Transcriber’s note
Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation
inconsistencies have been silently repaired. A list of the changes made
can be found at the end of the book. Formatting and special characters
are indicated as follows:
_italics_
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=By Geo. Haven Putnam=
=Some Memories of the Civil War.=--Together with an appreciation of
the career and character of Major-General Israel Putnam, Leader in
the Colonial Wars and in the War of the Revolution.
=Books and Their Makers during the Middle Ages.=--A study of the
conditions of the production and distribution of literature, from
the fall of the Roman Empire to the close of the Seventeenth
Century. Two vols., sold separately. 8º, gilt top. Volume I.,
476-1600. Volume II., 1500-1709.
=The Question of Copyright.=--Comprising the text of the Copyright
Law of the United States, and a Summary of the Copyright Laws
at present in force in the Chief Countries of the World. Third
edition, revised, with Additions, and with the Record of
Legislation brought down to March, 1896. 8º, gilt top.
=The Censorship of the Church of Rome and Its Influence upon
the Production and Distribution of Literature.=--A Study of the
History of the Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes, Together with
Some Consideration of the Effects of Protestant Censorship and of
Censorship by the State. Two volumes, 8º. Uniform with “Books and
Their Makers.”
=Abraham Lincoln, the People’s Leader in the Struggle for National
Existence.= Cr. 8º. With Portrait.
=A Prisoner of War in Virginia, 1864-5.= Cr. 8º. Illustrated.
=Authors and Their Public.=
=Artificial Mother.= Illustrated.
=Little Gingerbread Man.=
=Memories of My Youth, 1844-1865.= Portraits.
=Memories of a Publisher.= Portrait.
BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
A STUDY OF THE CONDITIONS OF THE PRODUCTION AND
DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE FROM THE FALL OF
THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO THE CLOSE OF
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
BY
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM, A.M.
AUTHOR OF “AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLIC IN ANCIENT TIMES”
“THE QUESTION OF COPYRIGHT,” ETC.
VOLUME II.
1500-1709
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
COPYRIGHT, 1896
BY
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
_Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London_
[Illustration]
Made in the United States of America
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
In the general Preface to this work, printed in the first volume, I
pointed out that an account of the production and distribution of books
for the two centuries immediately succeeding the invention of printing,
must, of necessity, be chiefly devoted to the operations of the
printer-publishers of the period. During these centuries were produced
a number of the great books of the world’s literature, but it was not
possible, under the existing conditions, for the authors of these books
to influence materially the relations of literature to the State or
to the Church. Freedom of speech and even freedom of thought depended
very largely upon an untrammelled printing-press, but the authors
were able to give but little aid in the arduous task of securing from
the political and ecclesiastical authorities the right to multiply
books. It is true that the writers of the Reformation period were in a
position to render very important coöperation in the work of developing
a reading public and in the further work of creating machinery by
means of which such public could be reached. But notwithstanding
the noteworthy exception presented by the writings from Wittenberg
and Geneva, it remains the fact that for the centuries in question,
the works of contemporary authors constituted but an inconsiderable
proportion of the books published.
The lists of these earlier publishers were devoted to editions of the
complete Bible, and of the different groups of the Biblical books,
editions of the Greek and Roman classics and of the works of the
Church Fathers, and issues of certain philosophical treatises which
also were largely the work of writers of an earlier generation. To
these were added certain treatises on jurisprudence which came to be
accepted as authorities in the universities, together with the various
series of text-books adopted for college and for school work. With
the above were occasionally associated books by contemporary writers,
many of which became of continued importance. These formed, however,
as said, but a very small group as compared with the long series of
reissues of accepted classics, and it was by the latter that what
might be called the literary conditions of the time were in the main
determined. With the Reformation came an enormous increase in the
production of works by living writers. The controversies of the period
kept the printing-offices busy with the preparation of books and
pamphlets devoted to present issues, and the great output of current
controversial literature affected in several ways the conditions and
the methods of publishing. Up to this time the books that had been
published were nearly exclusively in the form of folios, quartos, or
large octavos. With an occasional exception, such as that of the Aldine
classics, the publishers and their scholarly customers appear to have
taken the ground that if a work was entitled to the honour of being put
into print, it was worthy of the most dignified form that the presses
were capable of producing; and, as was shown, later, in the criticisms
of correspondents of the Elzevirs and in other expressions, there was a
strong feeling among scholarly readers that the printing of a work of
literature in a sixteenmo or twelvemo volume, showed a lack of respect
for the author, for his public, and for literature itself.
This prejudice in favour of portly volumes was very largely modified,
although by no means entirely overcome, by the publications of the
Reformation. The intense interest in the theological issues and the
revival of religious fervour, brought into existence a new reading
public. The buying of books was no longer confined to princes and
scholars;--the masses of the people wanted to have in their hands
the writings of the Reformers or the replies of the defenders of the
Roman Church, and to an extent which is still cause for wonderment,
a very large proportion of the common people were able to read and
were eager to read the long series of argumentative essays many of
which were devoted to themes and discussions that could be described
as scholastic, and that the average citizen of to-day would certainly
consider hard reading. To meet the requirements of this new reading
public, requirements which called for material of small cost and in a
form convenient for distribution, the pamphlet came into existence,
and this was followed by the _Flugschriften_, or fly-leaf literature,
comprising papers or tracts of such brief compass that they could
be printed in four or even in two pages. These _Flugschriften_ were
carried in the packs of pedlars into the market-places of towns and
villages and from farmhouse to farmhouse, and they secured a wide
distribution even in territories in which their circulation was
strictly prohibited under the severest of penalties. Some description
of this feature of the literary work of the Reformation is given in the
chapter on Luther.
