WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNEXION WITH THE PRESS.
Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter of 1457 -- Printing at Bamberg in 1461
-- Books Containing Wood-Cuts Printed there by Albert Pfister --
Opposition of the Wood Engravers of Augsburg to the Earliest
Printers Established in that City -- Travelling Printers --
Wood-Cuts in “Meditationes Johannis De Turre-Cremata,” Rome, 1467;
and in “Valturius De Re Militari,” Verona, 1472 -- Wood-Cuts
Frequent in Books Printed at Augsburg Between 1474 and 1480 --
Wood-Cuts in Books Printed by Caxton -- Maps Engraved on Wood, 1482
-- Progress of Map Engraving -- Cross-Hatching -- Flowered Borders
-- Hortus Sanitatis -- Nuremberg Chronicle -- Wood Engraving in
Italy -- Poliphili Hypnerotomachia -- Decline of Block-Printing --
Old Wood-Cuts in Derschau’s Collection.
Considering Gutemberg as the inventor of printing with moveable types;
that his first attempts were made at Strasburg about 1436; and that with
Faust’s money and Scheffer’s ingenuity the art was perfected at Mentz
about 1452, I shall now proceed to trace the progress of wood engraving
in its connexion with the press.
In the first book which appeared with a date and the printers’
names--the Psalter printed by Faust and Scheffer, at Mentz, in 1457--the
large initial letters, engraved on wood and printed in red and blue ink,
are the must beautiful specimens of this kind of ornament which the
united efforts of the wood-engraver and the pressman have produced. They
have been imitated in modern times, but not excelled. As they are the
first letters, in point of time, printed with two colours, so are they
likely to continue the first in point of excellence.
Only seven copies of the Psalter of 1457 are known, and they are all
printed on vellum. Although they have all the same colophon, containing
the printers’ names and the date, yet no two copies exactly correspond.
A similar want of agreement is said to have been observed in different
copies of the Mazarine Bible, but which are, notwithstanding, of one and
the same edition. As such works would in the infancy of the art be a
long time in printing--more especially the Psalter, as, in consequence
of the large capitals being printed in two colours, each side of many of
the sheets would have to be printed thrice--it can be a matter of no
surprise that alterations and amendments should be made in the text
while the work was going through the press. In the Mazarine Bible, the
entire Book of Psalms, which contains a considerable number of red
letters, would have to pass four times through the press, including what
printers call the “reiteration.”[IV-1]
[Footnote IV-1: By the common press only one side of a sheet can
be printed at once. The reiteration is the second printing of the
same sheet on the blank side. Thus in the Psalter of 1457 every
sheet containing letters of two colours on each side would have to
pass six times through the press. It was probably in consequence
of printing so much in red and black that the early printers used
to employ so many presses. Melchior de Stamham, abbot of St. Ulric
and St. Afra at Augsburg, and who established a printing-office
within that monastery, about 1472, bought five presses of John
Schüssler; a considerable number for what may be considered an
amateur establishment. He also had two others made by Sixtus
Saurloch.--Zapf, Annales Typographicæ Augustanæ, p. xxiv.]
The largest of the ornamented capitals in the Psalter of 1457 is the
letter B, which stands at the commencement of the first psalm, “Beatus
vir.” The letters which are next in size are an A, a C, a D, an E, and a
P; and there are also others of a smaller size, similarly ornamented,
and printed in two colours in the same manner as the larger ones.
Although only two colours are used to each letter, yet when the same
letter is repeated a variety is introduced by alternating the colours:
for instance, the shape of the letter is in one page printed red, with
the ornamental portions blue; and in another the shape of the letter is
blue, and the ornamental portions red. It has been erroneously stated by
Papillon that the large letters at the beginning of each psalm are
printed in three colours, red, blue, and purple; and Lambinet has copied
the mistake. A second edition of this Psalter appeared in 1459; a third
in 1490; and a fourth in 1502, all in folio, like the first, and with
the same ornamented capitals. Heineken observes that in the edition of
1490 the large letters are printed in red and green instead of red and
blue.
In consequence of those large letters being printed in two colours, two
blocks would necessarily be required for each; one for that portion of
the letter which is red, and another for that which is blue. In the
body, or shape, of the largest letter, the B at the beginning of the
first psalm, the mass of colour is relieved by certain figures being cut
out in the block, which appear white in the impression. On the stem of
the letter a dog like a greyhound is seen chasing a bird; and flowers
and ears of corn are represented on the curved portions. These figures
being white, or the colour of the vellum, give additional brightness to
the full-bodied red by which they are surrounded, and materially add to
the beauty and effect of the whole letter.
In consequence of two blocks being required for each letter, the means
were afforded of printing any of them twice in the same sheet or the
same page with alternate colours; for while the body of the first was
printed in red from one block, the ornamental portion of the second
might be printed red at the same time from the other block. In the
second printing, with the blue colour, it would only be necessary to
transpose the blocks, and thus the two letters would be completed,
identical in shape and ornament, and differing only from the
corresponding portions being in the one letter printed red and in the
other blue. In the edition of 1459 the same ornamented letter is to be
found repeated on the same page; but of this I have only noticed one
instance; though there are several examples of the same letter being
printed twice in the same sheet.
Although the engraving of the most highly ornamented and largest of
those letters cannot be considered as an extraordinary instance of
skill, even at that period, for many wood-cuts of an earlier date afford
proof of greater excellence, yet the artist by whom the blocks were
engraved must have had considerable practice. The whole of the
ornamental part, which would be the most difficult to execute, is
clearly and evenly cut, and in some places with great neatness and
delicacy. “This letter,” says Heineken, “is an authentic testimony that
the artists employed on such a work were persons trained up and
exercised in their profession. The art of wood engraving was no longer
in its cradle.”
The name of the artist by whom those letters were engraved is unknown.
In Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, book iii. chapter 159, John
Meydenbach is mentioned as being one of Gutemberg’s assistants; and an
anonymous writer in Serarius states the same fact. Heineken in noticing
these two passages writes to the following effect. “This Meydenbach is
doubtless the same person who proceeded with Gutemberg from Strasburg to
Mentz in 1444.[IV-2] It is probable that he was a wood engraver or an
illuminator, but this is not certain; and it is still more uncertain
that this person engraved the cuts in a book entitled _Apocalipsis cum
figuris_, printed at Strasburg in 1502, because these are copied from
the cuts in the Apocalypse engraved and printed by Albert Durer at
Nuremberg. Whether this copyist was the _Jacobus Meydenbach_ who printed
books at Mentz in 1491,[IV-3] or he was some other engraver, I have not
been able to determine.”[IV-4]
[Footnote IV-2: Heineken in his Nachrichten, T. I. S. 108, also
states that Meydenbach came from Strasburg with Gutemberg. Oberlin
however observes, “Je ne sais où de Heinecke a trouvè que ce
Meydenbach est venu en 1444 avec Gutenberg à Mayence.” Heineken
says, “In der Nachricht von Strassburg findet man dass ein
gewisser Meydenbach 1444 nach Maynz gezogen,” and refers to
Fournier, p. 40. Dissert sur l’Orig. de l’Imprimerie primitive.]
[Footnote IV-3: An edition of the Hortus Sanitatis with wood-cuts
was printed at Mentz, by _Jacobus Meydenbach_, in 1491.]
[Footnote IV-4: Idée Générale, p. 286.]
Although so little is positively known respecting John Meydenbach,
Gutemberg’s assistant, yet Von Murr thinks that there is reason to
suppose that he was the artist who engraved the large initial letters
for the Psalter of 1457. Fischer, who declares that there is no
sufficient grounds for this conjecture, confidently assumes, from false
premises, that those letters were engraved by Gutemberg, “a person
experienced in such work,” adds he, “as we are taught by his residence
at Strasburg.” From the account that we have of his residence and
pursuits at Strasburg, however, we are taught no such thing. We only
learn from it he was engaged in some invention which related to
printing. We learn that Conrad Saspach made him a press, and it is
conjectured that the goldsmith Hanns Dunne was employed to engrave his
letters; but there is not a word of his being an experienced wood
engraver, nor is there a well authenticated passage in any account of
his life from which it might be concluded that he ever engraved a single
letter. Fischer’s reasons for supposing that Gutemberg engraved the
large letters in Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter are, however, contradicted
by facts. Having seen a few leaves of a Donatus ornamented with the same
initial letters as the Psalter, he directly concluded that the former
was printed by Gutemberg and Faust prior to the dissolution of their
partnership; and not satisfied with this leap he takes another, and
arrives at the conclusion that they were engraved by Gutemberg, as
“_his_ modesty only could allow such works to appear without his name.”
