THE LOW COUNTRIES.
On no subject connected with printing has more been written, and to
less purpose, than on the Haarlem invention of printing by Lourens
Janszoon Coster. During the fifteenth century much had been said about
the invention, accrediting it always to Germany; and it was not till
1499 that a reference was made to an earlier Dutch discovery in the
following passage of the _Cologne Chronicle_:[27]—
‘This highly valuable art was discovered first of all in Germany, at
Mentz on the Rhine. And it is a great honour to the German nation that
such ingenious men are found among them. And it took place about the
year of our Lord 1440; and from this time until the year 1450, the
art and what is connected with it was being investigated. And in the
year of our Lord 1450 it was a golden year [jubilee], and they began
to print, and the first book they printed was the Bible in Latin; it
was printed in a large letter, resembling the letter with which at
present missals are printed. Although the art [as has been said] was
discovered at Mentz, in the manner as it is now generally used, yet
the first prefiguration was found in Holland [the Netherlands], in
the _Donatuses_, which were printed there before that time. And from
these _Donatuses_ the beginning of the said art was taken, and it was
invented in a manner much more masterly and subtile than this, and
became more and more ingenious. One named Omnibonus wrote in a preface
to the book called _Quinctilianus_, and in some other books too, that
a Walloon from France, named Nicol. Jenson, discovered first of all
this masterly art; but that is untrue, for there are those still alive
who testify that books were printed at Venice before Nicol. Jenson
came there and began to cut and make letters. But the first inventor
of printing was a citizen of Mentz, born at Strasburg, and named
Junker Johan Gutenberg. From Mentz the art was introduced first of all
into Cologne, then into Strasburg, and afterwards into Venice. The
origin and progress of the art was told me verbally by the honourable
Master Ulrich Zell of Hanau, still printer at Cologne, anno 1499, and
by whom the said art came to Cologne.’
[27] _The Haarlem Legend_, by Dr. Van der Linde, translated by J. H.
Hessels. London, 1871, 8vo, p. 8.
This narrative, it will be seen, breaks down, if we examine its
accuracy strictly, in several places. To get over this apparent
difficulty, we are told that the compiler of the Chronicle took the
various parts of his statement from various sources. The statement that
printing was invented at Mainz, from Hartmann Schedel’s _Nuremberg
Chronicle_ of 1493; that from 1440 to 1450 it was being investigated,
is an addition of his own; that about 1450 people began to print,
and that the first book printed was the _Bible_ in Latin, was told
him by Ulric Zel, and so on. But evidence which on certain points is
inaccurate, cannot be implicitly trusted on other points; and since
it is impossible to trust absolutely the statement of the Chronicle,
we must seek information from the best source, that is, the earliest
productions of the press.
Coster himself was not heard of as a printer till about a hundred
years after he was supposed to have printed, when Junius wrote in his
_Batavia_ the wonderful legend of the letters cut in beech bark. That
a person called Lourens Janszoon lived at Haarlem from 1436 to 1483
seems to be an established fact; but, at the same time, all the entries
and notices relating to him show that he was a chandler or innkeeper.
Von der Linde very justly, therefore, considers he was not a printer;
and this view is certainly reasonable, for we can hardly suppose that
a man could have printed all the so-called Costeriana and at the same
time have attended to his business so carefully, that all the entries
which relate to him speak of him only as an innkeeper, and no mention
of any kind is made of him as a printer, though he was, so believers in
him assert, the only printer in Holland for thirty years.
Coming to the books themselves, what do we find? The first printed date
is 1473, in which year books were issued at both Utrecht and Alost.
M. Holtrop mentions that the Hague copy of the _Tractatus Gulielmi de
Saliceto de salute corporis et animæ_ and _Yliada_ was bought by a
certain Abbat Conrad for the library of his house; and as the Abbat in
question was Abbat only from 1471 to 1474, the book cannot have been
printed later than 1471-74; and this and the rubricated 1472 in the
Darmstadt copy of the _Saliceto_ are at present the only dates which we
can use for our purposes.
