Of the other Alsatian printers we have only room to refer to two
examples. Thomas Anshelm (or Anshelmi Badensis) is perhaps the most
eminent of the early Hagenau printers, his books dating from 1488 to
1522, the earliest of which, however, were not printed at this place.
His Marks all carry the initials T A B, the Hebrew letters in the
accompanying example representing the name Jehovah; in his most elegant
Mark the same word is supported on a scroll by a cherub, whilst another
cherub is supporting a second scroll on which is inscribed the word
Jesus in Greek characters. The style and workmanship of this woodcut
suggest the hand of Hans Schaufelein, and it is worth noting that in
1516 Anshelm produced “Doctrina Vita et Passio Jesu Christi,” some of
the illustrations of which were by Schaufelein. Anshelm issued a large
number of books, including the works of Pliny, Melancthon, Erasmus,
Cicero, etc. Valentin Kobian, 1532-42, inserted an exceedingly original
and striking Mark in the edition of Erasmus’ “Heroicum Carmen,” 1536,
the Peacock with one foot on a Cock and the other on a crouching Lion
being highly effective.
[Illustration: THOMAS ANSHELM.
[[Hebrew]] יהוה ש
T A B]
[Transcriber’s Note:
The superfluous word “Hebrew” was included to keep the text
display from misbehaving.]
[Illustration: VALENTIN KOBIAN.
Anno M.D. XXXVI.
mens: Septem:
Non Aquilæ grandi sociatum turgide Pauum
’ Galle premes tecum mox Leo uictus erit]
[Illustration: A. THER HOERNEN.
¶ Explicit presens vocabulorum
materia. a perdocto eloquentissimo
[que] viro. dño Gherardo de schueren
Cãcellario Illustrissimi ducis Cli
uensis ex diuersorum terministar[um]
voluminibus contexta. propriis[que]
eiusdem manibus labore ingenti cõ
scripta ac correcta Colonie per me
Arnoldũ ther hoenẽ diligentissime
impressa. finita sub annis domini.
M.cccc.lxxvij. die vltimo mensis
maij. De quo cristo marie filio sit
laus et gloria per seculorum secula
Amen.]
Printing had not established itself at Cologne until four years later
than at Strassburg. Ulric Zell, at the dispersal of the Mainz printers,
settled himself in this city, where he was printing from about 1463 to
nearly the end of the fifteenth century. He was clearly not an
innovator, for he never printed a book in German, and did not adopt any
of the improvements of his _confrères_ who had settled themselves in
Italy; he “rigidly adhered to the severe style of Schoeffer, printing
all his books from three sizes of a rude face of a round gothic type.”
It is not to him therefore that we can look for anything in the way of
Printers’ Marks, the earliest Cologne printer to adopt which was
apparently Arnold Ther Hoernen, whose colophons, of which we give an
example, were often printed in red. His Mark is a triangle of which the
two upright sides are prolonged with a crosslet; in the centre a star,
and on either side the gothic letters T H, the whole being on a very
small shield hanging from a broken stump. Herman Bumgart, one of whose
books bears the subscription “Gedruckt in Coelne up den Alden Mart tzo
dem wilden manne,” and who was in Cologne at the latter end of the
fifteenth century, has a special interest to us from the probability
that he was in some way connected with the early Scottish printers.
[Illustration: HERMAN BUMGART.