Although we have no information respecting the artist by whom those
letters were engraved, yet it is not unlikely that they were suggested,
if not actually drawn by Scheffer, who, from his profession of a scribe
or writer[IV-5] previous to his connexion with Faust, may be supposed to
have been well acquainted with the various kinds of flowered and
ornamented capitals with which manuscripts of that and preceding
centuries were embellished. It is not unusual to find manuscripts of the
early part of the fifteenth century embellished with capitals of two
colours, red and blue, in the same taste as in the Psalter; and there is
now lying before me a capital P, drawn on vellum in red and blue ink, in
a manuscript apparently of the date of 1430, which is so like the same
letter in the Psalter that the one might be supposed to have suggested
the other.
[Footnote IV-5: Scheffer previous to his connexion with Faust was
a “clericus,”--not a _clerk_ as distinguished from a layman, but a
writer or scribe. A specimen of his “set-hand,” written at Paris
in 1449, is given by Schœpflin in his Vindiciæ Typographicæ.
Several of the earliest printers were writers or illuminators;
among whom may be mentioned John Mentelin of Strasburg, John
Baemler of Augsburg, Ulric Zell of Cologne, and Colard Mansion of
Bruges.]
It was an object with Faust and Scheffer to recommend their
Psalter--probably the first work printed by them after Gutemberg
had been obliged to withdraw from the partnership--by the beauty
of its capitals and the sufficiency and distinctness of its
“rubrications;”[IV-6] and it is evident that they did not fail in the
attempt. The Psalter of 1457 is, with respect to ornamental printing,
their greatest work; for in no subsequent production of their press
does the typographic art appear to have reached a higher degree of
excellence. It may with truth be said that the art of printing--be
the inventor who he may--was perfected by Faust and Scheffer; for the
earliest known production of their press remains to the present day
unsurpassed as a specimen of skill in ornamental printing.
[Footnote IV-6: This is intimated in the colophon, which, with the
contracted words written at length, is as follows: “Presens
Spalmorum codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque
sufficienter distinctus. Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi ac
caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaracione sic effigiatus. Et ad
eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus. Per Johannem Fust, Civem
maguntinum. Et Petrum Schoffer de Gernzheim, Anno domini
Millesimo. cccc. lvii. In vigilia Assumpcionis.” In the second
edition the mis-spelling, “Spalmorum” for “Psalmorum,” is
corrected.]
A fac-simile of the large B at the commencement of the Psalter, printed
in colours the same as the original, is given in the first volume of
Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, and in Savage’s Hints on Decorative
Printing; but in neither of those works has the excellence of the
original letter been attained. In the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, although
the volume has been printed little more than twenty years, the red
colour in which the body of the letter is printed has assumed a coppery
hue, while in the original, executed nearly four hundred years ago, the
freshness and purity of the colours remain unimpaired. In Savage’s work,
though the letter and its ornaments are faithfully copied[IV-7] and
tolerably well printed, yet the colours are not equal to those of the
original. In the modern copy the blue is too faint; and the red, which
in the original is like well impasted paint, has not sufficient body,
but appears like a wash, through which in many places the white paper
may be seen. The whole letter compared with the original seems like a
water-colour copy compared with a painting in oil.
[Footnote IV-7: It is to be observed that in Savage’s copy the
perpendicular flourishes are given horizontally, above and below
the letter, in order to save room. In a copy of the edition of
1459, in the King’s Library, part of the lower flourish has not
been inked, as it would have interfered with the letter Q at the
commencement of the second psalm “_Quare fremuerunt gentes_.”
Traces of the flourish where not coloured may be observed
impressed in the vellum.]
Although it has been generally supposed that the art of printing was
first carried from Mentz in 1462 when Faust and Scheffer’s sworn workmen
were dispersed[IV-8] on the capture of that city by the archbishop
Adolphus of Nassau, yet there can be no doubt that it was practised at
Bamberg before that period; for a book of fables printed at the latter
place by Albert Pfister is expressly dated on St. Valentine’s day, 1461;
and a history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther was also printed by
Pfister at Bamberg in 1462, “+Nit lang nach sand walpurgen tag+,”--not
long after St. Walburg’s day.[IV-9] It is therefore certain that the art
was practised beyond Mentz previous to the capture of that city, which
was not taken until the eve of St. Simon and St. Jude; that is, on the
28th of October in 1462. As it is very probable that Pfister would have
to superintend the formation of his own types and the construction of
his own presses,--for none of his types are of the same fount as those
used by Gutemberg or by Faust and Scheffer,--we may presume that he
would be occupied for some considerable time in preparing his materials
and utensils before he could begin to print. As his first known work
with a date, containing a hundred and one wood-cuts, was finished on the
14th of February 1461, it is not unlikely that he might have begun to
make preparations three or four years before. Upon these grounds it
seems but reasonable to conclude with Aretin, that the art was carried
from Mentz by some of Gutemberg and Faust’s workmen on the dissolution
of their partnership in 1455; and that the date of the capture of
Mentz--when for a time all the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms
were compelled to leave the city by the captors--marks the period of its
more general diffusion. The occasion of the disaster to which Mentz was
exposed for nearly three years was a contest for the succession to the
archbishopric. Theodoric von Erpach having died in May 1459, a majority
of the chapter chose Thierry von Isenburg to succeed him, while another
party supported the pretensions of Adolphus of Nassau. An appeal having
been made to Rome, the election of Thierry was annulled, and Adolphus
was declared by the Pope to be the lawful archbishop of Mentz. Thierry,
being in possession and supported by the citizens, refused to resign,
until his rival, assisted by the forces of his adherents and relations,
succeeded in obtaining possession of the city.[IV-10]
[Footnote IV-8: The following passage occurs in the colophon of
two works printed by John Scheffer at Mentz in 1515 and 1516; the
one being the “Trithemii Breviarium Historiæ Francorum,” and the
other “Breviarium Ecclesiæ Mindensis:” “Retinuerunt autem hi duo
jam prænominati, _Johannes Fust et Petrus Scheffer_, hanc artem in
secreto, (omnibus ministris et familiaribus eorum, ne illam quoquo
modo manifestarent, jure jurando adstrictis :) quæ tandem anno
Domini M.CCCC.LXII. per eosdem familiares in diversas terrarum
provincias divulgata, haud parvum sumpsit incrementum.”]
[Footnote IV-9: St. Walburg’s day is on the 25th of February;
though her feast is also held both on the 1st of May and on the
12th of October. The eve of her feast on the 1st of May is more
particularly celebrated; and it is then that the witches and
warlocks of Germany hold their annual meeting on the Brocken. St.
Walburg, though born of royal parents in Saxony, was yet educated
in England, at the convent of Wimborn in Dorsetshire, of which she
became afterwards abbess, and where she died in 779.]
[Footnote IV-10: A mournful account of the expulsion of the
inhabitants and the plundering of the city is given by Trithemius
at page 30 of his “Res Gestæ Frederici Palatini,” published with
notes by Marquard Freher, at Heidelberg, 4to. 1603.]
Until the discovery of Pfister’s book containing the four histories,
most bibliographers supposed that the date 1461, in the fables, related
to the composition of the work or the completion of the manuscript, and
not to the printing of the book. Saubert, who was the first to notice
it, in 1643, describes it as being printed, both text and figures, from
wood-blocks; and Meerman has adopted the same erroneous opinion.
Heineken was the first to describe it truly, as having the text printed
with moveable types, though he expresses himself doubtfully as to the
date, 1461, being that of the impression.
As the discovery of Pfister’s tracts has thrown considerable light on
the progress of typography and wood engraving, I shall give an account
of the most important of them, as connected with those subjects; with a
brief notice of a few circumstances relative to the early connexion of
wood engraving with the press, and to the dispersion of the printers on
the capture of Mentz in 1462.
The discovery of the history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther, with
the date 1462, printed at Bamberg by Pfister, has established the fact
that the dates refer to the years in which the books were printed, and
not to the period when the works were composed or transcribed. An
account of the history above named, written by M. J. Steiner, pastor of
the church of St. Ulric at Augsburg, was first printed in Meusel’s
Historical and Literary Magazine in 1792; and a more ample description
of this and other tracts printed by Pfister was published by Camus in
1800,[IV-11] when the volume containing them, which was the identical
one that had been previously seen by Steiner, was deposited in the
National Library at Paris.
[Footnote IV-11: Under the title of “Notice d’un Livre imprimé à
Bamberg en CIↃCCCCLXII. lue à l’Institut National, par Camus.”
4to. Paris, An VII. [1800.]]
