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 ^i 

 
 ^1
 
 The Cambridge Manuals of Science and 
 Literature 
 
 THE PRINTED BOOK
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 C. F. CLAY, Manager 
 
 LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.C.4 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 
 BOMBAY ] 
 
 CALCUTTA I MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD, 
 
 MADRAS J 
 
 TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 
 OF CANADA, LTD. 
 TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 ^w^.^j^<^<^'j^<^^: 
 
 Si.l l.ilMiilHlfiinil.lll.Hlll.l 1 111! 
 
 stMM^^^^ 
 
 Caxton's device. (Reduced)
 
 First Edition 1916 
 Reprinted 1917, 192' 
 
 With the exception of the coat of arms at 
 the foot, the design on the title page is a 
 reproduction of one used by the earliest known 
 Cambridge printer, John Siberch, i 5 2 1 
 
 ftlNTeD IN OREAT 9RITA»»
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 
 Introduction 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. The Advent of Printing 
 
 II. 
 
 II. 
 
 J^II. 
 
 The Spread of the Art 
 
 The Fifteenth -Century Book 
 
 The Scholar-Printers of the 
 Century 
 
 ^ 
 
 V. English Books, 1500-1800 . 
 
 VI. The Modern Book 
 
 VII. The Construction of a Book 
 
 VIII. Illustrations 
 IX. Bookbinding and Bookbindings 
 
 X, The Handling and Mishandling of Books 
 Bibliography 
 Index 
 
 I
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Caxton's device ..... Facing title page 
 
 Facing page 
 Part of a page from a Fifteenth-century Manu- 
 script ....... 
 
 Part of a column of the 42-hne Bible printed 
 at Mainz before August 1456 
 
 A Sixteenth-century Printing Office . 
 
 Illustration from Breydenbach's Peregrinationes. 
 Mainz, 1486 
 
 Page of a Horae. Pigouchet, Paris, 1498 . 
 
 Title page with woodcut border. Sidney's Arcadia, 
 London, 1593 ..... 
 
 Engraved title page. Bacon's Instauratio Magna 
 London, 1620 
 
 A Bookbinder's Workshop in the Seventeenth 
 Century. From Luiken's Spiegel van het 
 Menselyk Bedryf ...... 
 
 An English gold-tooled Binding. 
 Cambridge, 1711 . 
 
 Horatius. 
 
 Device used by the Cambridge University Press 
 in the Eighteenth Ceutui-y .... 
 
 21 
 
 21 
 
 28 
 
 95 
 
 98 
 
 101 
 103 
 
 115 
 126 
 165
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Imagine, if you can, the world suddenly bereft 
 of books. What would it mean? Practically, the 
 record of the accumulated sum of human knowledge 
 swept away, and the processes of civiHzation limited 
 to the experience of a single life-time, supplemented 
 only by tradition and hearsay, dependent upon the 
 memory of individuals. It is only by some such 
 feat of imagination that it is possible to realize in 
 any degree the great part that books play in the 
 daily life of the civihzed world. 
 
 Books are^the world's memory. In them is 
 preserved the record of human thought, action, 
 experience, and intellectual activity. We are, it 
 is true, heirs of the ages, but our heritage consists 
 to a large extent of books, and what we are pleased 
 to call progress is made possible mainly through 
 their aid. Books have come to be one of the 
 commonest objects of everyday life. We turn to 
 them instinctively for information of all and every 
 kind, for intellectual recreation, and even for 
 recreation that cannot be called intellectual. 
 
 But, what is a book ? Doubtless we all think we 
 know, but to define it in words may not be easy, so 
 
 A. p. B. I
 
 2 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 it will be well to seek the help of a book. Dr Johnson, 
 in the first edition of his Dictionary (1755), defined a 
 book as 'a volume in which we read or write.' The 
 Oxford Dictionary finds it no simple matter, and 
 requires six columns for its full exposition, the main 
 definition being 'a written or printed treatise or 
 series of treatises, occupying several sheets of paper 
 or other substance fastened together so as to com- 
 pose a material whole.' 
 
 Of these written or printed treatises there are 
 many varieties besides the printed volume familiar to 
 us by daily use. Many centuries have passed since 
 papyrus and vellum rolls gave place to the form 
 of book which is now used throughout the western 
 world. In the East a large part of the reading 
 world is accustomed to books of quite other fashion, 
 such as the manuscript books of India, written or 
 incised on strips of dried palm leaf ; the birch-bark 
 books of Kashmir; and the liturgical books of 
 Burma, some made of thin plates of lacquered 
 metal, others manufactured from the cast-off clothes 
 of the native sovereign. But these, as well as the 
 block-printed books of China dating from the tenth 
 century, the similar books of Japan, and the block- 
 printed books of Tibet which resemble in shape the 
 palm leaf manuscripts of India, do not concern us 
 here. The scope of the present volume is hmited to 
 a brief outUne of the origin and development of the
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 printed book of the western world, printed for the 
 most part on paper, occasionally on vellum, and 
 more rarely on other material. 
 
 In point of time the subject falls within the 
 last five hundred years and coincides with the era 
 commonly accepted as the modern period of history. 
 The invention of printing occupies a natural place in 
 the sequence of events. The time was ripe for its 
 appearance, since the art of writing, which it was 
 largely to supersede, had passed its finest develop- 
 ment and was already exhibiting signs of debase- 
 ment. Some new and swdfter instrument than the 
 pen was necessary to enable the impending outburst 
 of intellectual life and vigour to find adequate 
 expression. Printing was not the offspring of the 
 renaissance of letters. It preceded that movement, 
 and, as an art, was brought to practical perfection 
 just at the moment when the coming of the new 
 learning had need of it as a vehicle of dissemination. 
 
 1—2
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ADVENT OF PRINTING 
 
 The year of the fall of Constantinople, 1453, is 
 generally considered the dividing line between the 
 medieval and the modern periods of history. But 
 just about that same time another event was taking 
 place: an event which, though not heralded by 
 clash of arms or ruin of empire, affords an equally 
 significant landmark. This was the invention of 
 printing, or typography, as the art of printing with 
 movable types is more precisely termed ; and it 
 would be difficult to point to any discovery which 
 has had so far-reaching an influence upon the history 
 of the civilized world. 
 
 This revolution, for revolution it may well be 
 called, was brought into existence so quietly, so 
 unobtrusively, that not only can no precise year 
 be assigned to its beginning, but, like more than 
 one important discovery of even recent times, the 
 individual to be honoured as its inventor, and 
 actually the country of its origin are matters of 
 dispute. 
 
 The art of printing with movable types, whenever 
 and wherever it may have had its beginnings, was
 
 CH. I] THE ADVENT OF PRINTING 6 
 
 preceded by the production of single pictures printed 
 from wood-blocks. One of the earliest of these 
 
 which bear s a date is the St Christopher of 1423, now 
 in the John Rylands Library at Manchester. The 
 authenticity of the date 1418 on another of these 
 woodcuts, at Brussels, has been ciiallenged on the 
 ground that the figures have been tampered with. 
 It seems a natural development tha t_jines of desc rip- 
 tive text should be added to such woodcuts ; and 
 the ^block-b ooks,' which consist of pictures and text 
 cut on the same wood-block, have usually been 
 regarded as occupying a position midway between 
 the single picture and the book printed from movable 
 type, thus forming a link in the evolution of the 
 jnvention. 
 
 These block-books, of which upwards of a hundred 
 issues and editions, comprising some thirty separate 
 works, have been recorded, were produced chiefly 
 in the Netherlands and Germany. They fall into 
 two classes. The earlier were printed in thin pale 
 brownish ink on one side of the leaf only. They 
 were produced by placing a sheet of paper upon 
 the inked block and transferring the image to the 
 paper by friction on the back of the sheet with a 
 burnisher or some similar instrument, without 
 mechanical pressure. The other, and later, class 
 were usually printed in a press with ordinary black 
 printing ink and on both sides of the paper.
 
 6 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 Since the contents of each individual page had 
 to be engraved upon a block of wood, the making 
 of a block-book was a laborious process, and the 
 engraved blocks were, of course, useless for any 
 other work. This method of multiplying copies 
 was suitable only for works that were of moderate 
 length and for which there was a large and con- 
 tinuous demand. These books were, accordingly, 
 of a popular nature, mainly concerned with religious 
 instruction or pious edification, and lending them- 
 selves readily to pictorial or allegorical illustration. 
 Typical examples are the Biblia Pauperum, a series 
 of pictures from the life of Christ, accompanied 
 by parallel subjects from the Old Testament; the 
 Apocalypse, an attractive subject for illustration; 
 and Ars Moriendi, a series of pictures representing 
 the trials which beset the dying and the spiritual 
 helps by which they inay be overcome. 
 
 The interesting question concerning these xylo- 
 graphic books is, do they, in point of time, really 
 stand between the single woodcut pictures and the 
 earliest books printed with movable type and so 
 constitute a stage in the inception of the typographic 
 art? At present no evidence is forthcoming which 
 definitely connects any of them with a date earlier 
 than that associated with the first printed books. 
 The enquirer may, therefore, according to his bias, 
 either consider them as steps towards the invention,
 
 i] THE ADVENT OF PRINTING 7 
 
 or place them side by side with the earliest offspring 
 of the printing press. 
 
 While this method of reproduction was fairly 
 convenient for the class of book for which it was 
 used, it was quite inadequate to the cheap and 
 speedy multiplication of those books which the 
 revival of literature and learning was demanding. 
 It is possible that this demand had as much influence 
 upon the birth of the art which was to meet it, as 
 the invention itself had in fostering and increasing the 
 demand. The immense superiority of typography 
 over xylography lay in the fact that while the 
 xylographic blocks could be used only f»r the 
 particular work for which they had been cut, the 
 movable type, being composed of separate letters, 
 could be used over and over again for any book, 
 with corresponding economy both in time and in 
 material. It was an epoch-making difference. 
 
 The actual facts as to when, where, and by whom 
 printing with movable types was firsf invented are, 
 except, perhaps, to a few partisan wTiters, veiled in 
 obscurity ; the saftds of time have almost obliterated 
 the first early steps. The relative claims of Germany, 
 Holland, and even France, to priority have been 
 advanced and upheld with much zeal, edged occasion- 
 ally with more than a touch of acrimony. The faint 
 light shed by contemporary record is little better 
 
 1
 
 d THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 than a will-o'-the-wisp, and affords much room for 
 ingenious argument and special pleading. The 
 references to the subject found in books before the 
 end of the fifteenth century agree generally in 
 attributing the invention to Johann Gutenberg of 
 Mainz, but some of them are obviously inaccurate 
 in detail. 
 
 What is termed the 'Haarlem legend,' which at- 
 tributes the discovery to Laurens Janszoon Coster 
 of Haarlem about the year 1440, does not emerge 
 until the second half of the sixteenth century ; 
 but it receives a certain amount of support from the 
 story of the invention as related, on the authority of 
 Ulrich Zell, the printer, in the Cologne Chronicle 
 printed in 1499. This account says that the art 
 was first invented at Mainz about 1440; that for 
 the next ten years it was being investigated ; and 
 that in 1450 men began to print. But it goes on 
 to say that 'Although this art was invented at 
 Mainz as far as regards the manner in which it is 
 now commonly used, yet the first prefiguration 
 (Vurbyldung) was invented in Holland from the 
 Donatuses which were printed there before that 
 time*.' 
 
 The Donatus here spoken of is the De octo par- 
 tibus orationis of Aehus Donatus, the fourth-century 
 
 1 A. W. Pollard: Fine Books (1912), pp. 34 ff., where the passage 
 is printed in full.
 
 i] THE ADVENT OF PRINTING 9 
 
 grammarian ; a book as familiar to the school-boy 
 of the middle ages as Euclid was to the school-boy 
 of yesterday. Of these early Donatuses, which are 
 regarded as being among the very first productions 
 of the new art, fragments of some twenty editions 
 printed in Holland and about sixteen printed in 
 Germany have survived. Unfortunately it did not 
 occur to the printer of any of these that by adding 
 to the little book his name and the date, he might 
 achieve immortal fame. 
 
 Whether Holland or Germany be the rightful 
 claimant to priority, there is little doubt that the 
 development of the invention may be referred to 
 the decade 1 440-50. And, since the time was ripe 
 for the discovery, it is possible that the idea may 
 have been part of the Zeitgeist of the age, and 
 ingenious inventors may have been at work on 
 parallel lines in both countries. On the other hand, 
 it is not impossible that, as has been suggested, the 
 German artificer derived inspiration from the first 
 tentative essays put forth in Holland. Be that as it 
 may, it was at Mainz that the art was first developed 
 to a practical issue, and it was from Mainz that this 
 momentous invention spread throughout Europe. 
 
 The earliest piece of printing extant to which 
 a definite date can be attached is an Indulgence 
 printed at Mainz in 1454. Of this indulgence, 
 which was granted by Pope Nicholas V to such as
 
 10 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 should contribute towards the expense of the war 
 against the Turks, there are two practically con- 
 temporary editions in different types, one consisting 
 of thirty-one, the other of thirty lines. The former 
 of these must have been printed on or before 
 November 15, 1454, as is shewn by the fact that 
 in one of the surviving copies that date has been 
 filled in. 
 
 With these indulgences three names are con- 
 nected : Johann Gutenberg, a native of Mainz ; 
 Johann Fust, a goldsmith; and a younger man, 
 Peter Schoeffer, who afterwards became Fust's 
 partner and son-in-law. For the next four or five 
 years the doings of these men constitute the story 
 of the progress of printing, but the exact share that 
 each bore in the work cannot be precisely defined. 
 Gutenberg, who is regarded as the German inventor 
 of printing, was the originator of the enterprise, and 
 probably made his first experiments in the art during 
 the latter part of his sojourn in Strassburg, con- 
 tinuing his investigations on his return to his native 
 city of Mainz about 1446. Fust supplied the sinews 
 of war in the shape of advances of money to Guten- 
 berg, and afterwards assumed a more active share 
 in the undertaking; while Schoeffer, who at first 
 probably contributed mechanical skill, subsequently 
 took chief part in the conduct of the business. 
 
 When, in August 1456, Heinrich Cremer, vicar
 
 I] THE ADVENT OF PRINTING 11 
 
 of St Stephen's Church at Mainz, recorded in a 
 magnificent copy of the Bible ^ the fact tliat the 
 lubrication and binding of the book was then 
 finished, he doubtless intended to express pride and 
 satisfaction at the completion of the two fine volumes. 
 He probably had little thought of the importance 
 this date would possess in connexion with the new 
 and wonderful art by which the text of his book 
 had been produced. This book was, indeed, a copy 
 of the first printed edition of the Bible, and the 
 first large book to issue from the press. It bears 
 neither printer's name nor date of printing; but 
 Cremer's inscription in the Paris copy shews that 
 it must have left the press before August 1456. 
 This edition is known variously as the Mazarine 
 Bible, from the copy which first attracted attention 
 having been found in the library of Cardinal Mazarin ; 
 or the Gutenberg Bible, on the assumption that it 
 was printed by Gutenberg ; but it is now more 
 generally called the Forty-two line Bible, from the 
 number of lines in a column of its page. Simul- 
 taneously with this, or shortly afterwards, the 
 printing of another Bible was begun, in a somewhat 
 larger type. This is known as the Thirty-six Une 
 Bible. 
 
 Neither of these editions bears any printed record 
 of its origin, but it has been suggested that the 
 
 ^ Now in the Bibliotheque Nationals at Paris.
 
 12 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. i 
 
 Forty-two line Bible came from the press of Fust 
 and Schoeffer, while the Thirty-six line edition was 
 the production of Gutenberg working alone. Two 
 or three other books are also attributed to Gutenberg, 
 though no book actually bears his name ; but shortly 
 after this time, perhaps tired out with the worries 
 and vexations which dog the footsteps of the inventor, 
 he gave up printing, and, becoming a pensioner of 
 the Archbishop of Mainz, he disappears from the 
 scene. 
 
 In 1457, Fust and Schoeffer, now working to- 
 gether, brought out the famous Psalter, the first 
 printed book to contain the names of its printers 
 and the date of printing. The execution of this 
 beautiful book demonstrates that the printers had 
 by this time attained considerable technical excel- 
 lence. Their art had advanced beyond the experi- 
 mental stage, and the business soon developed into a 
 substantial commercial undertaking. The partner- 
 ship lasted for another ten years, after which 
 Schoeffer continued the press alone till the beginning 
 of the sixteenth century.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SPREAD OF THE ART 
 
 For a few years Mainz held a monopoly of 
 printing, but by 1461 the new art had been carried 
 to^ Strassburg and to Bamberg; and soon, aided 
 probably by the disturbed state of Mainz in 1462, 
 it spread abroad to other places. At Cologne, 
 Ulrich Zell, who set up a press there in 1466, was 
 followed by upwards of thirty other craftsmen 
 before the end of the century. Two years later 
 Gtinther Zainer produced the first dated Augsburg 
 book, and the incunabula printed at this important 
 home of wood engraving include a considerable 
 number of illustrated works. Nuremberg saw its 
 first press in 1470. The most prolific printer in 
 that busy centre of the book trade was Anton 
 Koberger, printer of that somewhat over-rated book 
 the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. Other towns 
 followed in rapid succession, and by the end of the 
 
 . century printing had been practised in fifty-one 
 
 _tow ns in Germany. 
 
 In the meantime the invention had found its 
 way into other countries. Italy received it at 
 the hands of two Germans, Conrad Sweynheym
 
 14 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 and Arnold Pannartz, who, in 1465, set up a press 
 in the Benedictine monastery at Subiaco. After 
 printing four books there, the first of which was the 
 ubiquitous Donatus, tl:ey moved on to Rome in 
 1467. Apparently, success did not attend their 
 enterprise, for in March 1472 they sought the aid 
 of Pope Sixtus IV. Their plea, which discloses 
 some interesting details concerning the operations 
 of their press, gives a list of the twenty-eight different 
 works they had up to that time printed, with the 
 number of copies of each, usually 275. Including 
 separate editions of these twenty-eight books, they 
 had printed in all a total of 11,475 volumes. 
 
 Rome was followed by Venice in 1469, and more 
 printers worked in Venice during the fifteenth century 
 than in any other town. These, about 150 in number, 
 included Nicolas Jenson, notable for the beauty of 
 his roman letter; Erhard Ratdolt, from Augsburg, 
 whose books, mainly mathematical and astronomical, 
 are adorned with some particularly fine ornamental 
 borders ; Bonetus Locatellus, whose books are more 
 numerous than interesting ; and Aldus Manutius, of 
 world-wide fame. At Milan, which in company with 
 Florence and five other Italian towns fiirst adopted 
 the art in 1471, was published the earUest book 
 printed in Greek, the Grammar of Lascaris (1476); 
 and the editio jyrinceps of Homer issued from a 
 Florence press in 1488. Printing now spread very
 
 II] THE SPREAD OF THE ART 15 
 
 rapidly through Italy, the pioneers in many cases 
 being Germans ; and by the year 1500, presses had 
 been at work in more than seventy different towns 
 south of the Alps. 
 
 France, also, was indebted to German workmen 
 for the new art, and Paris was the first town to 
 receive it. It was at the instance of two of the 
 professors that Martin Crantz, Ulrich Gering, and 
 Michael Friburger started an active press at the 
 Sorbonne in 1470, and Paris soon became a busy 
 centre of the craft. The only other French towns 
 in which printing was carried on to any considerable 
 extent during the century, were Lyons and Rouen, 
 the latter of which became notable for the production 
 of books of hours and other liturgical works. 
 
 In Holland the earUest book bearing a date is the 
 Historia scholastica of Petrus Comestor, printed at 
 Utrecht in 1473 ; but the Dutch Donatuses, mentioned 
 in the preceding chapter, to which no certain date 
 can be attached, together with a few other books 
 belonging to the same group, are quite possibly 
 earlier than this. Haarlem, claimed as the scene of 
 the shadowy Coster's operations, produced no re- 
 corded printer until ten years after the Utrecht press 
 had been started, and in the meantime printing had 
 been introduced into some fifteen other towns in the 
 Low Countries. The most important centres of early 
 printing in Holland and Belgium were Deventer and
 
 16 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 Louvain; but Bruges possesses a special interest 
 from the circumstance that it was there that William 
 Caxton, England's first printer, worked in partner- 
 ship with Colard Mansion for two or three years 
 before he returned to England to introduce printing 
 into his native country. 
 
 Caxton was, as he himself states, born and brought 
 up in the Weald of Kent. After serving an appren- 
 ticeship to a mercer in London he migrated to the 
 south Netherlands, where, by 1463, he was established 
 in the important office of governor of the English 
 nation in the Low Countries. In 1471 he was living 
 in Cologne, and probably there gained a technical 
 knowledge of printing. Returning to Bruges he, 
 in conjunction with Colard Mansion, a professional 
 calligrapher, acquired printing materials, and to- 
 gether they printed at least three books in 1475-6, 
 one of which, the Recuyell of the History es of Troye, 
 was the first book printed in the English language. 
 Some time in 1476 Caxton returned to England, and, 
 establishing himself at Westminster, set up the first 
 English press at the sign of the Red Pale, under the 
 shadow of the Abbey. His earliest dated book, 
 again in English, the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philo- 
 sophres, translated from the French by Earl Rivers, 
 was finished on the 18th of November 1477. By 
 the end of the following year he had printed up- 
 wards of twenty books, and at least five times that
 
 II] THE SPREAD OF THE ART 17 
 
 number before his death, which occurred some time 
 in 1491. 
 
 Caxton was no mere mechanical producer of 
 books. He took upon himself the labours of trans- 
 lator and editor as well ; and it is no stretch of the 
 imagination to believe that it was a love of books 
 and a leaning towards literature that induced him 
 to take up tlie art of printing. The Bruges Troy 
 book was his own translation ; to the Dictes, which 
 he edited, he added a chapter concerning women ; 
 and he early turned his attention to producing an 
 edition of the Canterbury Tales. He printed essentially 
 for the English market, with probably a strong bias 
 towards what most pleased his personal taste, and 
 the majority of his books have a distinctly literary 
 character. Commercial instinct, no doubt, supported 
 him in pursuing this course, since the limited demand 
 for the more serious works required by the scholar 
 and the student would scarcely have justified the 
 printing of them in England, especially as good 
 editions could be readily imported from the con- 
 tinent. Consequently, classics, standard theological 
 treatises, and the ponderous excogitations of the 
 schoolmen are practically absent from the list of his 
 publications. On the other hand, the many volumes 
 of poetry, romance, and fabled story which came 
 from his press must have stimulated the demand for 
 such hterature ; while, at the same time, by his own 
 
 A. p. B. 2 
 
 t^'
 
 18 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 translations from the French, he enlarged the bounds 
 of English recreative reading. 
 
 Caxton did not long remain the sole printer in 
 England. Theodoric Rood, a Cologne printer, was 
 at work in Oxford from 1478 to 1485; and an un- 
 known typographer, called the schoolmaster printer, 
 printed eight books at St Albans between 1479 and 
 1486. The first London press was that of John 
 Lettou, who, soon after his commencement in 1480, 
 was joined by William de Machlinia, and together 
 they printed chiefly law books. 
 
 At Westminster Caxton was succeeded by his 
 chief assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, who carried on 
 the traditions of the press, in so far as a large pro- 
 portion of his books consists of romances and poetical 
 pieces ; but, unlike his master, De Worde was a mere 
 printer and shewed no trace of literary talent. His 
 finest book, an English version of the De pro'prietatibus 
 rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (about 1496), was 
 the first book to be printed on paper made in England. 
 De Worde died about the beginning of the year 1535. 
 During his long career he is known to have printed 
 between seven and eight hundred books, but many of 
 these were short popular works and a large number 
 were merely new editions. 
 
 Richard Pynson, Wynk3m de Worde's chief con- 
 temporary, printed in London from about 1490 to 
 1630. As befitted the office of king's printer he
 
 II] THE SPREAD OF THE ART 19 
 
 possessed the best-appointed printing house of his 
 time in England. His output consisted to a large 
 extent of law books and official work; but he also 
 printed many books of literary interest, such as the 
 Canterbury Tales, Barclay's English version of Brant's 
 Ship of Fools, and Lord Berners's translation of 
 Froissart's Chronicles, besides several liturgical books 
 of very respectable workmanship. The only other 
 English printer in the fifteenth century was Julian 
 Notary, who began in London about 1496 and went 
 on for nearly a quarter of a century. 
 
 J— 2
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK 
 
 It requires some effort to realize that before the 
 invention of printing all books were in manuscript, 
 and that the laborious process of writing out each 
 separate copy was the only means of reproducing a 
 work. This business of making manuscript copies 
 of books was carried on not only in the monastic 
 scriptorium and other homes of scholarship, but 
 was also followed as a regular profession, and in a 
 great centre of learning, such as Paris, a vast number 
 of calligraphers, rubricators, illuminators, binders, 
 and others of kindred calling gained their daily 
 living by this industry. 
 
