In the category of what may be termed extinct animals, the Unicorn as a
subject for illustrating Printers’ Marks enjoyed a long and extensive
popularity. The most remarkable thing in connection with these designs
of the Unicorn is perhaps their striking dissimilarity, and as nearly
every one of the many artists who employed, for no obvious reasons, this
animal in their Printer’s Marks had his own idea of what a Unicorn ought
to have been like, the result, viewed as a whole, is not by any means a
happy one. Still, several of the examples possess a considerable amount
of vigour and have a distinct decorative effectiveness. But apart from
this its appearance in the Marks of the old printers is a very striking
proof of the fact that the mediæval legends died hard. Curiously enough,
the proverbial “lion and unicorn” do not often occur together. The
family of printers with whose name the unicorn is almost as closely
associated as the compass is with Plantin, is that of Kerver, for it has
been employed in over a dozen different forms by one or other members
from the end of the fifteenth century to the latter part of the
sixteenth. Sometimes there is only one Unicorn on the mark, at others
there is a pair. Le Petit Laurens, Paris, was using it contemporaneously
with the first Thielman Kerver, and possibly the one copied the other.
Sénant, Vivian, Kées, and Pierre Gadoul, Chapelet, and Chavercher, were
other Paris printers who used the same idea in their marks before the
middle of the sixteenth century. It was long a favourite subject with
the Rouen printers, one of the earliest in that city to use it being
J. Richard, whose design is particularly original, inasmuch as the
shield is supported on one side by a Unicorn, and on the other by a
female, possibly intended to represent a saint, an idea which was
apparently copied by Symon Vincent, Lyons; the Unicorn was also used in
the marks of L. Martin and G. Boulle, both of Lyons; and also in the
very rough but original design employed by H. Hesker, Antwerp, 1496;
whilst for its quaint originality a special reference may be made to the
Mark of François Huby, Paris, of the latter part of the sixteenth
century, for in this a Unicorn is represented as chasing an old man. The
origin of the Unicorn Mark is essentially Dutch. The editions of the
Printer, “à la licorne,” Deft, 1488-94, are well known to students of
early printing. The earliest book in which this mark is found is the
“Dȳalogus der Creaturen” (“Dialogus Creaturarum”) issued at that city in
November, 1488. Henri Eckert de Hombergh and Chr. Snellaert, both of
Delf, used a Unicorn in their Marks during the latter years of the
fifteenth century.
[Illustration: MATHURIN BREUILLE.