The book of fables[IV-12] printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461 is a
small folio consisting of twenty-eight leaves, and containing
eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old German language. As those fables,
which are ascribed to one “Boner, dictus der Edelstein,” are known to
have been written previous to 1330, the words at the end of the
volume,--“Zu Bamberg dies Büchlein geendet ist,”--At Bamberg this book
is finished,--most certainly relate to the time when it was printed, and
not when it was written. It is therefore the earliest book printed with
moveable types which is illustrated with wood-cuts containing figures.
Not having an opportunity of seeing this extremely rare book,--of which
only one perfect copy is known,--I am unable to speak from personal
examination of the style in which its hundred and one cuts are engraved.
Heineken, however, has given a fac-simile of the first, and he says that
the others are of a similar kind. The following is a reduced copy of the
fac-simile given by Heineken, and which forms the head-piece to the
first fable. On the manner in which it is engraved I shall make no
remark, until I shall have produced some specimens of the cuts contained
in a “Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum,” also printed by Pfister, and having
the text in the German language.
[Footnote IV-12: The copy of those fables belonging to the
Wolfenbuttel Library, and which is the only one known, was taken
away by the French and placed in the National Library at Paris,
but was restored on the surrender of Paris in 1815.]
[Illustration]
The volume described by Camus contains three different works; and
although Pfister’s name, with the date 1462, appears in only one of
them, the “Four Histories,” yet, as the type is the same in all, there
can be no doubt of the other two being printed by the same person and
about the same period. The following particulars respecting its contents
are derived from the “Notice” of Camus. It is a small folio consisting
altogether of a hundred and one leaves of paper of good quality,
moderately thick and white, and in which the water-mark is an ox’s head.
The text is printed in a large type, called missal-type; and though the
characters are larger, and there is a trifling variation in three or
four of the capitals, yet they evidently appear to have been copied from
those of the Mazarine Bible.
The first work is that which Heineken calls “une Allégorie sur la
Mort;”[IV-13] but this title does not give a just idea of its contents.
It is in fact a collection of accusations preferred against Death, with
his answers to them. The object is to show that such complaints are
unavailing, and that, instead of making them, people ought rather to
employ themselves in endeavouring to live well. In this tract, which
consists of twenty-four leaves, there are five wood-cuts, each occupying
an entire page. The first represents Death seated on a throne. Before
him there is a man with a child, who appears to accuse Death of having
deprived him of his wife, who is seen on a tomb wrapped in a
winding-sheet.--In the second cut, Death is also seen seated on a
throne, with the same person apparently complaining against him, while a
number of persons appear approaching sad and slow, to lay down the
ensigns of their dignity at his feet.--In the third cut there are two
figures of Death; one on foot mows down youths and maidens with a
scythe, while another, mounted, is seen chasing a number of figures on
horseback, at whom he at the same time discharges his arrows.--The
fourth cut consists of two parts, the one above the other. In the upper
part, Death appears seated on a throne, with a person before him in the
act of complaining, as in the first and second cuts. In the lower part,
to the left of the cut, is seen a convent, at the gate of which there
are two persons in religious habits; to the right a garden is
represented, in which are perceived a tree laden with fruit, a woman
crowning an infant, and another woman conversing with a young man. In
the space between the convent and the garden certain signs are engraved,
which Camus thinks are intended to represent various branches of
learning and science,--none of which can afford protection against
death,--as they are treated of in the chapter which precedes the cut. In
the fifth cut, Death and the Complainant are seen before Christ, who is
seated on a throne with an angel on each side of him, under a canopy
ornamented with stars. Although neither Heineken nor Camus give
specimens of those cuts, nor speak of the style in which they are
executed, it may be presumed that they are not superior either in design
or engraving to those contained in the other tracts.
[Footnote IV-13: Idée Générale, p. 276. Dr. Dibdin in his
Bibliographical Tour says that this work “is entitled by Camus the
ALLEGORY OF DEATH.” This is a mistake; for Camus, who objects to
this title,--which was given to it by Heineken,--always refers to
the book under the title of “Les Plaintes contre la Mort.”]
The text of the work is divided into thirty-four chapters, each of
which, except the first, is preceded by a summary; and their numbers are
printed in Roman characters. The initial letter of each chapter is red,
and appears to have been formed by means of a stencil. The first
chapter, which has neither title nor numeral, commences with the
Complainant’s recital of his injuries; in the second, Death defends
himself; in the third the Complainant resumes, in the fourth Death
replies; and in this manner the work proceeds, the Complainant and Death
speaking alternately through thirty-two chapters. In the thirty-third,
God decides between the parties; and after a few common-place
reflections and observations on the readiness of people to complain on
all occasions, sentence is pronounced in these words: “The Complainant
is condemned, and Death has gained the cause. Of right, the Life of
every man is due to Death; to Earth his Body, and to Us his Soul.” In
the thirty-fourth chapter, the Complainant, perceiving that he has lost
his suit, proceeds to pray to God on behalf of his deceased wife. In the
summary prefixed to the chapter the reader is informed that he is now
about to peruse a model of a prayer; and that the name of the
Complainant is expressed by the large red letters which are to be found
in the chapter. Accordingly, in the course of the chapter, six red
letters, besides the initial at the beginning, occur at the commencement
of so many different sentences. They are formed by means of a stencil,
while the letters at the commencement of other similar sentences are
printed black. Those red letters, including the initial at the beginning
of the chapter, occur in the following order, IHESANW. Whether the name
is expressed by them as they stand, or whether they are to be combined
in some other manner, Camus will not venture to decide.[IV-14] From the
prayer it appears that the name of the Complainant’s deceased wife was
Margaret. In this singular composition, which in the summary is declared
to be a model, the author, not forgetting the court language of his
native country, calls the Almighty “the Elector who determines the
choice of all Electors,” “Hoffmeister” of the court of Heaven, and
“Herzog” of the Heavenly host. The text is in the German language, such
as was spoken and written in the fifteenth century.
[Footnote IV-14: “Outre la lettre initiale, on remarque, dans le
cours du chapitre, six lettres rouges non imprimées, mais peintes
à la plaque, qui commencent six phrases diverses. Les lettres
initiales des autres phrases du même chapitre sont imprimées en
noir. Les lettres rouges sont IHESANW. Doit-on les assembler dans
l’ordre où elles sont placées, ou bien doivent-elles recevoir un
autre arrangement? Je ne prends pas sur moi de le
décider.”--Camus, Notice, p. 6.]
The German words “_Hoffmeister_” and “_Herzog_” appear extremely
ridiculous in Camus’s French translation,--“le Maître-d’hôtel de la cour
céleste,” and “le Grand-duc de l’armée céleste.” But this is clothing
ancient and dignified German in modern French frippery. The word
“Hoffmeister”--literally, “court-master or governor”--is used in modern
German in nearly the same sense as the English word “steward;” and the
governor or tutor of a young prince or nobleman is called by the same
name. The word “Herzog”--the “Grand-duc” of Camus--in its original
signification means the leader of a host or army. It is a German title
of honour which defines its original meaning, and is in modern language
synonymous with the English title “Duke.” The ancient German “Herzog”
was a leader of hosts; the modern French “Grand-duc” is a clean-shaved
gentleman in a court-dress, redolent of eau-de-Cologne, and bedizened
with stars and strings. The two words are characteristic of the two
languages.
The second work in the volume is the Histories of Joseph, Daniel,
Judith, and Esther. It has no general frontispiece nor title; but each
separate history commences with the words: “Here begins the history of
. . . .” in German. Each history forms a separate gathering, and the
whole four are contained in sixty leaves, of which two, about the
middle, are blank, although there is no appearance of any deficiency in
the history. The text is accompanied with wood-cuts which are much less
than those in the “Complaints against Death,” each occupying only the
space of eleven lines in a page, which when full contains twenty-eight.
The number of the cuts is sixty-one; but there are only fifty-five
different subjects, four of them having been printed twice, and one
thrice. Camus gives a specimen of one of the cuts, which represents the
Jews of Bethuliah rejoicing and offering sacrifice on the return of
Judith after she had cut off the head of Holofernes. It is certainly a
very indifferent performance, both with respect to design and engraving;
and from Camus’s remarks on the artist’s ignorance and want of taste it
would appear that the others are no better. In one of them Haman is
decorated with the collar of an order from which a cross is suspended;
and in another Jacob is seen travelling to Egypt in a carriage[IV-15]
drawn by two horses, which are harnessed according to the manner of the
fifteenth century, and driven by a postilion seated on a saddle, and
with his feet in stirrups. All the cuts in the “Four Histories” are
coarsely coloured.
[Footnote IV-15: Camus calls it a “voiture,” but I question if
such a carriage was known in 1462; and am inclined to think that
he has converted a kind of light waggon into a modern “voiture.”