 To make twenty manuscript copies of a book was 
 just twenty times the work of making one copy ; but 
 in the printing of a book, when once the type is set 
 up, any number of copies can be produced with 
 comparatively little additional labour. It was this 
 tedious business of writing out every separate 
 additional copy that impressed Caxton with the 
 advantages of printing. For, having, as he relates 
 in his Recuyell of the History es of Troye, promised 
 copies of the book 'to dyverce gentilmen and to
 
 tfliii 
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 Itmn mcfef jnouf miftnmi0m 
 tuam, %:^iiommii no eft ni nioJ 
 ttaui inmiotfit mimniftrufl m 
 
 From a Fifteenth-century Manuscript 
 
 I 
 
 latuferfiudrt tluob5iitt&uu0 allium 
 matio timitiBm « Borne autctcant 
 !ufUe0:i ipm mate fug tiuoimm bo^j 
 m% tm|0!itum tcanquof tm teQuci« 
 cbam ttft aquilonl-ialiltcee an oicll 
 tia3mu.potta nta alij ramim-'i ms 
 nmrdiiimttarit omnmn:habmt£9 .. 
 
 From the 42-line Bible printed at Mainz before August i^^l
 
 CH. Ill] THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK 21 
 
 my frendes,' 'in the wrytyng of the same my penne 
 is worn, myn hande wery and not stedfast, myn eyen 
 dimmed with overmoche lokyng on the whit paper.... 
 Therfore I have practysed and lerned at my grete 
 charge and dispense to ordeyne this said book in 
 prynte after the maner and forme as ye may here see.' 
 
 The primary effect of the invention of printing 
 was to render multipHcation of copies of a book 
 cheaper and more expeditious. It was, of course, a 
 manuscript that the early printer had in his mind's 
 eye when he set to work to produce a book. The 
 result was not so much something entirely new in 
 the shape of a printed book, as the production of a 
 number of copies which closely resembled a manu- 
 script in appearance. Indeed, an early printed book 
 often looks so like a manuscript of the same work 
 written in the formal book-hand, that, if the two were 
 placed side by side, an unpractised eye would find 
 some difficulty in distinguishing between them. 
 
 In designing his types, as the letters used in 
 printing are called, the pioneer printer naturally 
 followed the formal book-hand used in the district 
 in which he was working, or the special hand custom- 
 arily employed in the particular class of book w^hich 
 he proposed to print. Latin Bibles and liturgical 
 works were generally printed in the black-letter 
 which, under the unifying influence of the Church, 
 it had become the habit to employ in writing books
 
 22 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 for use in her services. In Germany varying forms 
 of gothic text were adopted; while the round 
 minuscule writing affected by Italian scribes formed 
 the model for the roman type so widely favoured 
 in Italy. Caxton's first types were based on the 
 ordinary Flemish book-hand which he was accus- 
 tomed to see in manuscripts during his residence in 
 the Low Countries. 
 
 In the early days of typography it was customary 
 for the printer to print only the bare text ; just that 
 part of the book which, in a manuscript, would be 
 written by the scribe or calligrapher. Blank spaces 
 were left for head-lines, initial letters, and other 
 ornamental details which, as in the case of manu- 
 scripts, were afterwards added by the rubricator 
 an.d the illuminator. The circumstance that these 
 decorative features were executed by the same 
 method contributes to the similarity of appearance 
 presented by the manuscript and the printed book. 
 
 This finishing adornment of a book might be 
 more or less elaborate, from simple red or blue 
 capitals to finely illuminated borders and historiated 
 initials in gold and colours. Like the binding of the 
 volume, it was no doubt generally adjusted to suit 
 the taste and purse of the purchaser ; but books are 
 frequently found which have never been through the 
 rubricator's hands, the pages being still in the same 
 state in which they left the press. In these cases it
 
 Ill] THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK 23 
 
 will sometimes be noticed that the initial letter to 
 be inserted is indicated by a small letter, called a 
 director, printed in the blank space as a guide to the 
 illuminator. A few printers attempted to dispense 
 with the aid of the rubrisher by printing the capitals 
 and head-lines in red. This was a troublesome and 
 not always successful process; but the very first 
 dated book, Fust and Schoeffer's Psalter of 1457, 
 contains some large and beautiful ornamental initial 
 letters printed in red and blue, which are remarkable 
 for the technical skill displayed in their production 
 at this early stage in the art. 
 
 The practice of leaving blank spaces for the large 
 capitals to be filled in by hand continued in vogue in 
 some degree throughout the fifteenth century, more 
 particularly in Italy. But the progressive printer 
 was not slow to perceive the advantage of sending 
 out a book complete from the press, and the use of 
 woodcut ornamental initial letters printed in black 
 along with the text soon became general. Borders 
 and other decorative pieces, in imitation of the 
 ornament of manuscripts were also brought into use, 
 in many cases with excellent effect. Some of these 
 borders and initials, such as the outline letters found 
 in books printed by Anton Sorg at Augsburg, were 
 obviously intended to be painted over by the 
 illuminator, the skeleton design rendering his part 
 of the work more expeditious.
 
 24 THE PRINTED BOOK [cM. 
 
 In yet another respect do early printed books 
 often resemble manuscripts. A scribe on completing 
 the copy of a work might add some such expression 
 as 'Finis' to indicate that the end of the book had 
 been reached, or, perhaps 'Explicit,' followed by the 
 name of the work and sometimes that of the author ; 
 but he seldom went so far as to add his own name 
 and a record of the date. So too, a large number of 
 incunabula — as books printed in the fifteenth century 
 are frequently called — contain no intimation of when, 
 where, or by whom they were printed. The Psalter 
 of 1457 again provides the earliest exception. At 
 the end is a paragraph stating that the book had 
 been fashioned by the ingenious invention of printing 
 without any writing of the pen, by the diligence of 
 Johann Fust, a citizen of Mainz, and Peter Schoeffer 
 of Gcrnsheim, and brought to a completion on the 
 vigil of the Feast of the Assumption in the year 1457. 
 
 The early books, too, had no title page, and the 
 information which we now look for on that page — 
 author, title of work, publisher, and date — when 
 given at all, is usually to be found, as in the Psalter, 
 in the colophon, as this particular paragraph at the 
 end of a book is called. The colophon is often 
 accompanied by a pictorial or allegorical device 
 which the printer adopted as his trade mark. Title 
 pages did not come into fashion until about 1480, 
 and at first consisted of one or two lines containing
 
 Ill] THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK 25 
 
 merely the title of the book and perhaps the name 
 of the author, placed in the upper part of the leaf. 
 The tempting blank space below this is sometimes 
 filled in with the printer's device, or in the case of 
 a book printed for a bookseller, by the device of the 
 latter. Failing a device, the page may display a 
 woodcut illustration more or less relevant to the 
 subject matter of the book. The title pages of 
 Wynkyn de Worde's numerous small quarto tracts 
 usually take this last form, and his selection of 
 a woodcut was wondrously casual. A grotesque 
 attempt at the appropriate is seen in the title page 
 of his edition of Lydgate's The Assembly of Gods, 
 which is adorned with a woodcut from an edition 
 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales depicting the company 
 of pilgrims all seated at a huge round table. 
 
 The printer's device just referred to was at first 
 regarded mainly as a trade mark. The earliest, that 
 in Fust and Schoeffer's Bible of 1462, consists of two 
 shields suspended from a branch. As these devices 
 developed in pictorial and decorative character, 
 especially in the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 they partook also of the nature of an embellishment, 
 and afforded scope for play of fancy and canting 
 allusion. The devices of the Italian printers are 
 distinguished by beauty of ornamental design. 
 Those which consist of some variety of the combina- 
 tion of circle and cross in white on a black or red
 
 26 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 ground are singularly effective. In France, where 
 they are, perhaps, most numerous, they are more 
 pictorial than in other countries. 
 
 One of the best known of these devices is the 
 anchor and dolphin of Aldus of Venice, which made 
 its first appearance in 1502. Among other notable 
 examples are the fleur-de-lis of the Giuntas, the 
 compass of Plantin of Antwerp, and, somewhat later, 
 the sphere of the Elzevirs. A favourite form in 
 France, as well as in this country, was the canting 
 device, containing punning allusion to the name of 
 the printer: the galley of the Paris printer Galliot 
 du Pre ; the griffin of Gryphius of Lyons ; the mill 
 and miller of Scotland's first printer, Androw INIyllar ; 
 and the tun embodied in the devices of Grafton, 
 Norton, and other English printers whose names 
 ended in ' ton.' Badius Ascensius, the sixteenth- 
 century scholar-printer of Paris, adopted as his 
 mark a scene in a printing office with a press at 
 work. John of Westphalia, a busy printer at 
 Louvain from 1474 to 1496, occasionally used a 
 small woodcut portrait of himself ; and the English 
 Elizabethan printer John Day also displaj^ed his 
 portrait, but in larger and handsomer fashion. 
 Besides this, Day had another device, depicting a 
 sleeper being awakened, with the motto 'Arise, for 
 it is Day.' It was not till near the end of his career\ 
 that Caxton made use of his well-known bold device.
 
 Ill] THE FIFTEENTH-CENTURY BOOK 27 
 
 For a time the sizes of printed books followed the 
 lead set by manuscripts. Certain works, such as 
 Bibles, books of canon law, and the commentaries 
 of the schoolmen usually took the shape of ponderous 
 volumes in large folio. What may be called the two 
 standard sizes were the ordinary folio, standing about 
 12 inches high, used for books that could pretend 
 to any importance ; and the quarto, measuring about 
 7^ by 6 inches, a favourite size for works of small 
 extent or popular in character. An especially large 
 number of these quartos were printed by Ulrich Zell, 
 the first printer in Cologne, and by Richard Paffroed 
 and Jacobus de Breda, the two fifteenth-century 
 printers at Deventer. Smaller sizes were com- 
 paratively uncommon, and were generally reserved 
 for books of devotion and similar religious works. 
 
 Various estimates have been made of the number 
 of different books and editions printed in the fifteenth 
 century, mostly varying from 25,000 to 30,000 ; and 
 some have even attempted to compute the total 
 number of volumes printed: but these are rather 
 fruitless speculations. It is of more interest to know 
 that of the whole output, approximately rather more 
 than one-third was produced in Italy, about one- 
 third in Germany, while somewhat less than a third 
 represents the combined effort of all the other 
 coimtries.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS OF THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 By the beginning of the sixteenth century the art 
 of book printing had nearly freed itself from the 
 leading-strings of the manuscript. Instead of con- 
 tinuing to imitate the form and conventions of 
 written books it was fairly started on the course of 
 developing its own characteristics. In the process, 
 the printed book sacrificed, as was perhaps inevitable, 
 something of the dignity and restraint that belongs 
 to the manuscript. But, on the other hand, by its 
 facility of production and comparative cheapness, it 
 acquired a practical convenience which has given 
 it universality and made it a necessary adjunct to 
 daily life. 
 
 A book now usually declares its personality at 
 the outset, by displaying on a title page its subject, 
 the name of its author, and the address of the book- 
 seller by whom it is published. Generally the date 
 is also given, though this is sometimes relegated 
 to the colophon which is still retained for the 
 purpose of recording the name of the printer, who 
 by this time was often distinct from the publisher.
 
 CH. IV] THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS 29 
 
 Pagination, head-lines, lists of contents or chapters, 
 and other aids to ready use are commonly found, and 
 in its main features the book differs in no material 
 respect from the book of to-day. The most striking 
 and far-reaching innovation of the early years of 
 the sixteenth century — perhaps the only important 
 fundamental step in the whole process of the develop- 
 ment of the printed book — was the introduction of 
 small compact type, the use of which enabled the 
 size of books to be reduced to handy and portable 
 dimensions. 
 
 At this time, interest in the evolution of the book 
 as the product of a new art gives place to interest in 
 the printing press as an aid to the progress and 
 expansion of learning and literature, before it be- 
 came, as it did later, an instrument for the popular 
 diffusion of knowledge. The dominant feature of 
 the sixteenth-century press is the succession of 
 scholar-printers who in various centres — Aldus in 
 Venice, Froben in Basel, Badius and the Estiennes 
 in Paris, Plantin in Antwerp — by their learning and 
 their personal character and influence directed its 
 power into channels which nourished and fed the 
 desire for knowledge and learning. 
 
 From the outset of his career as a printer (1494 
 -1515) Aldus Manutius deliberately devoted his 
 energies to the cause of scholarship, and in the 
 twenty-one years of his activity did more than any
 
 30 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 other man to facilitate the spread of the new learning 
 among the scholars of Europe. Many masterpieces 
 of ancient Greek literature made their first appear- 
 ance in print at his press ; but the work by wliich he 
 is most widely known is the long series of small 
 octavo volumes of Greek and Latin classics bearing 
 the familiar device of the Aldine anchor. It was 
 doubtless a scholar's sympathetic understanding of 
 the need for a form of book which, by its cheapness 
 and handy size, might become the personal belonging 
 and intimate companion of the student, that led the 
 printer to make this new departure. In order to 
 compress these works into the limited compass of an 
 octavo volume it was necessary to have recourse to 
 some other type than the large roman or got hie 
 letter used for the folios of the library and the 
 cloister; and in 1501 Aldus had cut for him a small 
 new type the form of which was based on the cursive 
 hand then current in Italy : the neat compact letter 
 which we call itahc. For his Greek tj^e the hand- 
 writing of his friend Marcus Musurus is said to have 
 been taken as a model. Neither of these selections 
 was entirely fortunate. The Greek type, which 
 preserved all the ligatures and flourishes of the 
 cursive hand, is by no means easy to read ; but the 
 wide influence of the Aldine books set a fashion in 
 Greek letter which lasted nearly three centuries. 
 The italic letter, though elegant in appearance and
 
 IV] THE SCHOLAR-PRIXTERS 31 
 
 extremely compact, is not nearly so legible as the 
 roman type to which we, at the present day, are 
 accustomed ; but the new type was received with 
 much favour, was extensively copied, and retained 
 great popularity, especially for small books, through- 
 out the sixteenth century. 
 
 Basel had already been a centre of printing for 
 some twenty years when John Froben, who was to 
 become its greatest printer, published in 1401 as his 
 first book an octavo Bible in small gothic type. His 
 press is remarkable for the number and importance 
 of its productions, as well as for excellence of work- 
 manship. In his desire for accuracy Froben sur- 
 rounded himself with a number of scholars to whom 
 he deputed the work of editing and correcting. 
 Chief among these was Erasmus, who, after visiting 
 him on several occasions, in 1521 permanently took 
 up his residence with the printer and gave fresh 
 impetus to the press. It was from Froben's press 
 that the first published edition of the Greek New 
 Testament (edited by Erasmus) was issued in 1516. 
 In the same year he issued the works of St Jerome 
 in nine folio volumes; and when, in 1527, he met 
 with his death by a fall from an upper window, his 
 largest undertaking, the works of St Augustine in 
 ten folio volumes, was passing through the press. 
 
 In Froben's later years his most considerable 
 contemporary in Basel was Adam Petri, who printed
 
 32 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 many works in the vernacular and favoured the 
 writings of Luther and the reformers. But more 
 prominent centres of printing in the cause of the 
 reformers were Geneva, the Calvinist stronghold; 
 Ziirich, where Christopher Froschauer, printer of 
 many English books, including the first edition of 
 the Bible in English (1535), was busy with Zwinglian 
 literature; and Wittenberg, where Lutheran tracts 
 came almost daily from the press of Hans Lufft. 
 Later in the century the reputation of Basel as a 
 centre of printing was upheld by another learned 
 printer, John Oporinus (d. 1568), who, among other 
 preparatory occupations, had for four years acted as 
 assistant to Paracelsus. Oporinus is said to have 
 printed upwards of seven hundred books, and at one 
 time to have employed more than fifty workmen. 
 It was in his office that John Foxe, of the Book of 
 Martyrs, was engaged as reader of the press during 
 his sojourn at Basel. 
 
 The achievements of Aldus were not only 
 recognized by his learned friends and the scholarly 
 world at large, but they also stirred the admiration 
 and emulation of contemporary craftsmen. Aldine 
 editions served as copies for publishers of easy con- 
 science to reprint — to pirate is perhaps too severe a 
 term for a period when the idea of legal property in 
 literature had scarcely been formulated — and they 
 also served as a standard of excellence to be aimed
 
 IV] THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS 33 
 
 at by the more ambitious printer desirous of attain- 
 ing fame for his own productions. On the death of 
 Aldus Greek and Latin verses were composed in 
 his honour by his distinguished contemporary Henri 
 Estienne, who, during the first two decades of the 
 sixteenth century, shared with Jodocus Badius 
 Ascensius the honours of Paris printing. 
 
 Many of the books which Badius pubHshed 
 contain a preface from his own pen. In one of 
 these he declares it to be his aim to emulate the 
 laudable exactness of Aldus ; and the reputation 
 for correctness which his impressions acquired made 
 it the desire of the foremost scholars of his day 
 that their books should bear his imprint. During 
 his busy career of thirty-three years (1503-35) he 
 printed more than seven hundred books, including 
 almost all the Latin classics and a number of impor- 
 tant contemporary works. Many of these bear on 
 the title page his well-known device of a printing 
 press at work, with the legend Prelum Ascensianum 
 affixed to it. 
 
 Henri Estienne, or, in the Latin form of the name, 
 Henricus Stephanus, was the first of a celebrated 
 family of typographers who exercised their art in 
 the French capital for more than a century and a 
 half. He, also, was famed for the accuracy of his 
 editions. After his death, in 1520, Simon de Colines, 
 who married his widow, carried on the business 
 
 A. p. B. 3
 
 34 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 until 1526, when it was handed over to Robert, Henri 
 Estienne's second son. This Robert was not only 
 the most distinguished member of the familj- both 
 for scholarship and for the importance of his publica- 
 tions, but is, perhaps, the most eminent in the whole 
 list of French printers. His family circle included 
 several scholars who were engaged in the editorial 
 work of the press ; and Latin is said to have become" 
 the ordinary language of the household from cellar 
 to garret. 
 
 At this period the cause of learning and letters in 
 France owed much to the patronage of King Francis I, 
 but nothing at all to the opposition of the theologians 
 of the Sorbonne, whose antipathy to the new learning 
 was so bigoted that in 1533 they endeavoured to 
 persuade the King to interdict altogether the practice 
 of the art of printing in France. Robert Estienne, 
 whose editions of the Bible and other books which 
 favoured the spread of knowledge and enlightenment 
 brought him into conflict with the champions of 
 ignorance, received encouragement and protection 
 at the hands of the sovereign, and in 1539 he was 
 nominated printer to the king in Hebrew and Latin. 
 After the accession of Henry II, in 1547, the royal 
 protection was less effective, and the persistent 
 opposition of the theologians at length drove 
 Estienne to quit Paris for Geneva, where he was 
 able to continue his work in a freer atmosphere.
 
 IV] THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS 36 
 
 He died in 1559, leaving a flourishing business to 
 his eldest son Henri, who was one of the greatest 
 scholars of his time. 
 
 Lyons in the early part of the sixteenth century 
 earned notoriety by its piracies of Aldine and other 
 desirable editions of the classics, but the work of 
 "Sebastian Gryphius (c. 1524-56) has given it a 
 more worthy reputation in the annals of printing. 
 Gryphius was one of the printers who favoured 
 italic type, and of his numerous productions the 
 most familiar are the little volumes of Latin classics 
 in small italic letter with his device of a griffin on the 
 title page. These handy pocket editions became very 
 popular and the format was adopted by Guillaume 
 Roville, likewise of Lyons, and by other publishers. 
 Gryphius also issued in two folio volumes, in 1536-8, 
 the Commentarii Linguae Latinae of his friend, the 
 unfortunate lEtienne Dolet, who for a short time 
 himself exercised the art of printing at Lyons. 
 
 In the second half of the sixteenth century 
 attention gravitates to the Low Countries, and 
 especially to the Plantin press at Antwerp. It is 
 related that Christopher Plantin, worker in fine 
 bindings and ornamental leather caskets, while 
 taking home a valuable piece of work one night 
 was set upon by some street revellers and severely 
 wounded in the arm. Being thus incapacitated 
 from following his craft he returned to his original 
 
 3—2
 
 36 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 occupation of printing, and from a small beginning 
 built up one of the largest printing houses in Europe. 
 The extent of his business, the importance of his 
 publications, and the .-excellence of his workmanship 
 brought Plantin a European reputation. The books 
 which issued from his press cover a wide range of 
 subjects : science, history, jurisprudence, the writings 
 of the Fathers, Greek and Latin classics, and books 
 in Hebrew. Many were finely illustrated, and all 
 bear evidence of the care and taste he bestowed upon 
 them in his ambition to be numbered among the 
 great printers. His biggest work, the Antwerp 
 Polyglot Bible (1569-73) exhibits the fine and hand- 
 some character of the types which distinguish his 
 books. In 1570, Plantin received from Philip II a 
 special privilege for the printing of liturgical books, 
 and his press was soon sending forth missals, 
 breviaries, books of hours, and other service books 
 in enormous numbers. This class of book came to 
 be a main feature in the output of the Officina 
 Plantiniana, and was afterwards one of the chief 
 sources of the prosperity of this great house. 
 
 After the founder's death in l^SO^the Plantin 
 press maintained its high standar'd of workmanship 
 under the direction of his son-in-law, Jean Moretus ; 
 but there was a falling off in both the output and the 
 importance of the books sent forth, science and 
 classical works giving place to ecclesiastical history
 
 ivj THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS 37 
 
 and books of devotion. The energetic reign (1610- 
 41) of Balthasar Moretus, son of Jean, brought a 
 revival of prestige ; but after the death of Balthasar 
 the second, in 1674, attention was almost entirely 
 confined to the printing of liturgical books. The 
 business continued to be carried on by successive 
 members of the family down to 1876, when this 
 stately printing house was acquired by the city of 
 Antwerp, and, preserved as the Musee-Plantin, it is 
 one of the most fascinating and instructive extant 
 examples of an old-world printing office. 
 
 In the seventeenth century the vogue for books 
 of diminutive size reached its zenith in the little 
 duodecimo volumes with which the name Elzevir is 
 closely identified. The culmination of this fashion 
 was in great measure due to the enterprise of the 
 Elzevirs, a family who for upwards of a century 
 carried on business in Leyden, Amsterdam, and 
 other towns. In the Elzevirs we have parted com- 
 pany with the scholar-printers who themselves edited 
 and revised the texts which they presented to the 
 learned world. We have, instead, intelligent printer- 
 publishers, excellent men of business, anxious to 
 produce books that both textually and typographi- 
 cally should sustain their credit for good work. To 
 secure correctness they employed scholars to edit 
 their publications and see them through the press. 
 
 66752
 
 38 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 The origin of the house goes back to 1583, in 
 which year Louis Elzevir, a migrant from Lou vain, 
 commenced pubUshing in Leyden. But it is from 
 1626, when Bonaventura Elzevir, a son of the founder, 
 was joined by his nephew Abraham, that the fame of 
 the house really begins. It was then that, having 
 acquired a printing office of their own, they began 
 to specialize in the issue of the characteristic small 
 volumes, and the period from 1626 to the death of 
 both partners in 1652 is the most notable in the 
 history of the house. Bonaventura and Abraham 
 were succeeded by their sons Jean and Daniel. 
 In 1655 Daniel migrated to Amsterdam to join 
 his cousin Louis, and the fortuitously celebrated 
 Pastissier frangois (a mere reprint of a Paris edition 
 of 1653) bears the imprint of these two in that same 
 year. Thenceforth the Amsterdam house took the 
 leading place, and so continued until the death of 
 Daniel in 1680. In all, some fifteen members of the 
 family had been engaged in the book trade before 
 the house came to an ignoble end at Leyden in the 
 hands of the younger Abraham in 1712. 
 
 The Elzevirian duodecimos achieved great con- 
 temporary popularity, and many authors thought it 
 an honour to have their writings included in the 
 series. But the acclaim was punctuated here and 
 there with complaints at the small ness of type and 
 the loss of dignity sustained by important works in
 
 iv] THE SCHOLAR-PRINTERS 39 
 
 being printed in such diminutive format. The long 
 series of volumes comprised a large proportion of the 
 classic and standard literature of the day in well- 
 printed and fairly correct editions, and possessing 
 the special advantage that their small size enabled 
 them to be sold at a price (many of them were 
 published at eighteen-pence to two shillings) which 
 brought them within easy reach of a wide circle of 
 readers. In short, they stood in much the same 
 relation to the ordinary edition as does the seven- 
 penny novel of to-day to the six-shilling edition. 
 Their contemporary success is therefore not sur- 
 prising ; but it is not so easy to account for the great 
 fascination they have possessed for later generations 
 of collectors. They cannot be considered attractive 
 books : in truth, they are rather scrubby little 
 volumes, and the narrow page gives them a mean 
 and cramped feeling. For comeliness they cannot 
 compare with the small books issued by Simon de 
 Colines, the Gryphii, Christopher Plantin, and other 
 sixteenth-century printers. 
 
