[Illustration: J. M. HOVII.
CAVETE
I. C. I]
The two most distinguished names in the annals of Dutch and Flemish
printing are unquestionably Plantin and the Elzevirs. A full description
of the various Marks used by Christophe Plantin alone would fill a small
volume, as the number is not only very great, but the varieties somewhat
conflicting in their resemblance to one another; all of them, however,
are distinctly traceable to three common types. Some are engraved by
Godefroid Ballain, Pierre Huys, and other distinguished craftsmen. His
first Mark appeared in the second book which he printed, the “Flores de
L. Anneo Seneca,” 1555. His second Mark was first used in the following
year, and bears the monogram of Arnaud Nicolaï. Of each of these
examples we give reproductions, as also of the fine example designed for
Plantin’s successors either by Rubens or by Erasme Quellin, and engraved
by Jean Christophe Jegher, 1639, Plantin having died in 1589. The most
famous of all Plantin’s Marks is of course that with the compass and the
motto “Labor et Constantia,” which he first used in 1557. Plantin
explains in the preface to his Polyglot Bible the signification of this
Mark, and states that the compass is a symbolical representation of his
device: the point of the compass turning round signifies work, and the
stationary point constancy. One of the most curious combinations of
Printers’ Marks may be here alluded to: in 1573, Plantin, Steels and
Nutius projected an edition of the “Decretals,” and the Mark on this is
made up of the three used by these printers, and was designed by Pierre
Van der Borcht.
[Illustration: C. PLANTIN. (First Mark.)