There are, however, a large number of fragments of books known, printed
in a rude type and with the appearance of early printing, all of which
are frequently asserted to have been printed before 1473. These
books, consisting for the most part of editions of the _Donatus_ or
the _Doctrinale_, are known by the name of Costeriana, as being the
supposed productions of Coster. Among them also are the four editions
of the _Speculum_, which we have examined at length in Chapter I.
Fragments of at least fifty books or editions are known, which may
be separated by their types into eight groups. Concerning the types
Mr. Hessels says: ‘Type 2 is inseparably connected with type 1; and
as the former is so much like type 3 that some consider these two
types identical, nothing would be gained by separating them. Type 4
and 5 occur in one and the same book; and as certain letters of type
5 are identical with some of type 3, they may all be linked together.
Type 6 is identical with type 5 except the P, which is larger and of
a different form. Types 7 and 8 are linked on to the types 1-6, on
account of the great family-likeness between them, they all having that
peculiar perpendicular stroke to the cross-bar of the _t_, and a down
stroke or curl attached to the _r_, which is found in no other types of
the Netherlands.’
[Illustration: PAGE OF A “DOCTRINALE.”
(_One of the so-called “Costeriana.”_)]
The close connection of all these types points to the books having
been produced in one place; but where this one place was, cannot be
determined. The account written by Junius, in 1568, of the invention
of printing by Coster, mentions Haarlem as the place where he printed,
and they have therefore been always ascribed to Haarlem by such writers
as believe in the Costerian invention. Mr. Bradshaw, who refused to
assign books to particular places without reason, said: ‘I am compelled
to leave the _Speculum_ at Utrecht until I know anything positive to
the contrary; because it is at Utrecht that the cuts first appear, cut
up into pieces in a book printed by Veldener at that place in 1481.’
This statement does not mean that the Costeriana were necessarily
printed at Utrecht, but that the place where we find the materials as
soon as they can be connected with any place, is Utrecht, and that
therefore such little evidence as exists is in favour of these books
having been printed there. One point which tells in favour of Utrecht,
is the fact that one of the Costeriana is a _Donatus_ in French, and
Utrecht is one of the few places in the Netherlands where such a book
is likely to have been produced.
There is no direct evidence in favour of Haarlem or Utrecht; and
indirect evidence is not particularly in favour of Haarlem, unless
it is considered that some belief may be placed in Junius’ wonderful
narrative. It is certainly wiser to leave the matter open, or, with
Bradshaw, place the books provisionally at Utrecht till we have a
better reason for placing them elsewhere.
The more important question as to the date when these Costeriana were
produced, seems still as far as ever from any satisfactory solution.
Mr. Hessels takes them back to 1446 by the ingenious method of putting
eighteen months between each edition. This method of working is based
on no sound principle, and leads to no result of any value. Another
argument of Mr. Hessels, and one that is hardly worthy of so learned a
writer, is that since the Costeriana look older than the first Mainz
books, therefore they are older. The foolishness of this reasoning is
too apparent to need any explanation, for it amounts to the assertion
that the same phase of development in different countries means the
same date. But if the earliest dated books of the Low Countries are
compared with the productions of Germany, it needs a prejudiced eye to
see in the former any approach to the exquisite beauty and regularity
of the German type and printing.
There is one point which seems to me to argue strongly against the
early date ascribed to the Costeriana. They were produced by ordinary
typographic processes, such as would be used for printing any book, and
there is little or no improvement observable in the latest compared
with the earliest. Yet, during the thirty years to which these books
are ascribed, no work of any size or importance was produced from this
press. It can hardly be assumed that during these years there was no
demand for books, when we consider that immediately after 1473 books
of all kinds were produced in great number. Nor can we reasonably
suppose that the great demand for the _Donatus_ and the _Doctrinale_
ceased about 1473. The printing of school-books did not require to be
ornamental, for they had to be produced as cheaply as possible, so
that this class of work naturally soon fell into the hands of the
poorer printers. We see many examples of this in studying the history
of printing in other places, and find the finest and the rudest work
being produced side by side. Block-books and xylographic _Donatuses_
were printed in Germany up to the last years of the fifteenth century,
as old in appearance as the productions of fifty years earlier. We may
connect certain of these Costeriana with the years 1471-74, within
which period printing presses were started at Utrecht and Alost; but
why should all the rest be placed earlier? It is curious that, while
we have no dates forcing us to fix them early, neither have we dates
preventing us from fixing them late.