While one result of the literary activity of the Reformation was to
popularise the work of the printing-press, another was an immediate
development of the censorship of the Press, both heretical and
ecclesiastical. The contention that the productions of the printers
must be subjected to the approval of the authorities of the State was
made promptly after the printing-press began its work. It was, however,
only when the Press came to be utilised as the most effective ally of
the heretical reformers, that the Church found it necessary to put
into force its ecclesiastical censorship, and that the never-ending
task began of advertising through the various _Indices Expurgatorii_
the titles of the long series of wicked or dangerous books which the
faithful believers were warned not to read, and which brought very
serious perils indeed upon the faithless heretics who persisted in
writing, printing, selling, or possessing them.
The responsibility for the selection of the books to be printed, with
the exception of the controversial writings of the Reformation period,
rested with the publishers of the time, and the direction of the
literary interests of the book-reading public (still, of course, a very
small fraction of the community) must have been not a little influenced
by the decisions arrived at by these publishers. I conclude, therefore,
that the publishers of this period must have exerted a larger measure
of influence over the direction of scholarly investigation and in the
shaping of the literary opinions of their age, than has been possible
for publishers in the subsequent centuries after the production of
books had been enormously increased, and when all classes of the
community had become readers.
In these later times the direction of the literary interests of the
diverse circles of the reading public came naturally into the hands of
the contemporary writers. While the reissue of the accepted classics
of previous generations remained (and must always remain) an important
division of the business of publishing, an ever increasing proportion
of the work of the publishers came to be given to the comparatively
routine work of distributing among readers the literature of the day,
in the production of which literature the authors have, in part, led
and directed, and, in part, simply followed and supplied the tastes and
the demands of their readers.
The fact that the position and the personal influence of the earlier
publishers were so exceptional in their character and importance is
my excuse for presenting with some detail the record of the work of
a few individuals and families selected as fairly representative of
the class. It seemed to me necessary in so doing, even at the risk of
adding to the dryness of the narrative, to include in the record lists
of titles (selected from the catalogues) of the more important of the
books issued by such representative publishers. These titles give in
convenient form for reference, material from which can be secured not
only an interesting indication of the personal interests and capacities
of the publishers themselves but an impression of the literary tastes,
requirements, and possibilities of the times and of the several
communities in which the work of these publishers was done.
I judge that a work of this special character will be utilised
rather for reference than for consecutive reading, and with this
understanding, it has seemed to me desirable to make as complete as
possible the record, presented in each section, of the subject matter
considered in such section, even although such a method has rendered
necessary an occasional repetition of statements of fact or of
conclusions.
G. H. P.
NEW YORK, _September, 1896_.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE iii
PART II.--THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.
(CONTINUED.)
IV.--THE EARLY PRINTER-PUBLISHERS OF FRANCE. 1458-1559 3
The Estiennes 15
V.--THE LATER ESTIENNES AND CASAUBON. 1537-1659 62
Isaac Casaubon 87
VI.--WILLIAM CAXTON, AND THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO ENGLAND,
1422-1492 101
Wynken de Worde 133
Printing in Oxford 134
Later English Presses 137
VII.--THE KOBERGERS OF NUREMBERG. 1440-1540 149
VIII.--FROBEN OF BASEL. 1460-1528 178
IX.--ERASMUS AND HIS BOOKS. 1467-1536 192
X.--LUTHER AS AN AUTHOR. 1483-1546 216
XI.--THE HOUSE OF PLANTIN. 1555-1650 255
XII.--THE ELZEVIRS OF LEYDEN AND AMSTERDAM. 1587-1688 286
PART III.--THE BEGINNINGS OF PROPERTY IN LITERATURE.
I.--PRIVILEGES AND CENSORSHIP IN ITALY. 1498-1798 343
Censorship 352
The Earliest Legislation in Venice 359
The Guild of Printers and Booksellers 364
Copyrights in Venice 369
The Inquisition 371
The Index and the Book-Trade 372
The Interdict and Fra Paolo Sarpi 384
The Printers’ Guild and Press Legislation 394
The Last Contest with Rome 401
II.--PRIVILEGES AND REGULATIONS IN GERMANY. 1450-1698. 407
III.--REGULATIONS FOR THE CONTROL AND THE CENSORSHIP OF THE
PRINTING-PRESS IN FRANCE. 1500-1700 437
Conflicting Authorities 437
Parliament, the University, and the Book-Trade 442
The Beginning of Legislation for the Encouragement of Literature 446
The Relations of the Crown to Literary Production and the Attempt of
the Church to Secure a Portion of the Control 456
IV.--THE BEGINNINGS OF LITERARY PROPERTY IN ENGLAND. 1474-1709 464
V.--THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF LITERARY PROPERTY 477
INDEX 511
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PART II.
THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.
[Illustration]
PART II.
THE EARLIER PRINTED BOOKS.