 The success of the Elzevir books naturally 
 brought imitations and even counterfeits. But the 
 Elzevirs had little room for complaint on this score, 
 for, in that age of free trade in literature, they made 
 no scruple to add to their ovm series any book they 
 thought worthy of inclusion in it, probably deeming 
 it more of a compliment to the author's fame than
 
 40 THE PRINTED BOOK fcH. iV 
 
 any wrong done to his pocket. Among the more 
 prominent of these rivals were Jean Maire and 
 Frans Hacke (Hackius), two of the six-and-twenty 
 booksellers who were carrying on business in Leyden 
 in 1651 ; and in Amsterdam, Jean Jansson, Abraham 
 Wolfgang, and Jean Blaeu, The last of these, one 
 of the principal Dutch printers of his day, is, how- 
 ever, more celebrated for the large and important 
 illustrated works which issued from his press. His 
 printing office was furnished with nine presses, each 
 presided over by one of the Muses. It was his 
 father, Willem Janszoon Blaeu, who, about 1620, 
 made the first important improvement in the 
 printing press, which up to that time had differed 
 but little from the press of the early printers ; and 
 there was no further change of any moment until, 
 at the end of the eighteenth century. Earl Stanhope 
 constructed, in England, the first iron printing press.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 
 
 In the early years of the sixteenth century 
 Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson were the chief 
 printers in England. The volume of printing going 
 on in the country since its introduction by Caxton 
 was slowly increasing, and fresh presses were being 
 set up. The more prominent names include Robert 
 Copland, a printer of Uterary habits ; John Rastell, 
 a printer of law books ; and Thomas Berthelet, who, 
 on the death of Pynson in 1530, succeeded to the 
 office of king's printer. The books which came from 
 the native press continued to be of a strictly insular 
 character, and for but very few of them could there 
 be any demand beyond the seas. It was still found 
 more profitable to import books from the continent 
 than to reprint them here ; and some of the foreign 
 printers were now printing books specially for the 
 English market. The majority of these books were 
 liturgical works of English use, and, until they were 
 displaced in the reign of Henry VIII, a large trade 
 in them was carried on, mostly by French printers. 
 Chief among these were Antoine Verard and rran9ois 
 Regnault of Paris, the latter of whom had also a
 
 42 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 book shop in London, In 1538, an edition of 
 Coverdale's version of the Bible which Regnault 
 was printing was seized and pnbhcly burned in 
 Paris. Jan van Doesborch catered for a different 
 pubhc when he printed at Antwerp, between 1508 
 and 1530, Tyll Howleglas, Robin Hood, and other 
 popular English stories. For a hundred years after 
 the middle of the century most of the books printed 
 abroad for sale in England were concerned -with 
 religious and political controversy and had to be 
 imported and circulated surreptitiously. 
 
 The most important event of the sixteenth 
 century affecting the production of books in England 
 was the incorporation of the Stationers' Company 
 in 1557. Under the charter of incorporation no one 
 was permitted to prmt anj'^thing for sale unless he 
 were a member of the Company ; and every member 
 was required to enter in the Company's register the 
 name of any book or copy which he claimed as his 
 property and desired to print. The craft of printing 
 was thus brought within strict compass, and a 
 supervision inaugurated which was to exercise an 
 important influence upon the production and dis- 
 tribution of books in this kingdoln for the next 
 hundred and fifty yearg^. 
 
 As printing increased and the power of the press 
 as an. organ for the dissemination of ideas and 
 opinions among the people became more evident,
 
 v] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 43 
 
 both church and state developed a desire to obtain 
 control over the output of printed literature. The 
 Stationers' Company, with its charter powers, 
 appears to have been regarded as a convenient 
 agent for the exercise of such control, and from 
 the middle of the sixteenth to the end of the seven- 
 teenth century the press was subjected to continual 
 attempts to regulate it in accordance with the 
 views of those in authority for the time being. 
 
 At the very beginning of Elizabeth's reign a 
 system of censorship was introduced by an injunction 
 ordering that no book should be printed unless it were 
 first licensed by certain authorities. This regulation 
 was but indifferently observed ; other orders followed, 
 and in 1586 the Star Chamber issued a stringent 
 decree for the regulation of printing. This decree 
 gave the authorities a more effective hold upon the 
 legitimate press, but the suppression of seditious 
 and heretical books, many of which were printed 
 abroad and imported surreptitiously, was far from 
 being successfully achieved. 
 
 Before the Stationers' Company received its 
 charter, printing had been carried on at Oxford, 
 St Albans, York, Cambridge, Tavistock, Abingdon, 
 Ipswich, Worcester, and Canterbury. By 1557 all 
 these presses were extinct, and, with one trifling 
 exception, no printing was done outside London, until 
 the Cambridge press was revived by. the University
 
 44 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 in 1583. A similar revival followed at Oxford two 
 years later. In 1586 there were in London twenty- 
 five master printers, owning among them fifty-three 
 presses ; and, since the Star Chamber decree of that 
 year permitted no addition to these numbers, the 
 production of books was limited to the capacity of 
 these presses. 
 
 Notwithstanding official restrictions, the literary 
 activity of the Elizabethan era was accompanied by 
 an enormous increase in the output of the native 
 press. New poems, new plays, translations from 
 other literatures, especially Latin, French, and 
 Italian, followed each other in quick procession, 
 varied by graver treatises such as chronicles, voyages 
 and travels, philosophical dissertations, and works 
 of theology. All these were in addition to number- 
 less Bibles, Prayer-books, legal treatises, and ABCs 
 and other school books, which, though more prosaic, 
 brought much profit to those printers who were 
 fortunate enough to possess monopolies for these 
 particular books. Altogether the period covered by 
 the reigns of Elizabeth and James I is one of the 
 most interesting in the whole story of book pro- 
 duction in England. 
 
 The list of English printers contains no names 
 which can stand beside the great continental printers 
 whose work has been referred to in the preceding 
 chapter ; but some very respectable work was done
 
 V] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 45 
 
 by the best native presses, and enterprise and literary 
 taste are apparent in the more important publica- 
 tions. Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch 
 printed several issues of the Book of Common Prayer 
 in the reign of Edward VI. Besides printing 
 Hardyng's Chronicle of Englande and kindred works, 
 Grafton also compiled two historical chronicles, which 
 were printed by his son-in-law Richard Tottell in 
 1562 and 1569. This Tottell, pubhsher of the well- 
 known poetical Miscellany which goes under his 
 name, was the owner of an exclusive patent for the 
 printing of law books. Henry Denham displayed 
 good taste in many of the books he printed between 
 1564 and 1589 ; and Richard Jugge, four times 
 master of the Stationers' Company, issued in 1568 
 the first edition of the 'Bishops' Bible,' a fine book 
 containing good copper-plate portraits. From a 
 typographical point of view the outstanding name 
 is John Day whose career extended from 1546 to 
 1584. Under the patronage of Archbishop Parker, 
 that great encourager of art and letters. Day had 
 several new founts of type cut, and his work lifted 
 Enghsh printing to a higher level. The first book 
 printed in Anglo-Saxon characters (Aelfric's Paschal 
 Homily) came from his press, as did also the English 
 version of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563). It is 
 probable that for a time Foxe himself worked in 
 some editorial capacity in Day's printing house, as
 
 46 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 he had previously done at Basel in the office of 
 Oporinus, who published the first (Latin) edition of 
 hiG famous book in 1559. 
 
 The most influential man in the Company about 
 this time was Christopher Barker, who as queen's 
 printer was much occupied with the printing of 
 Bibles and official work. He was succeeded in 1599 
 by his son Robert, whose name is associated with the 
 publication of the Royal Version (the 'Authorised 
 Version') of the Bible in 1611. Another important 
 stationer was William Ponsonby, the leading literary 
 publisher of Elizabethan times. In 1590 he brought 
 out Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, and in the same 
 year the first three books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. 
 Edward Blount, who succeeded to Ponsonby's 
 reputation as a publisher of belles lettres, issued, in 
 1603, Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays, and 
 published several of Marlowe's works. He was also 
 one of the four partners in the publication of the 
 First Folio Shakespeare (1623). John Norton was 
 in a big way of business, and his name is borne by 
 some of the most important books of the first decade 
 of the seventeenth century. George Bishop, another 
 prominent man, was partner in Holinshed's Chronicles 
 and Hakluyt's Voyages; and John Bill was book- 
 seller to King James and Sir Thomas Bodle5^ 
 
 But none of these names are to be found in the 
 imprints of one of the most interesting sections of
 
 V] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 47 
 
 Elizabethan literature: those much-sought-after 
 little thin quartos in which the plays of Shakespeare 
 and his fellow-dramatists made their first appearance 
 in print. These, hardly worthy the notice of big 
 publishers and opulent monopolists, were left to the 
 more obscure men, who have Uttle else to distinguish 
 them among the eight hundred and more Londoners 
 who, between 1540 and 1640, engaged in the printing 
 and selling of books. Among those who were con- 
 cerned with the Shakespeare quartos were John 
 Busby, Andrew Wise, Edward White, a dealer in 
 ballads, James Roberts, the almanac patentee, and 
 John Danter, an unscrupulous pirate. 
 
 Having regard to the comparatively small field 
 open to English printers of the sixteenth century, 
 and the official restrictions and vexations to which 
 they were subjected, wo need not be surprised that 
 printing in this country did not attain any great 
 degree of excellence. But, apart from technical 
 merit, the production of the great body of Eliza- 
 bethan literature from the small number of existing 
 presses is a sufficiently noteworthy performance. 
 Up to the middle of the century English books 
 retain much of their early character, but by about 
 1570 or 1580 roman type had come into general 
 use, displacing the old black-letter for almost all 
 books except Bibles, law books, and a few other 
 classes. Italic letter was also used to a considerable
 
 48 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 extent, but chiefly in a subsidiary capacity, and 
 it never, in England, acquired the vogue which it 
 attained on the continent. Throughout the six- 
 teenth century a border was a common adornment 
 of the title page, and the wording of the title was 
 usually fairly brief and simple. These borders were 
 of various kinds, architectural and arabesque orna- 
 ment predominating; and in the second half of 
 the century an effective border built up of small 
 ornaments was frequently employed. Titles, in 
 the Stewart period, tend to become verbose. The 
 border, for which there is no longer room, disappears ; 
 and the title, sprawling down the page in a confused 
 variety of types, either wraps the subject of the work 
 in a maze of words, or usurps the function of a list 
 of contents. In controversial works the title page 
 sometimes affords opening for a telling home-thrust 
 at an adversary. Fancy titles, which give no 
 indication of the subject matter of the book, are 
 frequently adopted; while the lure of alliterative 
 titles continued to be a snare to writers of pious 
 tractates. 
 
 From the accession of Charles I the censorship 
 of Hterature, which had relaxed somewhat in the 
 previous reign, was exercised with fresh vigour ; but 
 on the abolition of tho Star Chamber in 1641 all 
 restraint vanished for the time being, and by 1649
 
 v] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 49 
 
 the number of printing houses in London had in- 
 creased to more than sixty. The main occupation 
 of these presses was the printing of pamphlets. The 
 Civil War was a conflict of words and arguments as 
 well as of arms, and whole regiments of pamphlets 
 were pressed into the service on each side, charge 
 and counter-charge making a clash and din, amid 
 which literature itself was wellnigh lost sight of. 
 The Parliamentary party, although the professed 
 champions of liberty, found this freedom but little 
 to their taste. They soon endeavoured to put a 
 curb upon the press, and it was their action that 
 called forth Milton's protest on behalf of the liberty 
 of unlicensed printing. But the Areopagitica (1644) 
 fell upon deaf ears, and the news press, at least, 
 continued to be the object of a strict censorship. 
 
 Above the flood of pamphlets a few books stand 
 out like landmarks, preserving the continuity of 
 letters through this stressful period. Sir Thomas 
 Browne's Religio Medici made its appearance in 
 1642, and in 1645 Milton's collected poems were 
 brought out by Humphrey Moseley, then the leading 
 publisher of that class of literature, who also issued 
 works by Crashaw, Suckling, Herrick, and other 
 poets. In 1650 came Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living, 
 followed the next year by his Holy Dying ; and the 
 first edition of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler was 
 published in 1653. There were also larger books, 
 
 A. p. B. .4
 
 50 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 like the first volume of Dugdale's Monasticon Angli- 
 canum (1655) ; and that tour-de-force of the Enghsh 
 seventeenth-century press, Brian Walton's Polyglot 
 Bible, which contains the text of the Scriptures in 
 nine languages and was printed by Thomas Roycroft 
 in six folio volumes in 1654-7. 
 
 In the more settled times of the Restoration 
 literature experienced a revival. This revival was 
 accompanied by a resuscitation of the censorship, 
 and the Licensing Act of 1662, as administered by 
 the active zealot Roger L'Estrange, was the most 
 stringent measure of press control ever put into 
 force in this country. This act, after being renewed 
 at intervals, finally expired in 1694, and no further 
 attempt was made to supervise the output of the 
 press. Among the books of this time theology holds 
 a largely preponderating place, particularly that 
 section of it usuallj^ termed practical divinity, such 
 as the writings of Richard Baxter and John Bunyan, 
 and the sermons of South and Tillotson. Indeed, 
 the Pilgrim's Progress, which made its first appear- 
 ance in 1678, is more typical of the books in common 
 circulation at that time, than, say, Wycherley's play 
 The Plain Dealer, published in the preceding year. 
 The pamphlet, though now occupying a less pro- 
 minent position, was still much used as a vehicle 
 for the expression of political and controversial 
 opinion.
 
 Vj ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 51 
 
 With the opening of the eighteenth century the 
 world of books begins to approach modern condi- 
 tions. The habit of reading was no longer confined 
 to the limited circle of the learned and the leisured, 
 and literature was now addressing itself to the 
 people at large. The Tatler of 1709-1 1 was succeeded 
 by The Spectator of 1711-12, which circulated in 
 thousands and had many imitators and successors. 
 Robinson Crusoe made its debut in 1719, and the 
 Gentleman's Magazine was launched by Edward 
 Cave in 1731. Richardson's Pamela, which appeared 
 in 1740, was followed two years later by Fielding's 
 Joseph Andrews. After these came Clarissa Harloive 
 (1747-8), Smollett's Roderick Random (1748), Tom 
 Jones (1749); and the novel, thenceforth, takes a 
 continuously increasing position in the world of 
 books. The remarkable literary activity of this 
 century is also noticeable in other directions. Up 
 to 1709 the collected works of Shakespeare were 
 accessible only in the four folio editions of 1623, 
 1632, 1664, and 1685; but between 1709 and 1790 
 there were published upwards of twenty critical 
 editions. The important works of Hume, Robertson, 
 and Gibbon inaugurated a new era in historical study ; 
 and the numerous works dealing with local history 
 and antiquities gave occasion for the production of 
 some fine books illustrated with engravings. At the 
 other end of the scale are the children's books, the 
 
 4—2
 
 52 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 Tommy Prudent, Goody Tivo Shoes, and other 'im- 
 proving' stories, which have rendered famous their 
 pubhsher and originator, John Newbery, the busy 
 bookseller and patent-medicine vendor of St Paul's 
 Churchyard. 
 
 The right of an author to property in his work 
 was recognized for the first time by the law of the land 
 in the Copyright Act of 1709. As a rule, however, 
 authors continued to sell their work outright to 
 pubhshers, and in the eighteenth century the pro- 
 fessional Avriter was to a great extent the employ^ 
 of the bookseller-publisher. The leading publisher 
 at the opening of the century was Jacob Tonson, 
 of the 'Shakespear Head,' who published for Dryden. 
 A little later came Bernard Lintot, whose name is 
 connected with that of Pope. Robert Dodsley, 
 himself a poet and playwright, published works by 
 Samuel Johnson, Gray, Goldsmith, and others of his 
 large circle of friends. The energetic Andrew Millar 
 carried through the arrangements for bringing out 
 Johnson's Dictionary (1755), and his successors 
 Thomas Cadell and William Strahan were in their 
 turn important personages in the publishing world. 
 
 For two hundred years the ordinary sizes for 
 English books had continued to be the folio, measur- 
 ing about twelve by seven-and-a-half inches, and 
 the quarto, of about seven-and-a-half by six inches. 
 These two main sizes were varied by a larger folio
 
 v] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 53 
 
 for more important works, and an octavo about 
 six inches high, for the smaller books. In the 
 eighteenth century there is a greater variety of 
 sizes and a larger paper is in general use. The 
 folio is still used, more especially for topographical 
 works with illustrations, but for ordinary books it 
 gives way to the quarto : not the small square book 
 of the preceding century, but a more imposing 
 volume, measuring some ten by eight inches, in 
 which there is space, as occasion may demand, 
 either for packing much matter, or for the luxury 
 of large type and wide margins. For everyday 
 literature the convenient octavo size and also a 
 large duodecimo (seven by four inches) came into 
 general use. The standard of printing, as a whole, 
 shews a considerable improvement upon the dark 
 days of the Commonwealth period, though, with 
 some exceptions, the craftsmanship is mediocre and 
 the appearance of the books quite undistinguished. 
 In general, the paper is indifferent in quality and 
 too brown in colour, while the ink lacks sufficient 
 blackness to make a good contrast, and this gives 
 an appearance of weakness to the printed page. 
 
 During the first quarter of the eighteenth century 
 and for some time previously most of the best type 
 in use in England came from Holland, the country 
 which at that time held pride of place in the printing 
 world. When Richard Bentley was reorganizing the
 
 54 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 University Press at Cambridge towards the end of the 
 seventeenth century, it was to Holland that he sent 
 for new type, and a Dutchman, Cornelius Crownfield, 
 was engaged to superintend the work. In 16G7 
 Dr John Fell established a type foundry for the 
 Oxford University Press, and for several years after- 
 wards some of the best printing in this country was 
 done at Oxford. Good examples may be seen in 
 Anthony Wood's Historia JJniversitatis Oxonioisis 
 (1674) and George Hickes's Thesaurus (1705), which 
 came from the University press, and the magnificent 
 Bible printed by John Baskett in 1716-7, which, 
 from the numerous misprints it contains, came to 
 be known as 'a Baskett-full of printer's errors.' 
 Other efforts to improve English typography were 
 being made, and in 1722 William Caslon, who had 
 experimented in type cutting, designed for William 
 Bowyer, an excellent printer, a new and handsome 
 fount of roman and itaUc letter which was used for 
 the folio edition of Selden's works printed in 1726. 
 The beauty of the Caslon letter soon caused it to 
 come into favour, and up to nearly the end of the 
 century his types were almost exclusively used by 
 those who made any pretence to fine printing. 
 
 Printing had now spread throughout the pro- 
 vinces, and every town of importance could boast 
 its printing press. The greater number of these 
 presses were connected with the publication of
 
 V] ENGLISH BOOKS, 1500-1800 65 
 
 newspapers, and very feAv places produced books 
 of any note. An outstanding exception is the work 
 of John Baskerville at Birmingham. BaskervUle, 
 who was a skilled penman and cutter of monumental 
 inscriptions, having turned his attention to type 
 founding, issued, in 1757, a quarto edition of Virgil 
 as his first book. He conceived the ambition of 
 printing a Prayer-book and a Bible in a handsome 
 manner, and to enable him to do this he secured 
 the appointment of printer to the University of 
 Cambridge for a period of ten years from 1758. 
 Four editions of the Prayer-book were issued by 
 him in 1760, and three years later came his chef- 
 (Voeuvre, a folio Bible upon which he had lavished 
 much care and which has been described as 'the 
 finest English Bible ever produced.' Lack of 
 support caused him much discouragement. His 
 books were not a commercial success; the Bible 
 of 1763 was, in particular, a hopeless financial 
 failure. Nor could his types make any headway 
 in the trade, for the Caslon letter had secured a firm 
 hold on the market. But his books remain a land- 
 mark in the annals of English typography. Their 
 reputation is due not only to his special type and 
 his good taste, but, recognizing their importance, he 
 also gave particular care to choice of paper and 
 quality of ink. The result of his efforts has caused 
 his name to be bracketed with those other eighteenth
 
 66 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. V 
 
 century masters of the typographic art, Bodoni of 
 Parma and the Didots of Paris. 
 
 The aim which the brothers Robert and Andrew 
 FouUs set before themsslves when they estabhshed 
 their famous press in Glasgow was not merely to 
 bring out well-printed books, but they aspired also 
 to the distinction of a learned press ; and both the 
 quality of their printing and the accuracy of their 
 texts give them a claim to be classed with the 
 scholar-printers of the sixteenth century. Greek 
 and Latin classics and reprints of standard works 
 form the bulk of the numerous publications, more 
 than 550 in number, which they issued between 
 1742 and 1776. Among these the great Homer of 
 1756-8, in four folio volumes, stands out pre- 
 eminent. The renowned 'immaculate' Horace of 
 1744, with but six errors, is one of the many volumes 
 in smaller format, the good printing, careful editing, 
 and moderate price of which are characteristic of 
 the Foulis press. 
 
 The stately volumes printed by Thomas Bensley 
 and by William Bulmer in the closing years of the 
 eighteenth century should perhaps be regarded as 
 firstfruits of the modern period of printing.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MODERN BOOK 
 
 At the beginning of the nineteenth century the 
 process of producing the printed boolc differed in 
 no important respect from that of three centuries 
 earlier, when the art of printing was still a recent 
 invention. Improvements in the jDrinting press had 
 enabled a somewhat quicker rate of impression to 
 be attained at a less expenditure of labour, but the 
 principle of action remained the same. Paper was 
 still made by hand, each sheet separately in a wire 
 mould ; and type was set up letter by letter, much 
 in the same manner as the fifteenth-century com- 
 positor was accustomed to work. The first quarter 
 of the century saw two innovations — the steam 
 printing machine and the paper-making machine— 
 which revolutionized the process of printing ; but 
 there was still upwards of half-a-century to wait 
 before machinery should invade the domain of the 
 compositor. 
 
 The printing machine invented by Frederick 
 Koenig in 1811-14 quadrupled the hand-press output 
 of 200 to 250 impressions an hour. In 1827 Apple- 
 garth and Cowper's new machine turned out nearly
 
 58 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 5000 sheets an hour, and even this was soon bettered 
 by further improvements. The abolition of the Paper 
 Duty in 1861 was followed by the introduction of 
 machines which print-^d newspapers from a con- 
 tinuous roll of paper; and this development has 
 culminated in the huge machine which prints, 
 folds, and counts a sixteen-page issue of Lloyd's 
 Weekly Newspaper at the rate of 144,000 copies an 
 hour. 
 
 Stereotyping, an important auxiliary to the use 
 of machinery in printing, was opportunely revived 
 in 1802, largely through the efforts of Earl Stanhope, 
 the inventor of the iron printing press. The art 
 had been discovered in this country by William Ged, 
 an Edinburgh goldsmith, about 1727, but in his 
 endeavours to perfect the invention he met with 
 much opposition and discouragement from type 
 founders and printers. He succeeded in producing 
 only two or three books by this process, among them 
 an edition of Sallust in 1739, and on his death ten 
 years later his discovery dropped into oblivion. 
 Stereotyping is the process by which metal casts 
 are made from pages of type which have been set 
 up and are ready for printing. Instead of being 
 composed of separate letters, as the pages of type 
 are, these casts consist of solid plates having the 
 letters in relief on the surface, and in this respect 
 they are akin to the wood-blocks from which the
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 59 
 
 block-books of the fifteenth century were printed. 
 By making stereotype plates of a work, fresh im- 
 pressions can be printed off without the expense of 
 re-setting the type. This process is, therefore, much 
 used for books which are in continuous demand, or 
 of which successive editions, involving few or no 
 alterations, are likely to be called for. A further 
 advantage is that by printing from plates the wear 
 of type in long impressions is saved, and, also, as 
 soon as the plates are made the type can be released 
 for other work. 
 
 The direct effect of these mechanical inventions 
 was to facilitate the production of books, and this 
 led naturally to an enormously increased output of 
 printed literature and a cheapening of its cost. By 
 the end of the eighteenth century the price of books 
 had, if anything, increased, and for some years the 
 tendency was still upward. Cheap books were not 
 however the invention of this new age of machinery. 
 Chap-books and small religious works had been 
 printed in large numbers from at least Restoration 
 times ; and neither the crudely printed children's 
 books sold at a farthing b}' James Catnach of Seven 
 Dials (c. 1814-38), nor the Chewp Magazine of George 
 Miller of Dunbar, with its circulation of 20,000 copies 
 a month, were the outcome of new methods of 
 production. But the facilities for increased output 
 were utilized by Charles Knight in his schemes for
 
 60 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 providing the public with good literature at a cheap 
 rate. His Penny Magazine (1832-46), illustrated 
 with woodcuts, was a pioneer in that field; but 
 though within twelve months it had reached a 
 circulation of 200,000 copies, it was finally ousted 
 by competitors of less improving but more attractive 
 character. The Penny Cyclopaedia, of 1833-44, was 
 followed by a series of shilHng 'Weekly Volumes' 
 which led off in 1844 with a Life of William Caxton 
 by Knight himself. But, again, the standard was 
 too high to achieve commercial success: the Cycle- 
 jyaedia involved a huge financial loss, and the 
 average sale of the 'Weekly Volumes' was scarcely 
 5000 copies. By this time publishers had discovered 
 the advantage of linking up a number of volumes 
 by issuing them in uniform stj^e as a series, under 
 a general title; and many of these 'Libraries,' as 
 they were called, sold in large numbers. Among 
 the most popular were the 'Run and Read Library,' 
 the 'Parlour Library,' Murray's 'Family Library,' 
 and, perhaps chief of all, the 'Railway Library' 
 which numbered some 1300 volumes and included 
 works by most of the popular novelists. 
 
 The illustrated 'Annuals,' which came into 
 existence about 1820, were for some years the 
 stereotyped form of Christmas gift book, and are 
 a distinctive feature among the pubUcations of the 
 second quarter of the century. In the hey-day of
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 61 
 
 their vogue many of the leading writers, artists, and 
 engravers were occupied in their production, and it 
 has been estimated that the total proceeds from the 
 sale of them for the year 1829 amounted to £90,000. 
 One of the earliest was the Forget-3Ie-Not, which was 
 issued annually from 1823 to 1847, and reached a 
 circulation of 18,000 copies. There were also Friend- 
 ship's Offering, started in the following year. The 
 Amulet, edited by S. C. Hall, the Juvenile Forget- 
 Me-Not, and others. Those of a rather more 
 ambitious format included The Keepsake of Charles 
 Heath, The Picturesque Annual, The Landscape 
 Annual, and Lady Blessington's Booh of Beauty 
 which, though a late comer, quickly took a leading 
 place. As gift books these Annuals were succeeded 
 by the drawing-room table book — Beauties of the 
 Poets, Gems of Landscape, Poems of Eliza Cook, and 
 other favourites — in elaborate and heavily gilt cloth 
 bindings ; and these, in turn, disappeared from view 
 when the large table on which they w^ere displaj-ed 
 went out of fashion. Since then the style of Christ- 
 mas books has passed through various phases, down 
 to the ' colour-books ' of to-day. 
 