A light sort of waggon, called by Stow a “Wherlicote,” was used in
England by the mother of Richard the Second in the manner of a
modern coach. I have noticed in an old wood-cut a light travelling
waggon, drawn by what is called a “unicorn team” of three horses;
that is, one as a “leader,” and two “wheelers,” with the driver
riding on the “near side” wheeler. This cut is in the Bagford
collection in the British Museum, and is one of a series of ninety
subjects from the Old and New Testament which have been cut out of
a book. A manuscript note in German states that they are by
Michael Wolgemuth, and printed in 1491. In no wood-cut executed
previous to 1500 have I seen a vehicle like a modern French
voiture.]
It is this work which Camus, in his title-page, professes to give an
account of, although in his tract he describes the other two contained
in the same volume with no less minuteness. He especially announced a
notice of this work as “a book printed at Bamberg in 1462,” in
consequence of its being the most important in the volume; for it
contains not only the date and place, but also the printer’s name. In
the book of Fables, printed with the same types at Bamberg in 1461,
Pfister’s name does not appear.
The text of the “Four Histories” ends at the fourth line on the recto of
the sixtieth leaf; and after a blank space equal to that of a line,
thirteen lines succeed, forming the colophon, and containing the place,
date, and printer’s name. Although those lines run continuously on,
occupying the full width of the page as in prose, yet they consist of
couplets in German rhyme. The end of each verse is marked with a point,
and the first word of the succeeding one begins with a capital. Camus
has given a fac-simile of those lines, that he might at once present his
readers with a specimen of the type and a copy of this colophon, so
interesting to bibliographers as establishing the important fact in the
history of printing, namely, that the art was practised beyond Mentz
prior to 1462. The following copy, though not a fac-simile, is printed
line for line from Camus.
+Ein ittlich mensch von herzen gert . Das er wer weiss
und wol gelert . An meister un’ schrift das nit mag
sein . So kun’ wir all auch nit latein . Darauff han
ich ein teil gedacht . Und vier historii zu samen pra-
cht . Joseph daniel un’ auch judith . Und hester auch
mit gutem sith. die vier het got in seiner hut . Als er
noch ye de’ guten thut . Dar durch wir pessern unser
lebe’ . De’ puchlein ist sein ende gebe’ . Tʒu bambergh
in der selbe’ stat . Das albrecht pfister gedrucket hat
Do ma’ zalt tausent un’ vierhu’dert iar . Im zwei und
sechzigste’ das ist war . Nit lang nach sand walpur-
gen tag . Die uns wol gnad erberben mag . Frid un’
das ewig lebe’ . Das wolle uns got alle’ gebe’ . Ame’.+
The following is a translation of the above, in English couplets of
similar rhythm and measure as the original:
With heart’s desire each man doth seek
That he were wise and learned eke:
But books and teacher he doth need,
And all men cannot Latin read.
As on this subject oft I thought,
These hist’ries four I therefore wrote;
Of Joseph, Daniel, Judith too,
And Esther eke, with purpose true:
These four did God with bliss requite,
As he doth all who act upright.
That men may learn their lives to mend
This book at Bamberg here I end.
In the same city, as I’ve hinted,
It was by Albert Pfister printed,
In th’ year of grace, I tell you true,
A thousand four hundred and sixty-two;
Soon after good St. Walburg’s day,
Who well may aid us on our way,
And help us to eternal bliss:
God, of his mercy, grant us this. Amen.
The third work contained in the volume described by Camus is an edition
of the “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” with the text in German, and printed on
both sides. The number of the leaves is eighteen, of which only
seventeen are printed; and as there is a “history” on each page, the
total number in the work is thirty-four, each of which is illustrated
with five cuts. The subjects of those cuts and their arrangement on the
page is not precisely the same as in the earlier Latin editions; and as
in the latter there are forty “histories,” six are wanting in the
Bamberg edition, namely: 1. Christ in the garden; 2. The soldiers
alarmed at the sepulchre; 3. The Last Judgment; 4. Hell; 5. The eternal
Father receiving the righteous into his bosom; and 6. The crowning of
the Saints. As the cuts illustrative of these subjects are the last in
the Latin editions, it is possible that the Bamberg copy described by
Camus might be defective; he, however, observes that there is no
appearance of any leaves being wanting.[IV-16] In each page of the
Bamberg edition the text is in two columns below the cuts, which are
arranged in the following manner in the upper part of the page:
[Illustration:
+------------------------+
| |
| 3 |
+--------------+ | | +--------------+
| 1 | |Christ appearing to the | | 2 |
| | | | | |
| Busts. | | Apostles. | | Busts. |
| | | | | |
+--------------+ +------------------------+ +--------------+
+----------------------------+------+----------------------------+
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| 4 | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| Joseph making himself | | The Prodigal Son’s return |
| | | |
| known to his brethern. | | to his father. |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------------------------+------+----------------------------+]
The following cuts are fac-similes of those given by Camus; and the
numbers underneath each relate to their position in the preceding
example of their arrangement. In No. 1 the heads are intended for David
and the author of the Book of Wisdom; in No. 2, for Isaiah and Ezekiel.
[Illustration: No. 1.]
[Illustration: No. 2.]
[Footnote IV-16: The copy of the Bamberg edition in the
Wolfenbuttel Library, seen and described by Heineken, Idée
Générale, pp. 327-329, contained only twenty-six “histories,” or
general subjects.]
The subject represented in the following cut, No. 3, forming the centre
piece at the top in the arrangement of the original page, is Christ
appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. The figure on the
right of Christ is intended for St. Peter, and that on his left for St.
John. I believe that in no wood-cut, ancient or modern, is Christ
represented with so uncomely an aspect and so clumsy a figure.
[Illustration: No. 3.]
The subject of No. 4 is Joseph making himself known to his brethren;
from Genesis, chapter XLV.
[Illustration: No. 4.]
In No. 5 the subject represented is the Prodigal Son received by his
father; from St. Luke, chapter XV. Camus says that the cuts given by him
were engraved on wood by Duplaa with the greatest exactitude from
tracings of the originals by Dubrena.
[Illustration: No. 5.]
Supposing that all the cuts in the four works, printed by Pfister and
described in the preceding pages, were designed in a similar taste and
executed in a similar manner to those of which specimens are given, the
persons by whom they were engraved--for it is not likely that they were
all engraved by one man--must have had very little knowledge of the art.
Looking merely at the manner in which they are engraved, without
reference to the wretched drawing of the figures and want of “feeling”
displayed in the general treatment of the subjects, a moderately apt
lad, at the present day, generally will cut as well by the time that he
has had a month or two’s practice. If those cuts were to be considered
as fair specimens of wood engraving in Germany in 1462, it would be
evident that the art was then declining; for none of the specimens that
I have seen of the cuts printed by Pfister can bear a comparison with
those contained in the early block-books, such as the Apocalypse, the
History of the Virgin, or the early editions of the Poor Preachers’
Bible. To the cuts contained in the latter works they are decidedly
inferior, both with respect to design and engraving. Even the earliest
wood-cuts which are known,--for instance, the St. Christopher, the St.
Bridget, and the Annunciation, in Earl Spencer’s collection,--are
executed in a superior manner.
It would, however, be unfair to conclude that the cuts which appear in
Pfister’s works were the best that were executed at that period. On the
contrary, it is probable that they are the productions of persons who in
their own age would be esteemed only as inferior artists. As the
progress of typography was regarded with jealousy by the early wood
engravers and block printers, who were apprehensive that it would ruin
their trade, and as previous to the establishment of printing they were
already formed into companies or fellowships, which were extremely
sensitive on the subject of their exclusive rights, it is not unlikely
that the earliest type-printers who adorned their books with wood-cuts
would be obliged to have them executed by a person who was not
professionally a wood engraver. It is only upon this supposition that we
can account for the fact of the wood-cuts in the earliest books printed
with type being so very inferior to those in the earliest block-books.
This supposition is corroborated by the account which we have of the
proceedings of the wood engravers of Augsburg shortly after
type-printing was first established in that city. In 1471 they opposed
Gunther Zainer’s[IV-17] admission to the privileges of a burgess, and
endeavoured to prevent him printing wood engravings in his books.
Melchior Stamham, however, abbot of St. Ulric and Afra, a warm promoter
of typography, interested himself on behalf of Zainer, and obtained an
order from the magistracy that he and John Schussler--another printer
whom the wood engravers had also objected to--should be allowed to
follow without interruption their art of printing. They were, however,
forbid to print initial letters from wood-blocks or to insert wood-cuts
in their books, as this would be an infringement on the privileges of
the fellowship of wood engravers. Subsequently the wood engravers came
to an understanding with Zainer, and agreed that he should print as many
initial letters and wood-cuts as he pleased, provided that they engraved
them.[IV-18] Whether Schussler came to the same agreement or not is
uncertain, as there is no book known to be printed by him of a later
date than 1472. It is probable that he is the person,--named John
_Schüssler_ in the memorandum printed by Zapf,--of whom Melchior de
Stamham in that year bought five presses for the printing-office which
he established in his convent of St. Ulric and St. Afra. To John Bämler,
who at the same time carried on the business of a printer at Augsburg,
no objection appears to have been made. As he was originally a
“calligraphus” or ornamental writer, it is probable that he was a member
of the wood engravers’ guild, and thus entitled to engrave and print his
own works without interruption.
