STRASBURG AND REUTLINGEN
With Knoblochtzer, Schott, and Prusz, the first commencing in 1477,
Grüninger and Hupfuff at the end of the fifteenth century, we have
printers who made a liberal use of initials. Knoblochtzer has been
thoroughly explored by MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis, and a monograph
upon Strasburg book-illustration has been published by Dr. Kristeller.
Although many of our specimens were known to these bibliographers, a
few of them, and these by no means the least interesting, have escaped
their observation.
One of them, the splendid A representing Jesus washing the feet of
a disciple, is what one might expect to find at the beginning of a
thirteenth- or fourteenth-century manuscript, and the artist in cutting
it has managed to make it retain this appearance.
It is to be found in an undated volume without name of printer, but
identified as having been printed by Knoblochtzer in 1478, and entitled
_Thomas (Ebendorfer) de Haselpach: Sermones dominicales super Epistolas
Pauli_. This A at the beginning of the first volume is the only
typographical ornament in the book, and seems to have been entirely
unknown to either of the Strasburg bibliographers.
The D, with two armed figures and the two coats of arms, is given by
MM. Schorbach and Spirgatis as the earliest specimen of Strasburg
ornamentation. It occurs for the first time at the beginning of
Knoblochtzer’s _Burgundische Historie_, in which there is no other
woodcut. It represents the Duke René of Lothringen and Charles the
Fearless of Burgundy with their shields at their feet, and was cut
specially for the History of Burgundy, although it occurs several
times also in the _Schachzabelbuch_ of Jacobus de Cessolis. The latter
volume contains also the large S, with two personages, one in a fool’s
cap, which also ornaments the first page of the _Dyalogus Salomonis et
Marcolfi_.
Another handsome initial from the Knoblochtzer press, and especially
well engraved, is the I, with an angel with outspread wings above,
Samson forcing open the lion’s mouth below, and branching ornaments on
either side. It is to be found on the first page of the _Belial_ of
1483, and several times in the _Leben der Heiligen Drei Könige_; also
in the chess-book of De Cessolis already mentioned.
In the last two volumes there are eleven of the twelve initials
representing the months of the year, which are to be found complete
in a Deutscher Kalender, having the form of a little volume. There
is a calendar printed probably at Nuremberg, on a single sheet, with
the whole of the alphabet, but the letter for January is replaced by
one having the Nativity as its subject, the general disposition being
much the same as in the initials of Geneva or of Bamberg similarly
historiated. These calendar letters are to be met with in a great many
Strasburg publications, as, for example, in the _Tractatus clarissimi
philosophi et medici Matheoli perusini de memoria augēda per regulas
et medicinas_. They also occur in the _De valore et utilitate Missarū
pro defuntis celebratarū per sacre theologie professorē Jacobū ordinis
cartusiensis edita_. This little tract, which contains amongst other
initials the calendar D representing a man trimming the vines, is
dated 1493, and as Knoblochtzer ceased to print in 1485, making over
his material to Mathias Hupfuff, it is to the latter that it must be
attributed.
The two P’s, one with a doctor, the smaller with a king, are at the
beginning, the first of a _De secretis mulierum_, the second of a tract
entitled _De ritu et moribus Indorum_. The letter itself, in the
smaller initial, is entirely white, but in the copy from which it was
reproduced it is painted in blue and red.
The anthropomorphic letters are to be found in many of the publications
both of Knoblochtzer, Schott, and others. These letters are reduced
copies of a very celebrated alphabet known as the alphabet of the
master E. S. of 1464, specimens of which are given in several works on
early engraving. The British Museum has a somewhat similar alphabet,
but with the personages in different attitudes, printed originally _au
frotton_. Some letters of this were given by Jackson, and the whole was
reproduced a few years since by the trustees of the Museum.[21] One of
our reproductions, the one with a man holding up a dog by the tail,
is from the _Vier und Zwanzig Gulden Harpfen_. The D with a saint is
the only initial in an _Albertus Magnus_ of Knoblochtzer; the three
others were reproduced from two impressions of Hupfuff, a Melusine
and a Boethius of 1500. In the latter is an I of this alphabet which
we have not seen elsewhere, but of which the impression is slightly
defective.[22]
[21] Grotesque Alphabet of 1464, with an Introduction by Campbell
Dodgson.