 By contrast to these gift books, the novel depends 
 for its existence entirely upon readers, and the 
 changes it has passed through reflect the reading 
 habits of the times. In the days of Richardson 
 and Fielding a novel might appear in anything from
 
 62 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 two to nine volumes, but in the nineteenth century 
 three volumes became the regulation form for new 
 novels, and, since nothing less would satisfy the 
 circulating-library reader, publishers in order to 
 work off a short novel would append to it one or 
 two short stories so as to fill out the three covers. 
 The tyranny of the three volumes continued until 
 the revolt of the circulating libraries in the 'nineties.' 
 By 1893 the one volume novel had begun to appear, 
 the struggle between the two forms raged hotly in 
 1894, and in the following year the old three-decker 
 collapsed, the libraries having declined to take any 
 more. The three volume novel at a guinea-and-a- 
 half with its cheap reissue in yellow picture boards 
 at two shillings then gave place to the one volume 
 issue at six shillings, followed by its sixpenny or 
 sevenpenny reprint. 
 
 Two notable features among the publications of 
 the present age are the great number of illustrated 
 books, an outcome of the facilities afforded by 
 mechanical processes of pictorial reproduction, and 
 the extraordinary number of cheap reprints, in 
 handy and attractive form, of standard and popular 
 books which have ceased to be copyright. Some 
 idea of the total number of books published annually 
 in the kingdom may be gained from the figures given 
 in the yearly volumes of The English Catalogue of 
 Books. The Catalogue for 1913 contained 12,379
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 63 
 
 entries, of which 9541 represented new pubUcations, 
 and 2838 new editions. 
 
 From a typographic point of view English books 
 of the first half of the nineteenth century possess but 
 little interest. Some of the best work of the early 
 part of this period came from the presses of Thomas 
 Bensley and William Buhner, the latter of whom 
 printed the imposing Boydell Shakespeare (1791- 
 1802) and several of the works of Dibdin the biblio- 
 grapher. These books also shew the new fashion of 
 type which set in at the end of the eighteenth 
 century and soon prevailed to the exclusion of every 
 other model. This new letter, known as 'modern 
 face^,' is in the style of that used by the celebrated 
 Bodoni press at Parma. A particular form of it, 
 which exaggerates the thick strokes, and is con- 
 sequently called 'fat face' type, was much in favour, 
 more especially for the larger books. Recently this 
 fat face letter has been resuscitated on a refined 
 model, and is a feature in the better-class printing 
 of the last quarter of a century. 
 
 The first break in the monotonous use of this 
 uninteresting fashion in type was made by the 
 younger Charles Whittingham, of the Chismck 
 Press, who, in conjunction with his friend William 
 Pickering, the publisher of the miniature editions 
 
 * fcjee page 79.
 
 64 THE PRINTED BOOK [oh. 
 
 known as Diamond Classics, revived the use of 
 Caslon letter in 1844. An awakening of interest 
 in the artistic aspect of typography followed this 
 innovation, and the modified form of the older type, 
 known as 'old style^,' which was shortly afterwards 
 introduced, has steadily grown in favour, though 
 ' modern face ' is still generally used for many classes 
 of books. The Chiswick Press, which has continued 
 to set a high standard in fine printing, also re-intro- 
 duced the use of ornamental initial letters and drew 
 upon some of the best French models for this purpose. 
 The founding of the Kelmscott Press, which marks 
 the next important epoch, gave progressive force to 
 what may be regarded as the renaissance of printing. 
 Among the many private presses which have borne 
 a part in this movement, the Kelmscott and the 
 Doves take a prominent place, both for the quality 
 and the quantity of their work and as representing 
 the extremes of decoration and simplicity. William 
 Morris's 'Golden' type, which was used in his first 
 book (The Story of the Glittering Plain, 1891), was 
 based on the roman letter of Nicolas Jenson, the 
 Venetian fifteenth-century printer. His other types, 
 the 'Troy' and the 'Chaucer,' were two sizes of 
 a simplified gothic character, designed under the 
 influence of early German founts. Of the fifty-three 
 books produced during the seven years' activity 
 ^ See page 79.
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 65 
 
 of the press, the highly extolled Chaucer takes a pre- 
 eminent place. It cannot be denied that the Kelms- 
 cott books are examples of triumphantly excellent 
 workmanship ; but, at the same time, it is impossible 
 not to feel that they are achievements in decorative 
 art rather than in typography. The books of the 
 Doves Press, eschewing all ornament, rely for their 
 effect upon perfection of letter-press, and in this 
 respect they resemble the Foulis books of the 
 eighteenth century. In their simple dignity they 
 present a strong contrast to the Morris books in 
 which lavish decoration and restless borders distract 
 attention from the text, which is, after all, the 
 essential element of a book. 
 
 The books of the Vale Press (1896-1904) were 
 printed at the Ballantyne Press under the direction 
 of Mr Charles Ricketts, who designed the three special 
 founts and most of the decorative cuts used in these 
 volumes. From the Ashendene Press Mr C. H. 
 St John Hornby has sent out several fine books 
 printed in a type modelled after that of Sweynheym 
 and Pannartz, the first printers in Italy. This bold, 
 well-balanced type finds its best expression in the 
 books of larger format, such as the Dante of 1909, 
 and the Morte d' Arthur of 1913. Of the books 
 printed by Mr C. R. Ashbee at his Essex House 
 Press those in Caslon letter are the more pleasing, 
 though the Prayer Booh of King Edward VII (1903), 
 
 A. p. B. 5
 
 Q6 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 printed in Mr Ashbee's Praj^er Book' and 'En- 
 deavour' types, is a very striking volume. Coloured 
 woodcut illustrations and ornaments are a dis- 
 tinguishing feature in the series of charmingly 
 designed Httle volumes that have come from 
 Mr Lucien Pissarro's Eragny Press. More impor- 
 tant than any of these special types, in that they 
 have advanced beyond the private press stage and 
 have entered the arena of practical publishing, are 
 the successful founts designed by Mr Herbert P. 
 Home for the Florence and the Riccardi presses. 
 The fact should not be overlooked that excellent 
 work, which will probably bear fruit in direct in- 
 fluence upon the trade craftsman, is being done in 
 some of the municipal scliools of art and technology. 
 Other countries have not been slow in taking up 
 this challenge, and the movement for the improve- 
 ment of printing has spread throughout Europe and 
 across the Atlantic. American essays in fine printing 
 have not widely departed from the general character 
 of American typography. The influence of the 
 Grolier Club and the De Vinne and Merrymount 
 presses have been prominent contributors to the 
 best work. Among less ambitious efforts the 
 Mosher books, even though more complimentary 
 to the author's fame than contributory to his purse, 
 make a strong appeal to the lover of dainty volumes. 
 Many American types have a tendency to leanness
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 67 
 
 which gives the impression of weakness in design, 
 due to absence of that slight emphasis, which, with- 
 out obtruding itself upon the vision, gives character 
 and firmness to the letter. This apparent weakness 
 is increased by the greyness of ink and the dead 
 whiteness of paper common in American books. 
 France is, on the whole, conservative, and new 
 types adhere closely to traditional roman models. 
 Among recent designs some of the italic founts are, 
 perhaps, the most successful, while those books in 
 which decoration plays a part generally display that 
 freedom and grace which characterizes French art. 
 In Germany the modern revival in printing dates 
 from the beginning of the present century, and the 
 effort here is more apparent and self-conscious. 
 Some of the modern types make a bold attempt 
 to break away from the tradition of Fraktur, or 
 German text, which has so long held German book- 
 type in thrall; but they also exhibit a determined 
 aversion from a frank acceptance of roman type as 
 an ideal model. A general fault in the new founts 
 is that the letters do not combine into words but 
 stand apart, each asserting its individual claim to be 
 read. The modifications of Fraktur are mostly too 
 heavy and black, and are not kind to the eye. The 
 development in Scandinavian printing is proceeding 
 on vigorous and distinctive lines in harmony with 
 its northern habitat. 
 
 5—2
 
 68 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 The permanent value of the work of the private 
 presses referred to above will probably be found not 
 so much in the books they have issued, as in the 
 stimulating influence they have had upon the higher 
 class of book-printing. The aim in most cases has 
 been to create the book beautiful. The conditions 
 under which machine-printed books, published in 
 the ordinary course of business, are produced, do 
 not admit of the lavish care that is bestowed upon 
 the offspring of the private press. But if the latter 
 may claim pre-eminence in the creation of the book 
 beautiful, the leading book-printing houses can 
 certainly lay claim to superiority in the production 
 of the book readable. 
 
 The chief factors which influence the appearance 
 of a printed page are the design of the type and its 
 arrangement upon the page. The ideal type for a 
 book that is intended to be read should be so designed 
 that the act of reading may be as nearly as possible 
 unconscious. It should have a reposeful but suffi- 
 ciently firm effect, carrying the eye smoothly along 
 without any distracting features. The letters should 
 so occupy the spaces allotted to them that they lose 
 their individuality and combine closely into compact 
 words ; any characteristic which produces a thorny 
 or dazzling effect should be ruthlessly suppressed. 
 Many of the types of special design exhibit some 
 eccentricity, often in but one letter, which attracts
 
 VI] THE MODERN BOOK 69 
 
 attention and mars the general appearance. The 
 lower case ' e ' is a frequent sinner in this respect by 
 reason of the angle at which the cross-bar is tilted; 
 and the tail of 'g' is a troublesome problem. It 
 would be invidious to exemplify these weaknesses, 
 but those who have examined these types will 
 readily recall instances. The preponderating use of 
 roman type is evidence of its superiority for general 
 purposes. Most modern founts of this letter follow 
 either the Caslon or the Jenson model. The former 
 has the long letters tall in proportion to the body of 
 the type, and this gives the lines a more open 
 appearance than in the Jenson style, which usually 
 has a larger faced character with less difference in 
 height between long and short letters, and the lines 
 thus seem closer together. Among new roman 
 founts of recent years the Riccardi type is particularly 
 harmonious and restful, while its firmness and direct- 
 ness of design make it pleasantly legible. But for the 
 weakness of the figures, and an irritating punctuation 
 mark — a hybrid between a hyphen and a dash — which 
 appears intended for a pause but looks like a hesita- 
 tion, this type would seem wellnigh perfect of its kind. 
 The appearance of a printed page is also largely 
 affected by the size of the type, the distance between 
 the lines, and the spacing between the words. In 
 the early part of the nineteenth century a compara- 
 tively small-faced type with a liberal amount of
 
 70 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 space between the lines was in favour. A century 
 later the tendency is to the other extreme, and we 
 now frequently see a large-faced type, the lines set 
 closely together, and i^arrow spacing between the 
 words. Occasionally, the customary breathing space 
 after a full stop is so contracted that the break 
 is hardly greater than between the words of the 
 sentence; and, sometimes, even the paragraph is 
 abohshed, and, instead, a small ornament is inserted 
 in the line at the point where a new paragraph 
 should begin. All this may produce an artistic 
 effect, preserve 'the colour of the page,' and so 
 forth ; but it is fatiguing and tiresome to read. The 
 eye is so much occupied in deciphering the words of 
 the print that the mind is not at full liberty to grasp 
 the meaning the words are intended to convey. A 
 book is much pleasanter to read if the words are 
 sufficiently distinct not to require a sustained effort 
 to disentangle them, and if the lines do not crowd 
 upon each other but are clearly enough defined to 
 be followed with ease. The spacing should corre- 
 spond in some degree to the natural intervals 
 observed in reading aloud. Good spacing, like 
 good punctuation, is an aid to ready comprehension 
 of the subject matter, and may be likened to phrasing 
 in music. 
 
 Certain established features of the printed book, 
 such as title page, head-lines, and pagination, which
 
 Vi] THE MODERN BOOK 7i 
 
 were adopted in the course of its development, were 
 doubtless the outcome of considerations of con- 
 venience. The printers of some modern examples 
 of fine printing, besides reverting to fifteenth-century 
 models for their type, have also ignored these aids 
 to the ready use of a book. Instead of a title page 
 telling us frankly the name and author of the book 
 and when and where printed, we are fobbed off with 
 a brief title placed in bare isolation at the top of a 
 page; the other credentials are hidden away at the 
 end of the volume, and not infrequently have to be 
 painfully spelled out from a maze of capitals. In 
 these books head-lines are generally omitted, giving 
 a decollated aspect to the page, suggestive of the 
 binder's guillotine. Shoulder notes sometimes take 
 the place of head-Hnes, though why these excrescences 
 should be deemed preferable it is difficult to see. 
 With the head-lines gone, the pagination is relegated 
 to the foot of the page, a singularly inconvenient 
 position. Another affectation which shews signs of 
 creeping in is that of omitting to indent the first line 
 of a paragraph. This renders the beginning of the 
 paragraph indistinguishable from any other line, and 
 if the end of the preceding paragraph should happen 
 to occupy the full extent of its line there is nothing 
 to indicate the break. A craving for doing some- 
 thing different and a certain amoiuit of preciosity 
 raay have prompted some of these deviations from
 
 72 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. vt 
 
 what has been found by experience to be generally 
 convenient. But it is much easier to criticize than 
 to attain perfection, and the best work done in recent 
 years both at private presses and by the leading 
 business printing houses is worthy to be placed beside 
 the best work of the fifteenth century, and there is 
 little else in the interval to rank with them.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 
 
 In setting out to convert the manuscript copy of 
 any work into a printed book a number of questions 
 at once arise. Chief among these are the format 
 (shape and size) of the book ; the kind of type to be 
 used; the quahty of the paper; the illustrations, 
 if any ; the number of copies to be printed ; the 
 binding ; and, if it is to be offered for sale, the 
 price at which it shall be published. All these 
 matters are interdependent, and affect each other 
 in various ways. 
 
 One of the initial questions is, what shall be the 
 format of the book ? Many considerations go to the 
 settling of this important point. The use to which the 
 book is intended to be put ; the subject matter ; the 
 extent of the manuscript ; and even the illustrations, 
 if any, which are to accompany it, or, as now too 
 frequently happens, which it is to accompany. The 
 common designation of the size of a book as foho, 
 quarto, octavo, or duodecimo (in abbreviated form : 
 fol., 4to, 8vo, 12mo) is not an indication of actual 
 measurement, but of the number of times the full 
 sheet of paper is folded after it is printed off. Thus,
 
 74 THE PRINTED BOOK [ck. 
 
 folio indicates that the sheet has been folded in half 
 once, making twoleaves ; quarto, folded twice, making 
 four leaves ; and octavo, three times, making eight 
 leaves. In a duodecimo the sheet is folded so as to 
 make twelve leaves, and tliis forms a book that is 
 somewhat narrow in proportion to its height. 
 
 It will readily be observed that it is the size of 
 the full sheet of paper which fixes the actual dimen- 
 sions of the book, and that a quarto or octavo may 
 vary according to the size of the sheet used. There 
 are some nine or ten sizes of paper in general use, 
 the commonest being foolscap, crown, demy, and 
 royal. To indicate more precisely the dimensions, 
 both the size of sheet and the folding (e.g. demy 8vo, 
 crown 4to) are mentioned in the ordinary description 
 of a book. The approximate measurement in inches 
 of the commoner sizes of page is as follows : 
 
 
 Quarto 
 
 Octavo 
 
 Foolscap 
 
 8| X 6f 
 
 6f X 4J 
 
 Crown 
 
 10 X 71 
 
 7i X 5 
 
 Demy 
 
 11 X 8f 
 
 8|x 5^ 
 
 Royal 
 
 12i X 10 
 
 10 X 6J 
 
 As a guide to the binder in arranging the folded 
 sheets in correct sequence a letter or number (as 
 in this volume) is printed at the foot of the first 
 page of each sheet. These signatures, for so they 
 are called, afford, in general, a ready means of
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 75 
 
 ascertaining the format of a book. To do this, count 
 the number of leaves from one signature to the 
 next; a signature will usually be found on page 17, 
 or page 25. If there are four leaves, the book is a 
 quarto; if eight, an octavo; twelve, a duodecimo, 
 and so on. 
 
 For a folio book this method will not serve ; 
 since, for the sake of convenience in binding, two 
 or more sheets are inserted into each other, like a 
 section of ordinary note-paper. In this case, as 
 also in the case of many early printed books which 
 have no printed signatures, assistance can be ob- 
 tained from the watermark, that is, the semi-trans- 
 parent device found in almost every sheet of all 
 except modern paper. By holding a leaf up to the 
 light the position of the watermark can be observed. 
 If it occurs in the middle of the page the book is a 
 folio, and in this case it will be noticed that the chain 
 lines (the semi-transparent lines an inch or more 
 apart) in the paper run vertically through the leaf. 
 If the watermark is in the middle of the inner margin 
 and cut in half by the fold at the back of the book, 
 with the chain lines horizontal, the book is a quarto. 
 In an octavo the watermark will be found at the 
 top of the inner margin of the page, with the chain 
 lines vertical as in a folio. The determination of 
 smaller sizes — 12mo, 16mo, 24mo — is more compli- 
 cated, and explanation may be sought in the more
 
 76 THE PRINTED BOOK [oh. 
 
 elaborate bibliographical treatises. How it happens 
 that the watermark occurs in these positions can be 
 easily demonstrated by marking a circle in the 
 middle of the first page of a sheet of note-paper and 
 observing where the circle comes when the sheet is 
 folded. This folded sheet will also shew why it is 
 that, in books which have not had their edges cut 
 in the process of binding, the top and some of the 
 front edges have to be cut with a paper-knife before 
 the book can be used. 
 
 If there are neither signatures nor watermarks 
 visible, as happens in some early books, there is yet 
 one other clue. Open the book and turn over the 
 leaves until an opening is found where the thread of 
 the sewing shews along the back between the two 
 pages. This opening will be the middle of a sheet, 
 and the number of leaves between this and the 
 middle of the next opening where the thread shews 
 in like manner, will be the nimiber of leaves in a 
 sheet. To many modern books none of these 
 methods will apply. For, since large printing 
 machines came into use, a greater number of pages 
 can be printed at one operation than in the days 
 of the old hand-press ; and paper is now made in 
 almost any size to suit the convenience of the 
 printer. Moreover, neither watermark nor chain 
 lines are to be seen in most modern machine-made 
 paper.
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 11 
 
 Since the terms ' page ' and ' leaf ' are occasionally 
 confused, it may be observed that a page is one side 
 of a leaf, and a leaf may therefore have two pages 
 printed upon it, one on each side. The first page of 
 a leaf, the right-hand page of an open book, is called 
 the recto of the leaf, and the second page, the left- 
 hand page of the open book, the verso. When every 
 page is numbered, the book is said to be paged ; but 
 when a number is given to each leaf only, the book 
 is said to be folioed. 
 
 The selection of the type to be used for a book 
 depends in great measure upon the size of the page 
 and the amount of matter contained in the work. 
 If the book is very long it may be necessary to use 
 a small type in order to keep it within the desired 
 compass, and other considerations will have to give 
 way; but in many cases the choice is unhampered 
 by this condition. To make a presentable book — 
 one that shall in the general appearance of its page 
 satisfy the eye, and at the same time be comfortable 
 to read — the size of type must be carefully considered 
 in relation to the size and shape of the page. The 
 length of line, the number of lines to a page, and also 
 the relative proportions of the margins have to be 
 studied. The main thing to be aimed at is legibility. 
 Too long a line of small type is trying to the eye, both 
 in following the line and in picking up the next;
 
 78 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 while large type closely crowded gives a confused 
 effect and is almost as bad. 
 
 The proportion of the margins on the four sides 
 of the printed page has an important influence upon 
 the appearance of a book. These proportions are 
 not equal, and they are not haphazard. If all the 
 margins were of the same width, the printed page 
 would appear to be both nearer the outer edge and 
 lower down than its actual position, as if the print 
 were slipping off the page. Experts in such matters 
 tell us that the aesthetic unit is not a single page, 
 but that the two pages shersvn in one opening must 
 be taken together, and that the margins to be of the 
 correct width should be in the following relative 
 proportions : upper, 1 ; lower, 2 ; inner, | ; outer. If, 
 
 The type used in books of to-day is usually one of 
 three styles : Old Face, Old Style, or Modern Face. 
 Specimens of these are shewn on the opposite page. 
 
 Besides these three styles of letter, other forms of 
 type are occasionally used in book work. 
 
 A group of heavier faced types, generally 
 called Antique, of which this paragraph gives an 
 example, has met with some favour. In a small 
 size it is certainly clearer to read than ordinary 
 type, but in the larger sizes the letters do not 
 sufficiently blend to make the word the apparent 
 unit in the page, and the individual letters assert 
 themselves to the eye in reading.
 
 VII] THE CON^STRUCTION OF A BOOK 79 
 
 OLD FACE Type, shewn in this paragraph, 
 is a revival of the type designed by WiUiam 
 Caslon in the i8th century. It is sometimes 
 referred to as Caslon letter. The capitals are 
 rather heavy, and some of the lower-case letters, 
 such as a and s, are somewhat cramped. The 
 general effect is slightly spotty, but it has a 
 pleasantly antique air. 
 
 OLD STYLE Type is a modification of 
 Old Face type in a freer and more rounded 
 form. The general appearance is harmonious 
 without any marked contrasts. Both this and 
 the preceding style may be distinguished from 
 Modern Face by the serifs (the small pro- 
 jections at the top and bottom of the letters) 
 not being at right angles to the main strokes. 
 
 MODERN FACE Type is shewn in this 
 paragraph. In the first half of the 19th 
 century it was emploj^ed almost exclusively, 
 and it is still used in the majority of books. 
 Its distinctive features are emphasis of the 
 thick and thin strokes of the letters, and the 
 precision and squareness of the angles. The 
 general effect is mechanical and lifeless,
 
 80 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 Modern face type differs also in the figures from 
 the two other styles. Modern face figures 
 
 1234567890 
 
 it will be observed, all stand on the line and are of 
 the same height. When these figures are numerous 
 and close together, as in a railway time-table, there 
 is sufficient similarity between 1 and 4, 3 and 8, 
 6 and 9 to cause danger of misreading. But with 
 figures of the other styles 
 
 1234567890 
 
 there is not such risk, since each digit possesses an 
 individuality of its own. 
 
 Each of the different styles of type is made in a 
 number of standard sizes. Some of these sizes, with 
 their names, are shewn in the following specimen lines. 
 This book is printed in modern face small pica. 
 
 PEARL is the name of the size of old style type shewn in this line. 
 NONPAREIL is the name of the size of old style type shewn in this line. 
 BREVIER is the name of the size of old style type shewn in this 
 BOURGEOIS is the name of the size of old style type 
 LONG PRIMER is the name of the size of old style 
 SMALL PICA is the name of the size of old 
 PICA is the name of the size of old style 
 ENGLISH is the name of the size of 
 GREAT Primer is the name of
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 81 
 
 The old arbitrary sizes, with their traditional 
 names, are fast giving way to the American point 
 system, in which the various sizes, proceeding by 
 a regular scale, bear definite relation to one another. 
 A line of Pica, the standard unit of the old notation, 
 measures in height one-sixth of an inch, and is equal 
 to twelve points of the new scale. The point system 
 has substantial practical advantages, nevertheless it 
 is a pity that the picturesque nomenclature of the 
 old series must disappear. 
 
 When the lines of type in a page are set close 
 together without any space between them, they are 
 said to be 'solid.' Sometimes the lines are slightly 
 separated by means of thin strips of metal, called 
 'leads,' placed between them ; the type is then said 
 to be 'leaded.' A moderate sized type leaded is 
 often pleasanter to read than a large faced type set 
 solid; though votaries of the book beautiful would 
 probably declare for the 'all-overish' appearance of 
 the large type. A page of leaded matter contains 
 fewer lines than a similar page of solid matter. The 
 difference caused by leading out is exemplified in 
 pages 84 and 85. Page 84 is set solid and contains 
 thirty-two lines ; while page 85 is thick leaded and 
 contains only twenty-five lines. The other pages of 
 this book are thin leaded. 
 
 Leading may be adopted either to improve the 
 look of the page, or to make it more legible, or, yet 
 
 A. p. B. 6
 
 82 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 again, in order to spin out the book to a greater 
 number of pages. For a book of poems or choice 
 essays leading the Unes and general spacing out is 
 quite allowable and may produce a pleasing effect. 
 The practice, in a less legitimate form, may not 
 infrequently be observed in certain novels and 
 volumes of short stories, the appearance of which 
 is familiar to most readers. Outside, the book is 
 like unto other six-shilling novels. But on opening 
 it, it is seen to be printed in large type, and the 
 short lines which leave more than ample margin are 
 heavily leaded ; blank pages abound at the beginning 
 and are introduced between the chapters and at every 
 other opportunity; and, by printing the book on 
 thick spongy paper, the attenuated matter is padded 
 out to simulate an ordinary novel of a hundred 
 thousand words. If it be a volume of short stories, 
 it quite possibly practises the further deception of 
 appearing under the title of the first story only, as 
 though it were a whole novel of that name. 
 