Because certain of these books were written by Pius II., who became
Pope in 1458, Mr. Hessels seizes on 1458 as one of the dates we may
take as relating to their printing, and groups the Costeriana round
that date. He might equally well have grouped others round the fourth
century, when Ælius Donatus lived, or round 1207, when Alexander de
Villa Dei finished his _Doctrinale_. The only date as regards the
printing of a book that can be derived from the authorship is a date
before which the book cannot have been printed. M. Dziatzko mentions
one point which he considers conclusive as giving a late date to the
Costeriana. In them is _wrongly_ used a particular form of the letter
x, which is not found in Dutch manuscripts, and which was used at the
first Mainz press for a special purpose.
Putting aside, then, the useless mass of conjecture and sophistry that
obscures the subject, the case stands thus. The first printed date in
the Low Countries is 1473, and there are a group of undated books which
may perhaps be placed before or round this date; beyond this we have no
information whatever.
Before leaving this subject, it is worth noticing that there is
a simple explanation for the fact that almost all the Costeriana
fragments are on vellum. They have in most cases been found in
the bindings of books, and it was the almost invariable habit of
Netherlandish binders to line the boards of their bindings with vellum.
They used if possible clean vellum, or printed or written only on one
side, the used side being pasted down and the clean side exposed. In
this way many indulgences have been preserved.
In 1473, printing starts simultaneously at Utrecht and Alost, and from
that time onward its history is clear. More attention has been paid to
the history of printing in the Netherlands than to that of any other
country, and the work of Holtrop, Campbell, and Bradshaw offers a firm
foundation to rest upon.
The first printers at Utrecht were Nicholas Ketelaer and Gerard de
Leempt, and their first book was the _Historia Scholastica_ of Petrus
Comestor. Though they printed a large number of books, only three are
dated, two in 1473 and one in 1474. About 1475 a printer named William
Hees printed some books at Utrecht; and in 1478, Veldener moved to
that town from Louvain, where he had been printing up to that time.
The first printer at Alost was Thierry Martens, an accomplished
linguist and scholar, who is supposed by many bibliographers to have
learned to print at Venice. He says in the colophon to the _De vita
beata libellus_ of Baptista Mantuanus—
‘Hoc opus impressi Martins Theodoricus Alosti,
Qui Venetum scita Flandrensibus affero cuncta.’
On this basis the story has arisen, and it is perhaps hardly sufficient
to justify the conclusions. The first books, four in number, printed
in 1473 and the beginning of 1474, were printed in partnership with
John of Westphalia, a printer who in 1474 migrated to Louvain. Thierry
Martens continued by himself at Alost for a while, but moved on, in
1493, to Antwerp, and in 1498 to Louvain. According to Van der Meersch,
he left Louvain in 1502 to return to Antwerp, but left this town again
in 1512, and settled definitely at Louvain till the end of his career
in 1529.
Printing was introduced at Louvain in 1474, and it is, after Antwerp,
the most important town in that respect in the Low Countries. The
first printer was John of Westphalia,[28] whom we have just mentioned
as a printer at Alost in partnership with Thierry Martens. He seems
to have been the owner of the type used at Alost, for he continued to
print with it, and in June 1474 issued the _Commentariolus de pleuresi_
by Antonius Guainerius, the first book known to have been issued at
Louvain. John of Westphalia continued to print up to the year 1496; and
Campbell[29] enumerates over one hundred and eighty books as having
been printed by him in these twenty-two years. In some of his books we
find a small woodcut portrait of himself, used first in the _Justinian_
of 1475; and a few of his books have the red initial letters printed in
by hand. John Veldener, the second printer at Louvain, was matriculated
at the university there, in the faculty of medicine, 30th July 1473.