[22] The six other initials, the M with two dragons, the S with the
letters P, A, and a fool’s head with cap and bells, and the four
smaller ones, are from different publications of Knoblochtzer.
The M and the P, the Crucifixion and the Nativity, are also taken from
a work without date or name of printer, and have hitherto remained
undescribed, as far as we know. The work is entitled _Commentarius
Sancti Johannis Episcopi Constantinopolitani cognomento Crisostomi in
epistolam Sancti Pauli Apostoli ad Hebreos_. The letters would appear
to belong to the same alphabet as the C, representing saints and others
being put to the torture, which is used by Schott sometimes as a D.
This latter is to be found twice in a rare book, the _Scriptum in
primum librum Sentenciarum Venerabilis inceptoris fratris Guilhelmi de
Ockam_, dated 1483, but without printer’s name, and it occurs as a D in
an undated _Secreta_ of Aristotle.
The three letters, comprising amongst them the N with the rabbit, and
the O with a fool, are from a _Plenarium_ of which we have only seen a
fragment, without printer’s name or date, but said to be of Strasburg.
The rabbit occurs again in the _Plenarium_ of Urach of 1481, with
floral letters somewhat larger than those given here, and also in the
_Stella Meschia_ printed at Esslingen, the first book published with
Hebrew characters. It has also two full-page illustrations.
The six large historiated initials which follow are taken from a
Psalter without date or printer’s name. Van Praet in his catalogue of
books printed upon vellum belonging to the King’s Library, says that it
‘comes from a German Press.’
Mr. Weale attributes it to Basle, and it is interesting to compare
these initials with those which illustrate Furter’s Psalter of 1501-3.
It would seem, however, that it is to be attributed to J. Prusz, and
that it was printed in 1499 or 1500.
Two of our reproductions are from the copy in the Bibliothèque
Nationale. For the others, which are defective in this copy, we are
indebted to M. Jacques Rosenthal, who considers that the volume was
printed in 1480. In our own opinion the later date is more probable.
The four initials, of uniform size and style, A, C, E, and S, the E
with the Nativity being certainly one of the prettiest we have seen,
have every appearance of being taken from a missal. We cannot affirm
for certain that they have no such origin, but the book from which
they were reproduced is an edition of Pogge, printed by Knoblouch in
1513. Two of them, the E with the Nativity and another, occur in an
_Interpretatio Sequentiarum_ of the same year. Other printers used
them, however, before this. We are unable to give exact references for
the whole series, but the E had served already in a volume of sermons
of Geyler von Kaisersperg, published by Matthias Schurer in 1505. In
this, with the exception of a floral V on the second page, it is the
only woodcut initial.
There is a Psalter of Knoblouch of 1513 of the same size as those of
Augsburg, Basle--and Metz--_Psalterium cum apparatu vulgari firmiter
appresso_. Like the Metz Psalter, it has an initial on the title, this
being ornamented with a moth and dragon-fly and bunches of leaves and
flowers. Below is a cut of David with his harp, the Almighty looking
down, and a German castle in the background. There are two strips of
border, one on each side of the cut, but descending lower, one of
a conventional foliated pattern, the other with strawberry leaves,
flowers, and fruit. The initial B is of the same design; the other
letters have dragon-flies or butterflies, a D has a geometrical pattern
something like the Maiblümchen.
Grüninger began to decorate his publications with ornamental letters
at the end of the last decade of the fifteenth century. They are of a
very special kind, and the only other printer who occasionally used
them was Quentell of Cologne.[23] Some of them occur in a small folio
by Braunschweig--_Liber Pestilentialis de venenis epidemie_, 1500, with
pictures on nearly every page, manufactured according to the system
he adopts in many of his illustrated books of bringing three factors
of the picture together, and so obtaining variety with an economy of
engraving. The centre of a picture on one page, for instance, will
be found a few pages later with the two outer thirds replaced by
different blocks, the variety introduced into the general appearance
being sufficient for it to pass as a different composition. A few pages
later, it is the centre that is replaced with the same effect. Such
pictures are to be seen in the different editions of Braunschweig’s
_De Cyrurgia_, in which there are only insignificant nonhistoriated
initials.
