
binding, thirty-six leaves of a book of _Hours ‘à l’usage du diocèse
d’Evreux,’_ with a colophon stating that it was printed at Goupillières
on the 8th May 1491, by Michel Andrieu, a priest. At Narbonne also
but one book was printed before 1500, a _Breviarium ad usum ecclesiæ
Narbonensis_.
[26] _Les débuts de l’Imprimerie à Orléans._ Orléans, 1884.
In 1492, printing was introduced into Cluni; and in 1493, to Nantes,
Châlons, Tours, and Mâcon. Châlons and Mâcon are each represented by
one book, which in each case is a _Diurnale_ for the use of its own
church.
In 1495, Jean Berton began to print at Limoges, issuing service-books
for the use of the church. The last six towns to be mentioned are
Provins (1496), Valence (1496), Avignon (1497), Périgueux (1498),
Perpignan (1500), and Valenciennes (1500).
Nothing seems to have resulted from the early attempts at printing at
Avignon, which have been spoken of before, and the first dated book
issued there is an edition of part of _Lucian_, printed for Nicholas
Tepe, by Jean du Pré of Lyons, on the 15th October 1497.
It will be noticed that printing was introduced into many of the
provincial towns of France merely to serve a temporary purpose, and not
for the object of permanent work. In many cases the printer was brought
to the town, probably at the request and expense of the ecclesiastical
authorities, to print such service-books as were required for the
use of the church. For this reason we find printers and types moving
from place to place, so that it is not always easy to assign a book
to a particular town, when the type in which it is printed was used
in several places. The splendid series of facsimiles edited by M.
Thierry-Poux, and published by order of the Government, gives great
assistance to the study of French typography; while from time to time
small monographs have appeared giving the history of printing in all
the more important towns of France.