 On making the acquaintance of a book we usually 
 look first at the title page — hardened novel readers 
 go straight to page 1 — for there we expect to find 
 some account of its scope and character, just as we 
 scan the face of a person for some indication of his 
 personality. In this important page the book tells 
 us, or should do so, its name, subject, author, where 
 and by whom published, and, if it be honest, the date
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 83 
 
 of publication^. To express the scope and aim of 
 a book concisely, clearly, and amply within the 
 compass of a dozen words may tax the author's 
 ingenuity ; but to marshal these few words into an 
 artistic and successful title page is no less a test of 
 the printer's skill. The composing of a really good 
 title page is, indeed, one of the most difficult tasks 
 in the whole craft of printing. Above all, a title 
 must not be garrulous and straggle down from top 
 to bottom of the page ; nor should it be cryptically 
 reticent. A satisfying title page tells its tale at 
 once, like a well-composed picture, with the com- 
 ponent parts carefully balanced and grouped into 
 an harmonious and organic whole. 
 
 In printing a book it is customary to start with 
 the beginning of the text of the work, leaving the title 
 and other 'preliminary matter' to be printed last. 
 The preliminary matter includes the half-title (or 
 bastard title), the title page, preface, and lists of 
 contents and illustrations. Corrections of proofs 
 may, if numerous or extensive, entail considerable 
 expense, and it is therefore desirable that they 
 should be kept within the narrowest possible limits. 
 This can be done in two ways: first, by carefullj^ 
 
 1 Nowadays the date of publication, together with the dates of 
 previous editions of the work, are often printed on the verso of the 
 title page. It is more satisfactoiy to have the date on the title page 
 itself; but it ia the entire suppression of the date that is to be 
 condemned. 
 
 6—2
 
 84 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 revising the manuscript for the printer, attending 
 to punctuation and capitals, and marking clearly 
 new paragraphs and other sections. It is a common 
 excuse for neglect, to say that the printer will see to 
 all that. But it cannot be considered the printer's 
 duty to act the part of revising editor ; and, besides, 
 to send in a carelesslj' written and ill-prepared manu- 
 script is most inconsiderate, and extremely unfair to 
 the compositor, to whom it is a loss of time and 
 money to have to puzzle out an illegible scrawl and to 
 phrase out paragraphs devoid of punctuation marks. 
 The second method of avoiding unnecessary 
 expense in the correction of proofs is to be careful 
 of the way in which alterations are made. Each 
 letter of type consists of a small block of metal, 
 rather less than an inch high, with the letter in 
 relief on the end of it. Each of these letters occupies 
 a definite portion of the length of the line : an m 
 takes more room than an i, and a t is narrower than 
 a w. Between each word is a 'space,' that is a 
 narrow piece of metal like the shank of a letter but 
 not so high. Being lower than the face of the 
 letters the 'spaces' do not get inked, and therefore 
 leave the necessary intervals between the words. 
 These spaces also facilitate small corrections in 
 proof. For instance, if ' when ' has to be substituted 
 for 'and' in a line, the four letters can probably be 
 inserted in place of the three by slightly reducing 
 the spaces between some of the words. The con- 
 verse can be effected by increasing the spaces. But 
 to add or to cut out one or more words it may be 
 necessary to 'overrun' (that is, to alter the contents
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 85 
 
 of) several lines, and this means a certain amount of 
 trouble, time, and expense. Overrunning can some- 
 times be avoided by adding words of similar length 
 to those deleted, or by cutting out words to make 
 room for those which have to be inserted. This is 
 not of so much importance when the correction is 
 near the end of a paragraph, unless it will alter the 
 number of lines. 
 
 If corrections are likely to be extensive, proofs 
 are generally sent out in slip form, that is, in strips 
 before being made up into pages; because, after 
 the type is put into pages, alterations which involve 
 the transfer of lines from one page to another are 
 troublesome to effect. It is when the proof is in 
 pages that the head-lines (the descriptive line at the 
 top of the page) are added. These usually consist of 
 the short title of the book on the left-hand page, and 
 on the right-hand page the title of the chapter or the 
 subject matter of the page itself. To have merely 
 the title of the book running on both pages through- 
 out the volume is a slovenly practice and suggests 
 careless indifference on the part of both author and 
 publisher. The head-line too is the right, because 
 convenient, place for the page numbers, and not the 
 bottom, where they look as if they had strayed out
 
 86 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 of the page and were trying to escape observation. 
 Why the first page of a chapter should generally be 
 denied its head-line and page number is one of those 
 hidden secrets known only to those who follow 'the 
 mystery and art of printing.' 
 
 At the end of the book comes the Index, an 
 appendage which does not always receive the 
 attention it deserves. 'The labour and patience, 
 the judgment and the penetration which are re- 
 quired to make a good index, is only known to those 
 who have gone through this most painful, but least 
 praised part of a publication,' was the considered 
 opinion of the eighteenth-century bibliographer 
 William Oldys; and yet earlier Nicolas Antonio, 
 the Spanish bibliographer, related as the dictum of 
 a celebrated compatriot, 'that the index of a book 
 should be made by the author, even if the book 
 itself were written by some one else^.' With the 
 exception of cyclopaedias and dictionaries, almost 
 every book that aims at being useful requires an 
 index to make its store of knowledge accessible. 
 More than one treatise has recently been devoted 
 to the principles of making a good index. Here it 
 must suffice to say that, unless there are special 
 reasons to the contrary, it is better to have but one 
 index than to make separate lists for persons, places, 
 and things. The references should be to individual 
 
 ^ H. B. Wheatlcy: Whal is an Index (1878), p. 18.
 
 vii] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 8/ 
 
 points and should not be classified under headings; 
 in the alphabetical arrangement each word must be 
 considered a unit. The use of a dash for repetition 
 at the beginning of an entry should be confined, if 
 used at all, to words having precisely the same 
 meaning. 
 
 The material upon which books are printed is 
 nearly always paper, but occasionally vellum is 
 used. The 'rag-books' of the nursery are another 
 variant. In the early days of printing, when manu- 
 scripts were commonly written upon vellum, it was 
 natural that that material should frequently be 
 employed for some copies of a printed book. But 
 even at that time this was exceptional, since paper 
 was in comparison much cheaper, and the large 
 supplies of vellum necessary for whole impressions 
 of a book would be difficult and expensive to obtain. 
 In some instances certain parts of a book liable to 
 hard usage, such as the leaves of a missal containing 
 the canon of the mass, were printed on vellum. In 
 modern times this material is but seldom used, and 
 then only for two or three copies produced for the 
 gratification of the collector who delights in the 
 fact that his copy is one of 'only three' in existence 
 on vellum, quite regardless of the other fact that his 
 precious copy with its greasy -looking print is inferior 
 in comeliness and comfort to a good paper copy.
 
 88 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 The manufacture of paper is said to have been 
 carried on in China in the early part of the second 
 century of the Christian era, and was practised by 
 the Arabs before the end of the eighth century. In 
 the eleventh century the Moors introduced it into 
 Spain whence it spread through Europe. In former 
 days paper was made almost exclusively from rags ; 
 but in modern times, and more especially since the 
 abolition of the Paper Duty in 1861, the material 
 which goes under the name of paper is manufactured 
 from various other things, including wood pulp, 
 esparto grass, and straw. Wood pulp forms by far 
 the largest proportion of the materials used, but the 
 best paper continues to be produced from rags, for 
 which no entirely satisfactory substitute has yet 
 been found. Until about a hundred years ago all 
 paper was hand-made, each sheet being separately 
 formed in a shallow frame like a fine wire sieve. At 
 the present time the most recent of huge paper- 
 making machines can turn out paper in the form of 
 a continuous roll at the rate of six or seven miles an 
 hour. But the best paper is still made by hand, 
 though it comprises only an insignificant fraction of 
 the whole manufacture. 
 
 Paper used in the printing of books may be either 
 laid or wove. Laid paper can be distinguished by 
 the wire marks : semi-transparent lines running close 
 together in one direction, with heavier lines about an
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 89 
 
 inch apart at right angles. Wove paper, on the 
 other hand, shews a uniform texture when held up 
 to the light. Both these kinds of paper are manu- 
 factured in an almost endless variety of quality, tint, 
 and thickness. The strength of a paper depends not 
 so much upon its thickness as upon the quality of 
 the fibre of which it is composed. The thick spongy 
 paper upon which novels are frequently printed is 
 made from aerated pulp, on the same principle as 
 an egg or a basin of cream is whisked up by the cook. 
 This paper has, naturally, little strength, and books 
 made of it begin to fall to pieces as soon as they reach 
 the reader's hand. The so-called 'art paper,' with 
 its shiny surface so trying to the eye and disagreeable 
 to the touch, is made by coating the paper with, a 
 preparation of china clay and glue which gives 
 a solid even surface and is therefore much used for 
 process illustrations. If a book printed on this 
 paper gets damp the leaves stick together and can- 
 not be separated without irreparable damage; and 
 if the volume gets thoroughly wet it becomes 
 practically a solid block. With the object of 
 bringing books within small compass the use of 
 very thin paper is frequently resorted to, and the 
 necessary qualities of strength and opaqueness have 
 been combined with extraordinary success in the 
 India paper now so largely used. 
 
 The number of copies of a book printed at any
 
 90 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 one. time is called an edition or impression. An 
 edition may consist of any number that it is decided 
 to print. When an unusually small number is 
 printed, attention is generally called to the fact as 
 enhancing the value of the book, and sometimes the 
 copies are numbered consecutively. The description 
 'limited edition' now often used in a vague and 
 specious way, is a loose term of no value whatever, 
 as every edition must be limited, even the mammoth 
 editions of 100,000 copies which have been printed 
 of some popular novels : there can be no such thing 
 as an unlimited edition. When the demand for a 
 book is expected to exceed the number first printed, 
 the type is sometimes kept standing in readiness for 
 a further impression ; but if the work is of a nature 
 not to require much amendment or alteration it is 
 more usual to make stereotype plates from which 
 additional copies can be printed, in order to set free 
 the type for other work. 
 
 To distinguish between a mere verbatim reprint 
 of a book and a reprint in which the Avork has under- 
 gone some revision, the terms 'impression' and 
 ' edition ' respectively are sometimes used. It would 
 be a decided advantage if this practice were uni- 
 formly adopted. When a portion of an impression 
 is published in a form differing from the original 
 issue it is called a re-issue. Sometimes, and not 
 altogether honestly, it is passed off as a new edition.
 
 VII] THE CONSTRUCTION OF A BOOK 91 
 
 Another form of republication to be deprecated is 
 the issue of a novel in book form under a different 
 title from that which it carried while appearing as 
 a serial story in a periodical publication. 
 
 The anastatic process, sometimes resorted to as 
 a cheap method of making reprints of a book, is 
 happily less in favour in this country than on the 
 continent. In this process the ink from the page of 
 an original copy is transferred to a zinc plate which 
 is then, by treatment with acid, converted into a 
 surface from which impressions can be taken. The 
 result is, however, anything but satisfactory, for 
 these reprints, full of imperfect letters, have a 
 wretchedly feeble appearance and are irritating to 
 ead. 
 
 Occasionally a few copies of a book are printed 
 on larger paper than the rest of the impression, and 
 sold at a fancy price. But these 'large-paper' 
 copies, which shout so loud in booksellers' catalogues, 
 are cumbersome things with an overgrown, purse- 
 proud look, and are infinitely less desirable than 
 copies with the right proportion of margin printed 
 on better paper than that used for ordinary copies. 
 
 Illustrations and binding, both of which are 
 important elements in the construction of a book, 
 form the subjects of separate chapters.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Until recent times the chief methods of producing 
 illustrations for printed books were woodcutting, 
 metal engraving, etching, and lithography. But 
 during the last five-and-twenty years the province 
 of every one of these arts has been invaded by 
 photography; and the various processes by which 
 illustrations in black-and-white and in colour are 
 now produced are bewilderingly numerous. All 
 these methods, whether handicraft or mechanical, 
 may be divided into three groups distinguished by 
 the nature of the surface of the block or plate from 
 which the picture is printed. In the first of these 
 the design is in relief, and, in printing, it is impressed 
 into the paper. To this group belong woodcuts, 
 wood engravings, and some of the modern mechanical 
 processes such as zinc etchings and half-tone blocks. 
 In the second group the lines composing the picture 
 are sunk below the surface of the plate, and, in 
 printing, the paper is pressed into these lines, so 
 that the picture is in low relief upon the surface of 
 the paper. By this, the intaglio method, are pro- 
 duced copper-plate and steel engravings, and certain
 
 CH. VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 93 
 
 of the photographic processes such as photogravure. 
 The third group comprises pictures printed from fiat 
 surfaces, and includes Hthographs and, again with 
 the aid of photography, collotypes. 
 
 Although the printing of pictures from wood- 
 blocks preceded the invention of typography, the 
 printer of books in movable type did not at first 
 make use of the art of the engraver — or woodcutter, 
 as the maker of early woodcuts should perhaps be 
 called — to illustrate the printed book. In fact, in 
 its beginnings, the printed book had more affinity 
 with a manuscript than with either the woodcut 
 picture or the block-book, and it was to the illumina- 
 tor that the early printer naturally turned for the 
 decoration and illustration of his productions. 
 
 It was not long, however, before the printer 
 perceived that the woodcutter's art might, with 
 advantage, be utilized for the adornment of his 
 books; and that, not only for decoration in the 
 shape of initial letters, borders, and other ornamental 
 adjuncts, but also for pictures which would elucidate 
 the text or add to the attractiveness of popular 
 works. These woodcuts consisted of a flat block 
 of wood upon which the design was drawn and the 
 surface of the wood afterwards cut away so as to 
 leave the lines of the drawing in relief. Occasionally 
 soft metal was used in place of wood. The height 
 of the block being adjusted to that of the type, the
 
 94 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 picture or ornament coiild be printed in one and the 
 same operation as the page of text. 
 
 The first printer to make use of illustrations was 
 Albrecht Pfister, of Bamberg, who about 1461-2 
 issued several popular German books containing 
 woodcuts. But the history of illustrated books 
 does not properly commence until some ten years 
 later when pictures begin to make their appearance 
 in books printed at Augsburg, where there existed 
 a guild of craftsmen who cut blocks for printing 
 playing-cards and pictures of saints, for both of 
 which there was at that time a large demand. Ulm, 
 another important centre of woodcutting, followed 
 the lead of Augsburg, and the practice soon spread : 
 Nuremberg, Cologne, Strassburg, and Mainz being 
 among the chief German towns which produced 
 illustrated books in the fifteenth century. 
 
 Copyright was as httle recognized in pictorial art 
 as in the world of letters, and a successful illustrated 
 book was quickly copied or imitated, generally in 
 other towns than that of its origin. The Aesop, 
 printed by Johann Zainer at Ulm and containing 
 two hundred woodcuts, was followed by half-a-score 
 other German editions, most of which were frankly 
 copies ; and the popular Narrenschiff {Ship of Fools) 
 of Sebastian Brant, first published at Basel by Johann 
 Bergmann von Olpe, in 1494, with over one hundred 
 illustrations, was paid the compliment of being
 
 ^ct^mnwru j'uiir rcraciccr ^fpicta I'lcur viiimuo in tcrr.i j'ancca 
 
 From Breydenbach's Peregrlnationes 
 Mainz, i486. (Reduced)
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 95 
 
 reprinted in three other towns in the same year. 
 Sometimes the pirated cuts were mere slavish imita- 
 tions of the originals, perhaps copied by pasting one of 
 the original pictures on the wood-block, in which case 
 the copy would appear in a reversed form in the new 
 book and so betray its origin. But the object was 
 easy reproduction of pictures rather than fraudulent 
 imitation, and details were freely paraphrased. 
 Copies by a poor craftsman would shew a distinct 
 inferiority to the originals; but in the hands of a 
 capable artist the new version might be a great 
 improvement both in the handling of the subject 
 and in technical execution. 
 
 The illustrations in Breydenbach's Peregrinationes 
 in Montem Syon (Mainz, 1486) shew a marked ad- 
 vance upon previous efforts in the art of wood- 
 cutting. The book also possesses a modern touch 
 in that the illustrator, Erhard Reuwich, joined the 
 pilgrimage as special artist to the expedition ; but 
 the page pf animals 'veraciter depicta sicut vidimus 
 in terra sancta' includes a salamander, a unicorn, 
 and a baboon leading a camel. Shortly after this 
 two of the most noted illustrated German books 
 made their appearance at Nuremberg from the office 
 of Anton Koberger: the Schatzbehalter of 1491, and 
 Hartmann Schedel's Liber Chronicarum of 1493. 
 Michael Wohlgemuth was the artist responsible for 
 the cuts in both. The latter, usually called the
 
 96 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 Nuremberg Chronicle, and perhaps the best-known 
 illustrated book of the fifteenth century, has elbowed 
 its way to the front by sheer bulk and a blustering 
 profusion of woodcuts, many of the portraits being 
 repeated over and over again for different persons^. 
 The Schatzbehalter, with its full-page pictures, each 
 with a story to tell, is really the more attractive 
 book. 
 
 Italy was somewhat later in adopting illustrations. 
 The Meditationes of Turrecremata, printed at Rome 
 by Ulrich Hahn in 1467, is the first Italian book in 
 which woodcuts occur ; but much better work may 
 be seen in the eighty-two cuts which illustrate the 
 edition of the De re militari of Valturius printed at 
 Verona in 1472. Erhard Ratdolt, who printed at 
 Venice from 1476 to 1485, is celebrated for his 
 beautiful borders and initial letters; and a few 
 books with pictures appeared both at Venice and 
 other towns during that period. The use of woodcuts 
 did not, however, become common in Italian books 
 until about 1490, in which year Lucantonio Giunta 
 published at Venice the first illustrated edition of 
 Malermi's Italian version of the Bible. Some of the 
 cuts in this book — there are nearly four hundred 
 of them — were adaptations from the German Bible 
 
 ^ An enumeration of the cuts shews that the book contains 1809 
 pictures printed from 645 different blocks. See A. W. Pollard : Fi7ie 
 Books [1912), ^. 117.
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 97 
 
 printed at Cologne by Heinrich Quentell some ten 
 years earlier. 
 
 The most remarkable Italian illustrated book 
 of the fifteenth century was the Hypnerotomachia 
 Poliphili of Francesco Colonna, which Aldus, who 
 was not given to the use of pictures, printed for 
 Leonardo Crassus in 1499. This fine folio in its rich 
 array of graceful and well-executed woodcuts is a 
 striking contrast to the little Savonarola tracts and 
 Rappi'esentazioni, or miracle-plays, which form the 
 most characteristic illustrated productions of the 
 Florentine press. These popular booklets, with their 
 charming little woodcuts generally surrounded by 
 a border having a white design on a black ground, 
 had a vogue which lasted from 1490 to the middle of 
 the sixteenth century. 
 
 In Paris, a stronghold of the trade in manu- 
 scripts, the printing press ousted the scribe less 
 easily; and it was here, more than in most other 
 places, that the printed book kept touch with the 
 art of the illuminator. This is specially observable 
 in the Horae, or Books of Hours, of which innume- 
 rable editions were printed in France between 1486 
 and the middle of the sixteenth century. In these 
 books nearly every page is surrounded by an elaborate 
 border, generally made up of smaU pictures enclosed 
 by intertwining foliage or other decorative frame- 
 work. The subjects may be either Old Testament 
 
 A. p. B. 7
 
 98 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH 
 
 types, biblical scenes, histories of saints, the dance 
 of death, or even rural scenes and daily occupations 
 The small pictures were frequently on separate 
 blocks, and so lent themselves to an almost infinite 
 variety of combinations. Besides the borders, 
 larger picture, occupying nearly the whole patjt 
 was placed at the beginning of the several section 
 of the work, each of which had its appropriat 
 subject. Many copies were printed on vellum, and 
 the borders and pictures were often gilded and 
 coloured in the style of manuscripts by an illumina 
 tor, who, when occasion demanded or fancy prompted, 
 would overlay the printed ornament or picture with 
 some entirely different design. 
 
 Some of the best of these books of private prayers 
 are among the editions ])rinted at T*aris by Philij)pe 
 Pigouchet for 8imon Vostre during the twenty years 
 from about 1490. Other prominent printers and 
 publishers of them were .lean du Pre. Thielnian 
 Kerver, Gilles Hardouyn. and Antoine Verard. The 
 last of these was one of the greatest of the early 
 French pubhshers. and his numerous books are fr< > !\ 
 illustrated with cuts both new and old. In the Homt. 
 (1525) of the artist-printer GeotTroyTory the tradition 
 of manuscript decoration is no longer dominant and 
 the ornamentation is in full Renaissance style. 
 
 The early Eufrlish press is not remarkable for it- 
 illustrations or its decorative qualities. Such pictures 
 
 f?
 
 a6a6iuuan0u mcfrfhna^fouapafti 
 et fifio^in4tctaf.,«.dn. flffur 
 
 From Pigouchet's Hoi a.. 1498. [Reduced)
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 99 
 
 and ornaments as were used were mostly either 
 imported from the continent or derived their in- 
 spiration from foreign originals. The first English 
 books in which woodcuts occur are The Mirrour of 
 the World and the third edition of the Parmis et 
 Magnus Cato, both of which were printed by Caxton 
 about 1481. Caxton used illustrations in several 
 other books, notably the second edition of the 
 Canterbury Tales, in which the designs were at least 
 of English origin, the Fables of Esope (1484), turned 
 into English by Caxton himself and illustrated by 
 one hundred and six pictures, and the Golden Legend, 
 the largest and most ambitious of all his books. 
 
 Wynkyn de Worde used woodcuts more freely 
 than Caxton, but he seems to have valued them 
 rather as adding to the commercial attractiveness 
 of the book than as illustrating the text. Among 
 the more prominent of his illustrated books are the 
 fine folio edition of the De jyroprietatibus rerum of 
 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, and the Morte d' Arthur of 
 1498. Several of his small quartos have woodcuts, 
 and he also printed a Sarum Primer with borders 
 to every page and a number of small cuts. Pynson, 
 like Caxton and De Worde, also issued a pictorial 
 edition of the Canterbury Tales, but his illustrated 
 books are better represented by the 1494 edition of 
 Lydgate's FaJle of Princes and the Kalendar of 
 Shephardes of 1506, though, it may be noted, the cuts 
 
 7—2
 
 100 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 in both are of French origin. The woodcuts, upwards 
 of one hundred, in Barclay's English version of the 
 Ship of Fools, which Pynson printed in 1509, are 
 copies of those in tht original Basel edition of 1494; 
 sixty years later they were resuscitated for the edition 
 which John Cawood published in 1570. 
 
 In the sixteenth century the talents of the foremost 
 artists found expression in the service of the printed 
 book, and the illustrations of that period still rank 
 with the best ever produced. Diirer, the greatest of 
 these artists, served an apprenticeship to Wohlgemuth 
 in his native to^vn of Nuremberg. Hans Burgkmair, 
 his contemporary, was of the celebrated art centre 
 at Augsburg, as was also Hans Holbein, whose chief 
 work was done at Basel ; while Lucas Cranach made 
 his home at Wittenberg. Jost^ Amman, best known 
 by his clever delineations of trades and occupations 
 in Schopper's Panoplia (Frankfort, 1568), belongs to 
 the second half of the century ; and at the end of it 
 Theodore de Bry and his sons were bringing out at 
 Frankfort their wonderful series of illustrated travel 
 books. Some of these artists, and notably Holbein, 
 also designed book decorations in the form of initial 
 letters and the beautiful borders which are char- 
 acteristic of sixteenth-century title pages. In the 
 latter part of his career Pynson frequently placed 
 his title pages within ornamental borders, of which 
 he possessed some good designs. This feature also
 
 Title page with woodcut border 
 Sidney's Arcadia, 1593. [Reduced)
 
 viii] ILLUSTRATIONS 101 
 
 appears in the books issued by the first Cambridge 
 press ; and the border on the title page of the present 
 volume is, with the exception of the coat of arms, 
 a reduced copy of that used by John Siberch in 
 1521. From this date bordered title pages become 
 increasingly common in English books, though 
 illustrations were by no means freely used. Foxe's 
 Booh of Martyrs (1563) was one of the most popular 
 illustrated books of the time, and John Day, who 
 printed it, also brought out A Boole of Christian 
 Prayers, commonly called Queen Elizabeth's Prayer 
 Book. This book, which has a pictorial border to 
 each page after the manner of the French Horae, 
 is a curious revival and the only English representa- 
 tive of that style. 
 
 The sixteenth century saw the woodcut at its 
 best ; but by the middle of the century a rival craft 
 was beginning to assert itself. The art of metal 
 engraving had occasionally been used for the illus- 
 tration of books as early as the fifteenth century, 
 but its sporadic employment in this connexion in no 
 appreciable degree threatened the early supremacy 
 of the woodcut, which held its own, aided, no doubt, 
 by the fact that it could be printed with the text. 
 But copper-plate engraving, which appealed to the 
 artist-engraver as a more sympathetic vehicle for 
 rendering half-tones and shadow, steadily won its 
 way, so that by the end of the sixteenth century it
 
 102 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 had nearly displaced the woodcut, which then practi- 
 cally disappears for the next two hundred years. 
 
 The effect of the use of metal engraving for book 
 illustration was more than a mere change in the 
 method of producing the pictures. It involved 
 changed relations between text and illustrations, 
 and resulted in a loss of homogeneity in the printed 
 book. Metal engravings belong, as has already been 
 mentioned, to the intaglio group of processes, and, 
 since they require a different kind of printing 
 machine, cannot be printed at the same time as 
 the letter-press. Consequently, it will be found 
 that the illustrated book of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries possesf^es certain new features. 
 