[Footnote IV-17: Gunther Zainer was a native of Reutlingen, in
Wirtemberg, and was the first printer in Germany who used Roman
characters,--in an edition of “Isidori Episcopi Hispalensis
Etymologia,” printed by him in 1472. He first began to print at
Augsburg in 1468. In 1472 he printed a German translation of the
book entitled “Belial,” with wood-cuts. A Latin edition of this
book was printed by Schussler in the same year. Von Murr says that
Schussler printed another edition of “Belial” in 1477; but this
would seem to be a mistake, for Veith asserts in his “Diatribe de
Origine et Incrementis Artis Typographicæ in urbe Augusta
Vindelica,” prefixed to Zapf’s “Annales,” that Schussler only
printed in the years 1470, 1471, and 1472.]
[Footnote IV-18: Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 144.--Zapf,
Buchdruckergeschichte von Augsburg, 1 Band.]
As it is probable that the wood-cuts which appear in books printed
within the first thirty years from the establishment of typography at
Mentz were intended to be coloured, this may in some degree account for
the coarseness with which they are engraved; but as the wood-cuts in the
earlier block-books were also intended to be coloured in a similar
manner, the inferiority of the former can only be accounted for by
supposing that the best wood engravers declined to assist in promoting
what they would consider to be a rival art, and that the earlier
printers would generally be obliged to have their cuts engraved by
persons connected with their own establishments, and who had not by a
regular course of apprenticeship acquired a knowledge of the art. About
seventy or eighty years ago, and until a more recent period, many
country printers in England used themselves to engrave such rude
wood-cuts as they might occasionally want. A most extensive assortment
of such wood-cuts belonged to the printing-office of the late Mr. George
Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head-pieces and general
illustrations to ballads and chap-books. A considerable number of them
were cut with a penknife, on pear-tree wood, by an apprentice named
Randell, who died about forty years ago. Persons who are fond of a
“rough harvest” of such modern-antiques are referred to the “Historical
Delights,” the “History of Ripon,” and other works published by Thomas
Gent at York about 1733.
Notwithstanding the rudeness with which the cuts are engraved in the
four works printed by Pfister, yet from their number a considerable
portion of time must have been occupied in their execution. In the “Four
Histories” there are sixty-one cuts, which have been printed from
fifty-five blocks. In the “Fables” there are one hundred and one cuts;
in the “Complaints against Death,” five; and in the “Poor Preachers’
Bible,” one hundred and seventy, reckoning each subject separately.
Supposing each cut in the _three_ last works was printed from a separate
block, the total number of blocks required for the _four_ would be three
hundred and thirty-one.[IV-19] Supposing that each cut on an average
contained as much work as that which is numbered 4 in the preceding
specimens--Joseph making himself known to his brethren--and supposing
that the artist drew the subjects himself, the execution of those three
hundred and thirty-one cuts would occupy one person for about two years
and a half, allowing him to work three hundred days in each year. It is
true that a modern wood engraver might finish more than three of such
cuts in a week, yet I question if any one of the profession would
complete the whole number, with his own hands, in less time than I have
specified.
[Footnote IV-19: Lichtenberger, in his Initia Typographica,
referring to Sprenger’s History of Printing at Bamberg, says that,
besides those four, five other tracts are printed with Pfister’s
types, of which three contain wood-cuts. One of those three,
however, a “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” with the text in Latin, has
the same cuts as the “Poor Preachers’ Bible” with the text in
German. Only one of those other five works contains the place and
date.]
From the similarity between Pfister’s types and those with which a Bible
without place or date is printed, several bibliographers have ascribed
the latter work to his press. This Bible, which in the Royal Library at
Paris is bound in three volumes folio, is the rarest of all editions of
the Scriptures printed in Latin. Schelhorn, who wrote a dissertation on
this edition, endeavoured to show that it was the first of the Bibles
printed at Mentz, and that it was partly printed by Gutemberg and Faust
previous to their separation, and finished by Faust and Scheffer in
1456.[IV-20] Lichtenberger, without expressly assenting to Schelhorn’s
opinion, is inclined to think that it was printed at Mentz, and by
Gutemberg. The reasons which he assigns, however, are not such as are
likely to gain assent without a previous willingness to believe. He
admits that Pfister’s types are similar to those of the Bible, though he
says that the former are somewhat ruder.
[Footnote IV-20: De Antiquissima Latinorum Bibliorum editione
. . . . Jo. Georgii Schelhorn Diatribe. Ulmæ, 4to. 1760.]
Camus considers that the tracts unquestionably printed by Pfister throw
considerable light on the question as to whom this Bible is to be
ascribed. There are two specimens of this Bible, the one given by Masch
in his Bibliotheca Sacra, and the other by Schelhorn, in a dissertation
prefixed to Quirini’s account of the principal works printed at Rome.
Camus, on comparing these specimens with the text of Pfister’s tracts,
immediately perceived the most perfect resemblance between the
characters; and on applying a tracing of the last thirteen lines of the
“Four Histories” to the corresponding letters in Schelhorn’s specimen,
he found that the characters exactly corresponded. This perfect identity
induced him to believe that the Bible described by Schelhorn was printed
with Pfister’s types. A correspondent in Meusel’s Magazine, No. VII.
1794, had previously advanced the same opinion; and he moreover thought
that the Bible had been printed previous to the Fables dated 1461,
because the characters of the Bible are cleaner, and appear as if they
had been impressed from newer types than those of the Fables.[IV-21] In
support of this opinion an extract is given, in the same magazine, from
a curious manuscript of the date of 1459, and preserved in the library
of Cracow. This manuscript is a kind of dictionary of arts and sciences,
composed by Paul of Prague, doctor of medicine and philosophy, who, in
his definition of the word “Libripagus,” gives a curious piece of
information to the following effect. The barbarous Latin of the original
passage, to which I shall have occasion to refer, will be found in the
subjoined note.[IV-22] “He is an artist who dexterously cuts figures,
letters, and whatever he pleases on plates of copper, of iron, of solid
blocks of wood, and other materials, that he may print upon paper, on a
wall, or on a clean board. He cuts whatever he pleases; and he proceeds
in this manner with respect to pictures. In my time somebody of Bamberg
cut the entire Bible upon plates; in four weeks he impressed the whole
Bible, thus sculptured, upon thin parchment.”
[Footnote IV-21: Dr. Dibdin says that a copy of this Bible, which
formerly belonged to the Earl of Oxford, and is now in the Royal
Library at Paris, contains “an undoubted coeval MS. date, in red
ink, of 1461.”--Bibliog. Tour, vol. ii p. 108. Second edition.]
[Footnote IV-22: “Libripagus est artifex sculpens subtiliter in
laminibus æreis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis,
imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet, ut prius imprimat papyro
aut parieti aut asseri mundo. Scindit omne quod cupit, et est homo
faciens talia cum picturis; et tempore mei Bambergæ quidam
sculpsit integram bibliam super lamellas, et in quatuor septimanis
totam bibliam in pergameno subtili præsignavit sculpturam.”]
Although I am of opinion that the weight of evidence is in favour of
Pfister being the printer of the Bible in question, yet I cannot think
that the arguments which have been adduced in his favour derive any
additional support from this passage. The writer, like many other
dictionary makers, both in ancient and modern times, has found it a more
difficult matter to give a clear account of a _thing_ than to find the
synonym of a _word_. But, notwithstanding his confused account, I think
that I can perceive in it the “disjecta membra” of an ancient
Formschneider and a Briefmaler, but no indication of a typographer.