His first book was probably the _Consolatio peccatorum_ of Jacobus de
Theramo, which contains a prefatory letter, addressed ‘Johanni Veldener
artis impressoriæ magistro,’ dated 7th Aug. 1474. Veldener continued to
print at Louvain till 1478, and he is found in that year at Utrecht,
where he printed till 1481. After this he moved to Kuilenburg, issuing
books there in 1483 and 1484.
[28] John de Paderborn de Westphalia was in 1473 still a scribe, for in
that year he wrote a MS. of the _Scala_ of Johannes Climacus at and for
the Augustinian House at Marpach.
[29] _Annales de la Typographie Néerlandaise au xv. Siècle._ 1874. 8vo.
Besides those that have been mentioned, seven other printers worked at
Louvain before the close of the fifteenth century. These were--Conrad
Braem (1475), Conrad de Westphalia (1476), Hermann de Nassou (1483),
Rodolphe Loeffs (1483), Egidius vander Heerstraten (1484), Ludovicus de
Ravescot (1487), and Thierry Martens (1498).
Bruges, one of the most prosperous and artistic of the towns in the
Netherlands, is intimately associated with the history of English
printing; for it was there that our first printer, Caxton, began to
print. It was not, however, a productive town as regards printing,
for only two printers, or at most three, were at work there in the
fifteenth century. Of these the most important was Colard Mansion. He
was by profession a writer and illuminator of manuscripts, and his
name is found year by year from 1454 to 1473 in the book of the Guild
of St. John. It was probably about 1475 that he began to print; but
his first dated book appeared in the following year. About the years
1475-77, Caxton was in partnership with Mansion, whether generally or
only for the production of certain books, we do not know. But together
they printed three books, _The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye_,
_The Game and playe of the Chesse_, and _Les quatre derrennieres
choses_. After Caxton’s departure, in 1477, Mansion continued to print
by himself. It is worth noticing that in 1477 he first made use of a
device. The first dated book issued by Mansion, _De la ruyne des nobles
hommes et femmes_, by Boccaccio, has a curious history. It was issued
first without any woodcuts, and no spaces were left for them. Then
the first leaf containing the prologue was cancelled, and reprinted
so as to leave a space for a cut of the author presenting his book.
At a later date, the first leaves of all the books, excepting books
i. and vi., were cancelled, and reissued with spaces for engravings.
Mansion printed altogether about twenty-four books, the last being a
moralised version of Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, issued in May 1484. Almost
immediately after this book was finished, the printer fled from Bruges,
and his rooms over the porch of the Church of St. Donatus were let to
a bookbinder named Jean Gossin. This latter paid the rent still owing
by Mansion, and is supposed to have come into possession of the stock
of the _Ovid_, for several copies of the book are known in which the
leaves 113-218, 296-389 have been reprinted, presumably by Gossin, and
these examples do not contain Mansion’s device.
The other printer, Jean Brito, is little more than a name. Campbell
gives four books as having been printed by him, but only one contains
his name. This, however, is a book of exceptional interest, the
_Instruction et doctrine de tous chrétiens et chrétiennes_, by Gerson;
and but one copy is known, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It has
the following curious colophon in verse:—
‘Aspice presentis scripture gracia que sit
Confer opus opere, spectetur codice codex.
Respice quam munde, quam terse quamque decore
Imprimit hec civis brugensis brito Johannes,
Inveniens artem nullo monstrante mirandam
Instrumenta quoque non minus laude stupenda.’