[23] An M with a bear’s tooth, and two others, a D representing a
saint sitting on the desert with what looks like a monkey (perhaps
St. Roch and his dog), and an O with an angel with large wings,
are to be found in the _Tractatus Consultatorii Venerandi Magistri
Henrici de Gorychum_, printed by Quentell, ‘anno supra Jubileum
tertio.’ These initials are generally too smudgy to be copied.
In this same book, the chapter ‘De Observatione Festorum’ commences
with the O with a fool’s head.
Grüninger’s finest picture-book is probably his splendid edition of
Virgil, with engravings by Brandt, the author of the _Ship of Fools_.
In this work he makes use of nearly all the letters of this smaller
historiated alphabet, which are also found afterwards constantly in
his impressions, and particularly in the publications of the reformer,
Geyler von Kaisersperg. In these, many of the initials, as is only
appropriate, represent religious subjects--David and his harp, St.
Sebastian full of arrows, and in a slightly different style, St.
Laurence carrying his own gridiron. Two of them are framed. One of
these represents Adam and Eve; the other, a D with a charming little
love-scene, would seem frequently to have excited the reprobation of
devout readers, for in three different works we have found this initial
defaced almost beyond recognition. A larger initial of the unframed
series, representing a swordsman, we have only met with in the 1501
edition of Boethius, _De Philosophico consolatu sive de consolatione
Philosophiae_, etc., with commentaries of St. Thomas.
Grüninger’s largest letters would appear to have been reserved
exclusively for Geyler’s publications. We have seen them in a great
many of his books of sermons and nowhere else. They are most numerous
in his _Evangelia_, where there are between thirty and forty different
varieties, but even then they do not constitute a complete alphabet,
as Geyler’s sermons most often commence with the word _der_ or _die_,
the letter D occurring as frequently as all the others together, and
several other letters much more often than the remainder.
Geyler and Grüninger were evidently made to write and publish for one
another, for whilst the preacher often loses the thread of his subject
in amusing but not always relevant anecdotes, the printer would seem
to have set up his copy much on the same principle, embellishing
the sermons with illustrations, many of which, inserted apparently
at haphazard, are entirely foreign to the subject. In one of these
collections, for instance, there are a number of cuts from the
Virgil.[24]
[24] Geyler von Kaisersperg was one of the most curious figures of
the fifteenth century, a precursor of Luther, a ‘free preacher,’ and
for the first twenty years of the sixteenth century his sermons were
published by nearly every printer in Strasburg, as well as by many
others in Basle and other towns.
Luther has a more extensive bibliography, but with Geyler each item
means a volume, whereas the sermons of the great reformer were
published as a rule separately, and as soon as they were preached.
Like the celebrated Maillard, he did not hesitate to denounce the
selfishness of the rich, the extravagance and coquetry of women, and
the licentiousness and corruption of the clergy.
From a documentary point of view, Geyler’s sermons are most
interesting, for in reprobating the follies of his time he gives a
number of details concerning the manners of the period, which would
be difficult to find elsewhere. On the verso, for instance, of the
initial B, with David and his harp, there is a fragment of one of his
discourses on ‘bathing,’ which gives a good idea of ecclesiastical
proprieties at the end of the fifteenth century.
‘Is it,’ says Geyler, ‘allowable, balnea intrare, on Sunday?’
‘Dico,’ he replies, that ‘pro voluptate’ and ‘pro luxuria,’ it is
forbidden at all times, but it is allowed on necessity.
By ‘voluptas’ he says, he understands ‘superfluous delectation,’
which is a sin but not mortal. By ‘necessity,’ honest and opportune
recreation. He next asks, ‘Liceat clericis vel religiosis
balnea intrare?’ Again he replies, ‘Dico, yes, upon necessity’;
but necessity not only means infirmity, but also any lawful
‘refocillatio’ of the body. The apostle John, he says, ‘ingressus est
balnea gratia lavandi.’ The first line of his _tertio_ starts with
the question as to whether it was licit to take a bath with a Jew,
but here the cutting ends.
It must be remembered that in the fifteenth century, hot air and
vapour baths were most popular, but they had anything but a good
reputation. It is probable that the prohibitions of Geyler were
directed rather against the place of evil resort, than, as would at
first seem, against cleanliness.