In a jargon worthy of the “Epistolæ obscurorum virorum” he describes an
artist, or rather an artizan, “sculpens subtiliter in laminibus[IV-23]
[laminis] æreis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis,
imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet.” In this passage the business of
the “Formschneider” may be clearly enough distinguished: he cuts figures
and animals in plates of copper and iron;--but not in the manner of a
modern copper-plate engraver; but in the manner in which a stenciller
pierces his patterns. That this is the true meaning of the writer is
evident from the context, wherein he informs us of the artist’s object
in cutting such letters and figures, namely, “ut prius imprimat papyro
aut parieti aut asseri mundo,”--that he may print upon paper, on a wall,
or on a clean board. This is evidently descriptive of the practice of
stencilling, and proves, if the manuscript be authentic, that the old
“Briefmalers” were accustomed to “slapdash” walls as well as to engrave
and colour cards. In the distinction which is made of the “laminibus
ligneis _ligni solidi_,” it is probable that the writer meant to specify
the difference between cutting out letters and figures on thin plates of
metal, and cutting _upon_ blocks of solid wood. When he speaks of a
Bible being cut, at Bamberg, “super lamellas,” he most likely means a
“Poor Preachers’ Bible,” engraved on blocks of wood. An impression of a
hundred or more copies of such a work might easily enough be taken in a
month when the blocks were all ready engraved; but we cannot suppose
that the Bible ascribed to Pfister could be worked off in so short a
time. This Bible consists of eight hundred and seventy leaves; and to
print an edition of three hundred copies at the rate of three hundred
sheets a day would require four hundred and fifty days. About three
hundred copies of each work appears to have been the usual number which
Sweinheim and Pannartz and Ulric Hahn printed, on the establishment of
the art in Italy; and Philip de Lignamine in his chronicle mentions,
under the year 1458, that Gutemberg and Faust, at Mentz, and Mentelin at
Strasburg, printed three hundred sheets in a day.[IV-24]
[Footnote IV-23: In 1793, a learned doctor of divinity of
Cambridge is said in a like manner to have broken Priscian’s head
with “_paginibus_.” An epigram on this “blunder_bus_” is to be
found in the “Gradus ad Cantabrigiam.”]
[Footnote IV-24: Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 51.]
Of Pfister nothing more is positively known than what the tracts printed
by him afford; namely, that he dwelt at Bamberg, and exercised the
business of a printer there in 1461 and 1462. He might indeed print
there both before and after those years, but of this we have no direct
evidence. From 1462 to 1481 no book is known to have been printed at
Bamberg. In the latter year, a press was established there by John
Sensenschmidt of Egra, who had previously, that is from 1470, printed
several works at Nuremberg.
Panzer, alluding to Pfister as the printer only of the Fables and of the
tracts contained in the volume described by Camus, says that he can
scarcely believe that he had a fixed residence at Bamberg; and that
those tracts most likely proceeded from the press of a travelling
printer.[IV-25] Several of the early printers, who commenced on their
own account, on the dispersion of Faust and Scheffer’s workmen in 1462,
were accustomed to travel with their small stock of materials from one
place to another; sometimes finding employment in a monastery, and
sometimes taking up their temporary abode in a small town; removing to
another as soon as public curiosity was satisfied, and the demand for
the productions of their press began to decline. As they seldom put
their names, or that of the place, to the works which they printed, it
is extremely difficult to decide on the locality or the date of many old
books printed in Germany. It is very likely that they were their own
letter-founders, and that they themselves engraved such wood-cuts as
they might require. As their object was to gain money, it is not
unlikely that they might occasionally sell a portion of their types to
each other;[IV-26] or to a novice who wished to begin the business, or
to a learned abbot who might be desirous of establishing an amateur
press within the precinct of his monastery, where copies of the Facetiæ
of Poggius might be multiplied as well as the works of St. Augustine.
Although it has been asserted the monks regarded with jealousy the
progress of printing, as if it were likely to make knowledge too cheap,
and to interfere with a part of their business as transcribers of books,
such does not appear to have been the fact. In every country in Europe
we find them to have been the first to encourage and promote the new
art; and the annals of typography most clearly show that the greater
part of the books printed within the first thirty years from the time of
Gutemberg and Faust’s partnership were chiefly for the use of the monks
and the secular clergy.
[Footnote IV-25: “Opuscula quæ typis mandavit typographus hic,
hactenus ignotus, ad litteraturam Teutonicam pertinent. Imprimis
Pfisterum hunc Bambergæ fixam habuisse sedem vix crediderim.
Videntur potius hi libri Teutonici monumenta transeuntis
typographi.”--Annal. Typogr. tom. i. p. 142, cited by Camus.]
[Footnote IV-26: Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie, S. 25. 4to.
Leipzig, 1793.]
From 1462 to 1467 there appears to have been no book printed containing
wood-cuts. In the latter year Ulric Hahn, a German, printed at Rome a
book entitled “Meditationes Johannis de Turrecremata,”[IV-27] which
contains wood-cuts engraved in simple outline in a coarse manner. The
work is in folio, and consists of thirty-four leaves of stout paper, on
which the water-mark is a hunter’s horn. The number of cuts is also
thirty-four; and the following--the creation of animals--is a reduced
copy of the first.
[Footnote IV-27: The following is the title at length as it is
printed, in red letters, underneath the first cut: “Meditationes
Reverē dissimi patris dñi Johannis de turre cremata sacros͞ce
Romane eccl’ie cardinalis posite & depicte de ipsius mādato ī
eccl’ie ambitu Marie de Minerva. Rome.” The book is described in
Von Murr’s Memorabilia Bibliothecar. Publicar. Norimbergensium and
in Dibdin’s Ædes Althorpianæ, vol. ii. p. 273, with specimens of
the cuts.]
[Illustration]
The remainder of the cuts are executed in a similar style; and though
designed with more spirit than those contained in Pfister’s tracts, yet
it can scarcely be said that they are better engraved. The following is
an enumeration of the subjects. 1. The Creation, as above represented.
2. The Almighty speaking to Adam. 3. Eve taking the apple. (From No. 3
the rest of the cuts are illustrative of the New Testament or of
Ecclesiastical History.) 4. The Annunciation. 5. The Nativity.
6. Circumcision of Christ. 7. Adoration of the Magi. 8. Simeon’s
Benediction. 9. The Flight into Egypt. 10. Christ disputing with the
Doctors in the Temple. 11. Christ baptized. 12. The Temptation in the
Wilderness. 13. The keys given to Peter. 14. The Transfiguration.
15. Christ washing the Apostles’ feet. 16. The Last Supper. 17. Christ
betrayed by Judas. 18. Christ led before the High Priest. 19. The
Crucifixion. 20. Mater Dolorosa. 21. The Descent into Hell. 22. The
Resurrection. 23. Christ appearing to his Disciples. 24. The Ascension.
25. The feast of Pentecost 26. The Host borne by a bishop. 27. The
mystery of the Trinity; Abraham sees three and adores one. 28. St.
Dominic extended like the “_Stam-Herr_” or first ancestor in a pedigree,
and sending forth numerous branches as Popes, Cardinals, and Saints.
29. Christ appearing to St. Sixtus. 30. The Assumption of the Virgin.
31. Christ seated amidst a choir of Angels. 32. Christ seated at the
Virgin’s right hand in the assembly of Saints. 33. The Office of Mass
for the Dead. 34. The Last Judgment.
Zani says that those cuts were engraved by an Italian artist, but beyond
his assertion there is no authority for the fact. It is most likely that
they were cut by one of Hahn’s workmen, who could occasionally “turn his
hand” to wood-engraving and type-founding, as well as compose and work
at press; and it is most probable that Hahn’s workmen when he first
established a press in Rome were Germans, and not Italians.
The second book printed in Italy with wood-cuts is the “Editio Princeps”
of the treatise of R. Valturius de Re Militari, which appeared at Verona
from the press of “Johannes de Verona,” son of Nicholas the surgeon, and
master of the art of printing.[IV-28] This work is dedicated by the
author to Sigismund Malatesta, lord of Rimini, who is styled in pompous
phrase, “Splendidissimum Arminensium Regem ac Imperatorem semper
invictum.” The work, however, must have been written several years
before it was printed, for Baluze transcribed from a MS. dated 1463 a
letter written in the name of Malatesta, and sent by the author with a
copy of his work to the Sultan Mahomet II. The bearer of this letter was
the painter Matteo Pasti, a friend of the author, who visited
Constantinople at the Sultan’s request in order that he might paint his
portrait. It is said that the cuts in this work were designed by Pasti;
and it is very probable that he might make the drawings in Malatesta’s
own copy, from which it is likely that the book was printed. As
Valturius has mentioned Pasti as being eminently skilful in the arts of
Painting, Sculpture, and _Engraving_,[IV-29] Maffei has
conjectured,--and Mr. Ottley adds, “with some appearance of
probability,”--that the cuts in question were executed by his hand. If
such were the fact, it only could be regretted that an artist so eminent
should have mis-spent his time in a manner so unworthy of his
reputation; for, allowing that a considerable degree of talent is
displayed in many of the designs, there is nothing in the engraving, as
they are mere outlines, but what might be cut by a novice. There is not,
however, the slightest reasonable ground to suppose that those
engravings were cut by Matteo Pasti, for I believe that he died before
printing was introduced into Italy; and it surely would be presuming
beyond the verge of probability to assert that they might be engraved in
anticipation of the art being introduced, and of the book being printed
at some time or other, when the blocks would be all ready engraved,
in a simple style of art indeed, but with a master’s hand.