 Sometimes, and more particularly in the case of 
 fine books, the engravings were printed in blank 
 spaces left for that purpose in the page of text, or 
 were printed on thin paper and pasted into their 
 places on the page. But since it was less trouble 
 to print the engravings apart from the letter-press, 
 they were usually worked on separate sheets of 
 paper which were afterwards inserted between the 
 leaves of the book or gathered together at the end 
 of the volume. In this form, familiarly known as 
 'plates,' the illustrations are no longer an integral 
 part of the printed book. This practice was further 
 encouraged by the circumstance that the inferior 
 paper which had come into general use was unsuit-
 
 V 
 
 DLI^EKJJLAMIO 
 C.i^s'CELi.AXIJ^ 
 
 huxjeJiuxo 
 
 Engraved title page 
 Bacon's Instaitratio Magna, 1620 [Reduced)
 
 viii] Illustrations 103 
 
 able for the printing of line engravings. The wood- 
 cut border to the title page also disappears, and, 
 instead, the book is ' adorn 'd' with an engraved title 
 page in which the brief title of the work is more or 
 less lost in an elaborate design, frequently consisting 
 of architectural features or heavy draperies in com- 
 bination with allegorical figures and other 'pro- 
 perties' deemed appropriate to the subject of the 
 book. An engraved portrait of the author was an 
 obviously suitable vis-d-vis to the engraved title page. 
 Among English books illustrated with metal 
 engravings Sir John Harington's version of Orlando 
 Furioso (1591) containing forty-six full-page pictures 
 is one of the best examples of that period. During 
 the seventeenth century pictorial illustrations were 
 used very sparingly in this country, and the popular 
 engravers, among whom were Elstracke, Marshall, 
 Faithorne, and Hollar, were largely occupied upon 
 title pages and portraits. The succeeding period 
 produced nothing in England corresponding to the 
 delicate engravings of the French livres a vignettes, 
 which are the outstanding feature of eighteenth- 
 century book illustration. Hogarth's genius im- 
 pressed itself on the native art, while French influence 
 found expression in Gravelot's work, such as the 
 plates to the Pamela of 1742. In another direction 
 activity in antiquarian, architectural, and topo- 
 graphical research resulted in the production of many
 
 104 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 large volumes on these subjects illustrated with fine 
 engraved plates. In the latter part of the century 
 Thomas Stothard, a proMfic book illustrator of 
 inventive fancy., was busy with plates for Robinson 
 Crusoe, Clarissa Harlowe, Tristram Shandy, and many 
 other English classics. 
 
 Woodcuts had continued to be used occasionally 
 in chap-books and other forms of popular literature ; 
 but, as they were generally either battered and hard- 
 worn veterans of an earlier age or debased copies of 
 old cuts, they contributed nothing to the survival 
 of the art, which remained under a cloud until its 
 revival at the hands of Thomas Be\\ick, whose 
 illustrated editions of Gay's Fables (1779), Select 
 Fables (1784), and General History of Quadrupeds 
 (1790) mark a new era in book illustration. The 
 fresh life which the genius of Bewick and his 
 followers infused into their art was more in the 
 nature of a new development than a mere revival. 
 New methods and principles were introduced, and 
 henceforth we speak of the craft as 'wood engraving' 
 in place of the old term 'woodcutting.' The great 
 technical skill and delicacy of effect which the wood 
 engravers attained brought their art once more into 
 favour and raised it to the position of a distinctively 
 English school of illustration. 
 
 In the nineteenth century the use of illustrations 
 in books of every kind greatly increased. Altliough
 
 Viii] ILLUSTRATIONS 105 
 
 wood engraving was the principal process employed, 
 all the other methods of pictorial reproduction con- 
 tinued in use, their number being augmented early 
 in the century by the introduction of lithography. 
 This new art, in which the design is either drawn upon 
 or transferred to the face of a specially prepared stone 
 which forms the printing surface, was for some time 
 very popular, though it was carried to finer perfection 
 in France than in this country. Soon after 1830 the 
 field for wood engraving was enlarged by the use of 
 illustrations in weekly journals, and additional im- 
 portance was given to this movement b}'' the founding 
 of the Illustrated London News in 1842. Steel en- 
 gravings of a very fine quality were a special feature 
 of The Keepsake, The Book of Beauty, and other 
 'Annuals' which flourished in the second half of the 
 century. They also formed the raison d'etre of many 
 volumes of 'Tours' and 'Scenes,' such as Tombleson's 
 Vieivs of the Rhine and Tillotson's Beauties of English 
 Scenery. 
 
 From Bewick and his contemporaries, Stothard, 
 Blake, and Flaxman, the procession of notable book 
 illustrators — artists and engravers — goes on in un- 
 broken succession and variety. Cruikshank, Hablot 
 Browne ('Phiz') illustrator of Dickens, Ainsworth, 
 and Lever, with John Leech, of Punch fame, are 
 foremost in the first half of the century. The 
 stirring pictures of Sir John Gilbert and the 'rural
 
 106 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 beauties' of Birket Foster, translated in wood by 
 the brothers Dalziel, were the delight of the mid- 
 Victorians; while in the 'sixties' a group of artists, 
 of which John Millais, Frederick Walker, and Arthur 
 Houghton were leaders, contributed to Once-a-Week, 
 Good Words, Conihill, and other magazines illustra- 
 tions which are regarded by some as the high-water 
 mark of pictorial design rendered in woodcut. The 
 colour-books of Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, and 
 Randolph Caldecott, each with their distinctive 
 genius, mark the succeeding period ; and in the 
 wonderful 'nineties' the Yellow Book episode had its 
 passing hour. 
 
 The English Illustrated Magazine, founded in 1883, 
 was a brave effort in the cause of wood engraving, 
 and some of the most delicate and beautiful work in 
 this art is to be found in its earlier volumes and in 
 the Century Magazine and Harper's Magazine. But, 
 in the last decade of the nineteenth century, wood 
 engraving with its rivals, metal engraving, etching, 
 and lithography all met their fate as methods of 
 book illustration in the onset of mechanical photo- 
 graphic processes for reproducing drawings and 
 pictures. In the palmy days of wood and metal 
 engraving the engraver shared honours with the 
 artist whose designs he interpreted through the 
 medium of his craft; but in these new processes 
 the middleman is dispensed with, and we get a
 
 viii] ILLUSTRATIONS 107 
 
 direct reproduction of the work of the artist. This 
 difference, though important, was not the main 
 element in effecting the revolution. Both engrav- 
 ing and etching are slow and laborious arts, and 
 consequently expensive. On the other hand, the 
 photographic processes are, by comparison, expe- 
 ditious and cheap, qualities which give them an 
 overwhelming advantage in meeting the require- 
 ments of the present day. 
 
 Nearly all these process methods of reproduction 
 have photography as their basis, and, like their 
 prototypes, may be classed in three divisions : relief, 
 intaglio, and fiat surface, according to the nature of 
 the printing face. Only the first of these, which, 
 like type, has the design in relief, can be printed in 
 the same way and at the same time as the text of 
 the book. The others are printed by a different 
 operation, and the pictures produced by them, when 
 used for book illustration, are usually added to the 
 book in the form of plates. 
 
 The class of work reproduced by impressions from 
 blocks in rehef falls into two divisions: (1) Line 
 etching, which is suitable for designs or pictures 
 consisting of lines, such as Une drawings and wood 
 engravings; (2) Half-tone, which is used for wash 
 drawings, photographs, and other pictures composed 
 of tones in light and shade. 
 
 In Line etchings, sometimes called zincographs,
 
 108 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 the design to be reproduced is transferred by photo- 
 graphy to a zinc or copper plate the face of which 
 has been coated with a preparation sensitive to light. 
 After further treatment to fix the design the plate is 
 exposed to the action of acid which eats away that 
 part of the surface not covered by the design. The 
 picture is thus left in relief on the face of the plate 
 which can then be printed from in the same manner 
 as a woodcut. 
 
 It is obvious that in printing from a relief block 
 those portions of the face of the block which come in 
 contact with the paper will produce corresponding 
 solid marks on the paper, whether they be lines, dots, 
 or larger portions of the surface. Since the marks 
 thus made must be solid black, or one tone of colour 
 if a coloured ink is used, tints and shades cannot be 
 rendered by this method ; though the effect of them 
 is approximately attained in wood engraving by the 
 use of Unes graduated in thickness and distance from 
 each other so as to produce the simulation of tint. 
 The problem of reproducing pictures composed of 
 tints and light-and-shade (and not of lines) was 
 solved by the invention of the Half-tone process, 
 sometimes called Meisenbach process, now in general 
 use for illustrations in books and magazines. This 
 process is similar to that of making Line etchings, 
 but, in taking the photograph for transfer to the 
 metal plate, a glass screen, closely ruled with fine
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 109 
 
 lines at right angles to each other, is interposed 
 between the negative and the picture. The result 
 of this is that the image on the negative is broken 
 up into small dots which vary in size and density 
 according to the amount of light reflected through 
 the ruled screen by the different parts of the picture. 
 The face of the plate and the resultant reproduction 
 thus consist of a mass of minute dots which are not 
 separately visible to the eye but by their varying 
 texture give the effect of the tones of the original. 
 This construction may readily be seen by examining 
 one of these illustrations with a magnifying lens. 
 In the lighter parts of the picture it will be noticed 
 that the dots are small and distinctly separated by 
 the white ground between them. ' In the middle 
 tones the black and white are more nearly even, 
 while in the shadows the texture becomes white 
 dots on a black ground. In some of the coarser 
 work used in newspaper illustration this effect may 
 be detected without the aid of a lens. 
 
 In Photogravure and other intaglio processes it 
 is the design itself that is exposed to the action of 
 acid, and so is bitten into the surface of the plate 
 which is then printed from after the manner of an 
 etching. Collotype and Heliotype are printed from 
 a flat surface and are akin to the process of litho- 
 graphy, the prints being made from a prepared 
 surface of gelatine instead of from a stone.
 
 110 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 From the earliest days of book illustration the 
 attraction of coloured pictures has found its votaries. 
 Copies of books in which the illustrations have been 
 coloured are of common occurrence in all periods, 
 and generally this addition is contemporary work. 
 Sometimes this was done by or for the owner, but 
 in many cases books were issued by the publisher 
 with the illustrations either plain or coloured. Initial 
 letters printed in colour occur as early as Fust 
 and Schoeffer's Psalter of 1457 ; and in the Book of 
 St Albans, printed at St Albans in 1486, the heraldic 
 shields are printed in colours. But until the eigh- 
 teenth century little attempt was made to print 
 illustrations in colours, and most of the colouring 
 was done by hand. 
 
 Several methods of producing coloured prints 
 were brought out in the eighteenth century. Of 
 these, coloured aquatint, that is, pictures produced 
 by aquatint engraving and afterwards coloured by 
 hand, is by far the most important so far as book 
 illustration is concerned. For the first thirty years 
 of the nineteenth century it was the chief process 
 employed in this country, and most of the colour- 
 books published by R. Ackermann during that 
 period were illustrated by coloured aquatint plates. 
 Chromo-lithography, which succeeded aquatint as 
 the principal method of printing in colours, came 
 into practical use soon after 1840, and in its early
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 111 
 
 stages was associated with the names of Day and 
 Son and Owen Jones. Previous to this its parent 
 process, lithography, had passed through various 
 stages, including hand-colouring and lithotint, the 
 latter famihar in illustrated books of about 1840, 
 in which the whole picture, except the high lights, 
 is covered with a yellow tint. The cheap children's 
 books, which were printed in great numbers from 
 the latter part of the eighteenth century, were mostly 
 coloured by hand. For the last sixty years or so 
 wood-block printing in colour has been much used 
 for this class of book. The books of Walter Crane, 
 Kate Greenaway, and Randolph Caldecott were 
 produced by this method, and owe not a little of 
 their artistic success to the skill of their printer, 
 Edmund Evans, who excelled in this art. 
 
 The Three-colour process, now so popular for the 
 reproduction of pictures or objects in colour for book 
 illustration, is based on the half-tone process, and, 
 like it, is a purely photo-mechanical method. The 
 success of the older methods of colour printing was 
 dependent in large measure upon the artistic skill 
 of the craftsman, or artist as he might in some cases 
 be called; but, except in the operation of actual 
 printing, the three-colour process affords little scope 
 for artistic craftsmanship. In printing three-colour 
 work three half-tone blocks, representing the primary 
 colours, are employed. The negatives for these
 
 112 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 blocks are taken through filters of coloured glass or 
 glass cells containing coloured liquid, in addition to 
 the ruled screen. Each of these light filters allows 
 only certain colours to pass through to the negative 
 and stops the passage of all others. The colours of 
 the original are thus automatically dissected and 
 grouped in three categories representing approxi- 
 mately the yellows, the reds, and the blues, each of 
 which is contained on a separate negative. Of the 
 three process-blocks made from these negatives that 
 representing the yellow tones is printed first in 
 yellow ink, over this impression the red block is 
 next printed, and finally the blue. The various 
 colours and tints of the resultant picture are formed 
 by the combination of these three colours printed 
 over each other and varying in proportion according 
 to the density of the printing surface of the respective 
 blocks. The use of the right amount of colour and 
 degree of pressure in printing are important factors 
 in the success of the operation. It is also essentia] 
 that the register should be absolutely accurate, that 
 is to say the three impressions must follow each other 
 in exactly the same place on the paper, or the result 
 will be the blurred effect occasionally seen in cheap 
 prints. 
 
 From the point of view of the printed book 
 the introduction of process methods of illustration 
 cannot be regarded as altogether fortunate. Too little
 
 VIII] ILLUSTRATIONS 113 
 
 consideration is given to the manner in which the 
 illustrations are associated with the printed page; 
 and it rarely happens that a book gains anything as 
 an example of typographic art from the process 
 pictures with which it is illustrated. The arrival 
 of the three-colour process has worsened matters ; 
 and the present riotous use of cheap colour illus- 
 trations is nothing short of a calamity. Any excuse 
 serves for the addition of these coloured crudities, 
 which, printed on shiny 'art' paper or dabbed on 
 pieces of brown paper, are intruded between the 
 leaves of the book almost at random. Little wonder 
 that the outraged volume, taking advantage of its 
 flimsy structure, endeavours to shed them at the 
 earliest possible moment. 
 
 A.P. B.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 
 
 When books changed their form from the roll to 
 the codex (that is, were folded into leaves) some kind 
 of binding became a necessity. This for two reasons : 
 to keep the leaves in their right order, and to preserve 
 the outer leaves from damage. By the time the 
 printed book made its appearance binding had been 
 practised for a thousand years or so. Since the con- 
 struction of a printed book was similar to that of a 
 manuscript, the binding naturally followed the same 
 model, and in essential details the subsequent four 
 centuries have witnessed but Httle change. 
 
 The operations of bookbinding fall into two main 
 divisions : forwarding and finishing. Each of these 
 is considered a separate craft. The forwarder carries 
 the- work up to the point at which the book is covered 
 with the selected material, be it leather, cloth, or 
 other fabric; the finisher adds the lettering and 
 ornamentation. The methods employed in forward- 
 ing a book have hardly differed in principle since 
 the first days of printing, and it is mainly in the 
 materials used for covering and in the decoration 
 that the successive styles and fashions in bindings
 
 A Bookbinder's Workshop in the Seventeenth Century 
 From Luiken's Spiegel van hef Menselyk Bedryf
 
 CH.IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 115 
 
 consist. This applies to what are properly known 
 as 'bound' books, the work of which is a handicraft, 
 and not to the cloth binding of everyday modern 
 books, which is mainly a product of machinery and 
 is known as 'cased' work. 
 
 The process of binding a book comprises a long 
 series of operations, all requiring a nicety of handling 
 and judgment to produce the perfect result. Of the 
 principal stages the first consists in folding the sheets, 
 or, if the binder receives them already folded, in 
 seeing that this has been correctly done. The sheets 
 must be so folded that the leaves come in their 
 proper order and the pages of type all have the same 
 relative margin. Next, the sheets are collated, that 
 is, examined to see that they follow each other in 
 right succession ; and in this the binder is guided by 
 the signatures, the small letter or number at the foot 
 of the first page of each sheet. After being beaten, 
 roUed, or pressed, to give it solidity, the book is 
 ready for sewing. This work is done in a kind of 
 frame, called a sewing press, the sheets being laid 
 with their backs to a series of four or five upright 
 cords round which the thread is passed on its way 
 out and in along the back of each sheet. When the 
 sewing is finished these cords stand out as horizontal 
 bands across the back of the book forming panels as 
 seen in most books bound in leather. A book sewn 
 in this manner is said to be 'sewn flexible.' In an 
 
 8—2
 
 116 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 inferior style of binding grooves are sawn into the 
 back of the sheets and the cords lie in them, so that 
 the thread merely passes behind the cords instead of 
 going out at the back and right round them. In this 
 case the cords do not form bands on the back, and 
 the back may consequently be smooth, unless, as is 
 frequently done, false bands are put on before the 
 volume is covered. But the binder seldom makes 
 the false bands correspond in position to the actual 
 cords, and, since the discrepancy is readily seen 
 where the cords shew at the hinges, he can generally 
 be caught out. If it is desired to avoid having bands 
 on tlie back the book can be sewn on tapes instead 
 of cords ; a much better method than sawing the back. 
 After the sewing is completed and the back has 
 been glued up, the binder proceeds to the rounding 
 and backing of the volume. The first of these pro- 
 cesses gives the back a convex form and thus provides 
 space for the extra thickness which that part of the 
 book has acquired owing to the presence of the sewing 
 thread; the object of backing is to make a groove 
 into which the back edge of the boards may fit and 
 form a hinge on which to open. Both these opera- 
 tions are done with a hammer, and call for consider- 
 able skill and care. A fashion for flat backs has 
 obtained to some extent in recent years. In this 
 style the rounding and backing are omitted, and what 
 is called a French joint is used in attaching the boards.
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 117 
 
 These books have a certain neatness and compactness 
 of appearance when new, but if much used the back 
 is liable to become concave causing the fore-edge 
 to protrude, and the volume takes on a painfully 
 broken-backed aspect. 
 
 Boards, cut to the right size, are now attached to 
 the book by drawing the slips (the free ends of the 
 back cords) through holes in them, after which the 
 cutting and decoration of the edges are taken in 
 hand. The treatment of the edges allows consider- 
 able latitude of choice, and, like the style of binding, 
 is governed largel}'^ by the kind of book and the use 
 to which it will be put. In most cases it is desirable 
 that the top should be cut smooth, as this helps to 
 keep out dust ; gilding the top gives it a more solid 
 surface and therefore affords better protection. A 
 fine binding will usually have all three edges cut and 
 gilded or coloured, but in many cases it is preferred 
 to leave the fore-edge and tail untrimmed. Books 
 which command a fancy price, particularly first 
 editions, often hold much of their value in the 
 width of the margins, and should on that account be 
 left entirely uncut. The same rule applies to early 
 printed books. Books intended for reference should 
 have all edges cut smooth to facilitate use; the 
 edges may be sprinkled or coloured to prevent a 
 soiled appearance, but the luxury of marbhng may 
 well be reserved for the adornment of ledgers.
 
 118 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 The edges having been finished and the head- 
 bands set, the covering is next proceeded with. The 
 principal materials used for the covering of books 
 are leather, vellum, buckram, and cloth. Em- 
 broidery, sUk, and other fabrics are also occasionally 
 employed, but for fine bindings and for books that 
 have to stand hard usage there is nothing to equal 
 leather, provided, of course, that it is of good quality. 
 Much of the leather used for binding during the last 
 seventy or eighty years has failed to stand the test 
 of time. The superiority of the older material is 
 frequently seen in books that have been rebacked, 
 where the new back has already perished leaving 
 the original sides still in possession. This inferiority, 
 due to faulty methods of preparation and the use of 
 injurious chemicals, was the subject of investigation 
 by a Committee of the Society of Arts a few years 
 ago. Their report^ has already borne good results, 
 and most manufacturers of binders' leather now 
 supply skins guaranteed free from acid. But the 
 binder must shoulder his share of the blame for the 
 unsatisfactory condition of leather bindings. Paring 
 the leather facilitates neatness of finish, but it also 
 greatly weakens the leather. Too often strength is 
 sacrificed to the over-rated virtue of 'finish,' and the 
 leather is so pared down as to leave no more than a 
 
 ^ Report of the Committee [of the Society of Arts] on Leather for 
 Bookbinding, 1901.
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 119 
 
 thin layer of the outer skin, and this especially at 
 the hinges where the strain is greatest and strength 
 is most needed. To judge the quality of leather, 
 especially after it is on a book, is a matter of special 
 knowledge and much experience; some of the 
 imitation leathers now in use may easily deceive 
 the unwary. Punch's definition of the three grades : 
 ' leather, something like leather, nothing like 
 leather,* is particularly applicable to the bindings 
 of to-day. 
 
 Morocco, which has no rival for fine bindings, 
 originally came from southern Spain and Morocco 
 and was made of goat skins tanned with sumach. 
 Seal, a good leather possessing qualities somewhat 
 similar to morocco, is not so well known as it deserves 
 to be. The small goat skins, dyed in various shades 
 of red, which have of late years been imported from 
 the Niger country, are excellent material and the 
 irregularity of colouring gives a pleasing effect, but 
 the surface is not suitable for decorative tooling. 
 Russia leather so much in fashion a century ago, 
 probably owing to the attraction of its odour, is not 
 durable ; after a time it gets dry and friable and the 
 backs and joints break away in a fine powder. Old 
 calf is often very good material, but the modem 
 product, though its smoothness and colourings are 
 attractive, should be avoided, since the virtue has 
 been taken out of the leather in the manufacture,
 
 120 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 and it will not last. Pigskin is the strongest leather 
 used in bookbinding and will stand much hard wear. 
 It is therefore specially suitable for heavy volumes 
 and books in everyday use ; but as any attempt at 
 dying involves loss of some of its qualities it should 
 be used only in its natural colour. Even in the 
 selection of pigskin, the familiar advertisement tag, 
 'beware of imitations,' is by no means to be dis- 
 regarded. In the eighteenth century plain brown 
 sheepskin was in general use for ordinary books, and 
 is often found to be still in remarkably good condition. 
 Roan, basil, and other modern forms of sheepskin are 
 hardly likely to come out of the test so well, and 
 should not be used for books of permanent value. 
 Vellum, more in favour in the sixteenth centur}^ than 
 in recent times, is not a kindly material for binding. 
 Books, especially thin volumes, bound in vellum 
 object to open freely and will not remain quiet when 
 in use. Moreover it is much affected by atmospheric 
 conditions, and generally requires ties or other in- 
 convenient devices to keep the book properly closed 
 and prevent it from warping on the shelf. Buckram, 
 cloth, and what is caUed 'art canvas,' represent the 
 cheaper class of coverings. They are the usual 
 materials for publishers' bindings, but they are also 
 invaluable to the bookman who desires to keep his 
 shelves tidy. Provided the sewing and other struc- 
 tural work is sound, these materials are sufficiently
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 121 
 
 durable and comely to serve the purpose of the lover 
 of books who cannot afford the luxury of leather. 
 The lettering on these books should always be on 
 the binding itself, and not take the form of preten- 
 tious-looking leather lettering-pieces stuck on the 
 back. Opinion is much divided as to the relative 
 qualities of buckram and cloth, but those who elect 
 to bind in buckram would do well to remember that 
 the red colours are usually very fleeting. 
 
 A book entirely covered in leather is called whole 
 or full-bound. A half-bound book has leather back 
 and corners, and the sides are covered with cloth or 
 paper. When only the back is leather, the book is 
 said to be quarter-bound. A particular form of this 
 style in which the back is of brown leather and 
 the sides covered with crimson paper is called Rox- 
 burghe binding from its being the pattern adopted 
 by the Roxburghe Club for its publications. Quarter 
 leather with cloth sides and vellum tips to protect the 
 corners makes a specially neat and useful binding for 
 octavo books. 
 
 With the covering of the book the forwarding 
 process is complete, and the volume is passed on to 
 the finisher for lettering and decoration. Leaving 
 aside publishers' cloth bindings, on which coloured 
 inks and pictorial designs often figure, lettering and 
 external decoration is mostly worked in gold. For 
 impressing the letters and ornaments on the leather
 
 122 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 the finisher employs wooden-handled brass tools on 
 the end of which the letter or ornament is cut in 
 relief. These tools are used heated to a certain 
 temperature, the exact degree of which is a matter 
 of experience. Armorial stamps and large orna- 
 ments wliich require heavy pressure are applied by 
 means of a press; but lettering and decorative 
 designs built up of separate small ornaments are 
 worked in by hand. For ornamental bands a roll 
 which repeats the design as it revolves is sometimes 
 used; and straight lines are put in with a similar 
 tool called a fillet. In proceeding to work, the 
 design is usually first schemed out with the tools 
 in black on paper. This copy having been fixed in 
 position on the book, the binder goes over it with 
 the tools, stamping the design upon the leather 
 through the paper. The impression thus left on 
 the book is then painted in with glaire, after which 
 gold leaf is laid on with a pad of cotton-wool, and 
 the tools are again impressed exactly in the same 
 positions to fix the gold. This being done, the 
 superfluous gold is rubbed off and the book is polished 
 and varnished as a finishing touch. Other and less 
 used methods of decorating leather bindings are 
 blind tooling in wliich the design is impressed into 
 the leather without gilding, inlaying with leather of 
 different colours, painting, and staining. Embossing, 
 in which the design is raised on the surface, is also
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 128 
 
 occasionally used, but this style seems more suited 
 to a blotter than to a printed book. 
 