But the most amusing of Geyler’s publications is a series of
sermons, ‘Navicula sive speculum Fatuorum,’ an imitation of Brandt’s
celebrated satire on Fools, which had recently appeared. In the
earliest edition, each section begins with an initial representing
a fool’s cap with large bells. In that before us, each sermon is
preceded by an apposite illustration from the work in question,
but there are no ornamental initials. The first concerns foolish
aspirants for mitres and birettes. The second, which is illustrated
by the well-known cut representing a spectacled fool in his
library--in the original, the fool who collects books he does not
read--here deals with bad judges and senators.
The best section, and that giving the best idea of Geyler’s manner,
is that which treats of the sick fool. Beginning with the quotation
‘Stultorum infinitus est numerus,’ the picture shows the disobedient
patient in bed, in the act of kicking over a table, whilst the nurse
is looking on in astonishment, and the doctor seems to be reflecting
as to what should be done under the circumstances.
These fools, says Geyler, are foolish in the first place because
they despise medicine: ‘sunt qui medicinam prorsus contemnunt et
abjiciunt’; ‘clearly fools,’ says Geyler, ‘stulti plane’! ‘Nescientes
quia scriptum est, eccles. xxxviii., Altissimus creavit de terra
medicinam, et vir prudens non horrebit eam. Notate verba--signate
mysteria. Vir prudens non horrebit eam! Non horruit eam beatus
Augustinus de quo legitur: quod egrotante eo neminem admiserat, nisi
medicos.’
It will be too long to quote the whole sermon, but Geyler has a
word to say about those fools, ‘sunt quædam fatuelle,’ who, out
of curiosity, tried to catch their doctors at fault, ‘quas sola
curiositas impellit et titillat ad explorandum peritiam medici.’ But
they catch nothing but their own purses, and it is the doctor who is
most tickled, for he pockets the fee. ‘Tales se decipiunt et bursam:
quod medicus accipit pecuniam.’
He tells here the tale, so often related since, of the patient who
in answer to the doctor’s question as to what was the matter with
him--where he was in pain--how long he had been ill, ‘respondit
nescio,’ and again and again, ‘respondit nescio.’
‘Bene,’ replied the doctor; ‘under these circumstances, this is my
prescription: “Recipe nescio quid: repone nescio ubi: et sanaberis
nescio quando.”’ ‘Magna stultitia,’ remarks Geyler, ‘nolle obedire
medico quem queris: aut non quesivisses, et sic pecunie pepercisses.’
The fifth and sixth follies are to seek help from empirics,
magicians, and Jews, which is expressly forbidden (if any one else is
available) by the Decretals.
The large series, two specimens of which are given, invariably deals
with Biblical subjects. The letters are generally attributed to Hans
Schäufelein.
Besides the initials already enumerated, Grüninger has a few
historiated letters on a black ground, of intermediate size and
different complete foliated or floral alphabets, all of them uniformly
uninteresting.
_Reutlingen._--The large S, with a personage in a doctoral bonnet, is
taken from an Albertus Magnus, _Secreta mulierum et virorum_, in the
Paris Bibliothèque Nationale (Res. 826), described in Mlle. Pellechet’s
_Catalogue des Incunables_ under No. 372 as being without typographical
indications. It also occurs at the commencement of a _Physiognomia_ of
Michael Scotus, which is stated by Mr. Proctor to have been printed
by M. Greyff at Reutlingen, the date being probably 1482. We have not
seen this volume, but thanks to the courtesy of Professor Ferguson of
Glasgow, who sent a photograph of the initial, we have found that it is
identically the same.
The reproduction does not render exactly the peculiar impression
of the ink, which gives the initial the appearance of having been
drawn in fusain. Another initial, the P with the Pope, is taken from
a volume printed at Reutlingen by Greyff--the _De ritu et Moribus
Indorum_--which has exactly the same typographical disposition as the
edition printed by Knoblochtzer at Strasburg, a P at the beginning with
the Pope, and a border on the margin of the front page.
It may be noted here that in previous chapters no attempt has been made
to distinguish between metal-cut initials and those cut on wood. Many
printers, such as Grüninger, Gering, and Rembolt, etc., undoubtedly
used soft metal, but this was cut in the same way as wood, the blocks
were inked in the same manner, and printed in the same way with the
type, so that for all practical purposes they belong to the same class.