The last two lines, which, translated literally, say, ‘Discovering,
without being shown by any one, the wonderful art, and also the tools,
not less objects for wonder and praise,’ would seem to imply that Brito
claimed to be a self-taught printer. That this may have been the case
is quite possible, and it is the only reasonable interpretation to put
upon the lines. They suggest, however, still a further inference. The
type in which this book is printed seems to be identical with that
used afterwards by William de Machlinia at Holborn, in London, and
extraordinarily similar to the type used by Veldener at Utrecht. If
Brito was a self-taught printer, who invented his own tools, he must
also have been a type-founder; and if so, may very likely have supplied
William de Machlinia with his type.
After Bruges comes Brussels, where but one press was established before
1500. This was set up by the Brothers of the Common Life, who must have
found their old industry of copying manuscripts seriously interfered
with by the competition of the new art. They therefore started a press
at their house, called ‘Nazareth,’ and in 1476 issued their first dated
book, the _Gnotosolitos sive speculum conscientiæ_, by Arnoldus de
Gheilhoven, a large folio of 472 leaves. From 1476 to 1484[30] they
worked industriously, producing about thirty-five books, only one
of which clearly states who and what the printers were. This is the
_Legenda Henrici Imperatoris et Kunigundis Imperatricis_ of 1484, where
we read in the colophon: ... ‘impresse in famosa civitate bruxellensi
per fratres communis vite in nazareth’.... There is no doubt that,
as types come to be studied and recognised, more books will be found
printed by this Brotherhood. Other establishments of the same Order
had practised, or were shortly to practise, the art of printing. That
at Marienthal, important in the history of printing, had been at work
for some years; others at Rostock, Nuremberg, and Gouda were to follow;
while, as we have seen, if we are to believe M. Madden, the monastery
at Weidenbach was the instructor of all the more noted printers of
Europe. The similarity in appearance between the Brussels type and that
of Ther Hoernen at Cologne is very striking, and has deceived even M.
Van der Meersch, Ther Hoernen’s bibliographer. The distinguishing mark
of this type, or the one most readily to be distinguished, is a very
voluminous capital S in the later books.
[30] A book of 1487 is quoted by Lambinet, but the date has probably
been either misprinted or misread.
Gerard Leeu, the first printer at Gouda, is the most important of all
the Low Country printers of the fifteenth century. His first book was
issued in 1477, a Dutch edition of the _Epistles and Gospels_; and
five other books followed in the same year. His first illustrated
book, the _Dialogus creaturarum moralisatus_, was issued in 1480.
About the middle of the year 1484 he removed to Antwerp, and printed
there till 1493. In that year, while the _Chronicles of England_
were being printed, a letter-cutter named Henric van Symmen, one of
Leeu’s workmen, struck work. In a quarrel which followed, Leeu was
struck on the head, and died after three days’ illness. The workman
who gave the blow was fined forty gulden, not a very heavy punishment
for manslaughter. At the end of the _Chronicles_ the workmen put the
following colophon: ‘Enprentyd ... by maister Gerard de Leew, a man of
grete wysedom in all maner of kunnying: whych nowe is come from lyfe
unto the deth, which is grete harme for many a poure man. On whos sowle
god almyghty for hys hygh grace have mercy. Amen.’
Leeu must have employed a good deal of labour, for he printed a very
large number of books; Campbell gives about two hundred, and his
numbers are always being added to. But what makes Leeu especially
interesting to us is the fact of his printing English books. Of
these, he issued seven between 1486 and 1493--a Grammar, two Sarum
Service-books, and four other popular books which will be noticed later.
Another interesting printer who was settled at Gouda was Gotfried de
Os, whom Bradshaw considers to have been identical with Govaert van
Ghemen. He began to print at Gouda in 1486, but about 1490 removed to
Copenhagen, printing at Leyden on his way. Before he went there he
parted with some of his printing materials, type, initial letters, and
woodcuts, which came into the hands of W. de Worde, and were used in
England.
Five other towns in the Netherlands possessed printing presses before
1480--Deventer (1477), Delft (1477), St. Maartensdyk (1478), Nÿmegen
(1479), and Zwolle (1479).