 The bindings of printed books have little con- 
 nexion with those sumptuous covers of precious 
 metal, enriched with ivories, enamels, and gems, 
 which, in olden days, were wrought by the gold- 
 smith for the preservation of valuable manuscripts. 
 Wooden boards and leather — either calf, deerskin, 
 or pigskin — formed the humbler but serviceable 
 binding in general use for early printed books. In 
 large folios the leather usually covered the whole of 
 the board, which was often further protected against 
 wear and tear by brass bosses and corner-pieces. 
 Smaller books were sometimes half-boimd; in this 
 case the leather covered only the back and about 
 two inches of the sides, leaving the rest of the 
 boards bare wood. Many of these early books were 
 sewn on double bands of thick leather, the thread 
 going round both in figure-of-eight fashion. The 
 leather covering was decorated by stamping it with 
 various devices and patterns. The tools for this 
 work were usually cut in intaglio, so that the de- 
 vice shewed in low relief on the binding ; but on 
 some German books the design was impressed into 
 the leather. 
 
 The decoration of Italian bindings consisted 
 chiefly of interlaced patterns, while in France and
 
 124 THE PRINTED BOOK [cH. 
 
 the Netherlands panel stamps were largely in use. 
 English binders of the fifteenth century were in the 
 habit of decorating their books with a number of 
 small dies arranged in bands and circles. But the 
 bindings that came from Caxton's workshop usually 
 had a border of triangular stamps, and the centre 
 was divided by diagonal lines into diamond-shaped 
 compartments, with a flower, griffin, or other small 
 ornament in the centre of each. Small dies were 
 superseded by the panel stamp and by the roll, a 
 wheel tool which produced a continuous pattern in 
 the form of a ribbon. Panel stamps frequently 
 formed the complete decoration of a small book, 
 while the roll, sometimes in conjunction with a 
 panel, served for larger volumes. A common 
 English panel binding at tlie beginning of the 
 sixteenth century contained on one side the royal 
 arms, France and England quarterlj'', with dragon 
 and greyhound as supporters, and on the other a 
 Tudor rose supported by angels, with the arms of 
 London and other accessory symbols. This pair of 
 panel stamps, with certain variations, was used by 
 several different binders, and frequently bore the 
 initials and mark of the binder. A few pictorial 
 panels also occur, but these were much less common 
 here than in France. The roll, at first a broad 
 finely-cut design, soon deteriorated into a narrow 
 meaningless ribbon, and the extinction of stamped
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 125 
 
 work followed closely upon this debasement. All 
 these decorations were stamped blind. 
 
 The introduction of gold tooling on leather began 
 a new era in the decoration of bookbindings. This 
 art, brought from the East, was established in Italy 
 towards the close of the fifteenth century, and soon 
 spread into other countries. The patronage and 
 taste of two celebrated collectors contributed largely 
 to the fame of sixteenth-century Italian gilt bindings. 
 These were Jean Grolier, a Frenchman resident in 
 Italy, and Tommaso Maioli, an Italian, both of whom 
 adopted a distinctive style. In Grolier bindings the 
 chief feature is a framework of geometrical design 
 formed of interlaced bands, frequently with arabes- 
 ques as subsidiary ornament. Maioli bindings are 
 somewhat similar in character, but the framework 
 is less dominant, and they are inclined to have a more 
 graceful and easy appearance. The return of Groher 
 to his native country in 1529 gave an impetus to the 
 development of the art in France, and under en- 
 couragement from a long succession of royal and 
 distinguished collectors the French binders attained 
 a height of excellence in the design and execution of 
 gold-tooled work not surpassed in any other country. 
 For a time but little is known of the binders them- 
 selves, and the various styles are connected with 
 the possessors of the books — Francis I, Henry II, 
 Catharine de' Medici, Diane de Poitiers, and others —
 
 126 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 rather than with those who designed and wrought 
 them. But with Nicolas and Clovis Eve, who bound 
 for Henry III (d. 1589) and his successors, there 
 begins a Hne of distinguished craftsmen who im- 
 pressed their personahty upon successive styles. 
 The name of Eve is associated with bindings covered 
 with small compartments composed of palm leaves 
 or laurel sprigs; and many books of this period, 
 especially those bearing a coat of arms in the centre, 
 are enriched with a semis of fleurs-de-lis or other 
 small ornaments. The books of the great collector 
 De Thou (d. 1617) are, however, for the most part 
 in plain leather, with his arms, a chevron between 
 three gad-flies, in the centre, either alone or accom- 
 panied by those of his wife. The characteristic of 
 the work of Le Gascon, the seventeenth-century 
 binder, is the use of jJointiJle tooling, in which the 
 lines are broken up into dots, producing a particularly 
 brilliant and delicate effect, especially on the red 
 morocco which he mostly used. This style, which 
 was very widely imitated, continued in fashion until 
 about 1660. Padeloup le jeune (d. 1758), the most 
 famous of a family of noted binders, was celebrated 
 for his elegant dentelle or lace borders; one of his 
 patrons was Madame de Pompadour. Derome le 
 jeune (d. ab. 1788) followed in the footsteps of 
 Padeloup and likewise gained fame by the beauty 
 of his dentelle borders, but the crime of sawn backs
 
 An English gold-tooled Binding 
 Horatius. Cambridge, 171 1
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 127 
 
 and cropped margins has sullied his reputation as 
 a true craftsman. Bookbinding, in common with 
 other arts, suffered eclipse in the upheaval of the 
 Revolution ; but in the nineteenth century the work 
 of Thouvenin, Trautz, Duru, and others restored 
 the tradition of finished workmanship, though not 
 always accompanied by the inspiration of originality. 
 The first binder in England to practise gold 
 tooling appears to have been Thomas Berthelet, 
 printer and stationer to Henry VIII. In an extant 
 bill for books bound for the King by Berthelet in 
 the years 1541-3 are instances of this new style: 
 ' a New Testament in latyne and a psalter englisshe 
 & latyne bounde backe to backe in white leather 
 gorgiously gilted on the leather,' others were 
 'bounde after the Venecian fascion,' or 'covered 
 with purple velvit and written abowte with golde.' 
 English binders derived from the continent not only 
 the art of gold toohng, but took also their inspiration 
 from the same source, and most English gilt bindings 
 of the sixteenth century were either executed by 
 foreign workmen or copied from foreign models. 
 The leather used in England was nearly always 
 brown calf or sheep ; morocco, though known in 
 France, was rarely employed in this country before 
 the seventeenth century. A favourite style of 
 ornamentation consisted of heavily gilt centre and 
 corner pieces, with the rest of the side either left
 
 128 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 plain or powdered with a small ornament. Many 
 of the books bound for Archbishop Parker, who 
 established a binder in his own house, were gilt in 
 this fasliion. Queen Elizabeth, a great lover of fine 
 books, had a special liking for embroidered bindings 
 and for books bound in velvet v/ith gold or silver 
 mountings; some of the former are said to have 
 been worked by the Queen herself. These em- 
 broidered bindings, worked in coloured silks and 
 enriched with, gold and silver thread, were a specially 
 English production. James I also had a taste for 
 velvet bindings, but his more characteristic style is 
 leather with the royal arms in the centre of a diaper 
 of fleurs-de-lis or other small ornaments. At this 
 time good work was being done both at Oxford 
 and at Cambridge; and in his singular community 
 at Little Gidding Nicholas Ferrar 'entertained a 
 Cambridge bookbinder's daughter that bound rarely 
 to show them that piece of skill.' 
 
 Other fashions included the fan style, consisting 
 of a circular fan-hke ornament in the centre with 
 similar sections in the corners; imitations of Le 
 Gascon ; and mosaic bindings of inlaid leather. The 
 second half of the seventeenth century produced the 
 distinctively English style known as cottage binding, 
 in which the frame-work at top and bottom of the 
 design bears some resemblance to a low gable. This 
 style is usually associated with the name of Samuel
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 129 
 
 Mearne, who, though appointed binder to Charles II, 
 was not himself a binder. The Harleian style, so 
 called because it was used for the great collection 
 of Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford (d. 1724), 
 consists of an ornate centre piece, generally diamond 
 shaped, with a broad tooled border. Roger Payne, 
 one of the best and most conscientious workmen of 
 the second half of the eighteenth century, has 
 acquired a wider fame than any other Enghsh 
 binder, partly owing to the curiously detailed form 
 in which he presented his bills. He worked chiefly 
 in Russia leather and straight-grained morocco, and 
 bestowed his most elaborate decoration upon the 
 backs of the books, leaving the sides comparatively 
 plain. His traditions were carried on by Charles 
 Hering and others, including Charles Lems who 
 bound many of the Althorp books, and Kalthoeber 
 who revived the art of painting pictures on the edges 
 of books under the gold. In this method of decora- 
 tion, of which Edwards, a Halifax binder, is the best- 
 known exponent, the painting on the edges of the 
 book shews only when the leaves are fanned out, 
 and is completely hidden under the gold when the 
 book is shut. Francis Bedford, at one time a partner 
 of Lewis, was one of the most noted binders of the 
 nineteenth century and bears a reputation for sound 
 workmanship. In recent times conspicuously good 
 work has been done in the designing and execution 
 
 A. p. B. 9
 
 130 THE PRINTED BOOK [oh. 
 
 of gold-tooled bindings by both amateur and pro- 
 fessional binders. In this movement a leading part 
 has been taken by Mr Cobden-Sanderson, Mr Douglas 
 Cockerell, and Miss S. T. Prideaux ; and, largely due 
 to their teaching and practice, it is now well recog- 
 nized that no exterior decoration of a book, however 
 artistically designed and skilfully executed, can 
 make a satisfactory binding unless it is combined 
 with equal attention to the principles of sound 
 forwarding. 
 
 It is the custom in this country and in America 
 to issue new books in cloth binding, but on the 
 continent the practice of publishing new books in 
 paper covers still obtains. On the assumption that 
 a book will either be read and thrown away, or bound 
 and put on the shelf, the paper cover might be con- 
 sidered adequate to its purpose ; but, since the cloth 
 cover is fairly serviceable and presents a decent 
 appearance on the shelf, besides being more comfort- 
 able to hold, it seems to be well worth the small 
 initial extra cost. 
 
 Down to the early part of the nineteenth century 
 trade bindings generally consisted of plain calf or 
 sheep, or of boards covered in grey paper with a 
 white label on the back. About 1820 the use of 
 glazed calico was introduced, and some ten years 
 later the fabric which goes under the name of cloth
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 131 
 
 began to be specially manufactured for the cover- 
 ing of books. At first these covers were quite 
 plain with paper labels on the back ; but soon the 
 sides were embossed by way of ornamentation, and 
 gold lettering took the place of the paper label. 
 Then, gold was employed for decoration as well as 
 for lettering, and elaborate designs were devised, 
 frequently covering the whole of the boards, especially 
 in the pretentious volumes known as table books. 
 More recently colour printing has been much resorted 
 to for additional effect. At the present time much 
 ingenuity and some taste are devoted to the pro- 
 duction of attractive book covers, and extraordinary 
 variety prevails, ranging from the plainest cloth to 
 pictorial decoration in colours re-enforced with 
 gilding. The possibility of end papers as a field 
 for subsidiary decoration has also been exploited, 
 and some of the papers specially designed for 
 particular books undoubtedly harmonize and lend 
 additional charm to the volume. 
 
 The binding of books in pubhsher's cloth, or 
 edition binding as it is sometimes called, is a distinct 
 branch of the trade. Instead of dealing with single 
 volumes, hundreds or even thousands of copies are 
 turned out at a time. Special machinery has been 
 devised for dealing with every stage of the work, and 
 to such a point has the process been perfected that 
 in at least one large establishment the output is 
 
 9—2
 
 132 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 2000 volumes an hour, with a possible total of 
 nearly 200,000 a week. A book in publisher's 
 cloth differs from a properly bound book chiefly 
 in the method of connecting the book with the 
 binding. In the bound book the ends of the cords 
 on which the sheets are sewn are laced into the 
 boards, which are thus fastened directly and strongly 
 to the book before the covering material is put on. 
 But with books in publisher's cloth the case is first 
 made separately, and the book is then fastened into 
 it, the two being connected only by a strip of thin 
 muslin glued on to the back of the book and the 
 inner edge of the boards. In better-class work the 
 book is sewn on tapes, and the ends of these, as well 
 as the muslin, are glued down on the inside of the 
 boards. It is evident that a book bound in this 
 manner — 'cased' is the trade term — cannot be so 
 strong as a properly bound volume ; but the method 
 has the great advantage of cheapness, and if the 
 work is well done the book will stand a considerable 
 amount of use. But, unfortunately, this is not 
 always the case. Publishers take great pains over 
 the component parts of a book, such as paper, type, 
 illustrations, and the design of the cover, but they 
 frequently fail to exercise the least care as to how it 
 is put together : so long as the book looks attractive 
 and does not go to pieces before it reaches the 
 reader's hand, they seem to be satisfied.
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 133 
 
 This may suffice well enoiigh for the many books 
 which are of only temporary interest; but in the 
 case of important works of more permanent value 
 it is surprising that publishers do not, at the expen- 
 diture of a little trouble and an extra sixpence, see 
 that the book is put together in a more satisfactory 
 manner. In the first place the paper is mostly very 
 poor stuff, without any fibrous quality ; but, perhaps, 
 under the present conditions of manufacture and the 
 pursuit of low prices, this defect is not easily amended. 
 In addition to this, the thread used for sewing is so 
 thin that it readily cuts through the spongy or brittle 
 substance which passes for paper. This is often 
 aggravated by the use of a barbarous machine for 
 sewing, which slits every section right tlu-ough at 
 top and bottom of the back in order to pass the thread 
 into the slot so formed, and the destruction of the 
 book is already begun at the weakest spot: every- 
 one knows how a much-used book goes at the bottom 
 of the back, just where it is (but ought not to be) 
 held by the reader's thumb. The illustrations, 
 generally printed on shiny 'art' paper, are nearly 
 always inserted as separate plates by being pasted 
 on to an adjoining leaf. The consequence is that 
 the book will not open properly between the plate 
 and the leaf to which it is attached, and the plate 
 soon comes away, dragging the leaf with it; the 
 other leaf of the pair having nothing to hold it, soon
 
 134 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 detaches itself also, and so the disintegrating process 
 goes on. Instances of this may easily be found 
 among important and expensive books of travel 
 containing numerous plates and published within 
 the last few years. Colour-books have notoriously 
 weak constitutions. Such books cannot be rebound 
 satisfactorily. It is impossible to separate the plates 
 from the leaves without damaging the latter, and 
 this necessitates the guarding of both leaves and 
 plates, as well as the mending of the back of the 
 sections; the guards cause an awkward thickness 
 in the back and make a most uncomfortable volume, 
 while the binder's bill may well raise a question as 
 to whether the book is worth the cost. A simple 
 method, too seldom followed, of avoiding this defect, 
 is to print the illustrations in pairs so that they may 
 be sewn in with the sheets. 
 
 With the advent of the three-colour process it has 
 become common to print the title of a plate on a 
 leaf of flimsy paper facing it, instead of printing it 
 on the plate itself. It is not easy to see a reason 
 for this pretentious and inconvenient custom : the 
 flimsies easily get torn and lost, and the illustration 
 becomes nameless. Another vicious practice is the 
 use of wire staples in place of sewing thread. In 
 this method the sheets are fastened to the muslin 
 by wire staples driven through them and clinched 
 at the back. The wire soon rusts and eats through
 
 IX] BOOKBINDING AND BOOKBINDINGS 135 
 
 the paper, allowing the leaves to fall out of the book. 
 Books are still occasionally 'bound' by the caout- 
 chouc process : that is, the back of the volume is 
 cut smooth, coated with a solution of rubber, and 
 stuck into the case. If those who adopt this process 
 would examine books treated in this way twenty or 
 thirty years ago, they would find that the rubber 
 has entirely perished, leaving the book a bundle of 
 detached leaves — but, apparently, some pubUshers 
 never see books after they have left the warehouse.
 
 CH4PTER X 
 
 THE HANDLING AND MISHANDLING OF BOOKS 
 
 Of the risks of destruction to which books are 
 exposed, that of fire is the most formidable, whether 
 it be by violence, as in the case of the Strassburg 
 Ubrary in 1870, and the deliberate burning, by the 
 same brutish hands, of the University Library of 
 Louvain so recently as 1914, or by the more civilized 
 though not less destructive agency of accidental 
 conflagration. Of the latter there are many in- 
 stances, from the wholesale destruction of books in 
 the Great Fire of London in 1666, and the irreparable 
 damage to the Cottonian manuscripts in 1731, down 
 to the partial destruction of the Turin library in 
 1904 and the burning of the New York State Library 
 at Albany in 1911. But books are difficult material 
 to make a thorough end of by fire. Church and state 
 authorities discovered this when they endeavoured 
 to destroy heretical books by means of public bon- 
 fires, and, says John Hill Burton, 'in the end it was 
 found easier and cheaper to burn the heretics them- 
 selves than their books^.' However, the destruction 
 which fire fails to accomplish may readily be com- 
 
 1 The Book-Hunler (1885), p. 210
 
 CH.X] HANDLING AND MISHANDLING 137 
 
 pleted by its twin enemy water, for it is by no means 
 an unknown experience that greater damage has 
 been done to books by the water with which the 
 flames have been attacked than by the fire itself. 
 
 Water, in the more rarefied and insidious form of 
 damp, has been, probably, an even greater agency 
 in the ruin of books. In an acute form damp will 
 in time bring a volume to such a point of decay that 
 it crumbles away in powder; in a lesser degree 
 mildew may ruin the binding and irremediably stain 
 the leaves ; while even a slight amount of dampness 
 will favour the ravages of bookworms. These pests, 
 more evident in their tracks than in their persons, 
 are not often found except among books which are 
 subjected to a somewhat humid atmosphere and are 
 seldom disturbed. They are the larvae of a small 
 beetle belonging to the genus Anobium, and have the 
 appearance of a whitish maggot about five-sixteenths 
 of an inch in length, with a dark brown head. In 
 their silent progress some bore holes in all directions 
 through the volume, while others confine their 
 industry to the wooden boards of the covers which 
 they gnaw to powder. They shew a discriminating 
 taste in paper, for their attentions are conferred 
 mainly upon books of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 centuries; they seldom risk their digestions by 
 attacks on the modern stuff which does duty for 
 paper. When they are discovered to be in possession
 
 138 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 their activity may be disconraged by opening the 
 book freely so as to disturb them in their tunnels. 
 The book should then be treated with benzine or 
 formalin, and shut up in a box for a few days before 
 being aired off and returned to the shelf. 
 
 When the bindings of books are affected by 
 damp in the form of mould spots, they should be 
 well rubbed with a soft duster — not forgetting to 
 open the book and rub the insides and edges of the 
 boards, as well as the outside — and thoroughly aired 
 before they are put back. The shelves may also 
 receive attention by the application of carbolic acid 
 or some other germicide. Good ventilation is one 
 of the best preventives of damp, and in order to 
 allow free circulation of air it is advisable that an 
 interval of about half-an-inch should be left between 
 the inner edge of the sheK and the back of the book- 
 case. While the bookcase is in question it may be 
 noted that, since contact with a sharp angle is liable 
 to be destructive to books, the arris — that sharp and 
 true edge which is the pride of the joiner's craft — 
 should be ruthlessly rounded off the front of the 
 shelves. Books should not be packed so tightly on 
 the shelves that they cannot be taken from their 
 place without risk of damage to the binding; nor 
 should they be allowed to stand so loosely that they 
 gape open and let dust fall between the leaves. 
 
 Other enemies to the well-being of books are the
 
 x] HANDLING AND MISHANDLING 139 
 
 fumes of gas, most noticeable on the shelves near 
 the top of the room, which, in time, will reduce 
 leather bindings to dust ; strong sunlight, which also 
 dries up bindings and plays havoc with their colour. 
 Last, though not least, spring cleaning, when books 
 are banged together with a will, making joints to 
 crack and boards to part company, while the intelU- 
 gent dust heads straight for the open window (so it 
 is firmly believed) ; afterwards, the book-lover has 
 the consolation of being assured that the books have 
 been put back on the shelves 'exactly as they were,' 
 The leather binding of a book that is in frequent 
 use retains its suppleness longer than one which 
 stands idle on the shelf. This is probably due to 
 the slight dressing of grease which it receives in being 
 handled. If the leather is allowed to get very dry 
 it loses much of its strength, becomes brittle, is 
 liable to crack, especially at the joints, and the 
 surface crumbles away. To keep leather bindings 
 in good condition they should be treated occasionally 
 with some lubricant. A good preparation for this 
 purpose is a mixture of castor oil and paraffin wax. 
 'To prepare it, some castor oil is put into an earthen- 
 ware jar, and about half its weight of paraffin wax 
 shredded into it. On warming, the wax will melt, 
 and the preparation is ready for use^.' If paraffin 
 
 ^ Douglas Cockerell: Bookbinding, and the Care of Books (1901), 
 p. 303.
 
 140 THE PRINTED BOOK [CH. 
 
 ointment be used instead of paraffin wax, the 
 ingredients mix more readily and it will not be 
 necessary to warm the preparation before use. 
 Both vaseUne and furniture polish have also been 
 used for this purpose. The former is fairly satis- 
 factory, but as the acrid odour of the latter suggests 
 the presence of an undesirable element it had better 
 be avoided. 
 
 In taking a book from the shelf it should not be 
 plucked forth by hooking the forefinger into the 
 headband, for it is by the repetition of this action 
 that the headband gets broken and the upper part 
 of the back is torn so that it hangs loose and, 
 presently falling ofiF, is lost. In earlier days when 
 books stood with the fore-edge outwards they fared 
 no better ; clasps and silk ties offered tempting tags 
 wherewith to draw the volumes from their places, 
 and it thus came about that many books were bereft 
 of these really rather tiresome appendages. A better 
 way is to place the forefinger firmly on the top edges 
 of the book about an inch from the back and tilt 
 the volume forward so that it can be grasped between 
 the thumb and fingers. Or, the volumes standing 
 on each side of the book may be tilted in with the 
 thumb and finger just sufficiently to allow the book 
 to be seized and drawn out without touching the 
 top. 
 
 Though the extended use of machinery has
 
 X] HANDLING AND MISHANDLING 141 
 
 introduced a kind of ruthless element into modern 
 book-construction, yet a considerable number of 
 books are, happily, still issued uncut; and, surely, 
 there are few more pleasurable times for the reading 
 book-lover than the half -hour spent with the paper- 
 knife in cutting up and honey-sipping a new book. 
 Sometimes, however, that half-hour may prove a 
 little trying to anyone who likes to see neatly cut 
 edges, for it is nearly impossible to cut some of the 
 modern spongy paper without leaving the edges in 
 rags and jags. For cutting a book an ivory knife 
 with a smooth edge is the right thing to use, and, 
 it seems necessary to state, neither a finger nor 
 a hairpin is a suitable substitute. In the act of 
 cutting, the knife should be drawn down rather 
 than pushed forward or the edges may cut up 
 roughly ; and if the edge of the knife is drawn across 
 the hair two or three times the slight lubrication 
 thus applied will cause it to do its work more 
 smoothly. In cutting the top edges special care 
 should be taken to cut quite up to the back; a 
 quarter or half inch left uncut and then torn when 
 the book is opened is but too commonly seen. 
 Some American books of recent date are a snare to 
 the unwary, for, though cut smooth on the top, 
 some of the bottom edges are left to be cut by the 
 reader, and unless the volume be opened cautiously 
 a leaf may be torn in half.
 
 142 THE PRINTED BOOK [ch. 
 
 Another point which deserves more attention 
 than it usually receives is the method of opening 
 a new book. If a book is to open comfortably and 
 the leaves turn over freely, the back, which is 
 rounded while the book is closed, must assume a 
 concave shape when the book is in use. But the 
 back of a new book is stiffened with glue, and if it 
 be opened violently in any one place, with the leaves 
 gripped fast between finger and thumb, the back 
 will probably crack at that point, making an awk- 
 ward angle; and, since the back cannot afterwards 
 take the supple curve which is its natural form, the 
 book will always evince a desire to open at that 
 particular place. To prevent this, a new book should 
 be carefully opened throughout. It may be done in 
 the following manner: 'Hold the book with its 
 back on a smooth or covered table; let the front 
 board down, then the other, holding the leaves in 
 one hand while you open a few leaves at the back, 
 then a few at the front, and so go on, alternately 
 opening back and front, gently pressing open the 
 sections till you reach the centre of the volume. 
 Do this two or three times, and you will obtain the 
 best results 1.' 
 
 A book having been carefully cut and properly 
 
 ^ These directions are from a slip which a few years ago a 
 thoughtful publisher inserted as a book-marker in some of his new 
 publications.
 
 X] HANDLING AND MISHANDLING 143 
 
 opened is entitled to yet further consideration. In 
 reading, it should not be held near the fire or the 
 boards will warp ; nor should it be left Ij^ing in the 
 sun, for the same reason. There are various ways 
 of keeping the place when reading a book. It can 
 be laid face downwards; or it can be dog's-eared, 
 by turning down the corner of the leaf ; or, following 
 the habit of a certain school -boy when absorbed in 
 Henty, the corner of the leaf may be pinched off as 
 it is turned over, A slip of paper is a simple and 
 inexpensive alternative to any of these barbarous 
 practices. In closing a large book the end leaves 
 are liable to crumple up if the book should happen 
 to be open near either end ; to avoid this, take the 
 advice of an eminent librarian and open the book 
 about the middle of the volume before shutting 
 it up.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Bibliographica. 3 vols. 1895-7. 
 