A master-sculptor’s hand, however, is not very easily distinguished
in the mere rough-dressing of a block of sandstone, which any country
mason’s apprentice might do as well. It is very questionable if Matteo
Pasti was an engraver in the present sense of the word; the engraving
meant by Valturius was probably that of gold and silver vessels and
ornaments; but not the engraving of plates of copper or other metal
for the purpose of being printed.
[Footnote IV-28: The following is a copy of the colophon:
“Johannes ex verona oriundus: Nicolai cyrurgie medici filius:
Artis impressorie magister: hunc de re militari librum
elegantissimum: litteris et figuratis signis sua in patria primus
impressit. An. MCCCCLXXII.”]
[Footnote IV-29: “Valturius speaks of Pasti in one of his letters
as being eminently skilful in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and
Engraving.”--Ottley, Inquiry, p. 257.]
Several of those cuts occupy an entire folio page, though the greater
number are of smaller size. They chiefly represent warlike engines,
which display considerable mechanical skill on the part of the
contriver; modes of attack and defence both by land and water, with
various contrivances for passing a river which is not fordable, by means
of rafts, inflated bladders, and floating bridges. In some of them
inventions may be noticed which are generally ascribed to a later
period: such as a boat with paddle-wheels, which are put in motion by a
kind of crank; a gun with a stock, fired from the shoulder; and a
bomb-shell. It has frequently been asserted that hand-guns were first
introduced about the beginning of the sixteenth century, yet the figure
of one in the work of Valturius makes it evident that they were known
some time before. It is also likely that the drawing was made and the
description written at least ten years before the book was printed. It
has also been generally asserted that bomb-shells were first used by
Charles VIII. of France when besieging Naples in 1495. Valturius,
however, in treating of cannon, ascribes the invention to
Malatesta.[IV-30] Gibbon, in chapter lxviii. of his History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, notices this cut of a bomb-shell.
His reference is to the second edition of the work, in Italian, printed
also at Verona by Bonin de Bononis in 1483, with the same cuts as the
first edition in Latin.[IV-31] The two following cuts are fac-similes of
the bomb-shell and the hand-gun, as represented in the edition of 1472.
The figure armed with the gun,--a portion of a large cut,--is firing
from a kind of floating battery; and in the original two figures armed
with similar weapons are stationed immediately above him.
[Footnote IV-30: “Inventum est quoque alterum machinæ hujusce tuum
Sigismonde Panpulfe [Malatesta]: qua pilæ æneæ tormentarii
pulveris plenæ cum fungi aridi fomite urientis emittuntur.”--We
hence learn that the first bomb-shells were made of copper, and
that the fuzee was a piece of a dried fungus. As the first edition
has neither numerals nor signatures, I cannot refer to the page in
which the above passage is to be found. It is, however, opposite
to the cut in which the bomb-shell appears, and that is about the
middle of the volume.]
[Footnote IV-31: “Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483,
his twelve books de Re Militari, in which he first mentions the
use of bombs. By his patron Sigismond Malatesti, Prince of Rimini,
it had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet
II.”--Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. lxviii., note.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The following fac-simile of a cut representing a man shooting with a
cross-bow is the best in the book. The drawing of the figure is good,
and the attitude graceful and natural. The figure, indeed, is not only
the best in the work of Valturius, but is one of the best, so far as
respects the drawing, that is to be met with in any book printed in the
fifteenth century.
[Illustration]
The practice of introducing wood-cuts into printed books seems to have
been first generally adopted at Augsburg, where Gunther Zainer, in 1471,
printed a German translation of the “Legenda Sanctorum” with figures of
the saints coarsely engraved on wood. This, I believe, is the first
book, after Pfister’s tracts, printed in Germany with wood-cuts and
containing a date. In 1472 he printed a second volume of the same work,
and an edition of the book entitled “Belial,”[IV-32] both containing
wood-cuts. Several other works printed by him between 1471 and 1475 are
illustrated in a similar manner. Zainer’s example was followed at
Augsburg by his contemporaries John Bämler and John Schussler; and by
them, and Anthony Sorg, who first began to print there about 1475, more
books with wood-cuts were printed in that city previous to 1480 than at
any other place within the same period. In 1477 the first German Bible
with wood-cuts was printed by Sorg, who printed another edition with the
same cuts and initial letters in 1480. In 1483 he printed an account of
the Council of Constance held in 1431, with upwards of a thousand
wood-cuts of figures and of the arms of the principal persons both lay
and spiritual who attended the council. Upon this work Gebhard, in his
Genealogical History of the Heritable States of the German Empire, makes
the following observations:--“The first printed collection of arms is
that of 1483 in the History of the Council of Constance written by
Ulrich Reichenthal. To this council we are indebted accidentally for the
collection. From the thirteenth century it was customary to hang up the
shields of noble and honourable persons deceased in churches; and
subsequently the practice was introduced of painting them upon the
walls, or of placing them in the windows in stained glass. A similar
custom prevailed at the Council of Constance; for every person of
consideration who attended had his arms painted on the wall in front of
his chamber; and thus Reichenthal, who caused those arms to be copied
and engraved on wood, was enabled to give in his history the first
general collection of coat-armour which had appeared; as eminent persons
from all the Catholic states of Europe attended this council.”[IV-33]
[Footnote IV-32: Von Murr says that the person who engraved the
cuts for this book also engraved the cuts in a German edition of
the Speculum without date, but printed at Augsburg, and dedicated
to John [von Giltingen] abbot of the monastery of St. Ulric and
St. Afra, who was chosen to that office in 1482. Heineken supposed
that the person to whom the book was dedicated was John von
Hohenstein, but he resigned the office of abbot in 1459; and the
book was certainly not printed at that period.--See Heineken, Idée
Gén. p. 466; and Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 145.]
[Footnote IV-33: L. A. Gebhard, Genealogische Geschichte, 1 Theil,
Vorrede, S. 11. Cited by Veith in his “Diatribe,” prefixed to
Zapf’s “Annales Typographiæ Augustanæ.”]
The practice of introducing wood-cuts became in a few years general
throughout Germany. In 1473, John Zainer of Reutlingen, who is said to
have been the brother of Gunther, printed an edition of Boccacio’s work
“De mulieribus claris,” with wood-cuts, at Ulm. In 1474 the first
edition of Werner Rolewinck de Laer’s chronicle, entitled “Fasciculus
Temporum,” was printed with wood-cuts by Arnold Ther-Hoernen at Cologne;
and in 1476 an edition of the same work, also with wood-cuts, was
printed at Louvain by John Veldener, who previously had been a printer
at Cologne. In another edition of the same work printed by Veldener at
Utrecht in 1480, the first page is surrounded with a border of foliage
and flowers cut on wood; and another page, about the middle of the
volume, is ornamented in a similar manner. These are the earliest
instances of ornamental borders from wood-blocks which I have observed.
About the beginning of the sixteenth century title-pages surrounded with
ornamental borders are frequent. From the name of those borders,
_Rahmen_, the German wood engravers of that period are sometimes called
_Rahmenschneiders_. Prosper Marchand, in his “Dictionnaire Historique,”
tom. ii. p. 156, has stated that Erhard Ratdolt, a native of Augsburg,
who began to print at Venice about 1475, was the first printer who
introduced flowered initial letters, and vignettes--meaning by the
latter term wood-cuts; but his information is scarcely correct.
Wood-cuts--without reference to Pfister’s tracts, which were not known
when Marchand wrote--were introduced at Augsburg six years before
Ratdolt and his partners[IV-34] printed at Venice in 1476 the
“Calendarium Joannis Regiomontani,” the work to which Marchand alludes.
It may be true that he introduced a new kind of initial letters
ornamented with flowers in this work, but much more beautiful initial
letters had appeared long before in the Psalter, in the “Durandi
Rationale,” and the “Donatus” printed by Faust and Scheffer. The first
person who mentions Ratdolt as the inventor of “florentes litteræ,” so
named from the flowers with which they are intermixed, is Maittaire, in
his Annales Typographici, tom. i. part i. p. 53.
[Footnote IV-34: The following colophon to an edition of Appian
informs us that his partners were Bernard the painter and Peter
Loslein, who also acted as corrector of the press: “Impressum est
hoc opus Venetiis per Bernardū pictorem & Erhardum ratdolt de
Augusta una cum Petro Loslein de Langenzen correctore ac socio.
Laus Deo. MCCCCLXXVII.”]
In 1483 Veldener,[IV-35] as has been previously observed at page 106,
printed at Culemburg an edition in small quarto of the Speculum
Salvationis, with the same blocks as had been used in the earlier folio
editions, which are so confidently ascribed to Lawrence Coster. In
Veldener’s edition each of the large blocks, consisting of two
compartments, is sawn in two in order to adapt them to a smaller page.