At Deventer there were only two printers, R. Paffroed and J. de Breda;
but between them they printed at least five hundred books, about a
quarter of the whole number issued in the Netherlands in the fifteenth
century.
At St. Maartensdyk in Zeeland only one book was printed, _Der zyelen
troeste_, the work of a printer named Peter Werrecoren, in November
1478. Of this book only one copy is known, preserved in the library
of the abbey of Averbode. In the colophon the printer apologises for
the short-comings of his book, saying that it is his first, and that
he hopes by the grace of God to improve. We have, however, no record
of his ever printing again. Nÿmegen had also but one printer, Gerard
Leempt, who issued four books, Zwolle, where Peter van Os of Breda
printed from 1479 onwards, is an interesting place in the history
of printing, for there, in 1487, appeared portions of the original
blocks of the _Biblia Pauperum_ used to illustrate a Dutch edition of
the _Epistles and Gospels_, and in 1494 a block from the _Canticum
Canticorum_. Peregrinus Barmentlo, the only printer at Hasselt, was
at work from 1480 to 1490. He seems to have had some connection with
Peter van Os, as was only natural from the situation of Hasselt and its
nearness to Zwolle; and we find the cuts of one printer in the hands of
the other.
Arend de Keysere commenced to print at Audenarde in 1480, his first
book being the _Sermons_ of Hermannus de Petra. By April 1483 he had
moved from Audenarde and settled at Ghent, where he remained till his
death in 1489. His wife, Beatrice van Orrior, continued to print for a
short time, but no copy is known of any of her productions. At a later
date she married again, her husband being a certain Henry van den Dale,
who is mentioned in the St. Lucas-gilde book at Bruges as a printer in
that town in 1505-6.
In the fifteenth century more printers were settled in Antwerp than in
any other Netherlandish town. The first to settle there was Matthew
van der Goes, and his first book is dated 29th April 1482. In the
same year he issued the _Bœck van Tondalus vysioen_, which has the
misprinted date 1472, and has for that reason been sometimes quoted
as the first book printed in the Low Countries, or more often as the
first book printed with signatures. We have already spoken of Gerard
Leeu, who was the next to settle at Antwerp; and shortly after his
appearance in 1484, Nicolas Kesler of Basle opened a shop there for
the sale of his books. There are said to be three books with Kesler’s
name, and the name of Antwerp given as the town; and though his press
at Basle was at work without a break from 1486 onward, still in 1488
his name appears amongst the list of members of the St. Lucas-gilde
at Antwerp. It is very probable, as Campbell suggests, that Kesler
was entered as a member to enable him to sell his books in Antwerp.
The most interesting among the remaining printers of the town was
Thierry Martens, who began to print in 1493, and stayed till 1497.
His various movements have been spoken of before. Leyden, Ghent,
Kuilenburg, and Haarlem all started presses in 1483. The first printer
of Haarlem, Bellaert, seems to have obtained his materials for the
most part from Leeu, both type and woodcuts; but the town cannot have
been a flourishing one from a printer’s point of view; for, though
another workman, Joh. Andreæ, printed a few books in 1486, both presses
disappear after that year. At Bois-le-duc, Gerard Leempt, from Nÿmegen,
printed a few books between 1484 and 1490. In 1495 the Canons of St.
Michael’s in den Hem, near Shoenhoven, began to print books in order to
obtain means to rebuild their convent, which had been destroyed by fire
the year before. They printed one or two editions of the _Breviary_ of
different uses, but the rest of their books were all in the vernacular.
Schiedam was the last town in the Netherlands where printing was
practised before 1500, and there, about 1498, an unknown printer issued
a very remarkable book.
There were altogether in the Netherlands twenty-two towns whence books
were issued before 1500, and in this list it will be noticed that
Haarlem stands near the end. When printing had once been introduced
it spread rapidly, all but three towns starting within the first ten
years.