 Bibliographical Society. Publications. 1893-. 
 
 BoucHOT (H.). The Book : its printers, illustrators, and binders, 
 
 from Gutenberg to the present time. Ed. by H. Grevel. 
 
 1890. 
 British INIuseum. A guide to the exhibition in the King's 
 
 Library illustrating the history of printing, music -printing, 
 
 and bookbinding. 1913. Pp. 180, with facsimiles. Price 
 
 sixpence. 
 Clark (J. W.). The Care of Books. 2nd ed. Cambridge, 1902. 
 Cotton (H.). A typographical gazetteer. 2 vols. Oxford, 
 
 1831-66. 
 Edinburgh Bibliographical Society. Papers. 1896-. 
 MuMBY (F. A.). The romance of Bookselling: a history from 
 
 the earliest times to the twentieth century. 1910. 
 Pollard (A. W.). Fine Books. (The Connoisseur's Library.) 
 
 1912. 
 Putnam (G. H.). Books and their makers during the middle 
 
 ages. 2 vols. New York, 1896. 
 The Times Printing Number : reprinted from the 40,000th issue 
 
 of The Times. 1912. 
 TiMPERLEY (C. H.). A dictionary of printers and printing. 
 
 2nd ed. 1842. 
 
 Catalogue of Books printed in the xvth century now in the 
 British Museum. Vol. 1-. 1908-. {In progress.) 
 
 Claudin (A.). Histoire de I'imprimerie en France. Vols. 1-3. 
 Paris, 1900-4.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 145 
 
 Duff (E. Gordon). Early Printed Books. (Books about 
 
 Books.) 1893. 
 Facsimiles from Early Printed Books in the British Museum. 
 
 (A portfolio.) 1897. 
 Hawkins (R. C). Titles of the First Books from the Earliest 
 
 Presses established in different cities, towns, and monasteries 
 
 in Europe, before the end of the fifteenth century. New 
 
 York, 1884. 
 Humphreys (H. N.). Masterpieces of the early printers and 
 
 engravers. 1870. 
 Proctor (R.). An index to the Early Printed Books in the 
 
 British Museum. 3 vols. 1898-1903. 
 SoTHEBY (S. L.). Principia typographica. The block-books 
 
 issued in Holland, Flanders, and Germany during the 
 
 fifteenth century. 3 vols. 1858. 
 
 Renouard (A. A.). Annales de I'imprimerie des Aides. 3^ M. 
 
 Paris, 1834. 
 Annales de I'imprimerie des Estiennes. 2^ ed. Paris, 
 
 1843. 
 Renouard (Ph.). Bibliographic des impressions et des ceuvres 
 
 de Josse Badius Ascensius, 1462-1535. 3 vols. Paris, 1908. 
 RoosES (Max). Christophe Plantin, imprimeur anversois. 2® 
 
 6d. Anvers, 1896. 
 WiLLEMS ( A. ). Les Elzevier : histoire et annales typographiques. 
 
 Bruxelles, 1880. 
 
 Blades (W.). The biography and typography of WilHam 
 
 Caxton. 2nd ed. 1882. 
 Duff (E.Gordon). William Caxton. (Caxton Club of Chicago.) 
 
 Chicago, 1905. 
 Early English Printing: a series of facsimiles of all the 
 
 types used in England during the fifteenth century. 1896. 
 
 a P. B. 10
 
 146 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 Duff (E. Gordon). The printers, stationers and bookbinders of 
 
 Westminster and London from 1476 to 1535. Cambridge, 
 
 1906. 
 The EngHsh provincial printers, stationers and book- 
 binders to 1557. Cambridge, 1912. 
 Herbert (W.). Typographical antiquities: or an historical 
 
 account of printing in Great Britain and Ireland. Begun 
 
 by Joseph Ames. 3 vols. 1785-90. 
 Knight (C). Shadows of the Old Booksellers. 1865. 
 McKerrow (R. B. ). Printers' and publishers' devices in England 
 
 and Scotland, 1485-1640. Bibliographical Society, 1913. 
 Mad AN (F.). A brief account of the University Press at Oxford. 
 
 Oxford, 1908. 
 Plomer (H. R.). a short history of English printing, 1476- 
 
 1898. 1900. 
 Reed (T. B.). A history of the old English letter foundries. 1887. 
 Shaylor (J.). The Fascination of Books, with other papers on 
 
 books and bookselling. 1912. 
 Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers, 1654- 
 
 1640. Ed. by E. Arber. 5 vols. Privately printed, 1875-94. 
 1640-1708. 3 vols. Roxburghe Club, 1913-14. 
 
 Aldis (H. G.). a hst of books printed in Scotland before 1700; 
 with brief notes on the printers and stationers. Edinburgh 
 Bibhographical Society, 1904. 
 
 Dickson (R.) and J. P. Edmond. Annals of Scottish printing, 
 from 1507 to the beginning of the 17th century. Cambridge, 
 1890. 
 
 Dix (E. R. McC). A Ust of Irish towns and dates of earliest 
 printing in each. 2nd ed. Dubhn, 1909. 
 
 Evans (C). American BibUography. A chronological diction- 
 ary of all books, etc, printed in the United States from 1639 
 to 1820. Vol. 1-. Chicago, 1903-. (In progress.)
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 147 
 
 The Revival of Printing: a bibliographical catalogue of works 
 
 issued by the chief modern English presses. With an 
 
 introduction by Robert Steele. 1912. 
 The Art of the Book: a review of some recent European and 
 
 American work in typography, page decoration and binding. 
 
 Edited by Charles Holme. Studio Special Number, 1914. 
 Jacobi (C. T.). Some notes on Books and Printing : a guide for 
 
 authors, publishers, and others. 4th ed. 1912. 
 McKerrow (R. B.). Notes on bibliographical evidence for 
 
 literary students and editors of English works of the 16th 
 
 and 17th centuries. Bibliographical Society, 1914. 
 Collins (F. H.). Authors' and printers' dictionary : an attempt 
 
 to codify the best typographical practices of the present 
 
 day. 3rd ed. 1909. 
 
 BuTSCH (A. r.). Die Biicherornamentik der Renaissance. 
 
 2 vols. Leipzig, 1878-81. * 
 
 Chatto ( W. a. ) and J. Jackson. A treatise on Wood Engraving. 
 
 1861. 
 Crane (W.). Of the Decorative Illustration of books old and 
 
 new. 1896. 
 Hardie (M.). English Coloured Books. (The Connoisseur's 
 
 Library.) 1906. 
 Hill (T. G.). The essentials of Illustration: a practical guide 
 
 to the reproduction of drawings and photographs. 1915. 
 Hind (A. M.). A short history of Engraving and Etching. 2nd 
 
 ed. 1911. 
 Jennings (0.). Early Woodcut Initials. 1908. 
 Levine (J.). Bibliography of the eighteenth century art and 
 
 illustrated books. 1898. 
 Modern Book Illustrators and their work. Edited by C. A. 
 
 Holme and E. A. Halton. Studio Special Number, 1914.
 
 148 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 Pollard (A. W.). Early Illustrated Books. (Books about 
 
 Books.) 1893. 
 Italian Book-illustrations, chiefly of the fifteenth century. 
 
 (Portfolio Monographs.) 1894. 
 Roberts (W.). Printers' Marks. 1893. 
 
 Brassington (W. S.). a history of the art of Bookbinding. 
 1894. 
 
 Burlington Fine Arts Club. Exhibition of Bookbindings. (113 
 plates.) 1891. 
 
 CocKERELL (D.). Bookbinding, and the care of books : a text- 
 book for bookbinders and librarians. 1901. 
 
 Davenport (C). English Embroidered Bookbindings. 1899. 
 
 Royal English Bookbindings. (Portfolio Monographs.) 
 
 1896. 
 
 Fletcher (W. Y.). English Bookbindings. 1896. 
 
 English Bookbindings in the British Museum. 1895. 
 
 Foreign Bookbindings in the British Museum. 1896. 
 
 Bookbinding in France. (Portfolio Monographs.) 1894. 
 
 Gruel (L.). Manuel do I'amateur de rehures. 2 vols. Paris, 
 
 1887-1905. 
 HoRNE (H. p.). The Binding of Books: an essay in the history 
 
 of gold-tooled bindings. 1894. 
 Prideaux (S. T.). An historical sketch of Bookbinding. 1893. 
 
 Modern bookbindings, their design and decoration. 1906.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abingdon, 43 
 
 Ackermann, R., 110 
 
 Aelfric: Paschal Homily, 45 
 
 Aesop, 94, 99 
 
 Aldus Manutius. 14, 26, 29-33, 
 
 97 
 American printing, 66 
 Amman, Jost. 100 
 Amsterdam, 37-39 
 Anastatic process. 91 
 Antwerp, 29, 35-37, 42 
 Apocalypse, block-book, 6 
 Aquatint, 110 
 Ars Moriendi, 6 
 Ashbee, C. R., 65 
 Ashendene Press, 65 , 
 
 Augsburg, 13, 14, 23, 94. 100 
 
 Radius, J.. 26. 29, 33 
 Ramberg, 13, 94 
 Rarker, Christopher, 46 
 Rarker, Robert, 46 
 Rartholomaeus: Dc proprietati- 
 
 bus rerum, 18. 99 
 Rasel, 29-32, 46, 94, 100 
 Raskerville, J., 55 
 Raskett, J., 54 
 Rastard title. 83 
 Redford, F., 129 
 Relgium, 15 
 Renslev, T., 56, 63 
 Rentley, R., 53 
 Rerthelet, T., 41, 127 
 Rewick, T., 104, 105 
 
 Rible : 
 
 42-Iine (Mazarine), 11, 12 
 36-line, 11 
 
 1462. Fust and Schoeffer, 25 
 (c. 1480.) Quentell, 97 
 
 1490. Malermi's, 96 
 
 1491. Froben, 31 
 1535. Coverdale's, 32 
 1538. „ 42 
 
 1568. Bishops', 45 
 
 1569. Polyglot, 36 
 1611. Royal version, 46 
 1654. Polyglot, 50 
 1716. Raskett,. 54 
 1763. Raskerville, 55 
 
 Biblia Pauperum, 6 
 
 Rill, John, 46 
 
 Rirmingham, 55 
 
 Bishop, G., 46 
 
 Rlaeu, J., 40 
 
 Rlaeu, W. J., 40 
 
 Rlock-books, 5-7. 59 
 
 Rlount, E., 46 
 
 Rodoni, G., 56, 63 
 
 Booh of Christian Prayers, 101 
 
 Book of Common Prayer, 45, 55, 
 65 
 
 Book of Hours. See Horae 
 
 Book of St Albans, 110 
 
 Rookbinding, 114-122 
 
 Bookbindings, 123-135 
 Cottage style> 128 
 Embroidered, 128 
 EngUsh, 124, 127-130 
 
 10—3
 
 150 
 
 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 Bookbindings (cont.) : 
 
 French, 123-127 
 
 Gold-tooled, 125-130 
 
 Harleian style, 129 
 
 Italian, 123, 125 
 
 Preservation of, 139 
 
 Publishers', 130-135 
 
 Stamped, 123-125 
 Bookcases, 138 
 Bookworms, 137 
 Borders, 14, 22, 23, 97, 99; title 
 
 page, 48, 100, 101, 103 
 Bowyer, W., 54 
 Brant, S., Narrenschiff {Ship of 
 
 Fools), 19, 94, 100 
 Breydenbach, B. von, Pere- 
 
 grinationes, 95 
 Browne, Sir Thomas, Religio 
 
 Medici, 49 
 Bruges, 16 
 Bry, T. de, 100 
 Buckram, 120, 121 
 Bulmer, W., 56, 63 
 Bunyan, J., The Pilgrim's Pro- 
 gress, 50 
 Burgkmair. H., 100 
 Busby, J., 47 
 
 CadeU, T., 52 
 
 Caldecott, R., 106, 111 
 
 Cambridge, 43, 54, 101, 128 
 
 Canterbury. 43 
 
 Caslon, \Y., 54 
 
 Catnach, J., 59 
 
 Cato, 99 
 
 Cave, E., 51 
 
 Cawood, J., 100 
 
 Caxton, W., 16-18, 22, 26, 99, 124 
 
 Censorship of the press, 42-44, 
 
 48-50 
 Chaucer, 17, 19, 25, 65, 99 
 Children's books, 51, 59. Ill 
 Chiswick Press, 63, 64 
 
 Christopher, St, woodcut of, 5 
 Chromo-lithographv, 110 
 Cloth for bookbinding, 120, 121, 
 
 130 
 Colines, S. de, 33, 39 
 Collotypes 93, 109 
 Cologne, 13, 16, 27, 94, 97 
 Cologne Chronicle, 8 
 Colophon, 24, 28 
 Colour printing, 23, 110-113 
 Comestor, P., Historia scholastica. 
 
 15 
 Copland, R., 41 
 Copyright Act, 52 
 Coster, L. J., 8, 15 
 Cranach, L., 100 
 Crane, W., 106, 111 
 Crantz, M., 15 
 Cremer, H., 10 
 Crownfield, C, 54 
 Cutting the edges of a book, 141 
 
 Damp, 137-8 
 
 Danter. J., 47 
 
 Day, John, 26, 45, 101 
 
 Defoe, D., Robinson Crusoe, 51. 
 
 104 
 Denham, H., 45 
 Derome, binder, 126 
 Deventer, 15, 27 
 Devices,printers', 24-26, 30, 33, 35 
 De Vinne Press, 66 
 Dictes or Sayengis of the Philo- 
 
 sophres, 16, 17 
 Didots, the, 56 
 Directors, 23 
 Dodsley, R., 52 
 Doesborch, J. van.. 42 
 Dolet, ]fitienne, 35 
 Donatus, 8, 9, 14.. 15 
 Doves Press, 64, 65 
 Du Pre, Galliot, 26 
 Du Pre, Jean, 98
 
 INDEX 
 
 151 
 
 Edges, book, 76, 117, 129, 141 
 Edition, an, 90 
 Edwards, binder, 129 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 101, 128 
 Elzevirs, the, 26, 37-39 
 Eyiglish Illustrated Magazine, 106 
 Engravings, 61, 92 
 
 Metal. 93, 101-107 
 
 Wood, 104-107. See also 
 Woodcuts 
 Eragny Press, 66 
 Erasmus, D., 31 
 Essex House Press, 65 
 Estiennes, the, 29. 33-35 
 Etching, 92, 107 
 Evans, E., Ill 
 Eve, N. and C, 126 
 
 Fell, J„ 54 
 
 Ferrar, N., 128 
 
 Fifteenth century books, 21-27, 
 
 94-99 
 Figures, 80 
 Florence, 14, 97 
 Florence Piess, 66 
 Format, 73-76 
 Foster, M. Birket, 106 
 Foulis Press, 56, 65 
 Foxe, John, 32 ; Book of Martyrs, 
 
 45, 46, 101 
 France, 7, 15, 34, 41, 67, 97, 
 
 123-126 
 Francis I, king of France, 34, 125 
 Frankfort, 100 
 Friburger, M., 15 
 Froben, J., 29, 31 
 Froissart, J., Chronicles, 19 
 Froschauer, C, 32 
 Fust, J., 10, 12, 23-25 
 
 Ged, W., 58 
 Geneva, 32, 34 
 Gering, U., 15 
 
 Germany, 7-13, 27, 67 
 Gilbert, Sir John, 105 
 Giuntas, the, 26 
 Glasgow, 56 
 Golden Legend, 99 
 Grafton, R., 26. 45 
 Gravelot, H., 103 
 Greek printing, 14, 30 
 Greenaway, Kate, 106, 111 
 Grolier, J., 125 
 Grolier Club, 66 
 Gryphius. S., 26, 35, 39 
 Gutenberg, J., 8, 10-12 
 
 Haarlem, 8, 15 
 
 Hacke, F., 40 
 
 Hahn, U., 96 
 
 Half-title, 83 
 
 Half-tone illustrations, 92, 107- 
 
 109 
 Hardouyn, G., 98 
 Harington, Sir J., Orlando 
 
 Furioso, 103 
 Head-lines, 22, 23, 29, 70, 71, 85, 
 
 86 
 Heliotype, 109 
 Heruig, C, 129 
 Hogarth, W., 103 
 Holbein, H., 100 
 Holland, 7-10, 15, 37-40 
 Homer, 14, 56 
 Horace, 56 
 
 Horae, 15, 97, 98, 101 
 Hornby, C. H. St J., 65 
 Home, Herbert P., 66 
 Hypnerotomachia, 97 
 
 Illumination of printed books, 
 22, 23, 93, 97, 98 
 
 Illustrated London News, 105 
 
 Illustrations, 92-113 
 
 Incimabula. See Fifteenth-cen- 
 tury books
 
 152 
 
 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 Index, 86, 87 
 Indulgences. 9, 10 
 Initial letters, 22, 23, 64, 96, 100 
 Ipswich, 43 
 
 Italy, 13-15, 23, 27, 96, 97, 123, 
 125 
 
 Jacobus de Breda, 27 
 James I, King, 46, 128 
 Jansson, J., 40 
 Jenson, N., 14, 64 
 John of Westphalia, 26 
 Johnson, S., Dictionary, 2, 52 
 Jugge, R., 45 
 
 Kalendar of Shephardes, 99 
 Kalthoeber, binder, 129 
 Kelmscott Press, 64, 05 
 Kerver, T., 98 
 Knight, C, 59, 60 
 Koberger, A., 13, 95 
 Koenig, F,, 57 
 
 Large-paper copies, 91 
 Lascaris: OreeJc Grammar, 14 
 Leaded type, 81 
 Leather for bookbinding, 118- 
 
 120, 123, 127 
 Le Gascon, binder, 126 
 L'Estrange, Sir Eoger, 50 
 Lettou, J., 18 
 Lewis, C, 129 
 Leyden, 37-39 
 Line etchings, 107 
 Lintot, B., 52 
 
 Lithography, 92, 93, 105, 111 
 Lithotint. Ill 
 Little Gidding, 128 
 Liturgical books, 15, 19, 21, 36, 
 
 37, 41 
 Livres a vignettes, 103 
 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 58 
 Locatellus, B,, 14 
 
 London, 18, 19, 44, 47, 49 
 
 Louvain, 16, 26, 136 
 
 Lufft, Hans, 32 
 
 Luther, Martin, 32 
 
 Lydgate, J., The Assembly of 
 
 Gods, 25; The Falle of 
 
 Princes, 99 
 Lyons, 15, 35 
 
 Machlinia, W. de, 18 
 Mainz, 8-13, 94 
 Maioli, T., 125 
 Maire, J., 40 
 
 Malory, Sir T., Morte d' Arthur, 99 
 Mansion, Colard, 16 
 Manuscripts, compared with 
 printed books, 20-24, 28, 93 
 Margins, 77, 78, 117 
 Mearne, S., 128 
 Meisenbach process, 108 
 Merrymount Press, 66 
 Milan, 14 
 MiUar, A.. 52 
 MiUer, G.. 59 
 Milton, John, 49 
 Mirrour of the World, 99 
 Moretus, Balthasar, 37 
 Moretus, Jean, 36, 37 
 Morris, W., 64, 65 
 Moseley, H., 49 
 Mosher books, 66 
 Musurus, M., 30 
 MyUar, A., 26 
 
 New York State Library, 136 
 Newbery, J., 52 
 Norton, J., 26, 46 
 Notary, J., 19 
 Novels. 51, 61, 82, 91 
 Nuremberg, 13, 94, 95, 100 
 Nuremberg Chronicle, 13, 96 
 
 Olpe, B. von, 94
 
 INDEX 
 
 163 
 
 Opening a new book, 142 
 Oporinus, J., 32, 46 
 Oxford, 18, 43, 44, 54, 128 
 
 Padeloup, binder. 126 
 
 PafEroed, R., 27 
 
 Page, the printed, 68-70, 77 
 
 Pagination, 29, 70, 71, 77, 85 
 
 Pamphlets, 49, 50 
 
 Paper, 18, 57, 76. 87-89 
 
 Paper Duty, 58, 88 
 
 Paracelsus, 32 
 
 Paragraphs, 70, 71 
 
 Paris, 15, 20. 29, 33, 34, 41, 56. 
 
 97, 98 
 Parker, M., 128 
 Parma, 56, 63 
 Pastissier franQois, 38 
 Payne. R., 129 
 Petri A., 31 
 Pfister, A., 94 
 Photogravure, 93. 109 
 Pickering, W., 63 
 Pigouchet, P., 98 
 Pissarro, L., 66 
 Plantin, C, 26, 29, 35-37, 39 
 Ponsonby, W., 46 
 Printers' marks. See Devices 
 Printing machine, 57, 58 
 Printing press, 26, 33, 40, 57, 58 
 Private presses, 64-72 
 Process illustrations, 92, 106-109 
 Proof correcting, 83-85 
 Psalter (1457), 12, 23, 24, 110 
 Pynson, R., 18, 19, 41, 99, 100 
 
 Quentell, H., 97 
 
 Rappresentazioni, 97 
 Rastell, J., 41 
 Ratdolt, E., 14, 96 
 Eecuyell of the Historyea of Troye, 
 16, 17, 20 
 
 Regnault, F., 41, 42 
 Reuwich, E., 95 
 Riccardi Press, 66 
 Ricketts, C, 65 
 Roberts, J., 47 
 Rome, 14, 96 
 Rood, T., 18 
 Rouen, 15 
 Roville, G., 35 
 Roycroft, T., 50 
 
 St Albans, 18, 43, 110 
 Sallust, Ged's edn, 58 
 Sarum Primer, 99 
 Savonarola tracts, 97 
 Schatzbehalter, 95, 96 
 Schedel, H., 95 
 Schoeffer, P., 10, 12, 23-25 
 Scotland, 26 
 Serifs, 79 
 
 Shakespeare, 46, 47, 51, 63 
 Siberch, J., 101 
 Sidney, Sir P., Arcadia, 46 
 Signatures, 74, 75 
 Sizes of books, 27, 52, 53, 73-75 
 Sorbonne, the, 15, 34 
 Sorg, A., 23 
 Spacing, 69, 70, 84 
 Stanhope press, 40, 58 
 Star Chamber, 43, 44, 48 
 Stationers' Company, 42, 43 
 Stephanus. See Estiennes 
 Stereotyping, 58, 90 
 Stothard, T., 104, 105 
 Strahan, W., 52 
 Strassburg, 13, 94 
 Subiaco, 14 
 
 Sweynheym and Pannartz, 13, 
 14, 65 
 
 Tavistock, 43 
 Thou, J. A. de, 126 
 Three-colour process, 111-113
 
 154 
 
 THE PRINTED BOOK 
 
 Title page, 24, 25, 28, 48, 70, 71, 
 
 82, 83, 100, 103 
 Tonson, J., 52 
 Tory, G., 98 
 Tottell, R., 45 
 Turin library, 136 
 Turrecremata : Meditationes, 96 
 Type, 63-71, 77-81 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, 45 
 
 Baskerville, 55 
 
 Black-letter, 21, 47 
 
 Caslon, 54, 55, 64, 65, 69 
 
 Dutch, 53, 54 
 
 Early, 21, 22 
 
 Fat face, 63 
 
 Florence, 66 
 
 Fraktur, 67 
 
 Gothic, 30, 31 
 
 Greek, 30 
 
 Italic, 30, 31, 35, 47 
 
 Modern face, 63, 64, 78, 79 
 
 Old face. 78, 79 
 
 Old style, 64, 78, 79 
 
 Point system, 81 
 
 Riccardi, 66, 69 
 
 Roman, 22, 30, 31, 47, 69 
 
 Sizes of, 80, 81 
 
 Ulm, 94 
 Utrecht, 18 
 
 Vale Press, 65 
 Valturius : De re miliiari, 96 
 -VeUum, 87, 98, 120 
 Venice, 14, 29, 96 
 
 Verard, A., 41, 98 
 Verona, 96 
 Virgil, 55 
 Vostre,. S., 98 
 
 Walton, B., 50 
 
 Walton, I., The Compleat Angler, 
 
 49 
 Watermarks, 75. 76 
 Westminster, 16, 18 
 Whitchurch, E., 45 
 White, E., 47 
 Whittingham, C, 63 
 Wise, A., 47 
 Wittenberg, 32, 100 
 Wohlgemuth, M., 95, 100 
 Wolfgang, A., 40 
 Woodcuts, 5, 25, 92-101, 104. 
 
 See also Engravings 
 Worcester, 43 
 Worde, W. de, 18, 25, 41, 99 
 
 Xylographic books. See Block- 
 books 
 
 Yellow Book, 106 
 York, 43 
 
 Zainer, G., 13 
 Zainer, J.. 94 
 Zell, U., 8, 13, 27 
 Zincographs, 107 
 Ziirich, 32 
 Zwinglian literature, 32
 
 Device used by the Cambridge University Press in the 
 Eighteenth Century
 
 Printed in Great Britain 
 hy Turnl'uU ir' S/enrs, Etiinl-ur^h 
 
 /A-pA,
 
 Printed in Great Britain 
 by Turnbull &' Spears, Edinlrurgk 
 
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