A German translation of the Speculum, with wood-cuts, was printed at
Basle, in folio, in 1476; and Jansen says that the first book printed in
France with wood-cuts was an edition of the Speculum, at Lyons, in 1478;
and that the second was a translation of the book named “Belial,”
printed at the same place in 1482.
[Footnote IV-35: Veldener at the conclusion of a book printed by
him in 1476, containing “_Epistolares quasdam formulas_,” thus
informs the reader of his name and qualifications: “Accipito huic
artifici nomen esse magistro Johanni Veldener, cui quidem certa
manu insculpendi, celandi, intorculandi, caracterandi adsit
industria; adde et figurandi et effigiendi.” That is, his name was
John Veldener; he could engrave, could work both at press and
case, and moreover he knew something of sculpture, and could paint
a little.]
The first printed book in the English language that contains wood-cuts
is the second edition of Caxton’s “Game and Playe of the Chesse,”
a small folio, without date or place, but generally supposed to have
been printed about 1476.[IV-36] The first edition of the same work,
without cuts, was printed in 1474. On the blank leaves at the end of a
copy of the first edition in the King’s Library, at the British Museum,
there is written in a contemporary hand a list of the bannerets and
knights[IV-37] made at the battle of “Stooke by syde newerke apon trent
the xvi day of june the ii^de yer of harry the vii.” that is, in 1487.
In this battle Martin Swart was killed. He commanded the Flemings, who
were sent by the Duchess of Burgundy to assist Lambert Simnel. It was at
the request of the duchess, who was Edward the Fourth’s sister, that
Caxton translated the “Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye,” the first
book printed in the English language, and which appeared at Cologne in
1471 or 1472.
[Footnote IV-36: Heineken, Idée Gén. p. 207, erroneously states
that the first book with wood-cuts printed in England was the
Golden Legend, by Caxton, in 1483. It is probable that the second
edition of the Game of Chess preceded it by seven years, and it
certainly was printed after the Mirror of the World.]
[Footnote IV-37: The following are some of the names as they are
written: “S gilbert talbott . S John cheiny . S williā stoner .
Theis iij wer made byfore the bataile, and after the bataile were
made the same day : S^r. John of Arundell . Thomas Cooksey . John
forteskew . Edmond benyngfeld . james blount . ric . of Croffte .
Geofrey Stanley . ric . delaber . John mortymer . williā
troutbeke.” The above appear to have been created _Bannerets_, for
after them follows a list of “_Knyghtes_ made at the same
bataile.” It is likely that the owner of the volume was at the
battle, and that the names were written immediately after.]
In Dr. Dibdin’s edition of Ames’s Typographical Antiquities there is a
“Description of the Pieces and Pawns” in the second edition of Caxton’s
Chess; which description is said to be illustrated with facsimile
wood-cuts. There are indeed fac-similes of some of the figures given,
but not of the wood-cuts generally; for in almost every cut given by Dr.
Dibdin the back-ground of the original is omitted. In the description of
the first fac-simile there is also an error: it is said to be “the
_first_ cut in the work,” while in fact it is the _second_. The
following I believe to be a correct list of these first fruits of
English wood-engraving.
1. An executioner with an axe cutting to pieces, on a block, the limbs
of a man. On the head, which is lying on the ground, there is a crown.
Birds are seen seizing and flying away with portions of the limbs. There
are buildings in the distance, and three figures, one of whom is a king
with a crown and sceptre, appear looking on. 2. A figure sitting at a
table, with a chess-board before him, and holding one of the chess-men
in his hand. This is the cut which Dr. Dibdin says is the first in the
book. 3. A king and another person playing at chess. 4. The king at
chess, seated on a throne. 5. The king and queen. 6. The “alphyns,” now
called “bishops” in the game of chess, “in the maner of judges sittyng.”
7. The knight. 8. The “rook,” or castle, a figure on horseback wearing a
hood and holding a staff in his hand. From No. 9 to No. 15 inclusive,
the pawns are thus represented. 9. Labourers and workmen, the principal
figure representing the first pawn, with a spade in his right hand and a
cart-whip in his left. 10. The second pawn, a smith with his buttriss in
the string of his apron, and a hammer in his right hand. 11. The third
pawn, represented as a _clerk_, that is a writer or transcriber, in the
same sense as Peter Scheffer and Ulric Zell are styled _clerici_, with
his case of writing materials at his girdle, a pair of shears in one
hand, and a large knife in the other. The knife, which has a large
curved blade, appears more fit for a butcher’s chopper than to make or
mend pens. 12. The fourth pawn, a man with a pair of scales, and having
a purse at his girdle, representing “marchauntes or chaungers.” 13. The
fifth pawn, a figure seated on a chair, having in his right hand a book,
and in his left a sort of casket or box of ointments, representing a
physician, spicer, or apothecary. 14. The sixth pawn, an innkeeper,
receiving a guest. 15. The seventh pawn, a figure with a yard measure in
his right hand, a bunch of keys in his left, and an open purse at his
girdle, representing “customers and tolle gaderers.” 16. The eighth
pawn, a figure with a sort of badge on his breast near to his right
shoulder, after the manner of a nobleman’s retainer, and holding a pair
of dice in his left hand, representing dice-players, messengers, and
“currours,” that is “couriers.” In old authors the numerous idle
retainers of the nobility are frequently represented as gamblers,
swash-bucklers, and tavern-haunters.
Although there are twenty-four impressions in the volume, yet there are
only sixteen subjects, as described above; the remaining eight being
repetitions of the cuts numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, with two
impressions of the cut No. 2, besides that towards the commencement.
[Illustration]
The above cut is a reduced copy of the knight, No. 7; and his character
is thus described: “The knyght ought to be maad al armed upon an hors in
suche wise that he have an helme on his heed and a spere in his right
hond, and coverid with his shelde, a swerde and a mace on his left syde
. clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste . legge harnoys on
his legges . spores on his heelis, on hys handes hys gauntelettes . hys
hors wel broken and taught and apte to bataylle and coveryd with hys
armes. When the Knyghtes been maad they ben bayned or bathed . That is
the signe that they sholde lede a newe lyf and newe maners . also they
wake alle the nyght in prayers and orisons unto god that he wil geve hem
grace that they may gete that thyng that they may not gete by nature.
The kyng or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe that they
shold abyde and kepen hym of whom they taken their dispences and
dignyte.”
The following cut of the sixth or bishop’s pawn, No. 14, “whiche is
lykened to taverners and vytayllers,” is thus described in Caxton’s own
words: “The sixte pawn whiche stondeth before the alphyn on the lyfte
syde is made in this forme . ffor hit is a man that hath the right hond
stretched out for to calle men, and holdeth in his left honde a loof of
breed and a cuppe of wyn . and on his gurdel hangyng a bondel of keyes,
and this resemblith the taverners hostelers and sellars of vytayl . and
these ought properly to be sette to fore the alphyn as to fore a juge,
for there sourdeth oft tymes amonge hem contencion noyse and stryf,
which behoveth to be determyned and trayted by the alphyn which is juge
of the kynge.”
[Illustration]
The next book containing wood-cuts printed by Caxton is the “Mirrour of
the World, or thymage of the same,” as he entitles it at the head of the
table of contents. It is a thin folio consisting of one hundred leaves;
and, in the Prologue, Caxton informs the reader that it “conteyneth in
all lxvii chapitres and xxvii figures, without which it may not lightly
be understāde.” He also says that he translated it from the French at
the “request, desire, coste, and dispense of the honourable and
worshipful man Hugh Bryce, alderman cytezeyn of London,” who intended to
present the same to William, Lord Hastings, chamberlain to Edward IV,
and lieutenant of the same for the town of Calais and the marches there.
On the last page he again mentions Hugh Bryce and Lord Hastings, and
says of his translation: “Whiche book I begun first to trāslate the
second day of Janyuer the yere of our lord M.cccc.lxxx. And fynysshed
the viii day of Marche the same yere, and the xxi yere of the reign of
the most crysten kynge, Kynge Edward the fourthe.”[IV-38]
[Footnote IV-38: Edward IV. began to reign 4th March 1461; the
twenty-first year of his reign would consequently commence on 4th
March 1481; Caxton’s dates therefore do not agree, unless we
suppose that he reckoned the commencement of the year from 21st
March. If so, his date viii March 1480, and the xxi year of the
reign of Edward IV. would agree; and the year of Christ, according
to our present mode of reckoning, would be 1481. Dr. Dibdin
assigns to the Mirror the date 1481.--Typ. Ant. i. p. 100.]